MANNER OF ARTICULATION

PLOSIVE A complete closure is made in the vocal tract
and the soft palate is also raised. Air pressure increases
behind the closure and is then released explosively, e.g. /p/
and /b/
AFFRICATIVE A complete closure is made in the mouth
and the soft palate is raised. Air pressure increases behind the
closure, and is released more slowly than the plosive,
e.g. /tʃ/- /ʤ/
FRICATIVE When two vocal organs come close enough
together for the movement of air between them to be heard,
e.g. /f/- /v/
NASAL A closure is made by the lips, or by the tongue
against the palate, the soft palate is lowered, and air escapes
through the nose, e.g. /m/- /n/
LATERAL A partial closure is made by the blade of the
tongue against the alveolar ridge. Air is able to flow around the
sides of the tongue, e.g. /l/
APPROXIMANT Vocal organs come near to each other, but
no so close as to cause audible friction , e.g. /r/- /w/

Glossary of linguistic terms

Please let me know of any additions you would find helpful (or think future generations would find helpful).

NB: Phonetic symbols that cannot easily be reproduced in HTML are described in square brackets, e.g. [theta]
ablative See case.

A noun phrase involving a non-finite form of the verb (present or past participle) which carries the
absolute construction meaning of a full clause, e.g. terminada la sesión = cuando se terminó la sesión. In Latin, such
constructions were marked by the use of the ablative case.

accusative See case.
acrolect See decreolisation.
active A category of voice. See passive.
Traditionally, the part of speech which qualifies a noun. But in Spanish, adjectives are often used
adjective as nouns (el viejo 'the old man'), and in colloquial register sometimes as adverbs (va muy rápido 'it
goes very quickly').
Pertaining to the language of a culture which is equal in status: English loanwords in Spanish may be
adstrate
said to be an instance of adstrate influence.
Traditionally, the part of speech which qualifies a verb: some important semantic classes of adverbs
adverb
are manner, time, place. Adjectives are often said to be qualified by adverbs too: e.g. muy bien.
adversative Expressing opposition or contrast.
affective Used of suffixes in Spanish which express an attitude, such as affection or disparagement.
A general term for a bound morpheme. An affix may be word-initial (prefix), e.g.desafortunado, word-
affix
internal (infix), e.g. cantaría, or word-final (suffix), e.g. fácilmente.
affricate A combination, or coarticulation, of a plosive and a fricative, e.g. Spanish ch.
The performer of a verbal action: in an active sentence, the agent is typically the subject of the
agent sentence; in a passive sentence, the agent (the subject of the corresponding active sentence) is usually
introduced by by in English and by por in Spanish.
The performer of a verbal action: in an active sentence, the agent is typically the subject of the
agent sentence; in a passive sentence, the agent is usually introduced by by in English and by por in
Spanish.
aguda An oxytone (q.v.).
allative A case-function expressing the notion of 'motion towards'.
Cf. allophone. A variant form of a morpheme: -s and -es are allomorphs of the Spanish plural
allomorph
morpheme.
Cf. allomorph. A variant form of a phoneme. Allophones are in complementary distribution, i.e., they
never form oppositions with one another. Allophones are determined by the phonetic context in which
allophone
the phoneme appears: e.g. the /d/ phoneme in Spanish has the allophone [d] in initial position and the
allophone [ð] in intervocalic position.
alveolar Pertaining to the alveolum, or ridge between the upper teeth and the palate.
alveolum See alveolar.
amelioration The development of a more favourable meaning, e.g. Lat. casa 'hut' > Sp. casa 'house'.
Parallel development of a form. Analogy is particularly apparent when an irregular form regularizes, ie,
develops in parallel with the regular (productive) forms of the language, e.g. vencer now has the past
analogy participle vencido rather than the medieval vençudo. However, analogy can sometimes result in the
irregularising of a regular form: andar has developed the irregular Preterite form anduve, presumably
by analogy with other irregular Preterites in-u-e (tuve, supe, etc).
analytic See periphrastic.
anaphoric Reference back to an element in the preceding discourse. See also cataphoric.
antecedent See relative clause.
antonym An opposite: bueno and malo are antonyms.
apheresis Removal, or fall (of a sound), e.g. Lat. apotheca > Sp. bodega.
Pertaining to the tip of the tongue. The [s] of standard Spanish is an apico-alveolar sound. The tongue
apical
is often very slightly curved back ('retroflex').
apocope The loss of final sounds. Primer is an apocopated form of primero.
The part of a conditional sentence which expresses the consequence: si tengo dinerocompraré el libro.
apodosis
See also protasis.
The juxtaposition of two nouns or noun-phrases which have the same syntactic function,
apposition
e.g. Valladolid, lugar de nacimiento de Felipe II.
Oppositions between phonemes are neutralized in certain phonetic environments, e.g. the opposition of
archiphoneme
/n/ and /m/ before /p/. In such circumstances an archiphoneme is said to occur.
A somewhat arbitrary grammatical category: a class of determiners, which have a complex range of
article semantic functions. Spanish and English have a definite and an indefinite article,
respectively el/the and un/a.
Impressionistically, relating to the way in which an action or state is viewed: continuous, repeated,
within fixed limits, etc. The difference between the Imperfect and Preterite tenses in Spanish is usually
aspect
thought of as an aspectual difference, though several other verb-forms, and especially
the periphrastic verb-forms, have aspectual values.
aspirate A sound chiefly consisting of the exhalation of breath, e.g. [h].
assibilation Articulated as a sibilant: /r/ is so articulated (approximating to [z]) in a number of dialects.
Making similar: sounds in close proximity often assimilate features of one another, and this can be an
assimilation important factor in sound change. /n/ before /p/ is usually realised as [m] because it assimilates the
labial features of the following consonant.
association Relatedness of meaning.
 A rhyme based on correspondence of vowels alone, and characteristic of Spanish poetry
assonance
(thus lado and llano assonate, with the vowel pattern a-o).
atelic See telic.
atonic Unstressed.
A weakening (of meaning). Lat. teneo 'to hold' weakens to become the general verb of
attenuation
possession tener in Spanish.
augmentative A form which indicates largeness (e.g. the Spanish suffix -ón).
auxiliary A verb used with another, non-finite, form of a verb to form a periphrasis.
back vowel A vowel articulated by the raising of the tongue towards the velum.
The exploitation of a morphemic component not previously used in isolation. The OCast.
back-formation
adjective prieto is a back-formation from the verb apretar.
basilect See decreolisation.
bilabial See labial.
binary See opposition.
bound See morpheme.
broad A kind of phonetic transcription which gives only minimal phonetic detail.
caesura A pause made in a line of verse.
Use of a native element to model a word or expression taken from a foreign language.
calque
Sp.rascacielos is a calque of Eng. skyscraper.
Semantic definition (case function): the kinds of relationship that nouns have with
the verb(e.g. subject, direct object, indirect object, instrument, etc.) or, in the case of thegenitive, with
other nouns.
Morphological definition (morphological case): the distinctive inflected forms of a noun which correlate
case
with such semantic functions. Latin is generally considered to have distinguished six morphological
cases: nominative (subject of the verb), vocative (address form), accusative (direct object of the
verb), genitive (expressing possession), dative(indirect object of the verb), ablative (agentive,
instrumental). Prepositions also govern morphological cases.
cataphoric Referring forwards to an element in the following discourse. See anaphoric.
causative Expressing the notion of causation.
ceceo Neutralization of the opposition between /s/ and /[theta]/ and its realisation as /[theta]/.
circumlocution An expression which uses more words than are strictly necessary to convey an idea.
clause (oración) A constituent of a sentence that is itself like a sentence in that it contains a verb.
A sentence in which a constituent (usally an object or adverbial phrase) is introduced by the verb to
cleft sentence be/ser and the rest of the sentence is introduced by a relative element, e.g. Conocí a Juan en
Madrid (simple), Fue en Madrid donde conocí a Juan / Donde conocí a Juan fue en Madrid (cleft).
Attached: used of the personal pronouns of Spanish which cannot occur on their own but which must
clitic cooccur with a verb, e.g. me, te. Clitic pronouns are also known
as unstressed,atonic or conjunctive pronouns.
A process by which the clitic pronoun which semantically belongs with a complement verb attaches
clitic-climbing
instead to the main verb, e.g. lo quiero ver instead of quiero verlo.
Describes a vowel which has a relatively small aperture, such as [i] or [u]; also known as high, because
close
the tongue is raised.
coda The end of a syllable.
code-switching Moving between two languages within the same discourse.
A parallel form, e.g. French hiver is cognate with Spanish invierno; both are derived from
cognate
Lat. hibernu(s).
comment See topic.
complement Traditionally, the 'object' of a copular verb, e.g. Juan es médico. In modern linguistics, the term is also
(and predominantly) used to denote a clause (or a clause-equivalent such as an infinitive or gerund)
 which functions as the subject, object or prepositional object of a verb. The grammatical element which
introduces a complement is known as a complementiser.
complementary distribution See allophone.
Used of a verb-form which consists of more than one word, e.g. the Spanish and English Perfect (has
compound
seen/ha visto).
concessive Expressing the granting or conceding of a point.
conjoin To connect together. Juan y Pablo is a conjoined noun phrase.
conjugation A form-class of verbs characterised by inflectional patterns.
One of the traditional parts of speech the function of which is to connect two grammatical elements.
When a conjunction links two like elements, it is said to be coordinating; when it introduces a
conjunction
subordinate clause it is said to be subordinating: María y yo fuimos anoche al
cine (coordinating); Conseguí salir sin que nadie me viese (subordinating).
conjunctive Connected. See clitic.
connotation Additional, suggested meaning as opposed to literal, direct meaning.
Many words can be said to have both denotative (literal, direct) meaning and connotative(additional,
connotative suggested) meaning: in Latin America, the compounds of coger have indecentconnotative meaning
because of the meaning of coger 'to screw'.
consecutive clause A term used in Latin grammar to denote clauses expressing the notion 'so...that'.
One of the basic categories of speech sound. Consonants typically (a) are characterised by constriction
consonant
or closure of the vocal tract, (b) are the onsets or codas, never the nuclei, ofsyllables.
A speech sound whose articulation does not involve complete closure of the vocal tract; the opposite of
continuant
continuant is stop or plosive.
contraction The amalgamation of two or more words as a result of shortening.
When a word or morpheme is given extra stress, to indicate that it is thought of as contrasting with
contrastive stress another, similar, element, e.g. John passed the exam, but Harry didn't. Contrastive stress as a device
for topicalization is used much more extensively in English than in Spanish.
The reversal of rôles, especially of subject and object. Buy and sell are converse terms, since if A buys
converse
B from C, C sells B to A.
Linked grammatical elements which have equal status: two clauses may be coordinate (Fui al
coordinate parque y comí un bocadillo) or one may be subordinate to the other (No dije nada al chico que me
preguntó la hora).
Connecting: ser and estar are the copulas, or copular verbs, of Spanish. Copular verbs
copula
havecomplements rather than objects.
coronal Pertaining to the blade of the tongue. English [s] (and Latin American [s]) are articulated coronally.
A type of noun which denotes an individual entity and can be pluralized, as opposed to amass noun,
count
which denotes a quantity.
counterfactual A condition which has not been or cannot be fulfilled.
A syllable which receives a secondary stress, e.g. internacional (-al receives the primary stress in this
countertonic
word).
creole A pidgin language which has become the mother tongue of a community.
A register of language used within a social group with the deliberate intent of being unintelligible to
cryptolect
outsiders.
dative See case.
A form-class of nouns characterised by inflectional patterns. Classical Latin is traditionally considered
declension to have had five declensions; Spanish has so few noun inflections that distinguishing declension types
is unnecessary.
Movement of a creole towards a standard language, usually the superstrate, as model. The creole
decreolisation variety closest to the superstrate is known as an acrolect, the variety furthest from the superstrate as
a basilect; intermediate varieties are called mesolects.
definite article See article. The definite article of Spanish has many other functions besides expressing definiteness.
 Reference to the personal, temporal or locational characteristics of a situation. Pronouns, articles and
deixis
other determiners are deictic elements.
A pronoun or adjective which expresses proximity to or remoteness from the speaker (e.g.
demonstrative
Spanish este, ese, aquel).
denotative See connotative.
dental Pertaining to the teeth.
deontic See modality.
deponent A type of verb in Latin which was passive in form though active in meaning, e.g. obliviscor'to forget'.
Used in two senses: (a) the historical development of a form; (b) morphological derivation or the
derivation
creation of a form on the basis of another.
A grammatical element qualifying a noun which expresses a very general notion of number, quantity or
determiner
deixis. Articles, numerals, demonstratives, quantifiers and possessives belong to this category.
An unvoiced allophone of a phoneme which is normally voiced; the devoicing is often caused by
devoiced (sordo) assimilation, e.g. the /r/ of martes is usually devoiced because of assimilation to the following
(voiceless) /t/.
diachronic Pertaining to the development of language through time, as opposed to synchronic.
Linguistically it is impossible to distinguish meaningfully between the notions of language and dialect.
The notion 'dialect of' is perhaps useful in referring to a regional or social variety of what is perceived to
be the 'same' language (e.g. working-class Sevillian speech is a 'dialect' of Spanish). By this definition
dialect
all speakers of a language speak dialects of that language, and the speech of the middle classes of
Burgos is no less a 'dialect' of Spanish. The standard language usually evolves as a prestige dialect for
essentially political reasons.
diatopic variation Variation according to geographical location.
diastratic variation Variation according to social level.
diminutive A form which indicates smallness (e.g. Spanish -ito).
A sequence of two vowels in the same syllable. Either the first or the second vowel will be treated as
diphthong (diptongo) a semivowel. The combination of semivowel + vowel (e.g. [je]) is a risingdiphthong; the combination of
vowel + semivowel (e.g. [ej]) is a falling diphthong.
direct object See object.
disjunctive Freestanding: used especially of personal pronouns like mí, tú, etc. which are notconjunctive or clitic.
Making different. A sound occurring in close proximity to a similar sound may change to achieve better
dissimilation
differentiation, e.g. Lat. rotundu(s) > Sp. redondo.
dorsal Pertaining to the body of the tongue.
doublet A pair: cualidad and calidad is a doublet development of Lat. qualitate(m) (see also underlearned).
An aspectual category indicating inherent duration. The verb dormir in Spanish is inherenty durative.
durative
The imperfect inflection in Spanish is often associated with durativeness.
dynamic See stative.
elative A case-function expressing the notion of 'motion away from'.
Omission or abbreviation: used particularly of the loss of sounds in fast speech or in historical
elision
development. In the pronunciation [de:so] of de eso, one of the [e] sounds is elided.
ellipsis A construction in which words are left out or implied.
epenthesis The introduction of an extra medial sound, e.g. /b/ in hombre.
epistemic See modality.
esdrújula A proparoxytone (q.v.).
Pertaining to the historical derivation of a word. Used of spelling which reflects the historical origin,
etymological
or etymon of a word.
euphemism The expression of an unpleasant or embarrassing notion by a more inoffensive substitute.
Pertaining to existence or being: the Spanish verb haber and English there is, there are are existential
existential
expressions.
filler A word or phrase used to gain time in speech.
final clause A term used in Latin grammar to denote clauses expressing purpose.
A verb-form which can be the basis of a complete sentence. In Spanish, finite verbs are inflected for
finite
person and number. Non-finite forms of the verb are the infinitive, the gerundand the past participle.
The single rapid contact of two organs of speech, e.g. the movement of the tongue across the alveolar
flap
ridge in Spanish [r].
A foreign word is made to look like a morphological derivative of the host language, e.g. Sp.ruiseñor <
folk-etymology
Oc. russinhol.
Bringing into prominence: moving an object to the front of a sentence in Spanish (e.g. el libro lo leí
foregrounding
ayer) is a means of foregrounding the object. Topicalization is a kind of foregrounding.
fortis See lenition.
frequentative Denoting the (frequent) repetition of an action.
A class of consonants produced by the organs of speech coming into close proximity, so that there is
fricative
an acoustic impression of friction produced in their articulation.
front vowel A vowel articulated by the raising of the tongue towards the alveolar or palatal area.
geminate Double: Lat. vacca has a geminate /kk/.
Semantically significant inflectional categories of nouns; in many languages there is a more or less
gender
regular relation between gender and sex.
genitive See case.
In Spanish, the gerundio is the form in -ndo. (In English, the cognate form in -ing is traditionally
gerund (gerundio)
variously known as a gerund, a gerundive or a present participle depending on its function.)
given See topic.
Movement of the organs of speech towards (on-glide) or away from (off-glide) another
glide
sound; semivowels are glides.
The exploitation of a word to indicate a grammatical function, a process which typically involves the
semantic weakening or 'bleaching' of the word. An example of grammaticalisation is when
grammaticalisation a periphrastic construction loses its literal meaning; the Spanish future tense is an example of a fully
grammaticalised construction while the use ofir + past participle appears to be partially
grammaticalised.
grave A paroxytone (q.v.).
The main element in a phrase, on which other elements depend. The noun phrase los otros problemas
head
acuciantes has the noun problemas as its head.
Two vowels occurring sequentially but belonging to different syllables are said to be in hiatus, e.g. be-
hiatus
ata.
high See close.
Words that sound the same although spelt differently (e.g. Eng bow/bough). Also known
homonyms
ashomophones.
Articulated with the same organs of speech: [b] is homorganic with [m], since both
homorganic
arelabial consonants.
hyperbaton Transposition of the normal order of words.
hyperbole Exaggeration.
hypercharacterisation of The morphological marking of gender by an inflection in a word which etymologically has no such
gender inflection.
Inappropriate use of a form which exhibits a feature recognised as being higher in prestige than the
hypercorrection
speaker's own usage.
idiolect The speech of an individual.
A set phrase (e.g. a trancas y barrancas). The syntax and semantics of idioms is often idiosyncratic,
idiom
and idioms are hence most appropriately viewed as linguistic units in their own right.
imperative A modal category associated with the expressions of commands. Sometimes applied morphologically
 to the forms canta!, cantad! of Spanish because these forms are not used in any other function.
However, many other verb forms can express an imperative modality, e.g. the Present Indicative in Me
da un kilo de patatas.
An aspectual category: the opposite of perfective. Imperfective aspect does not envisage the beginning
imperfective or end of an action or state, but envisages it as being in progress. This is one of the characteristic
functions of the Spanish Imperfect tense.
implosive Closing a syllable: the /n/ of entrar is implosive.
inchoative Denoting the beginning of an action.
indefinite Having vague reference. Alguien is an indefinite pronoun; un is the indefinite article.
A modal category: the opposite of subjunctive. The indicative is often associated with assertion or
indicative
statement.
indirect object See object.
One of the non-finite forms of the verb. The infinitive often functions as a verbal noun, and as such can
infinitive
be the complement of another verb.
infix See affix.
inflection A suffix or ending. Spanish has a highly inflected verb system.
Refers to a tool or other implement with which an agent performs a verbal action. In Spanish the
instrumental instrumental function is often signalled by the preposition con: Miguel cortó la carne con un cuchillo; but
an instrument can also be the subject of a verb: El cuchillo cortó la carne.
interjection A word or expression which has no grammatical function but typically expresses emotion.
interrogative Associated with a question. ¿Quién? in Spanish is an interrogative pronoun.
intervocalic Occurring between vowels.
intransitive Traditionally, a verb which does not take a direct object.
IPA International Phonetic Association. Click here to follow a link to the IPA home page.
isogloss A boundary between geographical areas which exhibit different linguistic features.
A register of language which is used within a particular social or professional group, especially
characterised by the use of vocabulary which is restricted to a field of discourse involving concepts
jargon
which are not regularly expressed in everyday usage. The term is also often applied to
unstable pidgin languages which are developed for ad hoc purposes, especially trade.
Dialect levelling which occurs as a result of speakers from different linguistic backgrounds forming part
koinéisation of the same social community. Koinéisation may have been responsible for changes in the speech of
Madrid in the 16th century, for some features of Latin-American Spanish and of Judeo-Spanish.
labial Pertaining to the lips. [m] is a labial consonant.
labiodental Articulated with the lower lip and upper teeth, e.g. [f].
laísmo Use of la as a feminine indirect object pronoun.
Sound produced by the passage of air around the sides of the tongue. [l] is the most commonly
lateral
occurring lateral consonant.
In the context of the history of Spanish, learned words are those which have not had a continuous
descent from spoken Latin but which have been borrowed directly from Latin as a result of learned
learned (culto) awareness of Latin from the Middle Ages on. Such words are minimally adapted to the sound pattern of
Spanish, e.g. artículo < Lat. articulu(s) (compare thepopular form artejo, which is derived directly from
Latin).
left-dislocation Movement of an element to the front of its sentence.
leísmo Use of le as an direct object pronoun.
lenis See lenition.
A sound change in which a relatively strongly articulated (fortis) consonant becomes weakened to
lenition its lenis counterpart, e.g. a voiceless intervocalic consonant weakening to avoiced consonant, such as
[t]>[d].
lexical diffusion The process of the generalisation of a sound change through the lexicon. Incomplete lexical diffusion
 may result in some words not undergoing the change.
To become a member of the lexicon, typically used to describe a change in which a word with
lexicalisation
a suffix comes to be thought of as a word in its own right.
To become a member of the lexicon, typically used to describe a change in which
aperiphrastic construction comes to be thought of as a single word or when a word with asuffix comes
to be thought of as a word in its own right. An example of the former process is the future tense of
lexicalize Spanish, which was originally a paraphrase consisting of the infinitive + a form of the Latin
verb habere and is now thought of as a single word (cantare + habet> cantará). Examples of the latter
process may be seen in Spanish where affective suffixeshave ceased to have any identifiable
meaning: tela 'cloth' + -ón 'large' > telón 'theatre curtain'.
lexicon The stock of lexical items, or words, in a language.
lexis Study of the lexicon and lexical structure.
A class of continuant consonants which are not fricative and impressionistically have a 'flowing' sound:
liquid
[l] and [r] are the most obvious members.
llana A paroxytone (q.v.).
A case-function expressing the notion of 'place at which'. More generally, pertaining to place: allí is a
locative
locative adverb.
The written representation of a word by a mnemonic sequence of letters which do not constitute
logographic
a phonemic representation.
loísmo Consistent use of lo as a direct object pronoun, whether for things or people.
low See open.
manner See adverb.
A term often used to denote the more 'unusual' of a pair of features: the unmarked feature may be
thought of as the 'default'. A clear case of markedness would be an irregular verb, which is marked by
marked
comparison with regular verbs, but there is room for considerable debate over which is the marked term
of other featural oppositions (e.g. masculine and feminine gender).
mass See count.
mesolect See decreolisation.
metaphony A change to a vowel generally caused by proximity to another vowel, whose features it adopts.
metaphor A figure of speech in which one thing is called another which it resembles in some significant way.
metathesis Exchange of places by two sounds, e.g. Lat parabola > Sp palabra.
metonymy Use of a word in a transferred sense.
A category of voice with something of both the active and passive idea, e.g. 'to get seen'. Spanish has
middle no middle voice inflection as such, but the reflexive often expresses a middle voice function, e.g. me
cansé 'I got tired'.
minimal pair A pair of words which contrast in only one phonological segment, e.g. risa/rasa.
A morphological category loosely correlating with modality. Indicative, subjunctive and sometimes also
modal imperative are moods which are traditionally distinguished for Spanish. However, many verb forms
have a range of modal meanings.
A category of meaning associated with the truth-value of a proposition, e.g. statement, possibility,
modality command. Two fundamental categories of modality are deontic (expressing necessity or obligation) and
epistemic (expressing supposition).
monophthong A vowel which is not divisible into smaller vocalic constituents.
A morphological category loosely correlating with modality. Indicative, Subjunctive and sometimes also
mood Imperative are moods which are traditionally distinguished for Spanish. However, many verb forms
have a range of modal meanings.
'Grammatical' definition: the smallest contrastive unit of grammar. 'Semantic' definition: the smallest
morpheme contrastive unit of meaning. Morphemes can be free, ie actually or potentially freestanding
(verdaderamente) or bound, ie obligatorily attached to another morpheme (verdaderamente).
morphological Pertaining to morphemes.
morphological derivation See derivation.
morphology The study of word structure.
narrow A type of phonetic transcription which represents a high degree of phonetic detail.
Pertaining to the nose. Nasal sounds are those in which the air passes through the nasal cavity rather
nasal
than the oral cavity.
native speaker A person whose first language, or mother tongue, is the language in question.
negative Denoting denial or contradiction: Spanish nadie is a negative pronoun.
neologism A recently created word or expression.
Loss of a contrast (opposition), either diachronically or synchronically. Ceceo and seseorepresent the
neutralization
neutralization of the opposition between /s/ and /[theta]/.
nominalization The process of morphological derivation by which a noun is created.
nominative See case.
non-finite See finite.
One of the traditional parts of speech. Nouns typically denote things, people, animals or abstract
noun (nombre, sustantivo)
concepts; they function as subjects and objects of verbs.
noun phrase A phrase which has a noun as its head.
nucleus The centre of a syllable.
A grammatical category correlating with the notion of number. Spanish and English
number
distinguish singular and plural number morphologically.
In semantic terms, an element of a sentence that is affected by the verb. Traditionally,direct
object and indirect object are distinguished: indirect objects appear with verbs like 'give' ('Mary gave
Joe [indirect object] a book [direct object]'). The direct object covers a number of meanings depending
on the verb: 'Fred kicked the ball [direct recipient of action]', 'Fred opened the door [= caused the door
to open]', 'Fred liked the new house [attitude]'. There are other kind of object which are not traditionally
object
distinguished, e.g. 'The meal cost four pounds', 'We walked five miles'. In Spanish, it is sometimes
difficult rigorously to distinguish between direct and indirect object, since the preposition a may
introduce either, and the forms of the third person pronouns, which are apparently inflected for direct
and indirect object (le/lo), do not always obviously correlate with these notions. 
Prepositions are also said to have objects.
onomatopoeia The phenomenon of the sound-pattern of a word reflecting its meaning.
onset The beginning of a syllable.
Describes a vowel which has a relatively large aperture, such as [a]; also known as low, because the
open
tongue is lowered.
A contrast, e.g. the opposition between voiced and voiceless consonants. Many oppositions identified
opposition
in language are binary (ie involving two terms), such as singular/plural, masculine/feminine, etc.
optative Expressing a desire or wish.
oral Pertaining to the mouth.
The organs involved in the production of speech sounds, principally the tongue, teeth, lips, alveolum,
organs of speech
palate and velum.
oxytone A word stressed on the last syllable.
palatal Pertaining to the hard palate.
palatalized A sound in the course of whose articulation there is a movement towards the palatal area.
paradigm A structured set of forms, especially used of inflected forms, e.g. the verb paradigm.
Relating to the notion of paradigm. Paradigmatic relations have to do with oppositionsbetween
paradigmatic
members of the same form-class, e.g. nouns, adjectives, verbs. Contrastsyntagmatic.
Use of more than one word to express a grammatical notion, e.g. the periphrastic future in Spanish (ir
paraphrase or periphrasis
a + infinitive).
Strictly, the use of clauses without conjunctions, though also used to indicate absence of subordinate
parataxis
clauses.
paroxytone A word stressed on the next to the last syllable.
One of the non-finite forms of the verb, used in compound forms of the verb and adjectivally. English
has a past participle (opened) and a present participle (interesting); Spanish has a past
participle (abierto). The Spanish forms in -ndo are not adjectival, and are usually called the gerund; the
participle
term present participle is sometimes used for Spanish adjectives in -nte (interesante), but not all verbs
have forms in -nte (e.g. abrir has no form*abriente): ie, the -nte forms are only semiproductive in
Spanish.
partitive Expressing a mass concept.
Functional classes of words: tose traditionally distinguished are nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs,
parts of speech
adjectives, prepositions and conjunctions.
A syntactic or morphological category of voice. In English and Spanish, the passive is formed
syntactically by making the object of the active verb its syntactic subject; the subject, if expressed,
passive appears in a prepositional phrase introduced by English by and Spanish por respectively: it is known as
the agent of the passive sentence. Morphologically, the form traditionally known as the passive in
Spanish is formed from the verb ser + thepast participle of a transitive verb.
patient The recipient of the verbal action, often a function of the direct object.
A form which has an unfavourable or disparaging meaning. Some of the affective suffixes of Spanish
pejorative
are pejorative.
perfective An aspectual category which typically expresses the completion of an action.
Use of more than one word to express a grammatical notion, e.g. the periphrastic future in Spanish (ir
periphrastic a + infinitive). Periphrastic forms are also known as analytic. The use of a single word inflected form to
express a grammatical notion, e.g. the Spanish future form in -é, etc, is also known as a synthetic form.
A category, typically of personal pronouns and verb inflections, indicating relationship to the speaker ('I'
person
= first person, 'you' = second person, 'they' = third person).
phoneme The smallest contrastive unit of sound in a language.
phonetic transcription A means of representing pronunciation, usually by use of a phonetic alphabet such as theIPA.
The study of speech sounds. Articulatory phonetics is concerned with the organs of speechinvolved in
phonetics
the production of sounds, acoustic phonetics with the physical properties of the sounds produced.
phonology The study of the sound system (the phonemes) of a language.
A system of communication, based on an existing language, which grows up amongst people who do
pidgin not share a common language. Pidgins differ from creoles in that the former are no one's native
language.
place See adverb.
A consonant whose articulation is characterised by a complete closure of the vocal tract.
plosive
See continuant.
popular (vulgar) See learned.
postpose To place after: in hablarme the personal pronoun me is postposed to the infinitive hablar.
Concerning the situational use of language and knowledge of the real world. The factors governing the
pragmatic choice between tú and usted in Spanish are often described as pragmatic, because they have to do
with what speakers know about their relationship to their interlocutors.
prefix See affix.
Traditionally, the part of speech that governs nouns, pronouns and other elements used nominally,
preposition
expressing notions such as direction, instrument, agent, etc.
A term used to describe languages which, like Spanish, do not obligatorily use a subject pronoun with
pro-drop
the verb.
A form-class which is continuing to add to its membership through analogy or neologism: the -ar verb
conjugation of Spanish may be described as productive because many new verbs
productive (e.g. formatear, privatizar) are constantly being added to it. A form-class which has typically shown
expansion at some point in the history of the language (e.g. the u-e 'strong' Preterites of Spanish) may
be said to be semiproductive.
 An aspectual category indicating an ongoing action. The estar + gerund form of Spanish is often called
progressive
the Progressive.
One of the traditional parts of speech; an item, usually of rather vague reference, which can be used in
pronoun substitution for a more precise full noun (e.g. él for Juan). The main categories of pronouns
are personal, demonstrative, indefinite, possessive, interrogative.
proparoxytone A word stressed on the antepenultimate (next but one to the last) syllable. See esdrújula.
The part of a conditional sentence which expresses the condition: si tengo dinero compraré el libro.
protasis
See also apodosis.
prothesis The introduction of an extra initial sound, e.g. Lat. schola > Sp. escuela. The /e/ isprothetic.
punctual An aspectual category indicating that an action takes place at a single moment of time.
quantifier An item (adjective or pronoun) expressing a quantity: Spanish todo, dos, cada, ninguno, etc.
reanalysis The construing of a syntactic or morphological structure in a different way.
received pronunciation(RP) The 'standard' pronunciation of British English.
Not logically necessary: in Spanish Le saludé a Juan the pronoun le is logically redundant.
redundant
Redundancy is very common in natural language.
The relation between a linguistic form and its real world meaning. Sometimes used to refer to the real
reference
world meaning itself.
register A variety of language used for a particular purpose, e.g. colloquial, legal, journalistic, etc.
The articulation of Spanish ll with an element of frication, which in its most extreme form reaches the
rehilamiento
voiced fricative of English pleasure.
A dependent clause which refers to a noun in the main clause. The noun in the main clause is
relative clause
the antecedent of the relative clause.
retroflex See apical.
Stressed on the stem. In Latin, verbs of the 3rd conjugation (e.g. MITTERE, PETERE), had rhizotonic
infinitives; in Spanish these have been assigned to the -er or -ir conjugations, and their infinitives are no
rhizotonic
longer rhizotonic, being stressed on the inflection (meter, pedir). The radical-changing verbs of Spanish
undergo modification of the stem in the rhizotonic (stem-stressed) forms, e.g. recordamos / recuerdo.
right-dislocation Movement of an element to the end of its sentence.
roll See trill.
semantic field A natural class of related meanings, e.g. 'colour', 'family relations'.
semantics The study of linguistic meaning.
semiconsonant Another term for a semivowel.
A class of Latin verbs which were partially deponent (passive in form but active in meaning), e.g. fido 'to
semi-deponent
trust', whose perfect form was fisus sum.
A much-disputed term, often used to characterize words which have undergone some, but not all, the
semilearned
changes expected in popular words
A convenient term to characterize learned words which have undergone some popularphonetic
semipopular
modification, e.g. afición as opposed to afección.
semiproductive See productive.
A vowel-like sound which functions in a consonant-like way as the onset or coda of a syllable. The
semivowel
semivowels of Spanish are [j] and [w].
seseo Neutralization of the opposition between [s] and [theta] and its realisation as [s].
sibilant A category of consonants which give the acoustic impression of hissing, such as [s], [z], etc..
The running together of two sounds into one, typically used of two vowels forming a diphthong.
Sinaeresis usually occurs in the rapid pronunciation of Spanish ahora as [ao-ra] (2 syllables) rather
sinaeresis (sinéresis) than [a-o-ra] (3 syllables). A special case of this in Spanish is when the two vowels concerned are
separated by a word-boundary, a situation which is more accurately referred to
as synaloepha (sinalefa).
sinalefa The running together of two vowels which are separated by a word-boundary into one syllable,
 e.g. me_ha-bló.
An informal spoken register of language characterised by a high incidence of linguistic features which
slang
are particular to this register.
sociolect A socially defined variety of speech.
speech community A group of people who speak what they recognise to be the same language or dialect.
stative Denoting a state of affairs (as opposed to dynamic, denoting an action).
stop Another term for a plosive.
The degree of force with which a syllable is uttered. Syllables may be stressed (tonic)
stress
orunstressed (atonic) (see also countertonic).
strong Irregular (used of verbs).
In semantic terms, traditionally, an element of a sentence which performs the action of theverb (though
subject this definition is problematic). Syntactically, in English and Spanish, the subject is the element with
which the verb agrees in person and number.
A modal category: the opposite of indicative. The subjunctive is associated with a number of meanings,
subjunctive
especially commands, hypothesis, denial and emotive attitude.
Of secondary importance: a subordinate clause is one which depends on another. Subordinate clauses
subordinate function as consituents of their main clause: the function can be nominal (in which case they are
called complements), adjectival (e.g. relative clauses) or adverbial (e.g. temporal clauses).
Pertaining to the language of a culture which is inferior in status: Basque is said to be a substrate to
substrate
Latin during the Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula.
suffix See affix.
Pertaining to the language of a culture which is superior in status: Germanic is said to have had a
superstrate
superstrate influence on Latin in the Dark Ages.
supine A verbal noun (a category of Latin grammar).
syllable An element of speech that acts as a unit of rhythm.
synaloepha (sinalefa) See sinaeresis.
synchronic Pertaining to one chronological stage of a language, as opposed to diachronic.
syncope The loss of medial sounds, e.g. Lat viride(m) > Sp verde.
synecdoche A figure of speech in which the name of a part refers to the whole, e.g. las faldas referring to 'women'.
A word meaning the same as another. However, it is doubtful whether a pair of words are ever
synonym
completely synonymous, and it is usually safer to speak of 'near synonyms' (e.g.pueblo and aldea).
Referring to the linear relationship of elements in an utterance. The notions of 'subject of', 'object of',
syntagmatic
are syntagmatic relationships.
syntax The study of sentence structure.
synthetic The converse of analytic. See periphrastic.
taboo Superstitious or obscene connotations. Taboo words are prone to replacement byeuphemisms.
An aspectual category indicating an action which necessarily has a final point (e.g. drown) as opposed
telic
to one which is open-ended (e.g. play); the latter is referred to as atelic.
temporal Pertaining to time or tense.
temporal clause A dependent clause which functions as an adverb of time.
A morphological category relating to time reference, e.g. the present tense. Tense is also used more
tense generally to denote the different forms of a verb (e.g. we speak of the imperfect tense and the preterite
tense, though these two forms are differentiated aspectually rather than temporally).
time See adverb.
time reference See tense.
tonic Stressed.
topic The element of an utterance which is the focus of the speaker's attention and about which something is
said (the comment). The topic of a sentence is often information which is already known about
 (given information).
A syntactic or other device to bring an element in a sentence into prominence, particularly noticeable
topicalization
when that element is not the subject of the sentence.
transition relative A relative pronoun used in a conjunction-like way.
transitive Traditionally, a verb which takes a direct object.
transparency Parallelism between form and meaning.
A sound made by the rapid tapping of two organs of speech together (e.g. Spanish [rr]). Alternatively
trill
known as a roll.
A group of three vowels in the same syllable. In Spanish, this only happens in cases ofsinalefa (e.g. de
triphthong
hoy).
unmarked See marked.
unvoiced or voiceless A sound in which the vocal cords do not vibrate.
The capacity of a verb to take particular combinations of case-functions. Transitive andintransitive are
valency
different valencies.
velar Pertaining to the velum or soft palate at the back of the mouth.
verb Traditionally, the part of speech which expresses an action, event or state.
verb phrase A group of words which have the same function as a verb, e.g. seguimos cantando.
vocal cords Two muscular folds in the larynx that vibrate to produce voice.
Having the properties or value of a vowel: in English, the consonant [l] is often vocalic (e.g. the second
vocalic
[l] in little).
vocalisation Becoming a vowel: certain consonants, e.g. implosive [l], are particularly prone to this process.
vocative See case.
A syntactic category having to do with the relations of subject and object to the verb:
voice
seeactive, passive and middle.
voiced A sound in which the vocal cords vibrate.
voiceless See unvoiced.
Use of the pronoun vos instead of 'standard' tú to express the familiar second person singular. In River
voseo
Plate Spanish, there are special forms of the verb associated with vos .
One of the basic categories of speech sound. Vowels typically (a) are characterised by there being no
vowel
constriction or closure of the vocal tract, (b) are the nuclei of syllables.
yeísmo Neutralization of the opposition between /j/ and /[zh]/ as /j/.
yod An unstressed front vowel in hiatus, e.g. the /e/ of Lat. vinea.

Accent and dialect Accent refers solely to the way words are pronounced, e.g. in the south of England, it is normal to pronounce
the word path as p-ar-th, but in the Midlands and the North, the phoneme 'a' is articulated as a short vowel
and pronounced as in, 'cat'. The accent known as 'Received Pronunciation' is considered as a prestige accent
and is one frequently heard on television and radio news bulletins, for example.
Dialect refers to choices of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation made by people in different geographical
regions or social contexts. The dialect known as 'Standard English' is generally considered to be a prestige
dialect and is the choice of many teachers, business people, newsreaders, etc.
Active and passive voic This is an important stylistic choice. A typical English sentence will be cast in what is called the active voice,
e e.g. 'The teacher led the lesson'. In such a sentence, the subject (S) is also the agent of the action told by the
verb (V). This action is transferred to the object of the sentence (O).
A different type of sentence construction is possible. In this, the subject position can be filled not by
the agent but by what, in the active sentence, was the verb's object, e.g. 'The lesson was led by the teacher.'
The grammatical subject position is now filled by the noun phrase, 'the lesson' and the agent becomes a part
of a phrase that follows the verb, introduced with the preposition 'by': 'by the teacher'. This is called a passive
construction.
Importantly, passive constructions can even allow for the agent to be deleted and the sense still retained, e.g.
 'The lesson was led'. This makes passive sentences potentially interesting as they can be made to carry a
different pragmatic force, one that leads to different inferred meanings being created.
By fronting the object in place of the subject, the force of the sentence can be changed and the role of the
agent can be diminished. Passive constructions are popular in newspaper headlines as it gives a concise,
authoritative and impressive style but one that does not risk 'pointing the finger' of blame, e.g. 'Woman
murdered in gangland shooting'. Here the subject is not even mentioned. See also voice.
Adjective A word class which contains words that can add more detail (i.e. modify) to a noun or pronoun with which
(adjectival) they often form a noun phrase, e.g. 'The busy teacher' (pre-modification).
Adjectives can also post-modify a noun, as in: 'The dinner was awful'. Adjectives are gradable depending on
whether a comparison is made with one other thing or many other things: big, bigger, biggest difficult, more
difficult, most difficult.
Agent The grammatical agent is the participant in a clause or sentence that carries out the action told by a verb. In
the following sentence, the 'cat' is the agent: 'The cat sat on the mat'. In the passive form of this sentence,
'The mat was sat on by the cat', the 'cat' remains the agent, but the subject now becomes 'mat'.
It is easy to confuse the two terms agent and subject: the word subject refers syntactically to the word in a
sentence or clause that is grammatically linked to a verb and which makes the verb finite. For more,
see active/passive.
Agreement In English grammar, it is necessary that certain linked words 'agree' with each other, for example, a verb is
given an inflexion (suffix) to allow it to 'agree with' its subject when in the 'third person', e.g. he talks (not he
talk).
Adverb A class of words that add usually extra detail about the way an action occurred (i.e. the verb) but which can
(adverbial) also modify another adverb or an adjective, e.g. 'The girl worked especially hard.' 'He was just too much!'
Adverbs can give detail concerning time(soon), place (there) and manner (nearly).
Adverbial A type of phrase that provides extra information - usually about time, place or manner - in a clause. A
sentence or clause can contain several adverbials (which, unusually for an English syntax, can be located in
various places). Adverbials are usually 'optional' elements in a clause - its central meaning being reasonably
unaffected if they are left out.
during each
Twice I exercise in the gym in town
day
ADVERBIA ADVERBIA ADVERBIA
ADVERBIAL SUBJECT+VER
L L L
time B
manner place place

Ambiguity This means 'more than one possible meaning'. The rules of grammar exist to allow a structure of words to be
created that has a single meaning, i.e. to be unambiguous. Here is an ungrammatical sentence that was an
actual warning notice at the bottom of an escalator: 'Dogs must be carried on the escalator'. What does this
mean? Are you allowed to ride on the escalator without a dog in your arms?
Archaic If a word is described as archaic, it suggests its use is now old-fashioned. Many words in poems are still used
(archaism) that seem archaic, and many formal words may seem to be so, especially in a religious or legal register. Such
words may not be really archaic - it may simply be that you are unaware of these particular registers. Take
great care when writing about language in A2 change not to label a word archaic simply because you haven't
heard of it - better to say 'formal'.
Article One of a class of words, akin to adjectives, called determiners. The definite article is the and the indefinite
article is a or an.
Audience Audience means the kind of reader or listener the text was intended for. As this is unlikely to be you, sadly
you do need to attempt the near impossible and 'become' the intended reader. Always consider a text in this
way or you will run the risk of 'misreading' it. Also, avoid being overly specific or informal when describing an
audience’s likely characteristics: 'this writing is suitable for clever so and so’s of about 23 and over' sounds
rather less impressive than, 'the style of this text seems geared towards an educated and sophisticated adult
 audience'. For module 1 in your exam, audience is one way to categorise similar texts.
Auxiliary verb English verbs are limited as to what they can indicate alone, i.e. through their own morphology. Morphological
inflexions can be used, for example, to show that an event occurred in the past (e.g. cooked) and in the
present (e.g. cook); they can also show third person agreement (e.g. she cooks) and continuous action (e.g.
cooking).
More often, the main verb needs to be linked with a secondary verb form which accompanies it to create
a verb phrase. These secondary verbs are called auxiliaries. Auxiliary verbs are used, for example, to give a
sense of time to the main verb (e.g. 'Hewill be working soon.') or to create a question, 'Have you won?',
'Do you believe it?', 'Could it be true?'.
Common auxiliary verbs are forms of to be (is/am/was/are/were/will), to have (has/had/have) and to
do (does/did).
Some auxiliary verbs are used to indicate that an action is not real but simply an idea or possibility. These are
called modal auxiliaries, e.g. may, might, would, could, should.
Clause A clause is a key grammatical structure and this means that clauses are things that you need to have, at the
(clausal) very least, a basic grasp of. Thought of at its simplest, a clause can be considered as a short 'sentence' - one
that occurs either on its own (e.g. "I ate the jelly") or together with other clauses to make a longer sentence
(e.g. "because I was hungry").
 A clause, then, is a group of words that is either a whole sentence or is a part of a sentence.
 Clauses are built up from individual words or from small clusters of words called phrases.
 Most clauses are built around a main verb which tells, often, of an action, thought or state, e.g.
"I ate the jelly because I was hungry".
A clause can be what is called independent. This mean it is acting as a simple sentence, as in the example, "I
ate the jelly". Independent clauses can also exist as a part of a larger sentence when they are called not an
"independent clause" but a mainclause.
Another common type of clause exists just to help out the meaning of a main clause. This second kind of
clause is, therefore,dependent on its main clause for its meaning. An example would be
the dependent clause, "because I was hungry"; you'll see here that there is an extra word at the start of the
clause: "because". It is this extra word that stops the clause being able to be independent or to be a main
clause; the word "because" forces the clause to be dependent on some other main clause, e.g. "I ate the jelly
because I was hungry". This words acts to subordinate its clause and so is called a
subordinator. Subordinatorscreate dependent clauses - more often, these days,
called subordinate clauses (sometimes reduced to "sub-clauses").
There are many subordinators. Look at this example: "He hit him even though he was a friend":
He hit him even though he was his friend.
MAIN CLAUSE DEPENDENT (subordinate) CLAUSE
An important kind of clause acts as if it were an adjective - it adds extra information about a noun or noun
phrase. These clauses are called relative or adjectival clauses. They can seem confusing because they can
be inserted in between their main clause, e.g. "The girl who wore a red dress left early." This sentence
contains one main clause "The girl left early" and one dependent or relative clause, "who wore a red dress".
 The subordinator in this example, the word "who", is acting as a pronoun (i.e. it is a word that takes
the place of, and stands in for, a noun). Here it is called, therefore, a relative pronoun because it
introduces a relative clause.
 Other relative pronouns are "that" and "whom".
 Sometimes the relative pronoun can be missed out to create an elliptical relative clause, e.g. "The
joke [that] he told was funny"; here the relative clause is "he told".
The structure of clauses is fairly fixed in English syntax (S = subject V = verb O = object C = complement A
= adverbial). In certain dialects and in poetry the syntax can be varied and the sense still kept, e.g. "A ballad
Alison sang".
 S+V: Alison / sang.
 S+V+O: Alison / sang / a song.
 S+V+C: Alison / is / a good singer.
 S+V+A: Alison / sings / in the choir.
 S+V+O+O: Alison / sang / her mum / a ballad.
  S+V+O+A: Alison / sang / the song / from the song-book.
Cohesion Many patterns of words exhibit a quality known as cohesion. This means that they form coherent units.
(cohere / coherent / Phrases are an important coherent grammatical unit. Words that cohere are cohesive: they appear to act not
coherence) as individual words but as a single unit, e.g. 'inside out', 'at three o'clock', 'the awful creature', 'has been
eating', 'in a traditional manner'. These examples ofcoherent groups are all phrases,
but clauses, sentences and discourses are also, if they are to be effective in communicating ideas and
facts, coherent.
At the level of discourse, the reader or listener also needs to be able to link the different sentences and
paragraphs (or stanzas in a poem, etc) in a logical way. This is achieved by many linguistic means
including graphology, semantics, pragmatics,narrative structure, tone, lists, pronouns, proper nouns,
repetition of either logical or similar ideas, use of synonyms, and so on. The analysis of the cohesive qualities
(i.e. the coherence) of a text is the analysis of discourse structure.
Collocation Many words are habitually put together - or collocated. A collocation is any habitually linked group of words -
(collocates / collocated) a kind of lexical partnership, e.g. 'fish and chips', 'salt and pepper', 'don't mention it', 'it's nothing...', 'Oh well!',
'bangers and mash'... and so on. Many idioms or idiomatic phrases exhibit collocation, e.g. in a jiffy.
Colloquial / slang A 'colloquy' is a formal word for 'conversation', so colloquial language means the everyday language
(colloquialism) or register we adopt when chatting to friends, for example, e.g. 'Hello Fred, how's the new mother-in-law
these days?'.
Slang is a particular form of colloquial language used by certain social groups, e.g. 'Hey-up Fred! How's the
new battle-axe then?'; 'Hey that's some cool dude there!'
Complement A word, phrase or clause that follows a verb and which simply adds further information concerning, usually,
the verb's subject. Complements usually follow stative verbs such as 'to be' to create a statement (i.e.
a declarative sentence), e.g. 'He is happy'. Here the adjective 'happy' is the subject complement. However, in
the sentence, 'He made me happy', the adjective happy is called an object complement as it gives more
information about the verb's object, me.
Conjunction A word used to link words, phrases and clauses. Common conjunctions are and, but, or, either... or,
neither...nor. These can link 'equal units' such as words, phrases or main clauses. A special kind of
conjunction that can link 'unequal' independent and dependent clauses is called a subordinating conjunction.
There are many of these, e.g. if, when, where, unless, etc. Also seesentence and clause.
Connotation / denotatio The denotation of a word is its direct, literal or specific meaning (as can be found in a dictionary). If a word
n  also has implied or associated meanings when used in a certain way, these are called the
(connote / connotative word's connotations. The word 'bat' in this sentence is being used with its denotation: 'A bat is a flying
denote / denotative) mammal.' however, the word, 'bat' can also take on extra meanings, oftenmetaphorical, e.g. 'He went like
a bat out of hell'.
Interestingly, the word 'bat' also happens to have several possible denotations: 'a cricket bat', 'a vampire bat',
'They bat next' (as well as other slang and dialect meanings): words that have several denotations are
called polysemic. Polysemy is an area of semantics and pragmatics.
Context Context is always an important aspect to consider whenever you analyse a text. Context refers to those
(contextual / particular elements of the situation within which the text is created and interpreted that in some way or
contextualise) another affect it (for example, the effects of time, place, ideology, social hierarchies, relationships, etc.).
Importantly, language has two potentially important contextual aspects: the context in which it
was created and that in which it was interpreted. For example, a letter from a manager to one of his staff will
be affected by context such as the situation itself, the power relationship that exists between the manager
and the worker, the historical conditions and so on. Another example, when you speak to your parents or
when you speak to a friend on the phone you will see that context naturally affects the linguistic choices -
the style - of the discourse in important ways. Also see register.

Copula / linking verb Verbs that act to link a subject to a complement, for example, the verb 'is' in, 'The rabbit is soft and furry' are
called 'copulas' or 'linking verbs'.
Determiner One of a small group of words - a word class - that precedes and pre-modifies a noun and creates a noun
phrase, e.g. a, the, some, this, that, those, each.
 Determiners include the three 'articles' (i.e. a, an, the) and similar words: e.g. some, those, many,
their. Each of these are said to determine the number or 'definiteness' of their noun, e.g. 'That man
is the one!'
Confusingly, determiners can themselves be pre-modified by 'pre-determiners', e.g. 'Even the apples were
rotten' 'All the books were lost.'
Discourse / discourse When we use language, what we are doing is trying to express thoughts and ideas that are in our head to a
analysis / discourse someone else. Sometimes this will be to a known person, sometimes to an unknown audience. Conversation
structure / discourse is the obvious example of the former, media texts of the latter.
community / discourse We are very sophisticated communicators (and of course use more than just language!). This makes
communities discourse a massively subtle, sophisticated and complex area of study, in fact. But, even a basic 
understanding of it can help push your marks up to the highest bands. Aspects of communication that affect
the discourse include genre, context, audience and purpose ('G-CAP'). All of these, and especially the first
three, will act as a 'constraint' on what we say or write.  Context is an especially important aspect
of discourse analysis as the social and hierarchical aspects of life often bring all kinds
of pragmatic meanings into the discourse.
A discourse occurs whenever we put thought into language. This could be for a whole range of reasons - we
might be in a conversation, writing a novel, producing a piece of homework, holing someone to ransom,
texting a friend... all kinds of reasons. The result of this 'conversion' of thought and ideas into language is the
production of a discourse between the parties involved. And these discourses can ne productively analysed
as an analysis at the level of discourse will reveal many interesting and subtle areas of language use.
Discourse, therefore, is no more than language - a kind of 'text' - but considered as a part of the original
context of its use. When considering discourse, therefore, you need to consider all of the important aspects
of context that affected either itscreation, its reception or its interpretation. And remember that discourses or
spoken - planned, spontaneous, to a known audience, an unknown audience, historical, etc..
Thus, everyday language, technical language, business language, children's language, cookery-book
language, newspaper language... any and all kinds of language, can all be considered at the level of
discourse. All texts will contain within them some discernible aspects of their user's personal, cultural, social
and historical situation. Discourse analysis comments on these contextual aspects.
 Commenting on the social circumstances of a text means taking account of aspects of its social and
cultural context.
When analysing a text, it can be fascinating (and gain many extra marks because of its subtlety) to dig
deeper than the surface meaning of the words to try to reveal interesting contextual aspects of the text's
users. To make this clearer, you can imagine that our own society is far more liberal-minded than, say, the
society of a century ago. This aspect will show up in the texts written in these periods through a variety of
aspects including word choice and grammar. Similarly, aspects
of social hierarchyand social power always manifest themselves within texts. Imagine a conversation between
a patient and a doctor, for example  - again, discourse analysis seeks to reveal this.
We can, somewhat artificially perhaps, but useful, 'lump together' certain discourses and see that they contain
broadly similar elements because of the context, for example, in which they occur. Thus the idea of a
'discourse community' or discourse communities can be used, similar to the idea of a 'register'. Young people,
to take an example, tend to use language that shares many similar features, and they can be called a
'discourse community'. In this instance, this is similar to the idea ofsociolect, also - but not all discourse
communities share a sociolect.
An important part of discourse analysis is to determine what are called the orders of discourse. In any
discourse, it is clear that speakers or readers are rarely 'on equal terms'. Usually there is a hierarchy of
power or a power relationship involved, wherein one participant - through language choices - can 'position'
the other participant in a less powerful position. An analysis of men and women in conversation has revealed
many ways in which apparently innocent uses of language create a power relationship between the
participants.
Discourse structure can be a useful part of discourse analysis and is generally rewarded highly in your
exams. Analysing a text at the level of its discourse structure sets out to reveal the various methods
used, effects created and purposes intended by the language user to create a coherent and unified stretch of
language. A text aimed at a child, for example, will have a much more obvious structure with clear 'linguistic
 signposts' to guide the child through it. If you compare such a text with, say, a broadsheet newspaper article,
you will immediately notice that the means of linking ideas in the latter will be far more complex, sophisticated
and subtle. Discourse structure, therefore, is one of the elements of style: those choices a language user
makes to suit context, genre, audience and purpose.
Element An element is a distinct grammatical unit - a 'building block' or segment of a sentence there are three
important grammatical elements: word, phrase and clause. Some of the elements of a discourse or text are
their sentences, paragraphs, chapters and so on.
Elision Elision is the omission of one or more sounds from a word, e.g. a vowel, consonant or a whole syllable. It is
(to elide) used to create a word or phrase that is easier or more casual to suit an informal context, for example, e.g. the
word 'comfortable' is usually elided when spoken.
Ellipsis Grammar allows some words to be missed from a grammatical construction (i.e. for sentences to be
(elliptical) grammatically abbreviated) and yet for the sentence still to be meaningful, e.g. 'I bought half a dozen eggs
and [...I also bought...] six rashers of bacon.' The reader or listener is able to 'add back in' the elements that
have been left out and thus understand what is meant.
Ephemeral A term that means 'lasting for a short time', i.e. transitory. In the study of language change, it refers to
fashionable words that drift in and out of fashion. Speech is often considered to be an ephemeral thing in
contrast to the more permanent nature of writing.
Finite / non finite This word applies only to certain verbs. A verb in a sentence can exist on its own as in these examples: 'It's
good to exercise' or 'I enjoy exercising'. In each of these sentences, the form of the verb is termed non-finite.
Alternatively - and every complete grammatical sentence has one at least by definition - the verb can be
made finite. This simply means that it is 'attached' grammatically to a subject word. This subject is usually
either a noun or noun phrase. Look at this example: I exercise to keep fit'). In this latter case the subject/verb
combination work together to create a clause.
Form and content Form means the sound, shape and appearance of something, e.g. two forms of the word please,
are pleases and pleased. The form of the sentence, e.g. 'He pleased himself.' can be explained by referring
to two kinds of structure: that of its individual words (i.e. their morphology) and the way its words relate to
each other (i.e. their syntax). The study of both of these aspects of sentences is called grammar the study of
the form of a text is called discourse analysis.
The content is the meaning contained by a word, phrase, clause or sentence and this is involved with
its function. The separation of form, function and content is a theoretical way of discussing the effect of each
even though all three are inextricably linked.
Function The function of a word is what it 'does' in its sentence, e.g. its function is to act as a subject, object, verb, etc.
The function of a sentence is what it is intended to 'do', e.g. to make a statement, ask a question or give a
command or order.
Genre Genre is a way of categorising texts according to similarities they share with those we already know. More
(generic) generally, genre is a way of making the unfamiliar seem more familiar and hence, be more easily and quickly
recognisable. New things might be unwanted, uncomfortable or even threatening. For instance, if we see an
insect that looks different from a wasp but has black and yellow stripes and a pointy body – 'genre' allows us
to quickly label it and either run, squash or collect it. Genre is a kind of 'survival instinct'. The world is naturally
(sometimes worryingly and even threateningly) chaotic things can and do happen at random – even
dangerous things. To feel safe, we force order upon as much of the world as we can: we build houses, store
food, name things and so on. We must feel secure. Your bedroom might not seem to reflect your instinctive
ordering mentality, but it most certainly does: firstly, it is a defined space (it is a piece of the world that is more
secure because it is contained) and, although your belongings may look like pure chaos to an untrained
observer such as mum and dad, you know precisely what is in that heap of clothes, CDs, magazines, English
Language homework and whatever else.
What has this to do with language study? Well, surprisingly, we impose order and give labels even to things
as unthreatening as language and media texts (you wouldn’t want a romantic film to turn into 'The Chain Saw
Massacre'). So, texts that sharecontent (e.g. chain saws, fondling couples), function (e.g. to frighten, to
arouse), and form (e.g. books, films) are categorised and 'made safe'. But because, as they say, familiarity
 breeds contempt, genres can and do change – but slowly (see Pulp Fictionor Reservoir Dogs for evidence).
Genre is an important idea because it affects the production as well as the reception of texts. Writers know
what we expect from a particular genre, and – to keep us receptive and comfortable (and hence – importantly
for language study – more easily influenced or persuaded) – they will stay broadly within a particular genre’s
expectations. Typical genres of fiction are adventure, detective and horror, and of non-fiction, reports (e.g.
newspaper, school), biographical writing, advertising, recipes, etc. Taking account of genre allows you to
comment on effective genre indicators ('signifiers') and stylistic devices within a text. Of course, genre is an
ideal way of categorising similar texts.
Grammar Grammar is the set of rules that tells how words can be put into a sequence and a form that allows their
(grammatical / meaning to become unambiguous in a sentence. The order of words in a phrase, clause or sentence is called
grammaticality) its syntax and the form of words is called morphology (for example, to show plural we add the morpheme s, to
show possession, we add the morpheme 's).
Graphology Graphology is easily misunderstood and many teachers advise students to pay it little attention as it can lead
(graphological) to analysing the images and diagrams in a text - a habit that loses many marks in a language exam. But it
needn't be that way at all as, properly applied, a graphological analysis can be very useful and subtle.
Originally, graphology applied only to the appearance of a person's handwriting; for your course, however, it
applies to any aspect of the form and appearance of a text that modifies meaning in any way.
 It is the graphological qualities of any written or printed text that we first notice.
This means you would do well to consider analysing a text at the level of its graphology before looking at
other methods of analysis such as lexis or grammar. The graphological features of a text determine subtle
and important aspects such as genreand ideology: how we react to the text itself. Graphological features,
therefore, carry pragmatic force and are an important part of our society's discourse.
For example, a text's layout, presentation, use of paragraphs, lists, 'bullets', font
choices, underlining, italics, white space, colour, etc. can all create different kinds of impact, some of which
will cause the reader to react differently for example, graphological aspects can create important pragmatic
perceptions of power and influence.
Head / head word All phrases have what is called a head or head word. This is the word within the phrase that determines its
grammatical function (and which acts to provide its most general meaning); other words within the phrase act
in a modifying capacity. For example, in the noun phrase 'the old-fashioned door', the head word is the
noun, door - the remaining words within the phrase act to modify this head word; in a verb phrase such as
'might be hit', the head word is the finite verb hit and in a prepositional phrase such as 'on the table', the head
word is on.
Ideology Ideology refers to the values and attitudes we all share towards such things
(ideological) as ourselves, others and institutions. Ideologies are general or cultural ways of thinking that form the
foundation of the many important 'belief systems' that are adhered to by groups or whole societies. They form
a society's and individual's 'world view' or 'mind set' concerning how things are and ought to be. A society is a
group of people who share certain key values and ideas; these values and ideas are called that society's
ideologies.
Texts are created by speakers and writers who share society's beliefs concerning 'what is right' and 'what is
wrong' or about 'the way things should be for the best' in society. These ideologies mw be 'hidden' because
they seem 'natural' or 'common sense', as the result of 'progress' in our 'advanced' society, and so on.
If we closely examine and consider some important ideologies, it can be seen that those ideas act to reinforce
the structure of our society. Some thinkers - called Marxists - conclude that this might not be a healthy thing
for a society as it helps maintain what they call society's status quo - ideas that maintain the existing social
hierarchies and power structures (with, for example, the wealthy holding the reigns of power, and the poor
being attached in important ways to those reigns, perhaps?).
This 'political' way of considering the effect of ideologies arose in the theories of the key nineteenth century
philosopher, Karl Marx. Marx recognised that those with power naturally enough wish to hold on to their
status (those who 'own the means of production', i.e. the powerful, he called the bourgeoisie lesser mortals
are the proletariat or the masses). Marx thought that the bourgeoisie were able to create and reinforce
particular 'ways of thinking' that would act to reinforce and maintain a society’sstatus quo and hence, existing
hierarchies of status and power.
Ideas that 'maintain the status quo' are referred to as a society’s dominant or prevailing ideologies. An
 example of such an idea might be, 'He deserves to be rich because he’s worked hard for all he has' but this
ignores the plight of millions who work even harder but stay poor. The point of ideological thinking is just that
– it ignores, hides, sidelines, and 'disappears' those groups whose ideas it does not support.
Marx felt that such ways of thinking act not only to keep the powerful in power but also to create the
conditions necessary for the masses to justify their own lower position in society. The means by which ideas
can support the status quo is called hegemony. Prevailing ideologies become a part of us as we grow up we
become 'conditioned' into thinking that the way our society operates is for the best. This 'social conditioning' is
created through the family, school, religion, law and – very importantly for language study – the mass media
indeed, the media receive much of the focus of Marxist criticism because it is considered a major means
through which powerful elite groups can increase their hegemony over others. It is hegemony that causes us
to view our capitalist, consumerist 'social-democracy', with its hierarchies of status and power, its elitism, its
individualistic self-centredness, its poverties and its suffering… as 'the best of all possible worlds'.
In studying a text for its hegemonic or ideological power, you must learn to look for what is termed
'ideologically loaded' language. Such language is that which has judgemental value as well as meaning. Look
out for such language and consider its seductively persuasive effect as it subtly 'ideologically positions' you as
reader. Many ideologically loaded words have their judgmental value because their meaning is relational: they
exist as 'binary pairs', e.g. 'master/mistress', 'housewife/working mother', 'middle class/working class',
'freedom fighter/terrorist', 'hero/coward', 'normal/abnormal', 'gay/hetero', 'feminine/feminist, 'The West/the
East', etc. Some linguists maintain that all language – all meaning – is an 'ideological construct'.
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Idiomatic language Idiomatic language refers to many words or phrases that are a familiar and everyday feature of our language.
(idiom / idiomatic Idioms are a part of the comfortable, conversational style of language we use daily - but to a foreigner, idioms
phrase) are difficult to understand because their meaning is very different from the literal meaning of the words that
make them up, e.g. 'He wants his pound of flesh.' 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' 'That's real cool'
'No way, José', 'He's a pain in the neck!', etc. Each of these are idioms - or idiomatic phrases. You will notice
that idioms always exist as fixed collocations which do not work if the phrase order is altered at all. For
example, we cannot really say, 'He scratched my back and I scratched his...'.
Imperative A command sentence which uses the second person plural form of a verb but misses out the subject pronoun
'you'. It gives orders, e.g. Leave now! Sit down.
Infinitive A form of a verb without tense and often introduced by 'to' infinitive forms can replace noun
phrases as subject or object of a verb, e.g. Object: He likes to eat subject: To fish is a very relaxing way to
spend the morning.
Inflection The way words can change their form to show, for example, that they are singular or plural
(inflexion / inflect / (e.g. table becomes tables) and to indicate tense (e.g. change becomes changes/ changed/ changing) or
inflects / inflected) possession (The cat's whiskers).
Intensifier Intensifiers are a special kind of adverb. An intensifier is used when the semantic value of another adverb or
adjective needs to be altered. Examples of intensifiers are: very, quite, absolutely and extremely but there are
many more.
Intensifiers act to pre-modify their adverb or adjective. Can you identify the intensifier in this sentence: 'It's a
terrifically bad accident.'?
Interjection A word class that is used to show emotion, e.g. 'Ouch!', 'Hey!'
Intransitive A verb is called intransitive when no action transfers from their subject to an object, e.g. we swam like a fish
they sangbeautifully he died. A transitive verb always takes an object - the thing that takes its action, e.g. He
hit his thumb with the hammer.
Irony Irony is the name given to the effect of meaning created when one thing is said or written but another -
sometimes opposite - thing is meant. In speech this effect is created by tone of voice in writing by carefully
chosen lexis. The study of such meaning falls within the area known as pragmatics.
Latinate This term refers to those many rather formal words in English that derive from either Latin or French. These
words entered the language most notably during the period following the Norman Conquest (1066). King
 William I spoke a northern French dialect that itself was heavily influenced by the classical Latin language of
ancient Rome; he insisted that the nobility of newly conquered England learn to speak French and, from this,
many French/Latin words entered the language. The Latinate equivalent now sits alongside the original Old
English/Anglo-Saxon term and tends to be used in more formal occasions. Examples are motherly (Anglo-
Saxon)/maternal (Latinate); inn (Anglo-Saxon)/hotel (Latinate). As a rule of thumb, if you can pronounce the
word in a French accent it is Latinate! A text that relies heavily on Latinate words will be aimed at a more
educated audience.
Lexeme A lexeme or lexical item is a word - or occasionally phrase - in its most basic form, like the head words found
(lexical item / lexemic / in a dictionary that are listed each as separate entries. An example is the word 'spell'; from this lexeme there
lexicon) can be several derivations, e.g. spelled, spelt, spelling, etc. These inflected forms of the root word are not
counted as lexemes. The word 'crane', as an example, is two lexemes, one meaning a large bird and the
other a machine for lifting.
Also included under the heading of lexemes are the so-called phrasal verbs; these are short phrases whose
meanings are different from their constituent lexemes, e.g. 'see to', 'break down', 'put up with', 'wind up'.
Idiomatic phrases that carry meaning as a unit are also counted as lexemes, e.g. 'give over, 'rain cats and
dogs', etc.
The collection of lexemes that forms a person's vocabulary is called his or her lexicon. A dictionary is another
kind of lexicon.
Lexical (dynamic) Lexical or dynamic verbs tell of an action (to hit, to call, to sing); stative verbs tell of a state of being (to be -
and stative verbs am, is, was, were - to think, hope, seem, appear, feel, etc.).
Lexis Lexis means the vocabulary of a language as opposed to other aspects such as the grammar of the text.
(lexical) Lexis is clearly an important aspect of creating a suitable style or register (i.e. when choosing language and
language features to suit a particulargenre, context, audience and purpose).
Lexis and semantics are very close and often used interchangeably.
Lexical cohesion occurs when words have an affinity for each other as in collocations.
Linguistic Referring to the study or ways of language and the use of words to create meaning.
Modifier / Modification / Modification describes the grammatical process through which the meaning of a head word within a phrase
Pre-modification / can be altered, refined or modified. This is done by the addition of one or more words. The result of the
Post-modification modification of a word is the creation of a phrase e.g. in the noun phrase, 'A criminal act', the head word (the
noun 'act') is modified by the noun 'criminal'.
Nouns can be both pre-modified (by linking with one or more adjectives, e.g. A tall dark stranger' or with other
nouns, e.g. 'ovenglove') as well as post-modified, e.g. 'The man with an ice-cream. Prepositional phrases can
also act as modifiers when they act as the complement of a verb, as in, 'He's in a mess'.
Mode 'Mode' refers to the channel of communication of a text. A text might be spoken or written, for example, or it
might show features of being 'mixed mode' is the sense that it contains features of both speech and writing,
as in text messages and email.
Mood 'Mood' is an aspect of English verbs. Verb phrases can be categorised according to whether they express
(modal / modality) an actual or a potentialaction or state. The moods are: indicative mood: 'He plays well'; 'She is happy'
(indicating an actual event or state);imperative mood: 'Sit down!' (issuing a command); interrogative mood:
'Will you please sit down?' (asking a question);subjunctive mood: 'If she were alive, then...' (pointing to a
possibility or wish).
Mood is often created in a verb phrase through the use of a modal auxiliary. This kind of auxiliary verb usually
creates the effect of suggesting that the action told of by the verb is not real but is potential.
Morphology / The suffix "morph-" is to do with shape, and morphology concerns the form and shape of words. It is an
morpheme important aspect ofgrammar (along with syntax); morphology is the study of the way words are formed. The
(morphological) smallest part of a word that can exist alone or which can change a word's meaning or function is called
a morpheme (e.g. un-, happy, -ness).
A bound morpheme is an affix, i.e. usually a prefix or a suffix, e.g. un-, -tion. These are 'bound'
called  because they must be attached to another morpheme to create a word. Morphemes that can exist
alone as a complete word are called freemorphemes, e.g. happy.
Narrative & Myth Whilst it's true to say that a narrative is no more than a story, the important realisation from an analytical
viewpoint is that when we tell or write a story, we all tend to use a very similar form and structure, no matter
what the story and whether it is imaginary or not. Narrative is easily one of the most common varieties of social
discourse and a day will not pass without you reading or hearing a story - or constructing one of your own.
In a narrative, events (whether they be real or fictional) are told in certain ways: they are told ('narrated') from
a certainpoint of view (e.g. 'first person', 'third person', 'multiple viewpoint', etc.), they are carefully selected for
their value in creating a sense of involvement, interest and tension; the events are unified and coherent, they
have an apparently logical 'cause and effect' structure. The events typically involve a main character (called, 'the
protagonist' or 'hero'); the life of the protagonist is usually disturbed from an initial - or presumed - state of
'normality' orequilibrium; this disturbance is created by a conflict that is introduced by a second character (called
the 'antagonist' or 'villain' - also sometimes a social institution); the conflict is tackled by the 'hero' during
the development or rising action of the narrative; this leads to a climax of action followed by a winding down and
tying up of loose ends called thed�nouement; during this final part of the story, there is the formation of a new
equilibrium and a final resolution. Typically, by the end of the narrative, the protagonist's life will have changed in
some way and he or she will have learned something useful about life.
From early childhood, we become accustomed to making sense of the complex events of the world through the
simplifying and satisfying means of narrative, not noticing the way the form and structure of narrative orders and
simplifies reality, most particularly the way it positions people as either wholly 'good' (= heroes and helpers) or
wholly 'bad' (= villains and accomplices). The fact that this is merely a point of view and a massive over-
simplification of the realities of life passes us by as we become absorbed by and relate to the characters and
events of the narrative. It has been suggested that we might even be born with such basic structures and forms
embedded within our subconscious; they certainly have an enduring and unshakeable impact upon our
psychology. Certainly, it is clear that as human beings we do have a need for security, control and order within
our lives and narrative, along with genre, are two very important means by which order and security can be
created in what is, in reality, a disordered and even potentially dangerous universe.
Many narratives are so ancient and enduring that they are called myths. Examples are the romance myth, the
family myth, the hero myth and so on. Narratives usually have a relatively fixed structure: a 'beginning' (where a
setting creates mood or atmosphere and characters are introduced), linked to a 'middle' (where the hero meets
a problem and works to overcome the problem and where the plot becomes interesting and reaches a climax)
linked to an 'end' (where a satisfying sense of closure is introduced - the plot draws to a conclusion).
Nonce word 'Nonce' is an archaic word meaning, 'for the one time'. A 'nonce word' is a word that is coined for a particular
occasion. Nonce words sometimes catch on and enter everyday usage, initially as neologisms or new words -
they are especially common in pop culture, e.g. 'poptastic'; Linguist David Crystal mentions the word 'floodle'
someone once used to mean a stretch of water bigger than a puddle but smaller than s flood.
Noun  A noun is any word that can form the head word in a noun phrase or be the subject or object of
(nominative) a verb.Semantically speaking, a noun is any word that 'labels' or 'names' a person, thing or idea.
There are several types of noun: common noun (e.g. computer, sandwich, cats), proper noun (proper nouns are
names for individual nouns, e.g. Coke, London, Simon), abstract noun (abstract nouns are 'ideas', e.g. death,
hunger, beauty), concrete nouns (concrete nouns are solid objects in the real or imaginary world, e.g. bread,
butter, clock)collective nouns (collective nouns name groups of individual or things, e.g. parliament, audience
collective nouns are often treated as if they were singular, e.g. 'The choir is singing well.'), mass (or non-
count) nouns (mass nouns exist as an undifferentiated mass, e.g. card, beer, milk, cake),
and count nouns (count nouns exits as countable items, e.g. bottle, pencil).
Orthography Orthography is the term used in linguistics used to refer to the way that words are spelled.
(orthographic)
Participle Words made from verbs that are used either with an auxiliary to create a verb tense (e.g. was eaten) or as
(participial) anadjective to describe a noun (e.g. an eating apple) or as a noun to label a thing (e.g. the singing was loud).
Notice that because the participles all derive from verbs, they always retain the idea of action in their meaning.
Person This term is used to describe pronouns. A pronoun always has a referent (i.e. a noun to which it refers). The
referent of 'I' is always the writer or speaker of a sentence and is referred to as the first person singular
pronoun 'we' is called the first person plural pronoun the person or people spoken to is referred to as the second
person pronoun, i.e. 'you' (both singular and plural) the person or people spoken about is referred to as the third
person pronoun, i.e. he / she / it (third person singular) or they (third person plural).
Phonetics Phonetics is the study of the way people physical produce and perceive the different sounds we use to create
Phonology speech. These sounds are called phonemes and are created by the various 'organs of speech' in the body,
Prosody including the tongue, the soft and hard palate, lips, pharynx, etc. Phonetics, unlike phonology, is not concerned
Phoneme in any way with the meaning connected to these sounds.
(phonemic)Dipht Phonology is the study of the way speech sounds are structured and how these are combined to create
hong meaning in words, phrases and sentences. Phonology can be considered an aspect of grammar and, just as
Glide there are grammar 'rules' that apply to the syntax of a sentence and the morphology of words, there
are phonological rules, too.
Even in very early childhood, children are said to be able to produce (i.e. they can articulate) the full range of
sounds needed to create all of the words used in any world language, yet as language acquisition progresses,
those phonemes that do not apply to their mother tongue become forgotten. This is so much so that in later life,
if a second language is then attempted, the pronunciation of non-English phonemes needs to be re-learned -
this time at a wholly conscious level, as opposed to the ability to pronounce each English phoneme without any
conscious thought. Even 'non-words' such as 'erm', 'uh?', etc. use English phonemes.
An important part of phonology is the study of those sounds that form distinct units within a language. The
smallest unit of sound that can, in itself, alter the meaning of a word is called a phoneme. Although there are 26
letters in the English alphabet, it's interesting to note that there are around 44 phonemes in the dialect called
Standard English. This means that letters cannot represent phonemes as such and so other symbols are used.
Each phoneme is given a symbol so that the accurate pronunciation of any English word can be represented in
writing. Here is the (American) English phonetic alphabet - version of the International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA:

The extra sounds we have above the number of letters we have available in part explains the complexities of
English spelling (see orthography). Consider the word might, in which there are three phonemes m-ight-
t (represented asm/ai/t using the Phonetic Alphabet), changing just a single phoneme can completely change
the meaning of this word, e.g. mate, m-a-te (represented as m/ei/t phonetically).
Some of the extra sounds are there because we use phonemes that are called diphthongs. If the tongue has to
move significantly to make a vowel sound, the result is a diphthong; it sounds like a rapid blend of two vowel
sounds. The letter 'i' in the word 'kite' is a diphthong - it is a rapidly made blend of an 'a' and an 'i' sound. The
movement of sound from the 'a' to the 'i' is called a glide.
 Phonology also covers the study of important sound features such
as rhythm, pitch, tone, melody, stress andintonation. These phonological features of language are aspects
of prosody - they are referred to as the prosodicor suprasegmental features of language.
Phrase  A phrase is a key grammatical unit. In terms of its meaning, a phrase expresses one complete element of a
(phrasal) proposition. It will be made up of one or more words and occupy a particular syntactic slot within its clause or
sentence, e.g. as subject, predicate or object. A useful rough and ready 'test' for a phrase is that it can be
'replaced' in its clause or sentence by a single word that is roughly its equivalent. Thus in the sentence, 'That old
guy over there has been patiently waiting for three and a half hours already', the noun phrase, 'The tall man over
there' could be replaced by 'he'; the verb phrase 'has been patiently waiting' could be replaced by 'waited',
the prepositional phrase'for three and a half hours' could be replaced by 'ages'!
 A phrase acts as a unit with individual meaning, but without sufficiently completeness to be
a clause orsentence by itself.
Noun phrase A noun phrase always has a noun as its head word, e.g. "a cat"; "the
naughty cat"; "that furry black mangy old cat".
Verb phrase A verb phrase always has a verb as its head word,"drink"; "has drunk";
(sometimes called averb chain) "has been drinking"; "seems"; "will be"; "might have been"; "explained";
"has beenexplaining".
Adjective phrase (oradjectival phr An adjective phrase always has an adjective as itshead word, e.g.
ase) "gory", "absolutely foul".
Adverb phrase (oradverbial phra A phrase with an adverb as its head word, e.g.soundly; too evidently;
se) as quickly as possible
Prepositional phrase (a special A phrase which has been constructed from apreposition with a noun
kind of adverbialphrase) phrase linked to it to form a single unit of meaning, e.g. "up the road";
"across the street"; "round the bend".
Phrases - with words - are the basic building blocks of clauses and sentences. A phrase can always be split into
two parts: its head word which is linked to some kind of modification of the head word. The head word is the
central part of the phrase and the remaining words act to modify this head word in some way, e.g. "The
peculiarly strong creature" - can you see that the head word of this noun phrase is the noun, "creature"?
As suggested above, a phrase does, in fact, act just like an individual word. The next example sentence
contains three phrases and a single main clause. Can you recognise which are the phrases and which is
the clause?
In a frenzy, without thinking, he grabbed him by the neck.
You might like to think that, between each word of the three phrases above, there exists a kind of 'word glue'
that gives the phrase its coherent quality. The phrases "In a frenzy", "without thinking" and "by the neck" all can
be seen to exist as individual units of meaning, i.e. as individual phrases.
 Notice that the clause in the above sentence cannot be called a phrase because it is built around a
verb (i.e. averb phrase), "he grabbed him"
Pragmatics Pragmatics is an aspect of how language generates meaning - and as such, it falls under the 'umbrella' of
(pragmatic) semantics, which is the study of meaning. Semantics is often, simplistically, said to be the the study of surface
'sentence meaning' and pragmatics to be the study of the deeper, inferred 'social force' of language.
The clearest way we can communicate our ideas and thoughts is through language. To achieve this, the ideas
and thoughts we want to communicate become 'encoded' either phonologically (by the sound of spoken words)
orgraphically (through marks on a handwritten or printed page). When this meaning is conveyed semantically,
the encoded meaning - the words, phrases and sentences we create - can be easily de-coded without particular
thought of the context. Sometimes, however, a deeper, inferred meaning is also encoded within language, and
this creates apragmatic force within the text. Thus, pragmatics operates whenever we write or say one thing
semantically but meanto infer extra force to our text or utterance.
 Pragmatics is an absolutely key aspect of any A-level textual analysis as it is so very revealing of
important linguistic aspects.
 If you ignore the pragmatic force of language in your analyses, you will lose many marks.
An example will make this clearer. If you think about the phrase, 'Give him one!', the meaning this contains will
very much depend upon the social situation in which it is used. It is the noun 'one' that, in certain social
situations, will carry different levels of force: it is a pragmatically loaded word, where its precise meaning can
only be inferred by the context of the language use.

 Pragmatic meanings can be inferred in this way because, owing to the context of the language use, we
are able to 'read into' a word the extra meaning - the utterance's pragmatic force - conferred on it by the
way it is used within a particular social situation.
Pragmatics can allow language to be used in interesting and social ways: knowing that your listener or reader
shares certain knowledge with you allows your conversation to be more personal, lively or less extended. It also
allows you to use words and give them inferred elements such as power aspects, because your listener is aware
of your social standing, for example. Similarly, language can act in ideological ways to reinforce a society's
values - again, pragmatically. At another level, language users can rely on pragmatics to help them cut down on
the number of words needed to make meaning clear - and hence contributes to a more lively style.
Here are a few examples that require more than a semantic analysis to reveal the intended meaning of the text's
words and phrases, but where the pragmatic meaning is perfectly clear:
 'BABY SALE - GOING CHEAP' (poster seen in shop window - but no babies are for sale).
 'Quick! Fire!' (and you know you must run).
 'Pass the salt' (and you know it's not an order).
 'Are you going into town?' (and you know it's a request for the person to come with you).
 'He's got a knife!' (and you don't ask how sharp it is)
 'I promise to be good.' (and you don't expect a repeat of the bad deed).
 'The present King of England is bald.' (said on TV, yet you can work out what is meant even though we
have a queen).
 'Another pint...?' (and you know you've already had one).
 'I said, 'Now!'' (and you know when).
 'Gosh - it's cold in here!' (and someone shuts the door or window).
An important area of pragmatics is in the study of language and power. The implicit understanding of a power
relationship between, say, two speakers, is often indicated by the meanings implied by the language used. This
meaning can be very context dependent.
Predicate The predicate is all that is written or said in a sentence or clause about its grammatical subject, e.g. The young
choir boy [subject] sang every song in the book [predicate].
Prefix A prefix is a type of affix (i.e. a bound morpheme) that is added to the beginning of a word to change its
grammatical function or meaning (e.g. un+happy) - see suffix.
Preposition  A small word or phrase that begins a longer adverbial phrase (called the object of the preposition) that acts to
(prepositional) tell about place, time or manner and relate this aspect to some other word in the sentence, e.g. in, on, by, ahead
of, near.
Progressive / A verb form created from the present (i.e. -ing) participle to tell of a continuing event, e.g. he is laughing his
continuous socks off.
Pronoun A word used often - but not always - to replace a noun, e.g. Alex, when the teacher came into the
classroom, youmean you really didn't see her? See also person.
Purpose Purpose is the reason why a text was created. This may be, for example, to entertain, explain, instruct,
persuade or inform. The purpose of a text is its writer or speaker's controlling idea: the message they wish the
text to leave with the reader or listener. When you consider a text's purpose, you need to recognise how the
writer has chosen stylistic devices to bring about a particular series of effects on the reader. One of the most
common purposes is to persuade - and it can be one of the most difficult to determine because professional
writers are experts at making persuasion appear to be information: quite a different thing (as wartime
propaganda has shown). Audience is also a way to categorise texts.
Referent A referent is the word to which another word in a sentence or text refers. It is an important element of
textualcohesion. For example, a pronoun must have a referent noun which is already understood (this noun is
called the pronoun's antecedent) or its meaning will be unclear or ambiguous.
Referents can be exophoric (when the referent is outside of the text), endophoric (when the referent is within the
text), anaphoric (when the reference precedes the pronoun, e.g. 'John will cook the meal he is a fine chef.' Here,
the pronoun, 'he' is an anaphoric referent) or cataphoric (when the referent follows the pronoun, e.g. 'I know
what hemeans about it' said the captain about the steward's behaviour.' - here, the pronouns 'I', 'he' and 'it' all
have cataphoric referents).
Register When context results in a commonly recognisable style to be produced, the resulting style is called
a register (e.g. an informal register, a medical register, a scientific register). Context can be an effective way to
categorise texts.
Relative clause A kind of clause (a group of words built around a subject and verb) that is a variety of adjectival clause. Relative
clauses are used to give extra detail about the subject or object noun of a main clause in a sentence. e.g.
A main clause might be, 'The butcher sold me some sausages.' and a relative clause could be, 'who works in
Tesco's' . The sentence could then become, 'The butcher, who works in Tesco's, sold me some sausages.'
A relative clause usually begins with a relative pronoun such as: that, which, who, whom, although 'that' is
oftenelided as in: 'He knew [that] we were going early.'.
Repossession Repossession is a term used in the study of language change. It is used to describe a word that has fallen out of
general use because it is deemed politically incorrect begins to be reused by the minority group it once referred
to, e.g. the use of the word 'queer' to refer to a homosexual.
Root words A free morpheme to which can be added a affix (a prefix or suffix) that acts to change the root
word's meaningor function.
Semantics Semantics is the study of word and phrase meaning (but also see pragmatics). In the new exam specifications
(semantic) for A-level English Language (from 2008-9), it has been combined with lexis.
Writers often play with semantics to create interesting stylistic effects or to create a style suited to a
particularcontext or audience. For example, a simplified semantic level would be chosen to suit a younger
audience, and so on. When examining a text at the level of its lexis and semantics, it's important to look out for
uses of, for example, irony, simile, semantic fields (see below) metaphor or hyperbole (called figurative
language).
 An important area of semantics is in the use of idioms or idiomatic language.

Semantic/lexical This term refers to a relationship that exists between some of the words or phrases used in a text. This might be
fieldor set because the words have all been chosen from a similar area of knowledge or interest, e.g. the lexical field/set of
agriculture includes: farm, farming, tractor, meadow, crop, etc. Semantic or lexical fields can be important in the
use ofmetaphor. A metaphor is a figurative use of language in which a thing from one semantic field is described
in terms of a different semantic field. For example, in the following description of a football match, the
semantic/lexical field of war is used to create particular rhetorical effects: 'The home side gunned down the
opposing side with consummate ease'.
Semantic value The semantic value of a unit of something is the meaning it contains. By forming words and structuring
sentences following the rules of standard grammar, the semantic value of the sentence and its words and
phrases will be clear and unambiguous.
Sentence A sentence is a sequence of words constructed in accordance with the conventions of standard grammar. Such
a group will have a sense of completeness and a clarity of meaning. It will usually be constructed around a noun
phrase acting as the subject of a finite verb, i.e. it will contain at least one main clause. The rules of grammar
concern the order of words in a sentence, technically called its syntax and the form of the words, called
their morphology.
Sentence 1) below shows standard syntax and morphology (i.e. standard grammar):
1). 'The cat sat on the mat.'
Sentence 2) shows non-standard morphology:
2). 'The cat sitted the mat on.'
Sentence 3) shows non-standard syntax:
3). 'The cat on the mat sat.'
A group of words that is a sentence is made obvious to the eye (i.e. in writing) by an opening capital letter and a
finalfull stop, question mark or exclamation mark. It is made obvious to the ear (i.e. in speech) by the use
of pauses. It is made obvious to the mind because it makes sense alone.
A sentence may loosely be said to be a coherent group of words that expresses a single complete thought about
something (or someone).

A sentence can be one of three main types:

1. A simple sentence is a sentence that contains a single subject and verb, i.e. an independent clause.
2. A compound sentence is a sentence that contains more than one main clause. These clauses must be linked
by co-ordinating conjunction or a semicolon.
3. A complex sentence is a sentence that contains a mixture of clause types. A complex sentence must contain
(as all sentences) at least one main clause but will also contain a second kind of clause acting as
a dependent orsubordinate clause. Subordinate clauses often begin with a subordinating conjunction such
as however, although, even though, because, etc. There is also a special kind of sentence, often used in
speech, called a 'minor sentence'.

A sentence can fulfil one of four functions:

1. It can make a statement. This is called a declarative sentence, e.g. 'I am overweight.' Declaratives usually
follow the word order SV (subject first, verb second)
2. It can ask a question. This is called an interrogative sentence, e.g. 'Am I overweight?' and indicated by a
question mark. Interrogatives usually follow the word order VS (verb first, subject second)
3. It can demand an action. This is called an imperative sentence, e.g. 'Sit down, please.' indicated by a lack
ofsubject (but 'you' is implied).
4. It can make an exclamation. This is called an exclamatory sentence, e.g. 'What a mess!', indicated by an
exclamation mark.
'Minor sentence' A minor is a sentence without a subject and/or verb. Exclamations are an example, 'Not on your life!' Poets and
writers use them to create the effect of real conversation.
Sociolect A sociolect is a variety of language used by a particular social group; a dialect is a variety of language used in a
particular geographical region; and an idiolect is the variety of language used by a particular individual.
Sign / signifier / A sign is anything that creates meaning. Words are an important kind of sign composed of symbols called
signified letters. The brain recognises a word and unconsciously gives it an agreed meaning, but, in fact, the word is
merely a symbolic code, one that we learn, mostly during childhood, to 'decode' to find its meaning.
Standard English This is the agreed standard national dialect of English. Standard English is generally considered to be the
clearest way of expressing meaning and as such is accepted for use in most textbooks, by teachers, in the news
media and as the basis for English teaching across the world. Non-standard English includes regional dialects
and slang. There are also 'standard forms' of important international English languages such as 'standard
American English'.
Stem The 'core' part of a word to which prefixes and suffixes can be added, e.g. interest which can become
uninteresting by adding affixes, the prefix un- and the suffix -ing.
Structure The structure of something refers to the form of the complete item - such as a sentence or a text - and the way
(structured / its individual parts have been put together to create a coherent (interrelated) whole. In
structural) a phrase, clause or sentencethe individual words are related both by their grammatical structure and their
semantic properties in a text, the relationship and connections between its structural parts (e.g. its sentences
and paragraphs) is considered usingdiscourse analysis.
Style Style is the result of the choices a writer (or speaker) makes regarding aspects of language, language features
(stylistic) and structure with regard to creating a text or discourse that will suit a
particular genre, context, audience and purpose. Three key aspects of style that are often worthy of comment
are a text's degree of formality or informality, its use ofstandard or non-standard grammar and
its discourse structure. Some skilled writers also develop distinctive, individual aspects of style, which may also
be called a 'voice' - akin to a person's spoken idiolect.
Subject and The word 'subject' needs care as it has a particular - and very important - meaning that is quite distinct to grammar
object and which is different from its everyday, non-grammar meaning.
In grammar, the subject (S) is a syntactical position or element within a clause. The subject can be either a word or
a phrase, usually a noun phrase. In the sentence, 'I gave him a present', 'I' is the grammatical subject and 'gave' is
its associated verb in the sentence (in the past tense). In the simple sentence, 'The quick brown fox jumped over
the lazy dog', the subject is 'The quick brown fox'. This is a noun phrase that has as its associated finite verb,
'jumped'. Most English sentences need a subject but sometimes this can be one of the small words
(called pronouns) 'it' or 'there'. This type of subject can be tricky to recognise as proper subjects.
Some typical word orders of simple declarative sentences are: SV (subject-verb), SVO (subject-verb-object), SVC
(subject-verb-complement) or SVA (subject-verb-adverbial).
Some types of verb transfer their action from their subject onto something else (the thing receiving the action of
the verb is called its object). These are called transitive verbs. In the above sentence, the verb 'gave' is transitive
as action transfers to the object, the noun 'a present'.
Verbs are called intransitive if they do not transfer action, but, instead, act to tell what their subject is doing, e.g.
'He is working.', 'It died.' Some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive according to their usage in the
sentence, e.g. 'He is singing.' (intransitive) and 'He is singing a song.' (transitive).
A few special verbs (stative verbs) have no sense of direct action but, instead, act to make a statement about their
subject's state of being. These verbs are called copular or linking verbs, e.g. He seems ill, She is clever, he was a
criminal, it appears dark, etc.. The word that follows a stative verb has no action passing on to it so it cannot be
called an object; instead, it is termed a complement.
Confusingly, Some verbs can take two objects:
'I gave Sally a present.' (i.e. 'I gave a present to Sally')
In this type of sentence, the object is 'a present' (= the thing given; this is called the DIRECT OBJECT); but there
is a second 'object' - the 'receiver' of the direct object. This is termed the INDIRECT OBJECT. Notice that all
sentences of this type can be re-written as shown using the word 'to'.
Subjunctive Verb mood used to show a hypothetical situation, e.g. If it were possible, I would do it.

Suffix An affix (a morpheme) added to the end of a word to alter its grammatical function, e.g. the noun luck can become
an adjective by adding the suffix (or 'adjective marker') -y, as in lucky.
Synonym / A word that has a closely similar meaning to another word. English has very few true synonyms (e.g. sofa / couch /
antonym settee), but many near synonyms, e.g. house - dwelling - home - abode - pad. The existence of synonyms allows
variety of word choice according to style and register. A list of synonyms is available in a thesaurus.
An antonym is a word with directly 'opposite' meaning, e.g. black/white good/bad.
Syntax Syntax is the most important aspect of English grammar. It refers to the way words are put together in a group to
(syntactic / create meaning as phrases, clauses or as a sentence. Studying the syntax of a sentence involves investigating the
syntactical) structure and relationships of its words.
Standard syntax refers to the syntax of a particular dialect of English called Standard English - this is the syntax
you will read in most written texts and hear from teachers in lessons, newsreaders and in any other more formal
context.Non-standard syntax is a normal part of much spoken English and is common in regional dialects. Syntax
does not have to be standard for meaning to be clear such as here in the screen play from the film Star Wars
when Yoda speaks:
YODA
Ready, are you? What know you
of ready? For eight hundred years
have I trained Jedi. My own counsel
will I keep on who is to be trained!
A Jedi must have the deepest
commitment, the most serious mind.
(to the invisible
Ben, indicating Luke)
This one a long time have I watched.
All his life has he looked away...
to the future, to the horizon.
Never his mind on where he was.
Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph.
Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh!
A Jedi craves not these things.
(turning to Luke)
You are reckless.
Tense Tense refers to the way the time of an action can be directly indicated in a verb by changing its form (i.e.
morphologically). English only has two verb tenses - present tense 'I leave.' and past tense, 'I left.'. However, we
have many other ways of creating the idea of tense by using auxiliary verbs or other structures that indicate the
time of an action. For example, each of the following grammatical structures suggests a future event, or a future
aspect(the 'will' construction is often, but loosely, called 'the English future tense'):
 I will leave in the morning.
 I am going to leave in the morning.
 I shall leave in the morning.
 I leave in the morning.
 I am leaving in the morning.

Text Within linguistics, the word 'text' means any continuous and coherent sequence of writing or speech. See
(textual) alsodiscourse.
Utterance A linguistic term that refers to a spoken text of any kind.

Verb  Combined with its subject, the verb becomes the central element of a sentence or clause.
(verbal)  A main verb is the head word of a verb phrase - sometimes called a verb chain, e.g. 'He hit him hard.'
 A lexical verb is the part of the verb chain that suggests the action involved, e.g. He might have hit him.
 A verb that tells of a 'state of being' is a copular or stative verb, e.g. is, was, seems, appears, becomes,
etc.
Verbs that work along with a subject are called finite (e.g. the girl looked). But verbs do not have to work with a
subject within a sentence - these are called a verb's non-finite forms (e.g. I like to run). Non-finite forms of verbs
can act as other parts of speech:
 The infinitive from of the verb (often used with 'to'), e.g. 'He used to love me.'
 The -ed participle form (usually ending with the suffix -ed):
o 'Only the cooked apples should be used.'
 The -ing participle form:
o 'He used cooking apples' (adjective).
 o 'The cooking was superb' (noun).
o 'He will be cooking this evening' (continuous aspect).

Verb chain / A verb chain has a head word that is a main verb along with one or more 'helper' or auxiliary verbs. Many
phrase grammarians reserve the term verb chain for the verb elements alone and use the term verb phrase to include
anyadverbials that function to modify it, e.g. The car was parked / on the pavement.
Grammatically, a verb chain is always directly linked to and usually follows its subject, usually a noun phrase. The
two grammatical units create a clause.
In a verb chain, the main verb can be inflected to show tense (e.g. eat, eaten, ate), agreement (e.g. I eat, she eats)
or continuous action (e.g. He is eating). It can also be pre-modified with an adverb (e.g. He is quietly eating).
The auxiliary verbs in a verb chain can be inverted to form a question (e.g. Do you eat spaghetti?).
Voice The voice of a verb can be either active or passive. The active voice is the most common and preferred in English
usage. In an active clause the subject and object of the main verb are in their usual position,
i.e. SVO, 'Alex caughtthe thief' however, in a passive sentence, the object is transferred to the subject position,
e.g. 'The thief was caughtby Alex.' This can have the effect of emphasising the object or diminishing the effect of
the subject. in fact, in a passive construction, the subject can be hidden completely, e.g. 'The thief was caught.'
Word class One of the eight parts of speech of traditional grammar in which words that have a similar grammatical function are
grouped together: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
A Glossary of Linguistic Terms
Dr Peter Coxhead
Warning: This web page was originally constructed to help computer science students who were taking my module on natural language
processing. Some terms may be used differently by different authors. Unless otherwise stated, definitions are based on the English
language.
If you find any errors, please e-mail me at p.coxhead@cs.bham.ac.uk.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A
accusative  See case.
active  An active sentence is one which has a basic pattern like the man is running or the dog bit the cat, i.e. it describes what one thing
(the subject) does, often to another thing (the object). The verb in an active sentence can be said to be in the active voice. See
also passive.
adjective  A word which qualifies or further describes a noun or noun phrase. Examples arecolourless and green which
qualify ideas in Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. Adjectives can also appear after verbs like be, e.g. The apples were green.
adjunct theta-role  See theta role.
adverb  A word which qualifies or further describes a verb, adjective or adverb. Examples arefuriously which qualifies the
verb sleep in Colourless green ideas sleep furiously, or intensely which qualifies stared in He stared at me intensely. Adverbs can also
qualify adjectives, e.g. astonishinglyqualifies the adjective vivid in an astonishingly vivid colour, or other adverbs,
e.g. extremely qualifies the adverb slowly in the phrase extremely slowly. Many English adverbs are formed from an adjective plus the
ending -ly. Words like very, which can only qualify adjectives or adverbs but not verbs, are sometimes called adverbs, but are perhaps
best put in a separate category.
affix  An affix is a morpheme which is added to a root morpheme in the formation of a word. In its broadest sense, an affix can be
a prefix, a suffix, or an infix. More narrowly, infixes are sometimes treated separately. See also morphology.
affricative  An affricative is a phone which can be thought of as a very rapid, blended sequence of astop and a fricative. The stop and
fricative must be produced in a very similar positions in the mouth. An English example is the 'ch sound' in choose, which is like a
sequence of a 't sound' (a stop) and a 'sh sound' (a fricative). The phrases white shoes and why choose? sound very similar when
spoken rapidly (but only in those dialects of English in which the [t] is not replaced by a glottal stop). In theIPA an affricative is
represented by the corresponding stop symbol followed by the fricative symbol. It is important to note that the two symbols represent a
SINGLE phone.
Agent  See theta role.
agreement  The syntax of a natural language often requires some words in a sentence to share certain grammatical features, which
can show up as changes in the morphology of the words. This is called agreement; the words are said to agree in the relevant
feature(s). For example, in English,determiners and nouns must agree in number within a noun phrase. Thus this cat is acceptable
sincethis and cat are singular, but these cat is unacceptable since these is plural but cat is singular.
allophone  Each of the set of phones which correspond to a single phoneme of a language is called an allophone. Allophones of the
same phoneme generally occur in different contexts and never distinguish one word from another. As an example, the 't sounds'
in tea and tree constitute allophones of one English /t/ phoneme. The production of the two sounds differs in that speaker's tongue is in
a slightly different place. A speech spectrograph will show a resulting sound difference. However, no English words differ ONLY in the
substitution of one of these 't sounds' for the other. Allophones are written in square brackets (e.g. [t]) where it is necessary to
distinguish them from phonemes (e.g. /t/).
alveolar  A phone produced when the tongue touches the tooth ridge behind the teeth (alveolus). See the diagram of a head for the
location of the tooth ridge. The 't sound' in English is an alveolarstop, produced by stopping and then releasing the air flow out of the
mouth by closing the tongue onto the tooth ridge.
anaphora  Some words in a sentence have little or no meaning of their own but instead refer to other words in the same or other
sentences. This process is called anaphora. Pronouns are a good example. Consider the sentences: London had snow yesterday. It
fell to a depth of a metre. To understand the second sentence it is necessary to identify it with snow rather
than London oryesterday. English allows various forms of anaphora with verbs. For example, in I wanted to finish today, but I couldn't
do it, the words do it refer to finish today and hence can be called anaphoric.
approximant  An approximant is a phone in which the tongue partly closes the airway, but not enough to cause a fricative. Examples in
English are the phones that begin lap and woo.Approximants can be divided into liquids and glides. Approximants (especially glides)
have some similarities to vowels.
argument theta-role  See theta role.
article  In English, a / an and the are called the indefinite and definite articles respectively. See alsodeterminer.
aspect (of a verb)  Verbs can show not only the time location of an action (by grammatical tense), but also features such as whether the
action is thought of as completed or continuing. A change in a verb which shows such a feature is often called an aspect of the verb.
Compare ate with was eating inHe ate rapidly when I came in and He was eating rapidly when I came in. Both refer to events in the
past time; the difference lies in the implied relationship between the actions of 'eating' and 'coming in'. Syntactically, English has two
marked aspects: progressive and perfect. The progressive aspect is formed by using the auxiliary be and the verb ending -ing. For
example, I am eating it now implies both that the time is the present and that the 'eating' is currently in progress. The perfect aspect is
formed by using the auxiliary have and the appropriate verb ending (usually -en or -ed): e.g. I have eaten it now, which implies both that
the time is the present and that the 'eating' is finished. An English verb can show no aspect (e.g. runs or ran), progressive aspect
(e.g. is running or was running), perfect aspect (e.g. has run or had run) or both perfect and progressive aspects (e.g. has been
running or had been running). The table below shows the possible combinations of tense and aspect in English verbs.
Tense
Present Past
None I run I ran
Progressive I am running I was running
Aspect
Perfect I have run I had run
Perfect Progressive I have been running I had been running

aspiration  If a phone is accompanied by a 'puff of air' it can be said to be aspirated. The 'p sound' in the English word pit is aspirated
and is thus slightly different from the 'p sound' in spit, which is not aspirated.
assimilation  Particularly in rapid speech there is a tendency for neighbouring phones to become more similar, presumably to make
pronunciation easier. For example, although the words Aston andAsda are both written with an s, the second word is normally
pronounced as if spelt Azda. The reason seems to be that [s] and [t] are both voiceless, whereas [z] and [d] are both voiced. The
sequence fricative followed by stop is easier to say if both have the same voicing.
ATN = Augmented Transition Network.
auxiliary  In English, one of a small set of verb-like words which can precede a main verb in a verbphrase. The auxiliaries and verbs are
sometimes said to form a 'verb group' or 'compound verb'. Examples of auxiliaries are do in I really do not know, or may in I may see
him tomorrow. Auxiliaries have verb-like properties, and may show changes in number, person and tense. Some words (e.g.have) can
be either an auxiliary (e.g. I have seen him) or a verb (e.g. I have a car).
B
bilabial  A phone produced by the closure or partial closure of both lips. See the diagram of a head. The English sounds represented by
the letters p in pit and b in bad are bilabial stops, produced by stopping and then releasing the air flow out of the mouth by closing the
lips. Bilabial and labiodentalphones are together classed as labial.
C
case  Nouns, noun phrases and pronouns play different syntactic roles in sentences. These roles correspond to changes of case in
many languages. Consider, for example, the sentences She saw himand He saw her. The words she and he are used when they form
the subject of the sentence and are said to be in the nominative case. She and he must be changed to her and him respectively when
they form the object of the sentence and are said to be in the accusative case. Changes due to case are restricted to pronouns in
English, but in other languages (e.g. Russian, Modern Greek), most nouns, pronouns, articles, adjectives, etc. will vary according to
case.
circumstantial theta-role  See theta role.
consonant  (1) A phone which is produced other by allowing lung air to pass over the vibrating vocal cords and then freely out of the
mouth, i.e. a phone other than a vowel. Consonants include stops,fricatives, affricatives and approximants. (2) A letter of the alphabet
usually pronounced using a consonant phone is also called a consonant.
Be careful to distinguish these two usages. In a language with non-phonemic spelling, such as English, they can be quite different. The
word mute, for example, begins with a single consonant letter, but in many British English dialects is pronounced with two opening
consonant phones ([m] and [j] in IPA).

D
dental  A phone produced when the tongue touches the teeth. See the diagram of a head. The English sounds beginning the
words this and think are alveolar fricatives, produced by partially stopping the air flow out of the mouth by touching the tongue on the
teeth.
derivational morphology  See morphology.
determiner (det)  The definite and indefinite articles plus a small set of other similar words (e.g.genitive pronouns) which
qualify nouns or noun phrases can be grouped as determiners. Examples of determiners are this, that, my. An English noun phrase
always contains at most one determiner;singular noun phrases generally require exactly one determiner. Semantically, they determine
that a particular instance of the noun is being referred (back) to. For example, There's a man at the door -- the word a introduces a man
into the conversation. Tell the man I'll come in a minute -- the word therefers back to the previously mentioned man.
Noun phrases in the genitive act as determiners. Thus in I saw the old lady's cat, the genitive noun phrase the old lady's can be
replaced by the single word determiner her.

dialect  Generally dialects of a language are more similar than different languages. However, what is a dialect and what is a language
is often a political rather than a linguistic question. The division of Serbo-Croat, the common language of former Yugoslavia, into two
languages, Serbian and Croatian, shows this rather sharply. A further example of very similar languages which might be called dialects
of the same language are Dutch (spoken in the Netherlands) and Flemish (spoken in north-western Belgium). On the other hand, in
China there are languages which are mutually un-intelligible when spoken but are often called dialects of one Chinese language. It is
important to note that although some dialects have more social prestige in a country than others, this says nothing about their linguistic
qualities.
diphthong  If the tongue moves significantly during the production of a vowel phone, the result is a diphthong. A diphthong sounds like
a rapid, blended sequence of two separate vowels. An example in English is the vowel sound in the word kite, which is like a rapid
combination of a kind of 'a sound' and a kind of 'i sound'. In the IPA a diphthong is represented by two vowel symbols. It is important to
note that the two symbols represent a SINGLE phone.
direct object  See object.
E
ellipsis  A technical term for leaving out words in sentences. For example, in Brian ate the ice-cream and Judy the peaches, there is
ellipsis, since the word ate is omitted after Judy.
F
feature  See semantic feature.
feminine  See gender.
fricative  If during the production of a phone, air is made to pass through a narrow passage, a 'friction' sound or fricative is produced
(i.e. a more-or-less 'hissing' sound). English examples are the 'f sound' in fee or the 'sh sound' in she.
G
gender  In some languages (but not English), nouns fall into a small number of classes which require changes in
the articles, adjectives, etc. which qualify them. In Indo-European languages, these classes are traditionally called genders and labelled
according to whether nouns for males (masculine gender), females (feminine gender) or neither (neuter gender) fall into these classes.
French has two genders, masculine and feminine, shown for example by the use of le or la for the; German and Modern Greek have
three genders, having neuter as well. Note that grammatical gender is not tied to biological sex, since, for example, the nouns meaning
'a young girl' are neuter in both German and Modern Greek. Thus as with number, grammatical gender is not the same as semantic
gender.
genitive  See also case. Genitive is an alternative word for possessive, i.e. the genitive case marks the noun or pronoun as the
possessor of something. In English, the genitive case of a noun is shown in writing by adding an s together with an appropriately
positioned apostrophe. Thus of the boybecomes boy's, of the boys becomes boys'. The genitive or possessive pronouns
are my, your, his,her, its [without an apostrophe!], our, their. Genitive noun phrases act as determiners.
glide  A glide is an approximant in which the tongue and lips move during the production of the sound. English examples are the initial
phones in woo [w] and you [j].
glottal  A phone produced by closing or partially closing the vocal cords (or glottis). Seethe diagram of a head for the location of the
vocal cords. The 'h sound' in English is a glottal fricative, produced by a strong air flow over partially open vocal cords.
grammar (1)  The word grammar is used as a collective word for morphology and syntax, i.e. for patterns both within and between
words.
grammar (2)  The word grammar is also used a technical term for a rule-based approach which generates a particular set of sentences.
Formally, a grammar consists of a set of nonterminalsymbols (one of which is the start symbol), a set of terminal symbols and a set
of productions or re-writing rules. Terminals (e.g. words) are the basic units of the sentences which the grammar generates.
Nonterminals are symbols used only in the grammar itself. A production is a rule which says that the symbols on the left-hand side can
be re-written as those on the right-hand side. One of the nonterminals must be the start symbol, i.e. the symbol from which re-writing
starts.
grapheme  A grapheme is a 'spelling unit'. For example, in Spanish the combination ll represents a different sound from a single l. Thus
these are two graphemes. In English, graphemes may be quite complex. For example -tion behaves more-or-less as a single
grapheme in words like function.
H
I
idiolect  The language used by one individual is sometimes called an idiolect. A dialect or language can then be regarded as a
collection of mutually intelligible idiolects.
indirect object  See object.
Indo-European  Linguists divide languages into a number of families, based on similarity and shared descent. Indo-European
languages were natively spoken in a broad band through Europe to northern India and Bangladesh. Historically, the only major non-
Indo-European languages spoken in this area were Finnish/Estonian, Hungarian, Basque and Turkish. It is believed that all the Indo-
European languages are descended from one language spoken around 4,000 BC. It is important to be aware that different language
families may be based on quite different principles, both in their sounds and in their grammar.
infix  A strong definition of an infix might be a morpheme which is added inside a root morpheme in the formation of a word. In a
language like English, infixes, so defined, do not occur, since the root morpheme is indivisible. In Semitic languages, the root
morpheme consists only of consonants -- usually three in, e.g., Arabic or Hebrew. A particular set of vowels and/or affixes combines
with this root to form a word. Thus in Hebrew the root sgr has a basic meaning connected with "close" or "closed". Adding the vowels -
a-a- (where the dashes mark the position of the root consonants) forms the active verb sagar; adding the prefix ni and the vowel --
a- forms the passive verb nisgar. The inserted components can be called infixes, so that nisgar = prefix ni + infix --a- + root sgr.
A weaker definition of an infix might be one or more morphemes which are added inside a word to form another word. Such infixes are
said to occur in English since, in colloquial speech, swear words can be inserted into other words, e.g. I hate this bloody university can
become I hate this uni-bloody-versity. In English, such 'infixes' can apparently only be inserted before a stressed syllable.
See also morphology.

inflectional morphology  See inflection and morphology.
inflection  A grammatical change in the form of a word (more accurately of a lexeme), which leaves the 'base meaning' and the
grammatical category of the word unchanged. In English, inflections are restricted to the endings of words (i.e. suffixes). Other
languages may show changes elsewhere. As an example, the suffix s is the usual written plural inflection in English. Inflections in
nouns may show changes of number, gender, case, etc.; in verbs, of number, person, tense, aspect, etc. See alsomorphology.
intonation  Intonation refers to changes in the tone or frequency of sounds during speech. For example, in English the tone usually falls
at the end of a statement and rises at the end of a question, so that You want some coffee. and You want some coffee? can be
distinguished by tone alone. In some languages (e.g. Chinese, Thai), sequences containing the same phones but with different
intonation patterns correspond to different words.
IPA  The International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA is a set of symbols which can be used to represent the phones and phonemes of
natural languages. A subset which can be used to represent 'Standard English English' (roughly the dialect of middle-class people from
the south east of England) is given in a separate table.
J
K
L
labial  Bilabial and labiodental phones are together classed as labial.
labiodental  A phone produced by the partial closure of the lower lip on the upper teeth. Seethe diagram of a head. The English sounds
represented by the letters f in fit and v in van are labiodental fricatives, produced by restricting the air flow out of the mouth by touching
the lower lip on the upper teeth. Bilabial and labiodental phones are together classed as labial.
language  See natural language and dialect.
length  Length refers to the time duration of a phone. The English words beat and bead differ the length of the vowel as well as
the voicing of the terminal stop; the vowel is longer in bead than in beat.In some languages the length of consonants may also be
important.
lexeme  The four words eat, eats, eating and eaten are morphological variants of the word eat. The past tense ate is not so obviously
morphologically connected to eat, but nevertheless has the same underlying meaning. Thus we may say that the five words eat, eats,
eating, eaten and ate form a single lexeme, i.e. a single 'meaning entity'. A dictionary would be expected to contain only one definition
for all five words. A lexeme is thus equivalent to what is often called a 'head word' in a dictionary.
lexicon  Often used as a technical term for the list of words and their types which is used with agrammar.
liquid  A liquid is a kind of approximant. English examples are the initial phones in lap and rap.
Location  See theta role.
M
masculine  See gender.
mood  A verb may be in one of several moods. The 'base' mood of a verb is the indicative or declarative, where the verb (and hence
the sentence which contains it) states what is the case. The imperative mood is used to give instructions or commands. Compare The
cat chases the mouse(indicative) with Chase the mouse! (imperative). The subjunctive mood, used to show hypothetical conditions, is
rarely shown grammatically in Modern English. (If I were to tell you rather than If I was to tell you is one of the few uses which are at all
common.) Languages vary widely in their use of moods.
As with other properties of verbs, it is important to distinguish between grammatical form and meaning. In the sentence I had finished
my coursework before John came home, had finished is indicative in meaning, showing that the action was completed in the past
before John came home. In the sentence If I had finished my coursework, I would have got a better mark, had finished is subjunctive in
meaning, showing that the action was never completed.

morphology  The structure of words and the study of this structure. For example, a morphological analysis of the English
word unknowingly might yield four components, called morphemes. These are the root know and three affixes, the prefix un indicating
negation, and two suffixes ing and ly. Note that both spelling and pronunciation changes can take place when morphemes are
combined. Thus the root happy plus the affix ly yields happily not *happyly. Many English words appear to contain morphemes, but
resist neat division. For example, the suffix ish often indicates that the word refers to a language
(e.g. English, Spanish, Danish, Swedish), but removing the suffix does not always leave a clear root morpheme (e.g. Spanish = ?
Span(e) + ish). In other cases, it may be that a word was in the past created from distinct morphemes, but that this is not obvious to a
contemporary speaker as the morphemes are no longer used in forming new words.
When an affix morpheme is an inflection, the word can be said to show inflectional morphology. Thus the word chased (= chase + ed)
shows inflectional morphology. In many languages, including English, inflectional morphology is relatively predictable, and can be
handled by rules.
In other cases, the word can be said to show derivational morphology. Thus the word output = out +put shows derivational morphology:
adding the prefix out to the verb put creates a noun with the approximate meaning "that which was put out". In many languages,
including English, derivational morphology is unpredictable, and so cannot easily be handled by rules. Thus there's no noun
*outgomeaning "that which went out" (although there is a noun, most often used in the plural, outgoings = out+ go + ing + s).

MT = Machine Translation

N
nasal  A nasal is a phone made by allowing air to flow out of the nose while possibly stopping it in the mouth. Allowing air to flow out of
the mouth is achieved by opening the uvula (seethe diagram of a head). English has three such phones: the nasal stops which end the
words rum, runand rung.
In many languages (e.g. French, Punjabi), there are also nasal vowels, produced by allowing air to flow out of both the mouth and the
nose.
natural language  Any language naturally used by people, i.e. not a man-made language like a programming language or Esperanto.
neuter  See gender.
NL = Natural Language.
NLP = Natural Language Processing.
nominative  See case.
nonterminal  See grammar.
noun  Semantically, a noun can be described as a word standing for the 'name of something.' A more useful test is that a noun or a
noun phrase can be replaced by a pronoun, e.g. it or her. Examples of nouns are people, cats and intelligence in Many people think
that cats have considerable intelligence.The strings of words many people and considerable intelligence are noun phrases in this
example.
NP = Noun Phrase. See also phrase.
number  In English, nouns and verbs can be described as singular or plural, generally depending on whether the reference is to one or
to many. Thus in the cat runs, cat is singular as is runs, whereas incats run, cats is plural as is run. English nouns are generally clearly
marked as singular or plural; verbs are clearly singular only in the third person singular of the present tense. However, grammatical
number must be distinguished from semantic number; trousers is grammatically plural in English (since e.g. we must say my trousers
are here and not *my trousers is here), but is clearly semantically singular. Some languages have dual number as well as singular and
plural. For example, in Arabic, a special form of the noun corresponds to two rather than one or many. Other languages lack
grammatical number (e.g. the Chinese languages).
O
object (of a sentence)  The direct object of an active sentence is a noun, noun phrase or pronounwhich suffers the action of the verb.
Thus in Those people dislike cats, cats is the object of the sentence. In English, only pronouns show case, and
become accusative when forming the object of a sentence: thus, e.g., cats in the sentence above must be replaced by them rather
than they. In other languages, nouns, adjectives, articles, etc. may all change case. The indirect object of a sentence in English is a
noun or equivalent which, if the sentence were re-worded, would require a to (or sometimes a for). Thus in Your mother gave my
brother a cake, a cake is the direct object and my brother the indirect object, since if we reverse brother and cake we need
a to giving Your mother gave a cake to my brother. Direct and indirect objects may take different cases in some languages; e.g. in
German, me is mich (accusative) when it is the direct object, but mir (dative) when it is the indirect object. See also subject.
P
palatal  A phone produced when the top of the tongue touches the hard palate. Seethe diagram of a head for the location of the hard
palate. The English sounds represented by the letters sh in ship and s in measure are palatal fricatives, produced by partially stopping
the air flow out of the mouth by touching the top of the tongue on the hard palate.
parse  To analyse a sentence using a grammar, including deciding whether it is valid and what its structure is according to the
grammar.
participant theta-role  See theta role.
passive  A passive sentence is one which has a basic pattern like The cat was killed or The cat was killed by the dog, i.e. it describes
what one thing (the subject) has done to it, often by another thing. The verb in an passive sentence can be said to be in the
passive voice. See also active.
Patient  See theta role.
person (of a verb)  Verbs (in Indo-European languages at least) often vary depending on whether the subject of the verb is in the first
person (singular = I, plural = we), the second person (singular and plural = you in modern English), or the third person (singular
= he, she or it, plural = they). Only the verb be in the singular shows a full set of changes due to person in modern English: I am, you
are,it is.
phone  A phone is a 'unit sound' of a language in the sense that it is the minimal sound by which two words can differ. For example, the
English word feed contains three phones since each can be independently substituted to form a different word. In the IPA, the three
phones can be written as [f], [i] and [d]. Examples of substitutions are: [fid] - [f] + [s] gives [sid], i.e. seed; [fid] - [i] + [u] gives [fud],
i.e. food; [fid] - [d] + [t] gives [fit], i.e. feet. The whole of each phone must be substituted to change one word into another. It is important
to note that whether or not speakers can distinguish between sounds is not a test of whether they constitute distinct phones. The
word tea could be represented as [ti] and the word tree as [tri]. However, the two 't sounds' are not quite the same: the tongue is further
back in the mouth when pronouncing the [t] in [tri] than when pronouncing the [t] in [ti]. How far to divide up sounds into phones is
essentially a pragmatic question. Using more phones will enable speech to represented more accurately but at a cost in terms of
complexity. See alsoallophone, phoneme.
phoneme  A phoneme is a minimally distinctive set of sounds in a language; sound sequences which differ in a single phoneme can
constitute different words. Thus the pairs tip-dip and trip-drip show that English has two distinct phonemes, which we can write as /t/
and /d/, since substituting one for the other produces a different word. However, the pronunciation of /t/ (and /d/) is not the same in
each pair: the tongue is further back in the mouth when /t/ is followed by /r/. Hence there are at least two phones corresponding to the
/t/ phoneme. However there are no two English words in which the ONLY difference is that the 't sound in trip' is replaced by the 't
sound in tip' -- these two sounds areallophones of the same phoneme. English speakers do not need to recognize the difference
between them.
phonetics  Phonetics is the study of the sounds of speech (i.e. the study of phones). It can be distinguished from phonology which is
more concerned with the underlying theory (i.e. the phonemeswhich underlie phones and the rules which govern the conversion of
phonemes to phones and vice versa).
phonological rule  At some theoretical level, words can be considered to be composed ofphonemes. The actual sound of a word then
depends on which allophone is chosen for each phoneme. The context-sensitive rules which determine this are called phonological
rules. Thus the word input can be considered to contain the phoneme /n/. However in fast speech in many dialects of English, the
phone used will be [m]. The relevant phonological rule for English is that a nasal becomes articulated at the same position as a
following stop.
phonology  See phonetics.
phrase  A string of words can often act as an exact grammatical substitute for a single word; such a string is called a 'phrase'. Thus e.g.
a noun can be replaced by a noun phrase -- compare Whiskers is over there with That appalling pet of yours is over there, in
which That appalling pet of yours is a noun phrase equivalent to the noun Whiskers.
plosive  See stop.
plural  See number.
possessive  See genitive.
pragmatics  A technical term meaning, roughly, what the person speaking or writing actually meant, rather than what the words
themselves mean.
prefix  A prefix is a morpheme which is added before a root morpheme in the formation of a word. See morphology.
preposition  A preposition is one of a finite set of words (e.g. at, from, by) which in English must usually be followed by a noun or its
equivalent. A prepositional phrase (PP) consists of a preposition followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. Two major uses of
prepositional phrases are to show location (e.g. on the mat in the cat sits on the mat) and motion (e.g. into the house in the cat runs
into the house). The word preposition comes from pre plus position. In other languages (e.g. Japanese), there are postpositions: words
which come after a noun or its equivalent.
production  See grammar.
pronoun  A pronoun is one of a small set of words which can substitute for a noun or noun phrase. It usually refers back to a previous
occurrence of the noun or noun phrase. Thus, e.g., it in the previous sentence is a pronoun which refers back to A pronoun in the
sentence before. The process of referring is sometimes called anaphora.
Q
R
Recipient  See theta role.
referential semantics  A system where the meaning of a word just is the thing it refers to.
RTN = Recursive Transition Network.
S
semantic feature  A semantic feature is a 'primitive' which a language processor (human or computer) is assumed to be able to
determine independently of the language system. The meaning of words such as nouns or adjectives can then be described in terms of
sets of these features. For example we might describe the meaning of words such as boy, man, girl and woman in terms of the features
YOUNG, MALE and HUMAN. Boy would be [+YOUNG, +MALE, +HUMAN],woman would be [-YOUNG, -MALE, +HUMAN].
semantics  Used as a technical term for the meaning of words and sentences (see also pragmatics).
singular  See number.
start symbol  See grammar.
stop  Some phones are produced by completely stopping and then releasing the flow of air out of the mouth. These sounds are called
stops. In most dialects of English there are three stop positions, corresponding to the initial phones in pale, tale and kale, or the
terminal nasal phones in rum, run andrung. Some dialects of English (for example those spoken in England around London) also have
aglottal stop, used, for example, instead of the 't sound' in words like bottle.
[The current tendency is to use the term plosive instead of stop. I resist this for the following reason. A stop actually consists of two
phases: closure (when air pressure builds up) and release (when air explodes out). These phases can be separated: in many
languages, stops are often not released (e.g. in the Bahasa language spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia, or at the end of words in
many dialects of English spoken in northern England). The term 'unreleased stop' makes sense, whereas an 'unreleased plosive' is a
contradiction.]
stress  Words can be divided into syllables, usually centred around a vowel. In many languages, including English, the duration and
relative loudness of a syllable -- its stress -- are important. Thus only stress distinguishes the noun PROcess (as in the sentence This
process is called assimilation) from the much less common verb proCESS (as in the sentence I usually process at the degree
ceremony). The noun is stressed on the first syllable, the verb on the second.
STT = Speech To Text.
subject (of a sentence)  The subject of a sentence is the noun or noun equivalent which governs theverb, in the sense that if the
language has agreements, the verb has to agree with the subject innumber (as in English) or in gender (as in Arabic). Thus in English
we have to say The dog chases the cats not The dog chase the cats; the verb chases agrees in number with the subject the dog rather
than the object the cats. In the semantically equivalent passive sentence, The cats are chased by the dog, the fact that the cats is now
the subject is shown by the need to use the plural auxiliary, are.
In an active sentence, the subject is often the entity which performs the action of the verb; in a passive sentence the subject is the
entity which is in some sense the recipient of the action.
See also object.

suffix  A suffix is a morpheme which is added after a root morpheme in the formation of a word. Seemorphology.
syntax  The syntax of a language comprises, roughly speaking, the patterns into which its words can be validly arranged to form
sentences. The combination of morphology and syntax is sometimes called the grammar of a language.
T
tense (of a verb)  The tense of a verb specifies the time at which its action occurs. The clearest examples in English are the present
and past tenses. When saying I am eating an apple the speaker refers to the present; when saying I was eating an apple, s/he refers to
the past. In its morphology, an English verb shows tense and aspect independently (see the table under aspect). Semantically, tense
and aspect are not so easy to separate in English. I have eaten the apple is described morphologically as 'present perfect', but
semantically is partly a reference to the past, and partly a reference to the action's being complete rather than continuing.
The future tense in English is formed by the use of the auxiliary will or sometimes shall. Morphologically, these auxiliaries can show
'past tense'; thus I would have been eating is the 'future past perfect progressive' of eat. Semantically, the combination of 'future' and
'past' is used to express 'conditionality', so that this form of the verb is usually called 'conditional'.

terminal node  A node in a transition network at which parsing can stop.

terminal  See grammar.
thematic role  See theta role.
theta role  (Often written as θ-role.) Verbs require a number of other components to be present in a sentence to complete their
meaning. These components can be said to act as arguments to the verb, i.e. to be argument theta roles (or, alternatively, to
play participant theta roles in relation to the action of the verb). For example, in the sentence The girl put the bottles on the table, the
action of 'putting' involves three necessary thematic roles. These are Agent, the entity doing the putting; Patient, the entity which suffers
the action of being put; and Location, where the Agent puts the Patient. A sentence containing the verb put will involve these three
roles, even if they occur in different positions due to the syntax of the sentence. Thus exactly the same entities play exactly the same
theta roles in the sentence The bottles were put on the table by the girl although the syntax is different from the previous sentence.
Another common θ-role is Recipient, the entity which receives something, typically the Patient. Thusthe boy is the Recipient in both The
girl gave the bottles to the boy and The boy was given the bottles.
In addition to argument or participant theta roles, there are adjunct or circumstantial theta roles. These show additional, non-required
components. For example, in the kitchen plays an argument theta role in He was putting apples in the kitchen but only an adjunct theta
role in He was eating apples in the kitchen. In both cases in the kitchen is a location, but put requires this role, eat merely allows it to be
present.

TN = Transition Network.

TTS = Text To Speech.
U
unvoiced  See voicing.
V
velar  A phone produced when the top of the tongue touches the soft palate or velum. Seethe diagram of a head for the location of the
soft palate. The English sounds represented by the lettersk in kit and g in got are velar stops, produced by stopping and then releasing
the air flow out of the mouth by touching the top of the tongue on the soft palate.
verb  A verb is traditionally described as a 'doing' word; thus in the sentences Colourless ideas sleep furiously and The dog bit the
cat, sleep and bit are verbs. A more useful test is that a verb combines with an auxiliary in structures such as I can _ or I can _
them. English makes extensive use of 'verb groups' or 'compound verbs', such as has been eating in He has been eating fish in which
one or moreauxiliaries is combined with a verb.
Verbs may show a wide range of grammatical properties, including gender, person, tense, aspect,voice and mood. There are major
differences among languages in the way these properties are shown grammatically and in their associated meanings.

voice  A verb may be in the active or passive voice, and hence so may the sentence in which the verb appears. Compare The dog
chased the cat (active) with The cat was chased by the dog(passive). This use of the term 'voice' has no connection with 'voiced' or
'voiceless'.
In English, the grammatical voice of a verb is closely related to its meaning. In a sentence with an active verb the subject is typically
the Agent, whereas in a sentence with a passive verb the subject is typically the Patient or the Recipient. Compare the active
sentence The girl gave her mother a present, in which the girl is the subject and the Agent, with the passive sentences A present was
given to her mother, in which a present is the subject and the Patient, and Her mother was given a present, in which her mother is the
subject and Recipient.
In other languages, grammatical voice and meaning are less well aligned. For example, in Greek, both Classical and Modern, verbs
which are passive in form may have active meanings, usually when the agent and patient are the same. Thus χτενίζω means "I comb"
or "I am combing" but is only used when the patient (the thing being combed) is not the subject. The passive form χτενίζομαι normally
means "I am combing [my hair]" rather than "I am being combed".

voiced  See voicing.
voiceless  See voicing.
voicing  Voicing refers to whether or not the vocal cords are vibrated during the production of aphone. Phones such as vowels or [b] or
[d] in which the vocal cords are vibrated are said to bevoiced. Phones such as [s] or [p] in which the vocal cords are not vibrated are
said to be voicelessor unvoiced.
vowel  (1) A phone which is produced by allowing lung air to pass over the vibrating vocal cords and then freely out of the mouth. Thus
vowels can be continued until you run out of breath. The positions of the lips and tongue alter the size and shape of the resonating
cavity to produce different sounds. (2) A letter of the alphabet usually pronounced using a vowel phone is also called a vowel.
Be careful to distinguish these two usages. In a language with non-phonemic spelling, such as English, they can be quite different. The
word site, for example, contains two vowel letters but only one vowel phone since the terminal e is not pronounced.
See also consonant.

meaning or grammatical function, for example the word friendly

Introduction to English Linguistics – General is constructed from friend and the
Session 1 adjective-forming –ly.
Branches of linguistics Lexicography:
Linguists are engaged in a multiplicity of studies, some of The compiling of dictionaries. Lexicography could be seen as
which bear little direct relationship to a branch of applied
each other. This is an incomplete list of the branches of linguistics.
linguistics, new ones continue to arise. Syntax:
The study of how words combine to form sentences and the
Phonetics: rules which govern the
The study of speech sounds; how they are produced in the formation of sentences.
vocal tract (articulatory Semantics:
phonetics), how they are transmitted through the air (acoustic The study of meaning; how words and sentences are related
phonetics), and how they are to the real or imaginary
perceived by the listener (auditory phonetics). objects they refer to and the situations they describe.
Phonology: Pragmatics:
The study of the sound system of language; how the particular The study of the use of language in communication,
sounds used in each particularly the relationships between
language form an integrated system for encoding information sentences and the contexts and situations in which they are
and how such systems differ from used such as time, place, social
one language to another. relationship between speaker and hearer, and speaker’s
Morphology: assumptions about the hearer’s belief. Introduction to English
The study of the way in which words are constructed out of Linguistics – General
smaller units which have a Session 1
Sociolinguistics:
The study of language in relation to social factors such as
social class, educational level,
age, sex and ethnic origin. Such areas as the study of
language choice in bilingual or multilingual
communities, language planning or language attitudes can
also be included.
Discourse Analysis:
The study of how sentences in spoken and written language
form larger meaningful units
such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews etc.
Stylistics:
The study of that variation in language which is dependent on
the situation in which the
language is used and also on the effect the writer/speaker
wishes to create on the reader/hearer.
Stylistics tries to establish principles capable of explaining the
particular choices made by
individuals and social groups in their use of language.
Literary stylistics
The analysis of literary texts applying linguistic methods and
theories (phonetics,
morphology, syntax, discourse analysis, pragmatics, etc.) with
the aim of providing retrievable
interpretations which allow comparisons of different texts,
genres (fiction, drama and poetry) etc.
Psycholinguistics:
The study of the mental processes underlying the planning,
production, perception and
comprehension of speech, for example how memory
limitations affect speech production and
comprehension. The best developed branch of
psycholinguistics is the study of language
acquisition.
Neurolinguistics:
Theories of Language Development
The Learning Perspective  Chomsky proposed that all humans have a language acqusition
The Learning perspective argues that children imitate what they
see and hear,and that children learn from punishment and
reinforcement.(Shaffer,Wood,& Willoughby,2002).
The main theorist associated with the learning perspective is B.F.
Skinner. Skinner argued that adults shape the speech of children
by  reinforcing the babbling of infants that sound most like words.
(Skinner,1957,as cited in Shaffer,et.al,2002).   written. Deep structure is the underlying message or meaning of a
  The Nativist Perspective
The nativist perspective argues that humans are biologically
programmed to  gain knowledge.The main theorist associated
with this perspective is Noam Chomsky.
The study of the brain and how it functions in the production,
perception, and acquisition of
language as well as disorders like aphasia.
Historical Linguistics:
A branch of linguistics which studies the development of
language and languages over
time; also known as diachronic linguistics. Historical linguistics
uses the methods of the various
branches of linguistics (including sociolinguistics, especially in
considering the reasons for language
change). One thus encounters such subfields as “historical
phonology/ morphology/ syntax” etc. Introduction to English
Linguistics – General
Session 1
Applied linguistics:
The application of the methods and results of linguistics to
such areas as language
teaching; national language policies; translation; language in
politics, advertising, classrooms and
courts (forensic linguistics).
Computational linguistics:
Computational linguists study natural languages, such as
English and Japanese, rather than
computer languages, such as Fortran, Snobol, or Java. The
field of computational linguistics has
two aims: the technological aim to enable computers to be
used as aids in analysing and
processing natural language and the psychological aim to
understand, by analogy with
computers, more about how people process natural
languages. It also includes research on
automatic translation, electronic production of artificial speech
and the automatic recognition of
human speech.
device (LAD). The LAD contains knowledge of grammatical rules
common to all languages (Shaffer,et.al,2002).The LAD also
allows children to understand the rules of whatever language
they  are  listening to.Chomsky also developed the concepts of
transformational grammar, surface structure,and deep structure.
Transformational grammar is grammar that transforms a
sentence. Surface structures are  words that are actually
sentence. (Matlin,2005).   
Interactionist Theory    
Interactionists argue that  language development  is both
biological and social. Interactionists argue that language learning
is influenced by the desire of children to communicate with others.
The Interactionists argue that "children are born with a powerful
brain that matures slowly and predisposes them to acquire new
understandings that they are motivated to share with others"
( Bates,1993;Tomasello,1995, as cited in shaffer,et
al.,2002,p.362).
The main theorist associated with interactionist theory is Lev
Vygotsky.Interactionists focus on Vygotsky's model of
collaborative learning ( Shaffer,et al.,2002). Collaborative learning
is the idea that conversations with older people  can help children
both cognitively and linguistically ( Shaffer,et.al,2002).

Theories of language acquisition



Overview

o The Behaviorist Interpretation

o The Nativist Interpretation
o Nature vs. Nurture
o The Social Interactionist Interpretation *
o Is Theory Important?


The Behaviorist Interpretation

o Stimulus -> Response (S -> R) view of all behavior

o Classical conditioning explains word meaning acquisition (new meanings to old stimuli)
 Watson's research on Little Albert
o Operant conditioning explains language acquisition and behavior (behavior controlled by consequences; power of
reinforcement)
 Skinner's Verbal Behavior
o Problems (among others)
 language is creative
 knowledge of language is very complex (show language puzzles from intro notes)
 no clear evidence that parents consistently reward "good" language and not "bad" language


The Nativist Interpretation

o Noam Chomsky most famous language nativist

o Transformational Generative Grammar
 attempts to explain how we can produce and understand an unlimited number of sentences
 universal grammar (UG) as innate
 child does need to learn what all human languages have in common (UG); only needs to learn
what is unique to his or her specific language
 principles (innate) and parameters (acquired quickly)
 language acquisition device (LAD)
 innate ability to acquire language
o The Nativist Perspective in Review
 031.2 "we have not ruled out the nativists' basis contention, which is that human beings are born with an
innate capacity for language. What remains in the debate is to determine the relative importance of this
innate capacity in comparison to the influence of environmental factors."
 

Team Discussion: nature vs. nurture

o Much debate has taken place concerning the importance of nature (what is innate) and nurture (environmental
factors) in the acquisition of language.
o Consider the following questions.
 1. You have started a retirement account in to which you will invest a fixed amount of money every month.
Which is more important in determining how much money you will have in the account when you retire: (a)
the amount of money you invest each month, or (b) the number of months you make an investment.
 2. What is more important in determining how much paint you will need to cover a wall: (a) the length of the
wall, or (b) the height of the wall?
o Now consider what you believe the relative importance of nature and nurture to be in the acquisition of language,
given the finding that the human genome contains only about 26,000 to 30,000 genes, less than the number of genes
in some plants.
 nature (innate factors) is more important
 nurture (environmental and learning factors) is more important
 other (explain)


 Examples of Interaction of Genes (Nature) and Environment (Nurture, Learning)

o phenylketonuria (PKU)
o sexuality (twins)
o Alzheimer's (twins)
o fear of snakes & spiders vs. electricity & cars


The Cognitive Interpretation

o to be discussed next week/chapter



The Social Interactionist Interpretation

o stresses importance of child's interaction with parents and other caregivers

o importance of "motherese"
o Child Talk model of Chapman et al. (1992)
 contributions of context and world knowledge for figuring out language
 importance of goals
 047.2 "The child's developing knowledge of everything in the life that swirls around him helps him
establish goals for getting things done and develop strategies for successfully meeting these goals.
According to the Child Talk view, the child formulates utterances because he has goals in mind that
can be best met by using these utterances. Drawing upon the linguistic and nonlinguistic
experiences of his own past, however brief that past is, the child uses his language knowledge in
combination with his knowledge about other relevant aspects of his world to formulate utterances
that will serve as a means to today's ends."

Drug Abuse Resistance Education, better known as DARE, is an international education program that seeks to prevent use
of controlled drugs, membership ingangs, and violent behavior. D.A.R.E., which has expanded globally since its founding in 1983, is
a demand-side drug control strategy of the U.S. War on Drugs.Students who enter the program sign a pledge not to use drugs or join
gangs and are taught by local law enforcement about the dangers ofdrug use in an interactive in-school curriculum which lasts ten
weeks. D.A.R.E. America has its headquarters in Inglewood, California.[1]

In 1998 the DARE program failed to meet federal guidelines that they be both research-based and effective thereby disqualifying them
from receiving federal grant money.[2]. To date they have not met those guidelines.

NFPI

The National Focal Point in the field of drugs and drug addictions is a unit founded with a decision of the National Drug Council and
with the order of the Minister of Health as a part of the implementation of the National Anti-Drugs Strategy 2003-2008.

NFP is based in the National Centre for Addictions and is the official partner of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug
Addictions (EMCDDA) on the behalf of the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as a participant in the European Network for Information in the
field of drugs (REITOX).