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A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics 6th Edition. David Crystal © 2008 David Crystal. ISBN: 978-1-405-15296-9 THE LANGUAGE LIBRARY Series editor: David Crystal The Language Library was created in 1952 by Eric Partridge, the great etymologist and lexicographer, who from 1966 to 1976 was assisted by his co-editor Simeon Potter. Together they commissioned volumes on the traditional themes of language study, with particular emphasis on the history of the English language and on the individual linguistic styles of major English authors. In 1977 David Crystal took over as editor, and The Language Library now includes titles in many areas of linguistic enquiry. The most recently published titles in the series include: Ronald Carter and Walter Nash Seeing Through Language Florian Coulmas The Writing Systems of the World David Crystal A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth Edition J. A. Cuddon A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, Fourth Edition Viv Edwards Multilingualism in the English-speaking World Heidi Harley English Words Geoffrey Hughes A History of English Words Walter Nash Jargon Roger Shuy Language Crimes Gunnel Tottie An Introduction to American English Ronald Wardhaugh Investigating Language Ronald Wardhaugh Proper English: Myths and Misunderstandings about Language A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics Sixth Edition David Crystal © 1980, 1985, 1991, 1997, 2003, 2008 by David Crystal BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of David Crystal to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Sixth edition published 2008 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2008 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crystal, David, 1941– A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics / David Crystal. – 6th ed. p. cm. Revised ed. of: A dictionary of linguistics & phonetics. 5th ed. 2003. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4051-5296-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-5297-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Linguistics–Dictionaries. I. Crystal, David, 1941– Dictionary of linguistics

& phonetics. II. Title. P29.C65 2007 410′.3–dc22 2007052260 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12pt Sabon by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed and bound in Singapore by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website at www.blackwellpublishing.com Contents Preface to the Sixth Edition vi Acknowledgements xi List of Abbreviations xiii List of Symbols xxii The International Phonetic Alphabet xxv Alphabetical Entries 1 Preface to the Sixth Edition When I took the first survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and energetick without rules: wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundless variety, without any established principle of selection; adulterations were to be detected, without a settled test of purity; and modes of expression to be rejected or received, without the suffrages of any writers of classical reputation or acknowledged authority. Samuel Johnson, ‘Preface’ to A Dictionary of the English Language One sign of immaturity [in a science] is the endless flow of terminology. The critical reader begins to wonder if some strange naming taboo attaches to the terms that a linguist uses, whereby when he dies they must be buried with him. Dwight Bolinger, Aspects of Language, p. 554 It is over twenty-five years since the first edition of this book, and the plaint with which I began the preface to that edition remains as valid as ever. What is needed, I said then, is a comprehensive lexicographical survey, on historical principles, of twentieth-century terminology in linguistics and phonetics. And I continued, in that and the subsequent four prefaces, in the following way. We could use the techniques, well established, which have provided dictionaries of excellence, such as the Oxford English Dictionary. The painstaking scrutiny of texts from a range of contexts, the recording of new words and senses on slips, and the systematic correlation of these as a preliminary to representing patterns of usage: such steps are routine for major surveys of general vocabulary and could as readily be applied for a specialized vocabulary, such as the present undertaking. Needless to say, it would be a massive task – and one which, for linguistics and phonetics, has frequently been initiated, though without much progress. I am aware of several attempts to work along these lines, in Canada, Great Britain, Japan and the United States, sometimes by individuals, sometimes by committees. All seem to have foundered, presumably for a mixture of organizational and financial reasons. I tried to initiate such a project myself, twice, but failed both times, for the same reasons. The need for a proper linguistics dictionary is thus as urgent now as it ever was; but to be fulfilled it requires a combination of academic expertise, time, physical resources and finance which so far have proved impossible to attain. But how to cope, in the meantime, with the apparently ‘endless flow of terminology’ which Bolinger, among many others, laments? And how to deal with the enquiries from the two kinds of consumer of linguistic and phonetic terms? For this surely is the peculiar difficulty which linguists have always had to face – that their subject, despite its relative immaturity, carries immense popular as well as academic appeal. Not only, therefore, is terminology a problem for the academic linguist and phonetician; these days, such people are far outnumbered by those who, for private or professional reasons, have developed more than an incidental interest in the subject. It is of little use intimating that the interest of the outside world is premature, as has sometimes been suggested. The interest exists, in a genuine, responsible and critical form, and requires a comparably responsible academic reaction. The present dictionary is, in the first instance, an attempt to meet that popular demand for information about linguistic terms, pending the fuller, academic evaluation of the subject’s terminology which one day may come. The demand has come mainly from those for whom a conscious awareness of language is an integral part of the exercise of a profession, and upon whom the influence of linguistics has been making itself increasingly felt in recent years. This characterization includes two main groups: the range of teaching and remedial language professions, such as foreign-language teaching or speech and language therapy; and the range of academic fields which study language as part of their concerns, such as psychology, anthropology, sociology, literary criticism and philosophy. It also includes an increasing number of students of linguistics – especially those who are taking introductory courses in the subject at postgraduate or in-service levels. In addition, there are the many categories of first-year undergraduate students of linguistics and phonetics, and (especially since the early 1990s) a corresponding growth in the numbers studying the subject abroad. My aim, accordingly, is to provide a tool which will assist these groups in their initial coming to grips with linguistic terminology, and it is this which motivated the original title of the book in 1980: A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. The publisher dropped the word First from later editions, on the grounds that it had little force, given that there was no ‘advanced’ dictionary for students to move on to; but, though my book has doubled in size during the intervening period, it still seems as far away from a comprehensive account as it did at the outset. Bolinger’s comment still very much obtains. Coverage Once a decision about readership had been made, the problem of selecting items and senses for inclusion simplified considerably. It is not the case that the whole of linguistic terminology, and all schools of thought, have proved equally attractive or useful to the above groups. Some terms have been used (and abused) far more than others. For example, competence, lexis, generate, structuralism, morphology and prosody are a handful which turn up so often in a student’s early experience of the subject that their exclusion would have been unthinkable. Preface to the Sixth Edition vii The terminology of phonetics, also, is so pervasive that it is a priority for special attention. On the other hand, there are many highly specialized terms which are unlikely to cause any problems for my intended readership, as they will not encounter them in their initial contact with linguistic ideas. The detailed terminology of, say, glossematics or stratificational grammar has not made much of an impact on the general consciousness of the above groups. While I have included several of the more important theoretical terms from these less widely encountered approaches, therefore, I have not presented their terminology in any detail. Likewise, some linguistic theories and descriptions have achieved far greater popularity than others – generative grammar, in all its incarnations, most obviously, and (in Great Britain) Hallidayan linguistics and the Quirk reference grammar, for example. The biases of this dictionary, I hope, will be seen to be those already present in the applied and introductory literature – with a certain amount of systematization and filling-out in places, to avoid gaps in the presentation of a topic; for example, whereas many introductory texts selectively illustrate distinctive features, this topic has been systematically covered in the present book. I devote a great deal of space to the many ‘harmless-looking’ terms which are used by linguists, where an apparently everyday word has developed a special sense, often after years of linguistic debate, such as form, function, feature, accent, word and sentence. These are terms which, perhaps on account of their less technical appearance, cause especial difficulty at an introductory level. Particular attention is paid to them in this dictionary, therefore, alongside the more obvious technical terms, such as phoneme, bilabial, adjunction and hyponymy. Bearing in mind the background of my primary readership has helped to simplify the selection of material for inclusion in a second way: the focus was primarily on those terms and senses which have arisen because of the influence of twentieth-century linguistics and phonetics. This dictionary is therefore in contrast with several others, where the aim seems to have been to cover the whole field of language, languages and communication, as well as linguistics and phonetics. My attitude here is readily summarized: I do not include terms whose sense any good general dictionary would routinely handle, such as alphabet and aphorism. As terms, they owe nothing to the development of ideas in linguistics. Similarly, while such terms as runic and rhyme-scheme are more obviously technical, their special ranges of application derive from conceptual frameworks other than linguistics. I have therefore not attempted to take on board the huge terminological apparatus of classical rhetoric and literary criticism (in its focus on language), or the similarly vast terminology of speech and language disorders. Nor have I gone down the encyclopedia road, adding names of people, languages and other ‘proper names’, apart from in the few cases where schools of thought have developed (chomskyan, bloomfieldian, prague school, etc.). Many of these terms form the subject-matter of my companion volume, The Penguin Dictionary of Language (1999), which is the second edition of a work that originally appeared as An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages (Blackwell/Penguin, 1992). In the first edition, to keep the focus sharp on the contemporary subject, I was quite rigorous about excluding several types of term, unless they had edged their way into modern linguistics: the terminology of traditional (pre-twentieth-century) viii Preface to the Sixth Edition language study, comparative philology, applied language studies (such as language teaching and speech pathology) and related domains such as acoustics, information theory, audiology, logic and philosophy. However, reader feedback over the years has made it clear that a broader coverage is desirable. Although the definition of, say, bandwidth properly belongs outside of linguistics and phonetics, the frequency with which students encounter the term in their phonetics reading has motivated its inclusion now. A similar broadening of interest has taken place with reference to psychology (especially speech perception), computing and logic (especially in formal semantics). The first edition had already included the first tranche of terms arising out of the formalization of ideas initiated by Chomsky (such as axiom, algorithm, proposition), the fifth edition greatly increased its coverage in this area, and the sixth has continued this process, with especial reference to the minimalist programme. Recent decades have also brought renewed interest in nineteenth-century philological studies and traditional grammar. The various editions of the book have steadily increased their coverage of these domains, accordingly (though falling well short of a comprehensive account), and this was a particular feature of the fifth edition. The new edition is now not far short of a quarter of a million words. It contains over 5,100 terms, identified by items in boldface typography, grouped into over 3,000 entries. Several other locutions, derived from these headwords, are identified through the use of inverted commas. Treatment I remain doubtful even now whether the most appropriate title for this book is ‘dictionary’. The definitional parts of the entries, by themselves, were less illuminating than one might have expected; consequently it proved necessary to introduce in addition a more discursive approach, with several illustrations, to capture the significance of a term. Most entries accordingly contain an element of encyclopedic information, often about such matters as the historical context in which a term was used, or the relationship between a term and others from associated fields. At times, owing to the absence of authoritative studies of terminological development in linguistics, I have had to introduce a personal interpretation in discussing a term; but usually I have obtained my information from standard expositions or (see below) specialists. A number of general reference works were listed as secondary sources for further reading in the early editions of this book, but this convention proved unwieldy to introduce for all entries, as the size of the database grew, and was dropped in the fourth edition. My focus throughout has been on standard usage. Generative grammar, in particular, is full of idiosyncratic terminology devised by individual scholars to draw attention to particular problems; one could fill a whole dictionary with the hundreds of conditions and constraints that have been proposed over the years, many of which are now only of historical interest. If they attracted a great deal of attention in their day, they have been included; but I have not tried to maintain a historical record of origins, identifying the originators of terms, except in those cases where a whole class of terms had a single point of origin (as in the different distinctive-feature sets). However, an interesting feature of the sixth edition has been a developed historical perspective: many of the entries Preface to the Sixth Edition ix originally written for the first edition (1980) have seriously dated over the past 25 years, and I have been struck by the number of cases where I have had to add ‘early use’, ‘in the 1970s’, and the like, to avoid giving the impression that the terms have current relevance. I have tried to make the entries as self-contained as possible, and not relied on obligatory cross-references to other entries to complete the exposition of a sense. I have preferred to work on the principle that, as most dictionary-users open a dictionary with a single problematic term in mind, they should be given a satisfactory account of that term as immediately as possible. I therefore explain competence under competence, performance under performance, and so on. As a consequence of the interdependence of these terms, however, this procedure means that there must be some repetition: at least the salient characteristics of the term performance must be incorporated into the entry for competence, and vice versa. This repetition would be a weakness if the book were read from cover to cover; but a dictionary should not be used as a textbook. As the book has grown in size, over its various editions, it has proved increasingly essential to identify major lexical variants as separate headwords, rather than leaving them ‘buried’ within an entry, so that readers can find the location of a term quickly. One of the problems with discursive encyclopedic treatments is that terms can get lost; and a difficulty in tracking terms down, especially within my larger entries, has been a persistent criticism of the book. I have lost count of the number of times someone has written to say that I should include X in the next edition, when X was already there – in a place which seemed a logical location to me, but evidently not to my correspondent. The biggest change between the fifth and earlier editions was to bite this bullet. That edition increased the number of ‘X see Y’ entries. All ‘buried’ terminology was extracted from within entries and introduced into the headword list. Within an entry, the following conventions should be noted: The main terms being defined are printed in boldface. In the fifth edition, I dropped the convention (which some readers found confusing) of including inflectional variants immediately after the headword; these are now included in bold within an entry, on their first mention. I also increased the amount of guidance about usage, especially relevant to readers for whom English is not a first language, by adding word-class identifiers for single-word headwords, and incorporating an illustration of usage into the body of an entry: for example, the entry on inessive contains a sentence beginning ‘The inessive case (‘the inessive’) is found in Finnish . . .’ – a convention which illustrates that inessive can be used adjectivally as well as nominally. Terms defined elsewhere in this dictionary are printed in small capitals within an entry (disregarding inflectional endings) – but only on their first appearance within an entry, and only where their technical status is important for an appreciation of the sense of the entry. x Preface to the Sixth Edition Acknowledgements For the first edition, prepared in 1978, I was fortunate in having several colleagues in my department at Reading University who gave generously of their time to read the text of this dictionary, in whole or in part, advised me on how to proceed in relation to several of the above problems, and pointed out places where my own biases were intruding too markedly: Ron Brasington, Paul Fletcher, Michael Garman, Arthur Hughes, Peter Matthews, Frank Palmer and Irene Warburton. Hilary, my wife, typed the final version of the whole book (and this before word-processors were around!). A second edition is in many ways a stronger entity, as it benefits from feedback from reviewers and readers, and among those who spent time improving that edition (1984) were K. V. T. Bhat, Colin Biggs, Georges Bourcier, René Dirven, DuRan GabrovRek, Gerald Gazdar, Francisco Gomez de Matos, Lars Hermerén, Rodney Huddleston, Neil Smith, John Wood and Walburga von Raffler Engel. For the third edition (1990), the need to cover syntactic theory efficiently required special help, which was provided by Ewa Jaworska and Bob Borsley. During the 1990s, the arrival of major encyclopedic projects, such as the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (OUP, 1992) and The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (Pergamon,

1. provided an invaluable indication of new terms and senses, as did the

series of Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics. As editor of Linguistics Abstracts at the time, my attention was drawn by the systematic coverage of that journal to several terms which I would otherwise have missed. All these sources provided material for the fourth edition (1996). The fifth edition benefited from a review of the fourth edition written by the late and much-missed James McCawley, as well as by material from Lisa Green, William Idsardi, Allard Jongman, Peter Lasersohn and Ronald Wardhaugh, who acted as consultants for sections of vocabulary relating to their specialisms. It is no longer possible for one person to keep pace with all the developments in this amazing subject, and without them that edition would, quite simply, not have been effective. I am immensely grateful for their interest and commitment, as indeed for that of the editorial in-house team at Blackwells, who arranged it. The fifth edition was also set directly from an XML file, an exercise which could not have proceeded so efficiently without the help of Tony McNicholl. The sixth edition has continued this policy of standing on the shoulders of specialists, and I warmly acknowledge the assistance of William Idsardi and Allard Jongman (for a second time), as well as John Field, Janet Fuller, Michael Kenstowicz, John Saeed, and Hidezaku Tanaka. As always, I remain responsible for the use I have made of all this help, and continue to welcome comments from readers willing to draw my attention to areas where further progress might be made. David Crystal Holyhead, 2008 xii Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Term Gloss Relevant entry A adjective adjective A adverb(ial) adverb A argument argument AAVE African-American vernacular Vernacular English abl, ABL ablative ablative abs, ABS absolutive absolutive abstr abstract abstract (1) acc, ACC accusative accusative act, ACT active active adj, ADJ adjective adjective AdjP adjective phrase adjective adv, ADV adverb adverb AdvP adverb(ial) phrase adverb AFF affix affix AGR agreement agreement AgrP agreement phrase agreement AGT agent(ive) agentive all, ALL allative allative aor, AOR aorist aorist AP adjective phrase adjective appl applicative applicative arg argument argument art article article ASL American Sign Language sign asp aspect aspect ASR automatic speech speech recognition recognition ATB across-the-board across-the-board ATN augmented transition transition network network grammar ATR advanced tongue root root (2) Term Gloss Relevant entry augm augmentative augmentative aux, AUX auxiliary verb auxiliary B base anchor, base (1) ben, BEN benefactive benefactive BEV Black English Vernacular vernacular BP bijection principle bijection principle BSL British Sign Language sign BT baby-talk child-directed speech BVE Black Vernacular English vernacular C complementizer complementizer C consonant consonant c constituent command (2), c-structure CA componential analysis component CA contrastive analysis contrastive analysis CA conversation analysis conversation analysis CAP control agreement principle control agreement principle caus, CAUS causative causative CD communicative dynamism communicative dynamism CED condition on extraction condition on extraction domains domains CF context-free context cho chômeur chômeur CL classifier classifier (1) class classifier classifier (1) cn connective, connector connective Co coda coda comp compact comp comp comparative comparative comp complement complement comp, COMP complementizer complementizer con constraint constraint cond conditional conditional conj conjunction conjunction conn connective, connector connective cons consonantal consonant cont continuant continuant coord co-ordination, co-ordinator co-ordination cor, COR coronal coronal CP complementizer phrase complementizer cps cycles per second cycle (3) CS context-sensitive context CV cardinal vowel cardinal vowels CV consonant–vowel CV phonology D deep D-structure D determiner determiner D diacritic feature diacritic DA discourse analysis discourse xiv List of Abbreviations DAF delayed auditory feedback feedback dat, DAT dative dative dB decibel loudness DDG daughter-dependency daughter-dependency grammar grammar def, DEF definite definite DEL REL delayed release delayed dem, DEM demonstrative demonstrative det, DET determiner determiner DF distinctive feature distinctiveness DICE discourse in common sense discourse in common sense entailment entailment diff, DIFF diffuse diffuse dim, DIM diminutive diminutive dist, DIST distributive distributive DM distributed morphology distributed morphology DO direct object direct (1) DP dependency phonology dependency phonology DP determiner phrase determiner DR default rule default DRS discourse representation discourse representation structure theory DRT discourse representation discourse representation theory theory DS different subject switch reference DTC derivational theory of correspondence hypothesis complexity DTE designated terminal element designated terminal element du dual number dur, DUR durative durative e empty category gap E externalized E-language ECM exceptional case marking raising ECP empty category principle empty category principle -ed past tense form -ed form EGG electroglottogram, electroglottograph electroglottograph(y) elat, ELAT elative elative ELG electrolaryngogram, electrolaryngograph electrolaryngograph(y) EMG electromyogram, electromyograph electromyograph(y) -en past participle form -en form EPG electropalatogram, electropalatograph electropalatograph(y) EPP extended projection principle projection erg, ERG ergative ergative EST extended standard theory extended standard theory EVAL evaluator component evaluator List of Abbreviations xv Term Gloss Relevant entry excl exclusive exclusive (1) f functional f-structure f, F feminine gender F feature contour (2), edge F formant formant F0 fundamental frequency fundamental frequency FCR feature-co-occurrence feature restriction fem, FEM feminine gender foc focus focus freq frequentative frequentative FSG finite-state grammar finite-state grammar FSL finite-state language finite-state grammar FSP functional sentence functional sentence perspective perspective Ft foot foot (1) fut, FUT future future tense fv, FV final vowel final GA General American General American GB government-(and-)binding government-binding theory theory GEN generator component generator gen, GEN genitive genitive GF grammatical function function (1) GLOW Generative Linguists of the Generative Linguists of the Old World Old World GP generative phonology phonology GPSG generalized phrase-structure generalized phrase-structure grammar grammar G2PSG generalized generalized generalized phrasephrase- structure grammar structure grammar H head modification (1) H heavy syllable weight H high tone tone H high variety diglossia hab habitual habitual HMC head movement constraint head movement constraint HP head phrase head HPSG head-driven phrase-structure head-driven phrasegrammar structure grammar Hz hertz cycle (3) I inflection inflection (2) I internalized I-language IA item and arrangement item and arrangement IC immediate constituent constituent ID immediate dominance immediate dominance (2) IDENT identity identity xvi List of Abbreviations IE Indo-European family iff if and only if logical consequence imp imperative imperative imp imperfect imperfect tense imper, IMPER imperative imperative imperf imperfect imperfect tense impf, IMPF imperfect imperfect tense inc incorporation incorporation incep, INCEP inceptive inceptive inch, INCH inchoative inceptive incl inclusive inclusion (3) indef indefinite indefinite indic, INDIC indicative indicative inf, INF infinitive infinitive -ing -ing form of English verb -ing form inst, INST instrumental instrumental inter(rog) interrogative interrogative intr(ans) intransitive transitivity IO indirect object indirect (1) IP inflection phrase inflection (2) IP item and process item and process IPA International Phonetic International Phonetic Alphabet Association IPA International Phonetic International Phonetic Association Association irr irrealis realis KAL knowledge about language knowledge about language l lexical category l-marking L light syllable weight L low tone tone L low variety diglossia LAD language acquisition device language acquisition device LF logical form logical form LFG lexical-functional grammar lexical-functional grammar LIPOC language-independent LIPOC preferred order of constituents loc, LOC locative locative LOT language of thought mentalese LP lexical phonology lexical phonology LP linear precedence linear precedence rule LPC linear prediction coefficient linear prediction m masculine gender m maximal command (2) M modal verb modal M modification modification (1) M morphophonemic (level) harmonic phonology M mot mot masc, MASC masculine gender List of Abbreviations xvii Term Gloss Relevant entry MAX maximality maximality MDP minimal-distance principle minimal-distance principle med medial medial MIT Massachusetts Institute of MIT Technology MLU mean length of utterance mean length of utterance MP metrical phonology metrical phonology MP minimalist program(me) minimalist program(me) MP morphophonemic phonology MS morphological structure distributed morphology n neuter gender n, N noun noun N nasal nasal N nucleus nucleus nas nasal nasal NCC no-crossing constraint no-crossing constraint neg, NEG negative, negation negation neut, NEUT neuter gender NGP natural generative phonology natural generative phonology NLP natural language processing natural language processing NM natural morphology morphology nom, NOM nominal(ization), nominalizer nominal nom, NOM nominative case nominative NP natural phonology phonology NP noun phrase noun NSR nuclear stress rule nucleus (1) NUM number number NVC non-verbal communication communication O object object O onset onset (1) Obj, OBJ object object obl, OBL oblique oblique OCP obligatory contour principle obligatory contour principle OFOM one form–one meaning form (1) OM object marker object OT optimality theory optimality theory p prosodic prosody P participle participle P patient patient P phonetic (level) harmonic phonology P phonological phonology P phrase phrase P postposition postposition P predicate, predicator predicate P preposition preposition part, PART participle participle xviii List of Abbreviations part, PART particle particle (1) part, PART partitive partitive pass, PASS passive passive PCF phonetically consistent form phonetically consistent form per, PER person person perf, PERF perfect(ive) perfect PF perfect perfect PF phonetic form, phonological phonetic form form PIE Proto-Indo-European family pl, PL plural number PL place place PM phrase-marker phrase-marker pos(s), POS(S) possessive, possessor pronoun PP postpositional phrase postposition PP prepositional phrase preposition P&P principles and parameters principle PPT principles and parameters principle theory pr preposition preposition pred predicate predicate prep, PREP preposition preposition pres, PRES present tense (1) pro, PRO pronoun pronoun prog progressive progressive (1) pron pronoun pronoun Prt, PRT particle particle (1) PS phrase structure phrase-structure grammar PSG phrase-structure grammar phrase-structure grammar punct punctual punctual Q qualification qualification Q quantifier quantifier Q question question R reduplicant anchor, reduplication R referring R-expression R root root (3) recip reciprocal reciprocal (2) red reduplication reduplication redup reduplication reduplication refl, REFL reflexive reflexive reflex reflexive reflexive rel, REL relative relative (1) REST revised extended standard revised extended standard theory theory RG relational grammar relational grammar RNR right node raising right node raising RP received pronunciation received pronunciation RRG role and reference grammar role and reference grammar RTN recursive transition network transition network grammar List of Abbreviations xix Term Gloss Relevant entry RTR retracted tongue root root (2) RU radical underspecification underspecification s strong metrical phonology S sentence initial symbol S shallow S-structure S subject subject S surface S-structure S′ clause introduced by S′ subordinator SAAD simple active affirmative SAAD declarative SC small clause small clause SC structural change structural change SCC strict cycle condition cycle (1) SD structural description structural description SFH semantic-feature hypothesis semantics sg, SG singular number SIL Summer Institute of Summer Institute of Linguistics Linguistics sing singular number SM subject marker subject son sonorant sonorant SPE Sound Pattern of English Chomskyan spec, Spec specifier specifier SS same subject switch reference stat, STAT stative stative Sub, SUB subject subject Subj, SUBJ subject subject subj, SUBJ subjunctive subjunctive subord subordination, subordinator subordination SUFF suffix suffix syll syllable syllable t trace trace T transformation transformation T tu (etc.) T forms TAG tree-adjoining grammar tree-adjoining grammar TG transformational grammar transformation TGG transformational generative transformation grammar TMA tense–mood–aspect TMA tns, TNS tense tense TP tense phrase tense tr(ans) transitive transitivity TTR type/token ratio lexical density UC ultimate constituent constituent UG universal grammar universal UR underlying representation underlying xx List of Abbreviations UTAH uniformity of theta-role uniformity of theta-role assignment hypothesis assignment hypothesis v little v little v v, V verb verb V vous (etc.) T forms V vowel consonant V2 verb second verb second VBE Vernacular Black English vernacular voc vocalic vocalic VOT voice-onset time voice-onset time VP verb phrase verb w weak metrical phonology W word (level) harmonic phonology WFR word-formation rule word formation WG word grammar word grammar wh- what, who (etc.) wh- WP word and paradigm word and paradigm y/n yes/no yes–no question List of Abbreviations xxi List of Symbols Alphabetization is on the basis of the name of the symbol, as shown in the second column. The list does not include arbitrary symbols (such as category A, B) or numerical subscripts or superscripts (e.g. NP1). For phonetic symbols, see p. xxv. Term Name Gloss Relevant entry ´ acute indicates a particular diacritic consonant pronunciation ´ acute rising tone nucleus (1) ´ acute stressed foot foot (1) α alpha variable value alpha notation < angle bracket, left must precede precedence

angle bracket, ranks higher than ranking

right double ↔ arrow, reversible relationship biuniqueness bidirectional 1 arrow, curved arc arc ⇒ arrow, double (for transformations) rule level becomes, rewrite as ° arrow, falling terminal juncture juncture (1) → arrow, level becomes, rewrite as rewrite rule → arrow, level sustained juncture juncture (1) Ã arrow, rising rising juncture juncture (1) Ã arrow, rising tonal spreading spreading (3)

• asterisk; zero or more matching Kleene star

Kleene star instances

• asterisk; star unacceptable, acceptability,

ungrammatical asterisk (1)

• asterisk; star multiple instances asterisk (2)
• asterisk; star reconstructed form asterisk (4)
• asterisk; star segment with priority asterisk (5)

association

• asterisk; star boundary tone on asterisk (5)

stressed syllable

• asterisk; star constraint violation asterisk (6)

– bar type of phrasal category bar [ ] bracket notation enclose elements to be bracketing (c) horizontally matched < > brackets, angle enclose graphemes allo- < > brackets, angle interdependency between bracketing (d) optional features { } brackets, curly; enclose alternative bracketing (b), braces elements conjunctive { } brackets, curly; enclose morphemes morpheme braces { } brackets, curly; enclose morphophonemes morphophoneme braces ( ) brackets, round; enclose optional elements bracketing (2a) parentheses / / brackets, slash; enclose phonemes bracketing (3) slashes [ ] brackets, square enclose distinctive features bracketing (3) [ ] brackets, square enclose phonetic segments bracketing (3) [ ] brackets, square enclose structural units in bracketing (1) a string [ ] brackets, square enclose syntactic features bracketing (4) [ ] brackets, square enclose semantic features bracketing (4) . breve unstressed foot foot (1) O circle [round a not associated association line segment] ° circle, subscript devoicing, voicelessness voice ^ circumflex rising-falling nucleus (1) p colon long consonant length x cross grid placeholder metrical grid Å~ cross deletion association line Å~ cross unspecified segment skeletal tier — dash location of element in context (1) a string Δ delta empty element delta = double bar type of phrasal category bar = double line deletion association line ! exclamation mark non-optimal candidate tableau grave indicates a particular diacritic consonant pronunciation grave falling tone nucleus (1) ∨ hacek indicates a particular diacritic consonant pronunciation ∨ hacek falling-rising tone nucleus (1)

• hand optimal candidate tableau

hash; double cross string boundary boundary-symbol

hash; double cross terminal juncture juncture (1)

λ lambda wavelength lambda (2) λ lambda type of logical operator lambda (1) List of Symbols xxiii Term Name Gloss Relevant entry b ligature, high is concatenated with concatenation . ligature, low coarticulation coarticulation —— line existing association association line ------ line, broken structural change association line – macron level tone nucleus (1) – macron bar binding − minus negative binary feature binary feature μ mu moraic level mora % percentage tone associates with edge percentage syllable of a phrase symbol (1) % percentage variation in acceptability percentage symbol (2)

• plus element boundary boundary-symbol
• plus positive binary feature binary feature
• plus plus juncture juncture (1)

′ prime single-bar category bar ″ prime, double double-bar category bar ? question mark marginally acceptable, acceptability marginally grammatical Σ sigma, capital superfoot superfoot Σ sigma, capital sentence initial symbol σ sigma, small foot, syllable head / slash, forward in the context of context (1) / slash, forward single-bar juncture juncture (1) // slash, forward double-bar juncture juncture (1) double ~ tilde contrasts in one dialect dia- ~ tilde links alternants alternation ~ tilde [above nasalization nasal symbol] ~ tilde [through pharyngealization pharyngeal symbol] ≈ tilde, double contrasts in more than diaone dialect Π zero zero morph morpheme xxiv List of Symbols The International Phonetic Alphabet revised 2005 A A An abbreviation for argument in government-binding theory. A-position is a position in D-structure to which an argument (or theta role) can be assigned, such as subject and object; also called an argument-position. It contrasts with A-bar-position (or A′-position), also called a non-argument position, which does not allow the assignment of a theta role, such as the position occupied by an initial wh-item (e.g. who in Who did she ask?). The distinction does not have a clear status within the vp-internal subject hypothesis. A binding relation where the antecedent is in an A-position is said to be A-bound (otherwise, A-free); one to an A-bar-position is A-bar-bound (otherwise, A-bar-free). movement to these positions is handled by A-movement and A-bar-movement, respectively. See also chain (2). abbreviated clause see reduce (3) abbreviation (n.) The everyday sense of this term has been refined in linguistics as part of the study of word-formation, distinguishing several ways in which words can be shortened. Initialisms or alphabetisms reflect the separate pronunciation of the initial letters of the constituent words (TV, COD); acronyms are pronounced as single words (NATO, laser); clipped forms or clippings are reductions of longer forms, usually removing the end of the word (ad from advertisement), but sometimes the beginning (plane), or both beginning and ending together (flu); and blends combine parts of two words (sitcom, motel). abbreviatory (adj.) A term, derived from abbreviation, which appears within linguistics and phonetics as part of the phrase abbreviatory convention – any device used in a formal analysis which allows rules that share common elements to be combined (see bracketing (2)), thus permitting greater economy of statement. abducted (adj.) see vocal folds abessive (adj./n.) A term used in grammatical description to refer to a type of inflection which expresses the meaning of absence, such as would be expressed in English by the preposition ‘without’. The abessive case (‘the A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics 6th Edition. David Crystal © 2008 David Crystal. ISBN: 978-1-405-15296-9 abessive’) is found in Finnish, for example, along with adessive, inessive and several other cases expressing ‘local’ temporal and spatial meanings. A-binding (n.) see binding theory, bound (2) ablative (adj./n.) (abl, ABL) In languages which express grammatical relationships by means of inflections, a term referring to the form taken by a noun phrase (often a single noun or pronoun), typically used in the expression of a range of locative or instrumental meanings. English does not have an ‘ablative case’ (‘an ablative’), as did Latin, but uses other means (the prepositions with, from and by in particular) to express these notions, e.g. He did it with his hands. ablaut (n.) see gradation (2) A-bound (adj.) see bound (2) abrupt (adj.) A term sometimes used in the distinctive feature theory of phonology, as part of the phrase abrupt release: it refers to a sound released suddenly, without the acoustic turbulence of a fricative, as in plosive consonants. Its opposite is delayed release, used to characterize affricates. absolute (adj.) (1) A term used in traditional grammatical description, and occasionally in linguistics, to refer to a sentence constituent which is isolated from or abnormally connected to the rest of the sentence. English displays an absolute use of adverbs and adjectives in sentence-initial position, e.g. However, he arrived later; Happy, she went to sleep. In Latin, there are such exocentric constructions as the ‘ablative absolute’, as in hoc facto (= ‘this having been done’). (2) In linguistic theory, the term refers to a type of universal. An absolute universal is one which characterizes all languages, without exception; it contrasts with relative universal. (3) See relative (3). absolutive (adj./n.) (abs, ABS) A term used in the grammatical description of some languages, such as Inuktitut and Georgian, where there is an ergative system. In this system, there is a formal parallel between the object of a transitive verb and the subject of an intransitive one (i.e. they display the same case), and these are referred to as ‘absolutive’: the subject of the transitive verb is then referred to as ‘ergative’. absorption (n.) (1) A term used in generative grammar for a process in which an element incorporates a syntactic feature that it does not normally possess. An example would be a case feature on a verb, normally assigned to an NP object, which is absorbed by a passive participle. (2) In phonology, an absorption process is seen especially in some tone languages, where a sequence of tones at the same level is conflated. For example, a 2 A-binding falling (high-to-low) contour tone might be followed by a low tone, yielding a possible high–low–low sequence; one low tone would then absorb the other, resulting in a high–low sequence. See also obligatory contour principle, spreading (3). abstract (adj.) (1) (abstr) A term used in phonology to describe any analytical approach which relies on unobservable elements, such as underlying forms; opposed to concrete or natural. Theories vary in the amount of abstractness they permit, and this is sometimes reflected in the title of an individual approach, such as in natural generative phonology. (2) A traditional term used in grammar to describe nouns which lack observable reference, such as thought, mystery and principle; opposed to concrete, where the nouns have physical attributes, such as tree, box and dog. The distinction is treated with caution in linguistics because of the difficulty of deciding which category many nouns belong to, especially when dealing with all aspects of perception and behaviour. Music and happiness, for example, have been called abstract nouns, though the first is perceptible to the senses, and the second can be related to observable behaviour. Linguistically oriented grammars prefer to operate with such formal distinctions as countability. accent (n.) (1) The cumulative auditory effect of those features of pronunciation which identify where a person is from, regionally or socially. The linguistics literature emphasizes that the term refers to pronunciation only, and is thus distinct from dialect, which refers to grammar and vocabulary as well. The investigation of the ways in which accents differ from each other is sometimes called accent studies. Regional accents can relate to any locale, including both rural and urban communities within a country (e.g. ‘West Country’, ‘Liverpool’) as well as national groups speaking the same language (e.g. ‘American’, ‘Australian’), and our impression of other languages (‘foreign accent’, ‘Slavic accent’). Social accents relate to the cultural and educational background of the speaker. Countries with a well-defined traditional social-class system, such as India and Japan, reflect these divisions in language, and accent is often a marker of class. In Britain, the best example of a social accent is the regionally neutral accent associated with a public-school education, and with the related professional domains, such as the Civil Service, the law courts, the Court and the BBC – hence the labels ‘Queen’s English’, ‘BBC English’, and the like. received pronunciation (RP) is the name given to this accent, and because of its regional neutrality RP speakers are sometimes thought of as having ‘no accent’. This is a misleading way of putting it, however: linguistics stresses that everyone must have an accent, though it may not indicate regional origin. The popular label ‘broad accent’ refers to those accents that are markedly different from RP. (2) The emphasis which makes a particular word or syllable stand out in a stream of speech – one talks especially of an accented sound/word/syllable, or the accent(ual) pattern of a phrase/sentence. The term is usually found in a discussion of metre (metrics), where it refers to the ‘beats’ in a line of poetry – the accented syllables, as opposed to the unaccented ones. But any style of spoken language could be described with reference to the relative weight (accentuation) accent 3 of its syllables: one might talk of the ‘strongly accented’ speech of a politician, for instance. Technically, accent is not solely a matter of loudness but also of pitch and duration, especially pitch: comparing the verb record (as in I’m going to record the tune) and the noun (I’ve got a record), the contrast in word accent between record and record is made by the syllables differing in loudness, length and pitch movement. The notion of pitch accent has also been used in the phonological analysis of these languages, referring to cases where there is a restricted distribution of tone within words (as in Japanese). A similar use of these variables is found in the notion of sentence accent (also called ‘contrastive accent’). This is an important aspect of linguistic analysis, especially of intonation, because it can affect the acceptability, the meaning, or the presuppositions of a sentence, e.g. He was wearing a red hat could be heard as a response to Was he wearing a red coat?, whereas He was wearing a red hat would respond to Was he wearing a green hat? The term stress, however, is often used for contrasts of this kind (as in the phrases ‘word stress’ and ‘contrastive stress’). An analysis in terms of pitch accent is also possible (see pitch). The total system of accents in a language is sometimes called the accentual system, and would be part of the study of phonology. The coinage accentology for the study of accents is sometimes found in European linguistics. (3) In graphology, an accent is a mark placed above a letter, showing how that letter is to be pronounced. French accents, for example, include a distinction between é, è and ê. Accents are a type of diacritic. accentology, accentuation (n.) see accent (2) acceptability (n.) The extent to which linguistic data would be judged by native-speakers to be possible in their language. An acceptable utterance is one whose use would be considered permissible or normal. In practice, deciding on the acceptability of an utterance may be full of difficulties. Native-speakers often disagree as to whether an utterance is normal, or even possible. One reason for this is that intuitions differ because of variations in regional and social backgrounds, age, personal preferences, and so on. An utterance may be normal in one dialect, but unacceptable in another, e.g. I ain’t, I be, I am. Much also depends on the extent to which people have been brought up to believe that certain forms of language are ‘correct’ and others are ‘wrong’: many do not accept as desirable those sentences which the prescriptive approach to grammar would criticize, such as I will go tomorrow (for I shall go . . . ), or This is the man I spoke to (for . . . to whom I spoke). To a linguist, all such utterances are acceptable, in so far as a section of the community uses them consistently in speech or writing. The analytic problem is to determine which sections of the community use which utterances on which occasions. Within a dialect, an utterance may be acceptable in one context but unacceptable in another. Linguistics has devised several techniques for investigating the acceptability of linguistic data. These usually take the form of experiments in which native-speakers are asked to evaluate sets of utterances containing those language features over whose acceptability there is some doubt (acceptability tests). It is necessary to have some such agreed techniques for judging acceptability 4 accentology as, especially in speech, very many utterances are produced whose status as sentences is open to question. In one sample of data, someone said, I think it’s the money they’re charging is one thing. The job of the linguist is to determine whether this was a mistake on the speaker’s part, or whether this is a regular feature of a speech system; if the latter, then whether this feature is idiosyncratic, or characteristic of some social group; and so on. Such investigations by their nature are inevitably large-scale, involving many informants and sentence patterns; they are therefore very time-consuming, and are not often carried out. An utterance which is considered unacceptable is marked by an asterisk; if marginally acceptable, usually by a question mark, as follows: the wall was arrived before ?the wall was arrived before by the army sent by the king These conventions are also used to indicate ungrammatical or marginally grammatical sentences. In linguistic theory, though, the difference between the acceptability and the grammaticality of a sentence is important. A sentence may be grammatically correct, according to the rules of the grammar of a language, but none the less unacceptable, for a variety of other reasons. For example, owing to the repeated application of a rule, the internal structure of a sentence may become too complex, exceeding the processing abilities of the speaker: these performance limitations are illustrated in such cases of multiple embedding as This is the malt that the rat that the cat killed ate, which is much less acceptable than This is the malt that the rat ate, despite the fact that the same grammatical operations have been used. In generative linguistic theory, variations in acceptability are analysed in terms of performance; grammaticality, by contrast, is a matter of competence. acceptable (adj.) see acceptability access (n.) A term derived from psychology, and used in psycholinguistics to refer to the extent to which a speaker can retrieve a linguistic unit from memory. Problems of access are evident in ‘tip-of-the-tongue’ and tongue-slip phenomena, as well as in the varying times it takes someone to react to structures involving different degrees of complexity. It is especially encountered in studies of lexical access. accessibility hierarchy In relational grammar, a term used to refer to a postulated linear series of dependencies between nominal entities, which controls the applicability of syntactic rules. In the hierarchy, each entity in the series more freely undergoes syntactic rules than the items to the right. For example, the nominal operating as a subject is said to be ‘more accessible’ than that operating as direct object; the direct object is more accessible than the indirect object; and so on. The notion has been applied to several grammatical areas (e.g. relative clause formation, the use of reflexives, and quantifiers), but the full application of this principle remains to be explored. accessibility hierarchy 5 accessible (adj.) see accessibility hierarchy accidence (n.) Most traditional grammars recognize accidence as one of their main subdivisions, along with syntax. It refers to the variations in word structure which express grammatical meanings, such as case, tense, number and gender. In English, for example, the difference between walk, walks, walking and walked or between boy, boys, boy’s and boys’ would be described as part of the accidence section of a grammar. In linguistics, this term is rarely used, as these phenomena are handled under the heading of morphology, where they are seen as one process of word-formation alongside several others. accidental gap see gap (1) accommodate (v.) see accommodation (1) accommodation (n.) (1) A theory in sociolinguistics which aims to explain why people modify their style of speaking (accommodate) to become more like or less like that of their addressee(s). For example, among the reasons why people converge towards the speech pattern of their listener are the desires to identify more closely with the listener, to win social approval, or simply to increase the communicative efficiency of the interaction. (2) In semantics and pragmatics, a term which refers to the acceptance by a hearer of a presupposition made by a speaker that was not previously part of their common ground. For example, on hearing ‘All Mary’s children have got colds’, we would accept the presupposition that Mary has children, even if we were previously unaware of the fact. Accommodation is often modelled using rules which copy the presupposition into the representation of the preceding discourse. accomplishment (n.) A category used in the classification of predicates in terms of their aspectual properties (or ‘Aktionsarten’) devised by US philosopher Zeno Vendler (1921–2004). Accomplishment predicates represent a type of process event which extends in time but reaches a culmination point: build, for example, is of this type, being both durative and telic. In this system they contrast with two other types of process predicate (achievement and activity) and with state predicates. accusative (adj./n.) (acc, ACC) In languages which express grammatical relationships by means of inflections, this term refers to the form taken by a noun phrase (often a single noun or pronoun) when it is the object of a verb. In Latin, for example, I see the man would be Video hominem and not *Video homo, and hominem would be referred to as being ‘in the accusative case’. linguists emphasize that it can be misleading to use such terms as ‘accusative’ in languages which do not inflect words in this way. In English, for instance, whether a word is the object of the verb or not usually depends on word-order, as in Dog bites postman, where the recipient of the action is plainly the postman. Some traditional grammars would say here that postman is therefore ‘accusative’, but as there is no formal change between this word’s use 6 accessible as object and its use as subject (Postman bites dog) linguists argue that this is a misleading use of the term, and avoid using it in such contexts. The only instance of a genuine accusative form of a word in English is in some pronouns, e.g. He saw him, She saw her, The man whom I saw, and even here many linguists would prefer to use a neutral term, such as ‘objective case’, to avoid the connotations of traditional grammars. A distinction is often made between accusative languages (where subjects and objects can be distinguished using morphological or abstract cases) and ergative languages; ergative verbs are sometimes called unaccusative verbs. In accounts which rely on an abstract notion of case, verbs which take objects are sometimes called accusative verbs. accusativity (n.) see accusative achievement (n.) A category used in the classification of predicates in terms of their aspectual properties (or ‘Aktionsarten’) devised by US philosopher Zeno Vendler (1921–2004). Achievement predicates represent a type of process event which takes place instantaneously: arrive, for example, is of this type, being punctual in character. In this system they contrast with two other types of process predicate (accomplishment and activity) and with state predicates. acoustic cue see acoustic feature acoustic domain analog see speech synthesis acoustic feature A characteristic of a speech sound when analysed in physical terms, e.g. fundamental frequency, amplitude, harmonic structure. Such analyses are provided by acoustic phonetics, and it is possible to make acoustic classifications of speech sounds based upon such features, as when one classifies vowels in terms of their formant structure. The acoustic properties of a sound which aid its identification in speech are known as acoustic cues. In the distinctive feature theory of phonology of Jakobson and Halle (see Jakobsonian), acoustic features are the primary means of defining the binary oppositions that constitute the phonological system of a language. acoustic phonetics The branch of phonetics which studies the physical properties of speech sound, as transmitted between mouth and ear, according to the principles of acoustics (the branch of physics devoted to the study of sound). It is wholly dependent on the use of instrumental techniques of investigation, particularly electronics, and some grounding in physics and mathematics is a prerequisite for advanced study of this subject. Its importance to the phonetician is that acoustic analysis can provide a clear, objective datum for investigation of speech – the physical ‘facts’ of utterance. In this way, acoustic evidence is often referred to when one wants to support an analysis being made in articulatory or auditory phonetic terms. On the other hand, it is important not to become too reliant on acoustic analyses, which are subject to mechanical limitations (e.g. the need to calibrate measuring devices accurately), and which are often themselves open to multiple interpretations. Sometimes, indeed, acoustic and auditory analyses of a sound conflict – for example, in intonation studies, one may hear a speech melody as rising, whereas the acoustic facts show the acoustic phonetics 7 fundamental frequency of the sound to be steady. In such cases, it is for phoneticians to decide which evidence they will pay more attention to; there has been a longstanding debate concerning the respective merits of physical (i.e. acoustic) as opposed to psychological (i.e. auditory) solutions to such problems, and how apparent conflicts of this kind can be resolved. acquire (v.) see acquisition acquisition (n.) (1) In the study of the growth of language in children, a term referring to the process or result of learning (acquiring) a particular aspect of a language, and ultimately the language as a whole. Child language acquisition (or first-language acquisition) is the label usually given to the field of studies involved. The subject has involved the postulation of ‘stages’ of acquisition, defined chronologically, or in relation to other aspects of behaviour, which it is suggested apply generally to children; and there has been considerable discussion of the nature of the learning strategies which are used in the process of acquiring language, and of the criteria which can decide when a structure has been acquired. Some theorists have made a distinction between ‘acquisition’ and development, the former referring to the learning of a linguistic rule (of grammar, phonology, semantics), the latter to the further use of this rule in an increasingly wide range of linguistic and social situations. Others see no clear distinction between these two facets of language learning, and use the terms interchangeably. The term child language development has also come to be used for discourse-based studies of child language. In early generative linguistics, the term language acquisition device (LAD) was introduced to refer to a model of language learning in which the infant is credited with an innate predisposition to acquire linguistic structure. This view is usually opposed to those where language acquisition is seen as a process of imitation-learning or as a reflex of cognitive development. See also behaviourism, emergentism, innateness. (2) Acquisition is also used in the context of learning a foreign language: ‘foreign-’ or ‘second-language’ acquisition is thus distinguished from ‘firstlanguage’ or ‘mother-tongue’ acquisition. In this context, acquisition is sometimes opposed to learning: the former is viewed as an environmentally natural process, the primary force behind foreign-language fluency; the latter is seen as an instructional process which takes place in a teaching context, guiding the performance of the speaker. acrolect (n.) A term used by some sociolinguists, in the study of the development of creole languages, to refer to a prestige or standard variety (or lect) to which it is possible to compare other lects. An acrolectal variety is contrasted with a mesolect and a basilect. acronym (n.) see abbreviation across-the-board (ATB) A term used in various branches of linguistics for an effect which applies to the whole of a designated linguistic system or subsystem. In particular, in language acquisition it represents a view of phonological 8 acquire development which asserts that, when children introduce a new pronunciation, the new form spreads to all the words in which it would be found in adult speech – for example, if /l/ and /j/ are at first both pronounced [j], and [l] is later acquired, it will be used only in adult words which contain /l/, and not /j/. There is no implication that the change takes place instantaneously. In generative grammar, the term has also been used to refer to phenomena which affect all the constituents in a co-ordinate structure; for example, a wh-phrase moves acrossthe- board in What did Mary make and sell? See also diffusion. actant (n.) In valency grammar, a functional unit determined by the valency of the verb; opposed to circonstant. Examples would include subject and direct object. action (n.) see actor–action–goal active (adj./n.) (1) (act, ACT) A term used in the grammatical analysis of voice, referring to a sentence, clause, or verb form where, from a semantic point of view, the grammatical subject is typically the actor, in relation to the verb, e.g. The boy wrote a letter. ‘Active voice’ (or ‘the active’) is contrasted with passive, and sometimes with other forms of the verb, e.g. the ‘middle voice’ in Greek. (2) See articulation (1). active knowledge A term used, especially in relation to language learning, for the knowledge of language which a user actively employs in speaking or writing; it contrasts with passive knowledge, which is what a person understands in the speech or writing of others. Native speakers’ passive knowledge of vocabulary (passive vocabulary), for example, is much greater than their active knowledge (active vocabulary): people know far more words than they use. activity (n.) A category used in the classification of predicates in terms of their aspectual properties (or ‘Aktionsarten’) devised by US philosopher Zeno Vendler (1921–2004). Activity predicates represent a type of process event which need not reach a culmination point: walk, for example, is of this type, being dynamic and atelic in character. In this system they contrast with two other types of process predicate (accomplishment and achievement) and with state predicates. actor–action–goal A phrase used in the grammatical and semantic analysis of sentence patterns, to characterize the typical sequence of functions within statements in many languages. In the sentence John saw a duck, for example, John is the actor, saw the action, and a duck the goal. On the other hand, languages display several other ‘favourite’ sequences, such as Welsh, where the unmarked sequence is action–actor–goal. The phrase is widely used, but not without criticism, as the semantic implications of terms such as ‘actor’ do not always coincide with the grammatical facts, e.g. in The stone moved, the subject of the sentence is hardly an ‘actor’ in the same sense as John is above. actor–action–goal 9 actualization (n.) A term used by some linguists to refer to the physical expression of an abstract linguistic unit; e.g. phonemes are actualized in phonic substance as phones, morphemes as morphs. Any underlying form may be seen as having a corresponding actualization in substance. realization is a more widely used term. See also exponence. acute (adj.) One of the features of sound set up by Jakobson and Halle (see Jakobsonian) in their distinctive feature theory of phonology, to handle variations in place of articulation; its opposite is grave. Acute sounds are defined articulatorily and acoustically as those involving a medial articulation in the vocal tract, and a concentration of acoustic energy in the higher frequencies; examples of [+acute] sounds are front vowels, and dental, alveolar and palatal consonants. additive bilingualism see bilingual address (n.) The general use of this term, in the sense of ‘the manner of referring to someone in direct linguistic interaction’, has provided sociolinguistics with a major field of study. Forms of address (or terms of address) have been analysed between different types of participant in different social situations, and rules proposed to explain the speaker’s choice of terms, e.g. governing the use of first names, titles, intimate pronouns, etc. Social psychological concepts, such as power and solidarity, have been suggested as particularly significant factors in understanding address systems, i.e. the system of rules used by a speaker or group, governing their use of such forms as tu and vous (T forms and V forms). addressee (n.) A term used in linguistics, especially in pragmatics, to refer to one of the primary participant roles, along with speaker, in a linguistic interaction. The notion is also relevant in sociolinguistics, where the language of addressees is central to the notion of accommodation, and in grammar, where taking account of an addressee may influence the choice of pronoun (see inclusive) or motivate a particular honorific form. adducted (adj.) see vocal folds adequacy (n.) A term used in linguistic theory as part of the evaluation of levels of success in the writing of grammars. Several sets of distinctions based on this notion have been made. External adequacy judges a grammar in terms of how well it corresponds to the data (which are ‘external’ to the grammar); internal adequacy is a judgement based on the ‘internal’ characteristics of the grammar, such as its simplicity, elegance, etc. From a different point of view, grammars are said to be weakly adequate if they generate some desired set of sentences; they are strongly adequate if they not only do this but also assign to each sentence the correct structural description. An alternative formulation recognizes three levels of achievement in grammars: observational adequacy is achieved when a grammar generates all of a particular sample (corpus) of data, correctly predicting which sentences are well formed; descriptive adequacy is achieved when a grammar goes beyond this, and describes the intuitions (competence) of the language’s speakers; explanatory adequacy is achieved 10 actualization when a principled basis is established for deciding between alternative grammars, all of which are descriptively adequate. More specifically, an explanatorily adequate grammar will explain why language acquisition in a relatively short period of time is possible on the basis of primary linguistic data. adequate (adj.) see adequacy adessive (adj./n.) A term used in grammatical description to refer to a type of inflection which expresses the meaning of presence ‘at’ or ‘near’ a place. The ‘adessive case’ (‘the adessive’) is found in Finnish, for example, along with allative, elative and several other cases expressing ‘local’ temporal and spatial meanings. adicity (n.) see valency adjacency (n.) see adjacent adjacency condition A condition on the assignment of case in governmentbinding theory which blocks Case-assignment to those noun phrases not adjacent to the Case-assigner. Since the Case filter requires every overt NP to be Case-marked, the adjacency condition forces NP complements to appear closer to their Case-assigner, and thus to precede non-NP complements, as in English John put a book on the shelf but not *John put on the shelf a book. adjacency pair A term used in sociolinguistic analyses of conversational interaction to refer to a single stimulus-plus-response sequence by the participants. Adjacency pairs have been analysed in terms of their role in initiating, maintaining and closing conversations (e.g. the various conventions of greeting, leave-taking, topic-changing), and constitute, it has been suggested, an important methodological concept in investigating the ethnography of communication. adjacent (adj.) An application of the general sense of this term in several areas of linguistics, especially in generative models of language, where it refers specifically to neighbouring elements in a representation. For example, some phonological models require a ‘locality condition’: phonological rules apply only between elements which are next to each other on a given tier. In feature geometry, for instance, the neighbouring representation of features or nodes on a tier are said to be adjacent, and those separated by other elements to be non-adjacent. In this context, the notion of adjacency is sometimes extended to include features on different tiers, which count as adjacent if they are linked to adjacent root nodes. In metrical phonology, the ‘metrical locality principle’ requires that rules refer only to elements at the same or adjacent layers of metrical structure. See also adjacency pair, adjacency condition, locality (2). adjectival (adj./n.) see adjective adjective (n.) (A, adj, ADJ) A term used in the grammatical classification of words to refer to the main set of items which specify the attributes of nouns. From a formal point of view, four criteria are generally invoked to define the adjective 11 class in English (and similar kinds of criteria establish the class in other languages): they can occur within the noun phrase, i.e. they function in the attributive position, e.g. the big man; they can occur in a post-verbal or predicative position, e.g. the man is big; he called it stupid; they can be premodified by an intensifier, such as very, e.g. the very big man; and they can be used in a comparative and a superlative form, either by inflection (e.g. big, bigger, biggest) or periphrastically (e.g. interesting, more interesting, most interesting). However, not all adjectives satisfy all these criteria (e.g. major, as in a major question, does not occur predicatively – cf. *The question is major), and the subclassification of adjectives has proved quite complex. Both narrow and broad applications of the term ‘adjective’ will be found in grammars. In its broadest sense it could include everything between the determiner and the noun, in such a phrase as the vicar’s fine old English garden chair; but many linguists prefer to restrict it to the items which satisfy most or all of the above criteria (to include only fine and old, in this example), the other items being called ‘adjective-like’ or adjectivals. Adjectives may also be the heads of phrases (adjective or adjectival phrases (abbreviated AP or AdjP), such as that’s very important), and an adjectival function is sometimes recognized for certain types of clause (e.g. he’s the man I saw). See attributive, predicative. adjoin (v.) see adjunction adjunct (n.) A term used in grammatical theory to refer to an optional or secondary element in a construction: an adjunct may be removed without the structural identity of the rest of the construction being affected. The clearest examples at sentence level are adverbials, e.g. John kicked the ball yesterday instead of John kicked the ball, but not *John kicked yesterday, etc.; but other elements have been classed as adjunctival, in various descriptions, such as vocatives and adjectives. Many adjuncts can also be analysed as modifiers, attached to the head of a phrase (as with adjectives, and some adverbs). The term may be given a highly restricted sense, as when it is used in Quirk grammar to refer to a subclass of adverbials. In X-bar syntax, an adjunct is one of the major components of a phrasal category (the others being head, complement and specifier). adjunction (n.) A basic syntactic operation in transformational grammar (TG) referring to a rule which places certain elements of structure in adjacent positions, with the aim of specifying how these structures fit together in larger units. In classical TG, several types of adjunction were recognized. In sisteradjunction two elements were formally adjoined under a particular node and thus became sister constituents of that node. For example, in one formulation of the verb phrase, the negative particle was ‘sister-adjoined’ to the elements modal and tense, as in (a) below. (A different, but related, formal operation was known as daughter-adjunction.) Chomsky-adjunction provided an alternative way of handling this situation, and is now the only type of adjunction recognized in government-binding theory. This suggestion involves adjoining an element to a node: a copy of this node is then made immediately above it, as in (b) below. Each of the nodes in Chomskyan adjunction structure is 12 adjoin called a ‘segment’, and the two together are called a ‘category’. In (b), each of the Modals is a segment, and the category Modal is a combination of the two. A category can, but a segment cannot, dominate. This ensures that whatever happens to modal will also happens to not – for instance, contracted not (n’t) needs to stay with the modal if the latter is moved, as in won’t he, can’t he, etc. It is thus claimed that this operation allows linguistically significant generalizations to be made which might otherwise be missed, or which would be handled less economically. In government-binding theory, movement rules involve either (Chomsky-) adjunction or substitution. See also stray. adstratum 13 adjunctival (adj./n.) see adjunct adnominal (adj./n.) A term used by some grammarians to refer to the elements in a noun phrase which modify a noun (an analogy with adverbial), such as adjectives, prepositional phrases and ‘possessive’ nouns, e.g. the big hat, the hat in the box, the vicar’s hat. A description in terms of ‘adnominal’ elements may also be used in the classification of relative clauses (e.g. the car which she bought . . .). adposition (n.) A term sometimes used in grammar to subsume the two categories of preposition and postposition. It proves useful when there is a need to emphasize the adjacency of these categories to the noun, without having to choose whether the category precedes or follows. adstratal (adj.) see adstratum adstratum (n.) A term sometimes used in sociolinguistics, referring to features in a language which have resulted from contact with a neighbouring language. The process of convergence may lead to the development of a (a) Aux Modal will Tense Present not (b) Aux Modal Modal Tense Present will not linguistic area. Adstratal features contrast with those found in the substratum and superstratum, where a single language has been influenced by some other, thus further differentiating it from neighbouring languages. adultocentric (adj.) see adultomorphic adultomorphic (adj.) A label sometimes used in language acquisition studies, especially in the 1970s, to characterize an analysis of children’s speech in terms which were originally devised for the study of the adult language; also called adultomorphic. Examples include referring to allgone as an elliptical sentence, or describing babbling using the international phonetic alphabet. It is, of course, difficult to devise a terminology or notation for child speech which is largely or totally free of adult values, but, it is argued, caution is none the less needed to avoid introducing too many adult assumptions, and as a consequence attributing to children a knowledge of language which they do not possess. advanced tongue root see root (2) advancement (n.) A term used in relational grammar for a class of relationchanging processes. A noun phrase which bears a particular grammatical relation to some verb comes to bear another grammatical relation to that verb, higher up the relational hierarchy, e.g. a process converting an object to a subject. See also promotion (1). adverb (n.) (A, adv, ADV) A term used in the grammatical classification of words to refer to a heterogeneous group of items whose most frequent function is to specify the mode of action of the verb. In English, many (by no means all) adverbs are signalled by the use of the -ly ending, e.g. quickly, but cf. soon. syntactically, one can relate adverbs to such questions as how, where, when and why, and classify them accordingly, as adverbs of ‘manner’, ‘place’, ‘time’, etc.; but as soon as this is done the functional equivalence of adverbs, adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, noun phrases, and adverb clauses becomes apparent, e.g. A: When is she going? B: Now/Very soon/In five minutes/Next week/When the bell rings. An ‘adverb phrase’ (often abbreviated as AdvP) is a phrase with an adverb as its head, e.g. very slowly, quite soon. The term adverbial is widely used as a general term which subsumes all five categories. ‘Adverb’ is thus a word-class (along with noun, adjective, etc.), whereas ‘adverbial’ is an element of clause structure (along with subject, object, etc.), and the two usages need to be kept clearly distinct. Within adverbials, many syntactic roles have been identified, of which verb modification has traditionally been seen as central. A function of adverbials as sentence modifiers or sentence connectors has been emphasized in linguistic studies, e.g. However/Moreover/Actually/Frankly . . . I think she was right. Several other classes of items, very different in distribution and function, have also been brought under the heading of ‘adverb(ial)’, such as intensifiers (e.g. very, awfully) and negative particles (e.g. not); but often linguistic studies set these up as distinct word-classes. See also manner adverb(ial), quantifier, relative (1). 14 adultocentric adverb clause see adverb adverbial (adj./n.) see adverb adverb phrase see adverb adversative (adj./n.) In grammar and semantics, a form or construction which expresses an antithetical circumstance. Adversative meaning can be expressed in several grammatical ways (as ‘adversatives’), such as through a conjunction (but), adverbial (however, nevertheless, yet, in spite of that, on the other hand), or preposition (despite, except, apart from, notwithstanding). aerometry (n.) In phonetics, the measurement of airflow during speech; also called electroaerometry. Several instruments, such as the electroaerometer, have been designed to provide such data, using a special face mask which allows separate measures of airflow to be made from mouth and nose. affect (n.) A term sometimes used in semantics as part of a classification of types of meaning: it refers to the attitudinal element in meaning, as in the differing emotional associations (or connotations) of lexical items (e.g. a youth/youngster stood on the corner) or the expression of attitude (or affect) in intonation. Affective meaning is usually opposed to cognitive meaning. Alternative terms include emotive and attitudinal. affect alpha A maximally general notion introduced into governmentbinding theory, subsuming the three operations of ‘move alpha’ (or ‘alpha movement’), ‘insert alpha’ (or ‘alpha insertion’) and ‘delete alpha’ (or ‘alpha deletion’). It could be glossed as ‘do anything to any category’. See alpha notation, move alpha. affected (adj.) A term used by some linguists as part of the grammatical or semantic analysis of a sentence in terms of cases or participant roles: it usually refers to an entity (animate or inanimate) which does not cause the happening denoted by the verb, but is directly involved in some other way. It is typically the role of the direct object, e.g. I kicked the ball. patient, objective and goal have sometimes been used in this sense, but alternative interpretations for these terms are common. affective (adj.) see affect affirmative (adj./n.) A term used in grammatical description to refer to a type of sentence or verb which has no marker of negation, i.e. it is expressing an assertion. The ‘affirmative’, or positive, ‘pole’ of this contrast is opposed to ‘negative’, and the grammatical system involved is often referred to under the heading of polarity. affix (n.) (AFF) (1) The collective term for the types of formative that can be used only when added to another morpheme (the root or stem), i.e. affixes affix 15 are a type of ‘bound’ morpheme. Affixes are limited in number in a language, and are generally classified into three types, depending on their position with reference to the root or stem of the word: those which are added to the beginning of a root/stem (prefixes), e.g. unhappy; those which follow (suffixes), e.g. happiness; and those which occur within a root/stem (infixes). Less common terms include circumfix or ambifix, for a combination of prefix and suffix (as in en-light-en). The morphological process whereby grammatical or lexical information is added to a stem is known as affixation (‘prefixation’, ‘suffixation’, ‘infixation’). From an alternative point of view, affixes may be divided into inflectional and derivational types. The number of affixes in a word has been suggested as one of the criteria for classifying languages into types (the affix(ing) index). Languages which express grammatical relationships primarily through the use of affixes are known as affixing languages, e.g. a ‘prefixing’ language (as in Bantu), or a ‘suffixing’ language (as in Latin or Greek). In generative grammar, the term ‘affix’ applies to such notions as ‘present’ and ‘past’, as well as -ing, be, have, etc., in the formulation of rules. Affix hopping, in this approach, is an obligatory transformational rule which attaches an affix to the appropriate formative in a string: the affix ‘hops’ over the verb, which is adjacent to it, e.g. -ing+go becoming go+-ing. (2) In the demisyllabic analysis of syllables, the affix is an optional element attached to the syllabic core. Two types of affix are recognized: prefix (p-fix) and suffix (s-fix), the abbreviated forms being preferred in order to avoid terminological confusion with the corresponding notions in morphology. The point of division between core and affix is shown notationally by a dot. affixal morphology An approach to morphology which claims that the only permissible morphological operation is the combining of affixes and stems (other alternations, such as gradation or deletion, are part of the phonology). This restriction is absent in non-affixal morphology. affixation (n.), affix-hopping (n.), affixing (adj.) see affix affricate (n.) A term used in the classification of consonant sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation: it refers to a sound made when the air-pressure behind a complete closure in the vocal tract is gradually released; the initial release produces a plosive, but the separation which follows is sufficiently slow to produce audible friction, and there is thus a fricative element in the sound also. However, the duration of the friction is usually not as long as would be the case of an independent fricative sound. If it is very brief indeed, the term affrication is used; in some English dialects, such as Cockney, affricated plosives may be heard, such as [ts] and [dz], the auditory brevity of the friction element being indicated in the transcription by the small symbols. It is, then, the combination of plosion and friction which identifies an affricate. In English, only [t] and [d] are released in this way, as in ch-[ Ä] of chip and j-[u] of just. German examples are [pf-] pfennig, ‘penny’ and [ts] zu, ‘to’. 16 affixal morphology While affricates are phonetically easy to define, it is often a problem for phonological analysis to decide whether a sequence of plosive and fricative elements constitutes a single functional unit, or is best analysed as two separate units. English [ Ä], for example, occurs initially, medially and finally in a word, readily contrasting with other phonemes, e.g. chip/sip, richer/ripper, patch/pat. On the other hand [tr], while occurring initially and medially (trip/sip, petrol/ petal), does not occur finally. Further, [tθ] only occurs finally (eighth/eight). Phonetically, all could be considered affricates; but, phonologically, there would be difference of opinion as to whether those with a restricted distribution could usefully be identified in this way. affricated (adj.), affrication (n.) see affricate African-American English see vernacular agent (n.) see agentive agentive (adj./n.) (AGT) A term used in grammatical description to refer to a form or construction whose typical function in a sentence is to specify the means whereby a particular action came about (the agent). In some languages, the term is used as one of the cases for nouns, along with accusative, etc. In English, the term has especial relevance with reference to the passive construction, where the agent may be expressed or unexpressed (agentless) (e.g. the man was bitten [by a snake]). In active constructions in English, the agent is usually the grammatical subject, but in some sentences (and often in some other languages) a more complex statement of agentive function is required (as in such sentences as The window broke (see ergative) and We ran the car out of petrol). ‘Agentive’ (later, ‘agent’) has a special status in several linguistic theories, such as case grammar and government-binding theory, where it is defined similarly to the above, but is seen as one of a fixed set of semantic cases or roles (theta roles), along with objective, dative, etc. The term counter-agent is also used in the context of case grammar. See semantic role. agentive passive see passive agentless (adj.) see agentive agglutinating (adj.), agglutination (n.) see agglutinative agglutinative (adj.) A term which characterizes a type of language established by comparative linguistics using structural (as opposed to diachronic) criteria, and focusing on the characteristics of the word: in agglutinative or agglutinating languages, words typically contain a linear sequence of morphs – as seen in English dis/establish/ment – and thus contrast with isolating and inflectional languages. As always in such classifications, the categories are not clear-cut: different languages will display the characteristic of agglutination to a greater or lesser degree. Languages which display agglutination to a major extent include Turkish and Japanese. agglutinative 17 AGR /caìv/ see agreement agrammatic speech see agrammatism agrammatism (n.) A term traditionally used in language pathology, as part of the study of aphasia, referring to a type of speech production characterized by telegraphic syntactic structures, the loss of function words and inflections, and a generally reduced grammatical range; also called agrammatic speech and noted especially in Broca’s (expressive) aphasia. There may also be problems of comprehension. The notion has come to attract research interest in neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics as part of the study of the way the brain processes language. A distinction was traditionally drawn between agrammatism (the omission of items) and paragrammatism (the deviant replacement of items), but as both types of symptoms are often found in the same patient, in varying degrees, the dichotomy is now felt to obscure rather than clarify the nature of the phenomenon. The terms are much more likely to be encountered in language pathology than in psycholinguistics. agree (v.) see agreement agreement (n.) A traditional term used in grammatical theory and description to refer to a formal relationship between elements, whereby a form of one word requires a corresponding form of another (i.e. the forms agree). In Latin, for example, agreement between elements is of central importance, being one of the main means of expressing grammatical relationships, in the absence of fixed patterns of word-order. The term concord has been more widely used in linguistic studies, but in generative linguistics ‘agreement’ resurfaced with a new range of application. In government-binding theory, agreement marking (AGR) of person, gender or number in finite verbs plays an important role in binding theory and case theory. In generalized phrase-structure grammar, the control agreement principle (CAP) is a semantically based principle governing the distribution of agreement marking. In the minimalist programme, agree allows the checking of features without movement – for example, checking the Case feature on an object DP without moving the object. The checking feature (probe) must c-command the checked feature (goal). airstream mechanism A term used in phonetics for a physiological process which provides a source of energy capable of being used in speech sound production. Air is moved inwards or outwards by the movement of this mechanism, producing respectively an ingressive and an egressive airflow. The main initiator of air movement is the lungs (the pulmonic airstream), which underlies the majority of human speech sounds. The ‘glottalic’ airstream mechanism, as its name suggests, uses the movement of the glottis (the aperture between the vocal folds) as the source of energy (see glottal). The ‘velaric’ airstream mechanism, also as its name suggests, involves an airflow produced by a movement of the back of the tongue against the velum (see velar). It is also possible to start air vibrating using other movable parts of the vocal tract, such as the cheeks or the oesophagus, but these are not methods used in normal speech production. The use of the cheeks produces a ‘buccal’ voice (the basis for 18 AGR the Donald Duck effect); the ‘oesophageal’ voice is characteristic of the speech taught to people who have had their larynx surgically removed. Aktionsart /akt}cvänswpt/ (n.), plural Aktionsarten see aspect alethic /vclipθ}k/ (adj.) A term derived from modal logic and used by some linguists as part of a theoretical framework for the analysis of modal verbs and related structures in language. Alethic modality is concerned with the necessary or contingent truth of propositions, e.g. the use of the modal in the sentence A triangle must have three sides, i.e. ‘It is impossible for a triangle not to have three sides.’ It contrasts with epistemic and deontic modality, which are concerned with obligation and knowledge, respectively. algorithm (n.) An application in linguistics and phonetics of the general use of this term in cybernetics, computing, etc., referring to a procedure which applies mechanically in a finite number of precisely specified steps. Complex operations may frequently be characterized as algorithms by breaking them down into a sequence of simpler operations, as in the flow chart of a computer program. The main use of algorithmic reasoning in linguistics is found in the analytic statements of a generative grammar. alienability (n.) see alienable alienable (adj.) A term used in grammatical analysis to refer to a type of possessive relationship formally marked in some languages (e.g. Chinese). If a possessed item is seen as having only a temporary or non-essential dependence on a possessor, it is said to be ‘alienable’, whereas if its relationship to the possessor is a permanent or necessary one, it is inalienable. Distinctions of alienable possession (or alienability) are not morphologically marked in English, but semantically the contrast can be seen in the boy’s book (alienable) and the boy’s leg (inalienable). ALIGN see alignment alignment (n.) (ALIGN) A family of constraints in optimality theory requiring that the domain of a feature extends to the edge of a constituent – either the right edge, or the left edge, or both. Alignment would be used to handle such cases as a language where a feature of nasality appears only at the left edge of a stem or root, or the right edge of a particular tone coincides with the right edge of a syllable. Generalized alignment is a schema for constraints which aligns (or anchors) elements in two strings. In relation to morphology, for example, it handles the order of morphemes, requiring that the edge of one constituent coincides with the edge of another, such as the right edge of a reduplicant with the left edge of a base (i.e. thereby ensuring that the reduplicant comes before the base). allative (adj./n.) (all, ALL) A term used in grammatical description to refer to a type of inflection which expresses the meaning of motion ‘to’ or ‘towards’ a place. The ‘allative case’ (‘the allative’) is found in Finnish, for example, along allative 19 with illative, adessive and several other cases expressing ‘local’ temporal and spatial meanings. allegro (adj.) see lento allo- A prefix used generally in linguistics to refer to any noticeable variation in the form of a linguistic unit which does not affect that unit’s functional identity in the language. The formal variation noted is not linguistically distinctive, i.e. no change of meaning is involved. The written language, for example, consists of a series of letters, or graphemes, but each of these graphemes can be written in several different ways, depending on such matters as linguistic context, choice of type, handwriting variation, and so on, e.g. ‘a letter A’ may appear as A, a, a, a, etc. Each of these possibilities is a graphic variant of the abstract grapheme (A): they are all allographs of the grapheme (A). The identity of the word cat stays the same, regardless of whether it is written cat, cAt, cat, etc. (though not all of these would be equally acceptable). The first relationship of this kind to be established was in phonology, viz. the relationship of allophones to phonemes. The phonemes of a language are abstractions, and the particular phonetic shape they take depends on many factors, especially their position in relation to other sounds in an utterance (see complementary distribution). The English phoneme /t/ for example, is usually articulated in alveolar position (as in eight), but it may occur in dental position, as in eighth, where it has been influenced by the place of articulation of the th sound following. We would thus talk of the alveolar and dental allophones of /t/ in this example. Many allophones are always in principle possible for any phoneme, given the wide range of idiosyncratic pronunciations which exist in a speech community (see free variation). Textbooks provide information about the major variants, viz. those clearly conditioned by linguistic or social (e.g. accent) contexts. From a terminological point of view, one may also refer to the above phenomenon as an allophonic variant of a phoneme (sometimes simply a ‘phonetic variant’ or a ‘sub-phonemic variant’). The relationship between allophones and phonemes is one of realization (or exponence): a phoneme is ‘realized’ by its allophones. The differences between allophones can also be stated using phonological rules or (as in optimality theory) through the interaction of constraints. In the latter context, allophony is the term used for cases where a feature does not occur in an inventory, but a context-specific condition overrides the general prohibition. Later, the notion of variant units in grammar was established, on analogy with the allophone/phoneme distinction. Many of the morphemes of the language appear in different forms, depending on the context in which they appear. The morpheme which expresses plurality in English, for instance, appears in several variants: cap–caps, log–logs, force–forces, mouse–mice, sheep–sheep, etc. Each of these variant forms – the voiceless [s] of caps, the voiced [z] of logs, the irregular shape of mice, and so on – would be said to be an allomorph of the plural morpheme, and the phenomenon is called allomorphy. They have also been referred to as morpheme (or morphemic) alternants or allomorphic variants. 20 allegro These are the main allo- terms which have been introduced, all opposed to an -emic term, and the suggestion has been made that this relationship, of allo- to -eme, is an important explanatory principle in linguistic analysis. Certainly many other such allo- relationships have been postulated since the terminology was first introduced in the 1930s. Some are allochrone (non-distinctive variant of a minimal unit of length, or chroneme), allokine (non-distinctive variant of a kineme, i.e. a minimal unit of body movement, such as a gesture or facial expression) and alloseme (non-distinctive variant of a minimal unit of meaning, or sememe). None has proved to be as useful as allophone or allomorph, however, and the extent to which this terminology is helpful when applied to such other areas of linguistic analysis – and to behavioural analysis generally, as in the classification of units of dance, song, taste, movement – is disputed. See -emic/-etic. allochrone, allograph, allokine, alloseme (n.) see alloallomorph (n.), allomorphic (adj.), allomorphy (n.) see allo-, morpheme allonym (n.) A term used in onomastics for a name assumed by an author which belongs to someone else. It is not a common practice, because of legal sanctions. The reasons for adopting a false name range from literary playfulness to outright deception. See also pseudonym. allophone (n.), allophonic (adj.), allophony (n.) see allo-, phoneme allophonic transcription see transcription allotagma (n.) see tagmemics alphabetism (n.) see abbreviation alpha notation A transcriptional convention in generative linguistics which makes it possible to simplify the statement of a rule by introducing a variable. In generative phonology, for example, it is used in cases where there is a mutual predictability between sets of features, and avoids the necessity of having to make separate statements for the conditions of occurrence of each feature. For example, in order to state that a voiced plosive in a language is always rounded whereas a voiceless plosive is always unrounded, one can conflate the two rules by using the variable α to stand for the two possible correlations [+voice] ~ [+round] and [−voice] ~ [−round], viz. [α voice] → [α round]. Several developments of this convention will be encountered in this approach to phonology, including the use of other variables. See also affect alpha, move alpha. alternant (n.) see alternation alternate (v.), alternating (adj.) see metrical grid alternation (n.) A term used in linguistics to refer to the relationship which exists between the alternative forms, or variants, of a linguistic unit. The alternation 21 usual symbol for alternation is ~. In phonology, for example, the related vowel qualities of such words as telegraph ~ telegraphic, receive ~ reception are sometimes described as alternants, as are the various allophones of a phoneme. The term has had particular currency in morphology, however, where ‘morphemic/morpheme alternant’ is another term for allomorph, and where various subtypes have been distinguished. For example, ‘phonologically conditioned alternants’ are illustrated in the various forms of the plural morpheme (/-s/, /-z/, /-iz/), which are predictable from the preceding phonological context (‘morphophonemic alternants’). ‘Grammatically conditioned alternants’ are cases where there is no such rationale, the occurrence of an alternant depending entirely on the particular morphemes which occur in its environment, as in the various forms of the past participle in English (frozen, jumped, etc.). suppletion is another category of alternation, referring to a morpheme lacking any regular phonological correspondence with other forms in a paradigm, as in go ~ went. In syntax, examples of sets of alternants can be seen in the various grammatical categories, such as tense (e.g. present ~ past ~ future). alternative set A term used in relation to the semantics of focus for the set of items with which the denotation of a focused constituent contrasts. For example, in the sentence It was Mary who arrived late, the alternative set for Mary would include individuals other than Mary whom one might have expected would arrive late, but did not. alveolar (adj.) A term in the classification of consonant sounds on the basis of their place of articulation: it refers to a sound made by the blade of the tongue (or the tip and blade together) in contact against the alveolar ridge (or alveolum), which is the bony prominence immediately behind the upper teeth. A number of sounds are given an alveolar articulation in English – [t], [d], [l], [n], [s] and [z]. If the sound is articulated towards the back of the alveolar ridge, near where the palate begins, the term post-alveolar can be used. In English the r in red, trip, drill is articulated in post-alveolar position. alveopalatal, alveo-palatal (adj.) A term used in the phonetic classification of speech sounds on the basis of their place of articulation: it refers to a sound made by the front of the tongue a little in advance of the palatal articulatory area, i.e. in the direction of alveolar articulations; also called alveolopalatal. Only two such sounds are distinguished in the international phonetic alphabet, the fricatives [≤] and [Δ], which occur for example in Polish. ambifix (n.) see affix ambiguity (n.) The general sense of this term, referring to a word or sentence which expresses more than one meaning (is ambiguous), is found in linguistics, but several types of ambiguity are recognized. The most widely discussed type is grammatical (or structural) ambiguity. In phrase-structure ambiguity, alternative constituent structures can be assigned to a construction, as in new houses and shops, which could be analysed either as new [houses and shops] (i.e. both are new) or [new houses] and shops (i.e. only the houses are new). In transformational ambiguity, the sentence may have a similar 22 alternative set bracketing on the surface for both readings, but is related to more than one structure at a more abstract level of representation. For example, Visiting speakers can be awful is relatable to either It is awful to visit speakers or Speakers who visit are awful. A sentence with more than two structural interpretations is said to be multiply ambiguous. An analysis which demonstrates the ambiguity in a sentence is said to disambiguate the sentence. Ambiguity which does not arise from the grammatical analysis of a sentence, but is due solely to the alternative meanings of an individual lexical item, is referred to as lexical ambiguity, e.g. I found the table fascinating (= ‘object of furniture’ or ‘table of figures’ – see polysemy). How the brain resolves ambiguities is an important goal of psycholinguistic research. One of the issues in semantic discussion has been to circumscribe the notion of ambiguity so that it is not used in too broad a way. The term needs to be distinguished, in particular, from ‘generality’ of meaning. The word parent, for example, has one reading synonymous with mother and a second reading synonymous with father, but this is not a case of ambiguity because parent has a single, more general meaning which subsumes the two possibilities. Ambiguity also needs to be distinguished from the kind of indeterminacy which surrounds any sentence: in Mary saw a balloon, it is not clear when she saw it, how big the balloon was, what its colour was, and so on. No sentence would be called ambiguous on account of such unstated issues. Generality and indeterminacy of meaning are sometimes referred to as vagueness. However, many semanticists prefer to reserve this term for expressions whose meaning involves reference to a category whose boundaries are fuzzy. ambiguous (adj.) see ambiguity ambilingualism (n.) A term sometimes used in language learning and sociolinguistics for the ability to speak two languages with equal facility. The notion is usually included within the more general concept of bilingualism (see bilingual). ambisyllabicity (n.) A structural analysis allowed in some models of nonlinear phonology (notably, metrical phonology) which allows intervocalic consonants to be members of both adjacent syllables (i.e. they are ambisyllabic), in the underlying syllabification of a language, while conforming to the language’s syllable structure template. ameliorate (v.) see amelioration amelioration (n.) In historical linguistics, a term used in the classification of types of semantic change, referring to the loss of an earlier sense of disapproval in a lexical item; opposed to deterioration. An example of the way words ameliorate is mischievous, which has lost its strong sense of ‘disastrous’ and now means the milder ‘playfully annoying’. amplitude (n.) A term derived from the study of the physics of sound, and used in acoustic phonetics, referring to the extent to which an air particle moves to and fro around its rest point in a sound wave. The greater the amplitude, the amplitude 23 greater the intensity of a sound, and (along with other factors, such as fundamental frequency and duration) the greater the sensation of loudness. anacoluthon (n.) A traditional rhetorical term, sometimes encountered in linguistic studies of conversational speech. It refers to a syntactic break in the expected grammatical sequence within a sentence, as when a sentence begins with one construction and remains unfinished, e.g. The man came and – are you listening? ‘Anacolutha’ have come to be especially noticed in linguistic studies as an area of performance features which a grammar of a language would aim to exclude. analogical (adj.) see analogy analogy (n.) A term used in historical and comparative linguistics, and in language acquisition, referring to a process of regularization which affects the exceptional forms in the grammar of a language. The influence of the regular pattern of plural formation in English, for example, can be heard in the treatment of irregular forms in the early utterances of children, e.g. mens, mans, mouses: the children are producing these forms ‘on analogy with’ the regular pattern. dialects also often illustrate analogical processes at work, which the standard language has so far resisted, e.g. goed/seed/knowed for went/saw/knew, etc., and this process is, of course, common in the errors of foreign learners of the language. Processes of analogical creation are one of the main tendencies in the history of languages, as when verbs which had an irregular past-tense form in Old English came to be produced with the regular -ed ending, e.g. healp becoming helped. See also exemplar, levelling. analysable (adj.) A term used in generative grammar to refer to the characteristic of a string in relation to a transformation. If the string meets the structural description (SD) of the transformational rule, it is said to be ‘analysable’, and the rule is thereby applicable. For example, for the passive rule to operate (in one formulation), the following SD is required: NP–Aux–V– NP. A string such as the boy is kicking the ball would thus be ‘analysable’, with respect to this rule; the boy has gone, on the other hand, would not meet the SD of the rule, and would thereby be unanalysable. analysis-by-synthesis (n.) A theory of speech perception which credits listeners with an internal, language-specific mechanism that responds to incoming speech by selecting certain acoustic cues, and then attempting to synthesize a replica of the input. When this is achieved, the synthesis has, in effect, carried out an analysis of the input. Such a procedure, it is argued, has the merit of being able to explain how listeners resolve the acoustic variability in signals, stemming from the differences between speakers, contexts, etc. See also motor theory. analytic (adj.) (1) A term which characterizes a type of language established by comparative linguistics using structural (as opposed to diachronic) criteria, and focusing on the characteristics of the word: in analytic languages, all the words are invariable (and syntactic relationships are shown primarily 24 anacoluthon by word-order). The term is seen in opposition to synthetic (and sometimes also polysynthetic) languages (which include agglutinative and inflecting types), where words typically contain more than one morpheme. Several languages of South-East Asia illustrate analyticity in their word structure. As always in such classifications, the categories are not clear-cut: different languages will display the characteristic of analyticity to a greater or lesser degree. (2) Considerable use is made in semantics of the sense of ‘analytic’ found in logic and philosophy, where an analytic proposition/sentence is one whose grammatical form and lexical meaning make it necessarily true, e.g. Spinsters are unmarried women. The term contrasts with synthetic, where the truth of the proposition is established using empirical criteria. analyticity (n.) see analytic anaphor (n.) A term used in government-binding theory to refer to a type of noun phrase which has no independent reference, but refers to some other sentence constituent (its antecedent). Anaphors include reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself ), reciprocal pronouns (e.g. each other), and np-traces. Along with pronominals and lexical noun phrases (R-expressions), anaphors are of particular importance as part of a theory of binding: in this context, an anaphor must be bound in its governing category (‘condition A’). The term has a more restricted application than the traditional term anaphoric. See also anaphora. anaphora (n.) A term used in grammatical description for the process or result of a linguistic unit deriving its interpretation from some previously expressed unit or meaning (the antecedent). Anaphoric reference is one way of marking the identity between what is being expressed and what has already been expressed. In such a sentence as He did that there, each word has an anaphoric reference (i.e. they are anaphoric substitutes, or simply anaphoric words): the previous sentence might have been John painted this picture in Bermuda, for instance, and each word in the response would be anaphorically related to a corresponding unit in the preceding context. Anaphora is often contrasted with cataphora (where the words refer forward), and sometimes with deixis or exophora (where the words refer directly to the extralinguistic situation). It may, however, also be found subsuming both forwards- and backwards-referring functions. The process of establishing the antecedent of an anaphor is called anaphora (or anaphor) resolution, and is an important research aim in psycholinguistics and computational linguistics. See also anaphor, zero. anaphoric (adj.) see anaphora anaptyctic (adj.) see anaptyxis anaptyxis /anapct}ks}s/ (n.) A term used in comparative philology, and sometimes in phonology, to refer to a type of intrusion, where an extra vowel has been inserted between two consonants; a type of epenthesis. Anaptyctic anaptyxis 25 vowels are also known as parasite vowels or svarabhakti vowels (the latter term reflecting the occurrence of this phenomenon in Sanskrit). An example is the pronunciation of film as [cf}lvm] in some dialects of English. anchor (n./v.) In non-linear phonology, an application of the general use of this term to refer to a unit on which some other unit depends. For example, root nodes are said to serve as ‘anchors’ for the features which define a segment, and a segment to which another segment associates is said to be its ‘anchor’. A unit which is not ‘anchored’ may be said to be floating. The term has a special application in prosodic morphology, in the context of the phonological analysis of reduplication, where anchoring (which supersedes alignment) is a constraint which places a structural restriction on the relation between the base (B) and the reduplicant (R): in R+B sequences, the initial element in R is identical to the initial element in B; and in B+R sequences, the final element in R is identical to the final element in B. Stated more generally in optimality theory, anchoring is a class of correspondence constraints which requires that a segment at one edge of an input form should have a corresponding segment at the same edge of the output form, and vice versa. anchoring (n.) see anchor angled brackets notation see bracketing animate (adj.) A term used in the grammatical classification of words (especially nouns) to refer to a subclass whose reference is to persons and animals, as opposed to inanimate entities and concepts. In some languages, distinctions of animateness are made morphologically, as a contrast in gender. In English, the distinction can be made only on semantic grounds, apart from a certain correspondence with personal and relative pronouns (he/she/who v. it/which). In adjectives expressing the concept ‘old’, for example, elderly is animate, antique inanimate; old is neutral, being applicable to either category. anomalous sentences see nonsense antagonistic constraints see grounding antecedent (n.) A term taken over from traditional grammar, and used for a linguistic unit from which another unit in the sentence derives its interpretation (anaphoric reference), typically a later unit. In particular, personal and relative pronouns are said to refer back to their antecedents, as in The car which was parked . . . It was . . . An instance where the anaphor is to more than one noun phrase is said to be a split antecedent, as in Mike suggested to John that they should leave. Antecedent-contained deletion refers to cases where the antecedent of an elliptical phrase itself contains an elliptical phrase. For example, in Mary read every book John did, the elliptical VP after did is contained in the antecedent VP, read every book John did. This kind of construction is problematical, because if one tries to reconstruct the elliptical VP, the reconstructed form will contain another elliptical VP, and this goes on ad infinitum. See also apodosis. 26 anchor anterior (adj.) (1) One of the features of sound set up by Chomsky and Halle (see Chomskyan) in their distinctive feature theory of phonology, to handle variations in place of articulation (cavity features). Anterior sounds are defined articulatorily as those produced with a stricture in front of the palato-alveolar area in the mouth. labial and dental consonants are [+anterior] (abbreviated as [+ant]). Its opposite is non-anterior, referring to sounds produced without such a stricture, as in velar, glottal and vowel sounds, which are [−anterior] ([−ant]). The related noun is anteriority. (2) See past anterior. anteriority (n.) see anterior anthropological linguistics A branch of linguistics which studies the role of language in relation to human cultural patterns and beliefs, as investigated using the theories and methods of anthropology. For example, it studies the way in which linguistic features vary in order to identify a member of a speech community with a social, religious, occupational or kinship group. Any social situation can be explored from an anthropological point of view, such as everyday interaction, ritual behaviour, political discourse, verbal art and educational practice. The term overlaps to some degree with ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics, reflecting the overlapping interests of the correlative disciplines involved – anthropology, ethnology and sociology. When the research takes place primarily within an anthropological paradigm, the subject is known as linguistic anthropology, and the practitioners as linguistic anthropologists. anthroponomastics, anthroponymy (n.) see onomastics anthropophonics (n.) A term suggested by Polish linguist Jan Baudoin de Courtenay (1845–1929) for the study of the physical potential for sound production in the human vocal apparatus. The field includes the physical comparison of vocal tracts and individual articulating organs in ethnic or racial populations, to determine whether anatomical differences (e.g. tongue size) have any phonetic or phonological consequences. Differences between the sexes and changes with age are also included. One of the general aims of the field is to determine the principles on which the selection of the sounds in individual languages might be based in the course of human evolution. The term is not used by all phoneticians, many of whom see its subject-matter as simply a part of phonetics. anticipation (n.) A term used by some psycholinguists to refer to a type of tongue-slip where a later linguistic unit influences an earlier, as when catch the ball might become batch the call. anticipatory (adj.) (1) A term used in phonetics and phonology as part of the classification of types of assimilation. In anticipatory (or ‘regressive’) assimilation, a sound changes because of the influence of the following sound, as when [t] becomes [k] in hot cakes. It is opposed to progressive and coalescent assimilations. anticipatory 27 (2) The term is also used with reference to the commonest type of coarticulation (anticipatory coarticulation), wherein an articulator not involved in a particular sound begins to move in the direction of a target articulation needed for a later sound in the utterance. An example is the nasalization which can be heard on vowels followed by a nasal consonant, when the soft palate begins to lower in anticipation of the consonant during the articulation of the vowel. (3) In grammar, the term is sometimes used for the kind of it found in extraposition, where it corresponds to a later item in the sentence, e.g. It was nice to see her. This anticipatory it (or ‘anticipatory subject’) is also referred to as ‘extrapositive’ or ‘preparatory’ it, and is distinguished from the prop or dummy it found in It was raining, etc. The term is also occasionally used for the use of there in existential sentences (anticipatory there), e.g. There were several people in the room. antiformant (n.) A term in acoustic phonetics for a particular frequency range which absorbs acoustic energy because of the resonance characteristics of a part of the vocal tract; also called antiresonance or zero resonance. A spectrogram of nasal consonants and nasalized vowels will illustrate the presence of antiformants (as white space) along with formants. antipassive (adj./n.) In grammar, a term used primarily to characterize a type of voice in ergative languages (e.g. Dyirbal) which is the functional equivalent of the passive in non-ergative languages. In these languages, the topic of a clause is usually the patient, not (as in English) the actor, and the antipassive construction handles cases where the actor is chosen as topic. Antipassive forms are formally more complex than the corresponding ergative forms, with the verb marked by a derivational suffix. The use of an antipassive does not exclude the possibility that passive or passive-like constructions may also occur in the same language (as in Maasai). The term is also sometimes used with reference to non-ergative languages, such as English, for certain types of apparently intransitive construction – for example, verbs such as cook or paint when used without their object. See also absolutive. antiresonance (n.) see antiformant antonym (n.) see antonymy antonymy (n.) A term used in semantics as part of the study of oppositeness of meaning. Antonymy is one of a set of sense relations recognized in some analyses of meaning, along with synonymy, hyponymy, incompatibility and others. In its most general sense, it refers collectively to all types of semantic oppositeness (antonyms), with various subdivisions then being made (e.g. between graded antonyms, such as big ~ small, where there are degrees of difference, and ungraded antonyms, such as single ~ married, where there is an either/or contrast). Some linguists (e.g. the British linguist John Lyons (b. 1932)) have reserved the term for a particular type of oppositeness: graded antonyms are referred to as ‘antonyms’, the other type just illustrated being referred to as 28 antiformant complementaries. It is a matter of controversy how many types of opposites one should usefully recognize in semantic analysis, and the use of the term ‘antonym’ must always be viewed with caution. aorist (n.) (aor, AOR) A term used in the grammatical description of some languages, referring to a form of the verb with distinctive past-tense or aspectual functions, especially expressing the lack of any particular completion, duration, or repetition. For example, in Ancient Greek, the aorist is chiefly a past tense in the indicative mood, but expresses aspectual meanings in other moods. In the traditional grammar of some modern languages (e.g. Bulgarian) it is restricted to perfectivity in the past tense. The term aoristic is sometimes used in place of ‘perfective’ as part of the cross-linguistic discussion of aspect. aoristic (adj.) see aorist A-over-A (adj.) A term introduced by Noam Chomsky in the 1960s to characterize a condition imposed on the operation of certain grammatical transformations. The A-over-A principle (or condition) states that if a transformation applies to a structure of the form [s . . . [A . . . ]A . . . ]s then for any category A it must be interpreted as applying to the maximal phrase of the type A. Later work made use of the notion of subjacency. See Chomskyan. aperiodic (adj.) see period aperture (n.) A term used in various models of non-linear phonology to handle contrasts involving openness of articulation. In particle phonology, for example, aperture is a privative feature (particle) representing openness, and symbolized by [a]. Differences in vowel height are characterized by combinations of aperture particles: for example, combining [a] with palatal [i] results in a relatively open palatal vowel, such as [e]. In a constriction model of phonology, aperture refers to the degree of constriction imposed on a vocoid (a vowel or a glide), which dominates vowel height features. It is one of the two main parameters of classification for vocoids (the other being place). The superordinate node is called the aperture node. In some approaches, contour segments have been analysed as sequences of aperture nodes. A threefold classification is recognized: the total absence of oral airflow (as in oral stops), a degree of aperture sufficient to produce air turbulence (as in fricatives), and a degree of aperture insufficient to produce turbulence (as in oral sonorants). apex (n.) A term used in phonetics for the end-point of the tongue (also known as the tip), used in the articulation of a few speech sounds, such as the trilled [r], or some varieties of dental (apico-dental) sounds. Such sounds could then be classified as apical. aphaeresis /vcf}vrvs}s/ (n.) A term used in comparative philology, and sometimes in modern phonology, to refer to the deletion of an initial sound in a word; often contrasted with syncope and apocope. Examples include the historical loss of /k/ in knife and such contractions as I’ve. Aphesis is a type of aphaeresis – the loss of an unstressed vowel at the beginning of a word (’gain). aphaeresis 29 aphesis /cafvs}s/ (n.), aphetic /vcfet}k/ (adj.) see aphaeresis apical (adj.), apico- see apex apocope /vcp∞kvpip/ (n.) A term used in comparative philology, and sometimes in modern phonology, to refer to the deletion of the final element in a word; often contrasted with aphaeresis and syncope. Examples include the pronunciation of and as /vn/ or of of as /v/ in such phrases as snakes and ladders or cup of tea. apodosis /apvcdväs}s/ (n.) In traditional grammar, and sometimes now in semantics, a term which refers to the consequence or result expressed in the main clause of a conditional sentence; also called the consequent, and opposed to the protasis, which expresses the condition. In the sentence We shall get in if we queue, we shall get in is the apodosis, if we queue is the protasis. A-position (n.) see argument appellative (n.) see eponym appendix (n.) see extrasyllabic applicable (adj.), applicability (n.) see application application (n.) A term used by some linguists to refer to the overall relationship which exists between language and non-linguistic entities, situations, etc. The ‘application’ of a linguistic unit is its use in a specific context; a unit is said to be applicable to that context. For example, a lexical item may be applied to a range of situations (none of which would constitute part of its normal denotation or reference), e.g. heap being applied to a car, a house, a sculpture. The term is particularly useful in the context of translation, where pairs of apparently equivalent terms turn out to have different ranges of application (or applicability); e.g. the use of merci in French differs from the use of thank you in English. If items from different languages totally correspond in the range of situations where they may be used, they are said to have the same application. applicational grammar The name given to a type of categorial grammar proposed by the Russian linguist Sebastian Konstantinovich yaumjan (b. 1916). Its basic units are term (α) and sentence (β). applicative (adj./n.) (appl) In grammar, a type of double-object construction in some languages (roughly corresponding to the direct/indirect object construction in English). An applicative affix on the verb encodes as objects a range of roles, such as benefactive and locative. The construction can be analysed as a type of voice, in which the focus is on the types of object rather than on the relationship between subject and object. Applicatives are widely found in Bantu languages. 30 aphesis applied linguistics A branch of linguistics where the primary concern is the application of linguistic theories, methods and findings to the elucidation of language problems which have arisen in other areas of experience. The most well-developed branch of applied linguistics is the teaching and learning of foreign languages, and sometimes the term is used as if this were the only field involved. But several other fields of application have emerged, including the linguistic analysis of language disorders (clinical linguistics), the use of language in mother-tongue education (educational linguistics), and developments in lexicography, translation and stylistics. There is an uncertain boundary between applied linguistics and the various interdisciplinary branches of linguistics, such as sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, especially as several of the latter’s concerns involve practical outcomes of a plainly ‘applied’ kind (e.g. planning a national language policy). On the other hand, as these branches develop their own theoretical foundations, the distinction between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ is becoming more apparent, and the characterization of research as being in ‘applied psycholinguistics’, etc., is now more regularly encountered. See also pragmatics. applied stylistics see stylistics apposition (n.) A traditional term retained in some models of grammatical description for a sequence of units which are constituents at the same grammatical level, and which have an identity or similarity of reference. In John Smith, the butcher, came in, for example, there are two noun phrases; they have identity of reference; and they have the same syntactic function (as indicated by the omissibility of either, without this affecting the sentence’s acceptability, e.g. John Smith came in/The butcher came in). They are therefore said to be in apposition or in an appositive or appositional relationship. There are, however, many theoretical and methodological problems in defining the notion of apposition, because of the existence of several constructions which satisfy only some of these criteria, and where other semantic or syntactic issues are involved, as in titles and other designations (the number six, my friend John, etc.). Sometimes the term appositive relative is used as an alternative to nonrestrictive relative. appositive, appositional (adj.) see apposition appropriate (adj.) An application of the general sense of this term in linguistics, and especially in sociolinguistics, pragmatics and stylistics, to refer to a linguistic variety or form which is considered suitable or possible in a given social situation. For example, elliptical and contracted forms (e.g. I’ll, isn’t, going to lunch?, etc.) are appropriate for relatively informal conversational situations; forms such as thou, vouchsafe, etc., are appropriate for some kinds of religious situations. The point of the term is to provide an alternative to the absolute implications of correctness encountered in prescriptive approaches to language, where linguistic forms are held to be either right or wrong, no reference being made to the different expectations of different situations. In pragmatics, appropriateness conditions for sentences are generally referred to as felicity conditions. appropriate 31 appropriateness (n.) see appropriate approximant (n.) A general term used by some phoneticians in the classification of speech sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation, and corresponding to what in other approaches would be called frictionless continuants, i.e. [w], [j], [r], [l], and all vowels. The term is based on the articulations involved, in that one articulator approaches another, but the degree of narrowing involved does not produce audible friction. In some analyses, [h] would also be considered an approximant (i.e. the voiceless equivalent of the vowel following). aptronym (n.) A term used in onomastics for a name which derives from a person’s nature or occupation, such as the English surnames Smith and Barber; sometimes called aptonym. The name may be used humorously or ironically, as with Mr Clever. arbitrariness (n.) A suggested defining property of human language (contrasting with the properties of other semiotic systems) whereby linguistic forms are said to lack any physical correspondence with the entities in the world to which they refer. For example, there is nothing in the word table which reflects the shape, etc., of the thing. The relationship between sound and meaning is said to be arbitrary – or ‘conventional’, as classical tradition puts it. By contrast, some words in a language may be partly or wholly iconic, i.e. they do reflect properties of the non-linguistic world, e.g. onomatopoeic expressions, such as splash, murmur, mumble. arbitrary reference A term used in generative grammar, especially in government-binding theory, in connection with the understood subject of certain infinitives, represented by big PRO. For example, in It’s easy PRO to annoy John, the infinitive has an empty PRO subject which is not controlled (i.e. it is not co-referential with some other noun phrase in the sentence), but is interpreted as ‘for anyone’. The reference in such a case is arbitrary. See pro (big). arboreal (adj.) A term sometimes used in generative linguistics to describe a tree structure. In metrical phonology, an arboreal grid is a modification of the metrical tree in which heads are vertically aligned with their mother constituent nodes, resulting in a grid-like hierarchical configuration of heads. arc (n.) (1) A convention used in relational grammar to represent a directional dependency relation between a syntactic unit (or governor) and the entities which constitute the relational structure of that unit. The ‘arcs’ in a ‘relational network’ are represented by curved arrows; alternatively, the dependency relations can be shown as a dependency tree. Arcs are also an important device in network grammars. Relationships can be postulated between pairs of arcs, and these pairs of arcs can then in turn be interrelated in ‘pair networks’ (as is found in arc-pair grammar, a formalized development of relational grammar proposed in the mid-1970s). 32 appropriateness (2) See chart parser. archaism (n.) A term used in relation to any domain of language structure for an old word or phrase no longer in general spoken or written use. Archaisms are found for example in poetry, nursery rhymes, historical novels, biblical translations and place names. Archaic vocabulary in English includes damsel, hither, oft, and yon. Archaic grammar includes the verb endings -est and -eth (as in goest and goeth), and such forms as ’tis and spake. Archaic spellings can be seen in Ye olde tea shoppe. See also obsolescence (1). archiphoneme (n.) A term used in phonology referring to a way of handling the problem of neutralization (i.e. when the contrast between phonemes is lost in certain positions in a word). In such cases as plosives following initial /s-/, where there is no opposition (e.g. there is no *sgin to contrast with skin), the problem for the phonologist is how to analyse the second element of these words. To choose either the voiceless transcription /sk}n/ or the voiced one /sg}n/ would be to attribute to the element a contrastive status it does not possess. The solution suggested by the Prague School phonologist Nikolai Trubetskoy (1890–1939) was to set up a new category for such cases, which he called an archiphoneme, and to transcribe it with a different symbol. A capital letter is sometimes used, e.g. /sK}n/. Alternative ways of analysing the problem have been suggested, as in morphophonemic approaches. archistratum (n.) A term sometimes used in sociolinguistics, referring to a privileged variety of language from which a community draws its cultured or intellectual vocabulary. For example, Classical Arabic is used as an archistratum throughout the Islamic world. area (n.) A term used in dialectology for any geographical region isolated on the basis of its linguistic characteristics. The study of the linguistic properties of ‘areas’ – the analysis of the divergent forms they contain, and their historical antecedents – is known as areal linguistics. An areal classification would establish areal types (or groups), such as the Scandinavian languages, or the Londoninfluenced dialects – cases where it is possible to show certain linguistic features in common as a result of the proximity of the speech communities. Such a classification often cuts across that made on purely historical grounds. It is often possible to identify a focal area – the region from which these linguistic characteristics have spread to the area as a whole (as in the case of London) – and several other significant parts of an area have been terminologically distinguished, e.g. the transitional areas which occur between adjacent areas, the relic areas which preserve linguistic features of an earlier stage of development. Areal linguistics is contrasted with non-areal differences in language use, e.g. contrasts between male and female speech, and between some social varieties. The German term Sprachbund (‘language league’) is also widely used in the sense of a ‘linguistic area’. areal linguistics see area argument (n.) (A, arg) A term used in predicate calculus, and often found in the discussion of semantic theory, to refer to the relationship of a name or argument 33 other term to the predicate with which it combines to form a simple proposition. For example, in the proposition, the boy is naughty, the boy is an ‘argument’ of the proposition. In case grammar, each underlying proposition is analysed in terms of a predicate word and an unordered set of argument slots, each of which is labelled according to its semantic (‘case’) relationship with the predicate word. In later generative grammar, the term is used to refer to any noun phrase position within a sentence (i.e. functioning as subject, object, etc.). In government-binding theory, an argument is an expression with a theta role, and the position to which a theta role can be assigned is called an A(rgument)-position. An internal argument is an argument of the verb that does not include the subject; an external argument is an argument of the verb that does include the subject. External arguments may differ depending on how a sentence is understood: for example, in John broke his leg, John is an agent if John and his refer to different people, but it is a patient if his is co-referential. The preservation of argument structure under morphological operations is termed inheritance (e.g. verb-derived nouns in -ing allow inheritance of all the input verb’s arguments, as in the putting of the ladder against the wall). A preferred argument structure is a demonstrable discourse preference in a language for the use of a particular syntactic structure – for example, a tendency for lexical NPs to appear as the subject of an intransitive verb rather than of a transitive verb. An argument which is not overtly expressed (as when the agent of a passive sentence is left unstated) is called an implicit argument. arity (n.) see valency arrangement (n.) A term used in linguistics to refer to any sequence of linguistic elements in terms of their relative position, or distribution, e.g. the possible combinations of phonemes within syllables and words, or of morphemes within words and sentences. This notion is fundamental to the item-and-arrangement model of linguistic description. article (n.) (art) A term used in the grammatical classification of words, referring to a subclass of determiners which displays a primary role in differentiating the uses of nouns, e.g. the/a in English. Many languages have no article system (e.g. Russian). Of those which do, a distinction is usually made into definite and indefinite (or non-definite) types, partly on semantic and partly on grammatical grounds. Articles may appear before the noun (as in English), or after (as in Swedish). See also zero. articulation (n.) (1) The general term in phonetics for the physiological movements involved in modifying an airflow to produce the various types of speech sounds, using the vocal tract above the larynx. Sounds are classified in terms of their place and manner of articulation in the vocal apparatus (the articulatory apparatus). Reference is usually made to the nature of the airstream mechanism, the action of the vocal folds, the position of the soft palate, and the other organs in the mouth – tongue and lips in particular. Any specific part of the vocal apparatus involved in the production of a sound is called an 34 arity articulator. Two kinds of articulators are distinguished: ‘active’ articulators are the movable parts of the vocal apparatus, such as the lips, tongue and lower jaw; ‘passive’ articulators are those parts of the vocal tract which cannot move, but which provide the active articulators with points of reference, e.g. the roof of the mouth, the upper teeth. The study of articulation using instrumental techniques has emphasized the importance of seeing articulation not as a sequence of independently articulated sounds but as a continuum of sound production. This principle is obscured through the use of phonetic transcription. The transcription [kæt] suggests the existence of three discrete segments: what it obscures is the existence of the transitions between segments, as the several articulators, working simultaneously, gradually move from one articulatory position to the next. Forms of transcription which draw attention to these continuously varying (dynamic) parameters are devisable, but they are complex, and lack the immediate readability of the segmental transcription. Several types of articulation can be distinguished. Most sounds are produced with a single point of articulation. Sounds may, however, be produced involving two points of articulation (coarticulation), in which case two articulatory possibilities emerge: the two points of articulation both contribute equally to the identity of the sound (double articulation or co-ordinate coarticulation); or one point of articulation may be the dominant one (the primary (co-)articulation), the other having a lesser degree of stricture (the secondary (co-)articulation). Examples of secondary articulation are palatalization, velarization, pharyngealization and labialization. (2) There is a second use of the phrase double articulation, within the linguistic theory associated with the French linguist André Martinet (1908–99). He used the term to refer to the two levels of structure in which language is organized: speech can be analysed into the meaningful forms of language (i.e. morphemes, words, etc.), and this constitutes a ‘first’ articulation; these units are then capable of further analysis into the meaningless sound units of language (i.e. phonemes), and this constitutes a ‘second’ articulation. A corresponding term in more widespread use is duality of structure. articulator (n.) see articulation articulator-based feature theory In phonology, a development of feature theory in which speech is modelled in terms of a series of independently functioning articulators (lips, tongue front, tongue body, tongue root, soft palate, larynx), represented by nodes on separate tiers. Articulator features are also called ‘place’ features, because they are grouped under the place constituent in the feature hierarchy. labial, coronal and dorsal nodes represent single-valued features. Articulator-bound features depend on a specific feature for their execution, further specifying the nature of a constriction formed by an articulator (e.g. apical and laminal articulations are distinguished under the coronal node through the use of the features [anterior] and [distributed]). Articulator-free features (or ‘stricture features’) are not restricted to a specific articulator; they identify the degree of stricture of a sound independent of the articulators involved (e.g. [+continuant] sounds represent a continuous articulator-based feature theory 35 airflow through the centre of the oral tract, regardless of the location of the major stricture). Among the claims made for this model are its ability to offer an integrated account of vowel and consonant articulation in terms of place of articulation and stricture: for example, in one model, features such as back, high, and low, as tongue-body features, are linked under the dorsal node, and rounding under the labial node. articulator model A theory which aims to integrate phonetics and phonology into a single model, providing a feature analysis related to the muscular activity underlying the movements of individual articulating organs. The approach developed in the 1980s, and has influenced several later conceptions of phonology, notably feature geometry. articulatory analog see speech synthesis articulatory dynamics A branch of articulatory phonetics which studies the forces underlying articulatory movements (see articulatory kinematics), such as the role of the jaw, the contribution of the relevant muscles, and variations in subglottal air pressure. The subject aims to determine the quantitative relations among the forces generated by the articulatory muscles, the inertial and resistive properties of the articulators against which the forces are working, and the resulting movements. articulatory kinematics A branch of articulatory phonetics which studies the readily observable properties of the movements involved in articulation, without consideration of the underlying forces (see articulatory dynamics). The relevant parameters would include the distance, duration, acceleration, and smoothness of an articulatory movement, or the direction of an articulator’s displacement, the location of its end-point, and the force of its contact. Several instruments are available to plot such movements, such as the articulometer, ultrasound, and cineradiography. The subject is especially relevant in relation to studies of speech rate and clarity. articulatory phonetics The branch of phonetics which studies the way in which speech sounds are made (‘articulated’) by the vocal organs. It derives much of its descriptive terminology from the fields of anatomy and physiology, and is sometimes referred to as physiological phonetics. This area has traditionally held central place in the training of phoneticians, the movements involved being reasonably accessible to observation and, in principle, under the control of the investigator. The classification of sounds used in the international phonetic alphabet, for example, is based on articulatory variables. In recent years, there has been much progress in the development of instrumental techniques for observing and measuring such factors as tongue, lip, palate and vocal fold movement; examples include the palatograph, which displays tongue contact with the palate; the electro-aerometer, which measures the relative flow of air from mouth and nose; the articulometer, which tracks simultaneously the movements of several articulators; and electromyography, for the measurement of muscular movement while speaking. Using such techniques, a far more 36 articulator model detailed understanding of articulation is possible than using traditional visual and kinaesthetic methods. articulatory phonology A theory which aims to integrate phonetics and phonology, using basic units of contrast defined as gestures – abstract characterizations of articulatory events, with an intrinsic time dimension. Utterances are modelled as organized patterns (constellations) of gestures, in which the gestural units may overlap in time. The resulting phonological structures provide a hierarchy of articulatorily based natural classes, which are used to describe the phonological structure of specific languages and to account for phonological variation. articulatory setting In phonetics, a global configuration of all the articulators in relation to each other, which one adopts and maintains during speech; also called a phonetic setting. This accounts for some of the broad qualitative differences between languages and dialects, e.g. a characteristic nasal twang, or marked degree of lip-rounding. Phonatory setting is sometimes distinguished: a habitual setting of the larynx which results in such voice qualities as whispery or creaky phonation. In the most general application, ‘phonetic setting’ refers to any tendency towards co-ordination underlying the production of a chain of speech segments, so that a particular configuration of the vocal apparatus is maintained. It thus subsumes coarticulation, assimilation, vowel harmony and other such segmental features, as well as the nonsegmental effects noted in relation to paralanguage and voice quality. articulometer (n.) An instrument in articulatory phonetics which plots the simultaneous movement of several articulators during speech. It is a pointtracking device which uses magnetic fields to measure individual fleshpoints, by tracking the movements of tiny pellets attached to the articulators. artificial language A language which has been invented to serve some particular purpose. Artificial languages include those which have been devised to facilitate international communication (where they are a type of auxiliary language, such as Esperanto), programming languages (e.g. basic), languages which communicate with computers or robots in artificial intelligence (e.g. shrdlu), and simplified languages which are used by people with learning difficulties (e.g. Bliss symbols). ascension (n.) A term used in relational grammar for a class of relationchanging processes in which a noun phrase which is part of a larger noun phrase comes to bear the grammatical relation previously borne by the larger noun phrase. See also promotion (1). ascriptive (adj.) A term used in grammatical analysis to refer to a sentence of the type The cat is angry, where there is an attributive identity between the pre- and post-verbal elements, but no permutability (unlike the otherwise similar equative sentence – cf. *Angry is the cat, but Freda is the leader/The leader is Freda). Sentences of the type Freda is a doctor are also sometimes called ascriptive, but are more problematic to analyse. ascriptive 37 aspect (n.) (asp) A category used in the grammatical description of verbs (along with tense and mood), referring primarily to the way the grammar marks the duration or type of temporal activity denoted by the verb. A wellstudied aspectual contrast, between perfective and imperfective, is found in many Slavic languages: in Russian, for example, there is a perfective/imperfective contrast – the former often referring to the completion of an action, the latter expressing duration without specifying completion (cf. the perfective form on pro7ital, ‘he read (something)’, and the imperfective form on 7ital, ‘he used to read/was reading (something)’. The English verb phrase makes a formal distinction which is usually analysed as aspectual: the contrast between progressive (or ‘continuous’) and ‘non-progressive’ (or simple) duration of action. The contrast between I was living and I have been living, and other uses of the have auxiliary, are also often analysed in aspectual terms, but this analysis is more controversial. Other English constructions have sometimes been analysed in terms of aspect, e.g. involving habitual contrasts (as in used to); and in other languages further aspectual distinctions may be found, e.g. ‘iterative’ or ‘frequentative’ (referring to a regularly occurring action), ‘inchoative’ or ‘inceptive’ (referring to the beginning of an action). Aspectual be refers to the use of the verb to be in some varieties (such as African-American English) to express the recurrence of an eventuality, as in They be reading too fast. Aspectual oppositions are sometimes viewed generally as semantic distinctions, but sometimes the notion is restricted to those oppositions which have achieved a grammaticalized status in a language. In this respect, a contrast is often drawn between aspect and Aktionsart (German, plural Aktionsarten, ‘kinds of action’), aspect referring to instances where the opposition has been grammaticalized, Aktionsart to instances where it has been lexicalized (especially, in Slavonic linguistics, to instances where the contrast is expressed using the language’s derivational morphology). An influential classification derives from US philosopher Zeno Vendler (1921–2004), who distinguished process and state event types, dividing the former into accomplishment, achievement, and activity types. See also realis. Aspects model/theory A commonly used abbreviation for the approach to generative grammar expounded in Noam Chomsky’s 1965 book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; also known as the standard theory. models similar in principle to this one are ‘Aspects-type’ models. See Chomskyan. aspectual (adj.) see aspect aspectualizer (n.) A term used in generative grammar for a formative which marks an aspectual relation. aspirata, aspirate (n.) see aspiration aspiration (n.) A term in phonetics for the audible breath which may accompany a sound’s articulation, as when certain types of plosive consonant are released. It is usually symbolized by a small raised [h] following the main symbol. In examples such as English pin [ph}n], the aspiration may be felt by holding the back of the hand close to the mouth while saying the word; 38 aspect the contrast with bin, where there is no aspiration, is noticeable. Some languages, such as Hindi, have contrasts of aspiration applying to both voiceless and voiced stops, viz. a four-way contrast of [p-], [ph-], [b-], and [bh-]. In some phonetic environments the aspiration effect varies, as when in English the plosives are followed by /l, r, w, j/: here the aspiration devoices these consonants, as in please, twice, queue. Following initial /s/, the aspiration contrast is lost altogether, as in [sp}n]. Sounds other than plosives may be aspirated, but they are less commonly encountered. In a more detailed analysis, pre-aspiration (aspiration before the consonant) can be distinguished from post-aspiration (aspiration after the consonant); both features occur, for example, in Scottish Gaelic. In nineteenth-century comparative philology, the term aspirate (or aspirata) was applied to any sound involving audible breath in the articulation, including voiceless plosives and fricatives. See also breathy. assertion (n.) A term used in pragmatics and semantics in its ordinary sense of presenting information as true, but also more technically for that portion of the information encoded in a sentence which is presented by the speaker as true, as opposed to that portion which is merely presupposed (see presupposition). It is also used for sentences which present information as true, as opposed to those which ask questions, issue commands, etc. assign (v.) A term used in generative linguistics to refer to the action of rules; rules attribute, or ‘assign’, structure to sentences. By the use of rewrite rules, a string of elements is introduced as a series of stages, each assignment being associated with a pair of labelled brackets, e.g. S → NP + VP [NP + VP]S VP → V + NP [NP + [V + NP]VP]S NP → D + N [[D + N]NP + [V + [D + N]NP]VP]S In such a way, the structure of noun phrase, verb phrase, etc., can be assigned to any sentence to which these rules apply; e.g. [[the man] [saw [the dog]]]. assignment function In formal semantics, a term referring to a function which maps variables onto their semantic values. assimilation (n.) A general term in phonetics which refers to the influence exercised by one sound segment upon the articulation of another, so that the sounds become more alike, or identical. The study of assimilation (and its opposite, dissimilation) has been an important part of historical linguistic study, but it has been a much neglected aspect of synchronic speech analysis, owing to the traditional manner of viewing speech as a sequence of discrete words. If one imagines speech to be spoken ‘a word at a time’, with pauses corresponding to the spaces of the written language, there is little chance that the assimilations (or assimilatory processes) and other features of connected speech will be noticed. When passages of natural conversation came to be analysed, however, assimilation emerged as being one of the main means whereby fluency and rhythm are maintained. assimilation 39 Several types of assimilation can be recognized. It may be partial or total. In the phrase ten bikes, for example, the normal form in colloquial speech would be /tem ba}ks/, not /ten ba}ks/, which would sound somewhat ‘careful’. In this case, the assimilation has been partial: the /n/ has fallen under the influence of the following /b/, and has adopted its bilabiality, becoming /m/. It has not, however, adopted its plosiveness. The phrase /teb ba}ks/ would be likely only if one had a severe cold! The assimilation is total in ten mice /tem ma}s/, where the /n/ is now identical with the /m/ which influenced it. Another classification is in terms of whether the change of sound involved is the result of the influence of an adjacent sound or of one further away. The common type is the former, as illustrated above: this is known as contiguous or contact assimilation. An example of the opposite, non-contiguous or distance assimilation, occurs in turn up trumps, where the /-n/ of turn may be articulated as /-m/ under the influence of later sounds. It also occurs in languages displaying vowel harmony, where a vowel in one part of a word may influence other vowels to be articulated similarly, even though there may be other sounds between them. A further classification is in terms of the direction in which the assimilation works. There are three possibilities: (a) regressive (or anticipatory) assimilation: the sound changes because of the influence of the following sound, e.g. ten bikes above: this is particularly common in English in alveolar consonants in word-final position; (b) progressive assimilation: the sound changes because of the influence of the preceding sound, e.g. lunch score articulated with the s- becoming /à/, under the influence of the preceding -ch; but these assimilations are less common; (c) coalescent (or reciprocal) assimilation: there is mutual influence, or fusion, of the sounds upon each other, as when don’t you is pronounced as /cdväntàä/ – the t and the y have fused to produce an affricate. In standard generative phonology, assimilation is characterized through the notion of feature copying: segments copy feature specifications from neighbouring segments. In non-linear models, a feature or node belonging to one segment (the trigger) is viewed as spreading to a neighbouring segment (the target). The assimilation is unmarked when a rule spreads only features not already specified in the target (a ‘feature-filling’ mode); if the rule applies to segments already specified for the spreading features (thereby replacing their original values), it is said to apply in a ‘feature-changing’ mode. Further types of assimilation can be recognized within this approach, based on the identity of the spreading node: if a root node spreads, the target segment acquires all the features of the trigger (total or complete assimilation); if a lower-level class node spreads, the target acquires only some of the features of the trigger (partial or incomplete assimilation); and if only a terminal feature spreads, just one feature is involved (single-feature assimilation). assimilatory (adj.) see assimilation associate (n.) In generative grammar, a noun phrase associated with there in existential constructions. For example, in There is a picture on the wall, a picture is the associate. 40 assimilatory association (n.) The general senses of this term are often found in linguistic discussion – the non-linguistic feelings (see connotation) which a lexical item gives rise to, or the range of psychologically connected items which come to mind (i.e. the word associations or sense associations). Some linguists have used the term with a more restricted definition, however. For example, the Saussurean conception of paradigmatic relationships was referred to as associative relations. Some linguists use the term associative field (or association group) to refer to a set of lexical items which display a specific similarity of form or sense. association convention see association line association line A term used in non-linear phonology for a line drawn between units on different levels. The notion has been especially developed as a means of linking tiers in autosegmental phonology. From a phonetic viewpoint, these lines represent temporal simultaneity (or overlap), indicating the relationship in time between the features represented at each tier, such as tones and vowels. Segments which associate between tiers are considered freely associating segments; segments which do not freely associate would be ignored, in the application of an autosegmental rule. Once an association line has been established, the association convention is used to relate the remaining features: when unassociated features (e.g. vowels and tones) appear on the same side of an association line, they are automatically associated in a one-to-one way, radiating outward from the association line. Unbroken association lines indicate associations that already exist; broken association lines (- - - -) indicate a structural change following a rule adding a new association. Association lines in a given representation may not cross (the ‘no-crossing constraint’). An ‘X’ (or similar convention, such as =) through an association line indicates that the line is to be deleted by a rule. A circle round a segment means that it is not associated to any segment on the facing tier. For example, the diagram below represents a shift in a high tone from the first vowel (in the input to the rule) to the second. Such shifts in association are known as reassociations. Multiple associations relate a unit to more than one V or C slot. Because autosegmental phonology allows a different number of elements in each tier and does not require that the boundaries between them coincide, the notion of association lines emerges as central. associative (adj.) see association asterisk (n.) (1) In linguistics, a linguistic construction that is unacceptable or ungrammatical is marked thus by the use of an initial asterisk, e.g. *the asterisk 41 V C V H Å~ man do been go. An asterisked form (or ‘starred form’) is a form which cannot occur in a language, e.g. *walkedn’t. (2) In generative grammar (derived from mathematics), the asterisk is an operator used to indicate any number of instances of a category (including zero); also called a Kleene star. For example, YP means ‘any number of phrases of any type’. (3) In linguistic theory, non-configurational languages are also known as W* (‘W-star’) languages. (4) In historical linguistics, asterisks are used to indicate a form which has been reconstructed, there being no written evidence for its existence, as in the sounds and words postulated for Indo-European, e.g. s, *penkwe (‘five’). (5) In early autosegmental phonology, an asterisk (also called a ‘star’) marked a segment with a priority association, resistant to modification by later rules. The convention is also seen in some approaches to intonation, where it identifies a boundary tone associated with a stressed syllable: H, L*. (6) In optimality theory, a symbol showing the violation of a constraint. asymmetric rhythmic theory An approach to metrical phonology based on an inventory of foot templates in which iambic and trochaic styles of alternation do not display symmetrical properties. iterative iambic systems use feet whose members are of uneven duration; iterative trochaic systems use feet whose members tend towards even duration. asyndeton (n.) see syndeton atelic (adj.) A term used in the grammatical analysis of aspect, to refer to an event where the activity has no clear terminal point. Atelic verbs include look, play and sing (in such contexts as he’s singing, etc.). They contrast with telic verbs, such as kick, where there is a clear end-point. atlas (n.) see dialect atomic phonology A model of phonology which specifies the most limiting conditions on the application of the phonological rules. These restrictions are then taken to constitute the atomic rules for phonological processes (such as devoicing), and variations are predicted through the use of universal principles. It is not limited to phonetic explanations, and adopts a methodology which appeals to typological investigations for determining the constraints on rules. atomic proposition see proposition atonal language see tone (1) attenuative (adj./n.) A term sometimes used in grammar and semantics, referring to a reduced quality or quantity of the state or activity expressed by 42 asymmetric rhythmic theory the verb (‘a little’, ‘less’). In some languages (e.g. Hungarian) the contrast is a formal part of the aspect system. attested (adj.) A term used in linguistics to refer to a lingustic form for which there is evidence of present or past use. In historical linguistics, for example, attested forms are those which appear in written texts, as opposed to the ‘reconstructed forms’ arrived at by a process of deduction. In studies of contemporary speech, attestation refers to something that is found in actual recorded usage, compared with the hypothetical predictions of grammar or the intuitive (but otherwise unsupported) observations of the linguist. attitudes to language see language attitudes attitudinal (adj.) A term sometimes used in semantics as part of a classification of types of meaning: it refers to the emotional element in meaning, as in the different attitudes expressed by varying the intonation or loudness of a sentence, e.g. anger, sarcasm. In the context of prosody, ‘attitudinal meaning’ is usually distinguished from grammatical. Alternative terms include affective and emotive; opposed terms include cognitive and referential. attract (v.) In the minimalist programme, a term which identifies the driving force behind move. A head is said to attract a constituent when it triggers movement to some position on the edge of a head phrase. attract closest see shortest move attribute (n.) A term derived from auditory perception and used in auditory phonetics to refer to an isolatable characteristic of sound sensation, e.g. the attributes of pitch, loudness and timbre. attribution (n.) see attributive attributive (adj.) In grammatical description, a term normally used to refer to the role of adjectives and nouns when they occur as modifiers of the head of a noun phrase. For example, red has attributive function in the red chair, as has Jane’s in Jane’s hat. The term contrasts with the predicative function of these words, as in the chair is red, the hat is Jane’s. Some models of grammatical description have extended the use of this term to include such complement structures as he is my uncle, I called him a fool, and this usage can include the adjectival use above (i.e. in she is happy the adjective’s semantic role in relation to she is one of attribution). Ambiguity in this context is thus a real possibility. attrition (n.) see language death audible friction see friction audio-visual integration A term used in auditory phonetics, referring to the way in which a percept may result from a combination of auditory and visual inputs. The phenomenon was reported by British psychologists Harry McGurk audio-visual integration 43 and John MacDonald in 1976, who noted that when hearing [ba] and simultaneously seeing a video of a face saying [ìa], the percept was in the ‘middle’, [da]. It has since come to be called the McGurk effect or illusion. auditory phonetics The branch of phonetics which studies the perceptual response to speech sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain. It is a less well-studied area of phonetics, mainly because of the difficulties encountered as soon as one attempts to identify and measure psychological and neurological responses to speech sounds. Anatomical and physiological studies of the ear are well advanced, as are techniques for the measurement of hearing, and the clinical use of such study is now established under the headings of audiology and audiometry. But relatively little pure research has been done into the attributes of speech-sound sensation, seen as a phonetic system, and the relationship between such phonetic analyses and phonological studies remains obscure. The subject is closely related to studies of auditory perception within psycholinguistics. auditory target see target (1) augmentative (adj./n.) (augm) A term used in morphology to refer to an affix with the general meaning of ‘large’, used literally or metaphorically (often implying awkwardness or ugliness). Examples of augmentatives include -one in Italian and -ón in Spanish (e.g. sillón ‘armchair’, cf. silla ‘chair’). The term is usually contrasted with diminutive. augmented transition network grammar see transition network grammar autohyponym (n.) see hyponymy autolexical syntax An approach to grammar, developed in the early 1990s, which proposes autonomous systems of rules co-ordinated via the lexicon. syntactic, semantic and morphological modules (formalized as contextfree phrase-structure grammars) are interrelated by a series of interface principles which limit the degree of structural discrepancy between the representations. An expression must satisfy the independent requirements of each module to be well formed. automatic (adj.) A term used in linguistics to refer to a morphological variation which is motivated by the phonological rules of a language. For example, the alternation of /-s/, /-z/ and /-}z/ in English plurals, possessives and verbs is automatically determined by the phonology: forms ending in a sibilant are followed by /-}z/; non-sibilant voiceless consonants are followed by /-s/; and non-sibilant voiced consonants are followed by /-z/. More complex automatic alternations are illustrated by sandhi phenomena. automatic speech recognition see speech recognition automaton (n.), plural automata A term taken from mathematics, where it refers to the formalization of a set of rules for a computation, and used in 44 auditory phonetics theoretical and computational linguistics as part of the frame of reference for classifying languages which can be formally generated (see Chomsky hierarchy). Automata (such as computers) can be modelled in abstract terms as a series of inputs, outputs, states, and rules of operation. They typically perform operations on an input tape by moving through a series of ‘states’ (or ‘configurations’), each state being linked to the next by a ‘transition function’. The most general automata are known as ‘Turing machines’ (named after British mathematician Alan Mathison Turing (1912–54), who in 1936 devised a logical machine which defined computable numbers by working in this way). The most restricted kinds of automata are finite automata (also called ‘Markov sources’ or ‘simple transition networks’), which consist of a finite number of states and state-transitions, and an input tape which can be read only in one direction, one symbol at a time. finite-state languages can be recognized by finite state automata. autonomous (adj.) (1) A term often used in discussing the status of linguistics as a science: the implication is that the subject of language is now studied in its own terms, no longer being dependent on the incidental interest of scholars from other disciplines, such as logic, literary criticism, or history. The autonomy of the subject is seen in the emergence, during the second half of the twentieth century, of a wide range of degree courses in linguistics. (2) In phonology, the term is used to characterize the notion of a phoneme when no reference is made to its relationships with grammatical (especially word) structure. The autonomous phoneme, in this sense, is contrasted with the morphophoneme, or the systematic phoneme of generative linguistics, where other factors than the strictly phonemic are allowed into the analysis. (3) Autonomous syntax is the view propounded by the standard theory of generative grammar that the syntactic component of the grammar is independent (‘autonomous’) of semantics, i.e. the factors which determine the grammaticality of a sentence operate without reference to those which determine the sentence’s meaning. For example, the sentence Colourless green ideas sleep furiously is semantically ill formed but syntactically well formed. This view was attacked in generative semantics, but prevails in modern linguistic theory. autonomous grid see metrical grid autonomous speech see idioglossia autosegment (n.) A term used in autosegmental phonology for a segment considered to be autonomous and represented on its own tier. The notion is applied particularly to tones, which are viewed as segments in their own right, independent of the consonant and vowel segments represented on the skeletal tier. autosegmental phonology A term used in phonological theory to refer to an approach which contrasts with strictly segmental theories of phonology. The segmental approach is seen as a set of representations which consist of a autosegmental phonology 45 linear arrangement of segments (or unordered sets of features) and boundaries that are dependent on morphological and syntactic criteria. By contrast, the autosegmental approach sees phonology as comprising several tiers, each tier consisting of a linear arrangement of elements; these are linked to each other by association lines which indicate how they are to be coarticulated. Originally devised to handle tonal phenomena, the approach has now been extended to deal with other features whose scope is more than one segment, especially vowel and consonant harmony. auxiliary (adj./n.) (aux, AUX) A term used in the grammatical classification of verbs to refer to the set of verbs, subordinate to the main lexical verb, which help to make distinctions in mood, aspect, voice, etc.; also called auxiliary verbs. In English the main auxiliaries are do, be and have, e.g. she is leaving, does she know, she has taken. The modal auxiliaries include can/ could, may/might, shall/should, will/would, must, ought to and used to. The class of auxiliaries is distinguished grammatically from lexical verbs in several ways; for instance, they have a special negative form (e.g. isn’t, hasn’t, can’t, as opposed to *walkn’t), and they can be used with subject inversion (e.g. is he, does he, will they, as opposd to *walks he). ‘Marginal’ or ‘semi-auxiliaries’, i.e. verbs which display some but not all of the properties of the auxiliary class, include dare and need. auxiliary element see terminal auxiliary language In sociolinguistics, the term is used for a language which has been adopted by different speech communities for purposes of communication, trade, education, etc., being the native language of none of them. English and French are auxiliary languages for many communities in Africa, for example; Swahili is used thus in parts of East Africa. This sense must be clearly distinguished from the use of the term to mean an artificially constructed language, such as Esperanto. See artificial language. avalent (adj.) see valency avoidance languages In linguistics, a term used to characterize languages which permit communication between a person and others with whom there is a social taboo; sometimes loosely called mother-in-law languages or taboo languages. The concept relates chiefly to Australian Aboriginal languages, where there may be strict taboos between certain relatives, such as a man and his wife’s mother and maternal uncles. In Dyirbal, for example, the everyday language is known as Guwal, and the avoidance language as Dyalnguy, which would be used whenever a taboo relative was within earshot. axiom (n.) An application in linguistics of the general use of this term in the branch of logic known as axiomatics. It refers to a set of initial propositions (or axioms) which a theory assumes to be true. Further propositions (or ‘theorems’) are then deduced from these by means of specific rules of inference (to which the term ‘transformational rule’ is sometimes applied). The full statement 46 auxiliary of an axiomatic system will contain a ‘syntax’, which determines the wellformedness of its propositions, and a ‘vocabulary’, which lists the terms of the system. The application of these ideas in linguistics has come mainly from the influence of Chomskyan ideas, concerning the formalization of language, and is central to mathematical linguistics. In pre-generative attempts at systematizing ideas about language, the weaker term postulates was usually used. A specifically non-generative approach is axiomatic functionalism, a paradigm of enquiry developed in the 1960s by J(ohannes) W(ilhelmus) F(ranciscus) Mulder (b. 1919), in which linguistics is presented as a formal axiomatic-deductive system within a broad semiotic frame of reference. The approach applies a network of postulates, supporting definitions, and associated theorems to the structural analysis of core areas of language as well as to areas which are conventionally handled under other headings (such as pragmatics). axiomatic (adj.), axiomatics (n.) see axiom axis (n.) (1) A term sometimes used in linguistics to refer to intersecting dimensions of linguistic analysis, especially those introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure (see Saussurean). The distinction between synchronic and diachronic is characterized as the ‘axis of simultaneities’ v. the ‘axis of successions’. Likewise the syntagmatic/paradigmatic distinction may be referred to in terms of axes (‘syntagmatic axis’, ‘axis of chain relationships’, etc.). (2) In some models of grammatical classification, the term refers to the second element in an exocentric construction, the other being the director, e.g. in the garden, see the car. axis 47 B baby-talk (n.) see child-directed speech Bach–Peters sentence In grammatical theory, a sentence containing two noun phrases, each of which contains a pronoun which is anaphoric to the other noun phrase, as in [The pilot who shot at iti]j hit [the plane that was chasing himj]i; also called the Bach–Peters paradox. Such sentences present a problem of infinite regress for certain theories of anaphora. The term is named after two US linguists: Emmon Bach (b. 1929) and Stanley Peters (b. 1941). back (adj.) (sounds) Classification of back speech sounds are of two types: (a) those articulated in the back part of the mouth; and (b) those articulated with the back part of the tongue. In many cases, these two criteria coincide: back vowels are ‘back’ in both senses, as in English hard, talk, show, got, as are the back consonants heard at the beginning of go, car and way. Consonants made in the larynx or pharynx, however, such as [h], are ‘back’ in sense (a) only. Back vowels are contrasted, in traditional phonetic classifications, with front and central vowels. In the traditional classifications, sounds made at the back of the mouth are distinguished from those made at the front; and those made by the back of the tongue are opposed to those made further forward, by the tip and blade (or front) of the tongue. In the distinctive feature analysis of sounds proposed by Chomsky and Halle (see Chomskyan), the equivalent of ‘front’ is anterior, and of ‘tip/blade’ is coronal. Back sounds as a whole, in their terminology, are a type of cavity feature (specifically, a tongue-body feature); they are contrasted with non-back sounds, i.e. sounds produced without any retraction of the tongue from the neutral position. backchannelling (n.) A term used in pragmatics and sociolinguistics, as part of the study of listener behaviour in an interaction, referring to the reactions given to a speaker by way of feedback. They include monosyllabic responses (mhm), short phrases (I guess so), utterance repetitions and sentence completions, as well as non-verbal cues (e.g. nodding, gaze variation). back-formation (n.) A term used in historical studies of morphology to refer to an abnormal type of word-formation where a shorter word is derived by A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics 6th Edition. David Crystal © 2008 David Crystal. ISBN: 978-1-405-15296-9 deleting an imagined affix from a longer form already present in the language. Edit, for example, comes from editor, and not the other way round. This derivation presumably took place because native-speakers saw an analogy between editor and other words where a normal derivational process had taken place, e.g. credit/creditor, inspect/inspector, act/actor, the nouns being in each case formed from the verbs. The derivation of edit thus reverses the expected derivational pattern, hence the term ‘back-formation’. backgrounding (n.) see foregrounding backlooping (n.) A term in tagmemic grammar for the inclusion of higherlevel constructions within the slots of a lower-level construction, as in the use of relative clauses within the noun phrase (e.g. the lady who was talking . . . ); sometimes referred to as loopback. It is distinguished from levelskipping and layering. back-reference (n.) see reference (1) bahuvrihi (adj.) /bwphupcvriphip/ In grammar, a Sanskrit term describing a type of compound in which an entity is characterized without either of the constituents directly naming it; also called an exocentric or possessive compound. Examples include loudmouth (a person ‘whose mouth speaks loudly’) and scarecrow (an object whose job is to ‘scare crows’). balanced bilingual see bilingual bandwidth (n.) An application in acoustic phonetics of a notion from acoustics, referring to an interval between two given limits within which a range of frequencies falls. Specifically, it is the interval, measured in hertz (Hz), within which half of a component’s acoustic energy occurs: for example, a formant located at 1500 Hz with a bandwidth of 100 Hz would have most of its energy within the range of 1450 to 1550 Hz. bar (n.) A mode of classification of syntactic categories in X-bar syntax. Most commonly, zero-bar categories, also called heads, are word-level categories; single-bar and double-bar categories, maximal projections, are phrasal; single-bar categories are intermediate projections. single bars and double bars are often represented by a bar over a category symbol (e.g. a, b;). The alternative ways of representing bar(s) include primes (e.g. N′, N″), and numerical symbols (e.g. N1, N2 or N1, N2). Zero-bar categories are sometimes represented as N0 or N0. In generalized phrase-structure grammar, bar is a multivalued category feature which can take 0, 1 or 2 as its value. See also projection, variable (3). bare infinitive see infinitive bare phrase structure see phrase-structure grammar bare plural A term used in some grammatical approaches to refer to a plural noun phrase with no determiner, as in Raindrops are falling on my head. bare plural 49 barrier (n.) A term used in government-binding theory to refer to categories whose boundaries restrict certain phenomena. A barrier is a node which blocks the syntactic processes of movement and government: one barrier blocks government; two barriers block movement. The principle that movement cannot cross more than one barrier is known as subjacency. A is considered to be an (inherent) barrier for B if A is a ‘blocking category’ for B: to be a blocking category, A must not be theta-marked by a lexical (L) category, and A must dominate B. Anything can be a barrier, apart from ip (inflection-phrase). Other nodes can also become barriers for B if they dominate a blocking category for B (the inheritance barrier) or if they dominate the nearest governor of B (the ‘minimality condition’). The notion became increasingly important in syntactic theory following the publication of Noam Chomsky’s Barriers (1986). Barriers are also encountered in phonology, where they refer to any unit (e.g. a boundary symbol, a segment) within a string which blocks the application of a phonological rule to that string. bar variable see variable (3) base (n.) (1) A term used in morphology as an alternative to root or stem: it refers to any part of a word seen as a unit to which an operation can be applied, as when one adds an affix to a root or stem. For example, in unhappy the base form is happy; if -ness is then added to unhappy, the whole of this item would be considered the base to which the new affix is attached. Some analysts, however, restrict the term ‘base’ to be equivalent to ‘root’, i.e. the part of a word remaining when all affixes have been removed. In such an approach, happy would be the base form (the highest common factor) of all its derivations – happiness, unhappy, unhappiness, etc. This meaning leads to a special use in prosodic morphology to define the portion of the output in correspondence with another portion of the form, especially the reduplicant; often abbreviated as B. See anchor. (2) In a more abstract approach to grammar (syntax as well as morphology), the term basic form is used to refer to any abstract unit which has been set up in order to allow a range of forms to be interrelated, i.e. seen as variants. In morphology, for example, the basic or canonical form of a morpheme might be identified as one of its alternants (e.g. the basic form (or ‘basic alternant’) of the morpheme man is the morph man, with men being derived from this in some way), or it might be a unit underlying both (e.g. a unit [mVn], where both man and men are derived by some process of vowel (V) replacement). Similarly in syntax a sentence can be seen as having a basic form from which other sentences are derived (e.g. active underlying passive sentences, positives underlying negatives), or related structures can be seen as being derived from a common underlying form. generative grammar is the approach which has exploited the potential of such analyses most fully. This sense of ‘basic’, it should be clear, is different from the general sense used in language teaching or learning situations, where (possibly in addition to the above) the implication is that basic patterns of vocabulary are easier to learn, or are more useful for communication. 50 barrier base component A term used in the standard model of generative grammar to refer to one of the two main divisions of the grammar’s syntactic component, the other being the transformational (sub-)component. In Noam Chomsky’s Syntactic Structures (1957), the alternative term was ‘phrase-structure component’, which specified the phrase-structure rules of the grammar. In Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965), the same distinction (between base and transformational subcomponents) is made, but the roles of the two differ from the earlier version, in relation to the theory as a whole. In Aspects, the base contains a ‘categorial’ component (specifying the categories, S, NP, VP, etc.) and a ‘lexical’ component (consisting of lexical entries made up of such features as ‘animate’, ‘human’, etc.). Taken together, the information in these components specifies the deep structure of sentences. In later versions of generative grammar, the role of the base component receives further modifications, as the relationship between syntax and semantics is investigated. See also universal. basic expression A term sometimes used in formal semantics for a lexical item – that is, an expression which is not built up compositionally from other expressions. basic form see base (2) basic level A term used in psycholinguistics, especially as part of prototype theory, to identify the most natural and informative level at which a notion can be categorized. For example, shown a picture of a dog, people will say it is a ‘dog’ rather than use a term at a more specific level (e.g. ‘Alsatian’) or at a more general level (e.g. ‘animal’). basilect (n.) A term used by some sociolinguists, in the study of the development of creole languages, to refer to a linguistic variety (or lect) most remote from the prestige language (the ‘matrilect’ or acrolect). Basilectal varieties are also contrasted with the intermediate varieties, known as mesolects. beat (n.) A term used by some metrical phonologists for the grid marks at the second or higher level in a metrical grid; the marks at the bottom level are referred to as demibeats. The distinction corresponds in part to the strong/ weak form or stressed/unstressed distinction: beats or demibeats that coincide with a beat at a higher level are strong; those which do not are weak. behaviourism (n.) In linguistics, the influence of this school of psychology (the study of observable and measurable behaviour) has been most marked in the work of the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield. It can be seen in the Bloomfieldian insistence on rigorous discovery procedures, and most notably in his behaviourist account of meaning in terms of observable stimuli and responses made by participants in specific situations. The limitations of behaviourist (or ‘mechanistic’) accounts of language (especially that associated with the work of the American psychologist B(urrhus) F(rederic) Skinner (1904–

1. were criticized by Noam Chomsky in the late 1950s, in writings which

behaviourism 51 anticipate the development of mentalistic ideas in linguistics. See empiricism, innateness, mentalism. benefactive (adj./n.) (ben, BEN) A term used in some grammatical descriptions to refer to a case form or construction whose function in a sentence is to express the notion ‘on behalf of’ or ‘for the benefit of’; also referred to as beneficiary. A benefactive form (‘a benefactive’) expresses the sense of ‘intended recipient’, and is often introduced by a for phrase in English, e.g. I’ve got a book for you. See semantic role. beneficiary (n.) see benefactive biased constraint demotion algorithm see constraint demotion algorithm biconditional (n.) see material conditional bidialectalism (n.) In its most general sense, a term which refers to proficiency by a person or a community in the use of two dialects of a language, whether regional or social; also called bidialectism. Several kinds of bidialectal situation have been studied, one of the best known being the switching from a casual to a formal variety of speech (diglossia). More specifically, it is a principle propounded in sociolinguistics and educational linguistics wherein different dialects are attributed equal linguistic validity and recommended for use in their appropriate social settings. The principle is of particular importance in relation to educational policy in schools, where the differences between the non-standard and the standard forms of a language can lead to considerable conflict. Bidialectalism recommends that both non-standard and standard dialects should be encouraged in the educational process, along with the fostering of children’s abilities to use code-switching, thus developing a greater degree of understanding and control over the varieties of their language than would otherwise be the case. bidialectism (n.) see bidialectalism bidirectionality (n.) see iterativity big PRO see pro bijection principle (BP) In government-binding theory, a condition on logical form which states that a variable is locally bound by one and only one A-bar position, and an A-bar position locally binds one and only one variable. This bijective correspondence excludes weak crossover violations of the type illustrated by Whoi does hisi mother love ti?, which involve an A-bar position locally binding two variables (the pronoun his and the trace). By contrast, the principle allows Whoi ti loves hisi mother?, where the A-bar category locally Abar- binds the trace, which in turn locally A-binds the pronoun. bilabial (adj./n.) A term in the classification of consonant sounds on the basis of their place of articulation: it refers to a sound made by the coming 52 benefactive together of both lips. Examples are the initial sounds in pin, bin, mat; a non- English bilabial would be the initial sound in Welsh mhen ‘my head’. The term is restricted to consonantal articulation; the active use of the lips in the articulation of vowels is discussed in terms of rounding and spreading. The only common speech sounds in which a single lip is the primary articulator are known as labio-dentals. ‘Monolabial’ is not found as a technical term; ‘quadrilabial’ exists only in humour, as part of the phonetician’s technical description of a kiss! bilateral (adj.) (1) A type of opposition recognized in Prague School phonology, distinguished from multilateral. The opposition between English /t/ and /d/, for example, is bilateral, because these are the only units in the system which are alveolar/plosive, and they are differentiated by the single feature of voicing; the opposition between, say, /t/ and /v/, however is multilateral, because there are other possibilities involving the same set of features, e.g. /d/ v. /f/. (2) A lateral sound in which air escapes around both sides of the tongue, as in the usual articulation of [l]; opposed to ‘unilateral’. bilingual (adj./n.) The general sense of this term – a person who can speak two languages – provides a pre-theoretical frame of reference for linguistic study, especially by sociolinguists, and by applied linguists involved in foreign- or second-language teaching; it contrasts with monolingual. The focus of attention has been on the many kinds and degrees of bilingualism and bilingual situations which exist. Definitions of bilingualism reflect assumptions about the degree of proficiency people must achieve before they qualify as bilingual (whether comparable to a monolingual native-speaker, or something less than this, even to the extent of minimal knowledge of a second language). Several technical distinctions have been introduced, e.g. between compound and co-ordinate bilingualism (based on the extent to which the bilingual sees the two languages as semantically equivalent or non-equivalent, and being represented differently in the brain), between the various methods of learning the two languages (e.g. simultaneously or in sequence in childhood, or through formal instruction), and between the various levels of abstraction at which the linguistic systems operate – bilingualism being distinguished from bidialectalism and diglossia. A balanced bilingual is someone whose command of both languages is equivalent. Of particular importance is the way in which studies of bilingualism involve the analysis of social, psychological and national (e.g. in the case of Welsh and Flemish) concerns – such as the social status of the different languages, and their role in identifying speakers with particular ethnic groups. In additive or elite bilingualism, a majority group learns a second language without this being a threat to its first language (e.g. Englishspeaking Canadians learning French); in subtractive or folk bilingualism, the second language comes to replace the first (a common situation with minority languages). biliteracy (n.) see literacy bimoraic (adj.) see mora bimoraic 53 binarity, binarism (n.) see binary feature binary choice see binary feature binary evaluation see evaluator binary feature A property which can be used to classify linguistic units in terms of two mutually exclusive possibilities, such as in phonology the presence versus the absence of vocal fold vibration, or lip-rounding. Binary features are a major organizational principle of distinctive feature theories of phonology, where it is conventional to mark the opposition using Å} in square brackets; e.g. a sound is characterized as [+voice] or [−voice]. Binary features are also established in grammatical and semantic analyses of lexical items, within generative grammar, where the same transcriptional convention is used, e.g. nouns have such properties as [+common], [−common]. Binary features stand in contrast to ‘unary’ and ‘multi-valued’ (‘n-valued’ or ‘n-ary’) features. For example, in ‘unary component theory’ in phonology, binary notions (e.g. [Å}round]) are replaced by single elements (e.g. [round]). Binarity, or binarism, in this sense is relatable to the principles of binary coding used in information theory, but the status of such contrasts in language is often controversial, as it is not always clear whether the linguistic possibilities available in phonology, grammar and semantics are best seen as a series of binary choices. In immediate constituent analysis, for example, which uses a binary technique for splitting sentences into smaller parts, it is sometimes impossible to decide where a binary division should be made, as in the case of adjective sequence (e.g. nice old red chair is not really divisible into nice + old red, or nice old + red). It has sometimes been suggested that binary branching is the norm in a phrase-marker; in its strong form, binary branching requires that any node can have at most two branches. In cases where binary features are used, it is sometimes possible to see one of the features as neutral, or unmarked, and the other as positive, or marked. bind (v.) see binding binding (adj./n.) A term used in logic, and frequently encountered in grammatical and semantic theory, for the relation between a variable and a quantifier or other operator on which it is semantically dependent – normally the lowest operator co-indexed with the variable and taking it in its scope. In government-binding theory it refers to a series of conditions which formally relate, or bind, certain elements of a sentence. Two kinds of binding are distinguished: A-binding and A-bar-binding (u-binding). The former obtains if a category (an anaphor) is co-indexed with a c-commanding noun phrase in an A-position (= argument-position). The latter obtains if a category (e.g. a variable such as a WH-movement trace) is co-indexed with a c-commanding category which is in an A-bar position (a position other than subject, object, and object of a preposition), e.g. the clause-initial position occupied by a wh-phrase. The extension (or generalization) of the approach from the former to the latter is known as generalized binding. Elements which are not bound are free. Binding theory is one of the (sub-)theories of government- 54 binarity binding theory. It is primarily concerned with the distribution of NPs in a sentence, determining the situations in which they can or must be co-indexed with other NPs. The NPs are classified into anaphors, pronominals and Rexpressions (‘referring expressions’). The three principles of binding theory – binding conditions A, B and C – are: (a) an anaphor is A-bound in its governing category; (b) a pronominal is A-free in its governing category; (c) an R-expression is A-free (everywhere). The binding inheritance principle is a reinterpretation of the foot-feature principle of generalized phrase-structure grammar within head-driven phrase-structure grammar. binomial (adj./n.) A term from mathematics (where it refers to an expression consisting of two elements connected by a plus or minus sign) which is sometimes used in lexicology to characterize two-element idiomatic collocations such as spick and span or rack and ruin (a ‘binomial expansion’ or ‘a binomial’). biolinguistics (n.) A developing branch of linguistics which studies the biological preconditions for language development and use in human beings, from the viewpoints of both the history of language in the race, and the development of language in the individual. It is also known as biological linguistics. Topics of common interest to the two subject-areas involved include the genetic transmission of language, neurophysiological models of language production, the anatomical parallels between human and other species, and the development of pathological forms of language behaviour (see clinical linguistics). In recent years, Chomsky has called his entire generative grammar an exercise in biolinguistics, claiming that it is possible to ask a question beyond explanatory adequacy: how did the language faculty evolve in the human species? See Chomskyan. biological linguistics see biolinguistics bioprogramme/bioprogram hypothesis A hypothesis in the study of creole languages that creoles are the inventions of the children growing up in the forts or on the plantations of the newly formed colonies. These children, who would hear only the highly simplified structures of pidgins around them, used their innate linguistic capacities to transform the pidgins into a natural language. This account, introduced by Derek Bickerton (b. 1926), claims to be able to explain the similarity and simplicity of creole languages: they are similar because the innate capacity applied was universal, and they are simpler because only the most basic language structures were represented. The study of creole languages, in this view, provides special insight into the character of universal grammar. bipositionality (n.) In some models of non-linear phonology, the representation of consonant or vowel length in two positions on the tier at which phonological quantity is represented (e.g. the CV-tier, X-tier). A long consonant or vowel is represented as a root node linked to two units of quantity. biuniqueness (n.) A principle in some approaches to phonology which states that any sequence of phonemes will be represented by a unique sequence of biuniqueness 55 phones, and vice versa – in other words, there is a one-to-one (or ‘reversible’) correspondence between phones and phonemes in each utterance. For example, in the word bin, the relationship between the two levels of analysis can be shown as 56 bivalent /b/ + /i/ + /n/ [b] /i/ [n] There are, however, several cases where this straightforward correlation does not apply, and where the notion of a phoneme as a unique class of sounds consequently is invalid. In such cases (see overlapping), one phone is assigned to more than one phoneme, depending on the context. The biuniqueness condition, along with the conditions of linearity and invariance, on which it depends, was particularly criticized by generative phonologists, as part of their general attack on taxonomic phonemics. bivalent (adj.) see valency Black English Vernacular see vernacular blade (n.) The part of the tongue between tip and centre, and which lies opposite the teeth and alveolar ridge when the tongue is in neutral position. Also known as the lamina, it is used in the articulation of several speech sounds, such as [t] and [s]. bleaching (n.) A term sometimes used in semantics to refer to a perceived loss or dilution of meaning in a word as a result of semantic change. Examples are the use of you know and I mean as pragmatic particles. Bleaching is often identified as an important element in grammaticalization. See grammar. bleeding (adj./n.) A term used in generative linguistic analysis of ruleordering, and originally introduced in the context of diachronic phonology, to refer to a type of functional relationship between rules; opposed to feeding. A bleeding relationship is one where an earlier rule (A) removes a structural representation to which a later rule (B) would otherwise have applied, and thus reduces the number of forms which can be generated. If rule B is of the form X ⇒ Y, then rule A must be of the form W ⇒ Z, where W includes Z, and Z is distinct from both X and Y. In these circumstances, rule A is called a bleeding rule in relation to B, and the linear order of these rules is called a bleeding order. If the rules are applied in the reverse order, A is said to counterbleed B. Counter-bleeding results in a non-affecting interaction in which a rule fails to realize its potential to reduce the number of forms to which another rule applies. It is also possible in a pair of rules for each rule to bleed the other (mutual bleeding). blend (n.) see blending (1) blending (n.) (1) A process found in the analysis of grammatical and lexical constructions, in which two elements which do not normally co-occur, according to the rules of the language, come together within a single linguistic unit (a blend). In grammar, the process is illustrated by such syntactic blends as It’s his job is the problem, a combination of the sentences It’s his job and His job is the problem. In lexis, ‘blending’ is a common source of new words through abbreviation (though not all become standard), e.g. brunch, Interpol and Eurovision. The term is also used by some psycholinguists for a type of tongue-slip involving the fusion of two target words, e.g. swurse for swear + curse. See also loan. (2) A theory within cognitive semantics that seeks to explain how extended analogies and complex novel metaphors are constructed and interpreted; also called conceptual bleeding or conceptual integration. block (v.) see blocking blocking (n.) (1) A term used in classical transformational grammar to refer to the non-application of a transformational rule. A rule is said to be blocked if it cannot be applied to a derivation because of the occurrence of a specific property in the phrase-marker. The term is also used in governmentbinding theory to formalize the notion of what can act as a barrier. To be a blocking category, A must not be theta-marked by a lexical (l) category, and A must dominate B. (2) In morphology, the term refers to the prevention of a process of wordformation due to the existence in a language of a word with the same meaning as the one which would have been formed. Although we may obtain curiosity from curious, English does not allow gloriosity, because glory already exists in the language, and therefore blocks it. This notion of synonymy avoidance can also be extended to such cases as went blocking goed. block language A term used in some grammatical descriptions to refer to the use of abbreviated structures in restricted communicative contexts, especial use being made of the word or phrase, rather than the clause or sentence. Common examples include: No smoking, Exit, One way, and ‘headlinese’, e.g. Prime Minister shock. Bloomfieldian (adj./n.) Characteristic of, or a follower of, the linguistic approach of the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield (1887–1949), as exemplified in his book Language, published in 1933. Bloomfieldianism refers particularly to the school of thought which developed between the mid-1930s and 1950s, especially in America, and which was a formative influence on structural linguistics. It was especially characterized by its behaviouristic principles for the study of meaning, its insistence on rigorous discovery procedures for establishing linguistic units, and a general concern to make linguistics autonomous and scientific (in a behaviourist sense). A reaction against Bloomfieldian tenets was a powerful force in producing generative grammar. Though Bloomfieldianism is no longer fashionable, some of its methods are still widely used in field studies. Bloomfieldian 57 Bloomfieldianism (n.) see Bloomfieldian Boolean (adj.) A term from mathematical logic (where it characterizes a type of algebra in which logical symbols are used to represent relations between sets); named after George Boole (1815–64), and widely used in computational linguistics and certain kinds of semantics, where it elucidates propositions linked by the three fundamental logical operations and, or, and not (Boolean operators). Boolean algebra or logic is especially relevant in cases which deal with mutually exclusive alternatives, such as binary features. bootstrapping (n.) In the study of child language acquisition, a suggested discovery procedure whereby children make deductions about the semantics or syntax of a language from their observations of language use. In semantic bootstrapping, children are thought to use semantic information to make deductions about syntax – for example, knowing something about the meaning of a verb (e.g. that give involves a giver, a gift and a receiver) may help them to work out semantic roles and thus syntactic realizations. In syntactic bootstrapping, the child uses syntactic or morphological information to make deductions about semantics – for example, using inflectional clues to distinguish types of word, thus providing a means of assigning preliminary meanings to unfamiliar words. In prosodic bootstrapping, acoustic cues in the speech signal (e.g. intonation, pause) help the child to identify syntactic boundaries, even before lexical knowledge is available. The term derives from mythology (where Baron Münchhausen saves himself by lifting himself up by his own bootstraps) and computing (where it refers to a short program used to load a longer program from disk into the computer, thus enabling the longer program to operate the computer). borrowing (n.) A term used in comparative and historical linguistics to refer to a linguistic form taken over by one language or dialect from another; such borrowings are usually known as ‘loan words’ (e.g. restaurant, bonhomie, chagrin, which have come into English from French), and several types have been recognized. Less commonly, sounds and grammatical structures may be borrowed, e.g. the pronunciation of the above loan words with a French or quasi-French accent, or the influence of English grammar often found in European languages, e.g. using an English plural -s for a noun, as in drinks, ski-lifts, goals, girls. bottom-up (adj.) In several branches of linguistics, a term which informally characterizes any procedure or model which begins with the smallest functional units in a hierarchy and proceeds to combine these into larger units; opposed to top-down, which begins with the analysis of a high-level unit into progressively smaller units. For example, in grammar, models which begin with morphemes or words are ‘bottom-up grammars’, those which begin with sentence, clause, or some discourse unit are ‘top-down grammars’. The distinction is also used in the analysis of text structure in textlinguistics and stylistics, in some approaches to non-linear phonology, in the teaching of reading (phonics v. whole word), and also in relation to models of mental processing in psycholinguistics and parsing procedures in computational linguistics. 58 Bloomfieldianism bound (adj.) (1) A term used as part of the classification of morphemes; opposed to free. A bound morpheme (or bound form) is one which cannot occur on its own as a separate word, e.g. the various affixes de-, -tion, -ize, etc. (2) A term used in logic, and frequently encountered in grammatical and semantic theory, applying to variables which are semantically dependent on a quantifier or other operator. In the binding sub-theory of governmentbinding theory it refers to constituents which have been formally related through co-indexing: X is bound if it is an argument co-indexed with a c-commanding argument. Its opposite is free. Some constituents (specifically, anaphors) must be bound (A-bound) in their governing category, and some (variables and R-expressions) must be free, otherwise the structures are ill formed. Variables must be A-bar bound – co-indexed with a c-commanding element in an A-bar position. (3) See formulaic language. boundary-symbol Symbols used in transformational grammar to indicate the boundaries between structural units, e.g. the elements of a string (+), or the boundaries of strings (#), e.g. # the+man+pres+have+en-+kick+the+ball#. The notion has a central role in some models of phonology, where the domains of phonological rules can be expressed in terms of phonological boundary symbols. Boundary strength is quantitative, expressed by the number of symbols present. A given phonological rule specifies only the minimal boundary strength across which it cannot apply. See also juncture. boundary tone In some analyses of intonation, a tone typically positioned at the edge of a phrasal constituent. High (H) and Low (L) tones are recognized as having important boundary roles, expressing such functions as assertion, question, and continuation. An asterisk is used to identify a tone that is realized on the stressed syllable (H, L*), and a % symbol is used to show that a tone associates with the edge syllable of a phrase (H%, L%). The notion, applied to a wide range of languages, subsumes effects which are usually handled separately (e.g. nuclear tone, syllabic accent, pitch accent). Utterance spans which are dominated by boundary tones are intonational phrases. ‘Medial’ boundary tones are also recognized, positioned at certain points within a constituent, marking an intermediate-level phrase. bounded foot see boundedness, foot (1) boundedness (n.) In metrical phonology, a foot-shape parameter which governs the distribution of stresses. Bounded feet contain no more than two or three syllables, and stresses fall within limited distances from each other and from word edges. Unbounded feet have no restriction in size or on stress distribution. bounding theory One of the (sub-)theories of government-binding theory, which sets limits on the domain of movement rules. Its chief principle is subjacency, which states that no movement operation can cross more than one barrier. In extended standard theory and early GB theory, barriers to movement were known as bounding nodes, commonly assumed to be NP and S. bounding theory 59 bow-wow theory The name of one of the speculative theories about the origins of language: it argues that speech arose through people imitating the sounds of the environment, especially animal calls. The main evidence is the use of onomatopoeic words (which are few, in most languages). The term has no standing in contemporary linguistics. See sound-symbolism. brace notation, bracket notation see bracketing bracketed grid see metrical grid bracketing (n.) (1) A technique used in linguistics to display the internal (hierarchical) structure of a string of elements, in a similar manner to that used in mathematics and symbolic logic. In the sentence The cat saw the king, for example, the various intuitively motivated divisions it is possible to make are each associated with the imposition of a pair of brackets on to the sentence, e.g. distinguishing the cat from the king would lead to the representation [the cat] [saw] [the king]. Each pair of brackets may be associated with a label which indicates the grammatical reason for their presence (a labelled bracketing); for example: [the cat]Subject [saw]Verb [the king]Object NP NP In a more sophisticated analysis, the order in which the pairs of brackets are applied is also made explicit, as in phrase-structure grammar (here illustrated without labelling), for example: Sentence unit [the cat saw the king] subject/predicate (or NP + VP) [[the cat] [saw the king]] verb/object (or V + NP) [[the cat][[saw][the king]]] It is plain that, as sentences become more complex, the sets of brackets within brackets will become increasingly difficult to read. The tree diagram display is the most widely used convention to overcome this difficulty. (2) Many of the abbreviating conventions used in writing a grammar involve brackets. In generative grammar, the following kinds of brackets are widely used to conflate rules: (a) parenthesis notation (round brackets) ( ) encloses optional elements, e.g. a rule involving D(Adj)N refers to the potential occurrence of two structures, DN and D Adj N; (b) brace notation (curly brackets) { } encloses alternative elements, e.g. a rule involving D Adj N N ⎧⎨⎩ ⎫⎬⎭ refers to the selection of only one of the two structures, either D Adj N or DNN. In other approaches these brackets are used to indicate morphemes, or morphophonemic forms; (c) bracket notation [ ] requires that elements be matched along the same horizontal row, e.g. A B C D ⎡ ⎣ ⎢ ⎤ ⎦ ⎥ → ⎡ ⎣ ⎢ ⎤ ⎦ ⎥ reads that ‘A becomes C’ and ‘B becomes D’; 60 bow-wow theory (d) angled brackets notation < > signals an interdependency between optional features in generative phonology, e.g. + <+ ⎡ ⎣ ⎢ ⎤ ⎦ ⎥ → + <+ ⎡ ⎣ ⎢ ⎤ ⎦ ⎥ A B> C D> reads that ‘feature A becomes feature C, and if feature B is present it becomes feature D’. In other approaches these brackets may be used to indicate graphemes or a piece of deleted material (e.g. feb<rua>ry). (3) In phonetics, there are two main uses of brackets: square brackets enclose a segmental phonetic transcription or a distinctive feature notation (e.g. [+grave]); slashes // enclose phonemic transcription. (4) Square brackets are also used to enclose features at a grammatical or semantic level, e.g. [+common], [−countable], [+male], [−female]. bracketing paradox In generative phonology, a term used for cases in which two incompatible ways of ordering rules are both well motivated. A rule can be applied to a substring containing the morphemes [A B], as part of a string [A B C], even though the corresponding morphological constituent structure [A [B C]] does not identify [A B] as a well-formed constituent. A much-discussed example is the constituency of the word ungrammaticality, represented morphologically as [[un[grammaticalADJ]ADJ]ity]N. Because un- is a prefix which attaches to adjectives, and not nouns, it needs to be shown to attach to the stem before the -ity suffix applies. However, phonologically, the opposite situation obtains. Here, the representation has to be [[un[[grammatical]ity]1]2], because the -ity suffix triggers a stress shift (and other changes) in the stem, and thus has to apply first; un-, which causes no such effects, should apply second. branch (n.) see family branching (adj./n.) A term used in linguistics to refer to the descending linear connections which constitute the identity of a tree diagram. phrase structure rules which generate such trees are sometimes called branching rules. The S, the first NP, and the VP in the diagram are branching nodes; the other nodes are non-branching. branching 61 It has sometimes been suggested that binary branching is the norm in a phrasemarker. See also binary feature. S NP VP D N V NP The girl saw John branching quantifiers A term used in semantics for a non-linear scope configuration of multiple quantifiers, in which two or more quantifiers take scope over the same clause, but neither quantifier takes scope over the other. For example, in Most relatives of each villager and most relatives of each townsman love each other, the quantifiers in either conjunct do not take scope over the quantifiers in the other conjunct. breath group (n.) A stretch of utterance produced within a single expiration of breath. Where and how often one breathes while speaking can be of significance for the linguist, in that the breathing pattern will impose a series of pauses on the utterance, and these will need to be related to phonological, grammatical and semantic structure. Within each breath group, also, it is possible that certain regularities exist, such as a predictable pattern of prominence or rhythm, and some investigators have used this notion as part of their study of a language’s prosody (though terms such as tone unit are here more widely used). More recently, the term has been used as a means of identifying the earliest vocalization units in infants. breathiness (n.) see breathy breathy (adj.) A term used in the phonetic classification of voice quality, on the basis of articulatory and auditory criteria. Breathiness refers to a vocal effect produced by allowing a great deal of air to pass through a slightly open glottis: this effect is also sometimes called murmur. Some speakers do have an abnormally breathy voice quality, as a permanent feature of their speech. What is of particular significance for linguistic analysis is that breathy effects may be used with contrastive force, communicating a paralinguistic meaning: the whole of an utterance may be thus affected, as in an extremely shocked pronunciation of Oh really! ‘Breathy voice’, or ‘breathy phonation’, is also sometimes encountered as a phonological characteristic, as in Gujarati, where there is an opposition between breathy and non-breathy vowels. See also aspiration. bridge (n.) A term sometimes used in grammar to refer to a class of verbs which allow long-distance extraction from their sentential complements. Bridge verbs, such as say, contrast with non-bridge verbs, such as the mannerof- speaking verbs whisper, guffaw and sigh, which do not allow such extraction: Who did Mary say that John saw? v. *Who did Mary whisper that John saw? broad (adj.) A term used in the classification of types of phonetic transcription. A ‘broad’ transcription is less detailed than a ‘narrow’ transcription. buccal (adj.) A term occasionally used in articulatory phonetics as an alternative to oral (as in ‘buccal cavity’), but more often with reference to sounds made specifically within the cavity of the cheek. A well-known ‘buccal voice’ is that produced by Donald Duck. See debuccalized. bunch (v.), bunched (adj.) see bunching 62 branching quantifiers bunching (n.) A term used in articulatory phonetics to refer to a tongue position in which the body of the tongue is held high and tense (bunched) during the production of a sound, as in close vowels (e.g. [i], [u]), and fricatives articulated in the palatal-alveolar area (e.g. [à]). bundle (n.) A term used in phonology to characterize one conception of the phoneme: in the approach of the Prague School the phoneme is seen as an aggregate (‘bundle’) of phonetic distinctive features. The English phoneme /s/, for example, can be seen as a result of the combination of the features of alveolarity, friction, voicelessness, etc. burst (n.) A term used in acoustic phonetics, referring to a sudden, short peak of acoustic energy which occurs in the production of certain sounds, such as at the release stage of plosives, and in some flaps and trills. byname (n.) In onomastics, a supplementary name, added to someone’s personal name in order to help identification, and sometimes replacing it completely. For example, several singers with identical surnames in Wales are publicly known by their village of origin (e.g. Williams Penygroes, Williams Brynsiencyn). History is full of bynames – Eric the Red, James the Bold, Ethelred the Unready. A byname can in principle be distinguished from a surname, because it is not its purpose to be passed on between generations; however, many surnames undoubtedly started out life as bynames (e.g. Michael Carpenter). byname 63 C C An abbreviation in government-binding theory for the category complementizer, generally abbreviated in earlier work as comp. This abbreviation is associated with the idea that complementizer is a head of phrase category broadly similar to noun, verb, adjective and preposition, with associated single-bar and double-bar categories, Cc and C″. C″, usually referred to as CP, is the largest unit of grammatical analysis (the initial symbol), equivalent to S′ in earlier government-binding theory, lexical functional grammar and generalized phrase-structure grammar. calculus (n.) see predicate (2), proposition calque (n.) (from French calquer, ‘to trace’) A term used in comparative and historical linguistics to refer to a type of borrowing, where the morphemic constituents of the borrowed word or phrase are translated item by item into equivalent morphemes in the new language. Such ‘loan translations’ are illustrated in English power politics from German Machtpolitik, Superman from Übermensch. cancellation (n.) see category candidate (n.) A term in optimality theory referring to a potential output form. A set of candidates is generated and then evaluated so as to find the optimal choice – the one with the fewest lowest violations. it is symbolized by + in an optimality tableau. canonical (adj.) An application in linguistics and phonetics of the general sense of this term, to refer to a linguistic form cited as a norm or standard for purposes of comparison. In phonology, for example, the normal syllabic combinations of sounds in a language (or in language as a whole) are often referred to as ‘canonical’, e.g. a consonant-vowel (CV) or CVC structure constitutes a ‘canonical syllable’ pattern; an averaged waveform in automatic speech recognition may be described as a ‘canonical waveform’. In morphology the term is used sometimes to refer to the typical phonological shape of morphemes in a language (e.g. CVCV in Polynesian), and sometimes A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics 6th Edition. David Crystal © 2008 David Crystal. ISBN: 978-1-405-15296-9 for the basic form in which a morpheme is cited (e.g. -s for the plural morpheme in English). In syntax, canonical structures (such as word-order) have been postulated, e.g. subject–verb–object, but this is an extended sense of the term. In some sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic studies, the normal position of human beings in relation to each other while conversing (i.e. face-to-face) is called a canonical encounter or orientation. See also template. capacity (n.) A term used in generative linguistics to refer to the generative power of grammars. If a series of grammars generates an identical set of strings (sentences), they are said to have the same weak generative capacity. If in addition they assign the same structural descriptions to these strings, then they have the same strong generative capacity. cardinal (adj./n.) A traditional term retained in some models of grammatical description, referring to the class of numerals one, two, etc. Cardinal numbers (or ‘cardinals’) contrast with the ordinal numbers first, second, etc. cardinal vowels A set of standard reference points, devised by the British phonetician Daniel Jones (1881–1967), to provide a precise means of identifying the vowel sounds of a language. The cardinal vowel system is based on a combination of articulatory and auditory judgements. Four theoretical levels of tongue height are recognized: (a) the highest position to which the tongue can be raised without producing audible friction; (b) the lowest position the tongue is capable of achieving; (c) and (d), two intermediate levels, which divide up the intervening space into areas that are articulatorily and auditorily equidistant. Using the front of the tongue, and without rounding the lips, four primary vowel types are produced, and these are given the symbols (from high to low) [i], [e] [ε] and [a]. Using the back of the tongue, four more primary vowel types are recognized, symbolized as (from low to high) [w], [.], [o] and [u] – the last three involving lip-rounding. In addition, each of these primary values is coded numerically, from 1 to 8 respectively. By reversing the lip position, a secondary series of vowel types is produced: rounding the lips for the front vowels produces (from high to low) [y], [ø], [oe] and [OE]; [∞] is the rounded equivalent of cardinal 5, and [.], [˝] and [„] are the unrounded equivalents of cardinals 6, 7 and 8 respectively. The numerical code for the secondary series runs from 9 to 16. Two further cardinal vowels represent the highest point the centre of the tongue can reach: these are symbolized by [ÅÄ] for the unrounded vowel and by [.] for the rounded vowel, coded 17 and 18 respectively. The entire system is usually shown in the form of the cardinal vowel diagram, or cardinal vowel quadrilateral, in which the aim is to give an approximate picture of the degree and direction of tongue movement involved. Additional lines help to delimit the area in which central vowel sounds are made. It should be emphasized that the cardinal vowels are not real vowels: they are invariable reference points (available as a recording), which have to be learned by rote. Once learned, phoneticians can use them in order to locate the position of the vowels of a language or to compare the vowels of different languages or dialects. They can be sure that the vowels will all fall somewhere within the boundaries of the cardinal area. diacritic marks can then be used to plot vowel cardinal vowels 65 positions more accurately, e.g. a plus beneath the vowel means that the articulation is more advanced than the cardinal value (as in [u+ ]), a line beneath the vowel means that the articulation is more retracted (as in [e− ]). Several other suggestions have been made concerning the best way of dividing up the vowel articulation area, but Daniel Jones’s system is still the most widely used. Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. caregiver/caretaker speech see motherese Cartesian linguistics A term used by some linguists to refer to any linguistic theories or methods which, it is claimed, illustrate the influence of the French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) and the grammarians of Port Royal. The discussion of universals in generative linguistics, in particular, draws certain parallels with Cartesian views concerning the relationship between language and thought. This interpretation of the history of linguistic thought has remained controversial, since its initial statement by Noam Chomsky (see Language and Mind (1968)). See also Chomskyan. case (n.) (1) A grammatical category used in the analysis of word-classes (or their associated phrases) to identify the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence, through such contrasts as nominative, accusative, etc. The traditional classification, such as is found in Latin grammar, is based on variations in the morphological forms of the word (a set of such forms constituting a paradigm, as in Latin puella, puellam, puellae, puella, the singular case forms of ‘girl’ – respectively nominative/vocative, accusative, genitive/ dative and ablative). Each form is analysed in terms of a specific range of meaning; e.g. nominative is primarily the case of the grammatical subject of the sentence, genitive refers to such notions as possession, origin, and so on. In languages which lack morphological variations of this kind, the term ‘case’, as traditionally used, does not apply. In English, for example, the only case form which is so marked is the genitive (as in boy’s or boys’); all other forms have no ending, the remaining case ‘meanings’ being expressed using prepositions (as in with a boy, to the boy) or word-order (as in the cat chases mouse/mouse chases cat contrast). A great deal of space in introductions to linguistics has 66 caregiver/caretaker speech y Front VOWELS Close Central Back Close-mid Open a Open-mid „ u ” o . . . Ω w ∞ ÅÄ e ø y . æ v OE Å  iy ÅÄ . been devoted to this point, in particular to criticism of traditional grammars of English which insisted nonetheless on analysing the English noun in terms of cases. In some languages, highly complex morphological systems are encountered – according to some, Finnish can be analysed as having sixteen cases, for example – along with a correspondingly complex descriptive terminology (using such terms as inessive (‘in’ a place), elative (‘from inside’ a place) and illative (‘into’ a place)). (2) When written with a capital C (Case), the term refers to an abstract notion which is distinct from the morphologically marked case described under (1) above. Abstract Case (or deep Case) is present even in languages (such as Chinese) which lack morphological case on noun phrases; it is usually assumed to be congruent with morphological case when such features are present. Case theory is one of the (sub-)theories of government-binding theory: it deals with the assignment of abstract Case and its morphological realizations, restricting the distribution of lexical NPs at S-structure. Structural Case is assigned to NPs at S-structure; inherent Case is assigned to NPs in D-structure. Casemarking rules assign structural Case to certain NP positions (e.g. objective, where the NP is governed by a transitive verb or preposition), and the Case filter restricts the range of sentences which can be generated in this way, making movement of the object-NP to the subject position obligatory in passives, and preventing the appearance of an adverbial between a verb and its object. Case theory in this sense must be clearly distinguished from that outlined in case grammar. In the minimalist programme, Case-marking is expressed as Case-checking. case grammar An approach to grammatical analysis devised by the American linguist Charles Fillmore (b. 1929) in the late 1960s, within the general orientation of generative grammar. It is primarily a reaction against the standardtheory analysis of sentences, where notions such as subject, object, etc., are neglected in favour of analyses in terms of NP, VP, etc. By focusing on syntactic functions, however, it was felt that several important kinds of semantic relationship could be represented, which it would otherwise be difficult or impossible to capture. A set of sentences such as The key opened the door, The door was opened by/with the key, The door opened, The man opened the door with a key, etc., illustrate several ‘stable’ semantic roles, despite the varying surface grammatical structures. In each case the key is ‘instrumental’, the door is the entity affected by the action, and so on. Case grammar formalizes this insight using a model which shows the influence of the predicate calculus of formal logic: the deep structure of a sentence has two constituents, modality (features of tense, mood, aspect and negation, relating to the sentence as a whole) and proposition (within which the verb is considered central, and the various semantic roles that elements of structure can have are listed with reference to it, and categorized as cases). The term ‘case’ is used because of the similarity with several of the traditional meanings covered by this term (see case (1)), but the deep-structure cases recognized by the theory do not systematically correspond with anything in the surface morphology or syntax. The original proposal set up six cases (agentive, instrumental, dative, factitive, locative and objective) and gave rules for their combination in defining the use of verbs, e.g. a verb like open can be case grammar 67 used with an objective and instrumental case (e.g. The key opened the door), or with an additional agent (e.g. The man opened the door with a key). Later, other cases were suggested (source, goal, counter-agent), some cases were reinterpreted and relabelled (see experiencer, result), and certain cases came to be given special study, it being claimed that they were more fundamental (location and direction, in particular). In a locative or localist case theory, for example, structures such as there is a table, the table has legs, the table’s legs, and many more, could each be analysed as having an underlying locational feature. The problems in formalizing this conception of linguistic structure have remained very great, and case grammar came to attract somewhat less interest in the mid-1970s; but it has proved to be influential on the terminology and classification of several later theories, especially the theory of thematic roles. See also frame, theme. cataphora (n.) A term used by some grammarians for the process or result of a linguistic unit referring forward to another unit. Cataphoric reference is one way of marking the identity between what is being expressed and what is about to be expressed: for example, I said this/the following . . . , where the meaning of this and the following must be specified in the subsequent context. Here is the 9 o’clock news shows the cataphoric function of here. Cataphoric words (or ‘substitutes’) are usually contrasted with anaphoric words (which refer backwards), and sometimes with exophoric words (which refer directly to the extralinguistic situation). cataphoric (adj.) see cataphora categorial grammar see category categorical perception A term used in phonetics and psycholinguistics to refer to a class of discontinuities in the labelling and discrimination of items along acoustic phonetic continua. Subjects typically perceive differences in stimuli between those items that are labelled as belonging to different categories; but increasing the sensitivity of the measures allows some awareness of differences within the same category. categorization (n.) see category category (n.) A general term used in linguistics at varying levels of abstraction. At its most general level, categorization refers to the whole process of organizing human experience into general concepts with their associated linguistic labels; the linguistic study of this process (in semantics) overlaps with that of philosophers and psychologists. In the field of grammar, categorization refers to the establishment of a set of classificatory units or properties used in the description of language, which have the same basic distribution, and which occur as a structural unit throughout the language. In the course of language change, there may be alterations in the category status of a unit (recategorization). The term category in some approaches refers to the classes themselves, e.g. noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb phrase (any associated abbreviations being referred to as category symbols). More 68 cataphora specifically, it refers to the defining properties of these general units: the categories of the noun, for example, include number, gender, case and countability; of the verb, tense, aspect, voice, etc. A distinction is often made between grammatical categories, in this second sense, and grammatical functions (or functional categories), such as subject, object, complement. While both of these senses of ‘category’ are widespread, several specific applications of the term have developed within individual theories. For example, in scale-and-category grammar, ‘category’ is used primarily to refer to the notions of class, system, unit and structure, which the theory recognized as basic. It is also distinguished from segment in Chomsky-adjunction. Most distinctive of all, perhaps, is the special status given to the term in theories of categorial grammar, a type of formal grammar devised by logicians in the 1920s and 1930s, and developed by several linguists in the 1950s (in particular by Yehoshua Bar Hillel (1915–75)). Its distinctive mode of operation involves the deriving of categories from more basic categories: for any two categories, P and Q, there is a complex category of the type P/Q, which represents the operations which may be performed on a given word. For example, given the basic categories N (noun) and S (sentence), an item such as go would be assigned N/S, thereby capturing its intransitive status (i.e. go can combine with a preceding N to produce S). More complex structures can be reduced to simpler ones using a set of syntactic operations, in which the notion of ‘cancellation’ is especially important (e.g. P followed by P/Q reduces to Q). In generative grammar, the set of phrase-structure rules in a grammar may be referred to as the categorial component, i.e. that part of the base component of the grammar which specifies such syntactic categories as S, NP, VP. A categorial rule is a rule which expands a category into other categories. Also, in some models of generative grammar, the term category feature is used to refer to a type of contextual feature, i.e. a syntactic feature which specifies the conditions relating to where in a deep structure a lexical item can occur. Category features specify which node will be the one to dominate directly the lexical item, once it is introduced into the phrase-marker (replacing the corresponding empty (delta) symbol, e.g. [+N], [+Det], [+V]). A category variable is a symbol which stands for any lexical category. A related term in this model is strict sub-categorization, referring to features which specify further restrictions on the choice of lexical items in deep structure. See also empty (1), govern (2), higher category, type shifting. category selection see selectional feature category shifting see type shifting catenative (adj./n.) A term used in some grammatical descriptions of the verb phrase to refer to a lexical verb (‘a catenative’) which governs the nonfinite form of another lexical verb, as in one possible analysis of she likes to write, she wants to see, she hates waiting, etc. In generative grammar, such constructions are known as control and raising constructions. causal chain theory In semantics, the hypothesis that the denotation of a proper name or other expression is determined by the historical chain of causal chain theory 69 cause and effect leading from the initial bestowal of the name up through its acquisition by the speaker. The theory was proposed by philosopher Saul (Aaron) Kripke (b. 1940) in the 1970s as an alternative to the view that denotation is determined by mental description or other features of the speaker’s psychological state. causative (adj./n.) (caus, CAUS) A term used in grammatical description to refer to the causal relationship between alternative versions of a sentence. For example, the pair of sentences The cat killed the mouse and The mouse died are related, in that the transitive kill can be seen as a ‘causative’ version of the intransitive die, viz. ‘cause to die’ (The cat caused the mouse to die); similarly, some affixes have a causative role, e.g. -ize, as in domesticize (= ‘cause to become domestic’). This is a relationship which is clearly established in the morphological structure of some languages (e.g. Japanese, Turkish), where an affix can systematically distinguish between non-causative and causative uses of a verb (‘causative verbs’ or ‘causatives’), e.g. ‘she eats’, ‘she causes (someone) to eat’, which is similar to English she makes him eat. Some linguists have also tried to apply the notion of causative systematically to English, seeing it as an abstract underlying category from which sets of ‘surface’ verbs (such as kill and die) can be derived. cavity (n.) (1) In phonetics, this term refers to any of the anatomically defined chambers in the vocal tract which are the principal formative influences on the character of a sound. The main cavities are: (a) the oesophageal cavity, from oesophagus to stomach, which is used only in abnormal speech production, such as following a laryngectomy operation; (b) the pulmonic cavity, made up of the lungs and trachea, which is the normal source of speech sounds; (c) the pharyngeal cavity, from the larynx to the point where the soft palate makes contact with the back of the throat; (d) the oral cavity, made up of the whole of the mouth area, and the main means of modifying the resonance of the sound produced at the larynx; sometimes referred to as buccal; (e) the nasal cavity, made up of the nose and the part of the pharynx above the point of soft palate closure. (2) In Chomsky and Halle’s distinctive feature theory of phonology (see Chomskyan), cavity features constitute one of the five main dimensions in terms of which speech sounds are analysed (the others being major class features, manner of articulation features, source features, and prosodic features). The features subsumed under this heading, all analysed as oppositions, are coronal, anterior, tongue-body features (high/low/ back), rounded, distributed, covered, glottal constrictions, and secondary apertures (nasal and lateral). In some models of feature geometry, an oral cavity node is introduced, corresponding to the articulatory notion of an oral cavity constriction. It is represented between the root node and the place node, thus dominating place and [Å}continuant] nodes. c-command see command (2) cenematics, cenetics (n.) see ceneme (1) 70 causative ceneme (n.) (1) A term used in glossematics to refer to the minimal unit in a language’s phonological system. Cenematics and cenetics are the terms used to refer to the analysis of cenemes at levels corresponding to those of phonology and phonetics respectively. (2) In the study of writing systems, a sign which denotes only linguistic form; opposed to plereme, where meaning is also involved. There are two main types: syllabaries (e.g. Japanese kana) and alphabets. Systems of cenemic signs are more economical in their use of elementary units, and are often thought to represent a more advanced state of writing. centre (n.) (1) The top part of the tongue, between front and back, and used especially in the production of ‘central vowels’ (also called ‘neutral’ vowels), such as the [v] sound which opens the word asleep and closes the word sofa. In a sense, when compared with the theoretical extremes of vowel articulation which define the cardinal vowels in phonetics, all real language vowels are centralized; but the term is usually used to refer to cases where a vowel normally articulated in the periphery of the vowel area comes to be produced nearer the centre of the mouth, as when bacon and [= and] eggs becomes, in normal colloquial speech, bacon [vnd] eggs. Several degrees of this process of centralization can be heard. Markedly ‘centralized vowels’ are common in several urban British dialects, for example. A diphthong which involves a glide towards the centre of the mouth may be referred to as a ‘centring’ diphthong. (2) The most sonorous part of a syllable may be referred to as the ‘centre’ (or nucleus), e.g. the [up] in the word boot [bupt]. (3) In those types of grammatical phrase where several words depend on one head word (endocentric constructions), the head is often referred to as the ‘centre’ of the phrase. centre-embedding see self-embedding centring diphthong see centre (1) centum language /ckentvm/ An Indo-European language in which the velar stop /k/ of Proto-Indo-European was retained in such words as Latin centum ‘hundred’; opposed to a satem language, where this sound changed to an alveolar fricative /s/ in such words as Avestan satem ‘hundred’. Celtic, Romance, and Germanic languages are among the centum group; Balto-Slavonic and Indo-Iranian languages are among the satem group. chain (n.) (1) In communication studies, a term used to describe a model which presents the communicative act as an interrelated sequence of stages between a speaker and a receiver. With reference to speech (the speech chain), the model usually distinguishes psychological, neurological, physiological and anatomical stages of sound production, an acoustic stage of transmission, and anatomical, physiological, neurological and psychological stages of sound reception. chain 71 (2) In government-binding theory, a chain refers to a sequence of syntactic elements subject to the same specific conditions, as shown by government and co-indexing: ai 1, ai 2 . . . ai n, where each a is antecedent-governed. In this example, ai 1 is the head of the chain, ain is the foot or tail; and each adjacent pair is a link. It represents the history of movement, and retains an important role in the minimalist programme. A moved constituent and its coindexed traces form a chain. A chain is an A-chain if ai 1 is in an A-position, and an A-bar-chain if it is in an A-bar-position. The principle governing the linking of chains is called the chain formation principle or chain condition: every chain created by movement of an argument must contain just one thetamarked position and just one Case-marked position. Movement of an adjunct also creates a chain, but does not have theta-marked position or Case-marked position. A CHAIN is a generalization of the notion to handle expletive– argument pairs, such as Therei is a cari in the garage. (3) In historical phonology, a situation where a series of sound changes take place, each one influencing the next. Two directions of movement are possible. When the process begins at the top or front end of an articulatory dimension, empty slots are left in the chain which other sounds move up to fill: a drag chain. When the process begins at the bottom or back end of the chain, each sound ‘pushes’ the next one out of place: a push chain. The Great Vowel Shift in English is often cited as a classical example of a chain movement (or chain shift) in operation. (4) In syntax, a term used to describe clause combinations in languages where the distinction between co-ordination and subordination does not easily apply. In a clause-chaining language (such as the Papuan language, Hua), identity or lack of identity between the subjects of successive clauses is marked by verb inflection (see switch reference). (5) In sociolinguistics, a continuing sequence of question/answer exchanges in a conversation; also referred to as chaining. CHAIN see chain (2) chain/choice (n.) A pair of terms used by some linguists to refer to the two main axes of linguistic organization, corresponding to the distinction between syntagmatic (‘chain’) and paradigmatic (‘choice’). This sense of ‘choice’ is more restricted than that found in some discussions of semantics, where a widely held conception of meaningfulness is based on the ability of the speaker/ hearer to ‘choose’ from a selection of linguistic alternatives, which provide the information-carrying contrasts prerequisite for communication. chain condition/formation principle see chain (2) chain shift see chain (2) change from above/below Two terms introduced into sociolinguistics by William Labov (b. 1927) as part of the explanation of language change. ‘Change from below’ refers to the alterations that people make in their speech below the level of their conscious awareness; ‘change from above’ results from a conscious process of correction of individual linguistic forms, as a result of social pressure 72 CHAIN (see hypercorrection). The terms have also been used so as to focus on the relationships of social class which are implicated. Here, ‘change from below’ is seen when the speech of people from a higher-class background is influenced by that of lower-class speakers – in situations, for example, where the former group admires the latter’s traditional way of life. ‘Change from above’ involves the reverse process: lower-class people come to recognize the high prestige attached to certain pronunciations, which they then introduce into their speech. See also language change, overt (2). channel (n.) see medium character (n.) (1) In semantic studies of demonstratives and indexicals, a term referring to a function which maps each possible pragmatic context onto the expression’s content relative to that context. (2) See logogram. charm (n.) In government phonology, a term adapted from particle physics, and used to refer to a property of the combinatorial possibilities of the primitive elements which form phonological segments. Segments may be positively charmed (e.g. vowels) or negatively charmed (e.g. plosives), or they may be neutral (charmless, e.g. liquids). Charmed segments may govern; charmless segments may be governed. Positively charmed segments may not occur in non-nuclear positions; negatively charmed segments may not occur in nuclear positions. charmed, charmless (adj.) see charm chart (n.) (1) A term used in phonetics to refer to the International Phonetic Association’s classification of the sounds of language presented in matrix form: the ‘IPA chart’. See p. xxv of this dictionary. (2) A term used in autosegmental phonology for a pair of tiers along with the set of association lines which relates them. chart parser In computational linguistics, a procedure which builds up a representation of the constituents present in a sentence during a parsing operation. A chart is a set of entries, each of which consists of the name of a terminal or non-terminal symbol, the starting-point of the entry, and the entry length. The parsing process involves a key list (a stack of entries waiting to be entered into the chart) and a set of rules (arcs or edges) that apply to the entries. Each arc represents the application of a rule to build a constituent, and is labelled with the rule it represents. Several kinds of chart parsers have been developed in natural language processing, using different programming languages and procedures (e.g. top-down and bottom-up algorithms). checked (adj.) (1) One of the features of sound set up by Jakobson and Halle (see Jakobsonian) in their distinctive feature theory of phonology, to handle secondary articulations – in this case, glottalization. Checked consonants are defined, both articulatorily and acoustically, as those sounds produced with accompanying glottal activity, involving a rapid energy discharge checked 73 in a short time interval. ejectives and implosives, in this view, are [+checked]. The opposite term is unchecked, which applies to all non-glottalized sounds, signalled acoustically by a lower energy discharge over a larger time interval. (2) The term is also found as an alternative to closed, in the description of syllables: a checked syllable is one ending in a consonant, and a checked vowel is a vowel occurring in such a syllable. checking (adj.) (1) A term sometimes used in grammatical description to refer to a subtype of tag questions: a checking tag is one which reverses the positive or negative value of the main-clause verb, and whose function is seen as one of confirmation, or ‘checking’, e.g. It’s Sunday today, isn’t it. Other types of tag would be referred to as ‘copy’ tags. (2) In the minimalist programme, a term describing a procedure which determines whether a lexical element has the appropriate features before it is used in a position in sentence structure. It is a basic relation which allows one element to license another by checking off the features with which the latter is associated. The features involved must be in a local domain, called the checking domain. chereme (n.) see cherology cherology (n.) In linguistics, a term sometimes used for the study of sign language. It was coined on analogy with phonology to refer to the study of the smallest contrastive units (cheremes) which occur in a sign language. Signs are analysed into such features as the location of the signing space in which a sign is made, the hand configuration used, and the action of the active hand. chest pulse A term used in phonetics to refer to a contraction of those muscles of the chest which are involved in the exhalation of air from the lungs. For the production of emphatic speech, these pulses are said to be ‘reinforced’ or ‘stressed’. The chest pulse has been suggested as a central explanatory concept in one account of syllable production (chest pulse theory), but this view presents several problems. child-directed speech In language acquisition, a term used for the whole range of distinctive linguistic characteristics found in adult speech addressed to young children. In early studies it was frequently referred to as baby-talk (a term still widely used in popular parlance), but the notion includes far more than the often stereotyped use of endearing pronunciations and words (such as doggie, /den/ for then, etc.) and is primarily characterized with reference to the use of simplified sentence structures, and certain types of linguistic interaction (such as the expansion of a child’s sentence into a full adult form, e.g. Dadda gone ⇒ Yes, daddy’s gone). The study of baby-talk, or ‘language input’, became a major focus of language acquisition studies in the early 1970s, a particular stimulus coming from sociolinguistics. An early argument of Chomsky’s was that child-directed speech was highly degenerate in quality (involving many errors, false starts, etc.), but later research has established a great deal that is systematic in the input of adults to children. The term is now uncommon in psycholinguistics because of its apparent restriction to babies 74 checking (as opposed to young children generally) and its ambiguity (talk by babies as well as to babies). It was replaced by motherese, and also by more general notions such as caregiver or caretaker speech, before the present term came to be widely used. child language acquisition/development see acquisition (1) choice (n.) see binary feature, chain/choice choice function A term used in semantics for a function which maps each set in its domain onto a member of that set. Choice functions play an important role in certain semantic analyses of specific indefinites. chômeur (n.) A term used in relational grammar, derived from the French word meaning ‘unemployed’, to refer to a nominal item which has its role in a clause taken over (or ‘usurped’) by another nominal; abbreviated as cho. For example, in a passive sentence, the underlying subject is seen as having its subject function usurped by the direct object from the active sentence; as a result, the subject of the active sentence becomes demoted into a chômeur. By seeing such structures in terms of rules which alter relations (rather than in terms of a transformation of one phrase-marker into another), it is hoped that a more universal formulation of such rules will be obtained. Chomsky-adjunction (n.) A type of syntactic operation in transformational grammar, referring to a rule which places certain elements of structure in adjacent positions, with the aim of specifying how these structures fit together in larger units. To Chomsky-adjoin elements, a constituent A is adjoined to B by creating a new B node which immediately dominates both A and B. (See adjunction for tree diagrams.) Chomskyan (adj./n.) Characteristic of, or a follower of, the linguistic principles of (Avram) Noam Chomsky (b. 1928), now Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; also spelled Chomskian. His theory of language structure known as transformational-generative grammar revolutionized work in linguistics in 1957, with the publication of his monograph Syntactic Structures. Later, major publications on technical linguistic topics included Current Issues in Linguistic Theory (1964) and Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965). The latter publication introduced a new direction into generative theory and became the orthodoxy for several years. His main publication on phonology was The Sound Pattern of English (1968), with Morris Halle, referred to in this dictionary as ‘Chomsky and Halle’. Later developments in his linguistic thinking in book form may be found in Reflections on Language (1976), Rules and Representations (1980), Knowledge of Language (1986), Barriers (1986) and The Minimalist Program (1995). By the mid-1960s Chomsky had come to stress the role of language as a key means to the investigation of the human mind. The view that linguistics can be profitably seen as a branch of cognitive psychology is argued especially in Language and Mind (1968), and it is this aspect of his thinking which has attracted a wide readership outside linguistics, especially among philosophers Chomskyan 75 and psychologists. A collection of essays since 1992 is New Horizons in the the Study of Language and Mind (2000). In the 2000s, Chomsky has argued that his whole generative grammar project is an exercise in biolinguistics: a good summary is in On Nature and Language (2002). Chomsky has also been actively involved in politics and has written widely on US power and involvement (or lack of involvement) in many major conflicts around the world, as well as on issues of propaganda, world trade and globalization, e.g. American Power and the New Mandarins (1969), The Fateful Triangle (1983), Turning the Tide (1985), Profits over People (1998), and 9–11 (2001). His political activism increased after 11 September 2001. Chomsky hierarchy A label applied to the series of increasingly powerful classes of formal languages which can be generated by formal grammars (as first demonstrated by Noam Chomsky, using notions partly derived from automata theory). Type 3 grammars are finite-state grammars (also called ‘right-linear grammars’); Type 2 grammars are context-free grammars; Type 1 grammars are context-sensitive grammars; and Type 0 grammars are unrestricted rewrite grammars. See Chomskyan. chroneme (n.) An abstract unit, used by some phonologists as a means of describing phonologically contrastive differences in the length of speech sounds. Both vowels and consonants may display phonemic contrasts in length: long and short vowels are found in German, long and short consonants in Estonian. The vowel-length differences in English, such as in bit and beat, also involve differences in quality, and the term chroneme is thus not applicable. Those who use this terminology would refer to the etic unit of duration as a chrone. chunk (n., v.) see chunking chunking (n.) In psycholinguistics, the breaking up of an utterance into units (chunks) so that it can be more efficiently processed. For example, the use of prosody to chunk a sequence of digits enables the digits to be remembered more easily (cf. /3, 7, 4, 1, 9, 8, 5, 7, 6, 2/ v. /3, 7, 4, 1, 9 / 8, 5, 7, 6, 2/). The notion has come to be particularly used in relation to the storage and production of syntactic constructions, especially in relation to the emergentist approach in first-language acquisition. Chunking is also used as a teaching technique in speech pathology and foreign language teaching. circonstant (n.) In valency grammar, a non-essential dependent unit, not determined by the valency of the verb; opposed to actant. Examples would include modifiers and most uses of adverbials. circumfix (n.) see affix circumscription (n.) In prosodic morphology, a term used to characterize a core principle of the approach: ‘prosodic circumscription’ asserts that the domain to which morphological operations apply is defined by prosodic criteria (as well as by the traditionally recognized morphological criteria). In affixation, 76 Chomsky hierarchy for example, the operation of assigning a prefix to a base is traditionally carried out on purely grammatical grounds, whereas in prosodic circumscription the base form is delimited (circumscribed) prosodically. The notion makes it possible to give an account of such phenomena as the locus of infixation in prosodic terms. See also template (2). citation form The form of a linguistic unit when it is cited in isolation, for purposes of discussion. More specifically, the term refers to the pronunciation given to a word when it is produced in isolation, and not in connected speech. The term citation is also used in a general sense in linguistics, referring to the use of an utterance or piece of text for quotation or reference purposes. In lexicography, citation slips are used to provide the evidence on which the dictionary’s entries are selected and organized. clash (v.), clashing (n.) see metrical grid class (n.) An application in linguistics and phonetics of the general use of this term, to refer to a set of entities sharing certain formal or semantic properties. Its most widespread use is in relation to the classification of morphemes into form-classes and words into word-classes (other syntactic units being less likely to be referred to in terms of classes). A major distinction is sometimes drawn between open and closed classes of words. The term class cleavage is sometimes used where a word is analysable into different classes, e.g. round in It’s your round, round the corner, etc. Some grammarians refer to countable nouns as ‘class nouns’. ‘Class’ has a special status in Hallidayan linguistics, where it is one of the four main categories recognized by that theory (the others being structure, unit and system). Here, classes are any set of items having the same possibilities of operation in structure, e.g. the class of ‘nominal groups’ can operate as subject, object, etc., in clause structure. Classification is a feature of structuralist linguistics, where phones were classified into phonemes, morphs into morphemes, etc. The perceived limitations of this taxonomic approach to language provided a main argument for the development of generative linguistics. However, the notion of a natural class is central to some models of phonology; for example, in feature geometry, features of the same kind are grouped together under class nodes. class cleavage see class class dialect In sociolinguistics, a term sometimes used to refer to varieties of language which correlate with divisions of social class – alternatively known as ‘social dialects’. classeme (n.) A term used by some European linguists (e.g. Eugen Coseriu (1921–2002)), to refer to the relatively abstract semantic features shared by lexical items belonging to different semantic fields, e.g. animate/inanimate, adult/child. In this approach, the term contrasts with the irreducible semantic features (semes) which work, at a very particular level, within a particular semantic field, e.g. table being identified in terms of ‘number of legs’, ‘shape’, etc. classeme 77 classification (n.), classify (v.) see class classifier (n.) (1) (CL, class) In grammar, a morpheme whose function is to indicate the formal or semantic class to which items belong is sometimes called a classifier, e.g. -ly is an adverb classifier, -ess is a ‘femininity’ classifier. The marking of lexical items as belonging to the same semantic class is an important feature of many languages (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese, Hopi), and sometimes quite unexpected bases of classifications are found, in terms of shape, size, colour, movability, animacy, status, and so on. (2) In sign-language studies, a term used for a handshape which functions pronominally for a class of objects, e.g. ‘vehicle’. class node In feature geometry, a term which refers to a non-terminal node, or ‘organizing’ node. clausal (adj.) see clause clause (n.) A term used in some models of grammar to refer to a unit of grammatical organization smaller than the sentence, but larger than phrases, words or morphemes. The traditional classification is of clausal units into main (independent or superordinate) and subordinate (or dependent) clauses, e.g. The girl arrived/after the rain started. Some grammars distinguish finite and non-finite types of clause, depending on the form of the verb used, and further subdivisions are sometimes made (e.g. a reduced ‘verbless’ clause, as in When ripe, these apples will be lovely). A more detailed subclassification would take into account the function of clauses within the sentence, e.g. as adverbial, noun or adjective. It would also analyse clauses into formal elements of structure, such as subject, verb, object, complement and adverbial. Derived terms include wh-clauses, such as I wonder when they will leave; that-clauses, such as They decided that the journey was too far; and small clauses, a term used in government-binding theory for clauses which contain neither a finite verb nor an infinitival to, such as I saw [him do it]. Mainstream generative grammar makes no formal distinction between clauses and sentences: both are symbolized by S/S′ (or equivalents such as IP/CP). Some grammarians make use of the notion of kernel clause: such a clause forms a sentence on its own; is structurally complete, not elliptical; is declarative, not imperative, interrogative or exclamative; is positive, not negative; and is unmarked with respect to all the thematic systems of the clause. It should be noted that this is not an alternative term for the early generative grammar notion of ‘kernel sentence’. See also chain (4), serial verb. clause-chaining language see chain (4) clause-mate (n.) A term used in early generative grammar to refer to a type of relationship between the elements of a sentence structure within a phrasemarker. A and B are clause-mates if and only if the S node that most immediately dominates A is also the S node that most immediately dominates B. For example, in a tree partially illustrated by: 78 classification click 79 the elements NPi and VPi are clause-mates, as are the elements NPj and VPj; but NPi is not a clause-mate of VPj. The notion permits a certain economy of statement in discussing the properties of transformational rules; selectional restrictions, for example, apply only to clause-mates. clause-wall (n.) A term used in non-discrete grammar, to refer to the different degrees of dependency existing between clauses. Clauses which have a relatively high clause-wall between them are more independent than those which are separated by a relatively low clause-wall. clear l An impressionistic but commonly used term for a variety of lateral sounds where the resonance is that of a front vowel of an [i] quality, as in the standard pronunciation of /l/ before vowels and /j/ in English, e.g. leap, lamp. It is opposed to dark l. cleavage (n.) see class cleft sentence A term used in grammatical description to refer to a construction where a single clause has been divided into two separate sections, each with its own verb, one of which appears in a dependent wh-clause (relative clause). For example, the sentence Mary is driving a new car can be ‘cleft’ in various ways, e.g. It’s Mary who is driving a new car, It’s a new car that Mary is driving. The variants affect the distribution of emphasis within the sentence, and correlate closely with patterns of intonational prominence. Cleft sentences, and the associated pseudo-cleft sentences, have attracted particular attention in transformational grammar, because of the derivational problems they pose. click (n.) (1) A term used in the classification of consonant sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation: it is a shorthand way of referring to the series of sounds produced by using the velaric airstream mechanism (see velar). In English, click sounds may be heard in the ‘tut tut’ sound of disapproval, in some types of kiss, and in the noise used to signal appreciation or to ‘gee up’ horses. In some languages (e.g. Zulu, Xhosa), clicks have phonemic status. The range of clicks includes bilabial [.], dental [|] formerly [d], alveolar S NPi VPi V NP N S NPj VPj [!] formerly [t], and lateral [||] formerly [™]. coarticulations with clicks are called click accompaniments. (2) In early psycholinguistic experiments on speech perception and comprehension, a click refers to a burst of acoustic noise introduced extraneously into one ear while the listener attends to speech in the other. For example, it was thought that by varying the position of the click in relation to the grammatical structure of the speech, information could be gained concerning the way in which grammatical units are perceived and organized by the brain. The experiments were generally inconclusive and are rarely cited as evidence today. cline (n.) A term used in Hallidayan linguistics to refer to a continuum of potentially infinite gradation, e.g. the range of possible contrasts between falling and rising pitch levels, or the degrees of contrast capable of being drawn along a time scale. Since its original use in scale-and-category grammar, the term has come to be used in other fields than linguistics, often unnecessarily, as a synonym for ‘continuum’. clinical linguistics The application of linguistic theories, methods and descriptive findings to the analysis of medical conditions or settings involving a disorder (or pathology) of language. This application involves the linguist working in collaboration with speech pathologists/therapists, audiologists and others in helping to assess, diagnose and remediate disorders of the production and comprehension of spoken or written language – disorders which may of course occur in educational as well as clinical settings. The relevance of psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics and language acquisition studies to this end is noteworthy. See also language pathology. clipped form see abbreviation clipping (n.) see abbreviation clitic (n.) A term used in grammar to refer to a form which resembles a word, but which cannot stand on its own as a normal utterance, being phonologically dependent upon a neighbouring word (its host) in a construction. (The term ‘clitic’ comes from the Greek word for ‘leaning’.) Examples of cliticized forms are the contracted forms of be, such as I’m and he’s. The articles of English, French, etc., are sometimes referred to as clitics: a form like the cannot stand on its own in normal utterance, but it would be called a word none the less by native-speakers. Such clitic words (‘clitics’) can be classified into proclitics (i.e. they depend upon a following word, as in the case of the articles) and enclitics (i.e. they depend upon a preceding word, as in the attachment (cliticization) of some pronouns to the end of a verb form in Italian or Spanish). The processes are also referred to as proclisis and enclisis respectively. Clitic-climbing occurs when a clitic moves from its local domain to a higher constituent, as in Italian Maria lo vuole vedere (‘Maria wants to see him’), where the lo has moved from the infinitive to before the first verb. Clitic-doubling occurs when a clitic is used despite the existence of an element with the same meaning and function in the same clause, as in Spanish Maria me visito a mi (‘Maria visited me’). 80 cline clitic-climbing, clitic-doubling (n.) see clitic cliticize (v.), cliticization (n.) see clitic close (adj.) (1) A term used in the four-level classification of vertical tongue movement in vowel sounds based on the cardinal vowel system, the others being ‘half-close’, ‘half-open’ and ‘open’. It refers to a vowel made with the tongue in the highest position possible without causing audible friction, as in the articulation of [i] and [u]: the closest vowels in English are in words like seat and shoot. The area of articulation immediately below ‘close’ is known as half-close or mid-close, as in [e] and [o] (the nearest sounds in English are in words like say and so respectively). In a three-level classification of vowel sounds, the highest group are known as ‘high’ vowels (as opposed to ‘low’ and ‘mid’). (2) A term used in the classification of types of juncture or transition, referring to the normal transitions operating between the sounds in a word. Close juncture is opposed to ‘open’ or ‘plus’ juncture; close transition to ‘open transition’. (3) A term used in the classification of types of jaw setting, referring to a jaw position in which the teeth are brought closer together than normal; opposed to ‘open’ jaw settings. closed (adj.) (1) A term sometimes used in the grammatical classification of words to refer to one of two postulated major word-classes in language, the other being open. A closed class is one whose membership is fixed or limited. New items are not regularly added, as is the case with ‘open-class’ items. pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc., are all closed class or closed system items, the term ‘system’ here reflecting the fact that the membership of such classes is finite, the members displaying an interdependence of meaning and use. (2) A term used in the two-way classification of syllable structure, referring to a syllable ending in a consonant; its opposite is open, where the syllable ends in a vowel. This feature is sometimes referred to as a checked or blocked syllable. closure (n.) A general term used in phonetics to refer to an articulation where the contact between active and passive articulators obstructs the airstream through the mouth and/or nose. A ‘complete closure’ exists in the case of plosives, affricates and nasals, and in the glottalic and velaric airstream mechanisms. An ‘intermittent closure’ exists in the case of rolls, flaps and taps. A ‘partial closure’ exists in the case of laterals. Some phoneticians would include fricatives under the heading of ‘partial’ or ‘incomplete’ closure. A narrowing of the vocal tract where there is no articulatory contact is usually called a stricture. cluster (n.) A term used in the analysis of connected speech to refer to any sequence of adjacent consonants, especially those occurring initially or finally in a syllable, such as the initial [br-] of bread, or the final [-st] of best. Not all possible combinations of consonants occur in a language. Initially cluster 81 in syllables in English, for example, clusters are not possible with [¨], [ Ä], [u] or [z]. Up to three consonants can occur initially, as in [spr-], [spl-], [skw-]; up to four can occur finally, as in glimpsed [-mpst] and twelfths [-lfθs]. See also reduce. coalesce (v.) see coalescence coalescence (n.) A term used in linguistics, especially in historical studies, to refer to the coming together of linguistic units which were originally distinguishable. allophones of a phoneme may coalesce, as may different phonemes and different morphemes. Many cases of Modern English /./, for example, are the result of coalescence of /z/ and /j/, e.g. occasion, measure; in words like formation, one could analyse the affix as a coalescence of the morphemes -ate + -tion. Analogous terms include syncretism, merger, fusion and neutralization. coalescent (adj.) A term used in phonetics and phonology as part of the classification of types of assimilation. In coalescent (or ‘reciprocal’) assimilation, each of two adjacent articulations influences the other. An example is the fusion of [d] and [j] to produce [u] in such phrases as could you. coarticulation (n.) An articulation which involves in a simultaneous or overlapping way more than one point in the vocal tract, as in the co-ordinate stops [i], [≈ b.], [j] and [≈ bd] often heard in West African languages. In anticipatory coarticulation, an articulator not involved in a particular sound begins to move in the direction of an articulation needed for a later sound in the utterance (its target). An example is the sh- of shoe, which is normally pronounced with lip-rounding, anticipating the influence of the following [up]. In perseverative or perseveratory coarticulation, a sound retains a characteristic deriving from an earlier articulation, as when the [n] in seen is articulated slightly further forward than the [n] in soon. Alternative terms include right-toleft (for anticipatory) and left-to-right (for perseverative) coarticulation. See also anticipatory (2). cocktail party phenomenon An everyday effect studied scientifically in psycholinguistics as part of a theory of speech perception. It refers to the process of selective listening, whereby people hearing several conversations at once are able to attend consciously to one of them, and to ignore the others. coda (n.) (Co) A term used in phonetics and phonology to refer to the portion of a syllable which may follow the syllabic nucleus, e.g. the /p/ of /k.p/ ‘cup’. A distinction is sometimes drawn between ‘simple’ syllabic codas (containing only one segment) and ‘complex’ codas (containing more than one segment). Restrictions on the segments or features which may occur in coda position are known as coda constraints. Derived forms include NOCODA, used in optimality theory for a syllable ending in a vowel. code (n.) The general sense of this term – a set of conventions for converting one signalling system into another – enters into the subject-matter of semiotics 82 coalesce and communication theory rather than linguistics. Such notions as ‘encoding’ and ‘decoding’ are sometimes encountered in phonetics and linguistics, but the view of language as a ‘code’ is not one which figures greatly in these subjects. The term has come to the fore in sociolinguistics, where it is mainly used as a neutral label for any system of communication involving language – and which avoids sociolinguists having to commit themselves to such terms as dialect, language or variety, which have a special status in their theories. The linguistic behaviour referred to as code-switching (sometimes code-shifting or, within a language, style-shifting), for example, can be illustrated by the switch bilingual or bidialectal speakers may make (depending on who they are talking to, or where they are) between standard and regional forms of English, between Welsh and English in parts of Wales, or between occupational and domestic varieties. Code-mixing involves the transfer of linguistic elements from one language into another: a sentence begins in one language, then makes use of words or grammatical features belonging to another. Such mixed forms of language are often labelled with a hybrid name, such as (in the case of English) Spanglish, Franglais and Singlish (Singaporean English), and attract attitudes ranging from enthusiastic community support (as an expression of local identity) to outright condemnation (from some speakers of the related standard languages). Several sociologists and sociolinguists have given ‘code’ a more restricted definition. For example, codes are sometimes defined in terms of mutual intelligibility (e.g. the language of a private or professional group). But the most widespread special use of the term was in the theory of communication codes propounded by the British sociologist Basil Bernstein (1924–2000). His distinction between elaborated and restricted codes was part of a theory of the nature of social systems, concerned in particular with the kinds of meanings people communicate, and how explicitly they do this, using the range of resources provided by the language. code-mixing, code-switching (n.) see code codification (n.) A term used in language planning (corpus planning), referring to the compilation of a systematic statement of the rules and conventions governing the use of a language variety, typically the standard language of a community. When a language has been codified, its products include spelling and pronunciation guides, grammars, dictionaries, style manuals, and guides to correct usage. codify (v.) see codification cognate (adj./n.) (1) A language or a linguistic form which is historically derived from the same source as another language/form, e.g. Spanish/Italian/ French/Portuguese are ‘cognate languages’ (or ‘cognates’); père/padre, etc. (‘father’) are ‘cognate words’ or cognates. (2) The term is also applied to the description of some kinds of syntactic relations: a ‘cognate object’ is one which has the same historical derivation as the verb which governs it (or, more loosely, is semantically dependent upon the action of the verb), e.g. to run a race, live a good life, ask a question; cognate 83 a cognate subject–verb–object sequence is illustrated by such sentences as Employers employ employees. cognise (v.) see cognize cognitive (adj.) A term sometimes used in semantics as part of a classification of types of meaning. Cognitive meaning refers to those aspects of meaning which relate directly to denotations of lexical items and the propositional content of sentences, and thus corresponds to an intellectually objective level of interpretation, as opposed to one where emotional or subjective interpretation is involved. Alternative terms include denotative and referential; opposite terms include emotive and connotative. cognitive domain see cognitive semantics cognitive grammar A linguistic theory which sees language as an integral part of cognition, a means whereby cognitive content is given structure; originally called space grammar. In this approach, the basic function of language is to symbolize conceptualization by means of phonology. grammar is seen as an inherently meaningful (or ‘symbolic’) component of the theory, linking semantics (viewed in conceptualist terms) and phonology. This pairing of forms and meanings sets up connections between established (‘entrenched’) patterns of neurological activity (‘units’), which serve as templates for categorizing expressions. Each unit (semantic, phonological, symbolic) corresponds to an aspect of structure, and well-formed expressions are ‘conventionally’ constructed using a series of units. Grammatical classes and constructions are analysed as configurations of symbolic structures: a basic distinction is drawn between ‘nominals’ (things, e.g. noun phrases) and ‘relational expressions’ (relationships, e.g. verbs, prepositions, adjectives, clauses); grammatical rules are characterized as abstract ‘constructional schemas’. See also cognitive semantics. cognitive metaphor see conceptual metaphor cognitive semantics A semantic theory, part of cognitive grammar, which identifies meaning with conceptualization – the structures and processes which are part of mental experience. The theory stresses the importance of bodily experience in concepualization. It operates with an encyclopedic view of meaning, not recognizing a clear boundary between linguistic and general knowledge. lexical items, which act as pointers or triggers for encyclopedic knowledge, are therefore typically polysemous, and analysed as a network of related senses. The theory identifies a number of processes such as metaphor and metonymy as general cognitive processes rather than purely linguistic devices. A central notion is how a conceptual content is ‘construed’: the construal of a lexical item depends on several factors, including the ‘cognitive domains’ in which it appears (e.g. space, time, colour) and variations in perspective and salience. cognitivism (n.) In language acquisition, the view that cognitive factors (e.g. intelligence, memory, attention) have a primary role in language learning. See Geneva School (2), innateness. 84 cognise cognize/cognise (v.) A term suggested by Noam Chomsky as an alternative to ‘know’. Speakers are said to cognize not only the linguistic facts which they consciously know (e.g. that a particular sentence has a particular interpretation), but also the mentally represented rules from which these facts derive and the innate principles underlying these rules. co-grammar (n.) In linguistics, a term referring to a system of expression which coexists with, and is different from, the main grammar of a language; a corresponding notion in phonology is co-phonology. Such notions are often used when describing the distinctive behaviour of foreign words and phrases that have been borrowed by a language but not adapted to its regular system. coherence (n.) An application of the general use of this term in discourse analysis, referring to the main principle of organization postulated to account for the underlying functional connectedness or identity of a piece of spoken or written language (text, discourse). It involves the study of such factors as the language users’ knowledge of the world, the inferences they make, and the assumptions they hold, and in particular of the way in which coherent communication is mediated through the use of speech acts. In this context, coherence is usually contrasted with cohesion, which refers to the syntactic or semantic connectivity of linguistic forms at a surface-structure level of analysis. cohesion (n.) (1) A term often used in grammar to refer to a defining property of the word, seen as a grammatical unit; also called cohesiveness. The criterion states that new elements cannot usually be inserted into words in normal speech, but only at word boundaries. An alternative name for this criterion is ‘uninterruptibility’. The criterion works well for English (apart from such examples as abso-blooming-lutely), but has to be modified if applied to languages where infixes are used. (2) The term is used by some linguists to refer to the property of larger units than the morpheme to bind together in constructions, e.g. article + noun. In this use, any group of words which acts as a constituent of a larger unit can be said to be internally cohesive. In the hallidayan approach to grammatical analysis, cohesion is a major concept, referring to those surface-structure features of an utterance or text which link different parts of sentences or larger units of discourse, e.g. the cross-referencing function of pronouns, articles and some types of adverb (as in The man went to town. However, he did not stay long . . . ). A distinction is usually drawn with the notion of a text’s underlying coherence. cohesiveness (n.) see cohesion co-hyponym (n.) see hyponymy co-indexing (n.) A term used in generative linguistic theory to refer to the process of assigning the same subscript letter (generally starting with i, j . . .) or numeral to a series of constituents; superscripts are sometimes used. In particular, these numerals mark the identity of constituents in the deep structure of a sentence. Co-indexed elements are intended to be co-referential or be co-indexing 85 elements belonging to the same chain, as in Hei saw himselfi or Hei was murdered ti (where ti is a trace of hei). collapse (v.) A term used in generative grammar to refer to the notational conflation of two rules into one, in the interests of a simpler and more general statement, e.g. NP ⇒ D N and NP ⇒ D Adj N, being replaced by NP ⇒ D(Adj)N, where the brackets refer to the optional use of the adjective. collective (adj.) A term used in grammatical description to refer to a noun which denotes a group of entities, and which is formally differentiated from other nouns by a distinct pattern of number contrast (and, in some languages, morphologically). Collective nouns (e.g. government, army, club, jury, public) fall into several grammatical subclasses, but their distinctive characteristic is their ability to co-occur in the singular with either a singular or a plural verb, this correlating with a difference of interpretation – the noun being seen as a single collective entity, or as a collection of individual entities (cf. the committee is wrong v. the committee are wrong). In some languages, ‘collective’ (v. noncollective) refers to a type of plural formation in which a number of individuals is seen as forming a coherent set; for example, a plural suffix A attached to house might express the notion of a ‘village’ (collective), whereas suffix B might refer to any random group of houses (non-collective). In semantics, the term is often used for predicates or quantifiers which ascribe a property to a group as a whole, as opposed to the individual members of the group; it contrasts with distributive. For example, congregate is a collective predicate: The children congregated in the hallway means that the group as a whole congregated; an individual child cannot congregate. colligation (n.) A term in Firthian linguistics for the process or result of grouping a set of words on the basis of their similarity in entering into syntagmatic grammatical relations. For example, a set of verbs which take a certain kind of complement construction would be said to be ‘in colligation with’ that construction; e.g. agree, choose, decline, manage, etc. colligate with to+infinitive constructions, as opposed to -ing forms, as I agree to go v. *I agree going. Colligation is usually contrasted with collocation. collocability (n.) see collocation collocation (n.) A term used in lexicology by some (especially Firthian) linguists to refer to the habitual co-occurrence of individual lexical items. For example, auspicious collocates with occasion, event, sign, etc.; and letter collocates with alphabet, graphic, etc., on the one hand, and postman, pillarbox, etc., on the other. Collocations are, then, a type of syntagmatic lexical relation. They are linguistically predictable to a greater or lesser extent (e.g. the bond between spick and span is stronger than that between letter and pillarbox), and this differentiates them from sense associations, which tend to include idiosyncratic connections (e.g. mother-in-law associating with hippopotamus). Some words have no specific collocational restrictions – grammatical words such as the, of, after, in. By contrast, there are many totally predictable restrictions, as in eke + out, spick + span, and these are usually analysed as 86 collapse idioms, clichés, etc. Another important feature of collocations is that they are formal (not semantic) statements of co-occurrence; e.g. green collocates with jealousy (as opposed to, say, blue or red), even though there is no referential basis for the link. Lexical items which are ‘collocated’ are said to be collocates of each other; the potential of items to collocate is known as their collocability or collocational range. A related notion is ‘semantic prosody’ (see semantics). Collocational restrictions are analogous to the notion of selectional restrictions in generative grammar. Collocations should not be confused with the notion of word association in psychology, which refers to any kind of mental relationship between words – for example, car might produce the association New Zealand or Uncle Joe. Word associations of this kind are being increasingly studied as part of psycholinguistics, especially for the light they throw on cultural differences (e.g. in relation to bilingualism). See also paradigmatic, syntagmatic. colouring (n.) In phonetics, a perceived slight change in the quality (‘colour’) of a vowel sound due to the influence of some nearby sound. For example, ‘r-colouring’ occurs when a vowel is affected by the resonance of a following r-type sound, most noticeably a retroflex; a following /h/ can cause ‘h-colouring’. combination (n.) see combinatorial combinatorial (adj.) A fundamental function of linguistic units to ‘combine’ with one another to produce more complex patterns. The ‘combinatorial properties’ or ‘relations’ of consonants and vowels, for example, can be used as a definition of syllable (vowel as nucleus, consonants as margins). Combination, in this sense, is a syntagmatic relation, and opposed to the paradigmatic notion of contrast. comitative (adj./n.) In languages which express grammatical relationships by means of inflections, this term refers to the form taken by a noun phrase (often a single noun or pronoun) when it is expressing the meaning ‘along with’ or ‘accompanied by’. A comitative case (‘the comitative’) occurs in Basque, for example, equivalent in English to the with-phrase seen in I went with my friend. command (n./v.) (1) A term used in the classification of sentence functions, and defined sometimes on grammatical and sometimes on semantic or sociolinguistic grounds. syntactically a command is a sentence which typically has no subject, and where the verb is in the imperative mood, e.g. Come here! Semantically it is primarily used to tell someone to do (or not do) something. From a speech act point of view, the function of command may be expressed using other forms, e.g. that boy will stand up, or by a dominant intonation. The term is usually contrasted with three other major sentence functions: statement, question, exclamation. In grammatical discussion, commands are usually referred to as ‘imperative’ in form. (2) In generative grammar, the term is used to express the structural relations that hold between two elements in a tree. There are several uses of the command 87 term ‘command’, but of particular importance are constituent-command, invariably abbreviated to c-command, and maximal-command, invariably abbreviated to m-command. Canonically, a node A c-commands another node B if and only if the first branching node that dominates A also dominates B, and A does not

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