Linguistics

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accent

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a variety of speech differing phonetically or phonologically from other varieties

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accommodation

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adjustments speakers make in their speech to adapt it to features of their interlocutor's speech

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acoustic phonetics

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the study of the physical properties of speech sounds

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acronym

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a word formed from the initial letters of a sequence of words
for example, "qantas" from "queensland and northern territory aerial services"

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actor

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the grammatical role of a noun phrase the referent of which performs the action or engages in the state designated by the clause
for example, "the farmer" in "the farmer kills the duckling"

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adjectival phrase (adjp)

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a grammatical or syntactic unit made up of an adjective and possibly an accompanying modifier, that occurs within a clause or noun phrase indicating a quality of some object
for example, "most difficult" in "the most difficult problem"

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adjective

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a part-of-speech consisting of words that typically refer to qualities or properties of things and occur as modifiers in noun phrases
for example, "bright" in "the bright light"

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adjp

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adjectival phrase

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adult language learning

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second language learning

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adverb

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a part-of-speech consisting of words that normally qualify a verb, indicating
the manner in which an action was performed, as in "she ran quickly";
the frequency of the event, as in "she runs often";
or the time or location of an event, as in "she'll come soon" and "she'll come here"

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adverbial phrase

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a grammatical or syntactic unit consisting of an adverb and a modifier, that specifies something about the manner, time, location, frequency of an event, as in "she ran very quickly"

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affix

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a bound morpheme attached to a root or stem, modifying its meaning in some way, and forming a lexical or grammatical word with it
for example, "dis-" and "-ed" in "displaced"

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affricate

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a sound produced by a stop followed by slow release accompanied by friction noise
for example, the first segment of "chap"

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african american vernacular english aave

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the variety of english spoken by african americans

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airstream mechanisms

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the means of producing a stream of air for the production of speech sounds
for example, the egressive pulmonic airstream, the stream of air produced by forcing air out of the lungs

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allomorph

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one of the alternative phonemic forms of a morpheme
for example, the prefix "in-" in english has allomorphs depending on the first segment of the root to which it is attached, as in "inexplicable", "implausible" and "incredible" respectively

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allophone

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one of the alternative phonetic realizations of a phoneme
for example, [t] and [th] are allomorphs of /t/ in english

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alphabet, alphabet writing

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a system of writing that uses a set of symbols each ideally representing a phonemic segment

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alternation

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the correspondence between two or more allophones of a phoneme or allomorphs or a morpheme
for example, between [t] and [th]

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alveolar

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a speech sound produced by bringing the tip or blade of the tongue towards or against the alveolar ridge
for example, [t], [n]

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alveolar ridge

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the ridge on the hard palate just behind the upper front teeth

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alveopalatal

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a sound produced with constriction in the region just behind the alveolar ridge
for example, the initial phone of "she"

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ambiguity

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the term used to describe the situation in which a word, phrase or larger unit has multiple meanings
different with vagueness

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amelioriation

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the process by which a word comes to acquire more positive connotations
for example, "fond" in modern english comes from the past participle of "fonnen", "to be silly, foolish" in middle english

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american sign language, asl

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the sign language used by the deaf community in the usa

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analogical change

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a process of change whereby an old form, usually irregular, is replaced by a new form constructed by extension of another pattern, usually the regular one
for example, the english plural "cows" was formed by analogical change, replacing the earlier plural "kine"

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anomic aphasia

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a type of aphasia in which the patient shows inability to find words

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anticipatory error

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a speech error in which the speaker anticipates a subsequent word, morpheme or sound, and puts it earlier in their utterance
for example, "kindler and gentler" for "kinder and gentler"

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antonymy

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the relation of oppositeness in some component of the meaning of a pair of words
for example, "hot" and "cold" can both concern temperature, but are opposite in terms of degree

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aphasia

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a language loss or disorder following brain damage, a disorder of either production or comprehension
problems resulting from paralysis to the vocal organs due to brain damage are excluded

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applied linguistics

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the branch of linguistics concerned with practical applications
for example, to second language learning, language maintenance, translation ,machine generation of speech and so on

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approximant

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a speech sound involving narrowing at some point in the vocal tract, but insufficient to produce fricative noise

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arbitrariness

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the property of linguistic signs whereby there is no intrinsic or necessary relation between the signifier (form) and the signified (meaning)

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arculate fasciculus

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the bundle of neurons connecting broca's area with wernicke's area

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articulatory phonetics

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the study of how speech sounds are produced by the vocal appartus

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asl

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american sign language

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aspirated

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a feature of a voiceless stop in which a puff of air follows its release, caused by a brief delay between the release of the stop and the beginning of voicing of a following vowel

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assimilation

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the modification of a sound that makes it more like a nearby sound, which can be progressive (when the sound becomes more like a preceding one) or regressive (when it becomes more like a following one)
for example, when the vowel in "pin" is nasalized due to the following nasal consonant

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auditory phonetics

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the study of the perception of speech sounds by the ear

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auslan

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australian sign language

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australian sign language, auslan

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the sign language used by the deaf community in australia

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auxiliary

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a verb that normally accompanies other verbs, and expresses purely grammatical information
for example, "was" in "he was going"

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babbling

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an early age of language acquisition that infants go through from about four to six months of age, which may involve a wide range of speech sounds, though it typically consists of simple syllables; over time, the range of sounds tends towards the range in the language being acquired; deaf children also babble with hand gestures

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backformation

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process whereby a new word is created by removing what is mistakenly analyzed as affix from an old word
for example, "edit" from "editor"

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back vowel

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a vowel produced by moving the body of the tongue towards the back of the mouth, so that its high point towards the back of the mouth
for example, [o]

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basic vocabulary

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the set of lexical items in a language expressing meanings of a basic type, that would be expected to be found in all languages, including lexemes for major parts of the body, fundamental human and animal categories, basic qualities, common states and events, etc

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bee dance

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a set of bodily movements used by some species of honeybee to indicate the location of a nectar source

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bilabial

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a sound made with both lips
for example, [m], [b]

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bilingualism

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the ability of a person to speak two or more languages; a range of types of bilingualism are distinguished depending on the time of acquisition of the languages, the person's competence in each, the contexts in which the languages are used and so on

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bird calls

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brief vocalizations by birds conveying information about the immediate environment, including danger, feeding and flocking

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bird-song

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a complex pattern of vocalizations used for attracting mates and marking territory

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blade of tongue

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the part of the tongue immediately behind the tip

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blend

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a new word created by putting together parts of two existing lexical items
for example, "smog" is a blend of "smoke" and "fog"

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body of tongue

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the main bulk of the tongue

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borrowing

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the incorporation of a word or other item from one language into another
for example, english borrowed the words "government" and "science" in french

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bottom-up processing

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the analysis of linguistic input beginning with the smallest units, the phones, and the moving upwards step by step to larger and larger units such as words, phrases and clauses, until the complete utterance is interpreted

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bound morpheme

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a morpheme that cannot occur as a separate word by itself, but must be attached to another item
for example, the english morphemes “-ly” and "-ed"

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brain scanning

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technologies used for studying the human brain in operation, including electroencephalography, eeg; functional magnetic resonance imaging, fmri; positron emission tomography, pet

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broadening

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a process of semantic change whereby the meaning of a word becomes wider
for example, "bludger" in australian english used to mean "someone living off the earnings of a prostitute", but now means "scrounger"

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broad transcription

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a transcription of a spoken utterance that indicates the major phonetic features, usually using a limited range of basic symbols

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broca's aphasia

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a language disorder often resulting from damage to broca's area, which is characterized by problems in speech production and the use of grammatical morphemes

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broca's area

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an area of the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain that is believed to play a role in language production; named after paul broca, a nineteenth century french scientist who first observed its role in language

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calque

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also called a loan translation, this is a type of borrowing in which the morphemes making up the word in the source language are translated one by one into the borrowing language
for example, english "power politics" from german "machtpolitik"

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caretaker speech

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a special form of speech used by adults, especially mothers, and older children when talking to infants, that is characterized by exaggerated articulation and intonation; also referred as baby talk, motherese and child directed speech

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categorical perception

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the perception of speech sounds in terms of phonemic categories, disregarding their physical differences

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central vowel

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a vowel produced with the high point of the tongue in the centre of the mouth on the front-back axis

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cerebral cortex

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the thin layer of neurons forming a outside covering of the two hemispheres

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chain shift

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a series of two or more linked sound changes by which one sound changes to another sound, which in turn changes sound, and so on

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clause

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a syntactic unit that is like a minimal or reduced sentence, typically consisting of one main verb and accompanying noun phrases and other items
for example, "the farmer kills the ducking with an axe"

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click

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a speech sound produced by a velaric airstream mechanism; the back of the tongue makes a closure at the velum, and a second contact is made further forward in the oral cavity; the enclosed space is next enlarged so that the air within its rarefied; the second closure is then released, and air flows inwards with a clicking noise
for example, 'tut! tut!'

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clipping

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the deletion of a part of a word resulting in a new and shorter word
for example, "fax" from "facsimile"

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clitic

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a bound grammatical morpheme that behaves like an independent word, and at best is loosely related to the word it is attached to: it does not a give rise to a new form of a lexical item (like an inflectional affix), or a new lexical item (like a derivational affix)

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coarticulation

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the simultaneous production of a speech sound at two places of articulation or with two manners of articulation

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code-switching

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switching from one language or dialect to another within a single speech interaction or even turn of speech

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coinage

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a lexical item that is a pure invention, and not created through use of any of the regular patterns of lexeme formation
for example, "nerd" and "barf"

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collocation

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the relation between individual lexical items that often go together in sequences
for example, "pepper" collocates with "salt" in the common sequence "salt and pepper"

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complementary distribution

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when two speech sounds do not share any environments of occurrence they are said to be in complementary distribution
for example, in english [p] and [ph] are in complementary distribution: [p] occurs following [s], [ph] at the beginning of a word, and there is nowhere where both are normally found

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complex sentence

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a sentence composed of more that one clause
for example, "when danger threatens your children, call the police"

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componential analysis

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a semantic theory that analyses the semantics of lexical items into a small set of meaning components or "semantic features" that take + and - values
for example, "boy" would have the features [+male] and [-adult], whereas "girl" would be [-male] and [-adult]

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compounding

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a process of forming new lexical items by putting together a pair of words, as ins "wash basin" and "handbook"

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conditioning factor

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a circumstance that , when met, leads to the choice of one allophone or allomorph
for example, a conditioning factor for the unaspirated allophone [p] is that it follows a word initial [s], as in [spin]

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conduction aphasia

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a type of aphasia that may result from damage to the arculate fasciculus; patients often experience difficulties in repeating words spoken to them, and in monitoring their own speech

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conjuction

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a grammatical word whose primary function is to connect linguistic units
for example, "and", "but" and "or"

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connotation

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a term used in semantics in reference to emotional associations of a word or other linguistic unit

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consonant

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a speech sound produced with a narrowing or closure at some point in the vocal tract

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constituent analysis

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hierarchical analysis of a syntactic construction into units; two main types are immediate constituent analysis and string constituent analysis

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contextual meaning

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part of the meaning of an utterance that is not encoded by the signs making it up, but which is engendered by the context in which the utterance is used

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contralateral control

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this refers to the control of one side (left/right) of the body by the opposite hemisphere (right/left) of the brain; many bodily sensations are also experienced contralaterally

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conventionality

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the idea that the form and meaning of a sign are linked by agreed convention rather than necessity

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conversation analysis

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the field of linguistics that studies the structure of conversations
for example, the way turn-taking is organized

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cooing

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a very early stage in language acquisition in which the infant produces cooing-sounds, typically made up of syllables consisting of velar consonants and back vowels

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cooperative principle

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the principle by h.p. grice that speech interactants assume that they are each behaving rationally and cooperatively; this underlies the way people understand the intended meaning of an utterance

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corpus callossum

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the bundle of nerve fibres connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain

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critical period hypothesis

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the idea that there is a biologically determined window of time, between infancy and puberty, for the acquisition of a first language
outside of this period it is believed that it is impossible to achieve native fluency in a language

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deaf sign language

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a language used by deaf people in which the lexical and grammatical units are represented by manual gestures and other body movements

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deictic, deixis

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a means of establishing the reference of linguistic elements by situating them relative to speaker, hearer and time and place of the speech interaction
tense is deictic because it locates an event with respect to the time of speaking

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dental phone

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a consonant with the teeth as the place of articulation

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derivational morpheme

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a bound morpheme added to a root or stem to form a new stem
for example, the suffix "-er" in english

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descriptive linguistics

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the sort of linguistics that aims to describe the facts of a language as it is actually spoken as distinct from how speakers believe it ought to be spoken

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dialect

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a variety of language characterized by a particular set of words, grammatical structures, and phonetic or phonological characteristics that is associated with a particular geographical region, as in the new zealand dialect of english
the term dialect is sometimes used in reference to varieties associated with age, social class, gender, religion, etc; thus we could talk of a middle class dialect

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dichotic listening test

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an experimental method used in neurolinguistics in which subjects hear different sounds in the left and right ears

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diglossia

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a situation in which two very different varieties of a language are used throughout a language community, that differs in terms of formality; thus one, the high variety, is associated with formal situations, the other, the low variety, with informal situations
the term is also used for bilingual situations in which the languages differ in terms of formality

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diphthong

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a vowel sound involving significant movement of the tongue from one vowel position to another
for example, [ai]

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direct speech act

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a speech act in which the grammatical form directly indicates the type of act
for example, in english a question would be expressed as a direct speech act by use of a grammatical form like "Is she going?"

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discourse analysis

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the study of the structures and regularities in discourse

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displacement

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a design features of language that refers to the fact that language can be used in reference to things that are not present in the immediate situation of the speaker

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dissimilation

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the modification of a sound to make it less like a nearby sound
for example, the second rhotic of latin "arbor" 'tree' was changed to a lateral in spanish "arbol"

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ditransitive clause

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a clause that in its full form requires three noun phrases
for example, clauses of giving in english (the farmer gave the duckling some bread)

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duality, duality of patterning

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a design features of language referring to the simultaneous organization of language on both the level of form and the level of meaning

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dysphemism

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an expression employing direct or harsh terms, usually with offensive overtones
for example, "shithouse" is a dysphemistic expression for "toilet" in australian english

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eeg

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electroencephalogram

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egressive airstream mechanism

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an airstream produced by forcing air out of the vocal tract
most sounds of most languages are produced on the egressive pulmonic airstream

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ejective

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a speech sound produced on an egressive glottalic airstream
the air in an cavity above the larynx is compressed by raising the glottis, and the pent-up air is then released

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electroencephalogram, eeg

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a record of the electrical activity in the brain resulting from the firing of neurons as detected by electrodes placed on the scalp

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embedding

Back 115

inclusion of a unit in another of the same type
for example, a noun phrase in a noun phrase

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enclitic

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a type of clitic that is attached to the end of a word

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euphemism

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an expression used instead of one thought to be offensive
for example, "pass away" instead of "die"

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event

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term for the grammatical role of a verb phrase in a clause
for example, this role of "kills" in "the farmer kills the duckling"

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evolutionary linguistics

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an area of linguistics concerned with the origins and development of human language

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exchange error

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a speech error in which two elements switch places in the utterance
for example, "slicely thinned" for "thinly sliced", where the two lexical items "thin" and "slice" have exchanged places

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experiential meaning, representational meaning

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the type of meaning relating to the construal and understanding of our world of experience

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experiential role

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grammatical roles that encode experiential or representational meaning

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felicity condition

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a condition that an utterance must meet in order to be appropriate or successful as a speech act

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flap

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a sound produced by a single rapid movement of one articulator against another
the most common flap is the apico-alveolar flap

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fmri

Back 125

functional magnetic resonance imaging

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form

Back 126

the perceivable aspect of the linguistic sign
for example, the form of a lexical sign is its representation in phonemes

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formal grammar, formal linguistics

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one of the two divisions of linguistic theory, the formal approach places focus on language as an algebraic system made up of symbols manipulated according to rules
formal theories tend to see meaning as peripheral, and do not normally recognize the linguistic sign as a fundamental unit

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free morpheme

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a morpheme that can occur alone as a separate word

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free variation

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where one sound can replace another in a given environment without giving rise to a new word
for example, if [p>] is replaced by [ph] at the end of the word "stop"

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fricative

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a consonant produced with a narrow but incomplete obstruction in the vocal tract, resulting in a friction sound as the airstream passes through

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functional grammar, functional linguistics

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one of the two major divisions of linguistic theory, the functional approach focuses on language as it is used
meaning occupies a central place in functional linguistics; in extreme varieties, form is marginalized or even may have no place

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functional magnetic resonance imaging, fmri

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a brain imaging technology in which brain activity is measured indirectly through changes in oxygen levels in the blood stream, as measured by different magnetic properties of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood

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garden path sentence

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a sentence the beginning of which suggests a particular analysis but by the end this analysis cannot work
for example, "The horse raced past the barn fell."

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gender

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a grammatical category in which the nouns of a language are divided into groups according to the forms of syntactically related items such as verbs, demonstratives and adjectives

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genetic relation

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the relation between languages that developed from a common earlier language
for example, there is a genetic relation between french and spanish, both of which derive from latin

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gesture

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distinctive movement of a body part conveying meaning
for example, a manual gesture conveying the meaning ok, or shaking the head in denial

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glide, semivowel

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a vowel-like consonant sound produced with minimal obstruction to the passage of air at its point of articulation

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global aphasia

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a type of aphasia involving disturbance to all language functions, usually associated with damage to large parts of the left frontal and temporal lobes

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glottal

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a sound produced with constriction in the glottis
for example,. with complete closure a glottal results

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glottalic airstream mechanism

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an airstream produced by forming a cavity above the larynx, which is compressed or rarefied by raising or lowering the glottis; then the upper obstruction is released

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glottis

Back 141

the opening between the vocal folds

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grammatical, grammaticality

Back 142

a sequence of words that is formed according to the grammatical patterns of a language

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grammatical category

Back 143

a category or concept distinguished in the grammar of a language
for example, tense, gender, case, number

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grammatical morpheme

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a morpheme that provides information about the grammatical properties of a linguistic unit, and has little or no lexical meaning
for example, english ""the" and "a"

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grammatical relation

Back 145

any function that a linguistic unit can serve in the syntax of a language
for example, a noun phrase can serve in grammatical relations such as subject, actor and theme

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grammaticalization

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the process by which grammatical morphemes in a language emerge over time, often from lexical items
the term is also used for the emergence of grammatical categories and other grammatical phenomena

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gricean maxims

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four maxims - principles governing the inferences conversational partners draw - that were formulated by h.p. grice and make up the cooperative principle

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grimm's law

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the description of a systematic sound change in consonants in an ancestor of the germanic languages that was formulated by jacob grimm

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hierarchical structuring

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the grouping and subgrouping of the units that make up a sentence
for example, the hierarchical structuring of "the ducling waddled" is [[[the][[duck][ling]]][[waddle][d]], where square brackets enclose units

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high vowel

Back 150

a vowel with the high point of the tongue relatively high in the oral cavity
for example, [i], [u]

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historical linguistics

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the branch of linguistics that studies how languages change over time

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holophrastic stage

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a stage in the acquisition of language typically reached around 12 to 18 months in which the child produces one-word utterances that convey a convey a complex message similar to what is conveyed by a phrase or clause in adult speech

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homophone, homophony, homonymy

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different words that share the same phonological form
for example, threw and through

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hyperbole

Back 154

the process by which a word loses a strong aspect of meaning through overuse, as happened to intensifying adverbs like "terribly" and "awfully"

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hyponym, hyponymy

Back 155

a word with a more specific meaning than another, which it is an instance of
for example, "blue" and "green" are hyponyms of "colour"

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icon, iconic sign

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a sign in which the form bears some resemblance to the meaning
for example, the manual gesture for two

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idiom

Back 157

an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the meaning of its component parts
for example, "kick the bucket" for "die"

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illocutionary force

Back 158

the speech act performed by a speaker in making an utterance
for example, promise, command, request, warning

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implosive

Back 159

a speech sound produced on an ingressive glottalic airstream
the air in a cavity above the larynx is rarefied by lowering the larynx, and closure in the oral cavity is released, allowing air to be sucked in

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indirect speech

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an utterance the linguistic form of which does not reflect its communicative purpose
for example, "I have no money" used as a request for a loan

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infix

Back 161

an affix that is inserted within a root

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inflectional morpheme

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a bound grammatical morpheme that gives rise to a form of a word expressing a certain grammatical category, such as past tense as in "walked", or plural number as in "dogs"

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ingressive airstream mechanism

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an airstream produced by drawing air into the oral or nasal cavity
ingressive airstream may be used when speaking while taking a breath; it is also used with glottalic and velaric airstream in the formation of implosives and clicks

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innateness

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the idea that children are biologically predisposed to learn language, that they are born with knowledge of an abstract universal grammar that underlies the grammar of all human languages

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insertion

Back 165

the addition of one or more phones into a word, as in the fairly frequent habit of speakers of english to add a schwa between the two final consonants of film

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intension

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defining properties of a lexical item, that must be met for it to be used appropriately

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interdental

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a sound produced with the tip or blade of the tongue between the upper and lower teeth
for example, the initial segment of "the"

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interjection

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a word that expresses an emotional attitude or is used as a warning or call for attention

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international phonetic alphabet, ipa

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the alphabet of the international phonetic association designed to represent the sounds of all of the world's languages

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interpersonal

Back 170

a type of meaning that concerns the establishment and maintenance of social relations; also used of a grammatical relation that encodes this type of meaning

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interrogative

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a grammatical construction that directly expresses a question
for example, "Are you going?"

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intonation

Back 172

the pitch contour of a phrase or sentence

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intransitive clause

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a clause with one obligatory noun phrase
for example, clauses of state or motion in english (the farmer slept, the duckling ran away)

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ipa

Back 174

international phonetic alphabet

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isogloss

Back 175

a line drawn on a map to show the boundary of an area in which a linguistic feature is found

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l1

Back 176

a person's first language or mother tongue

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l2

Back 177

a language acquired by a person after their l1

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l2 acquisition

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second language acquisition

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labial

Back 179

a sound articulated with the lips

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labiodental

Back 180

a sound articulated with the bottom lip in contact with the upper teeth

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language acquisition device, lad

Back 181

the genetically encoded biological faculty enabling a person to learn and use a language
a controversial notion held by linguists who believe in the innateness of language

Front 182

language death

Back 182

th process whereby a language loses its community of speakers and no (native) speakers remain

Front 183

language endangerment, language obsolescence

Back 183

the process by which the community of speakers of a language reduces significantly and fewer children acquire it

Front 184

language maintenance, language revival

Back 184

strategies developed to maintain use of an endangered or dying language

Front 185

language shift

Back 185

the process in which habits of using a language in a bilingual community changes over time in favour of one of the languages, and against th use of another or others
language shift can result in language endangerment and ultimately death

Front 186

larynx

Back 186

the part of the throat or windpipe lying behind the adam's apple that holds the vocal folds

Front 187

lateral

Back 187

a manner of articulation of a consonant whereby the air escapes via one or both sides of an obstruction in the oral cavity
for example, [l]

Front 188

lateralization

Back 188

the tendency for certain cognitive functions to be performed in one or the other hemisphere of the brain

Front 189

lexical item, lexeme

Back 189

a linguistic sign of any size that expresses content meaning
a lexeme can be a morpheme, word or longer expression

Front 190

lexicon

Back 190

a list of all lexical and grammatical items of a language
the full lexicon of a language will contain not just words but also idioms

Front 191

linguistic determinism

Back 191

the notion that language determines the way people think about and perceive the world

Front 192

linguistic relativity

Back 192

the idea that there is a correlation between the language you speak and the way you conceptualize the world

Front 193

loan words

Back 193

a word used in one language that has its origins in another language

Front 194

localization

Back 194

the theory that different areas of the brain are responsible for different cognitive functions

Front 195

logographic writing system

Back 195

a system of writing in which each symbol represents a word or morpheme
for example, the system of chinese characters

Front 196

loss, deletion

Back 196

a fairly common type of sound change in which a segment is lost
for example, the final stop of "thumb"

Front 197

low vowel

Back 197

a vowel in the production of which the high point of the tongue is low in the mouth, and the body of the tongue is lowered from its neutral position

Front 198

magnetoencephalogram, meg

Back 198

a record of brain activity by the measurement of magnetic fields
megs provide better spatial resolution than eegs

Front 199

manner of articulation

Back 199

the way the airstream is obstructed and modified as it passes through the constriction in the vocal tract in the production of a consonant
manners of articulation include stop, nasal, fricative

Front 200

maxim of manner

Back 200

the maxim or convention formulated by h,p. grice that a speaker's contribution to conversation should be orderly, and should avoid obscurity and ambiguity

Front 201

maxim of quality

Back 201

the maxim or convention formulated by h.p. grice that a speaker's contribution to conversation should be truthful and not make unsupported claims

Front 202

maxim of quantity

Back 202

the maxim or convention formulated by h.p. grice that a speaker's utterance should be no more nor less informative than required at that point in the conversation

Front 203

maxim of relevance

Back 203

the maxim or convention formulated by h.p. grice that a speaker's utterance should be relevant to the topic being discussed

Front 204

meaning

Back 204

the idea that is conveyed by a sentence or utterance, it's content

Front 205

meaning extension

Back 205

the process by which the meaning of a word is extended or broadened it to embrace new senses

Front 206

meaning narrowing

Back 206

the process by which the meaning of a word is reduced so that it covers a smaller range of senses

Front 207

meg

Back 207

magnetoencephalogram

Front 208

mental lexicon

Back 208

the internal lexicon that speakers of a language have in their minds

Front 209

meronymy

Back 209

the part-whole relation
for example, "hand" and "face" are meronyms of "clock"

Front 210

metaphor

Back 210

non-literal meaning in which an expression that means one thing is extended to another concept on the basis of similarity

Front 211

metathesis

Back 211

the reordering of phonological segments, often transposition
for example, aks→ask

Front 212

metonymy

Back 212

broadening of meaning whereby the sense of an expression is extended to another concept it is typically or habitually associated with
for example, "crown" for "king"

Front 213

mid vowel

Back 213

a vowel in the production of which the high point of the tongue is in a relatively neutral position in the mouth, neither high nor low

Front 214

minimal pair

Back 214

two words that are identical except for a single phoneme in a certain position
for example, "pin" and "bin"

Front 215

morph

Back 215

any minimal meaningful form in a language, including morphemes and allomorphs

Front 216

morpheme

Back 216

the smallest linguistic sign
for example, "unlikely" consists of three morphemes, "un-", "like" and "-ly"

Front 217

morphology

Back 217

the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words

Front 218

morphophonemic form

Back 218

an abstract form postulated for phonological allomorphs that is operated on by morphophonemic rules to derive the phonological forms of the allomorphs

Front 219

morphophonemic rule

Back 219

an explicit rule that accounts for the realization of a morpheme as phonological allomorphs

Front 220

motherese

Back 220

caretaker speech

Front 221

narrow transcription

Back 221

a detailed phonetic transcription

Front 222

nasal

Back 222

a sound produced when the velum is lowered, permitting air to pass into the nasal cavity, which acts as a resonating chamber

Front 223

nasal cavity

Back 223

the chamber behind the nose through which air passes when the velum is lowered

Front 224

neurolinguistics

Back 224

the study of the neurobiology of language
it is concerned with the brain functions underlying speech and the acquisition of language

Front 225

neuron

Back 225

a nerve cell, the type of cell found in the brain and nervous system

Front 226

nominal

Back 226

a term sometimes used as an alternative for, or replacement of, "noun" in languages that do not distinguish adjectives and nouns as distinct parts-of-speech

Front 227

noun

Back 227

a part-of-speech made up of words that serve as the main lexical item in noun phrases, and in some languages show grammatical alternations for case, number and/or gender
nouns typically denote concrete or abstract things

Front 228

noun phrase, np

Back 228

a syntagmatic grouping of words that typically functions as a referential expression, and serces in grammatical relations such as subject, object, actor, agent, etc.
noun phrases are generally made up of a noun or pronoun, optionally together with modifying words such as adjectives and determiners

Front 229

np

Back 229

noun phrase

Front 230

object

Back 230

the grammatical relation traditionally associated with the undergoer or patent of an action, as in "the farmer kills 'the duckling'"

Front 231

onomatopoeia

Back 231

where the phonetic form of a word is suggestive of the meaning

Front 232

oral cavity

Back 232

the mouth

Front 233

overextension of meaning

Back 233

where a child acquiring a language generalizes the meaning of a word beyond the sense it has in adult language

Front 234

overgeneralization of regular forms

Back 234

where a child acquiring a language uses a regularly constructed form instead of the irregular form of the adult language

Front 235

palatal

Back 235

a consonant produced with constriction in the region of the palate

Front 236

paradigmatic relation

Back 236

a relation between a linguistic unit and other units that can occur in the same position in a construction
for example, /p/ and /b/

Front 237

parsing

Back 237

the process of dividing a sentence or smaller linguistic unit into its component units and assigning a structure to it

Front 238

part-of-speech

Back 238

a categorization of the morphemes of a language into types according to their grammatical behaviour
parts-of-speech frequently identified include noun, verb, adjective, adverb and pronoun

Front 239

pejoration

Back 239

where a word takes on negative connotations

Front 240

performative sentence

Back 240

a sentence that indicates its speech-act value explicitly
for example, "I quit."

Front 241

pet

Back 241

position emission topmography

Front 242

pharyngeal

Back 242

a consonant sound with the pharynx as its place of articulation

Front 243

pharynx

Back 243

the tubular cavity in the vocal tract located above the larynx and oriented roughly at right angles to the oral cavity

Front 244

phonaesthesia

Back 244

the partially iconic association between certain sounds and meanings in a language
for example, between initial "sl" in english and uncontrolled sliding movements

Front 245

phone

Back 245

smallest phonetic segment that can be isolated in a stream of speech

Front 246

phoneme

Back 246

a minimal unit in the phonology of a language that is capable of making the difference between words; a distinctive phone

Front 247

phonetic realization

Back 247

the realization of a phoneme as a material sound

Front 248

phonetics

Back 248

the scientific study of speech sounds

Front 249

phonological rule

Back 249

an explicit rule that accounts for the allophonic realization of a phoneme as a phonetic segment

Front 250

phonology

Back 250

the sound system of a language, including the inventory of phonemes and their paradigmatic and syntagmatic patterning; also the study of the sound systems of languages

Front 251

phrase

Back 251

a group of words of smaller than a clause, such as a noun phrase

Front 252

pitch

Back 252

the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds

Front 253

place of articulation

Back 253

the location in the vocal tract of the constriction of airflow in a consonant
for example, dental, palatal

Front 254

polysemy

Back 254

the situation in which a single lexical or grammatical item has a range of different though related meanings,
for example, "foot" has polysemies including "part of the body at the extremity of a limb used for locomotion", "lower part", "part of an object that serves for support"

Front 255

positron emission tomography scanning, pet scanning

Back 255

a brain scanning technology used t detect the location of brain activity in which a radioactive isotope is injected in the bloodstream

Front 256

postposition

Back 256

a grammatical word or morpheme that follows a noun phrase and indicates its relation in a clause or another noun phrase

Front 257

preposition phrase

Back 257

a phrase consisting of a noun phrase preceded by a preposition

Front 258

presupposition

Back 258

something that must be assumed true for a sentence to be appropriately uttered
for example, "have some more tea" presupposes the addressee has already had some tea

Front 259

proclitic

Back 259

a clitic that is attached to the beginning of a word

Front 260

productivity

Back 260

a design feature of language referring to the ability of speakers to make new meanings by putting together linguistic elements in new ways to form novel expressions

Front 261

pronoun

Back 261

a grammatical morpheme that is used to index a referent in or external to the speech situation

Front 262

proposition

Back 262

that which is expressed by a clause and may be either true or false

Front 263

prosody

Back 263

a phonetic quality that is spread over a sequence of phones
for example, stress, intonation, tone, loudness

Front 264

psycholinguistics

Back 264

the branch of linguistics concerned with the mental processes involved in production and comprehension of speech, and in the acquisition of language

Front 265

pulmonic airstream mechanism

Back 265

the airstream produced from the lungs, this is the most common airstream used in human languages

Front 266

reduplication

Back 266

the morphological process involving repetition of whole or part of a morpheme to produce a new word
for example, "teeny-weeny"

Front 267

reanalysis

Back 267

a type of morphological change in which a word with a certain structure comes to be analysed differently

Front 268

reference

Back 268

the relation between a linguistic unit and something that it identifies
for example, between "the sun" and a certain celestial object

Front 269

reflexivity

Back 269

a design feature of language referring to the property that it can be used to talk about itself

Front 270

register, registerial variation

Back 270

speech varieties or variations in speech that are associated with different contexts of use
for example, scientific english, legalese, bureaucratese

Front 271

regularization

Back 271

any process by which irregular or partially regular constructions or patterns in a language are replaced by more regular forms
for example, the plural of "ox" is in the process of regularization to "oxes" in some varieties of english, replacing the irregular "oxen"

Front 272

respect variety

Back 272

a speech register used to show respect to an interlocutor or someone being spoken about

Front 273

rhotic

Back 273

an r-like speech sound

Front 274

root

Back 274

the base form of a lexical item that cannot be further analysed morophologically

Front 275

rounded vowel

Back 275

a vowel accompanied by rounding of the lips, as with [u] and [y]

Front 276

sapir-whorf hypothesis

Back 276

a hypothesis about the relation between language and thought that was stated in its most explicit form by the american linguists sapir and whorf
it is sometimes referred to as simply the whorfian hypothesis since whorf adopted the most extreme version of the hypothesis

Front 277

second language acquisition

Back 277

the acquisition of one or more languages after the first language has been fully or almost completely acquired
it is also called l2 acquisition

Front 278

secret variety

Back 278

a speech register used by a subgroup of speakers of a language to exclude outsiders, and to underline the separate social identity of the numbers

Front 279

semantic change

Back 279

a change in the semantics of a linguistic item over a period of time

Front 280

semantic compositionality

Back 280

he idea that the semantics of a sentence or any complex grammatical unit can be accounted for by putting together the semantics of the components that make up the complex unit

Front 281

semantic bleaching

Back 281

the process by which the lexical meaning of an item is lost or attenuated as it becomes more grammatical

Front 282

semantics

Back 282

the study of the linguistic meanings of morphemes, words, phrases, sentences and grammatical relations
semantic meaning is encoded in linguistic signs

Front 283

semivowel

Back 283

glide

Front 284

sense

Back 284

the inherent meaning of a linguistic sign

Front 285

sentence

Back 285

the largest unit of syntax; anything larger shows no grammatical structure although it can be structured in other ways

Front 286

sentence comprehension

Back 286

the mental and brain processes involved in understanding sentences

Front 287

sentence meaning

Back 287

the linguistic meaning of a sentence, the meaning that remains constant throughout all installations of the sentence

Front 288

sentence production

Back 288

the psychological and neurological processes involved in production of sentences

Front 289

sign

Back 289

a fundamental item made up of two inherent components, a form (sometimes called signifier) and a meaning (also called signified)

Front 290

sli

Back 290

specific language impairment

Front 291

slip of the tongue

Back 291

an unintended divergence from the intended utterance, also called a speech error

Front 292

sociolinguistics

Back 292

the field that studies language in its social context

Front 293

social variety and variation

Back 293

varieties of a language or variations in a language that are associated with different social groups
for example, ages, geographical regions, social classes, religions

Front 294

sound change

Back 294

changes in the sounds and sound system of a language over a period of time

Front 295

sound correspondence

Back 295

systematic correspondences between sounds in cognates across a set of genetically related languages

Front 296

specific language impairment, sli

Back 296

a cognitive disorder believed to be specific to language, which is characterized by difficulties in articulation and grammatical impairments

Front 297

speech act

Back 297

the action a speaker accomplishes in using an utterance in a particular context,
for example, "it's cold" could be used as a request for the hearer to turn on the heater

Front 298

speech community

Back 298

a group of people who share a language or language variety and the norms for its use in social contexts

Front 299

split-brain patient

Back 299

someone whose corpus callosum has been surgically severed to separate the two hemispheres of the brain
this medical procedure used to be used in the treatment of epilepsy but is no longer undertaken

Front 300

spoonerism

Back 300

a type of speech error involving the exchange (metathesis) of initial segments of lexical words in a sequence

Front 301

standard dialect

Back 301

dialect of a language that is accepted by speakers as the most correct form, is promoted in schools and used in public writing and speech

Front 302

stop

Back 302

a speech sound in which the airflow is completely stopped for a brief time at some point in the vocal tract

Front 303

stem

Back 303

a word form (a root, root plus derivational affixes, or compound of roots) to which inflectional affixes are attached

Front 304

stress, stressed syllable

Back 304

a syllable perceived as prominent due to greater length, loudness and/or higher pitch than other syllables in a word

Front 305

structuralism

Back 305

any approach to linguistics that focuses on the interrelatedness of linguistic units, the ways they form structures and systems of oppositions

Front 306

style of speech

Back 306

a variety or manner of speech associated with certain interpersonal contexts, and usually differing from other styles in degree of formality

Front 307

subject

Back 307

the grammatical relation traditionally associated with the doer or performer of an action, as in "'The farmer' kills the duckling."
according to some linguists, subject is a meaning-less category; others aver that it has a meaning relating to how the proposition is presented

Front 308

suffix

Back 308

an affix attached at the end of a root or stem

Front 309

superordinate

Back 309

a general term that is an ainclusive term in a relation of hyponymy
for example, "colour" is a superordinate for "blue" and "green"

Front 310

suppletion, suppletive forms

Back 310

allomorphs of a morpheme that are not phonologically related
for example, the irregular past tense "went" of the verb "go" involves root suppletion

Front 311

suspicious pair

Back 311

a pair of phones that are sufficiently similar to be potentially allophones of a single morpheme
for example, [b] and [p]

Front 312

syllable

Back 312

a minimal unit of speech production, normally composed of a vowel or vowel-like consonant that is optionally preceded and/or followed by a consonant
for example, [ba] and [a] are syllables, though [b] is not

Front 313

symbol, symbolic sign

Back 313

a sign in which the association between the form and the meaning is not motivated

Front 314

synecdoche

Back 314

a type of meaning extension where the sense is extended from a part to a whole meaning
for example, the extension of "t i t" 'nipple' to mean 'whole breast'

Front 315

synonymy

Back 315

the relation of similarity of meaning
for example, "seat" and "chair" are synonyms

Front 316

syntactic bootstrapping

Back 316

the use of syntactic knowledge by a language learner in order to determine the meaning of words
for example, experiments have shown that knowing a word is a verb (from its syntactic context) informs the child that it denotes an event

Front 317

syntactic change

Back 317

a change in the syntactic patterns of a language
for example, from svo to sov word order

Front 318

syntagmatic relation

Back 318

a relation between linguistic items that are present in an utterance

Front 319

sytax

Back 319

e study of the formation of sentences in a language

Front 320

taboo word

Back 320

a word considered inappropriate in certain social contexts

Front 321

telegraphic speech

Back 321

the stage in first language acquisition following the two word stage, that consists primarily of lexical items

Front 322

tense

Back 322

grammatical category, usually marked in verbs, that indicates the relative time of occurrence of an event
for example, past, present, future

Front 323

textual

Back 323

the type of meaning that provides texture to an utterance, linking the component parts together; a grammatical relation that expresses this type of meaning

Front 324

theme

Back 324

a textual relation, the theme of a clause anchors its message down, serving as a fixed point from which the message can be expanded
usually the theme indicates what the clause is about, or its starting point

Front 325

tone

Back 325

the contrastive pitch on a syllable in a tone language, in which minimal pairs may exist that differ only in syllable tone

Front 326

tone language

Back 326

a language in which tone is phonemic

Front 327

top-down processing

Back 327

language processing that takes into account the larger linguistic environment, which generates expectations about what will be said

Front 328

transcription

Back 328

the representation of a spoken or signed utterance in the written mode

Front 329

transfer, interference

Back 329

the carrying over of grammatical patterns from a person's l1 to l2
the "foreign accent" of most second language learners results from transfer of the phonetic and phonemic systems of the first language
transfer can also occur in the different direction

Front 330

transitive clause

Back 330

a clause which, in full form, has two obligatory noun phrases
for example, clauses of caused states or movement ("the sergeant marched the soldier"), and many clauses of violence in english ("the farmer kills the duckling")

Front 331

tree

Back 331

diagrammatic representation of the hierarchical structure of a sentence
trees can be labelled at nodes (indicating the type of unit) and branches (indicating the grammatical category)

Front 332

trill

Back 332

a speech sound involving the vibration of one articulator, often the tip of the tongue, against another, usually an unmovable passive articulator

Front 333

two-word stage

Back 333

a stage in the acquisition of a first language, usually beginning around 18 months, in which words are put together to form two-word utterances

Front 334

unaspirated

Back 334

a voiceless stop which is not followed by a puff of air; in the production of an unaspirated stop the vocal folds begin vibrating at the same time as the stop is released

Front 335

underextension

Back 335

where the child assigns a narrower meaning to a word than it has in the adult language
for example, "doggy" applies just to a family pet

Front 336

undergoer

Back 336

the grammatical role of a noun phrase the referent of which suffers the action designated by a transitive clause
for example, "the duckling" in "the farmer kills the duckling"

Front 337

ungrammatical

Back 337

a syntactic form that does not conform to the grammatical patterns of a language

Front 338

unit

Back 338

any stretch of language that behaves in some way as a single whole
units range in complexity from the smallest indivisible units (morphemes, phonemes) to the largest (sentences)

Front 339

unrounded vowel

Back 339

vowel produced with no rounding of the lips
for example, [i], [e]

Front 340

utterance

Back 340

stretch of speech corresponding approximately to the sentence in grammar

Front 341

utterance meaning

Back 341

the meaning of an utterance in its context of occurrence, which may be different from its meaning in different context; pragmatics studies utterance meaning

Front 342

uvula

Back 342

the small appendage hanging down at the back of the soft palate or velum

Front 343

uvular phone

Back 343

a speech sound made with the tongue making contact or approximating to the uvula, as in [q]

Front 344

vagueness

Back 344

lack of specificity in the meaning of a linguistic sign
for example, "wrong" is vague between the senses "immoral", "inappropriate", "incorrect"

Front 345

velar

Back 345

a consonant produced with constriction in the region of thevelum

Front 346

velaric airstream mechanism

Back 346

an aristream produced by placing the back of the tongue against the velum and making a second closure further forward in the oral cavity
the enclosed place is then enlarged, rarefying the air within; the second closure is next released, and air flows inwards

Front 347

velum

Back 347

the soft part of the roof of the mouth behind the hard palate

Front 348

verb

Back 348

a part-of-speech containing words that serve as the main lexical item in a verb phrase, and in some languages display grammatical categories like tense, aspect, mood
verbs typically denote events, states, processes, happenings and so on

Front 349

verb phrase, vp

Back 349

a syntactic unit consisting of a verb together with syntagmatically related words (such as adverbials and auxiliary verbs) that typically serves in the grammatical relation event
the term verb phrase in formal grammar is usually a larger unit containing also the object and other noun phrases and prepositional phrases with the exception of the subject

Front 350

vocal folds

Back 350

aet of uscles in the larynx resembling a pair of flaps that can be brought together more or less tightly to modify the stream of air passing through

Front 351

vocal tract

Back 351

the body organs that are involved in the production of speech sounds, including the lungs, glottis, pharynx, and oral and nasal cavities

Front 352

vocalization

Back 352

any sound produced by the vocal apparatus of an animal

Front 353

voice onset time, vot

Back 353

the period between the release of a stop and the onset of voicing in a following vowel
voice onset time can be negative, zero or positive

Front 354

voiced phone

Back 354

a speech sound produced with regular vibration of the vocal folds

Front 355

voiceless phone

Back 355

a speech sound produced with the glottis open, without vibration of the vocal folds

Front 356

vot

Back 356

voice onset time

Front 357

vowel

Back 357

a resonant speech sound that is produced without significant constriction in the oral cavity

Front 358

vowel height

Back 358

the relative height of the highest point of the tongue in the mouth in the production of the vowel

Front 359

vp

Back 359

verb phrase

Front 360

wada test

Back 360

a est for determining which hemisphere is dominant in language processing by injecting sodium amytal into the carotid arteries of neck
the ipsilateral hemisphere is deactivated, and if this is the language dominant one, speech is affected

Front 361

wernicke's aphasia

Back 361

the type of aphasia normally resulting from damage to wernicke's area, and usually characterized by difficulties in comprehension of speech

Front 362

wernicke's area

Back 362

a classic language area of the brain located in the posterior portion of the left hemisphere

Front 363

word

Back 363

a fundamental unit of grammar intuitively recognized by native speakers of a language
the term is difficult to define, and is used in a variety of different ways in linguistics
according to a famous definition by bloomfield, a word is a minimal free form

Front 364

zero morph, zero morpheme

Back 364

a morpheme or allomorph of a morpheme that has no phonetic form
for example, in many languages the third person singular form of a bound pronominal is a zero