exercitive

An exercitive is the giving of a decision in favour of or against a certain course of action, or advocacy of it.

1962, J.L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words (paperback), Oxford, published 1965, page 154:

Exercitives are not so common. Philosopher-authors are rarely in the position to tell people what to do or think.

1999, Jeffrey A. Mason, The Philosopher's Address: Writing and the Perception of Philosophy, →ISBN, page 51:

The hearer's recognition of the speaker's locutionary intention is also an important felicity condition of Austinian exercitives.

2003, Mary Kathryn McGowan, “Conversational Exercitives and the Force of Pornography”, in Philosophy & Public Affairs, volume 31, number 2, pages 155–189:

(pragmatics, hermeneutics) A speech act in which a decision is made regarding action; examples include orders and grants of permission.


Proto-Afroasiatic

(linguistics) The hypothetical ancestor language or protolanguage of Afroasiatic languages.

proto-afro-asiatique

ancestor language of Afroasiatic languages


Proto-Afroasiatic

(linguistics) Of or pertaining to the Proto-Afroasiatic language, or the people who spoke it.


no changer

(grammar) A word that does not change its form (for a noun, from singular to plural; for a verb, according to person; etc.).


lexical correspondence

en-noun

lexical correspondence (plural lexical correspondences)

(linguistics) A set of cognate words or morphemes in two or more related languages, where regular sound correspondences occur between the phonemes contained in the words.


past participial

Coordinate term: present participial

(grammar) of, or relating to, the past participle


latching

(linguistics) The situation where one speaker's utterance immediately follows another speaker's utterance, without pause or overlap.


v.i.

(grammar) verb intransitive or intransitive verb (often appears in dual language dictionaries)


auslaut

auslaut (plural auslauts or (rare) auslaute)

auslauts (plural)
auslaute (plural rare)

PIE word
 *úd
Borrowed from German Auslaut, from aus- (prefix meaning ‘out’) + Laut (“sound”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”)).
The plural form auslaute is borrowed from German Auslaute.

Holonyms: rime, syllable

in auslaut ― at the end of a syllable or word

By the final consonant (Auslaut) of words, we generally, and unless the contrary be explicitly stated, mean the last consonant of roots or primary derivatives, and not that of the termination, which the word may have assumed in consequence of derivation or of inflection.

[1830, C. F. Becker [i.e., Karl Ferdinand Becker], “Of Articulate Sounds”, in A Grammar of the German Language, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, part I (Etymology); section I (Formation of Words), page 24:

The Old High German subjunctives like salbôe, salbôês, salbôêmes, are unorganic, since the ê of salbôês, &c. (which is shortened in the auslaut) is a contraction of ai[…], of which the a must belong to the class character.

1845, F[ranz] Bopp, “The Verb”, in [Edward Backhouse] Eastwick, transl., A Comparative Grammar of the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German, and Sclavonic Languages. […], part II, London: Madden and Malcolm, […], →OCLC, paragraph 712, page 950:

[J]ust as in German, we can determine by the vowel-changes in the stem the vowel of the ending, a circumstance of so much the more importance, as will soon appear, because, even in its oldest form, it is much more weakened in the auslauts than, for instance, the Gothic.

1860 January, Hermann Ebel, translated by William K[irby] Sullivan, “Art. III.—Celtic Studies. […] Translated from the German; with an Introduction on the Nature, Formation, and Classification of Stems, with Examples from the Greek, Latin, and Gothic.”, in The Atlantis: Or Register of Literature and Science of the Catholic University of Ireland, volume III, number V, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts; Dublin: John F. Fowler, […], →OCLC, part II (Celtic Studies), section 1 (On Declension in Irish), page 87:

In the inlaut before consonants and in the auslaut the long spirant is shortened to h: auh, bauhnenti, bisnuih, ih, queh, gaquihta etc. and in tehmot 17, 16 of Latin origin.

1890, “Grammatical Treatise”, in George Allison Hench, editor, The Monsee Fragments. […], Strasbourg, France: Karl J. Trübner, →OCLC, page 118:

As a rule, it is less objectionable to throw into relief the anlaut than the auslaut of a foot. A break after the penultimate syllable of the foot has a tendency to render less objectionable a break after the auslaut.

1907 March 23, Leon Josiah Richardson, “The Eleven-syllable Alcaic”, in Horace’s Alcaic Strophe (University of California Publications, Classical Philology; volume 1, number 6), Berkeley, Calif.: University Press, →OCLC, paragraph 6, footnote 4, page 179:

Examples also occur of the elision of the second element of the diphthong iʜ in word auslaut before ’ʜ; […]

1928, John P[eabody] Harrington, “Introduction”, in Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language (Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin; 84), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, § 2 (Vowels and Dipthongs), page 2:

(phonology) Synonym of coda (“the optional final sound of a syllable or word, occurring after its nucleus and usually composed of one or more consonants”).


inductive definition

inductive definition (plural inductive definitions)

recursive definition
recursive definition


dead language

Coordinate term: living language

Supper being over, the lawyer took his leave, and the doctor began to ſound the learned clerk reſpecting his proficiency in the dead languages. "As to dead languages," replied the ſchoolmafter, "I was once a vaſt pretty ſcholar indeed, but want of exercise has made me main ſlack—I can't get over my ground as I uſed to do. Then as to the t'other dead fellow, I could never greek it at all, that's flat. And, Lord bleſs you! my Latin is of no more uſe to me here than—than—" Here he ſtuck for want of a ſimile; when Mr. Le Dupe helped him out by ſaying, "that it is to a young man at college, where it is conſidered a pedantic inſult, and an unpardonable bore, to utter a Latin ſentence."

1799, Edward Dubois, A Piece of Family Biography, volume II, page 20:

A language which no longer has any native speakers.


xenography

(linguistics) The ability to write in a language which the individual has not learned.


passivizer

(linguistics) A term, in some languages, that is used to convert a verb into the passive


noun adjunct

noun adjunct (plural nouns adjunct or noun adjuncts)

nouns adjunct (plural)
noun adjuncts (plural)

Noun adjuncts form the first elements of hundreds of compound nouns in American English (bird house, ball field, name brand, and fieldhouse); […]

1993, Kenneth G. Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, page 300:

(grammar) A noun that modifies another noun (thus functioning adjectivally) and that is optional; it may be a single word or a compound noun or noun phrase.


attributive noun

attributive noun (plural attributive nouns)

noun adjunct

(grammar) Synonym of noun adjunct (“a noun that modifies another noun attributively”)

歸屬名詞

(grammar, when referring to a language other than English) A noun denoting bearer of a quality or an attribute of a subject, in reference to the lexical morpheme from which it is derived.


obviative

(linguistics) A grammatical marker that distinguishes a relatively non-salient referent in a given context from a relatively salient (proximate) one.


obviative

(linguistics) Relating to such a referent or grammatical marker.


futural

en-adj

futural (comparative more futural, superlative most futural)

more futural (comparative)
most futural (superlative)


animacy

en-noun

animacy (usually uncountable, plural animacies)

(linguistics) In some languages, the characteristic of a noun, dependent on its living or sentient nature, which affects grammatical features (it can modify verbs used with the noun, affect the noun's declension, etc.).


behabitive

en-adj

behabitive (comparative more behabitive, superlative most behabitive)

more behabitive (comparative)
most behabitive (superlative)

'God is good' is behabitive and commissive said by someone brought up in the Christian tradition, but may not be said by an animist of his high god.

1969, Robert W. Jenson, The Knowledge of Things Hoped For, page 117:

(pragmatics) Adopting an attitude, by making an utterance.


behabitive

As a behabitive, unsuccessful forgiveness is also connected to sincerity — in this case, a sincere willingness to work on oneself and eliminate resentment.

2001, Peter Digeser, Political Forgiveness, →ISBN, page 30:

(pragmatics) A speech act by which an attitude is adopted.


illocutionary

"I pronounce you man and wife" is a descriptive statement, but also has illocutionary force.

(linguistics) Of, pertaining to, or deriving from illocution, the performance of acts by speaking.

ilokuční

of, pertaining to, or derived from illocution


commissive

commissive (comparative more commissive, superlative most commissive)

more commissive (comparative)
most commissive (superlative)

"I will kill you if you do that" is a commissive statement.

(pragmatics) Making a commitment, such as a promise or threat, by illocutionary means.

kommissiv

making a commitment by illocutionary means


commissive

(pragmatics) A speech act by which a commitment is made, such as a promise or threat.


vṛddhied

(linguistics, of a word stem) In a vṛddhi form.


verdictive

verdictive (comparative more verdictive, superlative most verdictive)

more verdictive (comparative)
most verdictive (superlative)

(pragmatics) Having the illocutionary force of issuing a judgment.


verdictive

Verdictives consist in the delivering of a finding, official or unofficial, upon evidence or reasons as to value or fact […]

1962, J.L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words, Oxford University Press, published 1965, page 152:

(pragmatics) A speech act whereby a judgment is issued.


anudātta

From Sanskrit अनुदात्त (an-udātta, “not raised, not elevated”).

bor

Low-pitch accent (grave), which precedes the acute udātta, in Vedic Sanskrit.


pitch accent

(phonology) Any of a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words.

音声高さアクセント

onjō takasa akusento, onsei takasa akusento


dvandva

Borrowed from Sanskrit द्वंद्व (dvaṃdvá).

Tatpuruṣa and dvandva compounds regularly have a single gender, that of the final constituent, although a subgroup of dvandvas has the gender of the first constituent.

2003, Dhanesh Jain, George Cardona, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, page 153:

(linguistics, lexicography) A copulative or coordinative type of compound in which members, if not compounded, would be in the same case and connected by the conjunction and. Common in languages such as Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese, but less so in English.


trigram

From tri- + -gram, literally “three marks”.

(linguistics) An n-gram consisting of three items from a sequence.


SAE

Standard Average European
w:Standard Average European

(linguistics) Initialism of Standard Average European.

Coordinate term: AmE

American English
American English#English

(linguistics) Initialism of Standard American English.


Eskimo-Aleut

(linguistics) A language family native to Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, Alaska, and parts of Siberia.


Stammbaum

(linguistics) A tree of genetically related languages or dialects formed by grouping them according to their most recent common ancestor.


BNC

British National Corpus
w:British National Corpus

(linguistics) Initialism of British National Corpus.


synartetic

en-adj

synartetic (comparative more synartetic, superlative most synartetic)

more synartetic (comparative)
most synartetic (superlative)

(prosody) Having a continuous metre not separated by diaeresis.


speech act

(linguistics) An act carried out by speech, such as promising, ordering, greeting, warning, inviting and congratulating.


desinence

Borrowed from French désinence, from Latin dēsinentia, present participle of dēsinō (“I stop, end, close, make an end”).

(linguistics) A suffix used as an inflection; an ending; inflectional suffix.


compound imperative

en-noun

compound imperative (plural compound imperatives)

e.g. speak now or forever hold your peace

(grammar) Two or more imperative clauses joined in a single sentence

e.g. (in Italian) portiamoglieli - let's take them to him

(grammar, in some languages) A word constructed from the imperative of a verb plus one or more pronouns


futurate

The verbs in sentences like "School starts next month", "I'm meeting him at 6:00 tomorrow", and "I thought the party was next week" are futurate uses.

(grammar) The use of a non-future-tense verb to express future time. In English, typically this refers to present-tense verbs.


adjectival noun

adjectival noun (plural adjectival nouns)

(linguistics) A noun that functions as an adjective

part of speech that shares features with nouns and adjectives


adverbial number

adverbial number (plural adverbial numbers)

"Twice" is an adverbial number, while "two" is a cardinal number.

(grammar) A word that expresses a countable number of times; an adverbial numeral.


nasalized

(phonetics) Articulated with air flowing through the nose and mouth simultaneously, for example the nasalized vowels of French [ɑ̃], [ɛ̃], [œ̃], [ɔ̃].


limitative

en-adj

limitative (comparative more limitative, superlative most limitative)

more limitative (comparative)
most limitative (superlative)

(grammar) Being or relating to a grammatical case that specifies a deadline, a time by which something must take place.


distributive number

en-noun

distributive number (plural distributive numbers)

"Singly" is a distributive number, while "single" is a multiplier.

(grammar) A word that answers "how many times each?" or "how many at a time?"


vowellessness

...the devanagari is an alphabet, with the peculiarity that it omits writing one of the vowels, the commonest one, and has a symbol for vowellessness...

1972, George Leonard Trager., Language and Languages, page 211:

The other vowels are shown by appendages to the letters, and vowellessness is indicated by ligatures of the consonants involved in the cluster...

1992, Pamela Downing, Susan D. Lima, Michael Noonan., The Linguistics of Literacy: 17th Annual Linguistics Symposium : Papers, page 92:

...sound is confined in their point of articulation, upon their vowellessness.

2001, Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī Ibn Masʻūd, Joyce Åkesson, Arabic Morphology and Phonology, page 224:

(linguistics) The state of being without vowels, condition of being vowelless.


content word

(linguistics, lexicography) A word that is not a function word, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs.


semantic analysis

semantic analysis (plural semantic analyses)

(linguistics) The process of relating syntactic structures, from the levels of phrases, clauses, sentences and paragraphs to the level of the writing as a whole, to their language-independent meanings, removing features specific to particular linguistic and cultural contexts, to the extent that such a project is possible.


function word

Durrant (2009), for example, developed a list of 1000 academic two-word bigrams, of which 763 were lexical words combined with function words.

2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Position vectors, homologous chromosomes and gamma rays: Promoting disciplinary literacy through Secondary Phrase Lists”, in English for Specific Purposes, →DOI, page 2:

(linguistics) A word that has little meaning when standing alone, but instead serves to express grammatical relationships with other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker, including conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, certain frequent adverbs.


countify

en-verb

countify (third-person singular simple present countifies, present participle countifying, simple past and past participle countified)

countifies (present singular third-person)
countifying (participle present)
countified (participle past)
countified (past)

We can, for instance, “countify” mass nouns which come to be associated with a standard counter or container. […] Also in distinguishing some particular kind or type of the mass noun substance (by a limiting modifier of some kind), it is possible to readily countify: […]

1965, Robert P. Stockwell, Jean Donald Bowen, and John Watson Martin, The Grammatical Structures of English and Spanish, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 81:

Any stuff for which there are standard portions used for whatever purposes will immediately become countified: three beers, an ice cream, an entertainment, etc.

1989, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Lenhart K. Schubert, “Mass Expressions”, in Dov M. Gabbay, F. Guenthner, editors, Handbook of Philosophical Logic, Second Edition, volume 10, Springer, published 2003, →ISBN:

1992, James F. Allen and Lenhart K. Schubert, “Language and Discourse in the TRAINS Project”, in Andrew Ortony, John Slack, and Oliviero Stock (editors), Communication From an Artificial Intelligence Perspective: Theoretical and Applied Issues, NATO ASI Series F: Computer and Systems Sciences, Volume 100, Springer, →ISBN, page 104,
Under deviant vocabulary we include “verbing” of nouns (He tricycled away), and perhaps “massifying” of count nouns and “countifying” of mass nouns. (Note that the preceding sentence itself contains instances of deviant vocabulary in scare quotes.) “Massifying” and “countifying” are illustrated respectively by A year ago they started digging the hole for his house; A year later, there's still more hole than house; and How many orange juice will that give us?.

(transitive, linguistics, rare) To use as a count noun.


massify

massify (third-person singular simple present massifies, present participle massifying, simple past and past participle massified)

massifies (present singular third-person)
massifying (participle present)
massified (participle past)
massified (past)

(transitive, linguistics, rare) To use as a mass noun.


bag of words

You can then use the bag of words to train classifiers, a special kind of algorithm used to break words down into categories.

2023, John Paul Mueller, Luca Massaron, Python for Data Science For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 132:

computational linguistics
computational linguistics

(computational linguistics) The collection of words from an unprocessed text without regard to grammar; a collection of word unigrams.


statistical semantics

(computational linguistics) The study of estimation of the meanings of words by looking at patterns of words in huge collections of texts, using statistical methods.


lexical unit

(semantics) A pairing of a word or phrase with one of its meanings.


lexical item

For quotations using this term, see Citations:lexical item.

He also realized that by comparing different types of text you may be able to spot "a different density ( repetition rate ) of lexical items, and different degrees of cohesion, in the short story and in the novel.

1993, Roman Kopytko, Polite Discourse in Shakespeare's English, page 396:

It is not surprising that this is a very common structure in language, because it allows the flexibility that was identified earlier in this paper as essential for an adequate lexical item.

1998, Edda Weigand, Contrastive Lexical Semantics, page 22:

The meaning of lexical items may be described in terms of combinations of semantic features.

2007, Kristel Proost ·, Conceptual Structure in Lexical Items, page 114:

Thus there are 3751 lexical items covered in total. Taking into account polysemy, there are 4315 separate senses.

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 490:

(semantics) A term (that is, a word or sequence of words) that acts as a unit of meaning, including words, phrases, phrasal verbs and proverbs; exemplified by cat, traffic light, take care of, by-the-way, and don't count your chickens before they hatch.


tenuis

Unadapted borrowing from Latin tenuis (“thin, fine; weak”). Doublet of thin.

ubor

(linguistics) Of Greek consonants, neither aspirated nor voiced, as [p], [t], [k]

The superscript equal sign ˭ is here used to denote the Czech tenuis consonant, in this case the plosive [t˭], which lacks aspiration, in order to contrast it with its aspirated counterpart in English [tʰ].

2016, Malá & Šaffková, editor, ELT Revisited, page 11:

(linguistics) Of obstruents in other languages, not voiced, aspirated, glottalized, or otherwise different in phonation from the prototypical values of the voiceless IPA letters ([p], [t], [k], [f], [θ], [s], [ʃ], etc.).


tenuis

The tenuis becomes aspirate in Low-German.

1887, Max Müller, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

Since the explosive was a tenuis before a consonant we have -p m- and -t n-; these combinations were mutated to mh and nh in the following examples, the voicelessness of the tenuis being retained after its assimilation

1913, John Morris-Jones, A Welsh grammar, page 184:


anagrammatic

en-adj

anagrammatic (comparative more anagrammatic, superlative most anagrammatic)

more anagrammatic (comparative)
most anagrammatic (superlative)

From Latin anagrammaticus, equivalent to anagram + -atic.

Who Was That Masked Woman? is about the life of Tretona Getroek, Noretta Koertge [the author]'s anagrammatic alter ego.

1981 December 27, Amy Hoffman, “The "Positive Lesbian Novel" Rides Again”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 23, page 9:


idioglottic

/ˌɪdiəˈɡlɑtɪk/

(linguistics) Of or pertaining to idioglossia.


idioglossia

en-noun

idioglossia (countable and uncountable, plural idioglossias)

/ˌɪdiəˈɡlɑsiə/

(linguistics) An invented form of dialect, language, or speech used by children, typically twins, and intelligible only to its speakers.

cryptophasia

invented form of language used by children


gradable

/ˈɡɹeɪdəbəl/

Hot and cold are gradable antonyms.

2007, James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley, Michael B. Smith, Semantics: A Coursebook:

(linguistics, of a word or phrase) Able to occur in varying degrees; able to be inflected or modified to express degrees of meaning.


gradable

/ˈɡɹeɪdəbəl/

(linguistics) A word that can be inflected to specify the degree or grade of something.


scazon

From Latin scāzon, from Ancient Greek σκάζων (skázōn), from σκάζω (skázō, “I limp”).

A iambic trimeter ending with a trochee or spondee, a limping iamb.


homonymy

homonymy (countable and uncountable, plural homonymies)

(semantics) The property of being a homonym.


pasigraphy

(linguistics) A writing system where concepts are written instead of words. The system is not phonetic and uses ideograms, such as mathematical symbols. It is intended to be universally understood.


anacreontic

en-adj

anacreontic (comparative more anacreontic, superlative most anacreontic)

more anacreontic (comparative)
most anacreontic (superlative)

From Late Latin Anacreonticus, from Ancient Greek Ἀνακρέων (Anakréōn), Anacreon a Greek poet.

(prosody) Pertaining to the style of the Greek poet Anacreon, who wrote of wine and love; (specifically) designating a metre based on an anaclastic ionic dimeter.


syntaxis

en-noun

syntaxis (countable and uncountable, plural syntaxes)

From the Late Latin syntaxis, from the Ancient Greek σύνταξις (súntaxis). Doublet of syntax.


(lexicography) Used to mark a vowel letter as having its 'long' sound: ⟨ā⟩ /eɪ/, ⟨ē⟩ /iː/, ⟨ī⟩ /aɪ/, ⟨ō⟩ /oʊ/, ⟨ū⟩ /juː/.


menology

Partially from meno- (“month-”) + -ology (“study, account”) and partially from anglicization of Medieval Latin mēnologium and Byzantine Greek μηνολόγιον (mēnológion), q.v. Doublet of menologion, menologium, and menologe.

doublet

In the Mart. of Donegal, this is the day of St. Comgall (Comhgall), placed in the Menology on the 27th June, as having no day.

1892, Richard Stanton, A Menology of England and Wales..., p. 645

The menology of the tenth century has the formula ...

1935, Stephen Langdon, Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, page 86:

The duration of the rites of mourning over nine days is... supported by references in a Standard Babylonian menology...

2003, Andrew R. George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic..., p. 53

The Menology of St Symeon mostly repeats earlier accounts but includes some small additions as well.

(often capitalized) Synonym of menologium, a monthly record, particularly in Assyriology and certain Christian contexts.


GG

generative grammar
generative grammar#English

(linguistics) Initialism of generative grammar.


plural noun

(grammar) The plural form of a common noun

(grammar) A noun that inherently refers to multiple items


xenophone

(phonetics) A sound in speech that is not native to the language being spoken; a sound from a foreign language.

vieras äänne

A sound in speech that is not native to a language


duoplural

(grammar) Pertaining to grammatical number (as in singular and plural), referring to two or more of something; nonsingular.


duoplural

Languages that employ the duoplural include Navajo and Taos, where the verb shows singular, dual, and plural numbers, but the nouns are marked only as singular or nonsingular (duoplural).

(linguistics, grammar) Duoplural number; the grammatical number of a noun marking two or more of something.


reduplicant

The second bar in the Ancient Greek word barbaros is a reduplicant.

(linguistic morphology) The reduplicated segment in a word resulting from a reduplication process.


multigraph

(linguistics) A specific sequence of letters treated as a (phonemic) unit.


specifier

(linguistics) A component of a phrase that is non-recursive and not found as a sister of the head of the phrase, but rather as a daughter of the maximal projection of the phrase.


enregister

en-verb

enregister (third-person singular simple present enregisters, present participle enregistering, simple past and past participle enregistered)

enregisters (present singular third-person)
enregistering (participle present)
enregistered (participle past)
enregistered (past)

Thus, by systematically labelling Singlish as 'broken English', official discourses enregister Singlish as a low-proficiency version of English and a hindrance to the nation's path toward globalisation.

2022 January 13, Tong King Lee, “Spiaking Singlish: The politics of ludic English in Singapore”, in Language in Society, volume 52, number 2, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 249:

(linguistics, sociology) To become a register ("a style of a language used in a particular context").


XP

X is a variable which can stand for letters representing parts of speech such as: N (noun), V (verb), P (preposition), etc.

(grammar, X-bar theory) Initialism of X Phrase. (a phrase which consists of either: (1) an optional specifier and an X-bar phrase, or (2) a conjunction sandwiched between two other XPs. The X is a "pro-letter" which can be substituted by letters such as N for noun, V for verb, P for preposition, I for inflectional, etc.)


hyponymy

en-noun

hyponymy (countable and uncountable, plural hyponymies)

By isolating these two main types of relation, hyponymy and incompatibility, we can characterize the relations between a large web of items.

1977, Ruth Kempson, Semantic Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 86:

(semantics) The semantic relation between hyponyms; the quality of being hyponymous.


hypernymy

hypernymy (countable and uncountable, plural hypernymies)

(semantics) The semantic relation between hypernyms; the quality of being hypernymous.


object complement

object complement (plural object complements)

In the sentence "Venezuela declared herself independent of Spain first", 'herself' is the object and 'independent of Spain' is the complement.

(grammar) A complement which is coupled to an object.


subject complement

subject complement (plural subject complements)

In the sentence "That is a flying car!", 'that' is the subject and 'flying car' is the subject complement.

In the sentence "That house seems haunted!", 'that house' is the subject and 'haunted' is the subject complement (in this case an adjective).

(grammar) A complement which is coupled to a subject.


fandub

A foreign language film or television show that has been dubbed into the local language by fans, amateurs or enthusiasts rather than by professional actors and actresses.


coordinate term

coordinate term (plural coordinate terms)

The words oak, maple, spruce, and linden are coordinate terms beneath the hypernym of tree.

The terms HDA, LAMP, MDA, NASBA, RPA, SDA, and TMA are coordinate terms beneath the hypernymic term isothermal nucleic acid amplification test.

(semantics) A term (word or noun phrase) that shares a hypernym (or hypernymic noun phrase) with another: that is, one that names another type (kind) within the same class.

cohipònim

a term which shares a hypernym with another

Wiktionary:Semantic relations § Coordinate term


autonym

(taxonomy) An infraspecific name in which the specific epithet is repeated.

Deutsche is the autonym of the people known in English as Germans.

(linguistics, anthropology) A name used by a group or category of people to refer to themselves or their language, as opposed to a name given to them by other groups.

As a general principle, the heading of the main entry of the book should be in the form in which the book itself is published; that is, if it is published under an autonym let the autonym be given, if under a pseudonym, then let the pseudonym be given, and if the book be anonymous, then let the fact be stated.

1900, Mr. Barnwell, “Cataloging Roundtable”, in Library Journal, page 157:

The true name of a person or other entity, especially an author.

A work published under the author's true name.


tonogenesis

From tono- + -genesis; coined by American linguist James Matisoff in 1970 in his paper Glottal dissimilation and the Lahu high-rising tone: A tonogenetic case-study.

coinage

(linguistics) A process in which a language develops tones.


treebank

If one wants to use a treebank for linguistic investigation, […]

2003, Diana Santos, “Timber! Issues in treebank building and use” in Computational Processing of the Portuguese Language, eds. Nuno J. Mamede, Jorge Baptista, Isabel Trancoso, Maria das Gracas Volpe Nunes, p. 152

(linguistics, computational linguistics) A database of sentences which are annotated with syntactic information, often in the form of a tree.


treebank

en-verb

treebank (third-person singular simple present treebanks, present participle treebanking, simple past and past participle treebanked)

treebanks (present singular third-person)
treebanking (participle present)
treebanked (participle past)
treebanked (past)

(linguistics, computational linguistics) To parse and annotate sentences according to a treebank.


nominatum

However, it is certain that whoever seriously regards the sentence either as true or false also attributes to the name “Odysseus” a nominatum, not only a sense; […]

1987, Anna Whiteside, Michael Issacharoff, On Referring in Literature, page 71:

(semantics) Something that is named; the referent of a name or noun.


holonymy

From holo- + -onymy (compare Ancient Greek ὅλος (hólos, “whole”), ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”)).

The relation between the terms ‘foot’ and ‘heel’ is that of holonymy, since one of the parts of a foot is a heel.

(semantics) A semantic relation that exists between a term denoting a whole (the holonym) and a term denoting a part that pertains to the whole (the meronym).

(semantics) The quality or nature of being the whole in a holonymous relation.


sentence element

en-noun

sentence element (plural sentence elements)

(grammar) In certain approaches to grammar, a part of the sentence, classified as one of subject, predicate, object, predicative and adverbial.


nomen agentis

nomen agentis (plural nomina agentis or nomina agentium)

nomina agentis (plural)
nomina agentium (plural)

Learned borrowing from Latin nōmen agentis.


capitonym

Polish and polish are capitonyms.

(linguistics) A word that changes meaning when the case is changed; a case-sensitive word.


rhymeless

"Orange" is widely considered to be a rhymeless word.

(linguistics) Not rhymable; having no perfect rhymes.


conjunctive adverb

en-noun

conjunctive adverb (plural conjunctive adverbs)

A conjunction links two clauses in one sentence, whereas a conjunctive adverb links ideas in different sentences.

(grammar) An adverb that connects two clauses; linking adverb.


rememberer

(sociolinguistics) One who remembers several words and phrases from a moribund language, but never became fluent in it.


lenite

en-verb

lenite (third-person singular simple present lenites, present participle leniting, simple past and past participle lenited)

lenites (present singular third-person)
leniting (participle present)
lenited (participle past)
lenited (past)

This environment lenites "m" to "mh".

(phonetics, phonology, transitive) To cause (a consonant) to undergo lenition.

"M" lenites to "mh".

(phonetics, phonology, intransitive) To undergo lenition.


logological

/ˌlɒɡ.əʊˈlɒd͡ʒ.ɪk.əl/

When the "particular-experiential structures" (infralogical structures) are encoded and organized into kinds (or classes, relations, or propositions), logological structures are said to be in place.

2007, Rafael Art Javier, The Bilingual Mind: Thinking, feeling and speaking in two languages, page 26:

(linguistics) Of or pertaining to conceptual patterns or mental categories of words and their referents.

sanaopillinen

linguistics: of or pertaining to conceptual patterns or mental categories of words


svarabhakti

en-noun

svarabhakti (usually uncountable, plural svarabhaktis)

Borrowed from Sanskrit स्वरभक्ति (svára-bhakti, “vowel separation”), a compound of स्वर (svára, “vowel”) + भक्ति (bhaktí, “separation”).

bor+

Svarabhakti is a common feature of northern Indian languages such as Hindi and Bengali.

(linguistics, phonology) Epenthesis of a vowel, as in the football chant Engerland for England; anaptyxis.


vocant

Coined by British physician John Antony Michael Martin in 1981 (see quotation).

coined

Coordinate term: closant

At an earlier stage still, during the first few months of life, the vowel-like and consonant-like sounds are usually so far removed from normal speech that even this convention is misleading. We will label these sounds vocants and closants and their transcription will be enclosed within double square brackets e.g. bə.

[1981, J[ohn] A[ntony] M[ichael] Martin, “Vocal Behaviour and the Origins of Speech” (chapter 4), in Voice, Speech, and Language in the Child: Development and Disorder (Disorders of Human Communication; 4), Wien [Vienna]: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 56–57:

It is extremely difficult to identify the different vocants, partly because they are probably being produced in ways which differ from an adult speaker.

2012, J. A. M. Martin, Voice, Speech, and Language in the Child, Springer, page 70:

Gradually, infants' repertoire of vocalizations incorporates speech-related features such as vowel-like sounds (vocants) and consonant-like sounds (closants); vocants and closants are then combined into syllable-like units called marginal syllables.

2020, Eugenia Costa-Giomi, Lucia Benetti, “14: Home Musical Environment and Singing Development in Infancy”, in Frank A. Russo, Beatriz Ilari, Annabel J. Cohen, editors, The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume I, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), unnumbered page:

In the first year of life, the most frequent vocalizations are low front, low back, and central vowel-like vocants. Though not true vowels, these vocants resemble /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ə/, and /ʌ/.

2022, Margaret Fish, Amy Skinder-Meredith, Here's How to Treat Childhood Apraxia of Speech, 3rd edition, page 207:

(linguistics, phonology) A vowel-like sound such as uttered by a preverbal infant.


TMA

a TMA system is the kind of thing that explains English “would”, “could”, “-ed”, “-ing”, “-s”, “have”, “been”, etc.

c. 2003, David J. Peterson, The Kelenala TMA System:

(linguistics) Initialism of tense, mood, and aspect.


descriptivist

(linguistics) Someone who records and describes actual rules regarding language usage, or who believes that linguistic norms should be defined by usage rather than theory.


NPI

(linguistics) Initialism of negative polarity item: a word that requires the sentence to be negated.


interlingual

Why is translation suitable as a subject-matter of academic study, or to raise this question in a somewhat different and perhaps more challenging form: What distinguishes everyday, intralingual communication from interlingual, "exceptional" communication?

2004, Wolfram Wilss, edited by Kirsten Malmkjær, Translation in Undergraduate Degree Programmes, John Benjamins Publishing Co, page 9:

(linguistics, translation studies) Spanning multiple languages; having a multilingual flair or quality.


SFP

(linguistics) Initialism of sentence-final particle.


postbase

(linguistics) A morpheme used as a suffix following either a base or another postbase.


protoform

(linguistics) A hypothetical form of a word, reconstructed from derived words.


implicatum

Introduced by Paul Grice in 1975, from Latin.


phonetic symbolism

(linguistics) The viewpoint that sounds themselves have meaning.


prosodification

(linguistics) The imposition of prosodic structure (e.g. syllables, feet, stress, etc.) onto string of segments (i.e. sounds such as consonants and vowels)


underlying form

en-noun

underlying form (plural underlying forms)

(phonology) A property of a morpheme: the abstract form that the morpheme is postulated to have before any phonological rules have applied to it.


troponymy

(semantics) The semantic relation between troponyms


macrofamily

(linguistics) A grouping of two or more language families that share some relationship


chômeur

Borrowed from French chômeur. Coined by Colette Grinevald.

(linguistics, Relational Grammar) An actant that has been 'demoted' to a less salient syntactic position, such as the agent of a passive clause.


conceptual metaphor

conceptual metaphor (plural conceptual metaphors)

(linguistics) The understanding of one idea or conceptual domain in terms of another.

käsitteellinen metafora

linguistics: understanding an idea in terms of another


logology

logology (countable and uncountable, plural logologies)

From logo- + -ology. In the sense “recreational linguistics” popularized by Dmitri Borgmann in Language on Vacation (1965).

(linguistics) The field of recreational linguistics.


hyperthetical

(linguistics) Exhibiting hyperthesis, long-distance metathesis


entering tone

(Chinese phonetics) A short, sharp tone found with syllables that end in plosives (usually /-p -t -k -ʔ/).


context-sensitive

(grammar) Involving transformations that are affected by more of the sentence than merely the section under scrutiny.

kontekstiherkkä

involving transformations that are affected by more of the sentence than merely the section under scrutiny

We introduce two new techniques for proving termination of context-sensitive rewriting.

context-sensitive grammar
context-sensitive grammar

(grammar) Relating to a context-sensitive grammar.


perfectiveness

(grammar) The state or quality of being perfective


imperfectiveness

(grammar) The state or quality of being imperfective


concessive

(grammar) A phrase or clause that acts as a concession, such as "even if" or "although".


imperatival

en-adj

imperatival (comparative more imperatival, superlative most imperatival)

more imperatival (comparative)
most imperatival (superlative)

(grammar) Of or pertaining to the imperative mood.


sdrucciola

Borrowed from Italian sdrucciola (feminine form of sdrucciolo (“slippery; stressed on the antepenult”)).

Note that ending that couplet’s lines with the words ‘reparate’ and ‘separate’ would create a rhyme sdrucciola, if that helps.

(rare, prosody, of a rhyme) Formed of words stressed on their antepenults and rhyming on all three final syllables.


endophora

From endo- + Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō, “to carry”).

pre

(linguistics, rhetoric) An expression that refers to something in the same text.


whimperative

Blend of whimper + imperative. Coined by Jerrold Sadock in a 1970 essay.

Since whimperatives look like questions, the lowest hypersentence must be interrogative.

1970, Jerrold Sadock, “Whimperatives”, in Studies Presented to Robert B. Lees by His Students, page 235:

We see this in the way that whimperatives use pro forma openings like Can you rather than other wordings with the same meaning, such as Are you capable of passing the salt?

2007, Stephen Pinker, The Stuff of Thought, →ISBN, page 388:

(pragmatics) An order or imperative phrased obliquely as a question, such as "would you mind closing the window?"


damma

Borrowed from Arabic ضَمَّة (ḍamma, “a joining”), instance noun of the verb ضَمَّ (ḍamma, “to join”). Refers to the joining of the lips together when making an /u/ sound.

(linguistics) In the Arabic script, the vowel point for u, appearing as a small curl placed above a letter ( ـُ ) and designating a short u /u/. If the Arabic letter و (wāw) immediately follows, it indicates a long ū /uː/.

ضَمَّة

an Arabic diacritic denoting the vowel point "u" (ḍamma)


contrast set

The notion of a contrast set is made explicit in recent work in formal semantics (Krifka 1991; Rooth 1985).

1996, Toshio Inui, James L. McClelland, Attention and Performance XVI:

(linguistics) A set of concepts whose names are coordinate terms.


enregistered

en-adj

enregistered (comparative more enregistered, superlative most enregistered)

more enregistered (comparative)
most enregistered (superlative)

The analysis of communicative practice is thus dedicated to socially enregistered spellings in action and shows which local indexicality governs the communicative context of a written utterance.

2022 January 7, Florian Busch, “Enregistered spellings in interaction”, in Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, volume 40, number 3, De Gruyter, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 307:

(linguistics, sociology) That which has been made into a register ("a style of a language used in a particular context").


absolutive

(grammar) Of or pertaining to the grammatical case used to indicate the patient or experiencer of a verb’s action.


absolutive

(grammar) The absolutive case, or a phrase that uses it.

(grammar) An uninflected verb form used to indicate another action performed by the subject of the principal verb.


substantive adjective

en-noun

substantive adjective (plural substantive adjectives)

(grammar) An adjective used alone in the absence of the noun that it modifies.


postdating

The new edition of the dictionary contains several postdatings.

Indeed, for 10 of these terms, the latest known record was their inclusion in Hobson-Jobson, and without any published postdatings this may have suggested that those terms were obsolescent at the end of the nineteenth century.

2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 256:

(lexicography) A later citation of a lexical item.


athetize

en-verb

athetize (third-person singular simple present athetizes, present participle athetizing, simple past and past participle athetized)

athetizes (present singular third-person)
athetizing (participle present)
athetized (participle past)
athetized (past)

From Ancient Greek ἄθετος (áthetos, “removed”), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”).

uder

But this is a doubtful compliment to a ship ; the alternative "a first-rate sailor," suits the context better, and so here, "or first-rate build," primarie compacti (Döderl[ein]), avoids the awkward tautology with νεοτευχέες which made Zenod[otos] athetize the line.

1886, Walter Leaf, The Iliad: Edited with English Notes and Introduction, volume 1, London: Macmillan and Co., translation of Ἰλιάς by Homer, page 157, column 2:

All of this, of course, flies in the face of μιχτὴν ϱ̔αψῳδίαων. But that phrase is suspicious in its own right. It was bracketed long ago by Tyrwhitt, and the Arabic version translates it strangely if at all. […] In short, there is every reason to athetize μιχτὴν ραψῳδίαων as a note of late origin which has gotten into the text.

1957, Gerald F. Else, chapter 1, in Aristotle's Poetics: The Argument, Leiden: E. J. Brill, →LCCN, pages 58–59:

(linguistics, transitive) To reject a passage of text as spurious.


metanalysis

en-noun

metanalysis (countable and uncountable, plural metanalyses)

From meta- + analysis. In the linguistic sense coined by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen.

coin

Coordinate term: reanalysis

(linguistics) The act of breaking down a word or phrase into segments or meanings not original to it; breaking down the original boundaries between morphemes, words, or other units.


articulatory

One child who had burned his tongue started immediately to lall and continued in this articulatory disorder long after the tongue had healed.

1963, Charles Van Riper, Speech Correction: Principles and Methods, page 200:

(phonology) Of or pertaining to articulation; phonetic.

artikulatorinen

of or pertaining to articulation; phonological


suffixive

The genius, in the French sense, of creole is its tendency to form phrases with a minimum of connectives, often through the use of suffixive combinations […]

2000, George Lang, Entwisted Tongues: Comparative Creole Literatures, →ISBN, page 216:

(linguistics, dated) Forming words through the addition of a suffix or suffixes


indexical

en-adj

indexical (comparative more indexical, superlative most indexical)

more indexical (comparative)
most indexical (superlative)

In order that they might represent the worlds of experience and imagination, such symbols have to be put together with ‘indexical’ signs, as Peirce termed them, such as articles (the, some), demonstratives (this, those), tense-inflections (walk-s, walk-ed), moods (may/might walk, shall/should walk) etc.

2012, Michael Silverstein, “The [] walked down the street”, in London Review of Books, volume 34, number 21:

(linguistics, philosophy) Having or imparting a meaning, or signifying a referent, that changes according to context.


indexical

So even with indexicals, there is a Sinn for every meaning.

2007 August 15, Wayne A. Davis, “Replies to Green, Szabó, Jeshion, and Siebel”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 137, number 3, →DOI:

(linguistics, philosophy) An indexical term.


derivational

derivational (comparative more derivational, superlative most derivational)

more derivational (comparative)
most derivational (superlative)

(grammar) Of or pertaining to derivation; relating to that which is derived.


confix

As is demonstrated by m-as-ku, tens are derived from the confix m- ... -hu.

2005, Elizabeth Zeitoun, “Tsou”, in The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar, page 265:

(linguistics) An affix consisting of a prefix and suffix attached simultaneously to the root.

22. A PREFIX: a confix which precedes a root.

1982, Igor Aleksandrovič Melʹčuk, Philip Luelsdorff, Towards a Language of Linguistics, page 84:

(linguistics, rare) An affix which is not divided, and which does not divide a root: thus, a prefix, suffix, or interfix.


semi-voiced

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-semi-voiced.wav

(phonetics) Of consonants, formed by making a voiced consonant, but with the vocal folds closed.


infinitive of purpose

en-noun

infinitive of purpose (plural infinitives of purpose)

"I bought a pen and some paper to write a note" is an example of an infinitive of purpose.

(grammar) The use of the "to" infinitive form of a verb in answer to the implied question "why?".


Linear A

Named by British archaeologist Arthur Evans, to distinguish it from the other linear script, Linear B.

(archaeology, linguistics) A syllabary used to write the as-yet-undeciphered Minoan language, and an apparent predecessor to other scripts, such as Linear B.


Linear B

Named by British archaeologist Arthur Evans, to distinguish it from the other linear script, Linear A.

(archaeology, linguistics) A syllabary used to write Mycenaean Greek in the second millennium BC, before the invention of the Greek alphabet.


hirrient

(phonology) Having a strongly trilled sound, like that of a cat purring.


ditransitivity

(grammar) The state or quality of being ditransitive


monotransitivity

(grammar) The state or quality of being monotransitive


intransitivity

(grammar) The state or quality of being intransitive


aspectual

Perfective have and progressive be are together known as Aspectual Auxiliaries, since they mark Aspect (viz. whether an action is in progress or has been completed).

1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 152:

(grammar) Of or pertaining to grammatical aspect.


morphosyntax

morphosyntax (countable and uncountable, plural morphosyntaxes)

(linguistics) Morphology and syntax regarded as an interlinked unit.


Syriasm

The Scripture Greek is observed to be full of Syriasms and Hebraisms.

1762, William Warburton, The Doctrine of Grace:

(Semitic linguistics, obsolete) A result of Syriac influence.


futurize

en-verb

futurize (third-person singular simple present futurizes, present participle futurizing, simple past and past participle futurized)

futurizes (present singular third-person)
futurizing (participle present)
futurized (participle past)
futurized (past)

(transitive, grammar) To bring into the future tense.


binary noun

(grammar) A type of plural-only noun denoting an object which consists of two parts joined together, e.g., scissors, pants, eyeglasses.


non-native speaker

en-noun

non-native speaker (plural non-native speakers)

From non-native + speaker or non- + native speaker.

Although double modality is outside the scope of Standard English and is not addressed in the school syllabus, it is a widespread phenomenon which non-native speakers of English might find confusing and should at least be aware of.

2019, Irina S. Lebedeva, Svetlana N. Orlova, “Semantics and pragmatics of the double modal ‘might could’”, in Training, Language and Culture, volume 3, number 2, →DOI:

(linguistics) Someone who has another native tongue than the language being used.

nie-moedertaalspreker

someone who has another native tongue than the language being used


refractory rhyme

refractory rhyme (plural refractory rhymes)

(linguistics) A word with no rhyme, a rhymeless word.


goropism

goropism (usually uncountable, plural goropisms)

/ɡəˈɹəʊpɪzm̩/

Adam and Eve
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Johannes Goropius Becanus
New Essays on Human Understanding

From Goropius + -ism (suffix forming names of schools of thought, systems, or theories), possibly influenced by French goropiser (“to goropize”), coined by the German philosopher and scientist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) in his work Nouveaux essais sur l’entendement humain (New Essays on Human Understanding, written 1704, published 1765).
Goropius was the name of the Dutch physician and linguist Johannes Goropius Becanus (1519–1573) who hypothesized that the oldest language on earth would be the simplest language, and since Brabantic (a Dutch dialect) had more short words than Greek, Hebrew, or Latin, it was the language spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden from which all other languages derived. The name is from Dutch Gorp (“hamlet in Hilvarenbeek, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands”) (Goropius’ birthplace) + Latin -ius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, and used to Latinize surnames).

nb...

Tirées de ses manuscrits qui se conservent dans la Bibliotheque Royale a Hanovre, et publiées par Mr. Rud􂀿olf􂁀 Eric Raspe. Avec une Préface de Mr. Kaestner 􂀿i.e., Abraham Gotthelf Kästner􂁀 Professeur en Mathématiques à Göttingue.

Taken from His Manuscripts which are Preserved in the Royal Library in Hanover, and Published by Mr. Rud􂀿olf􂁀 Eric Raspe. With a Preface by Mr. Kaestner 􂀿i.e., Abraham Gotthelf Kästner􂁀, Professor of Mathematics in Göttingen.

der

In Book III of G[ottfried] W[ilhelm] Leibniz's New Essays on Human Understanding […] there is a statement on the subject of the so-called goropism, which provided the basis for the principle that is referred to by some scientists and scholars as the Leibniz-Einstein's principle (or postulate)[…]. Leibniz uses the term "goropism" to refer to the procedure of correlating a false theory with any feasible experiment by means of reacting to empirical results which contradict the theory with the continual introduction of newer and newer assumptions[…].

1994, Jan Such, “The Leibniz-Einstein Principle of the Minimization of Premises”, in Leibniz und Europe: VI Internationaler Leibniz-Kongres: Vorträge 1. Teil, Hannover, Lower Saxony, page 765; republished in Multiformity of Science (Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities; 79), Leiden, South Holland: Brill Publishers, 2003, →ISBN, part II (The Nature of Scientific Cognition), paragraph 1, page 119:

[B]ased upon a helio-centric view of the origin of civilization and human languages, the theory claimed that the Turkish language was the language which all civilized languages derived from. Thanks to goropism, some remarkable results were obtained: the word for school is derived from Turkish okul (school). God is from Turkish kut (luck). Bulletin is from belleten^([sic – meaning belletmek]) (to learn by hearth^([sic – meaning heart])). Electric is from Uyghur yaltrik (shine).

2010 December, Savasan Yurtsever, chapter 1919, in Psalms Code II: The Secret of the Lord: Almanac of Mankind: The Jesus Cycle, [Scotts Valley, Calif.]: [CreateSpace], →ISBN, page 341, column 2:

A hypothesis, similar to the one originally propounded by Goropius which is now discredited, that some attested or modern language such as Dutch, Hebrew, or Turkish was the original language of human beings.

discredited hypothesis propounded by Goropius that some attested or modern language was the original language of human beings

Goropiuksen teoria alkuperäisestä kielestä


free variation

(linguistics) The situation where two or more forms appear in the same environment without a change in meaning, and without either one being considered incorrect.


CDS

en-noun

CDS (countable and uncountable, plural CDSs or CDSes or CDS)

CDSs (plural)
CDSes (plural)
CDS (plural)

(linguistics) Initialism of child-directed speech: a simplified form of speech used by adults when talking to infants


use-mention distinction

use-mention distinction (plural use-mention distinctions)

Thus, they purport to expand the domain of our judgments beyond all bounds of experience through concepts to which no corresponding object at all can be given in experience. For convenience, we ignore use-mention distinctions here and elsewhere.

2014, Thomas D. Sullivan, Russell Pannier -, Modern Challenges to Past Philosophy: Arguments and Responses, →ISBN:

(linguistics, philosophy) A distinction between the use of a word for its meaning (as in "Cheese is derived from milk") and the mention of a word as a lexical unit (as in " Cheese is derived from a word in Old English").


circumfixal

First, a number of languages do not have a single negation morpheme but have a circumfixal morpheme.

1997, Ferdinand de Haan, The Interaction of Modality and Negation:


Americanist

(phonetics) A proponent of the Americanist phonetic notation.


Americanist

en-adj

Americanist (comparative more Americanist, superlative most Americanist)

more Americanist (comparative)
most Americanist (superlative)

(phonetics) Of or relating to a phonetic notation developed for transcription of Native American and European languages. See Americanist phonetic notation.


tautosyllabic

(linguistics) Occurring in the same syllable.


heterosyllabic

In fact, it is a question of two –heterosyllabic– consonants, whereby the neutral Italian structure could not tolerate more complicated sequences, as they would make these syllables too heavy to pronounce.

2005, Luciano Canepari, A Handbook of Pronunciation, Lincom Europa, →ISBN, page 137:

(linguistics) Not occurring in the same syllable.


heteromorphemic

To be sure all these examples of sequences are all heteromorphemic.

1964, Ural-Altaic yearbook, volume 36, page 33:

The geminate ss is heteromorphemic, i.e. it is a single bundle of distinctive features linked to two heteromorphemic skeletal slots.

2012, F. Dell, Syllables In Tashlhiyt Berber And In Moroccan Arabic, page 234:

For example, the OCP blocks geminate sequences in English, except across certain prosodic boundaries, such as in compounds like penknife [pεn:aif] and heteromorphemic formations such as solely [sowl:i].

2015, Andrew Byrd, The Indo-European Syllable, page 45:

(linguistics) Not occurring in the same morpheme; separated by a morpheme boundary.


personal name

A proper name identifying an individual person, especially the full name.


legal name

The legal name of "Jack's Mattresses" is "JM Enterprises {2006} (Illinois) Inc.".

The name of an organisation as indicated in its founding documents, or as subsequently changed by legal process.


upstep

An upward shift of tone between the syllables or words of a tonal language.


upstep

en-verb

upstep (third-person singular simple present upsteps, present participle upstepping, simple past and past participle upstepped)

upsteps (present singular third-person)
upstepping (participle present)
upstepped (participle past)
upstepped (past)

To apply an upward shift of tone between the syllables or words of a tonal language.


downstep

A downward shift of tone between the syllables or words of a tonal language.


downstep

downstep (third-person singular simple present downsteps, present participle downstepping, simple past and past participle downstepped)

downsteps (present singular third-person)
downstepping (participle present)
downstepped (participle past)
downstepped (past)

To apply a downward shift of tone between the syllables or words of a tonal language.


egressive

(phonetics, of a speech sound) Uttered by pushing air out through the mouth or nose.


egressive

(phonetics) A speech sound in which the air stream is created by pushing air out through the mouth or nose.


ingressive

en-adj

ingressive (comparative more ingressive, superlative most ingressive)

more ingressive (comparative)
most ingressive (superlative)

Another feature of Icelandic pronunciation that many learners remark on is that sometimes words, and even larger parts of sentences, are pronounced while inhaling (a phenomenon known as pulmonic ingressive pronunciation).

2022, Daisy L. Neijman, Icelandic: An Essential Grammar, Routledge, →ISBN, page 21:

(phonetics, of a speech sound) Uttered by drawing air inward through the mouth or nose.

(grammar) Aspectually indicating that an action is about to be entered or is in the process of being entered.


ingressive

(phonetics) A speech sound in which the air stream is created by drawing air in through the mouth or nose.


patientive

(linguistics) Pertaining to a grammatical patient that receives the action of the verb.


patientive

(linguistics) A word having this construction.


invariant noun

(grammar) A noun in which number is not marked; that is, a noun which does not change form in the plural, such as, in English, fish and series.


unaccusative

From un- + accusative, from the fact that in a nominative-accusative language, the accusative case, which marks the direct object of a transitive verb, typically marks the non-volitional role. In unaccusative verbs, the non-volitional arguments do not take the accusative case.

The light-verb analysis sketched here also offers us a way of accounting for the fact that in Early Modern English, the perfect auxiliary used with unaccusative verbs was be (as we saw in §7.6), whereas that used with transitive and unergative verbs was have.

2004, Andrew Radford, Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the structure of English, University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, →ISBN, →OCLC, §9.6, page 352:

(linguistics, of a verb) Intransitive and having an experiencer as its subject, that is, the (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent.


unaccusative

We have seen that Unergatives and Unaccusatives differ in 1) permitting the derivation of an Impersonal Passive, and 2) in licensing purpose clauses, since Unergatives have active subjects, and Unaccusatives do not.

1998, Eloise Jelinek, “The Projection of Arguments”, in Miriam Butt, Wilhelm Geuder, editors, Voice and Transitivity as Functional Projections in Yaqui:


unergative

/ʌnˈɜːɡətɪv/

From un- + ergative, from the fact that in an ergative-absolutive language, the only case which uniquely identifies a volitional argument is the ergative case, which marks the agent of a transitive verb.

In Section 1 I will discuss the existence of a class of ergative adjectives in Dutch[…]. It will be demonstrated that there are a number of arguments supporting the claim that the class of adjectives should be divided into ergative and unergative adjectives. A large number of adjectives that are unergative according to the tests provided in Section 2 appear to be ergative with respect to their argument structure.

2000, Hans Bennis, “Adjectives and Argument Structure”, in Peter Coopmans, Martin Everaert, Jane Grimshaw, editors, Lexical Specification and Insertion (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory; 197), Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, →ISSN, pages 27–28:

(linguistics, of a verb) Intransitive and having an agent as its subject.


unergative

/ʌnˈɜːɡətɪv/

1998, Eloise Jelinek, Voice and Transitivity as Functional Projections in Yaqui, in Miriam Butt and Wilhelm Geuder, eds., “The Projection of Arguments”
We have seen that Unergatives and Unaccusatives differ in 1) permitting the derivation of an Impersonal Passive, and 2) in licensing purpose clauses, since Unergatives have active subjects, and Unaccusatives do not.


definitize

en-verb

definitize (third-person singular simple present definitizes, present participle definitizing, simple past and past participle definitized)

definitizes (present singular third-person)
definitizing (participle present)
definitized (participle past)
definitized (past)

(transitive, grammar) To make definite (of e.g. a noun or adjective)


acrolectal

I prepared the three Matched Guise samples myself, controlling the forms carefully to represent basilectal, mesolectal, and acrolectal levels of usage

1985, Nessa Wolfson, Joan Manes, Language of Inequality, →ISBN, page 158:

(linguistics) Of or pertaining to an acrolect, or standard dialect


addressivity

Evidently, in certain languages some of these meanings may be expressed by special affixes (without a causative meaning), as, for example, the meanings of commitativity (cf. 6.3), addressivity (cf. 6.5) and mutuality (cf. 6.6) in Kabardian.

1970, V.P. Nedyalkov, “On the Typology of the Polysemy of Verbal Affixes”, in Theoretical Problems of Typology and the Northern Eurasian Languages, →ISBN, page 97:

(linguistics, philosophy) The quality of being addressive, of engaging in communication for the sake of one's interlocutor


passivize

passivize (third-person singular simple present passivizes, present participle passivizing, simple past and past participle passivized)

passivizes (present singular third-person)
passivizing (participle present)
passivized (participle past)
passivized (past)

(transitive, US, grammar) To render into the passive form.


passivise

passivise (third-person singular simple present passivises, present participle passivising, simple past and past participle passivised)

passivises (present singular third-person)
passivising (participle present)
passivised (participle past)
passivised (past)

(British, grammar) To render into the passive form.

whakahāngū

To render or convert into the passive form


localist

(linguistics) One who subscribes to localism, the belief that language functions are localized to various parts of the brain.

(linguistics) One who subscribes to localism, an approach to understanding expressions in terms of position and movement.


keyness

This was one of the weakest keywords that was found, with a keyness of 24.9.

2005, Paul Baker, Public Discourse of Gay Men, →ISBN, page 160:

(computational linguistics) The statistical significance of a keyword's frequency in a given corpus, relative to a reference corpus.


e-grade

bʰer- is the e-grade of the root meaning “to carry, bear”.

(Indo-European linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European linguistics, an ablaut form of a root characterised by the presence of the */e/ phoneme.


polnoglasie

Learned borrowing from Russian полногла́сие (polnoglásije).

lbor

полногла́сие

(phonology) The phenomenon of disyllabic -oro-, -ere- and -olo- reflexes in East Slavic languages of Late Proto-Slavic closed syllable clusters involving a vowel *a, *o, *e followed by a liquid *r or *l.


palatovelar

(phonetics) A velar sound articulated further in the mouth at the area of the soft palate; a palatized velar.

քմային ետնալեզվային

velar sound articulated further in the mouth at the area of soft palate


pleophony

(phonology) The phenomenon by which the Late Proto-Slavic "liquid diphthongs", formed from a vowel followed by a liquid *r or *l, become disyllabic -oro-, -ere- and -olo- reflexes in East Slavic languages.

поўнагало́ссе

disyllabic reflex in East Slavic languages


zero-grade

From zero + grade, as in gradation (“apophony”). Possibly after German Nullstufe.

bʰr̥- is the zero-grade of the Indo-European root *bʰer- meaning “to carry, bear”.

(Indo-European linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European linguistics, an ablaut form of a root characterized by the absence of the basic ablauting vowel phonemes */e/ and */o/.


root noun

(linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European linguistics, a noun formed by adding inflectional endings directly to the root, with no intermediate suffixes.


labiovelar

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-labiovelar.wav

(phonetics) co-articulated at the velum and the lips


labiovelar

շրթնաետնալեզվային

a velar sound articulated with lip-rounding


o-grade

Ancient Greek γόνος (gónos) is a reflex of *ǵónh₁os (“race”), which is itself an o-grade derivative of the root *ǵenh₁- (“to beget; to produce, bear”).

A considerable number of derived nominals, especially thematic nouns, also exhibited o-grade roots.

2006, Donald Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 12:

Indo-European studies
Indo-European studies

(Indo-European studies) In Proto-Indo-European linguistics, an ablaut form of a Proto-Indo-European root, characterised by the presence of the */o/ vowel phoneme in place of */e/.


essive-modal

(grammar) The essive-modal case. In the Hungarian language this case can express the state, capacity, task in which somebody is or which somebody has (essive case, e.g. "as a reward", "for example"), or the manner in which the action is carried out, or the language which somebody knows (modal case, e.g. "unexpectedly", "speak English").

Essiv-Modal

the case that expresses the state, capacity, task in which somebody is or the manner in which the action is carried out


essive-formal

(grammar) A case in Hungarian that combines the essive case and the formal case, and can express position, task, state (e.g. "as a tourist") or manner (e.g. "like a hunted animal").

Essiv-Formal

the case that combines the essive and formal cases, expressing the position, task, state, or manner


causal-final

The abstract relationship between locative-temporal and causal-final adverbials is well reflected in their realization in the case system.

1982, László Dezső, Typological Studies in Old Serbo-Croatian Syntax, page 210:

There is, from Early Latin onwards, a causal-final use of the preposition de with adjectives like lassus and sollicitus.

1988, Gerd Haverling, Studies on Symmachus' Language and Style, page 201:

...everywhere include: benefactive (i.e. the action denoted by the suffix-bearing verb is carried out for the benefit of someone e.g. 'buy for someone'); instrumental (e.g. 'wash with something'); comitative (especially with the semantic shade of taking or carrying somebody, or something, with oneself when moving (e.g. when flying away); also various other situations of doing something together with somebody or something), and causal-final (i.e. the action is carried out because of something, in view of something, or for something, in order that some event might take place, etc.).

1996, H Steinhauer, Papers in Austronesian Linguistics - Volume 3, page 197:

The causal-final noun suffix -ért 'for' surfaces in the next sample, in place of an allative -hoz or, alternatively, illative -ba, both 'to'.

2007, Gergely Toth, Linguistic Interference and First-language Attrition, →ISBN:

The demonstrative pronoun in the causal-final case azért 'for the (following) reason' introduces clauses of purpose.

2013, Carol H. Rounds, Hungarian: An Essential Grammar, →ISBN, page 116:

(linguistics) Pertaining to any case that indicates the intention of achieving a specific final result.


causal-final

(grammar) The causal-final case. This case in the Hungarian language combines the causal case and the final case. It can express the cause of emotions (e.g. value someone for something) or the goal of actions (e.g. "kenyérért" for bread).


rhotacize

en-verb

rhotacize (third-person singular simple present rhotacizes, present participle rhotacizing, simple past and past participle rhotacized)

rhotacizes (present singular third-person)
rhotacizing (participle present)
rhotacized (participle past)
rhotacized (past)

(phonology) To change a consonant to an 'R' sound under certain circumstances.


refactorization

en-noun

refactorization (countable and uncountable, plural refactorizations)

The word burger is part of a refactorization of Hamburger (originally Hamburg + er).

(linguistics) A false etymology derived from rebracketing.


Proto-Yeniseian

(linguistics, uncountable) The hypothetical ancestor language or protolanguage of Yeniseian languages spoken in central Siberia.

proto-ienisseïen

ancestor language of Yeniseian languages


Proto-Yeniseian

(linguistics, anthropology) Of or pertaining to the Proto-Yeniseian language, or the people who spoke it.


tagmeme

(grammar) The smallest functional element in the grammatical structure of a sentence.


gapping

gapping (countable and uncountable, plural gappings)

(linguistics) A type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures, and usually elides minimally a finite verb and further any non-finite verbs that are present. Example: "Some ate bread, and others rice."


procatalepsis

/ˌpɹəʊkætəˈlɛpsɪs/

From Latin procatalepsis (“anticipating and answering an objection”), from Ancient Greek προκατάληψις (prokatálēpsis, “seizing in advance”).

der

προκατάληψις


BON

en-noun

BON (countable and uncountable, plural BONs)

Coordinate term: BOW

Alternative form: BoN

Note that the BoW scheme is a special case of the BoN scheme, with n=1.

2020, Sowmya Vajjala, Bodhisattwa Majumder, Anuj Gupta, Harshit Surana, Practical Natural Language Processing […] , First edition, Beijing Boston Farnham Sebastopol Tokyo: O'Reilly, →ISBN:

(computational linguistics) Initialism of bag of n-grams.


groove fricative

groove fricative (plural groove fricatives)

Groove fricatives all have more or less of an [s]-like quality, and are for this reason sometimes called sibilants.

1955, H. A. Gleason, An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics, page 194, section 14.7:

(phonetics) A hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.


prepositional pronoun

prepositional pronoun (plural prepositional pronouns)

A type of pronoun used in Celtic and Semitic languages, where a preposition followed by a personal pronoun creates a new word.

forainm réamhfhoclach

type of pronoun in Celtic and Semitic languages

In certain Romance languages, the pronoun form which must be used following a preposition.


futureless

(linguistics, of a language) That has no future tense.


equative

(grammar) A construction showing an equal quality. In English, this is normally formed using as. For example, the equative of happy is as happy as.

(grammar) A grammatical case in certain languages, including Ossetic and Sumerian, that indicates something is like something else. English equivalents include he was the same age as her and he looks like him.


equative

(grammar) Of, pertaining to, or being an equative.


cislocative

(grammar) Indicating motion toward the deictic center, often the speaker.


cislocative

(grammar) A grammatical structure of this kind.


translocative

(grammar) Indicating motion away from the deictic center, often the speaker.


presentational

(grammar) A clause using existential "there" with a verb other than a form of "be", as in "There followed a brief silence".


second conditional

second conditional (plural second conditionals)

"If I had a billion dollars, I would buy a medieval castle" involves a second conditional.

(language education, grammar) A structure used to talk about improbable or impossible events in the present or future, containing an "if" clause (with a verb in the simple past) and a main clause (with would + an infinite verb).


zero conditional

zero conditional (plural zero conditionals)

"If it rains, the ground gets wet" is an example of a zero conditional.

(language education, grammar) A structure used to talk about general truths or facts, containing an "if" clause (with a verb in the present tense) and a main clause (with a verb in the present tense).


first conditional

first conditional (plural first conditionals)

"If it rains tomorrow, I will wear my coat" is a first conditional sentence.

(language education, grammar) A structure used to talk about possible events in the present or future, containing an "if" clause (with a verb in the present tense) and a main clause (with the future expressed by will + an infinitive verb).


third conditional

third conditional (plural third conditionals)

"If Columbus hadn't discovered America, he wouldn't have been famous" is an example of the third conditional.

(language education, grammar) A structure used to talk about unreal or unfulfilled events in the past, containing an "if" clause (with a verb in the past perfect) and a main clause (with would + the bare perfect infinitive of a verb).


h-prothesis

(phonology) The prothesis of the sound /h/ to words beginning with a vowel, especially as found in Celtic languages such as Irish and Welsh, and in dialects of English, especially those that pronounce h weakly.


disprefer

en-verb

disprefer (third-person singular simple present disprefers, present participle dispreferring, simple past and past participle dispreferred)

disprefers (present singular third-person)
dispreferring (participle present)
dispreferred (participle past)
dispreferred (past)

(transitive, chiefly linguistics) To favor or prefer (something) less than the alternatives.


enate

en-adj

enate (comparative more enate, superlative most enate)

more enate (comparative)
most enate (superlative)

(linguistics) Having identical grammatical structure (but with elements that are semantically different).


syllabic abbreviation

en-noun

syllabic abbreviation (plural syllabic abbreviations)

Subaru named it after the New York zip code Tribeca — a syllabic abbreviation of “Triangle Below Canal Street” — not so much to connote wealth and glamour

2008 March 19, “HE SAYS...So nondescript is the redesign, the car all but fades”, in The Times:

(linguistics) An abbreviation formed from syllables, usually the initial ones, of several words.


down tack

primary articulation
primary articulation

manner of articulation
manner of articulation

(phonetics) The IPA diacritic of primary articulation: ⟨˕⟩, used to denote a lowered phone; for vowels, the diacritic denotes a slightly more open utterance; for consonants, it moves the manner of articulation one step forward in this chain: nasal → plosive → fricative → approximant → trill → tap, flap → lateral fricative → lateral approximant → lateral flap.


Indo-Europeanist

The Nostratic hypothesis was postulated for the first time by the Danish Indo-Europeanist, Holger Pedersen, at the beginning of the 20th century. Today we suppose a Nostratic origin for Afroasiatic (Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Omotic), with perhaps a rather independent position; Kartvelian, Indo-European, Uralic (Fenno-Ugric and Samoyed), Dravidian (probably together with the extinct Elamite) and Altaic (Turkic, Mongolian, Tungusian, Korean, Japanese).

1992, Václav Blazek, Who are you, homo sapiens sapiens?, page 139:

It had been assumed that the two series merged by the time of Common Balto-Slavic until the Indo-Europeanist Werner Winter proposed in the 1970s that the distinction had persisted for longer, at least between *dh and *d.

2004, Benjamin W. Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture, page 365:

The vast majority of Indo-Europeanists posit either three or four laryngeals for the Indo-European parent language, while Dolgopolsky posits a multitude of controversial phonemes here, most conveniently subsumed under cover symbols, without further explanation as to their phonetic make-up, their vowel-coloring or lengthening effects, or their development in the Indo-European daughter languages.

2009, Allan R. Bomhard, The Glottalic Theory of Proto-Indo-European Consonantism and Its Implications for Nostratic Sound Correspondences, page 7:

(Indo-European studies) A scientist (usually a linguist or anthropologist) engaged in Indo-European studies.

հնդեվրոպաբան

person specialised in Indo-European studies


long ranger

He thinks that long-rangers often use Pokorny's material uncritically ("fishing expeditions in Pokorny's") although it is considered to be dated in many respects by the modern state of Indo-European studies.

1993, N. N., Report on 2nd Comparative Workshop: Nostratic:

Yes, all the long rangers, as far as I can tell, are not controlling for the possibility that the similarities between languages they are working on fall within the range of what one would expect by chance alone.

1995, Donald Ringe, Conference Report, Twelfth International Conference on Historical Linguistics:

This painstaking process of checking texts and cultural data rather than dictionaries may seem to be not worth the candle for some (but not all) long-rangers.

2002, Alexander Vovin, Building a 'Bum-pa for Sino-Caucasian, page 160:

(linguistics) A historical linguist engaged in search of long-range relationships among already established language families by comparing proto-languages.


paralanguage

paralanguage (countable and uncountable, plural paralanguages)

(linguistics) The non-verbal elements of speech, and to a limited extent of writing, used to modify meaning and convey emotion, such as pitch, volume, and intonation


negator

From negate + -or, or directly from Latin negātor.

(grammar) A word (or other structural element) which causes negation (such as the word not in English).


pluricentric

en-adj

pluricentric (comparative more pluricentric, superlative most pluricentric)

more pluricentric (comparative)
most pluricentric (superlative)

monocentric

antonym(s) of “having several standard forms”

/ˌplʊəɹɪˈsɛntɹɪk/

/ˌplɔːɹɪˈsɛntɹɪk/

/ˌpljʊəɹɪˈsɛntɹɪk/

/ˌplʊɹəˈsɛntɹɪk/

/ˌplʊɹəˈsɛntɹək/

(linguistics) (of a language) Having several interacting codified standard forms, often corresponding to different countries.


Sino-Tibetan

/ˌsɪnəʊtɪˈbɛtən/

Mandarin, Burmese and Tibetan all belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family.

(linguistics) Of the Sino-Tibetan languages, one of the major language families.


ambisyllabicity

(poetry, phonetics) The property of a consonant being analysed as acting simultaneously as the coda of one syllable and the onset of the following syllable, as in "upper" or "button".


metalinguistic

Mary is still one of the most popular girl's names. This represents a metalinguistic use of Mary: the case where we cite a linguistic expression in order to say something about it qua linguistic expression.

2002, Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language:

(linguistics) Treating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning.

metanyelvi

treating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning


metalinguistics

The branch of linguistics that studies language and its relationship to culture and society.


experiencer

The subjects of the intransitive verbs "fall" and "burn" are experiencers.

(linguistics) A thematic relation where something undergoes a situation or sensation lacking a semantic agent.


prestress

Coordinate term: poststress

Thus, the acute accent is typically characterized by an F₀-maximum in the prestress syllable and an F₀-minimum in the stressed syllable, while for the grave accent the corresponding F₀-maximum occurs in the stressed syllable and the F₀-minimum in the poststress syllable.

1996, Ann M. Peters, Sven Strömqvist, “The Role of Prosody in the Acquisition of Grammatical Morphemes”, in James L. Morgan, Katherine Demuth, editors, Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping From Speech To Grammar in Early Acquisition, New York, NY: Psychology Press, published 2014, →ISBN, page 217:

(linguistics) Before a stress (emphasis placed on a syllable of a word).


harmonically bound

en-verb

harmonically bound (third-person singular simple present harmonically bounds, present participle harmonically bounding, simple past and past participle harmonically bounded)

harmonically bounds (present singular third-person)
harmonically bounding (participle present)
harmonically bounded (participle past)
harmonically bounded (past)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

In the example below, β is harmonically bounded by α

(transitive, linguistics, Optimality Theory) Of an input-output pair, to incur a proper subset of constraint violations of a different input-output pair.


harmonic bounding

(linguistics, Optimality Theory) A situation where one input-to-output mapping pair receives a set of constraint violations that is a proper subset of the set of constraint violations received by a different input-output pair.


anaphor

Thus far, we have established that each other is an NP [noun phrase] which functions as a reciprocal anaphor requiring to take its reference from some antecedent elsewhere in the sentence, and that themselves is an NP which functions as a reflexive anaphor which also requires an antecedent to take its reference from.

1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 117:

(linguistics) An expression referring to another expression. In stricter uses, an expression referring to something earlier in the discourse or, even more strictly, only reflexive and reciprocal pronouns.


etymologize

etymologize (third-person singular simple present etymologizes, present participle etymologizing, simple past and past participle etymologized)

etymologizes (present singular third-person)
etymologizing (participle present)
etymologized (participle past)
etymologized (past)

(linguistics, transitive, intransitive) To find or provide the etymology for a word.


lemmatize

lemmatize (third-person singular simple present lemmatizes, present participle lemmatizing, simple past and past participle lemmatized)

lemmatizes (present singular third-person)
lemmatizing (participle present)
lemmatized (participle past)
lemmatized (past)

(linguistics) To convert an inflected form of a lexeme to a lemma.

lematitzar

to convert an inflected form into a lemma


MLE

ante''' 2009: Ignacio Ramos, A. Jesús Moya Guijarro, and José Ignacio Albentosa Hernández [eds.], New Trends in English Teacher Education, page 209 (Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha; →ISBN
In terms of its characteristics, MLE is anchored to a large extent in Jamaican Creole, throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s a competitor to Cockney. But Kerswill et al report that it has now encompassed and synthesized elements of everything from Cockney and African English to Hindi, Bangladeshi languages and Arabic. For this reasons it is sometimes called, erroneously, “Hinglish” or “Jafaican”.

Multicultural London English
Multicultural London English#English

(linguistics) Initialism of Multicultural London English.


syntagmeme

(linguistics, tagmemics) A syntactic construction viewed as a sequence of its tagmemes.


vocoid

From voc(al) + -oid, 1940s, coined by Kenneth Lee Pike, American linguist (1912-2000).

(linguistics) A phonetic vowel, as opposed to a phonological one.


language isolate

en-noun

language isolate (plural language isolates)

(linguistics) A natural language with no proven genetic relationship to another language.


contextualism

contextualism (countable and uncountable, plural contextualisms)

In this communicational mode, language units can be differentiated as usualisms and contextualisms (Fig. 4-6).

2020, Alexander Barkovich, Informational Linguistics: The New Communicational Reality, page 125:

(linguistics) A use of language that is dependent on context.


phonosemantic

(linguistics) Of or pertaining to phonosemantics


infelicitousness

(linguistics, pragmatics) The quality or state of being infelicitous, or pragmatically ill-formed


syndeton

(grammar, rhetoric) The use of conjunctions or conjunctive structures to connect words, phrases, etc.


quotative

(grammar) A grammatical device to mark quoted speech, such as be like in "he was like, 'who are you?'".

(linguistics) A form of the complementizer related to the verb say, found in many languages of West Africa and South Asia.


quotative

(grammar) Serving to mark quoted speech.


sonorization

sonorization (countable and uncountable, plural sonorizations)

(phonetics, of a consonant) increase in sonority; act of sonorizing


relativizer

(linguistics) A grammatical element used to indicate a relative clause.


spirantization

spirantization (countable and uncountable, plural spirantizations)

(uncountable, phonology) (of a consonant) becoming a spirant (fricative) sound


degemination

degemination (countable and uncountable, plural degeminations)

(phonetics, uncountable) The inverse process of gemination, when a spoken long consonant is pronounced for an audibly shorter period.


sound change

sound change (countable and uncountable, plural sound changes)

(phonology) Any process of language change that affects pronunciation (phonetic change) or sound system structures (phonological change).


affrication

affrication (countable and uncountable, plural affrications)

/æfɹɪˈkeɪʃən/

(phonetics, uncountable, of a consonant) Becoming an affricate sound.


monogenetic

(biology, linguistics) Of or pertaining to monogenesis.


contextualist

A contextualist believes that the phrase "some eels are fish" is primarily interpreted as "some, and perhaps all, eels are fish", and the pragmatic interpretation "some, but not all, eels are fish" only appears when demanded by the context.

(pragmatics) One who believes that scalar implicatures arise from contextual inference, not from a default association with a word.


asyndeton

asyndeton (countable and uncountable, plural asyndetons or asyndeta)

From Latin asyndeton, from Ancient Greek ἀσύνδετον (asúndeton), from ἀ- (a-, “a-, un-, non-”) and the neuter substantive of σῠ́νδετος (súndetos, “bound, joined”), from συνδεῖν (sundeîn, “to join, to bind”), from σῠν- (sun-, “together”) + δεῖν (deîn, “to bind, to tie”). Equivalent to a- + syndeton.

Asyndeton, or the Loose language... as thus. I saw it, I said it, I will sweare it.

1589, George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, page 145:

Asyndeton the Cop'latives denies. Faith, Justice, Truth, Religion, Mercy dies.

1740, Benjamin Martin, Bibliotheca Technologica, 2nd edition, page 145:

Asyndeton the copulative denies;
And sometimes haste and rage sometimes implies.

1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 50:

(grammar, rhetoric) Omission of conjunctions, especially for rhetorical effect.


vṛddhi

vṛddhi (countable and uncountable, plural vṛddhis)

Learned borrowing from Sanskrit वृद्धि (vṛddhi, “growth, increase”).

lbor

Sometimes a vrddhi-derivative was formed from a zero-grade and involved the insertion of the full-grade vowel in the “wrong” place.

2004, Benjamin Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture, Blackwell 2004, page 117:

(linguistics, linguistic morphology) The strongest ablaut-grade in a series of vowel alternations in certain Indo-European languages, most notably Sanskrit, as well as in Proto-Indo-European.

(Sanskrit grammar) A group of long vowels.


indexicality

en-noun

indexicality (countable and uncountable, plural indexicalities)

The theories of Kripke ( 1980 ), Soames ( 2003 ), and the proposal of Devitt and Sterelny, among others, take a stand on how the indexicality of natural kind terms is implemented.

2007 May 31, Jussi Wiljami Jylkkä, “Theories of natural kind term reference and empirical psychology”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 139, number 2, →DOI:

(philosophy, linguistics) The quality or state of being indexical.


Alutiiq

From Russian алеу́ты (aleúty, “Aleuts”), from Aleut allíthuh (“community”).

(linguistics) A language of the Eskimo-Aleut family.


maximizer

(linguistics) An amplifier that strongly intensifies the meaning, more so than a booster.


systematicity

systematicity (countable and uncountable, plural systematicities)

The coincidence in modern tongues between harmony, as spoken of sounds, with any other concordance or systematicity— is one derived from ancient Greek sources and roots[…].

1845, J. L---y, “The Myths of 'Harmony'”, in The Musical World, page 291:

[…] but it is reasonable to see a certain amount of causal and functional integration as a hallmark of systematicity.

2007 March 6, Andrew Sneddon, “The depths and shallows of psychological externalism”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 138, number 3, →DOI:

At times there is consistency to Yule’s headword spelling (e.g. long-a /aː/ is rendered au except when word final, where it is rendered a), but there is also inconsistency (e.g. short-a /ʌ/ is sometimes rendered a and sometimes u). My analysis indicates the lack of any overarching systematicity.

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 491:

(now chiefly philosophy and linguistics) The state or quality of being systematic.


vocalism

(linguistics) The vowel sounds used in a language.


designatum

I am inclined to hold that if there is a plurality of objects that fall under the designatum of a term, then that should be sufficient (though not necessary) to conclude that that is a general term, even when it has a singular occurrence in a sentence.

2007, Ilhan Inan, “Rigid general terms and essential predicates”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 140, number 2, page 225:

(semantics) That which is named or designated by a linguistic term.


inferentialist

en-adj

inferentialist (comparative more inferentialist, superlative most inferentialist)

more inferentialist (comparative)
most inferentialist (superlative)

From inferential + -ist. Coined by the philosopher Robert Brandom to describe his own theory, and since applied more widely.

This, I suggest, is why two-dimensionalism requires an inferentialist account of recognition.

2008 January 8, Markos Valaris, “Two-dimensionalism and the epistemology of recognition”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 142, number 3, →DOI:

(philosophy, semantics) Of, pertaining to or supporting a belief in the primary importance of inference to any account of meaning


stød

(phonology) a phenomenon of most Danish accents, in which stressed long vowels or consonants are laryngealised in certain contexts; sometimes a simple glottal stop that follows said vowel/consonant


overextension

en-noun

overextension (countable and uncountable, plural overextensions)

(linguistics) Application of a term to too many referents, as for example when a child uses cat to refer to all animals.


Karamojong

* From Karamojong language. The name means "the old men sat down", referring to a migration.

(linguistics) A Nilo-Saharan language of Uganda.


resultative

(grammar) Indicating the state of a noun resulting from the completion of the action expressed by a verb, as with "blue" in "Mary painted the fence blue".


resultative

(grammar) A grammatical construction that indicates the state of a noun resulting from the completion of the action expressed by a verb.


preposition of place

preposition of place (plural prepositions of place)

Preposition indicating localisation of object, e.g. on the field or in the field.


acephalic

The acephalic pentameters yield to tetrameters with a starting dactyl or anapest […]

1988, John Hollander, chapter 7, in Melodious Guile: Fictive Pattern in Poetic Language, Yale University Press, page 146:

(prosody) Deficient in the beginning, as a line of poetry that is missing its expected opening syllable.


urtext

(music, linguistics, anthropology) The original version of a piece of music or text, as created by the composer or writer.


multilexemic

(linguistics) Consisting of multiple lexemes.


delineator

Thus certain nouns are inherently potential agents, and any other noun can be turned into one by the suffixation of the delineator.

1995, Mark Durie, “Of Linguistic Evolution and the Notion 'X has a Function Y'”, in Werner Abraham, Talmy Givón, Sandra A. Thompson, editor, Discourse Grammar and Typology, page 292:

in fact Scott further includes the class 'Potential Agent' as outranking Human on this scale, defining it as 'any proper noun representing an animate being, any personal pronoun, any inalienably-possessed kin term, or any term to which the delineator has been added. (emphasis ours).

1997, Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, page 80:

If the agent and the patient roles are distributed against the animacy hierarchy, the agent is marked by the ergative suffix -ma (when attached to nounds denoting humans)/-wama (when attached to nounds denoting nonhumans) which is called 'delineator' by Scott (1978: 100-103).

2009, Ina Bornkessel, Matthias Schlesewsky, Bernard Comrie, Semantic Role Universals and Argument Linking, page 199:

An inanimate transitive subject can be made to conform to the restriction by adding a delineator to it.

2018, András Bárány, Person, Case, and Agreement, page 135:

(grammar) A suffix used in some Melanesian languages that acts like a determiner and signals that the noun to which it is attached can be used as an agent.


LDE

Initialism of Longman Dictionary of the English Language.


OAL

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
w:Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Initialism of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (of Current English).


CCE

(lexicography) Initialism of Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary.


object language

object language (plural object languages)

Objektsprache

language speaking about objects rather than about language

(lexicography) the language of the headwords in a dictionary (in a French-to-English translation dictionary, French is the object language)


TAM

TAM (countable and uncountable, plural TAMs)

[…] then it would make sense to view Australian past irrealises as TAM forms combining a modal stative predicate (conveying e.g. a capacity, expectation, or desire state) with a past imperfective content.

2023, Kasia M. Jaszczolt, Understanding Human Time, page 170:

(uncountable, linguistics) Initialism of tense, aspect, mood.


irresultative

(grammar) Indicating an event or action not taken to completion, as with "I was writing" but not "I wrote".


usagist

The most Talmudic usagists say compare to seeks to show similarity between unlike things: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" or "Can the human brain be compared to a computer?"

1995 November 6, William Safire, “ON LANGUAGE; 'To' vs. 'With'”, in The New York Times:

To hell with the Bard, replied the 19-year-old common usagist; gild the lily is what people say, as I was being frog-marched out of the city room.

2006 March 11, William Safire, “Language: Nifty gifties: Books full of words - Opinion - International Herald Tribune”, in The New York Times:

(linguistics, rare) One who defines a language by usage rather than theory.


argumental

en-adj

argumental (comparative more argumental, superlative most argumental)

more argumental (comparative)
most argumental (superlative)

(linguistics) Based on arguments; pertaining to arguments.


AmE

(linguistics) Abbreviation of American English.


BrE

(linguistics) Abbreviation of British English.


DCHP

w:en:Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles

Initialism of Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles.


CanE

Finally, section (2.5) reviews diachronic language studies on CanE, which is the area of focus in the present study.

2008, Stefan Dollinger, New-Dialect Formation in Canada, →ISBN:

The present study focusses on the 'other' North American variety of English, Canadian English (CanE) from a diachronic perspective.

2008, Susan M. Fitzmaurice, Donka Minkova, Studies in the History of the English Language IV, →ISBN:

Laurel J. Brinton University of British Columbia, Canada The dearth of real-time studies of the histories of transatlantic English varieties can be attributed to the lack of readily accessible, electronic corpora. However, for Canadian English (CanE) we now have the Bank of Canadian English (BCE), which consists of c. 2.5 million words from written and spoken sources extending from 1505 to the present.

2015, Marina Dossena, Transatlantic Perspectives on Late Modern English, →ISBN, page 13:

Canadian English
Canadian English#English

(linguistics) Abbreviation of Canadian English.


polymetric

(poetry, music) Involving more than one metre


monometric

(poetry) Of or pertaining to a monometer.


COCA

w:Corpus of Contemporary American English

(linguistics) Acronym of Corpus of Contemporary American English.


odonym

From Ancient Greek ὁδός (hodós, “road”) and ὄνυμα (ónuma, “name”). Compare French odonyme and Italian odonimo.

An identifying name given to a street; a street name.


fansubber

One who fansubs: an amateur translator of subtitles.


subapical

subapical (comparative more subapical, superlative most subapical)

more subapical (comparative)
most subapical (superlative)

(phonetics) Pronounced with the underside of the tongue.


postnuclear

postnuclear pitch