This presentation is a development from basic word classes (http://www.slideshare.net/keepitsurreal/english-language-terminology-word-lasses) and explores the following: similes and metaphors, types of listing, idioms, collocations, oxymorons, levels of formality, prosody, onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhyme, assonance, cohesion, reference, identification, ellipsis, conjunction, repetition, and graphology / layout. The simple explanations will clarify any misunderstandings, with the help of clear bullet points, concise definitions, and examples. The presentation is perfect for English Language A Level at both AS and A2.

1. Similes and metaphors
• Similes are comparisons that involve the use of
like or as
For example:
bold as brass swim like a fish
• Metaphors describe the person, object, situation
etc. as if it were another thing
For example:
A hail of criticism rained down on their heads
• If a metaphor is sustained over a considerable
portion of the text it is called an extended
metaphor

2. Asyndetic listing
• Listing which does not involve the use of
conjunctions
For example: he dropped his pencil case and
everything fell out, pens, pencils, paper,
rulers
• Listing which involves the use of
conjunctions
For example: she missed the bus and the next
bus and the next bus after that
Syndetic listing

3. Idioms
• An idiom is an expression whose meaning
cannot be understood from the
meanings of the individual words that
make up the expression
For example:
face the music, put a sock in it

4. Collocations
• Groups (usually pairs) of words that are
commonly found alongside each other
For example:
Spick and span
Long day
Terraced house
A dark and stormy night

5. Oxymoron
• An oxymoron is an expression in which
words of contradictory or opposite
meaning have been collocated e.g. bitter
sweet

6. Levels of formality
• Informal language is language that is relaxed,
familiar and conversational
• Formal language has a more serious, distant and
impersonal tone
• The vocabulary is a key hint about the level of
formality, as well as grammar (elaborately
constructed sentences suggest a more formal tone)
Questions to ask when discussing formality:
 Where exactly is the formality/ informality evident?
 Is the same level of formality present throughout the
text?
 Why has this level of formality been chosen and what
effect does it have?

7. Prosody
…is non-verbal aspects of speech such as
tone, intonation and stress
…occurs when the sound of a word echoes
its meaning: splash, buzz, thump
Onomatopoeia

8. Alliteration
…is when two or more words begin with the
same letter/ sound: crisp, crunchy
cornflakes
…occurs when words have similar endings
Rhyme

9. Assonance
…is the repetition of vowel sounds
For example, “She sells seashells by the seashore”
contains the repetition of short E and long E sounds
So is the old slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners: “It
beats as it sweeps as it cleans.”
• There is no actual rhyme there, in the English
sense, but there is the repetition of vowel
sounds.
• If the vowel sounds clash with each other,
producing a discordant effect, this is known as
dissonance

10. Cohesion
The techniques and devices used
to connect different parts of a
text with each other

11. Grammatical cohesion

12. Reference
• Reference often involves the use of third person
pronouns (he, she, it, they)
For example:
My grandfather was an Irishman. He was born in
Dublin
He is cohesive because it refers back to grandfather
• When a word refers back to something that has
already been mentioned it is called an anaphoric
reference
• References forward are known as cataphoric
references

13. Identification
• This is the use of determiners such as
the, this or that to indicate that a noun
has previously been mentioned
• When a noun is first used, it is often
preceded by the indefinite article but
later references will use the:
A ship appeared on the horizon. When
Laura arrived later I pointed the ship out
to her

14. Ellipsis
• This is where words are omitted from a
sentence
• This becomes a cohesive device if an
earlier part of the text enables us to
supply the missing elements:
Beer cans littered the floor, the television
had been kicked in and graffiti covered the
walls. A bit of a mess.

15. Conjunction
• This refers to the use of conjunctions and
conjunctive adverbs as cohesive devices
• The words are also known as connectives
and they link together parts of a text
and indicate the relationship between
them

16. Lexical cohesion
This is cohesion achieved through
word meanings rather than
grammatical structure

17. Repetition
• This has a cohesive effect because it forms a
link between different sentences
• Sometimes, however, the word itself is not
repeated; a synonym is used
• This refers to the tendency for words to
occur together
• This is cohesive because it involves the use
of words that, because of their meaning, are
already linked in the reader’s mind
Collocation

18. Graphology
This is the text’s visual aspects

19. Layout and overall presentation
• Is there a lot of dense text, or is the text broken up – if
so, how? Are parts of the text separated from the rest by
the use of devices such as boxed sections and speech
bubbles? Is there a reason for this?
• Which part of the text immediately catches the eye?
Does the design encourage you to read particular
features first?
• Is there any use of juxtaposition? This means placing
words, ideas and pieces of information next to each
other: stories that are linked or contrast may be
juxtaposed
• Does the text adopt the layout conventions of the genre?
Or another genre – e.g. an advert could take the form of
a recipe, letter etc.

20. Typeface
• The size of the words and individual letters can
be important: e.g. large lettering can draw
attention to something
• The use of upper and lower case letters: upper
case can be used to add emphasis or reflect
meaning in some way, whereas sometimes lower
case letters are used to appear stylish and
unconventional
• Use of bold, italic, underlining etc. to highlight
parts of a text
• The actual font used and the connotations of it,
for example The Daily Telegraph has a
conservative, traditional look whereas The Sun
looks bolder and brashier

21. Illustrations
• Illustrations can take the form of
photographs, cartoons, drawings etc.
• Study the relationship between the
illustrations and the text
• Is there a contrast or do they add impact
to the points made in the text?