dictionary_of_linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of Linguistics

Table of Contents

General features of language

Phonetics and phonology

Morphology

Lexicology

Syntax

Semantics and pragmatics

Sociolinguistics

Psycholinguistics

Applied linguistics

Language change

Language typology

Page

Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi Dictionary of Linguistics Page 2 of 36

1 General features of language

applied linguistics The application of insights from theoretical linguistics to

practical matters

such as language teaching, remedial linguistic therapy, language planning or

whatever.

arbitrariness An essential notion in structural linguistics which denies any

necessary

relationship between linguistic signs and their referents, e.g. objects in the

outside world.

areas of linguistics Any of a number of areas of study in which linguistic

insights have been

brought to bear, for instance sociolinguistics in which scholars study society and

the way

language is used in it. Other examples are psycholinguistics which is concerned

with the

psychological and linguistic development of the child.

competence According to Chomsky in his Aspects of the theory of syntax (1965) this

is the

abstract ability of an individual to speak the language which he/she has learned

as native

language in his/her childhood. The competence of a speaker is unaffected by such

factors as

nervousness, temporary loss of memory, speech errors, etc. These latter phenomena

are

entirely within the domain of performance which refers to the process of applying

one’s

competence in the act of speaking. Bear in mind that competence also refers to the

ability to

judge if a sentence is grammatically well-formed; it is an unconscious ability.

context A term referring to the environment in which an element (sound, word,

phrase)

occurs. The context may determine what elements may be present, in which case one

says that

there are ‘co-occurrence restrictions’ for instance 1) /r/ may not occur after /s/

in a syllable in

English, e.g. */sri:n/ is not phonotactically permissible in English; 2) the

progressive form

cannot occur with stative verbs, e.g. We are knowing German is not well-formed in

English.

contrast A difference between two linguistic items which can be exploited

systematically.

The distinction between the two forms arises from the fact that these can occupy

one and the

same slot in a syntagm, i.e. they alternate paradigmatically, e.g. the different

inflectional

forms of verbs contrast in both English and German. Forms which contrast are

called

distinctive. This can apply to sounds as well, for instance /p/ and /b/ contrast

in English as

minimal pairs such as pin /pin/ : bin /bin/ show.

convention An agreement, usually reached unconsciously by speakers in a community,

that

relationships are to apply between linguistic items, between these and the outside

world or to

apply in the use of rules in the grammar of their language.

creativity An accepted feature of human language — deriving from the phenomenon of

sentence generation — which accounts for speakers’ ability to produce and to

understand a

theoretically infinite number of sentences.

descriptive An approach to linguistics which is concerned with saying what

language is like

and not what it should be like (prescriptivism).

Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi Dictionary of Linguistics Page 3 of 36

diachronic Refers to language viewed over time and contrasts with synchronic which

refers

to a point in time. This is one of the major structural distinctions introduced by

Saussure and

which is used to characterise types of linguistic investigation.

displacement One of the key characteristics of human language which enables it to

refer to

situations which are not here and now, e.g. I studied linguistics in London when I

was in my

twenties.

duality of patterning A structural principle of human language whereby larger

units consist

of smaller building blocks, the number of such blocks being limited but the

combinations

being almost infinite. For instance all words consist of combinations of a limited

number of

sounds, say about 40 in either English or German. Equally all sentences consist of

structures

from a small set with different words occupying different points in the structures

allowing for

virtually unlimited variety.

economy A principle of linguistic analysis which demands that rules and units are

to be kept

to a minimum, i.e. every postulated rule or unit must be justified linguistically

by capturing a

generalisation about the language being analysed, if not about all languages.

extralinguistic Any phenomenon which lies outside of language. An extralinguistic

reason

for a linguistic feature would be one which is not to be found in the language

itself.

figurative Any use of a word in a non-literal sense, e.g. at the foot of the

mountain where foot

is employed figuratively to indicate the bottom of the mountain. Figurative usage

is the source

of the second meaning of polysemous words.

formalist An adjective referring to linguistic analyses which lay emphasis on

relatively

abstract conceptions of language structure.

general linguistics A broad term for investigations which are concerned with the

nature of

language, procedures of linguistic analysis, etc. without considering to what use

these can be

put. It contrasts explicitly with applied linguistics.

generative A reference to a type of linguistic analysis which relies heavily on

the formulation

of rules for the exhaustive description (generation) of the sentences of a

language.

head The centre of a phrase or sentence which is possibly qualified by further

optional

elements, in the phrase these bright new signs the head is signs as all other

elements refer to it

and are optional. The term is also used in lexicology to refer to the determining

section of a

compound; in family tree, the element tree is head and family is modifier. This

has

consequences for grammar, especially in synthetic languages, such as German where

in a

compound like Stammbuch the gender is neuter (with das) because the head Buch is

although

the modifying word is masculine (der Stamm).

hierarchy Any order of elements from the most central or basic to the most

peripheral, e.g. a

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hierarchy of word classes in English would include nouns and verbs at the top and

elements

like adjectives and adverbs further down with conjunctions and subordinators still

further

down. The notions of top and bottom are intended in a metaphorical sense.

idealisation A situation where the linguist chooses to ignore details of language

use for

reasons of greater generalisation.

language A system which consists of a set of symbols (sentences) — realised

phonetically by

sounds — which are used in a regular order to convey a certain meaning. Apart from

these

formal characteristics, definitions of languages tend to highlight other aspects

such as the fact

that language is used regularly by humans and that it has a powerful social

function.

lay speaker A general term to refer to an individual who does not possess

linguistic training

and who can be taken to be largely unaware of the structure of language.

level A reference to a set of recognisible divisions in the structure of natural

language. These

divisions are largely independent of each other and are characterised by rules and

regularities

of organisation. Traditionally five levels are recognised: phonetics, phonology,

morphology,

syntax, semantics. Pragmatics may also be considered as a separate level from

semantics.

Furthermore levels may have subdivisions as is the case with morphology which

falls into

inflectional and derivational morphology (the former is concerned with grammatical

endings

and the latter with processes of word-formation). The term ‘level’ may also be

taken to refer

to divisions within syntax in generative grammar.

linguistics The study of language. As a scientific discipline built on objective

principles,

linguistics did not develop until the beginning of the 19th century. The approach

then was

historical as linguists were mainly concerned with the reconstruction of the Indo-

European

language. With the advent of structuralism at the beginning of the 20th century,

it became

oriented towards viewing language at one point in time. The middle of this century

saw a

radically new approach — known as generative grammar — which stressed our

unconscious

knowledge of language and underlying structures to be found in all languages.

linguistic determinism Refers to the view, propounded by Edward Sapir and Benjamin

Lee

Whorf, that language determines the way in which people think. Also termed the

linguistic

relativity hypothesis.

marked A term used to state that a particular form is statistically unusual or

unexpected in a

certain context. For instance zero plurals in English such as sheep or deer are

marked.

metalanguage The language which is used to discuss language; see also object

language.

metaphor An application of a word to another with which it is figuratively but not

literally

associated, e.g. food for thought. This process is very common in the use of

language and may

lead to changes in grammar as with the verb go in English where its spatial

meaning has come

to be used metaphorically for temporal contexts as in He’s going to learn Russian.

onomastics The linguistic study of names, both personal and place names. This

field is

Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi Dictionary of Linguistics Page 5 of 36

particularly concerned with etymology and with the general historical value of the

information which names offer the linguist.

paradigm The set of forms belonging to a particular word-class or member of a

word-class.

A paradigm can be thought of as a vertical list of forms which can occupy a slot

in a syntagm.

Pronounced [/pærqdaim].

parameter Any aspect of language which can obtain a specific value in a given

language, e.g.

canonical word-order which can have the verb in a declarative sentence either

before the

subject, after the subject or after both subject and object. Contrast principle in

this respect.

performance The actual production of language as opposed to the knowledge about

the

structure of one’s native language which a speaker has internalised during

childhood (see

Competence).

productivity A reference to the extent that a given process is not bound in its

application to a

certain input. For instance the prefixation of re- to verbs in modern English is

productive

because this can be done with practically all verbs, e.g. re-think, re-do, re-

write. The term

also refers — in syntax — to the ability of speakers to produce an unlimited

number of

sentences using a limited set of structures.

psychological reality The extent to which the constructs of linguistic theory can

be taken to

have a basis in the human mind, i.e. to somehow be reflected in human cognitive

structures.

Many linguists are divided on this issue, one extreme claiming that this

requirement of a

theory is not necessary, other saying that it is the ultimate test of any

respectable theory.

reflexiveness The possibility of using language to talk about language; this is

one of its

delimiting characteristics with respect to other communication systems.

rhetoric The technique of speaking effectively in public. Regarded in the past as

an art and

cultivated deliberately.

root 1) In grammar the unalterable core of a word to which all suffixes are added,

e.g. friend

in un-friend-li-ness. 2) In etymology, the earliest form of a word. 3) In

phonetics, the part of

the tongue which lies furthest back in the mouth.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis The notion that thought is determined by language. While

few

linguists nowadays accept this strict link, there would seem to be some truth to

the postulation

of the two American anthropologists/linguists.

sign language A communication system in which people use their hands to convey

signals. In

recent years sign language has been the object of linguists’ attention and has

come to be

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