Questions tagged [terminology]
Words, phrases, and acronyms specific to the study of linguistics.
710
questions
7
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1answer
760 views
What is the correct term for a “lazy L”?
This question is about a mild form of a specific speech pathology that seems to be gaining prevalence in Australia and if there is a term for it. It is not an "accent" issue, because it can ...
3
votes
1answer
58 views
Is there a term for a sequence of letters which can be divided into words in multiple ways?
I've been looking for a term that describes a phrase, unbroken into individual words, which could have multiple meanings depending on where it's divided. It's hard for me to even give good examples ...
1
vote
0answers
35 views
What do you call (the fact that languages are not always one-to-one in their labellings)?
Based on this question. There is no reason that there should be a ["Good" + "morning"] in Spanish any more than there is a ["Good" + "days"] in English. I ...
6
votes
4answers
3k views
Is there a term for translating a word to a language that has a different alphabet (such as Hindi to English)?
The specific example that I am thinking of is the word "दाल का सूप" in Hindi. It translates to "lentil soup", and is pronounced "dal", however there are multiple ways of ...
0
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0answers
19 views
Are there single-word and generally accepted terms for the referents of the arguments in comparative clauses?
AFAIK, in any statement comparing two entities, there are typically at least three terms:
NPa stands for the thing compared
VG stands for nature of comparison
NPb stands for the thing that the ...
1
vote
1answer
58 views
Is there a concept to describe “a way of saying something that is incorrect, but occurs frequently due to the speaker speaking a second language”?
In the past ten years I've started working with people who's native language is not English. I've noticed that these folks say thing to get a concept across, but it's not something you'd hear a native ...
2
votes
1answer
55 views
What's the name of the process in which a word acquires new meanings?
I am almost sure there is a proper name for that but I forgot. It would be the opposite of semantic bleaching...
2
votes
2answers
119 views
What is this phenomenon in dialog called?
I attempt here to be succinct and I hope that the question is clear. I am looking for the names of the phenomena (in conversational English) that I am attempting to describe.
Consider a dialog between ...
3
votes
0answers
56 views
Accurate English terminology for “complément du nom” and for “complément/complemento” as a general term
I am looking at this kind of French sentences:
Le directeur de la banque
Un directeur de banque
Le livre de l'élève
Le livre de français
Having done some research about English grammar terminology ...
5
votes
0answers
95 views
Term for non-homograph homophone synonyms?
In Japanese, 熱い and 暑い are both read atsui and both mean 'hot'. The former pertains to an object (e.g. hot coffee) and the latter to weather.
In French 'cuissot' and 'cuisseau' have the same ...
2
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0answers
55 views
What is shallow semantic processing?
What exactly is "shallow semantic processing", and how is it related to syntactic analysis?
Is it correct to say that syntactic processing of a text is the preliminary step for shallow semantic ...
4
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1answer
352 views
Are individual words really constituents?
The constituent unit is defined in Wikipedia as a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. When phrase structure trees are produced, each node in the ...
0
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0answers
29 views
Is “and you” an example of endophora
If I were to tell someone to "stand up" and then, after a beat, say "and you" to another person, is that "and you" endophoric? There's nothing in the first phrase being referred to, it's more the ...
1
vote
1answer
53 views
What is the general term for linguistic categories?
I have been trying to understand the division of "properties of items within a grammar or language" as wikipedia calls it into the following sets (among a few others):
Grammatical category
Lexical ...
1
vote
2answers
40 views
Terminology for this kind of affixes
I was solving an IOL sample exercise (which can be found here) about the Aymara language. I did it, it was kinda hard but I did it. One of the words in it was challwampiwa.
The first part (challwa) ...
3
votes
2answers
83 views
Are two words cognate if they ultimately come from the same root but have different roots in more recent languages?
For example, Spanish corteza and French écorce (bark) both ultimately come from PIE *(s)ker- but they have different Latin roots (cortex and scortea). Does that stop them from being cognate?
1
vote
1answer
47 views
Difference between intonation and tonality?
I have used them interchangeably, but I think that might be wrong. So, is this understanding of the distinction correct? Tonality is pitch affecting semantics (like the Chinese langauge), and ...
-3
votes
1answer
70 views
Are these English judges using 'linguistics' correctly? [closed]
I don't feel these English judges are using "linguistics" correctly, because they're just working with the English language, not doing linguistics! Some of them have a degree in classics, but I don't ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
Is there a name for when a 'c' becomes an [s] sound in words like rusticity, when originally it was a 'c' in rustiC?
I know it's a sound change, but is there a specific name for it? It's for an assignment I'm writing on the phonological transparency of the suffix -ity.
-1
votes
2answers
93 views
Why does Spanish have different names for the letters of the alphabet from English?
The Spanish alphabet has the 26 letters + the consonant ñ, which is pronounced like the "ny" in "canyón". But out of the remaining 26 letters, why do the consonants have different names from the names ...
3
votes
2answers
282 views
What is the term for referring to a brand in place of the product
Is there a name or term used to describe the phenomenon when a brand name becomes so ubiquitous that it is used in place of the product or related verbs?
Some common examples include:
Google instead ...
3
votes
1answer
125 views
What is the exact term for the way Tarzan speak in such sentences as “Me Tarzan, you Jane”?
In countries where English is not a native language, you hear people speak with no conjunctions, no verb conjugations, no adjectives nor adverbs. Examples: You come my house. I cook chicken. We eat ...
1
vote
1answer
41 views
What is the technical term for the copyist error of replacing a letter with another, similar-looking letter?
One form of textual criticism (which is under the branch of corpus linguistics) is arguing that a text was mistakenly copied by a copyist to reflect an erroneous reading. An example of this is that ...
2
votes
1answer
45 views
What is aesthetic equivalence in translation?
I found this phrase in a theory about directional equivalence and I'm not sure what it means and if it is part of linguistic aspect of translation.
5
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3answers
161 views
As a relatively proficient heritage speaker, should I consider myself a “native” speaker, or something else?
Should heritage speakers with a decent level of proficiency (say a middle school level of reading/writing ability) consider themselves "native", or something else?
"Native" would be appropriate in ...
0
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0answers
24 views
Is there a formal term for “long/formal” queries?
So I had a question regarding the types of queries. For example, when we ask a question or do a Google search we could do it in two ways:
"house prices in Boston"
"What are the house prices in Boston?...
0
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0answers
28 views
Semantically passive verbs
Certain (syntactico-morphologically) active verbs signify a passion rather than an action. For example, to fall, signifies something that can hardly be called an action. It belongs to its concept ...
2
votes
2answers
81 views
Similar term as phonetics, but for written text
I try to find any term that can specify a descriptive field of study that is interested in language notation. It should contain parts of written text (general text form - not only handwritten): ...
3
votes
0answers
38 views
Is there a term that describes a sentence from which you can infer the meaning of a word?
When learning new Chinese words, I write down an example sentence from which I can infer its meaning. This way, when I've forgotten the word, I can simply read the sentence and deduce (or remember) ...
3
votes
0answers
31 views
vocabulary and notation for syntactic changes
As a layman I have picked up the terminology and notation for changes in phonology. But I know very little about diachronic changes in syntax other than that they happen: things like shift from SOV ...
2
votes
2answers
201 views
What is the relation between a specifier and a determiner?
Does specifier mean "the" and "possesser" and determiner mean "the" and "possessive 's"?
3
votes
1answer
445 views
What are the subjective and objective genitives?
I have recently come across the terms subjective genitive and objective genitive, but I don't fully understand them.
From what I have read, an example might be 'the love of God', as in 'the love of ...
0
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0answers
40 views
What's the term for backshifting when it's not part of reported speech?
In reported speech, backshifting changes "He said, 'Your car is red.'" to "He said your car was red".
What's that called when it's not part of reported speech? E.g. "I thought your car was red" ...
0
votes
1answer
48 views
What is phonological mechanism?
Does it mean phonological rule? Or can we say phonological mechanism refers to the phonological rules in our mind?
2
votes
1answer
85 views
What are the differences between “controlled natural language” and “toy grammar”?
I am working on NLP and also Linguistics field. I created my own toy grammar, but while browsing the literature, I came across the concept of controlled natural language. Are these two the same or ...
0
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0answers
36 views
Name That Phenomenon: I worry that once I STOP doing an action “just to be safe,” the thing I'm being safe from will occur
I've always had feelings like these before. I've seen sad movies when I was younger, but the thing that got me the most was the kid (who lost their parents) said, "The last thing I ever said to them ...
1
vote
1answer
64 views
Slang, colloquial use, informal speech, etc [closed]
Background
The question is motivated by this post in the Russian forum, where the answers repeatedly refer to verb пересечёмся as "young people's slang" or "teenage slang". (пересечёмся = "we'll cross ...
2
votes
2answers
65 views
What are consonants without secondary articulation called?
How can we concisely describe a consonant that is non-velarized, non-palatalized, non-glottalized, ....?
Is there an adjective for "no secondary articulation"?
3
votes
4answers
233 views
Is linguistics a superset of programming language theory?
If not, why is it?
What delineates the difference between the study of language and the study of programming languages?
Programming languages define syntax and semantics of code. Does this mean ...
1
vote
2answers
73 views
Technical term for similarity between two words?
I am learning Spanish at the moment, and I want to tag my vocabulary in the programm that im using to first learn words that are closely related to English
(For example, "Contract" -> "Contrato", "...
0
votes
1answer
92 views
Question about the concept of free morpheme
Studying Understanding Morphology, by Haspelmath, couldn't find a reference to the concept of "free morpheme".
Is that concept standard among linguists? What would be a better alternative, in any ...
1
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0answers
57 views
What grammar term corresponds to N' in X-bar theory?
The core idea of X-bar theory is that it has what is called 'bar-level projection' or 'intermediate projection', which is normally represented by X'. And X represents any of the categories N, V, Adj, ...
1
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1answer
273 views
Lexeme vs. Lemma
A lexeme to me has always been a fairly abstract entity and a lemma a concrete form that is often used to represent an lexeme.
It is surprising to me, then, that the process in NLP is almost always ...
2
votes
0answers
50 views
What is the difference between the term “actor” and “agent”?
I've worked quite a lot on agency so far. Today i've read the paper "Two routes to actorhood: lexicalized potencx to act and identification of the actor role" (Franzel et al. 2015) and i'm wondering ...
4
votes
1answer
868 views
The term “proto” in “proto-language”
I noticed that both Proto-Sinaitic and Proto-Indo-European have the title of "proto", although the Proto-Sinaitic has actual scripts which were found and studied, i.e. it is a fact that it existed, ...
1
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1answer
128 views
How should this type of variation in the root be treated?
It's a bit of a silly question that popped out in my mind as a (quasi-)linguist with a great experience with portuguese (it is also my mother tongue). How should one treat the following alternation in ...
1
vote
2answers
85 views
Is there a term for cardinal numerals that don't express quantity?
In phrases like page twenty-five, year nineteen ninety-nine, Half Life Two or article seven three zero zero one, the number is in cardinal form, but it doesn't refer to the amount of the head noun. It ...
52
votes
7answers
16k views
Is there a linguistics term meaning “it's grammatically correct, but nobody says that”?
This happens a lot when learning a foreign language: You learn some grammar structure, and insert some nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., in the appropriate places, only to find out that no-one would ...
1
vote
1answer
48 views
Completely schematic construction?
I'm trying to understand what is a completely schematic construction in cognitive grammar.
I found an example: VP --> V NP
So, is that a construction that can be easily described by a general rule ...
3
votes
3answers
216 views
Are the nasal portions of prenasalized consonants syllabic?
Prenasalized consonants occur in a number of natural languages. https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Prenasalized_consonant
When I hear someone pronounce a word that begins with a prenasalized consonant, ...
