Term sheet

Term	Definition
Language acquisition device (LAD)	Brain’s inbuilt capacity to acquire language (Chomsky)
Universal Grammar	All languages share the principles of grammar despite differences such as lexis or phonology (Chomsky)
Phonemic expansion	During babbling phrase, the number of different sounds produced by child increases initially
Phonemic contraction	At 9-10 months reduction begins to occur, there phonemic range begins to solidify and fixated.
Social interactions	Those who believe that a child language develops through social interactions with carers (Bruner)
Anglicized	Made more English
Latinate	More formal, highly academic and generally has a root work (historic meaning)
Polysemic	More than one meaning
Diachronic	Change of language over time
Antonym	Different meaning, different word
Synonym	Same meaning, different word
Hypernym	Umbrella word/lexical field
Hyponym	Groups of words that relate to the hyponym
GRRAMPES G R R A M P E S	G – genre R – reception R – register A – audiences M – mode P – purpose E – expectations S – subjects
Overgeneralization	Extending the application of a linguistic rule, that makes the sentence or utterance non-standard. E.g. over applying suffix/adding regular past tense suffix “ed” to irregular verbs such as “Runned”.
Overextension	When a categorical term is used in language to represent more categories than it does. Analogy – orange and ball to explain fruit Category – lasagne – bolognaise
Semantic shift	Meaning change
Pejorative term	An insult
Apocryphal	A story that everyone believes to be true, but not actually true.
Denotation	Dictionary definition/literal meaning
Connotations	Words you associate with other words/categories
Synchronic change	Change that is in the process of changing
Rudimentary	Limited to basic principles
Adjective	A word that can be used to use to describe a noun, e.g The blue car Superlative – biggest/smallest Comparative – Bigger
Archaic	A feature of language no longer in used (old fashioned)
Auxiliary verb	A very placed in front of a main verb e.g. ‘is’, ‘have’ and ‘can’
Synthetic personification	Assuming knowledge about you, using 2nd person pronouns/ Yours, you, yours.
A syndetic listing	When a list has no conjunctions, so it feels as though the list could go on forever.
Broadening	When the meaning of a word is extended; the word retains its old meaning but takes on one or more added meaning as well.
Clipping	A word formed by shortening an existing word e.g. telephone – phone
Cohesion	Refers to the way texts hold together, the way parts connect. This connection can be through words, grammar and ideas.
Colloquial language	The informal vocabulary used in everyday conversations ‘hi’ ‘cheers’
Complex sentence	A sentence containing a main clause and one or more clauses of lesser importance ‘because I was hungry, I went to the shop’
Compound sentence	Two or more simple sentences joined together by a co-ordinating conjunction e.g. ‘and’, ‘but’ or ‘so’ e.g. ‘I like fish but I don’t like chips’ FANBOYS
Cloaked imperative	Implying that someone do something without actually saying so
Conjunction	A word which joins together the different parts of a sentence e.g. ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘because’, ‘so’ etc.
Discourse and markers	A continuous piece of writing or spoken text -      Words or phrases that signal the structure and organisation of the text – ‘anyway’ ‘so’
New FOXP2	A gene identified which seems to be crucial to expressive language (supports Chomsky nativist theory)
Enunciation	Pronouncing very clearly
Prescriptivism	The attitude or belief that one variety of language is superior to others and this language should be promoted
Code switching	Moving between two types of language/or two languages
Abhorrent	appalling