Language & Literary Devices: English Vocabulary List

the spoken form of a language specific to a certain region or people which is slightly different from the standard form in words and grammar

"The dialect sounds unique."

"That dialect is spoken in a small region near the coast."

(in the grammar of some languages) a group of nouns, pronouns, or adjectives changing in the same way to indicate case, number, and gender

"Noun declension studied."

"We study noun declension in Latin class to understand how words change according to their grammatical role."

(grammar) a change in the structure of a word, usually adding a suffix, according to its grammatical function

"The ending of the word changes its inflection."

"The teacher explained that adding '-ed' to a verb is a common grammatical inflection to indicate past tense."

(grammar) to show how a verb changes depending on number, person, tense, etc.

"Conjugate the verb in present tense."

"The students were asked to conjugate the irregular French verb correctly in all tenses as part of their language exam."

(grammar) a particular form of a pronoun, adjective, or noun that acts as the direct object of a verb or preposition, used in some languages such as Greek or Latin

"In German the accusative marks the direct object."

"In Latin the accusative case shows the direct object of the verb clearly."

(in the grammar of some languages) the form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective that is used when addressing a particular person or thing

"Vocative case used."

"The vocative case is used when directly addressing someone in some languages."

relating to a grammatical case that is used to indicate possession, origin, or a close association

"The word is in the genitive case."

"The word is in the genitive case and shows possession like John car or Sarah house."

(grammar) a specific form of a pronoun, adjective, or noun that is used to show by what means or by whom an action is done or to indicate the source of the action, found in some languages such as Latin or Sanskrit

"Latin uses the ablative case for means and manner."

"The ablative case in Latin expresses separation or means of action."

(grammar) a specific form of a pronoun, adjective, or noun that shows the place of an action or where a person or thing is

"The locative case indicates a location."

"The locative case indicates location or place where something happens."

(grammar) describing an adjective or noun following a linking verb and completing the meaning of the copula

"The adjective is predicative."

"The adjective is predicative because it comes after the verb and describes the subject of the sentence."

a grammatical case used for the subject of a sentence or clause

"The subject of a sentence is in the nominative case."

"The nominative case is used for the subject of the sentence in grammar."

(grammar)(of a noun or adjective) joined directly to a noun and modifying it, without a linking verb

"The adjective is attributive."

"The adjective is attributive because it comes before the noun and directly modifies the noun."

(grammar) a function word that is used to form a question

"The word 'who' is interrogative."

"The word 'how' functions as an interrogative in this sentence, seeking information about the manner."

(grammar) a gender of words that are neither masculine nor feminine

"The neuter pronoun "it" refers to things."

"Neuter gender is used for objects that are neither masculine nor feminine in some languages."

(grammar) a letter or group of letters added to the end or beginning of a word to change its meaning

"Re-" and "-un" are examples of affixes."

"We add an affix to the beginning or end of a word to change its meaning."

the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of the words in a verse or sentence, used as a literary device

"Alliteration repeats the same sound."

"The phrase Peter picked pickled peppers contains alliteration because several words start with the same sound."

a statement that implies or indirectly mentions something or someone else, especially as a literary device

"The poem has an allusion to Greek myth."

"The author's subtle allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet added layers of meaning to the protagonist's tragic dilemma."

humor, irony, ridicule, or sarcasm used to expose or criticize the faults and shortcomings of a person, government, etc.

"The play is a satire about politics."

"The film uses satire to cleverly criticize the corruption within the government."

a word or expression that is used instead of a harsh or insulting one in order to be more tactful and polite

"'Passed away' is a softer euphemism for 'died' in polite conversation."

"Using a euphemism can make difficult conversations much easier to handle."

the study of the origins and historical developments of words and their meanings

"The etymology of 'telephone' comes from Greek words meaning far sound."

"The etymology of the word "etymology" comes from Greek roots meaning "true sense of a word"."

(of people) unable to express oneself clearly or easily

"He is inarticulate."

"The inarticulate witness struggled to describe what he had seen and the jury had trouble understanding his testimony."

the redundant repetition of an idea using different words in a sentence or phrase

"That is a tautology."

"Saying 'free gift' is a tautology because a gift is inherently free and requires no payment."

(linguistics) a branch of linguistics that deals with the sentences and the contexts in which they are used

"Pragmatics studies how context affects meaning."

"We study pragmatics to understand how context affects the meaning of language in real use."

the science and study of speech sounds and their production

"Phonetics is interesting."

"Studying phonetics helps language learners pronounce sounds correctly that do not exist in their native tongue."

the smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish meaning, often represented by a specific symbol in phonetic notation

"There are 44 phonemes."

"The English phoneme represented by the letter "t" is pronounced differently in "top," "stop," and "button," but speakers still hear it as the same sound category."

(linguistics) the smallest meaningful unit of a language that does not necessarily stand alone and cannot be divided

"The word 'cats' has two morphemes: 'cat' and the plural 's' sound."

"A morpheme is the smallest meaningful grammatical unit in a language"

(linguistics) a basic linguistic unit that is meaningful and underlies a set of words which are related through inflection

"A lexeme is basic."

"The words "run," "runs," "running," and "ran" are all forms of the same lexeme, representing different grammatical versions of the same basic vocabulary item."

a variant pronunciation of a phoneme, which can occur due to phonetic differences in specific contexts or environments within a language

"This is an allophone."

"The aspirated "p" in "pin" and the unaspirated "p" in "spin" are allophones of the same phoneme in English, meaning they do not change the word's meaning."

each of two or more words with the same spelling or pronunciation that vary in meaning and origin

"Right is a homonym of write."

"The words bear meaning both an animal and to carry something are examples of a homonym."

(grammar) one of two or more words with the same pronunciation that differ in meaning, spelling or origin

"Learn homophone words."

"We learn homophone words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings in English."

(phonetics) a gliding speech sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable

"The vowel sound in "coin" is a diphthong."

"The word coin contains a diphthong sound that changes during pronunciation."

a word that mimics the sound it represents

"Buzz" and "boom" are examples of onomatopoeia."

"Writers use onomatopoeia when words sound like the noise they describe such as buzz."

(linguistics) the way in which words and phrases are arranged to form grammatical sentences in a language

"Syntax is the study of sentence structure."

"The syntax of this sentence is so complex that even native speakers find it confusing."

a change in normal word order, especially putting a verb before its subject

"Inversion is strange."

"Inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb is common in questions."

‌(of verbs) a form or mood that represents possibility, doubt, or wishes

"He used the subjunctive mood."

"The professor explained the subtle nuances of the subjunctive mood in classical Latin."

(grammar) the mood of a verb that states a fact

"Indicative states facts."

"The indicative mood is used to state facts, ask questions, or express opinions about reality, as in "She is a doctor.""

a form of humor in which the words that someone says mean the opposite, producing an emphatic effect

"The irony made everyone laugh."

"Situational irony involves an unexpected"

(linguistics) a process by which a new word or inflection is formed according to existing rules and regulations

"This is an analogy."

"The analogy allowed linguists to understand the formation of new words based on existing patterns."

(of a person) able to express thoughts or ideas in a clear and consistent manner

"Be coherent, please."

"After the accident, he struggled to provide a coherent account of what had happened."

(grammar) the act of omitting a word or words from a sentence, when the meaning is complete and the omission is understood from the context

"Use an ellipsis to show that words are missing."

"Writers use ellipsis to show that some words have been omitted from a sentence."