Phrase Analysis Glossary

The grammatical construction types that the phrase analysis identifies — the structural templates that organize words into meaningful units. Construction grammar treats these patterns as form-meaning pairings: the construction itself carries meaning beyond its individual words.

The study of meaning in context — how speakers communicate more than their words literally say, how context shapes interpretation, and how language performs social actions. Pragmatics explains the gap between what is said and what is meant.

The study of language above the sentence level — how sentences connect to form coherent texts, how information flows through a passage, and how language structure reflects communicative purpose. Discourse analysis reveals the architecture of meaning across multiple utterances.

The fundamental distinction between what words mean by convention (semantics) and what speakers mean by using them in context (pragmatics). This category covers the core concepts needed to understand how phrase analysis separates literal meaning from contextual meaning — and what happens when meaning erodes.

The study of how language is used strategically to achieve communicative goals — persuading, framing, intensifying, qualifying, and managing the audience's understanding and response. Rhetorical analysis examines the 'why' behind linguistic choices.