English Terminology

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Word Classes
The groups that words are sorted into
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Noun
A naming word; a person, place or thing
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Proper Noun
A name of a person or place; the ones with a capital letter
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Common Noun
Ordinary Nouns
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Concrete Noun
Something you can touch
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Abstract Noun
Something you can't touch
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Collective Noun
A group of things e.g. herd
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Adjective
A describing word
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Comparative
E.g. Bigger
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Superlative
E.g. Biggest
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Verb
A doing word
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Dynamic Verb
Describes an action
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Stative Verb
Describes a process e.g. believe
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Active Verb
When the emphasis is placed on the person doing the verb
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Passive Verb
When the emphasis is placed on the person/thing having the verb done to them
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Adverb
Describes a verb
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Pronoun
e.g. I, he/she/it, replaces a noun
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Determiner
Placed in front of a noun to identify it in some way
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Intensifier
Puts something in the context of how large it is, for example
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Preposition
Describes the location of something
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Conjunction
Co-ordinating/sub-ordinating; joins two parts of a sentence together
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Denotation
The direct meaning of a word or phrase
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Connotation
The hidden meaning of a word or phrase
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Figurative Language
A metaphor or simile, for example
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Metaphor
Saying something is something else
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Simile
Saying something is like something else
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Personification
Giving an animal or object human qualities
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Pathetic Fallacy
Use of the weather to create atmopshere or mood
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Imagery
Creating images in the reader's head
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Visual Imagery
Imagery that appeals to our sight
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Aural Imagery
Imagery that appeals to hearing
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Gustatory Imagery
Imagery that appeals to our taste
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Olfactory Imagery
Imagery that appeals to our sense of smell
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Tacticle Imagery
Imagery that appeals to our sense of touch
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Semantic Field
A group of words that are associated with a particular thing
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Fiel-specific Lexis
Words associated with a particular field of info e.g. dance or drama
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Hypernym
The group into some words fit e.g. clothing
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Hyponym
A word which fits into a hypernym
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Synonym
A word which means the same as another
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Antonym
A word which means the opposite of another
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Antithesis
The opposite of something
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Formal
Formal language e.g. car is formal compared to old banger
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Informal
Informal language e.g. car is informal in comparison to automobile
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Polysyllabic
Words with more than one syllable in them
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Monosyllabic
Words with only one syllable in them
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Colloquial
Casual words
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Dialect Vocabulary
Words with are associated with a particular region
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Irony
Saying/doing/being the opposite of what is meant
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Ambiguity
When the exact meaning of something is not clear
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Pun
A play on words
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Oxymoron
When two words mean the exact opposite of each other but are placed together
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Emotive
When texts appeal to our emotions
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Taboo Language
Language that is considered unacceptable in some societies
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Euphamism
Using one phrase but meaning something entirely different
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Pathos
Moments that appeal to our sense of pity
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Bathos
A comic anticlimax
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Jargon
Language associated with a particular profession
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Archaism
An old word
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Neologism
A newly coined word
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Borrowing
Borrowing words from another country or culture
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Contraction
e.g. can't; when letters are missing
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Elision
The emision of a sound or syllable e.g. o'er
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Deictic Expression
A 'pointing' expression e.g. 'over there'
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Hyperbole
Exaggeration
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Simple Sentence
A sentence made up of only one clause
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Compound Sentence
A sentence made up of more than one ordinary clause
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Complex Sentence
A sentence made up of more than one clause with a subordinate one
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Subordinate Clause
A clause that doesn't make sense on its own
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Ellipsis
When words are missing from a sentence or phrase
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Minor Sentence
E.g. 'Oh Dear' Doesn't have all the vital componente of a sentence
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Declarative
A sentence which tells us something
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Imperitive
A sentence which tells us to do something
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Exclamatory
A sentence which exclaims something
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Interrogative
A sentence which asks us something
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Rhetoric
A question which doesn't require an answer
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Main Verb
An ordinary verb; the one which the sentence is about
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Auxiliary Verb
A verb which helps a main verb e.g. must have been
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Syntax
The order in which words go in a sentence
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Clause
A part of a sentence
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Noun Phrase
A phrase where the head word is a noun
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Head Word
The most important word ina phrase
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Modifier
A describing word which modifies the head word in some way
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Pre-modifier
Goes before the head word
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Post-modifier
Goes after the head word
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Adverbial
Describes the time, place or manner of something
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Foregrounding
When the focus of the sentence is at the beginning
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End-focus
When the focus of the sentence is at the end
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Inverted Syntax
When the order of the words used is wrong
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Parallelism
When two parts of a word are the same or similar
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Tripling
The use of three words to describe something
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Syndetic Listing
A list with the use of conjunctions
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Asyndetic Listing
A list without the use of conjunctions
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1st Person
I
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2nd Person
You
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3rd Person
He/She/it
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Tense
Past/present/future
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Inflection
Word Endings which serve a grammatical function
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Non-standard Grammar
'Wrong' grammar
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Dialect Grammar
Grammar which is associated with a certain region
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Onomatopoeia
Words which sound like what they are describing
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Rhyme
When words sound like each other
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Sibilance
The repeated use of 's', 'ch' or 'z' sounds
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Dissonance
When words sound so different that they contast each other
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Alliteration
When the beginnings of words sound like each other
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Half-rhyme
When words almost rhyme
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Assonance
The rhyming of vowel sounds in two or more words
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Cohesion
The techniques used to link parts of a text together
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Anaphoric Reference
A reference back to something in the text
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Cataphoric Reference
A reference forward to something in the text
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Non-linear Text
A text which doesn't read left to right, top to bottom e.g. a website
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Exophoric Reference
A reference to something outside of the text
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Intertextual Reference
A reference to another text
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Linear Text
A text which reads left to right top to bottom
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Narrative Voice
Who is telling the story
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1st Person Narrator
Tells us their own story
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3rd Person Narrator
Tells us someone else's story
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Omniscient Narrator
A narrator who can see everything within the story
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Unreliable narrator
A narrator who cannot give us a full, well-balanced version of events
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Intrusive Narrator
A narrator who is part of the story
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Unintrusive Narrator
A narrator who is removed from the story
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Multiple Narrators
The use of more than one narrator
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Direct Speech
When the reader is told exactly who said what
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Indirect Speech
When the narrator reports what has been said to us
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Free Direct/Indirect Speech
When the statements reporting who said what are missing
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Direct Thought
When the reader is told exactly what the character thought
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Indirect Thought
When the narrator reports what the character has thought
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Stanza
A verse in a poem
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Quatrain
A stanza of four lines
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Refrain
The repeated use of a word or line
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Lyric Poetry
A poem that expresses an individual's thoughts/feelings
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Sonnet
Petrachan (Octet, seset) or Shakespearean (3xquatrain couplet)
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Ode
A poem dedicated to something e.g. ode to autumn
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Persona
A character who is a narrator created by the author
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Internal Rhyme
When there is a rhyme within a line
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Heroic Couplet
Two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter
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Elegy
Usually on the subject of death
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Narrative Poetry
Poetry which tells a story
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Epic
A long poem, tells a story of far-off lands and the supernatural e.g.
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Ballad
A simple, everyday telling of a story
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Rhyme Scheme
ABABAB for example
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Couplet
Two rhymes which rhyme
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Metre
The rythm of a line
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Iambic Pentameter
Five sets of unstressed, stressed
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Blank verse
A verse without a set metre
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Trochaic
Stresssed, unstressed
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Dactylic Metre
One stressed followed by two unstressed
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Anapaestic Metre
Two unstressed followed by a stresed
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Spondaic
Two stressed syllables
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Enjambment
When a line runs onto the next
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Caesura
A pause in the middle of a line
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Standard English
What is considered to be 'correct' english
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Register
The language and grammar that a text uses
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Dialect
A way of speaking associated with a region
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Sociolect
A way of speaking associated with a social group
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Idiolect
A way of speaking associated with one person
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Context
The time/place etc. that a text was written
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Genre
What type of text it is
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Symbolism
When particular symbols/images are associated with different characters/situations etc.
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Allegory
The techniques used to teach the message in a moral play
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Noun

Back

A naming word; a person, place or thing

Card 3

Front

Proper Noun

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Common Noun

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Concrete Noun

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
View more cards

Comments

Chloe

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Really helpful! Really simple and easy to understand definitions, thank you! :) 

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