--- title: Intro to Linguistics Glossary description: --- # Glossary Accoustic phonetics : One of 3 parts of phonetics. Studies the physical properties of speech sounds as transmitted by mouth and ear. VL 03 Adjective phrase: AP : A&nbsp;<i>phrase</i>&nbsp;consisting of <b>Degree word</b> and <b>Verb</b><br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/m3YsvZU.png"> VL 07 Adverbial : A grammatical relation.&nbsp; VL 07 <div>It can consist of:<br></div>- AdvP<div>- PP</div><div>- adverbial clause</div><div><br></div><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xX1bO9m.png"><div><br></div><div>I can serve as <b>VP modifier</b>&nbsp;or <b>sentence modifier</b></div> Adverbial clause : One of 2 special clauses types.&nbsp;Clauses that start with an <b>adverbial subordinator</b>&nbsp;(while, if, because, ...) (blue). They specify the circumstances in the <i>main clause (red).</i><br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/UFKdHzY.png"> VL 07 Adverbial phrase: AdvP : A phrase with an <b>adverb</b>&nbsp;as its head. E.g.<div><em>(completely, often, quickly)</em><br></div> VL 07 /ae/ vs /a/ : A difference of&nbsp;<i>AmE&nbsp;</i>and<i>&nbsp;BrE</i>.&nbsp;<br><div><br></div><div>In AmE the /a/ is often replaced by the /ae/. See:&nbsp;<em>after, dance.</em><br></div> VL 11 Affective meaning : One of 3 types of meaning. Conveys the speakers <b>stance, attitudes, opinions</b> expressed through intonation and word choice. VL 10 Affix : Also called <i><b>bound morpheme</b></i>. They cannot appear on their own. Have two subcategories: <i>derivational affixes</i>&nbsp;and <i>inflectional affixes</i>. VL 05 Agglutinating morphological system : A subcategory of <b>synthetic</b>&nbsp;morphological systems. Words can have affixes. Typically each affix encodes a distinct meaning. Thus words can be easily segmented into morphemes. VL 05 Allomorph : An alternative realisation of a single morpheme. They can be <b>phonologically conditioned</b>&nbsp;(and thus sound similar: a morpheme with an allophone) or <b>morphologically conditioned</b>&nbsp;(lexically or grammatically, ex.: <i>sleep --&gt; slep-t</i>). Vl 05 Allophone : A predictable variant of a phoneme that occurs either in <b>complementary distribution</b>&nbsp;or <b>free variation</b>. I.e. One phoneme may have many allophones. VL 04 Ambiguous sentence : If a word in a sentence (like&nbsp;<em>duck</em>) can refer to different things (like&nbsp;<em>bending over</em>&nbsp;or the animal), the meaning is&nbsp;<strong>ambiguous</strong>. Different to <b>vague</b>. VL 10 Analytic morphological system : Poor inflectional system with few word forms for each lexeme. The word order is fixed because it marks syntactic relations.&nbsp;<em><strong>Isolating</strong>&nbsp;types</em>&nbsp;are a subcategory of analytic languages.&nbsp;<em>E.g. English</em> VL 05 Anomalous sentence : If a sentence is not a contradiction but just does not make any sense semantically, it is&nbsp;<strong>anomalous</strong>.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/b3WHeKa.png"> VL 10 Antonymy : A lexical relation. Describes opposites. It implies the exclustion of at least one semantic feature. There are different types of antonymous words: VL 10 -&nbsp;<strong><em>complementary antonymy:</em></strong>&nbsp;pairs of antonymous words<div>-&nbsp;<strong><em>gradable antonymy:</em></strong>&nbsp;antonyms of this type can be placed along a continuum</div><div>-&nbsp;<strong><em>converseness:</em></strong>&nbsp;converses describe&nbsp;<em>relational</em>&nbsp;opposites</div><div>-&nbsp;<strong><em>reversiveness:</em></strong>&nbsp;reverses describe&nbsp;<em>directional</em>&nbsp;opposites</div> Applied linguistics : deals with the application of linguistic concepts (e.g. for language teaching, translation, AI). Counterpart is <i>theoretical linguistics</i>. VL 01 Arbitrariness of language : A language property. Relationship between form and meaning is arbitrary.&nbsp; VL 01 Areal classification : A type of language classification. Is based on the geographical area where languages are located. Languages that are not genetically related but that are in close contact sometimes exchange certain patterns. Such areas are also called&nbsp;<strong>Sprachenbund</strong>&nbsp;(sic!). VL 12 Articulatory phonetics : One of 3 parts of phonetics. Studies how speech sounds are made by the vocal organs. VL 03 Assimilation : An articulatory process where one sound influences the articulation of a neighboring sound such that they become more alike. E.g. <i>good boy --&gt; [gubboi]</i> VL 04 Auditory phonetics : One of 3 parts of phonetics. The study of perceptual response to speech sounds. Involves the ear, auditory nerve and brain. VL 03 Auxiliary verbs (Aux) : A syntactic category, more precise: A <i>non-lexical</i> category. They designate:<div><i><b>possiblity, obligation, futurity or permission.</b>&nbsp;</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>E.g. may, must, can, will, be, have</i></div> VL 07 Back-formation : A minor process in&nbsp;<i>derivational morphology.</i>&nbsp;Removing a morpheme from an existing lexeme. Ex.:<br><div><i>editor --&gt; to edit</i></div> VL 05 Balanced corpus : One of 3 types of corpora. A corpus, chosen such that it is representative of a particular type of language. It should be: VL 02 <div>- <b>balanced</b> (in regard to different types of language and speakers)</div><div>- <b>representative</b> (of as many varieties as possible)</div><div>- <b>comparable</b> (to other corpora)</div> Base : Any form to which an affix is attached. Ex.: <i><b>blacken</b>-ed. </i>Sometimes the base of a word is also the root:<i> <b>table</b>-s.</i> VL 05 Blending : A minor process in&nbsp;<i>derivational morphology.</i>&nbsp;Blending (mixing) two lexemes into a new one. Ex:<br><div><i>breakfast &amp; lunch --&gt; brunch</i></div> VL 05 Circumfix : An affix which is attached to a base both initially and finally. VL 05 Clause : A clause has a&nbsp;<b>subject-predicate structure</b> and can serve as <b>sentence consituent</b>.&nbsp; VL 07 Clipping : A minor process in <i>derivational morphology.</i>&nbsp;Shortening a lexeme without a change of meaning or lexical category. Ex.: <i>advertisement --&gt; ad</i> VL 05 Coinage : A minor process in&nbsp;<i>derivational morphology. </i>Describes a word being created <b>ex nihilo</b>&nbsp;(from nothing). Often those are brand names: <i>kleenex, Tesa.</i> VL 05 Complementary distribution : Allophones in complementary distribution do not appear in the same phonetic environment. Ex.:<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/9S3C2vn.png"> VL 04 Complement clauses : One of 2 special clauses types. They are embedded phrases that start with a&nbsp;<em><b>complementizer</b>: whether/if, how, that.</em><div><i><br></i> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/aSm8TuF.png></div><br> <img src=https://i.imgur.com/GbQ4fGR.png"> VL 07 Complement (phrase) : Provides additional information about entities and locations mentioned in the <b>head</b>. Attached to the right of the head in english VL 07 Componential analysis : The meaning of a word can be broken down into smaller units. Word meaning is defined as bundle of smaller meanings.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/MXgfmkD.png"> VL 10 Compositionality : The meaning of a sentence is determined by the meaning of its component parts and the manner in which they are arranged. VL 10 Compounding : A major process in&nbsp;<i>derivational morphology</i>. Two or more lexemes can be combined to create compounds. Semantic types of compounds are: <i>endocentric, exocentric, appositional, copulative.</i> VL 05 Consonant : A phone/sound where the airflow can be <b>blocked or obstructed</b>, that can be <b>voiced or voiceless</b>, and that is <b>never a nucleus</b>&nbsp;of a syllable. Subtypes are <i>obstruents and sonorants</i>. VL 03 Consonant inventories : A type of language classification. Consonant inventories can have a very big variation. The range is from 8-90 consonants. VL 12 Constituency test : A test that, if successful, proves the tested words form a constituent. There are 5 different. VL 07 Content word : Content words&nbsp;are&nbsp;<b>nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs</b>. They denote concepts, actions or attributes. Content words are an <b>open class.</b> VL 05 Contradictory sentence : Sentences can be a&nbsp;<strong>contradiction</strong>&nbsp;if partial meanings exclude one another. If a sentence is not a contradiction but just does not make any sense semantically, it is&nbsp;<strong>anomalous.</strong> VL 10 Conversion : A major process in&nbsp;<i>derivational morphology</i>. New lexemes are formed by changing the lexical category of an existing lexeme. Ex.:&nbsp;<div><i>Noun --&gt; verb: bookmark, e-mail</i></div> VL 05 Coordination test : A constituency test. Constituents can be coordinated (connected by a&nbsp;<em><b>coordinating conjunction</b></em>) with each other if they are of the same syntactic category.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/8hJVUWf.png"> VL 07 Corpus : A corpus is a set of texts. The content can be&nbsp;<b>spoken, written or multimodal</b>. VL 02 <div>Corpora (should) have 4 characteristics:<b><br></b></div><div>- <b>Representativeness</b>&nbsp;(of the language to study),&nbsp;</div><div>- <b>finite size</b>,&nbsp;</div><div>- <b>machine-readable form</b>,&nbsp;</div><div>- <b>standard reference</b>&nbsp;(a corpus serves as a reference for the variety it represents)</div> Corpus annotation : Adding linguistic and non-linguistic information to the corpus. Types of annotation are <i>POS tagging, lemmatization, syntactic parsing.</i> VL 02 Corpus characteristics : Possible differentiation of corpora: VL 02 - <b>general</b>&nbsp;vs <b>specialized</b>&nbsp;(balanced in terms of register, variety, ...)<div>- <b>synchronic</b>&nbsp;vs <b>diachronic</b></div><div>- <b>learner corpora </b>vs <b>native corpora</b></div><div>- <b>developmental corpora</b></div><div>- <b>regional corpora</b>&nbsp;(sample one variety only &lt;--&gt; or more)</div> Creativity of language : A language property. Unlimited new utterances can be created from a limited set of words. VL 01 Derivational morpheme : A morpheme that adds lexical information. It may change the lexical category of the word. VL 05 Derivational morphology : A subbranch of morphology that studies how new words are created from existing words. Derivation deals with the process of word formation. VL 05 Descriptive linguistics : aims at describing the language. Its counterpart is <i>prescriptive linguistics</i>. VL 01 Diachronic linguistics : looks at the development of language over time. Counterpart is <i>synchronic linguistics</i>. VL 01 Diacritic : A written mark that can go with a symbol in the <b>international phonetic alphabet (IPA)</b>. Can be used to indicate the <b>quality</b> of the represented sound. VL 03 Dialect vs Accent : A&nbsp;<em>dialect</em>&nbsp;refers to <b>grammar, vocabulary and distinctive pronounciation</b>,&nbsp;<div>whereas an&nbsp;<em>accent</em>&nbsp;refers to <b>distinctive pronounciation only</b>.<br></div> VL 11 Diphthong : One of 2 vowel types. Have a change in quality within a single syllable VL 03 Direct Object : A grammatical relation. <em>NP</em>&nbsp;immediately dominated by&nbsp;<em>VP</em>.&nbsp;<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/HbjoJhv.png"> VL 07 Dissimilation : An articulatory process where two neighboring sounds become less similar. VL 04 Distinctive feature : is what distinguishes a phoneme from another. Thus a change in a distinctive feature cause a change in meaning. <b>Segmental</b>&nbsp;and <b>sequential constraints</b>&nbsp;exist on distinctive features. The phonetic features are:<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/VYjencg.png"> VL 04 Disyllabic words : represent either nouns/adjectives or verbs, dpending on the stress. Ex.: con'tent &lt;--&gt; 'content VL 04 Ditransitive verbs : Verbs that require both a direct object&nbsp;<em>(NP)</em>&nbsp;and an indirect object&nbsp;<em>(PP, or NP)</em>.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/LS2qqTu.png"> VL 07 Dominance : Every node in a tree&nbsp;<em>dominates</em>&nbsp;the nodes beneath it. Dominance may also be&nbsp;<em><b>immediate</b></em>&nbsp;(if it refers to the immediate child node). VL 07 Elision : An articulatory process where sounds are omitted/deleted in certain environment. Ex.: <i>mustn't [masnt].</i> VL 04 Environment : is the phonetic context in which a sound occurs. VL 04 Finite clause : A clause where the predicate V is inflected and tensed.<div><br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/PRQZlYI.png"></div> VL 07 Free variation : Allophones in free variation are phonemes that occur in the same <i>phonetic environment</i>&nbsp;and do <b>not cause a change in meaning</b>.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/arwBBBH.png"> VL 04 Function word : Function words&nbsp;are&nbsp;<b>conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns</b>. They specify grammatical relation and are a <b>closed class</b>. Vl 05 Fusion : A morphological classification for languages. Defines how much morpheme boundaries in words are fused together. Closely related to <i style="font-weight: bold;">synthesis</i>. VL 12 Genetic classification : A type of language classification. Is based on language families and language relationships. VL 12 Glottal state : Two possible glottal states exist:&nbsp;<b>Voicelessness</b>&nbsp;<i>(<b>s</b>ee, <b>h</b>ug)</i> and <b>voicing</b>&nbsp;<i>(<b>z</b>ip, <b>j</b>ug).</i> VL 03 Grammar : A grammar is about elements and how to combine those elements. Its components are: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics. VL 01 Grammaticality : Grammatical sentences are sentences which native speakers judge as possible statements. VL 07 Grammatical relation : refers to the relationship between <i><b>syntactic categories</b></i> and <b><i>their&nbsp;function</i></b>&nbsp;in a sentence.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/8vpzE0v.png"> VL 07 Hapax legomena : In corpus analysis: Words that only occur once in the corpus. VL 09 Homonymy : A lexical relation. Homonymous words look and/or sound identical but have different (and usually unrelated) meanings.&nbsp;<em><b>Total homonyms</b></em>&nbsp;have identical grammatical properties while&nbsp;<b><em>partial</em>&nbsp;homonyms</b> do not.<div><br></div><div>Then there are also <i style="font-weight: bold;>homophones</i>&nbsp;(that sound the same) and <i style=font-weight: bold;">homographs</i>&nbsp;(words that are written the same way).</div> VL 10 Hyponymy : A hierarchical lexical relation. A&nbsp;<strong>hyponym</strong>&nbsp;is subordinate to a&nbsp;<strong>hyperym</strong>. This is like subclassing in OOP. The hyponym contains all distinctive features of the hypernym + some additional features.<div><em><br></em></div><div><em>E.g. red, blue, green</em>&nbsp;are hyponyms of the hypernym&nbsp;<em>color.</em>&nbsp;In this case&nbsp;<em>red</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>blue</em>&nbsp;are called&nbsp;<strong>heteronyms</strong>.</div> <div>VL 10</div> Idiolect vs Lect : An&nbsp;<em>idiolect</em>&nbsp;is the language system found in a single speaker. Everyone has to some extent a&nbsp;<em>“personal dialect”</em>. Lect is just another word vor&nbsp;<em>variety.</em> VL 11 Infix : An affix that is inserted into another morpheme. VL 05 Inflectional morpheme : A morpheme which can only add grammatical information but not lexical. VL 05 Inflectional morphological system : A subcategory of <b>synthetic </b>morphological systems. Different grammatical&nbsp;information can be encoded by one morph. A clear segmentation into morphemes is not easily possible. VL 05 Inflectional morphology : Inflectional morphemes add grammatical information. They create a <b>different word form</b>&nbsp;of the <b>same lexeme</b>. Their function is marking relationship between words. Concretely they: VL 05 - mark <b>tense</b>&nbsp;and <b>aspect</b>&nbsp;(<i>Peter <b>has</b> pick-<b>ed</b>&nbsp;cherries.</i>)<div>- function as agreement markers for&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp; -&nbsp;<b>person and number</b></div><div><b>&nbsp; </b>-<b> gender</b></div><div><b>&nbsp; </b>-<b> case</b></div> Inflectional vs derivational morphology : <img src="https://i.imgur.com/tvm6OR1.png"> VL 05 Initialisms : A minor process in&nbsp;<i>derivational morphology.</i>&nbsp;Taking the initial letters of several words. The pronounciation is different for <b>acronyms</b>&nbsp;and <b>alphabetisms.</b> VL 05 <b>Acronyms</b>: NATO, DOS (pronounced as whole)<div><b>Alphabetisms</b>: UK, TV (each letter pronounced separately)</div> intervocalic /t/ or /tt/ as /d/ : A difference of&nbsp;<i>AmE&nbsp;</i>and<i>&nbsp;BrE</i>.&nbsp;<br><div><br></div><div>AmE typically uses the /d/ while BrE does not. See:&nbsp;<em>metal = medal, latter = ladder</em><br></div> VL 11 Intonation : The pitch (Tonlage) may be a distinctive feature in some languages and thus differentiate between meanings. VL 04 Intransitive verbs : Verbs that do not take a direct object.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/NyawZxL.png"> VL 07 Invariance of speech sounds : The [p] sound sounds similar enough across human languages to give it the same symbol. But [p] and [t] sounds are distinct enough to get different symbols. VL 03 Isolating morphological system : A subcategory of <b>analytic</b>&nbsp;morphological systems. Each word thends to be an isolated single morpheme. Inflectional and derivational morphemes are both missing. Vl 05 /j/ dropped before stressed /u/ : A difference of&nbsp;<i>AmE&nbsp;</i>and<i>&nbsp;BrE</i>.&nbsp;<br><div><br></div><div>This only holds if the vowel is not initial. AmE frequently drops the /j/. See:&nbsp;<em>duke, tune, new.</em><br></div> VL 11 Language universals : Common grammatical properties of human language as a whole. VL 01 Lemmatization : Type of corpus annotation. Reduce forms of words to its lemma. Ex.: <i>does, did, doing --&gt; do</i> VL 02 Lexeme : Also called <i>free morpheme</i>. Can occur in isolation and be a word by itself. Has two subtypes: <i><b>Lexical lexemes</b></i>&nbsp;(corresponding to content words) and <i style="font-weight: bold;">grammatical lexemes</i>&nbsp;(corresponding to function words). VL 05 Lexical category : Two major lexical categories have been introduced:<i>&nbsp;Content words</i>&nbsp;and <i>function words.</i>&nbsp;But a word's possible lexical category are: noun, verb, preposition, ... (all possible function or content words). VL 05 Lexical relation : <b><i>Lexical relations</i></b>&nbsp;or sense relations describe the <i><b>meaning relations</b></i> between words. VL 10 Lexical semantics (paradigmatic semantics) : One of 3 branches of semantics. Studies the <b>meaning of words (lexemes)</b> and how they are related to each other. VL 10 Lingua franca : A language that was used initially used among speakers of different origins for trade. VL 11 Linguistic meaning : One of 3 types of meaning. Includes&nbsp;<em><b>sense</b> (the idea or concept a word expresses)</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em><b>reference</b>&nbsp;(the real entity the word refers to).</em> VL 10 Major processes : Derivational morphology is divided in major and minor processes. Major processes have <b>high productivity</b>. They feature: <i>Prefixation, Suffixation, Compounding, Conversion.</i> VL 05 Meronymy : A lexical relation. Describes part-whole relationships. A&nbsp;<strong>meronym</strong>&nbsp;is part of a&nbsp;<strong>holonym</strong>&nbsp;(the whole).<div><em><br></em></div><div><em>E.g. mouth, nose, cheek</em>&nbsp;are meronyms of the holonym&nbsp;<em>face</em></div> VL 10 Metaphor : A conceptual principle.&nbsp;Based on perceived similarities it permits understanding one concept in terms of another.<div><br></div><div><i>E.g. LOVE IS WAR</i></div> VL 10 Metonymy : A concept is referred to by the name of something closely related.<br><div><br></div><div><i>E.g. Berlin will not join the summit.</i></div> VL 10 Minimal pair : Two words with distinct meanings that differ only by one phoneme occuring in the same position in the word. Ex.:&nbsp;<em>(<strong>p</strong>in,&nbsp;<strong>b</strong>in)</em> VL 04 Minimal set : consists of two or more words that differ only in one phoneme occuring in the same position in the word. VL 04 Minor processes : Derivational morphology is divided in major and minor processes. Minor processes have <b>low productivity</b>. They feature: <i>Clipping, Blending, Initialisms, Back-formation, Coinage, Reduplicatives</i> VL 05 Monitor corpus : One of 3 types of corpora. A massive dataset with a variety of materials, that grows over time. It also contains errors in the data and gives no control over <i>sociolinguistic variables (age, gender, dialect of the speaker)</i>. Example: The web. VL 02 Monophthong : One of 2 vowel types. Have no change in quality. VL 03 Morpheme : The smallest meaning-bearing unit of language. <b>Simple words</b>, that consist of only one morpheme are called <b><i>monomorphemic</i></b>. <b>Complex words</b> consist of multiple morphemes. VL 05 Morphology : A grammar component. The study of word structure and formation. VL 01 Movement test : A constituency test.&nbsp;Constituents can be moved as a whole to another location in the sentence.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/ab9bDgE.png"> VL 07 Mutual intelligibility : Means that speakers can understand ech other in most cases (except for a few words or a particular pronunciation).&nbsp;<div>Two varieties are considered<b> different languages</b> if speakers cannot understand each other (like in many Chinese dialects).<br></div> VL 12 Non-finite clause : A clause where the predicate V is not tensed.<div><br></div> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/tCcmaxV.png"> VL 07 No pronounciation of /t/ or /d/ after /n/ and before a vowel : A difference of&nbsp;<i>AmE&nbsp;</i>and<i>&nbsp;BrE</i>.&nbsp;<br><div><br></div><div>See:&nbsp;<em>inter city [BrE] = inner city [AmE], understand (</em><em>[unnerstaent] vs [understaand])</em><br></div> VL 11 Noun phrase: NP : A <i>phrase</i>&nbsp;consisting of <b>Determiner</b> and <b>Noun</b><br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/kNT1Kc8.png"> VL 07 Obstruent : One of 2 consonant types. The <b>airflow is strongly obstructed</b>. Subcategories are: VL 03 - <b>plosives (or stops):</b>&nbsp;Complete closure of airflow is suddenly released --&gt; explosive sound<div>- <b>fricatives:</b>&nbsp;Airflow partially obstructed, turbulent airflow</div><div>- <b>affricates:</b>&nbsp;A plosive immediately followed by a fricative</div> Onomatopoeia : Sounds of words that imitate the sounds of nature (e.g. <i>kuckuck</i>). VL 01 Onset : The beginning of a syllable. Usually consists of one consonant, but may contain up to 3. VL 04 Opportunistic corpus : One of 3 types of corpora. It is neither <i>balanced</i>&nbsp;nor <i>representative</i>. Example: A corpus of extinct languages. VL 02 Phoneme : The smallest linguistic unit capable of distinguishing meaning. VL 04 phonemic : Phonetic differences that are linguistically significant are <i>phonemic</i>. Ex.: (<strong>m</strong>oon,&nbsp;<strong>n</strong>oon)&nbsp;→&nbsp;/m/, /n/ are phonemes. VL 04 Phonemic transcription : Most simple type of phonetic transcription.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/M7i0elG.png"> VL 03 Phone : The basic unit of phonetics. Denotes any distinct speech sound, regardless of its meaning. Two major types exist: <i>Consonants</i>&nbsp;and <i>vowels</i>. VL 03 Phonetic class : A group of sounds whose members share one or more phonetic features. A major goal of phonology is to formulate general statements about sound patterns across those classes. VL 04 Phonetics : A grammar component. Studies the articulation and perception of speech sounds. The object of study are&nbsp;<i><b>phones&nbsp;</b>/ sounds</i>.</div> VL 01 Phonetic transcription : Transcription that uses diacritics.&nbsp;<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/EoKGote.png"> VL 03 Phonological clasification : A type of language classification. Is based on the vowel system. Most languages have 3-9 vowels, most common are 5 vowels. VL 12 Phonology : A grammar component. The study of sound systems of languages i.e. the <b>function and patterning</b>&nbsp;of sounds. The object of study are <b>phonemes</b>.</div> VL 01 Phonotactics : The sequential arrangement of phonological segments (How do we align the phonemes?). Part of a speaker's knowledge of grammar. VL 04 Phrase : A phrase is always built around a <b>head</b>. The lexical category of the head decides about the name of the phrase. Phrases may include a <b>specifier</b>&nbsp;(to the left of the head). They may also contain a <b>complement</b>&nbsp;(to the right of the head).<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/Imefhza.png"> VL 07 Phrase structure tree : Consist of <i>a&nbsp;</i><em>root, leafs, nodes, and sisters</em>&nbsp;(nodes of the same parent node). It is useful to: VL 07 - visualize the <b>linear order</b>&nbsp;of words<div>- identify the grouping into <b>syntactic categories</b></div><div>- revealing the <b>hierarchical structure</b>&nbsp;of the syntactic categories</div> Polysemy : A lexical relation.&nbsp;Polysemous words have two or more different meanings. The various meanings have at least one semantic feature in common.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/hMthOmh.png"> VL 10 Portmanteau morpheme : A morph that has several different meanings. Ex.: A suffix <i>-s</i>&nbsp;can indicate plural or 3rd person present tense. VL 05 POS tagging : = Parts-of-speech tagging. Type of corpus annotation. Using a tagset every word is tagged into a category. VL 02 Pragmatics : One of 3 branches of semantics. Studies the <b>meaning</b> of words or sentences <b>in context</b>.&nbsp; VL 10 Predicate : A grammatical relation.&nbsp;<em>V </em>in<em> VP</em>&nbsp;immediately dominated by&nbsp;<em>S</em>.&nbsp;<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/HbjoJhv.png"> VL 07 Prefix : An affix that occurs before other morphemes VL 05 Prefixation : A major process in <i>derivational morphology. </i>A prefix is attached. The lexical category may or may not change. VL 05 Prepositional phrase: PP : Degree word and Preposition. <i>E.g.&nbsp;</i><em>(in an hour, last week)</em><br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/mGAqDBw.png"> VL 07 Prescriptive linguistics : aims at prescribing people what they should say. Not common anymore. Counterpart is <i>descriptive linguistics</i>. VL 01 Proto-World : The idea that all language originates from one single language. That language is called <i style="font-weight: bold;">Proto-World</i>&nbsp;or <b><i>Proto-Sapiens</i></b> VL 12 Raw frequency : In corpus analysis: The simple frequency counts. VL 09 Recursiveness : A property of sentences. They are unbounded and can be infinitely expanded. VL 07 Reduplicatives : A minor process in&nbsp;<i>derivational morphology.</i>&nbsp;Describes a compound whose parts are identical or very similar. Ex:&nbsp;<br><div><i>Child-speech: jim-jams, tick-tock.</i></div> VL 05 Register : A variety of language used for a specific purpose. For example ‘official’ english vs ‘slang’ english. Both would be used in different settings. VL 11 Relative frequency : In corpus analysis: The frequency per corpus size.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZMEZW1o.png"> VL 09 Rhotic accent : A difference of <i>AmE </i>and<i> BrE</i>.&nbsp;<div><br></div><div>In AmE&nbsp;<em>/r/</em>&nbsp;is pronounced in all positions while in BrE it is pronounced only immetidately before vowels. See:&nbsp;<em>arm, better.</em></div> VL 11 Rhyme : Part of a syllable. Consists of a <b>nucleus</b>&nbsp;and <b>coda</b>. The nucleus usually contains one vowel and the coda one consonant. Codas may have up to 4 consonants. VL 04 Root : The minimal lexical unit which cannot be analyzed any further. Ex.: <b style="font-style: italic;>hunt</b><i>-er, re-</i><b style=font-style: italic;">read</b>. Roots can usually stand alone as a word, except for bound roots. VL 05 Selection : A <i>semantic</i> restriction. Predicates may only go with some complements. Subcatgorization is the syntactic equivalent. VL 07 Semantics : A grammar component. Studies the meaning (i.e. the interpretation of words and sentences) in human lanugage. VL 01 Sentence constituent : Sentences&nbsp;have a hierarchical structure in which words are grouped into successively larger syntactic <i>structures</i>. These <i>structures</i>&nbsp;are called&nbsp;<strong><em>constituents.</em></strong><div><strong><em><br></em></strong></div><div>Typical constituents are: phrases, clauses</div> VL 07 Sentence : The largest unit of syntactic analysis. It always consists of&nbsp;<em><b>NP</b>s&nbsp;and <b>VP</b>s</em> VL 07 Silent letter : In phonetics cases exist where an ortographic symbol exists, but no sound is produced. Ex.: <i>de<b>b</b>t, lis<b>t</b>en.</i> VL 03 Social meaning : One of 3 types of meaning. is communicated through sentence meaning, word choice and pronounciation. It contains information about the<b>&nbsp;</b><em><b>identity of the speaker</b>.</em><div><i><br></i> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/YCuU7ZN.png"></div> VL 10 Sociolinguistics : Studies variation between individuals of different social groups (age, gender, ethnicity, education). VL 11 Sociolinguistic variable : Refers to the author of a text/phrase in a corpus. Denotes the age, gender or dialect of the speaker. VL 02 Sonorant : One of 2 consonant types. The <b>airflow is unobstructed</b>. They are usually <b>voiced</b>. Subcategories are: VL 03 - <b>nasals:</b>&nbsp;Air flows only through the nasal cavity<div>- <b>liquids:</b>&nbsp;Combination of obstruction and simultaneous airflow through oral cavity</div><div>- <b>semi-vowels (or glides):</b>&nbsp;Similar to vowel articulation but moves rapidly to another articulation</div> Sound segment : Synonyme for <i>phone</i>. An individual speech sound. Ex.:<br><br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/8TqKTwj.png"> VL 03 Sound symbolysm : The sound of words is suggestive of their meaning. VL 01 Specifier (phrase) : A determiner, qualifier or degree word. They make the meaning of the <b>head</b>&nbsp;more precise. They appear at the left boundary of the head in english. VL 07 Speech organs : The organs involved in speech production: VL 03 - <b>lungs</b>&nbsp;(air supply)<div>- <b>larynx &amp; vocal folds</b>&nbsp;(Kehlkopf &amp; Stimmbänder, die im Kehlkopf sind)</div><div>- <b>pharynx</b>&nbsp;(Rachen)</div><div>- <b>oral cavity</b></div><div>- <b>nasal cavity</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>pharynx, oral cavity, nasal cavity act as 3 distinct filters. Larynx &amp; vocal folds produce the spech sounds. The space between the vocal folds is the <b>glottis</b>.</div> Spelling in BrE : In spelling BrE has a strong tendency to turn&nbsp;true homonyms&nbsp;into&nbsp;heterogryphs&nbsp;<em>(e.g. cheque vs check)</em>.<br><div><br></div><div><i><b>True homonyms:</b> Words that sound the same but mean something different.</i></div><div><i><b>Heterogryphs:</b> Words that are written entirely differently than they're pronounced.</i></div> VL 11 Stand-alone test : A constituency test. If a set of words can occur on its own,&nbsp;&nbsp;e.g. as an answer to a question, they are a constituent. VL 07 Stem : A root combined with an affix. Ex.: <i><b>hunt-er</b>, <b>re-read</b>.</i> VL 05 Stress : The degree of force employed in producing a syllable. Decides about greater or lesser prominence compared to other syllables. Stress in english <b>can be distinctive</b>&nbsp;--&gt; see disyllabic words VL 04 Structural ambiguity : Sentences may sometimes be analyzed in different ways.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/1sIFZPj.png"> VL 07 Structure of sentence constituents : A hierarchy,<div><strong>Sentences → clauses → phrases → words → morphemes</strong><br></div> VL 07 Subcategorization : A syntactic restricion. Words (but mostly verbs) may require the co-occurence of a certain&nbsp;<em>syntactic</em>&nbsp;argument (e.g. a direct object or an indirect object). VL 07 Subject : A grammatical relation.<em> NP</em>&nbsp;immediately dominated by&nbsp;<em>S</em>.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/HbjoJhv.png"> VL 07 Substituion test : A constituency test.&nbsp;If a set of words can be replaced by one word (a pro-form), they are a constituent.<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/0BSgVWl.png"> VL 07 Suffix : An affix that follows other morphemes. VL 05 Suffixation : A major process in&nbsp;<i>derivational morphology</i>. A suffix is attached to a base. The lexical category almost always changes. VL 05 Syllable : A phonological unit composed of one or more segments. It must contain a <b>nucleus</b>. Its structure is: 1. <i>onset,</i>&nbsp;2. <i>rhyme</i>. VL 04 Symbolism : The relationship between words and objects or things we experience is symoblic. VL 01 Synchronic linguistics : looks at language as it is at one particular point in time. Counterpart is <i>diachronic linguistics</i>. VL 01 Synonymous sentences : Two sentences are <i>synonymous</i>&nbsp;if they describe the same thing. VL 10 Synonymy : A lexical relation. Describes high semantic similarity.&nbsp;Synonymous words have the <b>same semantic features</b> but are <b>not</b> always usable <b>interchangeably</b>. They can still differ subtly, e.g. in connotations. VL 10 Syntactic category : Can be further categorized into <i><b>lexical categories</b></i> and <i><b>non-lexical categories</b></i>. Three criteria (together) help to idenfitfy the category: <b>meaning, inflection, distribution.</b> VL 07 <i>Lexical categories:</i><div>noun (N), verb (V), adjective (A), preposition (P), adverb (Adv)</div><div><br></div><div><i>Non-lexical categories:</i></div><div>- determiner (Det): <i>the, a, this</i></div><div>- degree word (Deg): <i>very, so, more</i></div><div>- qualifier (Qual):&nbsp;<em>perhaps, almost</em></div><div>- auxiliary (Aux):&nbsp;<em>may, have will</em></div><div>- conjunction (Con):&nbsp;<em>and, but, or</em><i><br></i></div> Syntactic parsing : Type of corpus annotation. Analyze the corpus into sentence constituents. VL 02 Syntagmatic semantics : One of 3 branches of semantics. Studies the meaning of <b>words in combination</b>. VL 10 Syntax : A grammar component. Study of sentence structure and formation. It is a system of&nbsp;<em><b>categories and rules</b></em>&nbsp;that allow words to combine to form <b><i>grammatical</i></b> sentences. VL 01 Syntax rules... : VL 07 ... specify the correct word order<div>... specify the relationship: Word order --&gt; meaning</div><div>... specify grammatical relations between words</div> Synthesis : A morphological classification for languages. Defines how much languages use inflectional/derivational affixes. Closely related to <i><b>fusion</b>.</i> VL 12 Synthetic morphological system : A rich inflectional system with many word forms for each lexeme. The word order is relatively free because inflection mark syntactic relations. Synthentic language types can be further differentiated into&nbsp;<em><strong>inflectional</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>agglutinating</strong>&nbsp;types</em>. VL 05 Theoretical linguistics : aims at discovering general principles and formulating theories about the structure of language. Counterpart is <i>applied linguistics</i>. VL 01 Transitive verbs : Verbs that require a direct object (NP).<br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/K61r49k.png"> VL 07 Typological classification : A type of language classification. Is based on the characteristics of language, e.g. based on word order patterns. VL 12 Unique morpheme : Unique morphemes are e.g. <i>cran-, huckle-, rasp-.</i>&nbsp;They are bound morphemes and occur in compounds to distinguish meaning. They have no grammatical meaning. They are <b>not affixes</b>. They are <b>bound roots.</b> VL 05 Vague sentence : If a sentence is imprecise, e.g. referring to things that are not properly introduced (like&nbsp;<em>the</em>&nbsp;pie), it is called&nbsp;<strong>vague</strong>. VL 10 Variety : Differences across the same language. May be further categorized in <i><b>dialects</b>&nbsp;(regional varieties), <b>sociolects</b>&nbsp;(socia varieties), <b>registers</b>.</i><div><i><br></i></div><div>A <b>standard variety</b>&nbsp;has been chosen as official language.</div> VL 11 Verb phrase: VP : A&nbsp;<i>phrase</i>&nbsp;consisting of <b>Qualifier</b> and <b>Verb</b><br> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/zJOm0tR.png"> VL 07 Visualizing quantitative data : Can be done <b>verbally</b> or through one of 3 types of plots:<div><b>Bar chart, line graph, scatterplot</b>.</div> VL 09 Vowel : A phone/sound where the airflow is <b>free</b>, that is <b>always voiced</b>, that functions as <b>nucleus of a syllable</b>. Subtypes are <i>monophthongs and diphthongs</i>. Further categorization is possible into: VL 03 - <b>tense</b>&nbsp;and <b>lax vowels</b>: Depending on the tension of the speech muscles used<div>- <b>degree of tongue raising</b>: high - mid - low</div><div>- <b>part of the tongue raised</b>: front - central - back</div><div>- <b>lip movement</b>: rounded, open or spread.</div><div><br></div> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/XnwJZcH.png"> Vowel reduction : An articulatory process in which unstressed vowels tend to be reduced or weakened. Ex.: and [end] --&gt; [nd]/[en] VL 04 Wh-question : Replace the NP with a <i>wh-phrase</i>&nbsp;and change its position to the front. The wh-phrase becomes part of the <b>CP node</b>. VL 07 Yes-no question : A sentence with an <b>Aux</b>&nbsp;at the front of the sentence. VL 07 ###### tags: `2020` `overview` `recap` `TU Darmstadt` `Linguistics` `Linguistik` `Zusammenfassung` `CogSci` _Proud author of this glossary: B.M._