Questions tagged [terminology]
Words, phrases, and acronyms specific to the study of linguistics.
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Do English passive verbs assign case? (Government and Binding Theory)
I'm trying to think things through regarding case and passive verbs, within the framework of Government and Binding Theory.
As starting point, I'll use this statement/principle (based on what I've ...
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2answers
45 views
Metalanguage to describe expressing an idea in many different ways
I am looking for a term to describe expressing an idea in many different forms yet the meaning remains the same in each rendition.
An example of this:
The Australians, Australians, the Australian ...
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1answer
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Does (or should) the terms “spoken language” and “speech” include signed language?
And if not, is there a term, accepted by both the Deaf and linguistic communities, that includes both spoken and signed language, in contrast to written language?
Reputable linguistic sources, ...
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1answer
53 views
What do you call the revival of an obsolete word for a new meaning
Let's say carrot for a shade of orange.
Suppose carrot is not used for the color and I wanted one to describe the vegetable's color. So, I revive the displaced more for the color. What do you call ...
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2answers
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What is the technical term for alternative spellings?
If two subcultures use the same realization (pronunciation) of the same word form (particular inflection of a word) but spell it differently, what is the technical term for the alternative spellings?
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1answer
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Are alternative pronunciations (with or without alternative spellings) different word forms from each other?
On another question a linguist told me that linguists define word forms by their phoneme sequence rather than their grapheme sequence. This makes me wonder:
Are the spoken words going and goin' the ...
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0answers
35 views
Ontology of logogram, pictogram and ideogram
Is it fair to say that a pictograms are a subset of ideograms which are a subset of logograms?
What is an example of an ideogram that is not a logogram or pictogram?
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1answer
64 views
Is each definition of a word a separate lexeme?
I read the Wikipedia entry for 'Lexeme' but I wasn't able to make out a clear answer to this question.
I'm interested in knowing the answer for both related and unrelated senses of a word. I'm under ...
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2answers
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Is there a term for when a word is repeated with a different starting consonant?
I've heard this used in speech, not written language, and specifically in South Asian languages like Bengali/Hindi/Urdu (or in English by South Asian people who know English as a second language).
...
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1answer
43 views
Transposition of words in questions
In English, the following is grammatically correct:
Am I going to the cinema today?
In contrast, the assertion that this is true is grammatically correct only with the first two words reversed.
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2answers
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Why was 'grammar' chosen to signify the model of linguistic competence, when 'grammar' was already strikingly polysemous?
Page 5 of (R.L. Trask, Robert McColl Millar's) Why Do Languages Change? (2010 Rev. ed), expounds that 'grammar' originally didn't mean its linguistical meaning (quoted at the bottom): no surprise, as ...
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1answer
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Is there distinct jargon for syllabaries depending on their inventory?
The dictionary definition of a syllabary is "a set of written characters representing syllables and (in some languages or stages of writing) serving the purpose of an alphabet." I would personally ...
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1answer
60 views
Is there a term for 'relative' tenses?
By 'relative tenses', I mean a form of tense that is independent of the main tense that indicates when an event occurred relative to the past or future.
Examples in English would be:
Simple tense:
...
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2answers
69 views
What is the correct term for reading hieroglyphs ideographically in a different language (if there is a term for it)?
I am struggling to find a term for an ideographic reading of the hieroglyphic language. I am using an Arabic ideographic reading of hieroglyphics as an example but the term should be applicable to ...
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1answer
40 views
What is the term for a word made from a sentence?
I thought the term was 'periphrase', but looking that up it that apparently isn't the case. I don't know how I got my terms mixed up.
By 'words made from a sentence', I mean such words as 'forget-me-...
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1answer
43 views
How can I identify Grammatical Categories in a sentence?
Please excuse the fact that I'm not an academically trained Linguist.
I am working on a computer program with example sentences and their equivalents in different languages.
The idea I am trying to ...
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2answers
71 views
What is this sentence structure called?
I'm writing a paper about Donald Trump's speaking style and he frequently says sentences like the following:
"They wanna be in the United States of America. That’s where they wanna be."
"We’re gonna ...
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1answer
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Term for when acronyms are the same in more than one language?
Is there a linguistics term for when an acronym is the same in more than one language?
For example, "RIP" (Requiescat in pace.) in Latin is the same acronym as "RIP" ("Rest in peace.") in English.
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1answer
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What is the term used for the opposite of a construct form?
In many languages (especially Hebrew in which I work), words can appear in a special form called the construct form in which you can expect that word to be attached to another word. I would like to ...
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1answer
195 views
What is the linguistic explanation of the phenomenon in “affirmative action”?
The phrase "affirmative action" does not tell you what it is about. Even though the literal meaning of this phrase can be very broad (in theory it could be referring to affirmative action of achieving ...
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Pedagogical term “adverbial” is covered with which terms in generative grammar?
In Pedagogical grammars (like Oxford Learner's Pocket Grammar) possible simple sentence structures are divided into the categories presented below:
SV subject, verb
SVO subject, verb, object
...
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2answers
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Is there a term when two words have swapped definitions in one language or dialect compared to another?
My Peruvian friend informed me that a lemon is called "lima" in Peru while a lime is called "limón". This contrasts with some other Spanish dialects that use the word "limón" for lemon and "lima" for ...
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1answer
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Terminology around non-word, but word-like, structures
In traditional linguistics literatures there is a clear separation between words and non-words. Words are basically what you'd find in a dictionary. But in todays world you find all kinds of word-like ...
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1answer
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What does John McWhorter intend to say by 'internal surmise'?
John McWhorter PhD Linguistics (Stanford). Words on the Move (2016). p. 105 Bottom.
We have already seen that there is a theme of weakening signals in how
words
move through time. The firmly ...
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1answer
44 views
Is there any specific term for "English-originated?
I'm working on an academic writing in English, but as a non-native speaker, I feel lacking of vocabulary.
When a word has its origin in the Chinese language, we use the term 'Sino-' such as Sino-...
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1answer
36 views
Difference between sounds and segments
I have always wondered whether there is a clear distinction between (speech) sounds and segments. The two words appear to be used interchangeably in some places while in others they are considered to ...
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1answer
50 views
Correct to say that accent defines the mapping between phones and phonemes?
I'm trying to become acquainted with the language (hah) of linguistics (specifically speech perception, from the perspective of auditory signal processing), so that I can write and converse about the ...
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Extension of “synesis”
In traditional grammar, synesis refers to inflection being determined by underlying semantics instead of morphological agreement; the most familiar instance in English is expressions like The ...
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2answers
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All usage of the term fossilization in Linguistics and applied linguistics
Two articles about fossilization from wiki are:
Fossilization_(linguistics) and
Interlanguage_fossilization
But especially first one is stub. what are all meaning of this term in linguistics and ...
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Does an approved glossary of translation industry terms exist?
I'm kind of a beginner in the translation industry, and using different tools and talking to different people I find that they all use different terms to name the same things.
That is really ...
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3answers
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Sounds that are treated as phonetically equivalent
I suspect that I will not use the right terminology here. Apologies in advance.
Is there a word for the phenomenon in which speakers of a language treat two different sounds as equivalent, even ...
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1answer
59 views
what is the (pan) linguistic term for “scare-quotes” intonation
I was thinking about the use of scare-quotes in English speech, not the physical gesture so much as the intonation and prosodic features as the word or phrase is used in an oral statement. What label ...
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1answer
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What is the term describing a word using in the definition of another word?
From definiens - Wiktionary:
(semantics) The word or phrase that defines the definiendum in a definition.
In the defining statement “A lake is a large, landlocked, naturally occurring stretch of ...
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1answer
38 views
What is does mean in the stated link when the author uses “ordinary signs”
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In this particular image what is the author referring to when he uses ordinary signs. Is he referring to previous stated definition of signs consisting of a pair words (with a ...
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Is there such thing as a 'hyperphrase'?
In linguistics there is a common hierarchy of words:
Hypernym (e.g. Colours)
|
V
Hyponym (e.g. Brown, yellow)
Does such a hierarchy exist within phrases?
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1answer
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difference between c-command and dominance
In this definition
Node A c-commands node B if:
a) A =/= B
b) A does not dominate B and B does not dominate A
c) every X that dominates A also dominates B
I understand the bigger picture, but my ...
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Phenomenon or phrase describing the understanding of words out of context
E.g. The phrase 'I love you' is common. If the word 'love' was replaced by an unrelated word (i.e. 'radiator') then the sentence 'I radiator you' would be meaningless.
But if the word radiator was ...
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3answers
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What is “case”?
As a non-linguist, I am confused about the concept of case. What is its definition, as linguists use it? Is it about the different forms that nouns/pronouns can take? Is it about the function of the ...
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1answer
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A concept called extreme-opposites
I am novice in linguistics but I have a keen interest in natural (spoken) languages. There is this concept in my mind called "extreme-opposites" or "extreme-antonyms". The concept goes like this:
...
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English verbs requiring PP
Are there a set of English verbs that require a prepositional phrase? For example:
"The set consists of A and B." = GOOD
"The set consists" = BAD
Is there a name for this type of verb? They seem to ...
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What does CGEL mean by 'instability in the system' in their explanation of case?
Consider the following passage from CGEL (p. 458, boldfaced emphasis mine):
We look first at the contrast between nominative and accusative case, where we find a considerable amount of variation ...
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3answers
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What is it called when a new word is replaced by a more familiar one?
I mean the phenomenon that happens when a language borrows a word, but it gets replaced by a similar-sounding word that is already in the language like from Spanish 'aguacate' to 'avocado' or 'echeque ...
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1answer
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suffixes, infixes and interfixes: help with terminology
I asked this question on Italian exchange, but I was told that this is more of a question about English terminology.
So here it is.
I am currently writing a short summary of certain morphological ...
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1answer
89 views
direct object and indirect object [closed]
Which is the direct object and which is the indirect object in the following sentence?
The school has given David's proposal serious consideration.
I think that "David's proposal" is the indirect ...
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0answers
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How can be these two types of adjective distinguished terminologically?
In adjectives there are two main groups:
First Group: adjectives that their 3 grades (base, comparative and superlative) are changed whether regularly (nice > nicer > nicest) or irregularly (good > ...
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Transitive phrasal verbs classification
Some grammarians classify transitive phrasal verbs into separable and inseparable. Just for instance:
Phrasal verbs that can be divided by objects are commonly referred to as being separable; those ...
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2answers
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Is either of these meanings of the word “sentence” more conventional?
The Wikipedia article on Generative Grammar states:
Generative grammar is a linguistic theory that regards grammar as a
system of rules that generates exactly those combinations of words
that ...
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1answer
71 views
what’s the difference between ‘concept’ and ‘prototype’ as semantic terminologies?
Both terms, concept and prototype occur in semantic texts roughly in the sense a mental object denoted by a word. There should be some difference in definition between the two.
I read the following ...
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Meaning of “Prejacent”?
I have seen the word "prejacent" in many linguistics related papers. However, none of them explains what exactly a prejacent is. Could someone elaborate more on this?
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Is there a term for the phenomenon of linking the end of a word to the beginning of the next word?
Is there a word to describe the phenomenon where a final sound of a word is linked to the starting sound of the next word?
A couple of examples:
"hold on" sounds like "whole Don"
"this guy" sounds ...
