Linguistic Terms

Receptive Language

• The ability to produce spoken language fluently.

• The ability to understand or comprehend language heard or read.

• The ability to write in a grammatically correct manner.

• The ability to engage in conversation with others.

Phoneme

• The smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish words.

• A group of sounds that form a syllable.

• A type of written character in a language.

• A grammatical unit that conveys meaning.

Metalinguistic Knowledge

• Awareness of how language is structured and used.

• Understanding the phonetic sounds of a language.

• Ability to translate languages fluently.

• Knowledge of vocabulary in multiple languages.

Expressive Language

• The ability to understand spoken language and respond appropriately.

• The ability to use words, sentences, gestures, and writing to convey meaning and messages to others.

• The ability to read and comprehend written text effectively.

• The ability to listen and interpret non-verbal cues in communication.

Inflectional Morphemes

• Morphemes that change a word's class or meaning.

• Morphemes that modify a word's tense, number, aspect, mood, or gender without changing its class or meaning.

• Morphemes that are used to create new words entirely.

• Morphemes that only affect the pronunciation of a word.

Free Morpheme

• A morpheme that can stand alone as a word.

• A morpheme that cannot stand alone and must be attached to another morpheme.

• A morpheme that changes the meaning of a word when added to it.

• A morpheme that is always a prefix or suffix.

Phonological Awareness

• The ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds of spoken language, including rhymes, syllables, and phonemes.

• The skill to read and write in a second language fluently.

• The understanding of grammatical structures in a language.

• The capacity to memorize vocabulary words effectively.

Syntactic Knowledge

• Understanding of the rules that govern the structure of sentences.

• Knowledge of vocabulary and word meanings.

• Ability to interpret figurative language and idioms.

• Understanding of the context in which language is used.

Pragmatic Knowledge

• Understanding of how language is used in context to convey meaning.

• Knowledge of grammatical rules and structures.

• Ability to memorize vocabulary lists.

• Understanding of phonetics and pronunciation.

Register

• The level of formality or informality in language use, often varying by context or audience.

• A type of written communication that is formal and structured.

• A method of organizing information in a database.

• A style of writing that is always casual and informal.