More About Language

Language refers to characteristics of the body of words used (slang, jargon, scholarly language, etc.)

Questions to ask yourself:

1. How could the language be described?
2. How does the language affect your mood as a reader?
3. What does the language seem to indicate about the author’s tone?

Some words to describe language:

Artificial	false	Literal	apparent, word for word
Bombastic	pompous, ostentatious	Moralistic	puritanical, righteous
Colloquial	vernacular	Obscure	unclear
Concrete	actual, specific, particular	Obtuse	dull-witted, undiscerning
Connotative	alludes to; suggestive	Ordinary	everyday, common
Cultured	cultivated, refined, finished	Pedantic	didactic, scholastic, bookish
Detached	cut-off, removed, separated	Plain	clear, obvious
Emotional	expressive of emotions	Poetic	lyric, melodious, romantic
Esoteric	understood by a chosen few	Precise	exact, accurate, decisive
Euphemistic	insincere, affected	Pretentious	pompous, gaudy, inflated
Exact	verbatim, precise	Provincial	rural, rustic, unpolished
Figurative	serving as illustration	Scholarly	intellectual, academic
Formal	academic, conventional	Sensuous	passionate, luscious
Grotesque	hideous, deformed	Simple	clear, intelligible
Homespun	folksy, homey, native, rustic	Slang	lingo, colloquialism
Idiomatic	Peculiar, vernacular	Symbolic	representative, metaphorical
Insipid	uninteresting, tame, dull	Trite	common, banal, stereotyped
Jargon	vocabulary for a profession	Informal	casual, relaxed, unofficial
Learned	educated, experienced	Vulgar	coarse, indecent, tasteless

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