Morphology and lexicology
The process of adding affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to words.
What is affixation?
The dictionary meaning of words.
What is denotation?
The action of writing or printing words with capital letters.
What is capitalisation?
The compilation of a systematic account of a language by providing dictionaries and style guides.
What is codification?
Words that name people, places, things, qualities or actions.
What are nouns?
A newly coined word.
What is a neologism?
The emotional meaning of words that arises from people's personalities, beliefs and experiences.
What is connotation?
Does not conform to the expected norms.
What is non-standard?
An idealised variety that constitutes a notional set of norms generally adopted by educated speakers of English.
What is Standard English?
Words that denote actions, processes and states.
What are verbs?
A word or construction no longer employed or transferred from earlier phases of a language.
What is an archaism?
A type of semantic change whereby the contexts in which a word can appear are expanded.
What is broadening?
The approach to research and teaching about language that focuses on what can be observed.
What is descriptivism?
The approach that describes language behaviour in relation to standards or ideals about how the language 'should' really be.
What is prescriptivism?
Words that define or modify nouns.
What are adjectives?
The term given to the process of adopting words from another language.
What is a borrowing?
A type of semantic change whereby the contexts in which a word can appear are reduced.
What is narrowing?
Occurs when speakers abandon one language in favour of another.
What is language shift?
Refers to the development of a common standard from among a range of dialects.
What is standardisation?
Words that modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.
What are adverbs?
A term that is no longer in active use.
What is obsolete?
A semantic shift whereby words change their emotive overtones by acquiring pejorative associations.
What is deterioration?
The conventional spelling system of a language.
What is orthography?
Refers to the attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one.
What is language reclamation?
Function words that show the relationship between nouns (or pronouns) and other words in a sentence.
What are prepositions?