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Intertextuality
The ways in which a text resonates or refers to another text. For example, ‘to be a subscriber to the InThinking website or not to be a subscriber to the InThinking website is an (admittedly not particularly...
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Phonlogical
Relates to the sound system of a language. A phoneme is a single unit of sound. Phonological substitution, replacing an anticipated sound with an unanticipated sound is commonplace in media texts such...
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Paralanguage
Aspects of communication functioning in conjunction with verbal language. For example, facial expression and body posture....
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Noun Phrase
A word or group of words with a noun at its head (i.e. the noun is the essential word), often with added information in the form of modifiers. Premodifiers precede the head, and post-modifiers follow...
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Semantic Field
A group of words that are related or analogous in meaning, and are often connected with a particular context of use. An alternative, similar term sometimes used by linguists is lexical cluster. Thus,...
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Translation
The fourth ‘texts to go’ takes translation as its focus. Views differ widely on translation. Some would suggest it just can’t be done; unavoidably, meaning is always lost. Others view translation as...
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Written Tasks: A Student's Guide to Getting it Right
Written Tasks are an excellent opportunity for students to produce high quality work that achieves a good grade. Whilst the IB Diploma is a demanding course of study, and students have much to do beyond...
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Orwell Matters Free
Something happened to me a long time ago. It was a seminal moment in my life. It was simple as seminal moments go – I hope your own were more ‘memorable’. I read George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier....
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Language in the News
Review: Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press. Roger Fowler. 1991. Several years ago, I attended a teacher-training workshop for English A2, the course that, to some degree, was...
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Mother Tongue
Review: Mother Tongue. Bill Bryson. 1990. Around the time I was finishing my first degree in politics and sociology, I read Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue (1990). I had read Bryson before; he is the kind...