Acronym - word or phrase derived from or consiting of a series of initial letters
Active voice - form of the verb in which the agent of the action is also the subject of the verb (see also passive voice)
Affix - a menaingful part of a word (see morpheme) attached either to the beginning (prefix) or end (suffix) of a word
Amelioration - in language change, the process whereby a word gradually takes on more favourable connotations (see also pejoration)
Anaphoric reference - (see also cataphoric reference) any word/phrase in a text/discourse that refers back to something previously mentioned
Auxiliary verb - verb (such as is/have/can) used alongside a "main" verb in the formation of a tense
Broadening - in language change, the process whereby the range of meaning of a word gradually extends (see also narrowing)
Cataphoric reference - (see also anaphoric reference) any word/phrase in a text that refers forward to what is to follow - similar to foreshadowing
Cohesion - the interconnection (literally, sticking together) within a text/discourse
Coherence - the sense of a text "flowing", following on logically and creating overall sense
Coordination - the linking of clauses within a sentence,usualy using the conjunctions "and", "but" and "or"
Deixis/deictic reference - inexplicit reference within a text to things or people outside of the text
Demonstrative pronouns - the class of words including this, that, these, those
Diachronic variation - variation in language over time
Digraph - combinationof two letters that represents a single phoneme
Ellipsis - omission of one or more words in a phrase/sentence
Holophrase - in child language, a one wrd utterance that expresses a meaning equivalent to that of a whole adult phrase
Modal verb - group of verbs including will, would, shall, must and others which indicate degrees of certainty and other attitudes towards an action
Narrowing - (see broadening) in language change, the process whereby the meaning of a word gradually becomes more restricted
Object - in clause analysis,he recipient of the action
Passive voice - (see active voice) form of the verb in which the receiver of the actions is made the subject of the verb (e.g. "the postman was bitten by the dog")
Pejoration - in language change, the rocess whereby a word gradually takes on less favourable connotations
Phrasal verb - verb consisting of (usually) a "main" verb + preposition
Subject - in clause analysis, the agent of the verb
Synchronic variation - variation within language at ay given moment
Tag questions - short questions such as "isn't it?" usually attached to the end of phrases/utterances
