Questions tagged [terminology]
Words, phrases, and acronyms specific to the study of linguistics.
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English words that can be only used as nouns
Is there a term for words that can be only used as nouns?
For example, I think "history" and "sofa" are such words, but "book" and "dog" are not.
I'm looking ...
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3answers
80 views
Is there a word for the opposite of jargon? [closed]
I've noticed this phenomenon in language which I've come to think of as "the opposite of jargon", but which I'm hoping there's a better name for. I don't know anything about linguistics, ...
2
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1answer
61 views
Is there a linguistic term for apologetic prefacing?
I was editing a question on Stack Overflow. Like so many questions it started with an apologetic or diminishing preface:
I am genuinely sorry if this is seen as simple but I am new to coding in ...
5
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1answer
476 views
Name for seemingly incomplete sentences
I remember reading about sentences that naturally seem incomplete (ending in the middle as if the second half were missing), but are actually grammatically correct. The listener/reader just wrongly ...
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90 views
Did any linguists try to popularize “casus causativus”, to rectify the mistranslated “accusative”?
"accusative" hails from accusare, which the Romans chose
somewhat inaccurately to translate Greek (ptōsis) aitiatike "(case) of that which is caused" based on the similarity of ...
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26 views
Clarification of Isochrony Definition
When we speak of isochrony, do we refer to isochrony within a phrase or within a whole language? E.g. should Mandarin, as a syllable-timed language, have equal duration of syllables within one phrase,...
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1answer
20 views
The notion of categorization in phonetics
What is meant by "categorization" in phonetics? It's supposed to be related to transcription in the sense that transcription requires one to categorize speech in some two dimensions.
I only ...
2
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4answers
141 views
Linguistic term to describe the “hash” of a word
For example, in the Spanish sentence "Yo era chico y ella era vieja" [I was little and she was old], era appears twice, each time as the same part of speech (a verb) but with different ...
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1answer
68 views
What is the term for the role of “believe”, “think”, and “feel” in a sentence?
I remember vaguely that there is an encompassing terms for these words when used in a sentence. Something that represent it is not a normal factual claim, but something that is subjective to the ...
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1answer
68 views
Short words that change based on their proximity to other vowels
In English, "a" becomes "an" when it is followed by a word starting with a vowel sound. A similar thing occurs in Spanish with the word "y", which becomes "e" ...
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34 views
Formal terms for pronunciations of loanwords in source and recipient languages?
If they exist, what are formal terms meaning "pronunciation of a loanword in the donor language" and "pronunciation of a loanword in the recipient language"? In shorter terms, the ...
4
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1answer
70 views
What is the difference between a borrowed and a derived Word in Linguistics?
When looking at Etymologies of words, I noticed that there are "borrowed" words and "derived" words. "Borrowed" is, I think, just taken from a different language, but ...
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2answers
4k views
Is there a technical name for when languages use masculine pronouns to refer to both men and women?
I know a little Arabic, and I also know English. They both have the notion of "gender" built into their syntax. I am Persian and I speak Farsi, which does not have "gender" built ...
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0answers
27 views
Is there a term for common constructions like “X in general, and Y in particular?”
I have seen a syntactic meme that isn't common where I grew up. It is "X in general, and Y in particular" where Y has a meronym/part-to-whole relation with X. Here are some examples I found ...
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0answers
87 views
Diphthongoids and diphthongs
In Russian linguistics, there's a term дифтонгоид (diphthongoid). For example, in textbook Современный русский литературный язык (Modern Standard Russian) by S.V. Knjazev and S.K. Pozharitskaya, it is ...
4
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1answer
132 views
Is “matrix clause” synonymous with “main clause”? What exactly is a matrix clause?
A lot of people seem to understand "matrix clause" as a synonym for "main clause". For instance, a comment I just chanced upon on a language SE site states:
It's a synonym for ...
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0answers
24 views
Which term is used to refer both to sentences and expressions shorter than a sentence?
I believe, "expression" is a good term for a word or a meaningful part of a sentence, which is shorter than the sentence, but "expression" does not sound a good term to refer to a ...
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3answers
860 views
What does linguistics call sets of words with the same spelling, different (but perhaps related) meaning, and different emphasized syllables?
In my idiolect, the word "defense", with the emphasis on the first syllable means "the role of defending". With the emphasis on the second syllable, it means "the act of ...
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0answers
32 views
how does one properly escape the context of a definition when writing one
When a lexicographer is forming a definition how do they make sure they are not overly influenced by the examples they refer to when forming their definitions.
how do they properly escape the ...
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1answer
59 views
If you clumped all English words into synonyms, instead of word by word, how many unique concepts/definitions would there be in the English language? [closed]
Particularly based on the selection of entries in the New Oxford American Dictionary.
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0answers
57 views
Definiteness and indefiniteness
Is there a term that encompasses both terms at once? Suppose I am writing a paper titled [Single-word-here] in Language X, where the required word will refer to both definiteness and indefiniteness. ...
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0answers
27 views
Abstract objects: is this a linguistic term/concept?
Some verbs (e.g. eat, throw, lift) are transitive (take an object). Other verbs (e.g. live, die, sleep) are intransitive. But sometimes we can give an object to an intransitive verb by having the ...
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3answers
106 views
What is the name of the category that describes the ways a number can be read?
About 6 days ago, I asked this question in the English Language and Usage section but have yet to receive any answer. In hindsight, the lack of answers is entirely understandable since that was not ...
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0answers
33 views
Term for an adjective that refers to a specific property of a noun
Is there a linguistic term for an adjective that describes a specific property of the noun, rather than the noun in general?
Some examples of what would be covered by such a term:
In "The ...
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2answers
118 views
What is “H5” in Egyptian?
There seems to be a general consensus that classical Egyptian had four "guttural" or "H-like" phonemes: h (building, /h/), ḥ (wick, /ħ/), ḫ (placenta?, /x/), and ẖ (animal's belly, ...
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1answer
57 views
A word that will cover both words and numbers
Is there a word that covers the meaning of both words and numbers?
Here is a sentence in English:
Historically, the year 1500 is also often identified, somewhat arbitrarily, as marking the end of the ...
3
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1answer
101 views
“Voiceless labialized velar plosive” or “labialized voiceless velar plosive”?
The /k/ in the word "cool" is often labialized i.e. round lips and is transcribed as [kʷ]. How do linguists say its name in phonetics?
Voiceless labialized velar plosive
or
labialized ...
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1answer
176 views
Why are the names of languages always adjectives? (e.g. “English”, “French”, “Spanish”)
I notice that in English (as well as Spanish, and perhaps other European languages), the name of a language is the same word as the adjective form of the country or region name.
In English, this rule ...
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0answers
22 views
Terms for root stress
Looking for some descriptive help for a language description project. Stress assignment in the language is fairly complex and pretty resistant to easy generalizations, although prominence is ...
0
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2answers
100 views
“It is ___ that/who + verb.” pleonasm vs. “___ + verb.”
Is there a name for the following type of pleonasm:
"It is John who runs." (instead of: "John runs.")
"It was congress that legislated." (instead of: "Congress ...
5
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0answers
96 views
What kind of syntax diagrams are these, found in a book on legal writing?
These don't look like syntax trees in undergrad linguistics syntax textbooks. Do linguists use these diagrams? What are they called?
Page 343.
Diagrams for grammatical analysis are visual aids to ...
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1answer
60 views
What’s the name of this figure of speech?
Saying “The not tall boy” instead of “The short boy” does it have a name?
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2answers
79 views
Do we have a term for priori knowledge in linguistics?
Broadly speaking, these terms have been introduced throughout history to categorize knowledge:
A priori, rationalism, deductive reasoning => meaning that we gain new knowledge, only by using ...
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0answers
19 views
What word describes the unique possibilities when disambiguating a word?
The disambiguation page for the word turtle on wikipedia displays a list of possibilities to choose from.
Many of these possibilities are just the same word turtle but with different meanings.
...
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1answer
47 views
Is there a term for a question that is not rhetorical?
Oxford Dictionary defines a "rhetorical question" as one "asked in order to produce an effect or to make a statement rather than to elicit information".
Is there not a term for a '...
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0answers
86 views
What is the definition of a “case” in grammar?
Among others, according to Wikipedia:
"Case" is a linguistics term regarding a manner of categorizing nouns,
pronouns, adjectives, participles, and numerals according to their
traditionally ...
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3answers
113 views
What's the discipline of creating languages called?
I can only assume creating languages is part of the linguistics field, but is there a more specific name for the field, or the process?
3
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1answer
83 views
Form versus orthography versus spelling
What is the proper linguistic term for the way a word is written?
Initially, I used the term form, but then I was told that it was orthography. However, I sometimes come up with sources where the term ...
2
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1answer
143 views
Arabic grammar: The difference between the terms raf` and marfu'
I have begun to learn Arabic, and the difference between following terms confuse me.
There is this topic of ʾirāb—the science which deals with how the Arabic noun inflects with respect to its ...
5
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1answer
103 views
The term for the state of a noun
In linguistics, a case is how a noun declines with respect to its grammatical function within a given phrase, clause, or sentence. Is there a linguistics term to refer to the “state” of a noun within ...
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0answers
38 views
Terminology about elongating a monothong or a diphthong by duration and tone
Which terminology is applicable when a monothong or diphthong is elongated in duration and with a slightly higher pitch? Would it be vowel breaking or fracturing or something else?
Example 1 (...
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48 views
Ambiguity in “Joe and David discussed his plans for tomorrow evening” [duplicate]
Is there a specific term for the ambiguity in the sentence, "Joe and David discussed his plans for tomorrow evening," the ambiguity arising from the use of "his" when it could ...
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1answer
623 views
What's the term for finding an attestation of a word that predates the earliest known one?
Certain dictionaries make a point of citing the earliest known written usage of a particular word. Sometimes, after the dictionary is published, someone tracks down an even earlier attestation of the ...
4
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3answers
740 views
What do you call double consonants that are not affricates?
For example, the IPA Help page for English lists these consonants:
hw whine
lj lute
nj new
sj consume
θj enthuse
zj Zeus
Is there a name to refer to this type of double consonants?
I'm thinking &...
12
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1answer
165 views
Is there a name for a diminutive whose meaning has decoupled from the original word?
In languages where the diminutive is productive (such as Slavic languages), many words derived as a diminutive have a meaning completely decoupled from their origin, and do not anymore "convey ...
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46 views
Could someone give an easily understandable explanation of “derivation rules”?
From Wikipedia, A BNF specification is a set of derivation rules.
The post Term for a non-word consistent with derivation rules on this site also uses this term.
Google returns a lot of results, here ...
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1answer
118 views
Term for when speakers of L1, over time, pronounce words in their language like phonetically similar words found in the more dominant L2?
I am looking for the name of the following phenomenon:
Speakers of Language 1 transplant a given word to a new environment in which Language 2 is the dominant language spoken in the area.
Language 2 ...
5
votes
2answers
391 views
Name of assertions in sentences where negation of the whole sentence doesn't negate the assertion
A few years back I watched a talk by a German linguistics professor where he (IIRC) mentioned a rhetorical technique where the writer of a speech moves certain facts into a secondary position in a ...
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0answers
45 views
What's it called? Indicating no exceptions to the rule
In my study of an ancient language, I’m seeing certain phrasing that, in a prescription of proper behavior, means emphatically: “without exception!” My question is: Do linguists have a label for this ...
5
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0answers
78 views
Is there a word for “mouth transitions” which describes the movement of a mouth which is saying one word, but preparing for the next?
I think I can produce every individual phoneme in standard-ish spoken Mandarin.
However, if I want to speak fluently I have to watch videos of people speaking and closely watch their mouths, because ...
