Glossary of Linguistic Terms accent Often used to refer to distinctive pronuncia­ tions which differ from that of Received Pronunciation It differs from dialect which includes syn­ tax and vocabulary as well acronym A word formed from the initial letters of the words which make up a name, e.g. NATO (from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) active A clause in which the subject is the actor of the verb; in a passive clause the actor is not the grammatical subject; seep. 14 addressee The person being addressed or spoken to in any form of discourse adjective In traditional grammar a word which de­ scribes a noun, as happy in 'the happy man'; an adjective phrase is a group of one or more words fulfilling the function of an adjective; seep. 11 adverb In t:r:aditional grammar a word which de­ scribes a verb; in 'he ran slowly', slowly describes how he ran An adverb phrase is a group of one or more words fulfilling the function of an adverb; see p. 11 affix A morpheme which is attached to another word as an inflection or for derivation Affixes include prefixes at the beginning of a word and suffixes at the end of a word, e.g. un-god-ly with prefix un- and suffix -ly A derivational affix is used to form a new word, e.g. the suffix -less with hope gives the new word hopeless; an inflectional affix marks grammatical relations, in comes, the -s marks third person singular present indicative 159 160 Glossary alliteration The repetition of the same sound at the beginning of two or more words in close proximity, e.g. 'time and tide' alveolar In phonetics the sounds formed by the tongue closing the air passage at the alveolar ridge (immediately behind the front top teeth) Such sounds in English include ltl, ldl, and lnl analogy The tendency to make all examples of a particular feature follow a regular pattern; thus since most nouns in English form their plural by adding -s, the tendency is for nouns which do not form their plural in this way to change by analogy to this plural, e.g. formulas compared with older formulae article In traditional grammar the name given to a or an (indefinite article) and to the (definite article) assimilation The process whereby two adjacent sounds become more alike in pronunciation because one of them discards those sound elements which are different from the elements found in the other; see pp. 33-4 auxiliary A verb which is part of the verb phrase, but is not the head of the verb phrase except through elision; examples include do, can, may, must, shall; see p. 8 bilabial In phonetics the sounds, such as I pI and lb I, caused by closing both lips and then opening them quickly bilingual Proficiency in two languages, usually as a native speaker clause A clause normally consists of a subject and a verb, though it may have other elements as well Clauses can be linked together through co­ ordination, i.e. when they are of the same status, or subordination, i.e. when one is of higher rank than the other; see pp. 15-17 Glossary 161 code switching The change from one language or variety of language to another\within a conversation A speaker in Belgium might change from French to Flemish and back again depending on the subject matter and the other partici­ pants in the conversation collocation The habitual co-occurrence of two words command A type of sentence which is an order, e.g. 'Go away'; also known as an imperative Such sentences normally have no subject; seep. 19 complement An adjective, noun phrase or a clause acting as a noun phrase which is dependent on a stative verb In 'He is happy', the adjective happy is the complement complex sentence A sentence consisting of at least one subordi­ nate clause in addition to the main clause, i.e. the clause which can stand on its own; see p. 18 compound A word consisting of at least two free mor­ phemes, i.e. two elements which are them­ selves words as in freewheel, where free and wheel are both words compound sentence A sentence of at least two main clauses joined together through co-ordination, as 'He sat down and the seat collapsed'. see pp. 17-18 conjunction A conjunction can be either co-ordinate or subordinate A co-ordinate conjunction joins together elements of equal rank, as the two adjectives in 'a rare and auspicious event' are joined by and A subordinate conjunction usually joins a subordinate clause to a main clause, e.g. if, when, although; seep. 10 and pp. 17-19 connotation The associations attached to a word in addi­ tion to its dictionary definition; e.g. in addi­ tion to its colour meaning, white has the connotation of purity 162 Glossary co-ordination The joining together of two linguistic ele­ ments of equal weight; see conjunction correlative Two clauses linked together by two conjunc­ tions or adverbs which function as a pair to reinforce the logical relationship between them, as in 'Though she is beautiful, never­ theless she is not proud' creole A pidgin which has been adopted as the mother tongue of some people determiner A word that occurs before the head, or premonifiers if any, in a noun phrase, such as the or my; only one determiner can appear before a premodifier or head; see pp. 9-10 dialect A variety of language associated with a particular speech community, either geogra­ phically to give a regional dialect or socially to give a class dialect diphthong A vowel sound in which there is a change of quality during its articulation and is repre­ sented graphically by the first and last point of articulation to suggest that it contains two vowel sounds, e.g. I ai/. diglossia A situation in which two significantly differ­ ent states of a single language are both used by a speech community discourse The organisation of language beyond the sentence dynamic A verb which expresses an action rather than a state and can take forms in -ing as part of the progressive, e.g. come, is coming ellipsis The omission of some part of the sentence which can be understood from the context In the answer 'Yes, he is' to the question 'Is he coming?', the present participle is coming is reduced through ellipsis to is euphemism A term regarded as more acceptable socially which has replaced another term which has become tainted by the unfavourable associa­ tions of the concept it refers to Hence to spend a penny is a euphemism Glossary 163 exclamation A sentence which expresses surprise, amaze­ ment, etc. and is usually followed by an exclamation mark, as in 'What a wonderful day!' see p. 19 finite A term used to describe those parts of the verb which are marked for tense, person and number; see p. 13 fricative In phonetics a term used of consonants which are produced through constricting some part of the air passage, e.g. /f/ and /s/. grammaticalisation The process whereby what had been an optional feature in a language becomes a regular feature of its grammar In English questions it used to be possible to say either Came he? or Did he come? (i.e. with or without a part of the verb to do), but today the do form has been grammaticalised and questions now include the do auxiliary reg­ ularly head The obligatory element of a phrase on which all the other elements depend. In the noun phrase 'the happy man', man is the head and both the and happy are dependent on it homonym Two words which are identical in speech and writing infinitive Equivalent to the base form of a verb which is entered in dictionaries as the headword; it can also be used with to: (to) come; (to) enter inflection The marking of grammatical categories like case or tense through the use of an affix or some other linguistic mechanism interjection A word in traditional grammar which stands outside the normal grammar of a sentence, e.g. 'Damn! she's not coming', seep. 11 inversion Reversing the order of two elements, as for example the order of the subject and verb is reversed to form a question so that He did come becomes Did he come? language contact The situation in which two or more languages come into contact with one another on a regular basis and force their speakers to 164 Glossary adopt some strategy such as the development of a pidgin to enable communication to take place lexis The term used to describe the vocabulary of a language liquid In phonetics referring to lrl and Ill, but often taken to include I w I and I j I sounds as well modal A closed class of verbs which are part of the auxiliary verbs and express such features as obligation and necessity; they include can, may and shall and are used with a lexical verb; see p. 8 morpheme The smallest distinctive unit of meaning in grammar A free morpheme can stand by itself as a word, e.g. boy, but a bound morpheme must be attached to another morpheme, e.g. the -s in boys; see affix, and pp. 3-5 morphology The study of morphemes nasal In phonetics the term used of sounds which are produced by air coming both through the mouth and the nasal passage, e.g. lnl. non-finite Those parts of the verb which are not marked for tense, person or number such as the infinitive and participle A non-finite verb cannot act by itself as a predicator; see p.