Key Concepts in Language and Media

Core Language Concepts

Word Structure

Words: Lexeme + Morpheme. Lexeme: Provides the lexical meaning. Morpheme: Provides the grammatical meaning.

Lexical Family: A set of words that share the same lexeme. Words are grouped into fields where they relate to the same idea.

Semantic Field: A set of words that share meaning.

Denotative Meaning: The literal or objective meaning.

Connotative Meaning: The figurative or subjective meaning.

Hiatus: Hyphenation that differs when two members are together in one word.

Verb Characteristics

Person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

Tense (Tempo): Past, present, or future.

Number: Singular or plural.

Mode: Indicates the speaker's attitude towards the action expressed by the verb.

• Indicative: Real action.
• Imperative: Command or mandate.
• Subjunctive: Possible or desirable action.

Tense: Lexeme + Morpheme.

Composite Tense: Formed with an auxiliary verb + the past participle of the main verb.

Nonpersonal Forms:

• Infinitive
• Gerund
• Participle

Voice: Indicates the relationship between the subject and verb in a sentence, and how the action is performed.

• Active Voice: The subject performs the action of the verb.
• Passive Voice: The subject receives the action of the verb.

Verbal Conjugation: The set of all forms of a verb.

• 1st Conjugation: Verbs ending in -ar
• 2nd Conjugation: Verbs ending in -er
• 3rd Conjugation: Verbs ending in -ir

Regular Verbs: Maintain the same lexeme and morpheme variations.

Irregular Verbs: Show variations in lexeme and morpheme.

Language and Communication

Language: A code of linguistic signs combinable with each other, permitting infinite oral and written messages.

Elements of Communication:

• Issuer (Expressive function)
• Receptor (Appellative function)
• Context (Referential function)
• Channel (Phatic function)
• Code (Metalinguistic function)
• Message (Poetic function)

Journalistic Text Types

Newspaper Texts

Texts published in newspapers are intended to communicate ideas and current events to a wider audience.

News Article

News Article: A journalistic informative text that objectively recounts an event of human interest.

Key questions answered: What, Who, Where, When, How, Why?

• Headline: Briefly summarizes the content of the news.
• Lead (Entry): The first paragraph of the story.
• Body: The main part of the news story.

Reportage

Reportage: A journalistic informative text that treats a topic of fundamental interest. Structure: Topic + General Entry + Development.

Interview

Interview: A journalistic text that is a conversation between a journalist and a person whose views are relevant to a current topic. Structure: Interviewee + Introduction + Body.

Orthography and Punctuation

Diacritics: A mark (like a tilde) used to differentiate words that are spelled the same but have different meanings or pronunciations.

Comma: A punctuation mark representing a brief pause in writing.

Semicolon: A punctuation mark representing a pause between a comma and a period.