A
What is grammar?
Grammar is the system of rules that governs how words are formed and how they are combined into sentences.
It tells us what structures are possible in a language and which ones are not.
What is cohesion?
The links that hold a text together and give it meaning.
What is style?
Variation in a person´s speech or writing. It is the result of the choices a writer (or speaker) makes regarding aspects of language, language features and structure with regard to creating a text or discourse that will suit a particular genre, context, audience and purpose.
What is lexis?
The vocabulary of a language.
What is washback?
It is the influence that a test has on the way students are taught (e.g. the teaching mirrors the test because teachers want their students to pass).
True or false. A speech act is a specific reason to use language to meet a specific need or desire. Examples: request, complain, invite, etc.
False. It´s a language function.
True or false. A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. Examples: Greeting: "Hi, Eric. How are things going?"
True
What is a "code" in linguistics?
A language. A system of communication.
What is pragmatics?
Study of meaning in context and language use.
Example: If a teacher says “It’s cold in here,” the pragmatic meaning might be: “Please close the window.”
Pragmatics looks at implied meaning.
What is morphology?
The study of word structure and how words are formed.
Example: unhappiness = un- (prefix) + happy (root) + -ness (suffix).
Morphology studies how these morphemes combine.
It consists of a databank of natural texts, compiled from writing and/or a transcription of recorded speech.
Corpus
What is sociolinguistics?
The study of how language varies and changes in society.
Example: Use of y’all in the southern United States vs. you guys in other regions.
Example: Code-switching: A bilingual speaker switches between Spanish and English depending on the audience.
An _________ is a linguistic term that refers to a spoken text of any kind.
An utterance is a linguistic term that refers to a spoken text of any kind.
What is Applied Linguistics?
The use of linguistic theory in real-world contexts (especially language teaching).
Example: Developing teaching materials based on learners’ errors (error analysis).
Example: Using corpus linguistics to design dictionaries or textbooks.
What is Psycholinguistics?
The study of how language is processed in the mind.
Example: The “tip-of-the-tongue” phenomenon when you can’t quite recall a word.
Example: Reaction-time studies showing that people recognize high-frequency words (like house) faster than low-frequency ones (like gazebo).
It investigates 1) language, spoken or written, beyond the limits of a sentence. 2)the relationship between language and society, 3) the interaction properties of daily communication. It attempts to answer the question: why members of specific discourse communities use the language the way they do.
Discourse anlysis
Rhetoric
It examines how language, including non-verbal elements, is used to create meaning, persuade, and influence audiences, going beyond mere grammar to encompass the principles of effective communication.
A teacher often uses rhetorical strategies to motivate students:
“If you practice every day, you’ll be amazed at how far you get!” (appeal to emotion = pathos)
What is the difference between phonetics and phonology?
Phonetics = the physical side of sounds
Definition: The study of the actual sounds of human speech — how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived.
Focus: The details of articulation (how the mouth and vocal tract make sounds), acoustics (the sound waves), and auditory perception (how the ear and brain perceive them).
Phonology = the mental side of sounds
Definition: The study of how sounds function and are organized in a particular language or across languages.
Focus: The rules, patterns, and systems that govern how sounds behave in a language.
What is genre?
Modes of speaking or writing that people learn to mimic, weave together, and manipulate. In this sense genres are socially specified: recognized and defined (often informally) by a particular culture or community.
It is a category used to classify discourse usually by form, technique, or content.
It is a type of text.
It is a variety of language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting.
Register