Lexical Choices
This term refers to the literal, dictionary meaning of a word.
What is denotation?
“Close the door.” is this type of sentence.
What is an imperative?
A writer uses the word home because it suggests warmth, safety and belonging beyond its literal meaning.
What is connotation?
“Why would anyone accept this?” is this type of sentence.
What is an interrogative?
The words algorithm, bandwidth, and interface are examples of specialised vocabulary associated with a particular field.
What is jargon?
“Cold. Empty. Silent.” uses incomplete grammatical units for emphasis.
What are fragments?
Changing “the government decided” to “the government’s decision” demonstrates this linguistic process.
What is nominalisation?
“I came, I saw, I conquered” places short grammatical units beside one another with minimal subordination.
What is parataxis?
A word such as bank can refer to the side of a river or a financial institution because it possesses this quality.
What is polysemy?
“Although the rain continued, we stayed outside, and we finished the game” contains at least two independent clauses and one dependent clause.
What is a compound-complex sentence?