Quick questions on The subsystems and metalanguage in VCE English Language Unit 3

Morphology studies word formation from morphemes, the smallest units of meaning. The metalanguage covers affixation (prefixes and suffixes), inflection (grammatical endings like plural -s), derivation (making new words like "happy" to "happiness"), compounding ("laptop"), clipping ("uni"), blends ("brunch"), acronyms, initialisms and hypocoristics ("brekkie", "Maccas").

Lexicology studies the vocabulary or lexicon. The metalanguage covers word classes (noun, verb, adjective, adverb and the function classes), denotation and connotation, jargon, slang, colloquialisms, idioms, neologisms and borrowings. Lexical choice is where register is often signalled most visibly.

Syntax studies how words combine into phrases, clauses and sentences. The metalanguage covers sentence types (declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamative), sentence structures (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex), clauses (main and subordinate), phrases, coordination and subordination, ellipsis, fragments, active and passive voice, nominalisation and word-order features like fronting.

Discourse studies whole-text organisation and the conventions of connected language. The metalanguage covers coherence (whether a text makes sense as a whole), cohesion (the explicit links that tie it together, such as reference, ellipsis, substitution, conjunction and lexical chains), discourse markers, turn-taking, adjacency pairs, openings and closings, topic management and non-fluency features in spoken texts.

Semantics studies meaning. The metalanguage covers denotation and connotation, semantic fields, sense relations like synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy, figurative language (metaphor, simile, idiom), semantic shift, euphemism, irony and ambiguity. Semantics is how a text means what it means beyond the literal words.