Homophones # Homonyms, or homophones, are words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings. They are usually spelled differently. Let’s face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted.
Homophones - Spelling Check # Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled differently. In each phase or sentence of the tests that follow, the missing word, usually a homophone, is one that is often confused with a similar one. For each blank space supply one of the two (or three) words given. You will NOT necessarily use each word once - you may have to use one word two or three times and you may not use the other(s) at all.
Homophones: Test 3. Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled differently. In each phase or sentence of the tests that follow, the missing word, usually a homophone, is one that is often confused with a similar one. For each blank space supply one of the two (or three) words given. You will NOT necessarily use each word once - you may have to use one word two or three times and you may not use the other(s) at all.
Homophones – Test 4 Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled differently. In each phase or sentence of the tests that follow, the missing word, usually a homophone, is one that is often confused with a similar one. For each blank space supply one of the two (or three) words given. You will NOT necessarily use each word once - you may have to use one word two or three times and you may not use the other(s) at all.
Homophones: Test 5 Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled differently. In each phase or sentence of the tests that follow, the missing word, usually a homophone, is one that is often confused with a similar one. For each blank space supply one of the two (or three) words given. You will NOT necessarily use each word once - you may have to use one word two or three times and you may not use the other(s) at all.
ACRONYMS # Often used as jargon, acronyms assist communication as short cuts instead of long terms. They become part of the jargon of distinct professions to save time. To the laity, jargon acts as a barrier to clear meaningful communication. Acronyms and emojis became much more prevalent with the rise of SMS texting and twitter. Acronyms have been around for yonks. Try these: JEEP, WOWSER, WASP, PAKISTAN, NAZI, AWOL, POSH, SCUBA,
Allusions # Religious, historical, mythological, literary, films # An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a concise reference to a place, person, or something that happened. This can be real or imaginary and may refer to anything, including paintings, opera, folk lore, mythical figures, or religious manuscripts. The reference can be direct or may be inferred, and can quickly broaden the reader’s understanding. Allusions are references employed to generalise or universalise experiences and situations relating the particular to the general or the microcosm to the macrocosm.
Answers Euphemisms Quiz: # I industrial stoppage 13__encyclopaedia salesman 2 ripe for development 17__imprisonment 3 family planning 15__glutton 4 glass maintenance engineer 10__dirty old man 5.social services 14__sales monopoly 6: liquid laugh and technicolour yawn 11__block of land task response module 18__bureaucracy 8, homemaker 2___available for exploitation urban renewal 5___dole 10 sexy senior citizen 20__women’s toilet 11 homesite 19__drug induced hallucination 12 new prestige area 7___ desk educational adviser 6___vomit
Blasphemy # In Greek times, while atheism could be viewed as mistaken, it was usually tolerated – although not in the case of Socrates, who was executed in Athens for “not recognising the gods of the city”. Queen Elizabeth I # Ushered in the Golden Age with her tolerant approach to religion: “we will not make windows of men’s souls”. She was followed by a tyrant. King James I - Blasphemy # In 1605, King James I passed a Blasphemy Act:*
Clichés # A French onomatopoeic word echoing the sound of a die or stamp of a printing block, a cliché is an overused expression that has become trite, hackneyed or stale. Clichés are phrases that work too well, becoming so popular they becomeoverused. A 17 year old on first seeing Hamlet, claimed it was a good play, but too Clichéd! They become Clichés because they work. They can be the most effective way of expressing your thoughts.
Emojis # A new quirky communication phenomenon originated in Japan in 1999 in response to limited texting constraints. Lack of copyright meant they spread like wildfire because they communicate immediately with attitude a visual potency, transcending language barriers. Samantha Edwards – Vandenboek, a lecturer in digital and social visual communications at Swinburne University says that “emojis are an effective way to add tone and zest to text-based communication”. They originate from the earliest forms of expression, cave paintings, pictograms and hieroglyphics.
EUPHEMISMS and PEJORATIVES # Euphonic means good sounding, while a euphemism is a pleasant word for something that may be unsavoury, objectionable, crude, direct or offensive. The use of euphemisms can often be justified in terms of personal relationships, diplomatic situations or to help change attitudes by means of a semantic shift. Neutral language – orthophemism is straight talk; denotative, direct or neutral expressions that are not sweet-sounding, evasive, or overly polite (euphemistic), nor harsh, blunt, or offensive (dysphemistic).
Expressive Writing Exercises # Expressive Writing is a sophisticated art; some are born with it while others have to work hard to acquire it. One of the critical factors in good writing is variety; both in diction – choice of words and in sentence construction. Aim for clarity, fluency and forcefulness. 1. Word order to create emphasis Least emphatic: Christian planned mutiny in order to escape. More emphatic: Mutiny was Christians plan in order to escape.
Language Techniques Features of Lang # Purpose: # Approach: Subjective — emotive or Objective — informative Attitude or Tone: Warm, ambient/ cold, Condescending/ suppliant, sad/ happy… Audience: Broad, general,/ superior/ subordinate/ peer/ niche interest group. Style: # Word Choice — diction word play - puns. • Connotative or denotative - clear or ambiguous • Emotive, coloured, biased or demotive — technical terms, dispassionate • Clichés, proverbs, idiomatic, expressive or flat.
JARGON # Originally a French word, meaning “the twittering of the birds” but by the 15 th C. it had come to mean the ”argot of the malfeasants”, the language of thieves, who develop a secret language so that they can twitter in the hearing of outsiders without being understood. Today we could compare it to Leetspeak slang; an alternative alphabet for the internet used by hackers to conceal their sites from search engines.
FEATURES OF LANGUAGE AND PURPOSE - The Great Barrier Reef # Below are two passages; one of objective prose and the other of subjective poetry both describing the Great Barrier Reef as discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770. Notice how they differ in approach and linguistic techniques. Which one is more effective? Why? QUESTION 1 (10 marks) Passage A The Great Barrier Reef is not just a reef or a line of reefs, but a horrid huge zone of them - 80,000 square miles of the age-old remains of the too industrious, and infinitely too abundant coral polyp waiting below the sunlit surface to bite at ships.
Oxymorons # Oxymorons are apparent contradictions by opposing meanings of words side by side. They demonstrate the binary aspect of the complexity and ambivalence of life where things are seldom what they seem. They are closely related to paradoxes. Examples: exhilarated terror. A special ordinary man, unjust justice, true deceiver, Downwardly mobile The rhetorical term oxymoron, made up of two Greek words meaning “sharp” and “dull,” is itself oxymoronic.
Parts of Speech # ** I. Noun:** ** a word used as name of a person, place or thing. e.g. tree; horse ** Ex: The boy threw the ball There are three kinds of nouns: Common, Proper and Abstract. Common: Any person place or thing – boy ,city or hat Proper: Specific name of person, place or thing – Sean, Sydney, Sombrero Abstract: Not concrete or tangible – a concept – jealousy, beauty, truth **II.
The Pun # It is undeniable that the British are fond of puns. It is usual to sneer at the pun as the lowest form of wit. But the pun may contain a very high form of wit, and may please either for its cleverness, or for its amusing quality, or for the combination of the two. Naturally, the really excellent pun has always been in favor with the wits of all countries.
Tautology # A tautology is a form of circumlocution or a pleonasm¹, where for emphasis a speaker or writer uses more words than necessary to express a thought. A tautology is also called a redundancy. When people are very excited or enthusiastic, they tend to repeat themselves for effect and sometime say the same thing twice or more. They hope it will add power to their communications. Alexander Buzo, a noted Australian dramatist had a hobby of collecting tautologies.
The Sentence # The fundamental construct of all written communication is the sentence. Sentences generally consist of subjects (participants), verbs (processes) and may have circumstances. Sometimes these elements are understood. eg: a) (you) “Jump!” or b) “John!” (Look out) I. Kinds of sentences # a) Declarative or Declamatory - Make a statement or shout it from the rooftop. b) Interrogatives, questions or Rhetorical questions - ask c) Imperatives or commands - Tell or command.
Tone or Attitude: # The tone is the attitude or feelings of the composer towards their audience and the subject matter. In oral presentations this may be carried by the voice, while in written communication it is conveyed by the choice of words and sentence construction. The following columns are varied attitudes that can be expressed. Neutral Tones: considered, restrained, monotonous, ironic, impartial, impersonal, deliberative, disinterested, apathetic, apolitical Reflective Tones
Vulgate # — coarse, crude, expletives, blasphemous, profanities, obscenities. You may call it swearing; I call it a sentence enhancer. As in most cases there are two sides to this debate and attitudes have fluctuated wildly from either side throughout different ages. Early English writers, Chaucer to Shakespeare could be extremely colourful in their expressions while the Victorian era was characterised by extreme prudery and an overly sensitive reproach to any bawdy language.
Language and Purpose # There are many different purposes for which we use language, both spoken and written. Often there is an underlying (covert) purpose of which we may not be aware, as well as the apparent (overt) purpose. Take the incident of two men and a woman in a railway carriage. One man smokes, unaware that it is a non—smoking carriage. After a few minutes the other man turns to the woman and says: