english language terminology - advanced features

Similes and metaphors• Similes are comparisons that involve the use of

like or asFor example:

bold as brass swim like a fish

• Metaphors describe the person, object, situation etc. as if it were another thing

For example:A hail of criticism rained down on their heads

• If a metaphor is sustained over a considerable portion of the text it is called an extended metaphor

Asyndetic listing• Listing which does not involve the use of

conjunctionsFor example: he dropped his pencil case and everything fell out, pens, pencils, paper, rulers

• Listing which involves the use of conjunctions

For example: she missed the bus and the next bus and the next bus after that

Syndetic listing

Idioms • An idiom is an expression whose

meaning cannot be understood from the meanings of the individual words that make up the expression

For example: face the music, put a sock in it

Collocations • Groups (usually pairs) of words that

are commonly found alongside each other

For example:Spick and spanLong dayTerraced houseA dark and stormy night

Oxymoron • An oxymoron is an expression in

which words of contradictory or opposite meaning have been collocated e.g. bitter sweet

Levels of formality• Informal language is language that is relaxed,

familiar and conversational• Formal language has a more serious, distant and

impersonal tone• The vocabulary is a key hint about the level of

formality, as well as grammar (elaborately constructed sentences suggest a more formal tone)

Questions to ask when discussing formality: Where exactly is the formality/ informality evident? Is the same level of formality present throughout the

text? Why has this level of formality been chosen and what

effect does it have?

Prosody …is non-verbal aspects of speech such as tone, intonation and stress

…occurs when the sound of a word echoes its meaning: splash, buzz, thump

Onomatopoeia

Alliteration …is when two or more words begin with the same letter/ sound: crisp, crunchy cornflakes

…occurs when words have similar endings

Rhyme

Assonance …is the repetition of vowel soundsFor example, “She sells seashells by the seashore” contains the repetition of short E and long E sounds So is the old slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners: “It beats as it sweeps as it cleans.”

• There is no actual rhyme there, in the English sense, but there is the repetition of vowel sounds.

• If the vowel sounds clash with each other, producing a discordant effect, this is known as dissonance

Cohesion

The techniques and devices used to connect different parts of a text with each

other

Grammatical cohesion

Reference • Reference often involves the use of third

person pronouns (he, she, it, they)For example:

My grandfather was an Irishman. He was born in Dublin

He is cohesive because it refers back to grandfather

• When a word refers back to something that has already been mentioned it is called an anaphoric reference

• References forward are known as cataphoric references

Identification • This is the use of determiners such as

the, this or that to indicate that a noun has previously been mentioned

• When a noun is first used, it is often preceded by the indefinite article but later references will use the:A ship appeared on the horizon. When

Laura arrived later I pointed the ship out to her

Ellipsis • This is where words are omitted

from a sentence• This becomes a cohesive device if an

earlier part of the text enables us to supply the missing elements:

Beer cans littered the floor, the television had been kicked in and

graffiti covered the walls. A bit of a mess.

Conjunction • This refers to the use of conjunctions

and conjunctive adverbs as cohesive devices

• The words are also known as connectives and they link together parts of a text and indicate the relationship between them

Lexical cohesion

This is cohesion achieved through word meanings rather than grammatical

structure

Repetition • This has a cohesive effect because it forms

a link between different sentences• Sometimes, however, the word itself is not

repeated; a synonym is used

• This refers to the tendency for words to occur together

• This is cohesive because it involves the use of words that, because of their meaning, are already linked in the reader’s mind

Collocation

Graphology This is the text’s visual

aspects

Layout and overall presentation

• Is there a lot of dense text, or is the text broken up – if so, how? Are parts of the text separated from the rest by the use of devices such as boxed sections and speech bubbles? Is there a reason for this?

• Which part of the text immediately catches the eye? Does the design encourage you to read particular features first?

• Is there any use of juxtaposition? This means placing words, ideas and pieces of information next to each other: stories that are linked or contrast may be juxtaposed

• Does the text adopt the layout conventions of the genre? Or another genre – e.g. an advert could take the form of a recipe, letter etc.

Typeface • The size of the words and individual letters can be

important: e.g. large lettering can draw attention to something

• The use of upper and lower case letters: upper case can be used to add emphasis or reflect meaning in some way, whereas sometimes lower case letters are used to appear stylish and unconventional

• Use of bold, italic, underlining etc. to highlight parts of a text

• The actual font used and the connotations of it, for example The Daily Telegraph has a conservative, traditional look whereas The Sun looks bolder and brashier

Illustrations • Illustrations can take the form of

photographs, cartoons, drawings etc.• Study the relationship between the

illustrations and the text• Is there a contrast or do they add

impact to the points made in the text?