glossary

__** Glossary **__ //Italics = example//
 * Bold = term**

**A**

 * Acronym** - A short form for a phrase, made by taking parts of each word, usually the first letter of each. Read as if it were a regular //(Ontario Student Assistance Program = OSAP)//.


 * Affix** - A **morpheme** that is "attached" to a root to make a new word. Usually cannot stand on its own. Types: **suffix,** end of a word //(Buddha->Buddhism)//; **prefix**, start of a word //(do->undo)//; **infix,** inside a word //(not present in English)//; **circumfix**, on each side of the word //(not present in English)//.


 * Affricate** - Sound: **stop** followed immediately by **fricative**; //[tʃ], [ ʤ ]//


 * Allophone** - A **phone** not distinguished as its own **phoneme** in a language //(in English, [w] and [ ////ʍ] are allophones of /w/).//


 * Alveolar** - Sound: tip of tongue touching alveolar ridge (behind upper teeth); //[t], [d], [n], [s], [z], [l], [r]//


 * Arbitrariness** - The quality of human language that the FORM is separate from the MEANING; there's nothing in the things we talk about that says why we gave it a certain name. //(The letters R, O, C, and K don't have anything to do with that hard, roundish thing we call a "rock".)//

**B**

 * Back formation** - Deriving a new word by splitting a root into supposed affixes, even when they were one morpheme. Usually done on borrowed words to get another part of speech, like noun to verb //(editor->edit; flabby->flab).//


 * Blend** - Deriving a new word by mixing two words, using the start of one and the end of the other //(smoke+fog->smog)//, but sometimes other combinations //(cybernetic organism->cyborg).// Not the same as attaching affixes.


 * Borrowing** - Deriving a new word by taking it from another language, and usually changing the spelling to normal phonological rules //("angst" from German; "tour de force" from French).//


 * Bound Morpheme** - A morpheme which only has meaning when attached to a root, so it can't stand alone //("cran" from cranberry).// Note that some of them are reused with the same meaning, but are still bound //("ly" in quickly and silently, etc)//.


 * Bilabial** - Sound: lips pressed together; //[b], [p], [m]//

**C**

 * Circumfix** - See **affix.**


 * Clipping** - Deriving a new word by clipping the end of it off, or otherwise taking a short form //(advertisement->ad)//. Note that the spelling can change to be pronounced on its own //(bicycle->bike)//, but doesn't have to change //(microphone->mic)//.


 * Coinage** - Deriving a new word. A more specific meaning is simply creating a phonologically possible sound. Sometimes actually unique //(aspirin)//, but it can be influenced by other methods of word creation, such as affixing //("prequel", even though "sequel" is one morpheme)//.


 * Competence** - A speaker's ability to understand and produce expressions according to a language's rules; that is, the ability to speak a language properly.


 * Consonant** - Sound: the airstream is manipulated in some way, such as putting the tongue against the roof of the mouth or putting the lips together. Opposite of **vowel**.


 * Constituents -** A phrase that can't be broken, made of one or more words, and can be replaced by a pronoun. //("The cat ran to my house" has three constituents: "the cat" (it), "ran" (did so), "to my house" (there). Try asking questions about each part to find constituents.)//


 * Conversion** - Deriving a new word by assigning a new lexical meaning to an old word; "stealing" a word //(mouse, a rodent->mouse, a device).//


 * Culturally Transmitted** - The quality of human language that it is passed on by one's surroundings. Instead of being born with it, a person gains language through the people and things speaking it around them.

**D**

 * Derivational Morpheme** - A morpheme that, when affixed to a root, changes its meaning or its part of speech, thus creating a new word by adding lexical meaning //("ment" in shipment; "er" in "golfer")//.


 * Dipththong** - A vowel sound produced by two sounds run together (**"monophthong**s"); English has three noted ones: //[aj], [ɔj], [aw]//.


 * Discreteness** - The quality of human language that each unit is distinct from another unit in meaning; that is, each unit (morpheme, word, sentence, whatever) signifies something unique.


 * Displacement** - The quality of human language that it can speak about things not actually present--either spatially or temporally--and to non-real things.


 * Dual Articulation** - The quality of human language that it is made up of meaningful blocks //("cat")// which are in turn made up of smaller (meaningless) blocks //("c", "a", "t")//; that is, a limited number of letters make an infinite number of words.

**E**

 * Eponym** - A word derived by taking a person's name ("ampere" from the discoverer of electromagnetism), either as it stands or by normalizing the spelling ("July" from Julius Caesar).


 * Etymeme** - The piece of language from which a word originally comes; the root //(amorous is from Latin "amor"; geology is from Greek "geos" and "logos").//

**F**

 * Free Morphemes** - A morpheme which has meaning on its own, and can also be combined //("berry" in cranberry; "silent" in silently)//.


 * Functional Shift** - The movement of a word to another part of speech, giving it a new syntactic meaning //("impact" from noun to verb; "late" from adjective to noun).//


 * Fricative** - Sound: the airstream is slowly released between a tight space, causing friction; //[f], [v], [s], [ʃ], [z], [ʒ], [θ], [ð]//

**G**

 * Glide -** Sound: the air is pushed out in a flowing motion by the tongue; //[w], [j]//


 * Glottal** - Sound: produced in the **glottis**, the lowest part of the throat; //[h], [ ʔ] //

**H**

 * Hierarchy of Morphemes** - Morphemes must be applied in a certain order to get the right effect; //(unlockable = [un+lock]+able, or un+[lock+able]?).//


 * Homographs** - Words which are spelled the same //(tear, to rip / tear, from crying)//. Usually also homophones //(rose, flower / rose, got up).//


 * Homophones** - Words which are pronounced the same //(to / two / too)//.


 * Hypocorism** - A short form made by abbreviating and adding a diminutive suffix //(television->telly; Victoria->Vicky)//.

**I**

 * Infix** - See **affix**.


 * Inflectional Morpheme** - A morpheme that, when attached to a word, gives you additional grammatical information about it, such as tense //(pass, past; play/played)//, number //(cat/cats)//, comparative //(strong/er/est),// and so on.


 * Interdental** - Sound: the tongue is placed between the teeth//; [// //θ], [ð]//


 * Initialism** - A short form for a phrase, made by taking parts of each word, usually the first letter of each. Read by pronouncing each letter //(University of Toronto Mississauga = U.T.M.)//.

**L**

 * Labiodental** - Sound produced by upper teeth touching bottom lips //eg. [f] [v]//


 * Lax** - See **tense/lax**.


 * Lexeme** - A set of words that are considered to be various forms of one morpheme root //("run" lexeme = run[present], run[past participle], runs, running, ran)//. In other words, all possible inflectional morpheme changes to a word.


 * Lexicon** - A language's set of words or, more accurately, **lexemes**. A personal lexicon is all the ones a person knows from that language.


 * Liquid** - Sound: the air passes smoothly over a curved tongue; //[l], [r]//

**M**

 * Morpheme** - The smallest unit of meaning in a language, made of **phonemes** and obeying the **phonology** of the language //("sun" and "light" but not "sunlight").//

**O**

 * Obstruent** - The airstream is partially or completely blocked from going out, such as a **stop**. Opposite of a **sonorant.**

**P**

 * Palatal** - Sound: the body of the tongue is raised to the (hard) **palate**//; [j], in some languages [ç]//


 * Performance** - A person's actual use of the language, rather than their understanding of how it works.


 * Phone** - A single sound, the smallest recognizable unit you can produce //([k], [////w]////, [s])//. Represented by letters or combinations of letters.


 * Phonemes** - The smallest sound a language distinguishes, made up of **allophones** //(for example, because English doesn't distinguished voiced **glides**,// //[w] and [ ////ʍ] are allophones of the phoneme /w/)//.


 * Phonetics** - The study of sounds in human speech, including how the human mouth produces them, how they are written, and how they sound to the ear.


 * Phonology** - The study of how **phones** become **phonemes** and how phonemes combine and interact, that is, how they are used in a language. //(For example, there is a phonological rule against the unpronounceable "mblq" in English, but in another language that might be a valid combination.)//


 * Phrase Structure Rules (PSR)** - The rules which govern how you are allowed to combine words in a language, putting them together to form sentences. //(A VP can be made of NP V (NP) (AdvP) (PP) and other combinations. An S can be made of NP Aux VP and others.)//


 * Pragmatics** - The study of how words and phrases get used by its speakers, and why (as opposed to the **semantics**, which is the flat "definition"); the study of how context contributes to meaning, and of conversation.


 * Prefix** - See **affix.**


 * Productive** - The quality of human language that it is able to create new combinations and words, infinitely.

**S**

 * Semantic Shift** - See **conversion.**


 * Semantics** - The study of the meanings of language, in both **lexical semantics**, the flat-out definitions of words; and **phrasal semantics**, the meanings of sentences, which are more than the sum of their parts; the study of **definition** and **connotation**.


 * Sibilant -** Sound: characterized by a very audible "hissing" sound; //[s], [z], [ ʃ], [ʒ], also [ʧ], [ʤ] //


 * Sonorant -** Sound: the airstream is not blocked enough to produce friction; //[j],[r],[l],[w]//


 * Suffix** - See **affix.**


 * Synonyms** - Two words with the same meaning (more specifically, **semantic properties**): //battle/fight, guilt/shame//. Some linguists argue that no two words have EXACTLY the same meaning, but the term still applies.


 * Syntax** - (The study of) the rules of grammar, i.e. how to use the language properly to form phrases and sentences. It largely concerns the many **Phrase Structure Rules**, as well as trying to determine the **deep structure** underlying the various **surface structures**.

**T**

 * Tense/Lax** - **Vowels** are either tense or lax, where a tense one has the tongue slightly higher and can't be produced in a relaxed shape. Vowels are often in tense/lax pairs: //[e]/[ɛ], [i]/[ɪ], [ʌ]/[ə]//.

**U**

 * Universal Rules** - The principles of grammar that apply to every language, such as that //All languages distinguish vowels and consonants// or //All languages have separate words for family relationships//. The study of these rules gives insight into the innateness of language.


 * Uvular** - Sound: produced at the **uvula**, between the **velum** and the **glottis**. //No such sounds exist in English.//

**V**

 * Velar** - Sound: the back part of the tongue is raised to the **velum** (also called the soft palate); //[k]//, //[g] in other languages [x]//


 * Vowel** - Sound: the airstream is not manipulated, but simply flows over the tongue at a certain **backness** and **highness**, and either **tense** or **lax.** Can form and be the centre of **syllables**. Opposite of **consonant.** Also see **diphthong.** //In English, [i], [ɪ], [e], [æ], [ɛ], [ə], [ʌ], [o], [ʊ], [u], [ɔ], [ɑ]//

**Y**

 * Yule's 6 features of language** - See **Arbitrariness, Culturally Transmitted, Discreteness, Displacement, Dual Articulation,** and **Productive.** Also see Wikipedia's entry on Yule.