Formal language Flashcards
(51 cards)
How is nominalisation used?
adds general density of the language and introduces more abstractness
What is nominalisation?
noun groups using derivational morphemes
(think: -tion)
What are the 3 syntactic patterning features?
PAL
Parallelism
Antithesis
Listing
What is parallelism?
parellel structures which repeat a certain feature - word classes, phrases, etc
example of parallelism
“our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom”
all noun phrases are headed by the possessive determiner “our”
What is antithesis?
parellel structures with opposite semantics
example of antithesis
“terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of building but cannot touch the foundation of america”
How is listing used?
layering to add lots of info into an efficient package
FEC
Fronting
End focus
Clefting
Info flow is about ____ _____
sentence organisation
Types of front focus
- fronting
- inversion
- passive voice
What does fronting achieve?
- creates greater prominence for syntactic elements that would usually come later
- places something other than the subj NP at the start of an independent clause
2 main ways fronting is used
- adverbial phrase (often used to set the scene eg this morning)
- subordinate clause (often used to qualify the main clause eg as we both knew, she would never win)
What does inversion do?
the inversion of the subject and verb invariably creates a more dramatic and literary style
example: “least inspiring of all the players was macmillan”
T/F standard syntax is active voice
true
What does passive voice do?
puts a different NP (that isn’t the subject) into the subject position
eg “thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror”
What is the purpose of using end weight?
places material with a higher communicative value at the end
eg “she depended for inspiration on the presence of her books”
It - cleft structure
dummy subj + v + subj + relative pro + clause
eg “it was the winning goal that ayo kicked”
What - cleft structure
what + subj noun clause + v + NP [complement]
eg “what lucy desires is another long weekend”
What is a noun clause and what do they do?
a type of dependent clause that do the work of nouns. they can either be a subject, object or complement
What is the purpose of cohesion?
- provide links within small sections of text
- ties together + links phrases, clauses, ideas
- provides reference backwards/forwards
- connects lexemes, phrases, clauses
synonymy
lexemes with similar meanings can be used to tie together phrases/clauses to reinforce an idea
antonymy
lexemes with an opposite meanings/contrast in terms of semantics yet operating together
hyponymy
creates link through highlighting the relationship between general and specific lexical items
