Questions tagged [terminology]
Words, phrases, and acronyms specific to the study of linguistics.
26
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2answers
3k views
What do you call an IPA symbol that lacks a name (e.g. ɲ)?
Some IPA symbols such as ɲ lack any name, and when I tried searching for the symbol online, the pages I got only showed palatal nasal.
But I wonder what I should call it when I talk with others. Is ...
0
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0answers
51 views
Different languages following the same pattern to name the same object
A drawer is something one draws out of a piece of furniture. Likewise in French with tiroir coming from the verb tirer and in Japanese 引き出し from 引く. Is there a word for such a phenomenon: several ...
2
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0answers
37 views
Sememe and semanteme
I'm not sure I understand what is the relationship between sememes and semantemes.
I have the following definitions :
A sememe is a semantic content of a lexeme.
A semanteme is a unit ...
2
votes
3answers
83 views
What is the French equivalent of the English linguistic term “reflex” (the descendant sound of a sound in a proto-language)?
I looked it up in different dictionaries but could not find anything. Thank you in advance.
7
votes
1answer
81 views
Name for a verb form meaning “feign or pretend to do sth”
Is there an accepted name for a derivational process applied to a verb which conveys the meaning "feign or pretend to do sth".
As a corollary, is anyone aware of any languages (especially non-...
3
votes
2answers
61 views
Words that can belong to more than one category
Is there a term in (English) linguistics for a word that belongs to more than one word class?
For example fast, which can be either an adjective, or a noun.
I've been trying to find a term for this, ...
3
votes
0answers
24 views
What is the term for a specific type of collocation analysis
I am trying to write a text processing script in R. I am interested in finding a word (from a list of words I have selected) only if it is in the same sentence as another word.
Eventually I would ...
4
votes
1answer
76 views
What is the term for the pronunciation change that occurs with overuse of a phrase or noun phrase?
I've noticed that when a phrase (particularly, a multi-word name) is used often, the way it's said changes slightly. For example, when talking about the television show "The Good Place", the way the ...
12
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5answers
6k views
Rudeness by being polite
When talking to learners of my mother tongue, Swedish, I've sometimes had to explain how using too polite language can be taken as rude or insulting, as it creates a certain distance between the ...
3
votes
2answers
56 views
Statistic for root-efficiency in languages
In Esperanto you can construct many new words from a relatively low number of root-word. Example, with from arbo (tree) and aro (set) you can build arbaro (forest).
My question is three folded:
What ...
6
votes
1answer
77 views
Is there a term for ASL signs for related concepts that share the same motion and are distinguished by initialization?
As an ASL learner, I've noticed that there are groups of words with similar meanings, where the only difference is an initialized handshape. For example, the sign FAMILY has the two hands move outward ...
4
votes
3answers
164 views
Is an empty morph a lexeme?
In the French "A-t-il soif ?" there are several (inflected) lexemes ("A", "il", "soif"), and an empty morph "t".
The morph "t" has no meaning which is why it's an empty morph; it's there purely for ...
3
votes
1answer
102 views
A term for the process of building a form which has never been used before
One of my friends has started using the word 'vying' more and more these days. He did not know the word before a certain date and there was a clear event which caused him to "acquire" it into his ...
1
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1answer
148 views
Complementary distribution and defective distribution
I'm not sure if I understood what complementary distribution and defective distribution mean.
I have a definition that complementary distribution is an automatic, i.e. obligatory positional variation ...
0
votes
2answers
60 views
Do grammatically close languages tend to begin to use literal translations of some words in other senses in that other language?
Let's have an English phrase "let's have" and the Czech equivalent "mějme". Perhaps, at some point in the past, someone was translating a math textbook and didn't know how to translate "let's have" in ...
1
vote
0answers
32 views
Type of pronouns, bound/free
I'm confused by the terminology regarding bound/free pronouns.
Are free pronouns, those not bound to the verb, like 'we' in 'we like beer'?
Or does free mean they are not bound to previous elements?...
2
votes
1answer
68 views
What is the linguistic term for re-writing a dialect text to standard language?
What is the linguistic term for re-writing a written text from non-standard dialect to standard dialect of the same language?
Translation is the conversion of text from one language to another.
...
3
votes
0answers
27 views
Is there a word in which the concept and its complement is expressed?
Is there a word in which the concept and its complement is expressed, for example if I would like to express "the dichotomy of truth and falsehood" in one word. Obviously, the construction need not ...
3
votes
1answer
38 views
What is about-sentiment called?
I don't even know what my problem is called, so I can't research literature on it. I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
I have a little experience with sentiment analysis, but what ...
1
vote
1answer
78 views
How to call Turkish to Ascii character conversion?
When writing software in some cases we are not allowed to use Turkish characters so we use U, G, S, I, i, O, C characters instead of Ü, Ğ, Ş, İ, ı, Ö and Ç since some computer systems might not ...
0
votes
0answers
52 views
Name for the view that ambiguities in natural language are imperfections of it?
For instance, in natural language, "or" is slightly different from logical OR, "some" is slightly different from logical EXISTS, etc.
What is the name of the belief that these discrepancies are ...
0
votes
1answer
60 views
Classification of -s added to English words
I'm trying top work out what the correct terms are to use in the below scenarios. I've heard of clitics and affixes, but I'm not clear on the difference.
cat - cats (noun, plural -s)
cat - cat'...
1
vote
1answer
74 views
What is the difference between “domain” and “register”? [closed]
It seems like "domain" is a broad categorization of context (e.g. workplace, academia) and register is the specific set of rules which are expected by those speaking in a certain domain. Is this right?...
1
vote
1answer
92 views
What could be the antonym to the word “hyperonym”?
Is the "hyponym" an antonym to the word "hyperonym"? In the sense of the terms themselves, this is true, but does the difference in terms apply to antonyms?
The subset that defines the hyponym and ...
3
votes
2answers
131 views
How do you call a languages tendency to adopt foreign words rather than translate them to their language?
One difference between Mandarin Chinese and Japanese is that the former likes to translate foreign terms, while Japanese prefers to transcribe them to Japanese.
E.g. Basketball:
Mandarin Chinese: 篮球 (...
2
votes
1answer
59 views
'Interstitial' tones in Thai
You don't have to listen to authentic Thai for very long to realize that comparatively few words are pronounced with the dictionary tone.
All the learning material out there seems to be focused on ...
1
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0answers
60 views
Word with separate translations in another language
Is there a name for the linguistic phenomenon of a word in language or dialect X with two or multiple meanings that have individual translations in language or dialect Y? For example, escada in ...
0
votes
0answers
104 views
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 ...
0
votes
2answers
51 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 ...
8
votes
1answer
82 views
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, ...
1
vote
1answer
60 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 ...
1
vote
2answers
58 views
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?
...
0
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1answer
29 views
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 ...
2
votes
0answers
96 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?
1
vote
1answer
69 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 ...
2
votes
2answers
76 views
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).
...
0
votes
1answer
45 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.
...
-3
votes
2answers
57 views
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
45 views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
65 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:
...
1
vote
2answers
78 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
45 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-...
1
vote
1answer
75 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
77 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
57 views
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.
3
votes
1answer
276 views
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 ...
4
votes
1answer
201 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 ...
1
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0answers
34 views
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
...
3
votes
2answers
115 views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
59 views
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 ...
