A world of meaning.

Abessive Case

Abessive case is a case that expresses the lack or absence of the referent of the noun it marks. It has the meaning of the English preposition without.

Ablative Case

Ablative case is a case that expresses a variety of meanings including: instrument cause location source time

Absolute Adjective

An absolute adjective is an adjective which functions as a noun .

Absolute Social Deixis

Absolute social deixis is deictic reference to some social characteristic of a referent (especially a person) apart from any relative ranking of referents.

Absolute Tense

Absolute tense is a tense that refers to a time in relation to the moment of utterance .

Absolute-Relative Tense

Absolute-relative tense is a tense: that refers to a time in relation to a temporal reference point that, in turn, is referred to in relation to the moment …

Absolutive Case

Absolutive case is the case of nouns in ergative-absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of …

Abstract Noun

An abstract noun is a noun that denotes something viewed as a nonmaterial referent .

Accompaniment As A Semantic Role

Accompaniment is the semantic role of a thing that participates in close association with an agent, causer, or affected in an event.

Account

An account is an explanation as to why a dispreferred second part is given as a response in an adjacency pair .

Accusative Case

Accusative case is the case in nominative-accusative languages that marks certain syntactic functions, usually direct objects .

Acoustic Phonetics

Acoustic phonetics is the study of sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication.

Active Voice

Active voice is a voice that indicates a subject has the semantic function of actor.

Actual Implicature

An actual implicature is any potential implicature that is not canceled by its context.

Actual Presupposition

An actual presupposition is any potential presupposition that is not canceled by its context.

Additive Relation

An additive relation is an interpropositional relation in which the propositions are judged either to be closely related or built one on another.

Addressee

An addressee is any of the immediate intended recipients of the speaker 's communication, as grammaticalized in second person morphemes .

Addressee Honorific

An addressee honorific is an honorific in a system in which a level of status of the addressee relative to the speaker is expressed through a choice made …

Adjacency Pair

An adjacency pair is a unit of conversation that contains an exchange of one turn each by two speakers. The turns are functionally related to each other in …

Adjective

An adjective is a word that belongs to a class whose members modify nouns. An adjective specifies the properties or attributes of a noun referent .

Adjunct

An adjunct, broadly defined, is an optional constituent of a construction .

Adposition

An adposition is a cover term for prepositions and postpositions. It is a member of a closed set of items that: occur before or after a complement composed …

Adpositional Phrase

An adpositional phrase is a phrase that has an adposition as its head.

Advanced Tongue Root

Advanced tongue root refers to the features of a sound made by drawing the root of the tongue forward. This feature distinguishes between tense vowels as …

Adverb (Grammar)

An adverb is a lexical category whose members have the same syntactic distribution and typically modify adjectives , other adverbs, verbs , or whole …

Adverb (Linguistics)

Here are two senses for adverb: An adverb, narrowly defined, is a word belonging to a class of words which modify verbs for such categories as: time manner …

Adverbial Clause

An adverbial clause is a clause that has an adverb -like function in modifying another clause.

Adverbializer

An adverbializer is a subordinating conjunction that: links a subordinate clause to a main clause indicates that the subordinate clause has an "adverbial" …

Affix (Grammar)

An affix is a bound morpheme which adds lexical or syntactic information to a root or stem. Some languages have zero affixes , whereby meaning is conveyed …

Affix (Linguistics)

An affix is a bound morpheme that is joined before, after, or within a root or stem .

Affixation

Affixation is the morphological process whereby an affix is attached to a root or stem .

Agent As A Semantic Role

Agent is the semantic role of a person or thing who is the doer of an event.

Agglutinative Language

An agglutinative language is a language in which words are made up of a linear sequence of distinct morphemes and each component of meaning is represented …

Agreement

Agreement refers to a formal relationship between elements whereby a form of one word requires a corresponding form of another.

Alethic Modality

Alethic modality is modality that connotes the speaker’s estimation of the logical necessity or possibility of the proposition expressed by his utterance .

Alienable Noun

An alienable noun is a noun that: refers to something viewed as not permanently or necessarily possessed, and is thus not obligatorily expressed as …

Allative Case

Allative case is a case that expresses motion to or toward the referent of the noun it marks.

Allegory

An allegory is an extended metaphor, especially a story in which fictional characters and actions are used to understand and express aspects of concepts …

Allomorph

An allomorph is one of two or more complementary morphs which manifest a morpheme in its different phonological or morphological environments.

Allophone

An allophone is a phonetic variant of a phoneme in a particular language.

Alternative Question

An alternative question is a question that presents two or more possible answers and presupposes that only one is true.

Alternative Relation

An alternative relation is an interpropositional relation in which at least one of the connected propositions is held to be true, but not necessarily, or …

Ambiguous Consonant Sequence

An ambiguous consonant sequence is a phonetic string (segment or sequence) that may be interpreted as: a single consonant, or two successive consonants.

Ambiguous Phonetic Transition

An ambiguous phonetic transition is a phonetic segment, found between two distinct segments, that may serve only a connective function phonetically and …

Ambiguous Segment

An ambiguous segment is a phone that may or may not function as the nucleus of a syllable.

Ambiguous Sequence

An ambiguous sequence is a phonetic string, a segment or sequence, that may function as: two phonological units, or a single unit.

Ambiguous Vowel Sequence

An ambiguous vowel sequence is a phonetic string (segment or sequence) that may be interpreted as a: diphthong two separate vowels, or a vowel and a …

Americanist System

The Americanist system is a phonetic alphabet designed by Kenneth L. Pike and Eunice Pike after the model of Edward Sapir and Morris Swadesh.

Amplification Relation

An amplification relation is an elaboration relation in which a proposition substantially repeats the content of an earlier one and adds further …

Analytic Definition

An analytic definition is a description of the range of reference of a lexical unit. This description is made up of a: generic term identifying the broad …

Anaphora

Anaphora is coreference of one expression with its antecedent. The antecedent provides the information necessary for the expression’s interpretation. This …

Anaphoric Clitic

An anaphoric clitic is a morphologically bound morpheme that: refers to a previously mentioned constituent, and fills the position of a noun phrase in a …

Anchored Entity

An anchored entity is a brand-new entity that is linked to another referent which is not brand new by means of the inclusion of a referring expression in …

Animate Class

An animate class is a category of nouns having human or animal referents.

Antanaclasis

An antanaclasis is a pun in which a word is repeated with a different meaning each time.

Antecedent

An antecedent is a word, phrase, or clause referred to endophorically by another expression which precedes or follows it.

Anthimeria

Anthimeria is the use of a member of one word class as if it were a member of another, thus altering its meaning.

Anthology

An anthology is a collection of of poems, stories, songs, articles, or other literary passages chosen by a compiler.

Anticipatory Illocution

An anticipatory illocution is an illocutionary act that has the direct illocutionary force of a question about the conditions necessary for the …

Antipassive Voice

Antipassive voice is a voice in an ergative-absolutive language in which: a noun phrase that normally has ergative case instead has absolutive case a noun …

Antithesis Relation

An antithesis relation is a contrast relation in which: the contrasted propositions express events or states that are incompatible with each other, and the …

Antonomasia

Antonomasia is: the use of a proper name to stand for something else having an attribute associated with that name, or the use of a general term to stand …

Apostrophe

An apostrophe is an address to: an absent person, or a personified abstraction or thing.

Apposition

An apposition is a construction consisting of two or more adjacent units that have identical referents.

Article

An article is a member of a small class of determiners that identify a noun's definite or indefinite reference, and new or given status.

Articulation Process

The articulation process is the modification of sound waves produced by the airstream, phonation, and oral-nasal processes.

Ascertainment Relation

An ascertainment relation is an internal alternative relation in which a following proposition presents an alternative circumstance where a preparatory …

Aspect

Aspect is a grammatical category associated with verbs that expresses a temporal view of the event or state expressed by the verb.

Assertive Illocutionary Point

An assertive illocutionary point is an illocutionary point in which the speaker purposes to present that the state of affairs described by the …

Assumptive Mood

Assumptive mood is an epistemic mode that signals the speaker's belief that his statement is based on facts about what is usually the case in such …

Attraction Schema

An attraction schema is a force schema in which an object exerts a force on another object, either physically or metaphorically, to pull it toward itself.

Attributable Silence

Attributable silence is conversational silence between turns that is assignable to a particular participant due to his having been selected by the previous …

Attribution Relation

An attribution relation is an elaboration relation in which a proposition describes an attribute of a referent of another proposition.

Audience

An audience is one or more persons who are part of the conversational group but who are not presently being addressed.

Auditory Evidential

An auditory evidential is a nonvisual evidential that signals that the speaker's evidence for the truth of his statement is based on what he has heard.

Authorized Recipient

An authorized recipient is an addressee, having a unique status or belonging to a socially defined group, with whom one or more distinctive linguistic …

Authorized Speaker

An authorized speaker is a speaker that belongs to a socially defined group for whom the use of a distinctive class of linguistic forms is reserved.

Autosegmental Phonology

Autosegmental phonology is a non-linear approach to phonology that allows phonological processes, such as tone and vowel harmony, to be independent of and …

Auxesis

Auxesis is an exaggeration of the importance of a referent by the use of a referring expression that is disproportionate to it.

Auxiliary Verb

An auxiliary verb is a verb which: accompanies the lexical verb of a verb phrase, and expresses grammatical distinctions not carried by the lexical verb, …

Background Relation

A background relation is an interpropositional relation in which one or more propositions are provided as information necessary for the proper …

Balance Schema

A balance schema is a force schema that: provides an understanding of physical or metaphorical counteracting forces is based on a prototypical schema …

Beginning-Postspan Relation

A beginning–postspan relation is a temporal relation in which an event or state is expressed as marking the initiation of a durative event or state.

Benefactive Case

Benefactive case is a case that expresses that the referent of the noun it marks receives the benefit of the situation expressed by the clause.

Beneficiary As A Semantic Role

A beneficiary is the semantic role of a referent which is advantaged or disadvantaged by an event.

Biconditional Relation

A biconditional relation is a relation between a consequent and a condition. The consequent is true or in force if and only if the condition is true, with …

Blockage Schema

A blockage schema is a force schema in which a force is physically or metaphorically stopped or redirected by an obstacle.

Blocking Circumstance

A blocking circumstance is a factor, sometimes expressed along with a concession relation , that: thwarts an expected event or state results in an …

Bound Morpheme

A bound morpheme is a grammatical unit that never occurs by itself, but is always attached to some other morpheme.

Bound Root

A bound root is a root which cannot occur as a separate word apart from any other morpheme.

Bound Stem

A bound stem is a stem which cannot occur as a separate word apart from any other morpheme.

Bounded Deixis

Bounded deixis is place deixis that has a component of meaning indicative of a border.

Boundedness

Boundedness is the presence or absence of a component of meaning indicative of a border at the location indicated in an expression of place deixis .

Brand-New Entity

A brand-new entity is a referent that: has not been mentioned previously in the discourse is assumed by the speaker to be previously unknown to the …

Breathy Vowel

A breathy vowel is one produced by allowing a great deal of air to pass through a slightly open glottis, the aperture between the vocal chords.

Bystander

A bystander is a person in a participant role of audience or unratified participant.

Bystander Honorific

A bystander honorific is an honorific in which the social status of some other person present is expressed through choices made among linguistic …

Cardinal Numeral

A cardinal numeral is a numeral of the class whose members are: considered basic in form used in counting used in expressing how many objects are referred …

Case

Case is a grammatical category determined by the syntactic or semantic function of a noun or pronoun .

Cataphora

Cataphora is the coreference of one expression with another expression which follows it. The following expression provides the information necessary for …

Causal Relation

A causal relation is an interpropositional relation in which the situation expressed by some proposition(s) is communicated as bringing about: the …

Causative

A causative may be indicated by a: verbal affix component of meaning in the verb special construction

Causative Case

Causative case is a case which expresses that the referent of the noun it marks is the cause of the situation expressed by the clause .

Causer As A Semantic Role

Causer is the semantic role of the referent which instigates an event rather than actually doing it.

Center-Periphery Schema

A center–periphery schema is an image schema involving: a physical or metaphorical core and edge degrees of distance from the core

Centrifugal

A centrifugal is an expression of place deixis that has a component of meaning indicating movement away from a deictic center .

Centripetal

A centripetal is an expression of place deixis which has a component of meaning indicating movement toward a deictic center .

Cessative Aspect

Cessative aspect is aspect that expresses the cessation of an event or state.

Chain Of Illocutionary Commitments

A chain of illocutionary commitments is a set of illocutionary acts which are ordered by the relationship of commitment between acts.

Circular Definition

A circular definition is a description of the meaning of a lexeme that is constructed using one or more synonymous lexemes that are all defined in terms of …

Circumfix

A circumfix is an affix made up of two separate parts which surround and attach to a root or stem. The morphological process whereby this is achieved is …

Circumfixation

Circumfixation is a morphological process whereby an affix made up of two separate parts surrounds and attaches to a root or stem.

Classifier

A classifier is a word or affix that expresses the classification of a noun.

Clausal Implicature

A clausal implicature is a quantity implicature which is inferred by an addressee concerning the truth of a proposition expressed in a particular …

Clause

A clause is a grammatical unit that: includes, at minimum, a predicate and an explicit or implied subject expresses a proposition.

Clause Chain

A clause chain is a group of clauses in which: one clause, typically the final clause, is distinguished from the other clauses, typically medial clauses, …

Cleft Sentence

A cleft sentence is a complex sentence in which a simple sentence is expressed using a main clause and a subordinate clause. In English the prototypical …

Clitic (Grammar)

A clitic is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a word , but shows evidence of being phonologically bound to another word.

Close Future Tense

Close future tense is a tense that refers to a time shortly after the moment of utterance .

Closed Class

A closed class is a grammatical class of words with limited membership. These words have primarily grammatical meaning.

Coding Time

Coding time is the time of an utterance, or the writing of a message.

Collateral Information

Collateral information expresses a nonevent, something that did not or has not yet happened.

Collective Noun

A collective noun is a noun that refers to a group of entities that may be considered either as individuals or as one larger entity.

Collocate

Collocates are lexemes that co-occur with each other in natural texts.

Comitative Case

Comitative case is a case expressing accompaniment. It carries the meaning "with" or "accompanied by."

Command

Here are two senses for command : A command is an illocutionary act that has the directive illocutionary point of getting another to do or not to do …

Comment

A comment is the portion of a sentence that provides information about the topic.

Commissive Illocutionary Point

A commissive illocutionary point is the illocutionary point of a speaker committing to bring about the state of affairs described in the propositional …

Commissive Modality

Commissive modality is a deontic modality that connotes the speaker's expressed commitment, as a promise or threat, to bring about the proposition …

Commitment Between Illocutionary Acts

Commitment between illocutionary acts is a condition in which the speaker's commitment to one illocutionary act necessarily means the commitment to some …

Common Noun

A common noun is a noun that signifies a nonspecific member of a group.

Complement

Traditionally, a complement is a constituent of a clause, such as a noun phrase or adjective phrase, that is used to predicate a description of the subject …

Complement Clause

A complement clause is a notional sentence or predication that is an argument of a predicate.

Complementary Distribution

Complementary distribution is the mutually exclusive relationship between two phonetically similar segments. It exists when one segment occurs in an …

Complementizer

A complementizer is a conjunction which marks a complement clause.

Complex Illocutionary Act

A complex illocutionary act is an illocutionary act that: has a negated illocutionary force is performed conditionally, or is conjoined with another …

Complex Sentence

A complex sentence is a sentence which includes: at least one main clause, and at least one subordinate clause.

Compound

A compound is a word containing a stem that is made up of more than one root.

Compound Discourse

A compound discourse is a discourse that contains sections belonging to two or more kinds of discourse.

Compound Predicate

A compound predicate is a predicate containing two or more coordinate or paratactic verbs or verb phrases.

Compound Sentence

A compound sentence is a sentence composed of two or more coordinate clauses.

Compulsion Schema

A compulsion schema is a force schema that involves an external force physically or metaphorically pushing, or tending to push, an object.

Conceptual Extendedness

Conceptual extendedness is a semantic relationship between senses of a lexeme as currently recognized by speakers of a language. The progressive derivation …

Concession Relation

A concession relation is a relation of unexpectedness between propositions. Some proposition(s) in the relation are expressed as unexpected (the …

Concrete Noun

A concrete noun is a noun that refers to what is viewed as a material entity.

Conditional Relation

A conditional relation is a logical relation in which the illocutionary act employing one of a pair of propositions is expressed or implied to be true or …

Conjunction

A conjunction is a word that: syntactically links words or larger constituents, and expresses a semantic relationship between them. A conjunction is …

Conjunctive Adverb

A conjunctive adverb is an adverb that functions like a conjunction by expressing the relationship between independent sentences.

Conjunctive Illocutionary Act

A conjunctive illocutionary act is a complex illocutionary act that consists of the performance of two or more illocutionary acts in one utterance.

Conjunctive Verb

A conjunctive verb is a verb form which is used specifically in a conjoined clause.

Connective

Here are two senses of connective : A connective, in its most common usage, is an expression having a function similar to that of a conjunction. A …

Consonant

A consonant is a sound made by a partial or complete closure of the vocal tract.

Consonant Modification

A consonant modification is an addition or alteration to the basic way that a consonant is articulated.

Constituent

A constituent is one of two or more grammatical units that enter syntactically or morphologically into a construction at any level.

Construction

A construction is an ordered arrangement of grammatical units forming a larger unit.

Container Metaphor

A containment metaphor is an ontological metaphor in which some concept is represented as: having an inside and outside, and capable of holding something …

Containment Schema

A containment schema is an image schema that involves a physical or metaphorical boundary enclosed area or volume, or excluded area or volume.

Context Of An Expression

The context of an expression or a text is the social situation in which something is said. It includes any information relevant to understanding the …

Continuant

A continuant is a sound produced with an incomplete closure of the vocal tract.

Continuer

A continuer is a move that returns speakership to another participant. It shows that the speaker: recognizes that the other participant is forming a …

Continuous Aspect

Continuous aspect is an imperfective aspect that expresses an ongoing, but not habitual, occurrence of the state or event expressed by the verb .

Contoid

A contoid is a sound made with enough closure of the oral cavity to produce audible friction in the mouth. It has the potential to be analyzed phonemically …

Contraction Relation

A contraction relation is an interpropositional relation in which information previously expressed is partially restated.

Contrast In Analogous Environments

Contrast in analogous environments is the difference between two phonetically similar segments that occur in two separate words and have similar adjacent …

Contrast In Identical Environments

Contrast in identical environments is the difference between two phonetically similar segments that occur in two separate words and have identical adjacent …

Contrast Relation

A contrast relation is an interpropositional relation which expresses that a difference between one proposition and another is relevant.

Contrastive Analysis

Contrastive analysis is an inductive investigative approach based on the distinctive elements in a language.

Conventional Implicature

Conventional implicature is an implicature that is: part of a lexical item’s or expression’s agreed meaning, rather than derived from principles of …

Conventional Metaphor

A conventional metaphor is a metaphor that is commonly used in everyday language in a culture to give structure to some portion of that culture’s …

Conventional Metonymy

A conventional metonymy is a metonymy that is commonly used in everyday language in a culture to give structure to some portion of that culture’s …

Conversation Analysis

Conversation analysis is an approach to the study of natural conversation, especially with a view to determining the following: Participants’ methods of …

Conversational Implicature

Conversational implicature is a nonconventional implicature based on an addressee’s assumption that the speaker is following the conversational maxims or …

Conversational Maxim

A conversational maxim is any of four rules which were proposed by Grice 1975 , stating that a speaker is assumed to make a contribution that: is …

Cooperative Principle

The cooperative principle is a principle of conversation that was proposed by Grice 1975 , stating that participants expect that each will make a …

Coordinate Clause

A coordinate clause is a clause belonging to a series of two or more clauses which: are not syntactically dependent one on another are joined by means of a …

Coordinating Conjunction

A coordinating conjunction is a conjunction that links constituents without syntactically subordinating one to the other.

Copula

A copula is an intransitivity verb which links a subject: to a noun phrase adjective, or other constituent which expresses the predicate.

Core Argument

A core argument of a verb is a subject , direct object , or indirect object .

Coreference

Coreference is the reference in one expression to the same referent in another expression.

Correction Relation

A correction relation is an antithesis relation in which the speaker's expression of positive regard reinforces, redefines, or corrects one or the other of …

Correlative Conjunction

A correlative conjunction is either of a pair of coordinating conjunctions used in ordered fashion. Typically, one is used immediately before each member …

Count Noun

A count noun is a noun whose possible referents are thought of as separate entities. It thus has the ability: to take a plural form to occur with …

Counteragent As A Semantic Role

A counteragent is the semantic role of a force or resistance against which an action is carried out.

Counterfactual Conditional Relation

A counterfactual conditional relation is a conditional relation in which the form of expression of the antecedent and consequent marks them as imagined, …

Counterforce Schema

A counterforce schema is a force schema that involves the active meeting of physically or metaphorically opposing forces.

Cycle Schema

A cycle schema is an image schema which involves repetitious events and event series. Its structure includes the following: A starting point A progression …

Dative As A Semantic Role

Dative is the semantic role of a referent that is conscious of being affected by the state or action identified by the verb .

Dative Case

Dative case is a case that marks any of the following: Indirect objects (for languages in which they are held to exist) Nouns having the role of: ​ …

Declarative Illocutionary Point

A declarative illocutionary point is an illocutionary point in which, by making an utterance , a speaker brings into existence the state of affairs …

Declarative Mood

Declarative mood is an epistemic mood that signals that the proposition expressed by a speaker’s utterance is offered as an unqualified statement of fact.

Deductive Mood

Deductive mood is an epistemic mood that signals that the speaker judges from other facts that the proposition expressed by his utterance is probably true.

Defective Illocutionary Act

A defective illocutionary act is an illocutionary act, whether successful or unsuccessful, in which one or more of the preparatory or sincerity conditions …

Defective Verb

A defective verb is a verb which does not exhibit all the forms typical of a regular verbal conjugation.

Definite Concessive Relation

A definite concessive relation is a concession relation in which the clause expressing the concession is marked by a concessive subordinator that expresses …

Definite Identifiability

Definite identifiability is a kind of definiteness which indicates that an expression’s referent(s) is in some way identifiable to both speaker and …

Definiteness

Definiteness is a category concerned with the grammaticalization of identifiability and nonidentifiability of referents on the part of a speaker or …

Definition

A definition is a thorough description of the meaning of a lexical unit . Here are the parts of a definition: Synthetic component consisting of the …

Deictic Center

A deictic center is a reference point in relation to which a deictic expression is to be interpreted.

Deictic Expression

A deictic expression is an expression that has a deictic usage as its basic usage, though it may also have nondeictic usages.

Deixis

Deixis is reference by means of an expression whose interpretation is relative to the (usually) extralinguistic context of the utterance , such as: who is …

Delative Case

Delative case is a case which expresses motion downward from the referent of the noun it marks.

Delay

A delay is an item used to put off a dispreferred second part.

Deliberative Mood

Deliberative mood is a directive mood which signals the speaker's request for instruction from the addressee as to whether to do the proposition expressed …

Demonstrative

A demonstrative is a determiner that is used deictically to indicate a referent's spatial, temporal, or discourse location. A demonstrative functions as: a …

Deontic Modality

Deontic modality is modality that connotes the speaker's degree of requirement of desire for, or commitment to the realization of the proposition expressed …

Dependent Of A Phrase

The dependent of a phrase is any element in a phrase that does not refer to the same entity that the whole phrase refers to.

Derivation

Derivation is the formation of a new word or inflectable stem from another word or stem. It typically occurs by the addition of an affix. The derived word …

Derivational Affix

A derivational affix is an affix by means of which one word is formed (derived) from another. The derived word is often of a different word class from the …

Derivative

A derivative is a stem that is formed by combining a root with an affix that adds a component of meaning that is more than just inflectional. The meaning …

Description Relation

A description relation is an elaboration relation in which a proposition(s) provides the “contents” of an act of perception or cognition expressed by …

Descriptive Text

A descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. Features The topic is usually about the attributes of a thing. Third person …

Determiner

A determiner is a word or affix that belongs to a class of noun modifiers that expresses the reference, including quantity, of a noun.

Development Lexical Relation

A development lexical relation is an association between lexical units which refers to stages or steps in a process involving change such as expansion, and …

Dialogue Discourse

Dialogue discourse is a compound discourse that contains both narrative discourse and repartee discourse.

Different Subject Marker

A different subject marker is a marker in the verb morphology of a clause which indicates that the subject of the clause is not the same as the subject of …

Diphthong

A diphthong is a phonetic sequence, consisting of a vowel and a glide, that is interpreted as a single vowel.

Direct Illocution

A direct illocution is an illocutionary act in which only the illocutionary force and propositional content literally expressed by the lexical items and …

Direct Object

A direct object is a grammatical relation that exhibits a combination of certain independent syntactic properties, such as the following: The usual …

Direct Speech

Direct speech is quoted speech that is presented without modification, as it might have been uttered by the original speaker.

Directive Illocutionary Point

A directive illocutionary point is an illocutionary point in which the speaker attempts to get someone to bring about the state of affairs described by the …

Directive Modality

Directive modality is a deontic modality that connotes the speaker’s degree of requirement of conformity to the proposition expressed by an utterance.

Discontinuous Constituents

Discontinuous constituents are constituents which are separated from each other by one or more intervening constituent, and considered either syntactically …

Discontinuous Morpheme

A discontinuous morpheme is a morpheme that is interrupted by the insertion of another morphological unit.

Discourse

A discourse is an instance of language use whose type can be classified on the basis of such factors as grammatical and lexical choices and their …

Discourse Deixis

Discourse deixis is deictic reference to a portion of a discourse relative to the speaker's current “location” in the discourse.

Discourse Schema

A discourse schema (plural: schemata ) is a sequenced group of text elements that is categorized by the text's genre.

Dismissive Relation

A dismissive relation is an interpropositional relation which communicates the irrelevancy of some proposition(s) to some other(s) without communicating …

Dispreferred Second Part

A dispreferred second part is a second part of an adjacency pair that consists of a response to the first part that is generally to be avoided, and is …

Distal

A distal is a distinction in place deixis that indicates location far from the speaker or other deictic center.

Distributive Aspect

Distributive aspect is an iterative aspect which expresses that an event is applied to members of a group one after another. These members are typically …

Distributive Numeral

A distributive numeral is a numeral which expresses a group of the number specified.

Ditransitivity

Ditransitivity is a term which describes a verb or clause which takes two objects.

Diversion Schema

A diversion schema is a force schema that involves forces that physically or metaphorically meet and produce a change of direction.

Double Stop

A double stop consists of simultaneous labial and velar articulation.

Downgrade

A downgrade is a move that weakens or mitigates a previous utterance in order to make it more acceptable.

Dual Number

Dual number is number which refers to two members of the class identified by the noun.

Dubitative Mood

Dubitative mood is an epistemic mood which signals a speaker’s reservation about the accuracy of his or her statement.

Dummy Word

A dummy word is a grammatical unit that has no meaning, but completes a sentence to make it grammatical.

Echo Question

An echo question is a question that occurs in the turn after a repairable utterance, and repeats the portion felt by the speaker to need repair.

Elaboration Relation

An elaboration relation is an interpropositional relation in which a proposition(s) provides detail relating to some aspect of another proposition.

Elative Case

Elative case is a case expressing motion out of or away from the referent of the noun it marks.

Elementary Illocutionary Act

An elementary illocutionary act is an illocutionary act that: does not have a negated illocutionary force is not performed conditionally is not conjoined …

Elicitation

Elicitation is the act of obtaining language data from another person.

Elicitation Frame

An elicitation frame is a fixed environment that is used for discovering or testing particular words.

Elision

Elision is the omission of sounds, syllables, or words in spoken or written discourse .

Elliptical Construction

An elliptical construction is a construction that lacks an element that is recoverable or inferable from the context.

Embedded Repair

An embedded repair is an other-initiated repair that is performed by the addressee of the questioned utterance by the substitution of the repairing item in …

Empathetic Deixis

Empathetic deixis is the metaphorical use of deictic forms to indicate emotional or other psychological “distance” or “proximity” between a speaker and a …

Emphasis Marker

An emphasis marker is a word or affix that expresses a speaker 's stress upon the predicate of a sentence.

Emphatic Additive Relation

An emphatic additive relation is an additive relation in which the cumulative nature of the propositions in the relation is emphasized.

Emphatic Alternative Relation

An emphatic alternative relation is an alternative relation in which the existence of different possibilities is stressed.

Emphatic Pronoun

An emphatic pronoun is a personal pronoun that is used to emphasize its referent .

Enablement Relation

An enablement relation is an interpropositional relation in which a proposition(s) supports a speaker 's directive by improving the addressee’s ability to …

Enablement Schema

An enablement schema is a force schema that involves having: the physical or metaphorical power to perform some act a potential force and the absence of …

Enclitic

An enclitic is a clitic that is phonologically joined at the end of a preceding word to form a single unit.

End-Of-Path Schema

An end-of-path schema is an image schema in which a location is understood as the termination of a prescribed path.

Endocentric Construction

An endocentric construction is a construction that contains: a head, which is the single obligatory element in the construction (except in coordinate …

Endophora

Endophora is coreference of an expression with another expression either before it or after it. One expression provides the information necessary to …

Entity Metaphor

An entity metaphor is an ontological metaphor in which an abstraction is represented as a concrete physical object.

Environment

An environment is all the parts of an utterance that directly surround a given sound.

Epistemic Modality

Epistemic modality is a modality that connotes how much certainty or evidence a speaker has for the proposition expressed by his or her utterance .

Epistemic Qualification

An epistemic qualification is a signal of the degree of certainty the speaker has for the proposition expressed by his or her utterance .

Equative Case

Equative case is a case that expresses likeness or identity to the referent of the noun it marks. It can have meaning, such as: as like in the capacity of

Equative Clause

An equative clause is a clause which describes a feature of its subject . It contains a subject complement and, typically, a copula .

Equilibrium Schema

An equilibrium schema is a balance schema that involves physical or metaphorical external and internal pressure on container-like objects.

Equivalent

An equivalent is a term of social deixis that expresses equality of status.

Ergative Case

Ergative case is the case of nouns in ergative-absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of transitive verbs in the translation equivalents …

Essive Case

Essive case is a case that expresses the temporary state of the referent specified by a noun . The case has the meaning of: while in the capacity of

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the origins and history of the form and meaning of words.

Euphemism

A euphemism is a metaphorical or metonymic use of an expression in place of another expression that is disagreeable or offensive.

Evaluation Information

Evaluation information is a movable non-event within a discourse that consists of a speaker's feeling toward an event or a state of affairs. It may have …

Evaluation Relation

An evaluation relation is an interpropositional relation in which a proposition(s) expresses the speaker’s value judgment regarding the factuality or …

Event

An event is a kind of information in discourse that: actually occurs, is overt occurs at the now point on the time line

Evidence Relation

An evidence relation is a logical relation in which a proposition(s) are intended to increase the addressee 's assurance of another proposition(s).

Evidentiality

Evidentiality is a linguistic category whose primary meaning is information source. In a number of languages evidential meanings are expressed through …

Evoked Entity

An evoked entity is a referent which is given information due: to previous mention in the text to the prominence of the referent in the extralinguistic …

Exclamation

Here are two senses for exclamation: An exclamation, broadly defined, is any utterance made with strong emotion. An exclamation, narrowly defined, is a …

Exclamative

An exclamative is a word or phrase which marks an exclamation .

Exclusive Alternative Relation

An exclusive alternative relation is an alternative relation in which only one of the propositions or groups of propositions can be true or fulfilled.

Exclusive First Person Deixis

Exclusive first person deixis is deixis that refers to a group not including the addressee(s) .

Exemplification Relation

An exemplification relation is a specification relation in which a specification is achieved by providing an instance.

Existential Clause

An existential clause is a clause, having a distinctive grammatical structure, which expresses the real or imagined existence of an entity.

Existential Marker

An existential marker is a word, found in a distinct clause type, which marks a referent's existence.

Exocentric Construction

An exocentric construction is a construction that does not contain any head element that is capable of being a syntactically adequate substitution for the …

Exophora

Exophora is reference of an expression directly to an extralinguistic referent. The referent does not require another expression for its interpretation.

Experiencer As A Semantic Role

Experiencer is the semantic role of an entity (or referent) which receives accepts experiences, or undergoes the effect of an action.

Experiential Perfect Aspect

Experiential perfect aspect is a grammaticalization of the current relevance, at the moment of utterance, of an event or state that occurred prior to the …

Exposed Repair

Exposed repair is an other-initiated repair that is not handled covertly as an embedded repair.

Expository Discourse

Expository discourse is a discourse that explains or describes a topic. It does not primarily present contingent events or focus on a performer of actions, …

Expository Text

Expository text is a text which explains something.

Expressive Illocutionary Point

An expressive illocutionary point is an illocutionary point which communicates an attitude or emotion about the state of affairs described in the …

Extendedness

Extendedness is a type of place deixis in which the presence or absence of a component of meaning indicates that a location has length or area.

Extension

Extension is place deixis that indicates that a location has length or area.

External Relation

An external relation is an interpropositional relation which relates the situations described in the propositions by experiential, extralinguistic reality …

External Relative Clause

An external relative clause is a relative clause whose head noun phrase is outside the relative clause.

Extraposition

Extrapostion is the process or result of moving an element from its normal place to a place at the end or near to the end of a sentence.

Factitive As A Semantic Role

Factitive is the semantic role of an referent that results from the action or state identified by a verb.

Failure Of Fit

Failure of fit is a lack of correspondence between the state of affairs described by the propositional content of an illocutionary act, and in the world.

Familiarity

Familiarity is a kind of social deixis that expresses a high degree of solidarity between the speaker and addressee.

Feminine Gender

Feminine gender is a grammatical gender that marks nouns that have human or animal female referents, and often marks nouns that have referents that do not …

Field Distinction

A field distinction is a type of place deixis that expresses an opposition between locations in visual range and those not in visual range.

Field Notebook

A field notebook is a permanent record of your language data. Features Sturdy and bound Readily available as part of the regular stock in a local bookstore

Figurative Sense

A figurative sense is a meaning that is derived from a primary sense by analogy (for example, personification), association (for example, metonymy), or …

Final Clause

A final clause is the last clause in a clause chain. It is distinguished from medial clauses by a difference in verb morphology.

Finite Clause

A finite clause is a clause with a finite verb.

Finite Verb

A finite verb is a verb form that occurs in an independent clause, and is fully inflected according to the inflectional categories marked on verbs in the …

First Part

A first part is the first utterance in an adjacency pair.

First Person Deixis

First person deixis is deictic reference that refers to the speaker, or both the speaker and referents grouped with the speaker.

Fit

Fit is a correspondence, or lack of correspondence, between the state of affairs described by the propositional content of an illocutionary act and the …

Fixed Collocation

A fixed collocation is a phrase or construction which is decompositional, and whose constituents recurrently combine with each other. Features Constituents …

Fixed Lexical Collocation

A fixed lexical collocation is a collocation of two or more co-occurring lexemes in an unchanging syntactic and semantic relationship.

Flouting Implicature

A flouting implicature is a conversational implicature based on an addressee's assumption that the speaker is deliberately breaking (flouting) a …

Focus

Focus is a term that refers to information, in a sentence, that is new is of high communicative interest is marked by stress typically occurs late in the …

Force As A Semantic Role

Force is the semantic role of an entity that instigates an action, but not consciously or voluntarily.

Force Schema

A force schema is an image schema that involves physical or metaphorical causal interaction. It includes the following elements: A source and target of the …

Formal Language

Formal language is language use characterized by: speech before a passive audience the assumption of a role by the speaker the use of artificial means of …

Formality

Formality is a kind of social deixis that expresses the setting or social activity in which language use takes place.

Fortis Consonant

A fortis consonant is a “strong” consonant produced by increased tension in the vocal apparatus. These strong consonants tend to be long, voiceless, …

Fossilized Term

A fossilized term is a word or root that occurs only as an archaic expression.

Free Morpheme

A free morpheme is a grammatical unit that can occur by itself. However, other morphemes such as affixes can be attached to it.

Free Translation

A free translation is a translation that reproduces the general meaning of the original text. It may or may not closely follow the form or organization of …

Free Variation

Free variation is the interchangeable relationship between two phones , in which the phones may substitute for one another in the same environment without …

Function Word

A function word is a word which have no lexical meaning, and whose sole function is to express grammatical relationships. Also known as: grammatical word, …

Fusional Language

A fusional language is a language in which one form of a morpheme can simultaneously encode several meanings.

Future Perfect Tense

Future perfect tense is an absolute-relative tense that refers to a time located before a contextually determined temporal reference point that must be …

Future Tense

Future tense is an absolute tense that refers to a time after the moment of utterance .

Future-In-Future Tense

Future-in-future tense is an absolute-relative tense that refers to a time located in the future, relative to a temporal reference point that itself is …

Future-In-Past Tense

Future-in-past tense is an absolute-relative tense that refers to a time located in the future, relative to a contextually determined temporal reference …

Future-Perfect-In-Past Tense

Future-perfect-in-past tense is an absolute-relative tense that involves three points in time in the past. The tense refers to a time that is in the …

Gap

A gap is conversational silence at the end of a turn in a situation in which: no next speaker has been selected by the previous one no participant has …

Generalized Implicature

A generalized implicature is a conversational implicature that is inferable without reference to a special context.

Generative Phonology

Generative phonology is a component of generative grammar that assigns the correct phonetic representations to utterances in such a way as to reflect a …

Generic Term

A generic term is a noun or noun phrase that refers to: a whole class any member of a class as a representative of its class

Generic-Specific Lexical Relation

A generic-specific lexical relation is a hierarchical association between a lexical unit with a broader, more general meaning and other lexical units with …

Genitive Case

Genitive case is a case in which the referent of the marked noun is the possessor of the referent of another noun.

Genre

Genre is a category used to classify discourse and literary works, usually by form, technique, or content.

Gestural Usage

Gestural usage is the use of a deictic expression in such a way that a physical monitoring of the speech situation is necessary for interpretation of the …

Given Information

Given information is information that is assumed by the speaker to be known to, assumed by, or inferable by the addressee at the time of the speaker 's …

Given Versus New Information

Given versus new information is a distinction between information that is assumed or supplied by the speaker and that which is presented for the first …

Gloss

A gloss is a summary of the meaning of a morpheme or word, suitable for use in interlinear text displays.

Glottal Stop

A glottal stop is a speech sound articulated by a momentary, complete closing of the glottis in the back of the throat. Glottal stops occur in many …

Glottis

The glottis is the space between the vocal folds.

Goal As A Semantic Role

Goal is the semantic role of the: place to which something moves thing toward which an action is directed

Grammatical Category

A grammatical category is a set of syntactic features that: express meanings from the same conceptual domain occur in contrast to each other are typically …

Grammatical Gender

Grammatical gender is a noun class system, composed of two or three classes, whose nouns that have human male and female referents tend to be in separate …

Grammatical Relation

A grammatical relation is a role of a noun phrase or complement clause that determines syntactic behaviors such as the following: Word position in a clause …

Grammatical Tone

Grammatical tone is the distinctive pitch level which marks contrasts in grammatical features such as tense, aspect, and case.

Grounding

Grounding refers to establishing the time, location or actuality of a situation according to some reference point.

Habitual Aspect

Habitual aspect is an imperfective aspect that expresses the occurrence of an event or state as characteristic of a period of time.

Head

A head is a constituent of an endocentric construction that, if standing alone, could perform the syntactic function of the whole construction . It may …

Head Of A Phrase

The head of a phrase is the element that determines the syntactic function of the whole phrase.

Headword

A headword is the form which introduces an entry in a printed dictionary. It is the form by which a dictionary is sorted. Depending upon the language, the …

Hedged Performative

A hedged performative is an indirect illocution whose illocutionary force is expressed directly by a performative verb but is given an additional …

Hesitation Pause

A hesitation pause is conversational silence that occurs within a turn .

Hesternal Past Tense

Hesternal past tense is a past tense that refers to a time that is located somewhere in the span beginning with the period defined culturally as …

Hierarchical Lexical Relation

A hierarchical lexical relation is an association between lexical units that have a system of arrangement into levels of increasing: size complexity A …

Hodiernal Future Tense

Hodiernal future tense is a future tense that refers to a time that is located after the moment of utterance within the span culturally defined as "today."

Hodiernal Past Tense

Hodiernal past tense is a past tense that refers to a time as located before the moment of utterance within the span culturally defined as "today."

Homograph

A homograph is word that has the same spelling as another. Homographs differ from each other in: meaning origin, and sometimes pronunciation.

Homonym

Here are three senses of homonym. A word that has the same pronunciation as another. Homonyms differ from each other in: ​ meaning origin usually spelling …

Homophone

A homophone is a group of two or more letters representing the same speech sound, or homonym (sense 1).

Homophora

Homophora is reference that depends on cultural knowledge or other general knowledge, rather than on specific features of a particular context.

Honorific

An honorific is a grammatical form, typically a word or affix, that is socially deictic It expresses, as at least part of its meaning, the relative social …

Horizontal Deixis

Horizontal deixis is a type of place deixis that has no component of meaning indicating location upward or downward, in a system of place deictic …

Hortatory Discourse

Hortatory discourse is a discourse that is an attempt to persuade the addressee to fulfill commands that are given in the discourse.

Hortatory Text

Hortatory text is a text which represents an attempt on the part of the speaker to get the addressee to do something or to act in a certain way.

Host

A host is the preceding or following word to which a clitic is phonologically joined.

Human Class

A human class is a noun class that has human referents.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration for emotional effect. The addressee is not expected to have a literal understanding of the expression.

Hypothetical Mood

Hypothetical mood is an epistemic mood that signals that the speaker evaluates a proposition as counterfactual, but otherwise possible.

Identity Of Illocutionary Forces

Identity of illocutionary forces is a relationship between two illocutionary forces such that when they are employed with the same propositional content, …

Ideophone

An ideophone is a member of a set of words that are phonologically distinguishable from other words in a language are often onomatopoeic, and form one or …

Idiom

An idiom is a multiword construction that is a semantic unit whose meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of its constituents, and has a …

Illative Case

Illative case is a case that expresses motion into or direction toward the referent of the noun it marks.

Illocutionary Act

An illocutionary act is a complete speech act, made in a typical utterance, that consists of the delivery of the propositional content of the utterance …

Illocutionary Conditional

An illocutionary conditional is a complex illocutionary act that consists of an illocutionary act, and a stated condition for the performance of that act.

Illocutionary Connective

An illocutionary connective is a connective that is used to join two or more illocutionary acts in one utterance.

Illocutionary Consistency

Illocutionary consistency is a property of a set of illocutionary acts such that it is possible, in at least one context of utterance, for the speaker to …

Illocutionary Denegation

An illocutionary denegation is an illocutionary act that is made complex by the negation of its illocutionary force. It expresses that the speaker is not …

Illocutionary Force

Illocutionary force is the combination of the illocutionary point of an utterance, and particular presuppositions and attitudes that must accompany that …

Illocutionary Force Indicating Device

An illocutionary force indicating device is any linguistic element that indicates or delimits the illocutionary force of an utterance.

Illocutionary Inconsistency

Illocutionary inconsistency is a property of a set of illocutionary acts such that it is not possible, in any context of utterance, for the speaker to be …

Illocutionary Point

An illocutionary point is the basic purpose of a speaker in making an utterance. It is a component of illocutionary force.

Illocutionary Verb

An illocutionary verb is a verb that, as part of its meaning, expresses at least one illocutionary force, or a quality of some component of illocutionary …

Illustrative Sentence

An illustrative sentence is an example that clarifies the usage of a particular sense of a lexeme.

Image Schema

An image schema is a mental pattern that recurrently provides structured understanding of various experiences, and is available for use in metaphor as a …

Immediacy

Immediacy is a distinction in place deixis that indicates location at a distance intermediate between locations considered proximal and distal.

Immediate Constituent

An immediate constituent is any one of the largest grammatical units that constitute a construction. Immediate constituents are often further reducible.

Immediate Imperative Mood

Immediate imperative mood is an imperative mood that signals that the command or request is to be carried out right away.

Immediate Past Tense

Immediate past tense is past tense that refers to a time considered very recent in relation to the moment of utterance.

Imperative Mood

Imperative mood is mood that signals directive modality, especially in commands. Its use may be extended to signal permission.

Imperfective Aspect

Imperfective aspect is an aspect that expresses an event or state, with respect to its internal structure, instead of expressing it as a simple whole.

Impermissible Mixed Metaphors

Impermissible mixed metaphors are metaphors that conflict because they serve different purposes.

Impersonal Verb

An impersonal verb is a verb that occurs only in third person singular forms has no specified agent, and has a dummy subject or no subject.

Implicational Scale

An implicational scale is a set of lexical items that are of the same constituent category, and ordered in terms of their informativeness. Any sentence …

Implicature

An implicature is anything that is inferred from an utterance but that is not a condition for the truth of the utterance.

Imprecative Mood

Imprecative mood is a volitive mood that signals the speaker's wish that an unfavorable proposition will come about.

Inalienable Noun

An inalienable noun is a noun that refers to something viewed as permanently and necessarily possessed, and is thus obligatorily expressed as possessed. It …

Inanimate Class

An inanimate class is a category of nouns that do not have human or animal referents.

Inchoative Aspect

Inchoative aspect is an aspect that expresses the beginning of an event or state.

Inclusive Alternative Relation

An inclusive alternative relation is an alternative relation in which more than one of the propositions may be true or fulfilled.

Inclusive First Person Deixis

Inclusive first person deixis is deixis that refers to a group including the addressee(s).

Indefinite Concessive Relation

An indefinite concessive relation is a concession relation in which the clause that expresses the concession contains a form, such as the following, that …

Indefinite Pronoun

An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that belongs to a class whose members indicate indefinite reference.

Indefiniteness

Indefiniteness is a kind of definiteness indicating that the referent(s) of an expression are not presumed to be identifiable. The referent is not …

Indirect Illocution

Indirect illocution is an illocutionary act in which the speaker expresses another illocutionary force other than that literally expressed in the utterance …

Indirect Object

An indirect object is a grammatical relation that is one means of expressing the semantic role of goal and other similar roles. It is proposed for …

Indirect Speech

Indirect speech is reported speech that is presented with grammatical modifications, rather than as it might have been uttered by the original speaker.

Individual-Group Lexical Relation

An individual-group lexical relation is an association between two lexical units in which one lexical unit is a collective term of the other.

Inessive Case

Inessive case is a case that expresses a location within the referent of the noun it marks.

Inferable Entity

An inferable entity is a referent that may be inferred by the addressee from other information that has already been given.

Inferior Status

Inferior status is social deixis that encodes a low degree of status.

Infield Distinction

An infield distinction is a distinction in place deixis that indicates that a location is in visual range.

Infinitive

An infinitive is the base form of a verb. It is unmarked for inflectional categories such as the following: Aspect Modality Number Person Tense

Infix

An infix is an affix that is inserted within a root or stem .

Infixation

Infixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme attaches within a root or stem . The kind of affix involved in this process is called an …

Inflection

Inflection is variation in the form of a word, typically by means of an affix, that expresses a grammatical contrast which is obligatory for the stem’s …

Inflectional Affix

An inflectional affix is an affix that: expresses a grammatical contrast that is obligatory for its stem's word class in some given grammatical context …

Inflectional Category

An inflectional category is a class of affixes that share a common grammatical feature.

Informal Language

Informal language is language use characterized by: spontaneous speech in situations that may be described as natural or "real-life," and the use of a …

Informativeness Principle

The informativeness principle is an implicature in which the addressee is licensed to apply his or her knowledge of the world to infer an implicature that …

Initiative Time Latency

An initiative time latency is the time between the end of a participant's turn and the resumption of his or her speakership in the absence of a response …

Insertion Sequence

An insertion sequence is a sequence of turns that intervenes between the first and second parts of an adjacency pair .

Instrument As A Semantic Role

Instrument is the semantic role of an inanimate thing that an agent uses to implement an event. It is the stimulus or immediate physical cause of an event.

Instrumental Case

Instrumental case is a case indicating that the referent of the noun it marks is the means of the accomplishment of the action expressed by the clause .

Intended Perlocutionary Effect

An intended perlocutionary effect is what a speaker intends an utterance to achieve in an addressee

Intensifier

An intensifier heightens or lowers the intensity of meaning of an item.

Interjection

An interjection is a form, typically brief, such as one syllable or word, which is used most often as an exclamation or part of an exclamation. An …

Internal Relation

An internal relation is an interpropositional relation that relates the situations described in the propositions by their communicative usage as opposed to …

Internal Relative Clause

An internal relative clause is a relative clause whose head noun phrase occurs within the relative clause itself.

Interpretation Relation

An interpretation relation is an interpropositional relation in which some proposition(s) relate the content of some other proposition(s) to a different …

Interpropositional Relation

An interpropositional relation is an explicit or inferred coherence relation between propositions or groups of propositions that are typically expressed by …

Interrogative Mood

An interrogative mood is an epistemic mood that signals that the speaker wishes to elicit information concerning the content of his or her utterance from …

Interrogative Pro-Form

An interrogative pro-form is a pro-form that is used in questions to stand for the item questioned.

Intimate Social Deixis

Intimate social deixis is deixis that expresses a very high degree of solidarity between the speaker and the addressee .

Intonation

Intonation is the system of levels (rising and falling) and variations in pitch sequences within speech.

Intransitivity

Intransitivity is a term that describes a verb or clause that is unable to take a direct object .

Irony

Irony is a trope in which an expression is used in such a fashion as to convey the opposite meaning of what is expressed.

Irrealis Modality

Irrealis modality is a modality that connotes that the proposition with which it is associated is nonactual or nonfactual.

Irregular Verb

An irregular verb is a verb which does not conform to an expected inflectional pattern.

Isolating Language

An isolating language is a language in which almost every word consists of a single morpheme.

Iterative Aspect

Iterative aspect is an aspect that expresses the repetition of an event or state.

Judgment Modality

Judgment modality is an epistemic modality that connotes the speaker's strength of inference, or degree of confidence in the reality of the proposition …

Jussive Mood

Jussive mood is a directive mood that signals a speaker's command, permission, or agreement that the proposition expressed by his or her utterance be …

Justification Relation

A justification relation is an interpropositional relation in which one or more propositions provide the basis or right of the speaker to perform the …

Kinetic Distinction

Kinetic distinction is a distinction in place deixis that indicates direction of movement with respect to the speaker or other deictic center.

Labialization

Labialization is a way of pronouncing a sound or sounds (consonants and vowels by using one or both lips.

Language Associate

A language associate is a person who teaches you how to speak a language provides you with language data, and helps you do linguistic research. …

Lapse

A lapse is a relatively long silence between turns that is due to none of the participants taking a turn.

Lative Case

Lative case is a case that expresses motion up to the location of, or as far as the referent of the noun it marks.

Length

Length is the amount of time it takes to produce a sound.

Lenis Consonant

A lenis consonant is a “weak” consonant produced by the lack of tension in the vocal apparatus. These weak consonants tend to be short, weakly voiced or …

Lexeme

A lexeme is the minimal unit of language which has a semantic interpretation and embodies a distinct cultural concept. It is made up of one or more …

Lexical Category

A lexical category is a syntactic category for elements that are part of the lexicon of a language. These elements are at the word level.

Lexical Database

A lexical database is an organized description of the lexemes of a language.

Lexical Form

A lexical form is an abstract unit representing a set of wordforms differing only in inflection and not in core meaning. It is a component part of a …

Lexical Phonology

Lexical phonology is an approach to phonology that accounts for the interactions of morphology and phonology in the word building process. The lexicon …

Lexical Relation

A lexical relation is a culturally recognized pattern of association that exists between lexical units in a language.

Lexical Relation Elicitation Frame

A lexical relation elicitation frame is a set of words of a particular lexical relation that is an example for eliciting more lexical relations of the same …

Lexical Relation Set

A lexical relation set is a grouping of senses that are lexically related to each other.

Lexical Relation With A Scale Structure

A lexical relation with a scale structure is a pattern of association between lexical units in a fixed order or progression. They represent successive …

Lexical Relation With A Set Of Pairs Structure

A lexical relation with a set of pairs structure is a pattern of association between lexical units which is characterized by a binary contrast, …

Lexical Relation With A Simple Set Structure

A lexical relation with a simple set structure is a pattern of association between lexical units that share one or more semantic components.

Lexical Relation With A Tree Structure

A lexical relation with a tree structure is a pattern of association that is characterized by a set of lexical units which both have an inclusion …

Lexical Tone

Lexical tone is the distinctive pitch level carried by the syllable of a word which is an essential feature of the meaning of that word.

Lexical Unit

A lexical unit is a form-meaning composite that represents a lexical form, and single meaning of a lexeme.

Lexical Verb

A lexical verb is a member of the open class of verbs which form the primary verb vocabulary of a language.

Lexicon

A lexicon is the knowledge that a native speaker has about a language. This includes information about the form and meanings of words and phrases lexical …

Link Schema

A link schema is an image schema that consists of two or more entities, connected physically or metaphorically, and the bond between them.

Literal Meaning In A Lexical Database

The literal meaning is used to give the glosses of the individual components of a multi-morpheme expression, such as a compound or an idiom, where the …

Literal Translation

A literal translation is a translation that follows closely the form of the source language.

Litotes

Litotes is the use of a negated antonym to make an understatement or to emphatically affirm the positive.

Locative As A Semantic Role

Locative is a semantic role which identifies the location or spatial orientation of a state or action. A locative semantic role does not imply motion to, …

Locative Case

Locative case is a case that expresses location at the referent of the noun it marks.

Logical Relation

A logical relation is an interpropositional relation in which a proposition is related to another, in reasoning, as a premise to a conclusion, or an …

Main Clause

A main clause is a clause that may stand alone as a complete sentence, and expresses the focal predication when occurring in a complex sentence.

Major Entry In A Lexical Database

A major entry is a unit in a lexical database representing a lexeme with its phonological, semantic, grammatical, and anthropological information (where …

Manner As A Semantic Role

Manner is a semantic role that notes how the action, experience, or process of an event is carried out.

Manner Implicature

A manner implicature is a conversational implicature based on an addressee's assumption that the speaker is either observing or flouting the conversational …

Manner Of Articulation

Manner of articulation is the type of closure made by the articulators and the degree of the obstruction of the airstream by those articulators.

Manner Of Discourse

A manner of discourse is an identifiable style of speech that is suitable for a particular type of: addressee social setting subject matter

Marker

A marker is a lexical item that signals a morphosyntactic operation .

Marking Clause

A marking clause is a clause, in a language with the grammatical category of switch reference , that contains an indication as to whether or not one of its …

Masculine Gender

Masculine gender is a grammatical gender that: marks nouns having human or animal male referents often marks nouns having referents that do not have …

Mass Noun

A mass noun is a noun whose referents are not thought of as separate entities. It may have distinguishing features such as the following: The inability to …

Matrix

A matrix is an arrangement of items into labeled rows and columns within a table. It shows the relationship between two categories of features that are …

Matrix Sentence

A matrix sentence is a sentence in which a clause has been embedded as a constituent . The clause may or may not be an immediate constituent , but it must …

Meaning

Meaning is a notion in semantics classically defined as having two components: Reference, anything in the referential realm denoted by a word or …

Meaning And Pragmatic Function

Meaning and pragmatic function is a general heading under which terminology relating to the various areas of study of language use and interpretation is …

Means-Purpose Relation

A means-purpose relation is a causal relation in which: one proposition expresses a state or activity employed so as to bring about the state or event …

Means-Result Relation

A means-result relation is a causal relation in which: one proposition expresses a state or activity employed so as to bring about the state or event …

Measure As A Semantic Role

Measure is a semantic role which notes the quantification of an event.

Medial Clause

A medial clause is any clause in a clause chain which: is not the final clause, and is distinguishable from the final clause by a difference in verb …

Mediopassive Voice

Mediopassive voice is a passive voice in which the: verb has stative meaning, and actor is not expressed

Meiosis

Meiosis is the minimization of the importance of a referent by the use of an expression that is disproportionate to it.

Metaphor

Here are two senses of metaphor: A metaphor is the expression of an understanding of one concept in terms of another concept, where there is some …

Metaphorical Entailment

A metaphorical entailment is the imparting of a characteristic of the source domain (the metaphorical image) to the target domain (the concept receiving …

Metonymy

Here are two senses for metonymy: Metonymy is, broadly defined, a trope in which one entity is used to stand for another associated entity. Metonymy is, …

Metrical Phonology

Metrical phonology is a phonological theory concerned with organizing segments into groups of relative prominence. Segments are organized into syllables, …

Middle Voice

Middle voice is a voice that indicates that the subject is the actor and acts: upon himself or herself reflexively for his or her own benefit. In the case …

Minimal Pair

A minimal pair is two words that differ in only one sound.

Minor Entry In A Lexical Database

A minor entry is a unit in the lexical database representing a lexeme that is an irregular variant of a major entry lexeme. It contains minimal …

Misplacement Marker

A misplacement marker is a device used in a turn of conversation to indicate that the turn is in some way out of place.

Mixed Metaphors

Mixed metaphors are different metaphors occurring in the same utterance , especially the same sentence, that are used to express the same concept. Mixed …

Mode Of Achievement

A mode of achievement is the means employed by a speaker to accomplish the illocutionary point of an utterance .

Moderate Epistemic Qualification

A moderate epistemic qualification is an epistemic qualification that signals a middle degree of certainty.

Modification

Modification is a morphological process which produces an alteration within a root or stem .

Modifier

A modifier is a constituent , in an endocentric construction , that imparts information relating to the head of the construction.

Mood And Modality

Mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality. Modality is a facet of illocutionary force , signaled by grammatical devices …

Morph

A morph is the phonetic realization of a morpheme .

Morpheme

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of a language.

Morpheme Type

A morpheme type is a category based upon how a morpheme combines with other morphemes to form a word.

Morphological Process

A morphological process is a means of changing a stem to adjust its meaning to fit its syntactic and communicational context.

Morphological Typology

Morphological typology is the categorization of a language according to the extent to which words in the language are clearly divisible into individual …

Morphology

Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words.

Morphophonemic Rule

A morphophonemic rule has the form of a phonological rule, but is restricted to a particular morphological environment.

Morphophonemics

Morphophonemics is the study of phonemic differences between allomorphs of the same morpheme ; a description of variations in a particular language.

Morphosyntactic Operation

A morphosyntactic operation is an ordered, dynamic relation between one linguistic form and another.

Motivation Relation

An interpropositional relation in which the speaker expresses a proposition(s) to increase the addressee's willingness to accept the directive communicated …

Move

A move is a stretch of talk that forms a unit. It has a functional relation to the conversation of which it is a part.

Multiplicative Numeral

A multiplicative numeral is a numeral that expresses how many fold or how many times.

Narrative Discourse

A narrative discourse is a discourse that is an account of events, usually in the past, that employs verbs of speech, motion, and action to describe a …

Narrative Text

A narrative text is an account of events.

Nasalization

Nasalization is a way of pronouncing sounds characterized by resonance produced through the nose.

Nasalized Vowel

A nasalized vowel is a vowel that is nasalized by a process in which the soft palate is lowered, opening the velum, which allows air to go through both the …

Natural Class

A natural class is a set of sounds that have certain phonetic features in common. All the members of a natural class are affected in the same way in the …

Necessity

Necessity is a degree of contingency in modality that in alethic modality connotes logical requirement deontic modality connotes obligation, and epistemic …

Negation

Negation is a morphosyntactic operation in which a lexical item denies or inverts the meaning of another lexical item or construction. A negator is a …

Negative Conditional Relation

A negative conditional relation is a conditional relation in which the consequent is related to the opposite meaning of the antecedent, and that is marked …

Negative Purpose Relation

A negative purpose relation is a means-purpose relation in which the expressed intent is avoidance of a state or event. The state or event to be avoided is …

Neuter Gender

Neuter gender is a grammatical gender that includes those nouns having referents which do not have distinctions of sex, and often includes some which do …

New Information

New information is information that is assumed by the speaker not to be known to or assumed by the addressee, or previously established in the discourse.

New Metaphor

A new metaphor is a metaphor that is not already part of the conceptual system of a culture as reflected in its language.

Newsmark

A newsmark is a move that treats a previous utterance as news and encourages further talk about it.

Next Turn Repair Initiator

A next turn repair initiator is an utterance, used in the turn after a repairable item, that prompts for a third turn repair in the next turn.

Nominal

A nominal is a word which differs grammatically from a noun but functions as one.

Nominal Clause

A nominal clause is a subordinate clause that functions as a noun phrase.

Nominalization

A nominalization is a noun phrase that has a systematic correspondence with a clausal predication which includes a head noun morphologically related to a …

Nominative Case

Nominative case is the case that identifies clause subjects in nominative-accusative languages. Nouns used in isolation have this case.

Nonconventional Implicature

An nonconventional implicature is a implicature that is drawn in accordance with pragmatic principles, such as the cooperative principle or the …

Nonconversational Implicature

A nonconversational implicature is a nonconventional implicature that arises from the operation of a principle or maxim of language usage other than the …

Nondefective Illocutionary Act

A nondefective illocutionary act is an illocutionary act for which all the presuppositions of the propositional content conditions, preparatory conditions, …

Nonextendedness

Nonextendedness is place deixis that has a component of meaning indicating that the location does not have length or area.

Nonfinite Clause

A nonfinite clause is a clause with a nonfinite verb.

Nonfinite Verb

A nonfinite verb is a verb that is not fully inflected for categories that are marked inflectionally in a language, such as the following: Tense Aspect …

Nonfuture Tense

Nonfuture tense is an absolute tense that refers to a time at or before the moment of utterance, and contrasts with a future tense.

Nonpast Tense

Nonpast tense is an absolute tense that refers to a time at or after the moment of utterance, and contrasts with a past tense.

Nonrecent Past Tense

Nonrecent past tense is a past tense that refers to a time before the range of a contrasting recent past tense.

Nonremote Past Tense

Nonremote past tense is a past tense that refers to a time considered not more than a few days ago, in contrast to a remote past tense.

Nonrestrictive Relative Clause

A nonrestrictive relative clause is a relative clause that does not aid in the identification of the referent of its head noun, but only provides …

Nonspecificity

Nonspecificity is a kind of definiteness, expressed by an interpretation of or grammatical marking on a noun or noun phrase, indicating that the speaker …

Nonvisual Evidential

A nonvisual evidential is a sensory evidential that signals that the speaker's evidence for the truth of his or her statement is derived from a sense other …

Not-Yet Tense

Not-yet tense is an absolute tense that refers to times at and before the moment of utterance in asserting the present and past nonoccurrence of an event …

Notional

A notional X is an X that is thought of informally or in extralinguistic terms.

Noun

A noun is a member of a syntactic class that includes words which refer to people, places, things, ideas, or concepts whose members may act as any of the …

Noun Adjunct

A noun adjunct is a noun that functions as a modifier of a noun.

Noun Class

A noun class system is a grammatical system that some languages use to overtly categorize nouns. Noun classes are often based, at least in part, on …

Noun Phrase

A noun phrase is a phrase that has a noun as its head.

Nuclear Syllable

A nuclear syllable is a syllable that carries maximum prominence, usually due to being stressed.

Number

Number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" or "more than one"). The count …

Numeral

A numeral is a word, functioning most typically as an adjective or pronoun, that expresses a number, and relation to the number, such as one of the …

Object

An object, traditionally defined, is either a direct object or an indirect object. An object, in some usages, is any grammatical relation other than …

Object Complement

An object complement is a complement that is used to predicate a description of the direct object .

Obligative Mood

Obligative mood is a directive mood that signals the speaker's estimation of the necessity that the proposition expressed in his or herutterance be brought …

Oblique Object

An oblique object is a grammatical relation proposed for a noun phrase clause constituent with the following characteristics: Its nature and behavior are …

Obliterative Overlap

An obliterative overlap is an overlap that is intended to blot out some portion of the speech of another participant.

Obviative Person Deixis

Obviative person deixis is third person deixis that distinguishes a less important referent in the present stage of the discourse from a referent that is …

Offprint

An offprint is a separate reprint of an article that first appeared as part of a larger publication.

Oh-Receipt

An oh-receipt is a move (such as the utterance of oh in English) that signals a sharp change in the state in the speaker’s knowledge, such as the …

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that denotes a sound suggested by the phonetic quality of the word, or thing that produces such a sound.

Onset

An onset is the part of the syllable that precedes the vowel of the syllable.

Ontological Metaphor

An ontological metaphor is a metaphor in which an abstraction, such as an activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as something concrete, such as an …

Open Class

An open class is a grammatical class of words with a potentially unlimited membership. These words have content meaning.

Open Presupposed Proposition

An open presupposed proposition is a presupposition that contains a variable about which the utterance supplies information.

Opposite Lexical Relation

An opposite lexical relation is an association between two lexical units which have the opposite core meanings in some contexts.

Optative Mood

Optative mood is a volitive mood that signals wishing or hoping.

Ordinal Numeral

An ordinal numeral is a numeral belonging to a class whose members designate positions in a sequence.

Orientational Metaphor

An orientational metaphor is a metaphor in which concepts are spatially related to each other, as in the following ways: Up or down In or out Front or back …

Other-Initiated Repair

An other-initiated repair is a repair that results from a process that was begun by the addressee of the repaired utterance .

Other-Repair

An other-repair is a repair made by a participant other than the one whose speech is repaired.

Out-Of-Field Distinction

An out-of-field distinction is a distinction in place deixis that indicates that the location is not in visual range.

Overall Organization

An overall organization is a schematic description of a kind of conversational encounter. It describes the types and order of a conversation’s turns and …

Overlap

Overlap is simultaneous talk by two or more conversational participants, irrespective of its status in participants’ minds as an interruption.

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a collocation of words that have contradictory or sharply incongruous meanings.

Parable

A parable is a brief allegory that is used to teach a moral lesson.

Paradigm

1. A set of forms having a common root or stem , of which one form must be selected in certain grammatical environments. 2. The set of substitutional …

Paradigmatic Lexical Relation

A paradigmatic lexical relation is a culturally determined pattern of association between lexical units that share one or more core semantic components …

Paradox

A paradox is a proposition that is or appears to be contradictory but expresses some measure of truth.

Paralipsis

Paralipsis is a kind of irony in which the speaker proposes not to speak of a matter, but still somehow reveals it.

Parataxis

Parataxis is the juxtaposition of syntactic units without use of a conjunction .

Parenthesis Relation

A parenthesis relation is an interpropositional relation in which some proposition(s) is a digression from those expressed before and after.

Paronomasia

Paronomasia is the use of words that sound similar to other words, but have different meanings.

Part-Whole Schema

A part-whole schema is an image schema involving physical or metaphorical wholes along with their parts and a configuration of the parts.

Participant Role

A participant role is a relation that persons have to each other with regards to their involvement in a speech event.

Participle

A participle is a lexical item, derived from a verb , that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives . The adjectival form …

Particle

A particle is a word that does not belong to one of the main classes of words is invariable in form, and typically has grammatical or pragmatic meaning.

Particularized Implicature

A particularized implicature is a conversational implicature that is derivable only in a specific context.

Partitive Case

Partitive case is a case that expresses the partial nature of the referent of the noun it marks, as opposed to expressing the whole unit or class of which …

Partitive Numeral

A partitive numeral is a numeral that expresses a fraction.

Passing Turn

A passing turn is a move that indicates that its speaker has nothing further to say, and passes speakership to another participant.

Passive Voice

Passive voice is a voice that indicates that the subject is the patient or recipient of the action denoted by the verb.

Past Perfect Tense

Past perfect tense is an absolute-relative tense that refers to a time in the past relative to a reference point, which itself is in the past relative to …

Past Tense

Past tense is an absolute tense that refers to a time before the moment of utterance.

Path

Path is the semantic role describing the locale(s) transversed in motion or propulsion predications.

Path Schema

A path schema is an image schema that involves physical or metaphorical movement from place to place, and consists of a starting point, a goal, and a …

Patient As A Semantic Role

Patient is a semantic role that is usually the surface object of the verb in a sentence.

Perfect

A perfect is a grammaticalization of the current relevance, at the moment of utterance, of an event or state that occurred prior to the moment of …

Perfect Of Persistent Situation

A perfect of persistent situation is a grammaticalization of the current relevance of a state or event begun prior to the moment of utterance, which is …

Perfect Of Recent Past

A perfect of recent past is a grammaticalization of the current relevance of a state or event, occurring before the moment of utterance, which is relevant …

Perfect Of Result

A perfect of result is a grammaticalization of the current relevance of a state or event, occurring before the moment of utterance, which is relevant …

Perfective Aspect

Perfective aspect is an aspect that expresses a temporal view of an event or state as a simple whole, apart from the consideration of the internal …

Performative

A performative is a sentence in which the employment of a particular illocutionary force is made explicit by naming the force in the sentence itself.

Performative Verb

A performative verb is a verb that names an illocutionary force. It is used in a performative to perform an illocutionary act having that force.

Perlocutionary Act

A perlocutionary act is a speech act that produces an effect, intended or not, achieved in an addressee by a speaker’s utterance.

Perlocutionary Failure

Perlocutionary failure is a lack of success in achieving an intended perlocutionary effect.

Perlocutionary Verb

A perlocutionary verb is a verb that names a perlocutionary act.

Permissible Mixed Metaphors

Permissible mixed metaphors are mixed metaphors that do not conflict with each other because they serve the same purpose, and exhibit a correlation with …

Permissive Mood

Permissive mood is a directive mood that signals the speaker’s act of giving permission.

Person Deixis

Person deixis is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker the addressee, and referents which are neither speaker nor …

Personal Pronoun

A personal pronoun is a pronoun that expresses a distinction of person deixis.

Personification

Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person.

Pesky Little Particle

A pesky little particle is a morpheme that is either lexically contentless, or behaves in a text in a manner that is anomalous with regard to its usual …

Phone

A phone is an unanalyzed sound of a language. It is the smallest identifiable unit found in a stream of speech that is able to be transcribed with an IPA …

Phoneme

A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language.

Phonetically Similar Segment

Phonetically similar segments are two or more sounds which share phonetic features and are frequently found as variants of a single phonological unit in a …

Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds. Branches Articulatory phonetics The study of how speech sounds are produced by the human vocal apparatus. …

Phonological Derivation

A phonological derivation is the set of stages used to generate the phonetic representation of a word from its underlying representation.

Phonological Hierarchy

Phonological hierarchy is a ranking that organizes a stream of speech into levels of ascending size and complexity. Here are the levels of the phonological …

Phonological Symmetry

Phonological symmetry is the even distribution of phonemes throughout the articulatory possibilities of a given language.

Phonological Universal

A phonological universal is a common tendency found in the phonological systems of many languages.

Phonology

Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.

Phrasal Verb

A phrasal verb is a combination of a lexical verb and a verbal particle that forms a single semantic and syntactic unit.

Phrase

A phrase is a syntactic structure that consists of more than one word but lacks the subject-predicate organization of a clause.

Pitch

Pitch is the rate of vibration of the vocal folds.

Place Deixis

Place deixis is deictic reference to a location relative to the location of a participant in the speech event, typically the speaker.

Place Of Articulation

Place of articulation is the relationship between the active and passive articulators as they shape or impede the airstream.

Plural Number

Plural number is number that expresses reference to a quantity greater than that expressed by the largest specific number category in a language, such as …

Polarity

Polarity is a grammatical category that distinguishes affirmative and negative.

Politeness

Politeness is social deixis that expresses a low degree of solidarity between the speaker and the addressee.

Polysynthetic Language

A polysynthetic language is a language in which words tend to consist of several morphemes.

Portmanteau Morph

A portmanteau morph is a single morph that is analyzed as representing two underlying morphemes.

Position

A position is an abstract place of one turn relative to another turn to which it is functionally related. The place does not vary with the number or size …

Possessive Noun

A possessive noun is a noun that expresses possession.

Possessive Pronoun

A possessive pronoun is a pronoun that expresses ownership and relationships like ownership, such as kinship, and other forms of association.

Possibility

Possibility is a degree of contingency in modality that in alethic modality connotes logical possibility deontic modality connotes permission, and …

Post-Hodiernal Future Tense

Post-hodiernal future tense is a future tense that refers to a time, in relation to the moment ofutterance, after the span that is culturally defined as …

Post-Sequence

A post-sequence is a sequence that is subordinate to and follows another sequence. It remedies some unresolved matter relating to the dominant sequence.

Postposition

A postposition is an adposition that occurs after its complement.

Postpositional Phrase

A postpositional phrase is an adpositional phrase in which a postposition is the head. The postposition follows its complement. The phrase is an exocentric …

Potential Implicature

A potential implicature is an implicature that would arise from any of the components of a givenutterance if that component were uttered in some linguistic …

Potential Presupposition

A potential presupposition is a presupposition that is triggered by some part of an utterance (such as a subordinate clause) taken in isolation, but that …

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of the aspects of meaning and language use that are dependent on thespeaker, the addressee and other features of the context of …

Preannouncement

A preannouncement is a presequence for an announcement of news. It consists of a turn in which the announcing participant checks on the newsworthiness of …

Prearrangement

A prearrangement is a presequence in which an attempt is made to arrange for later contact, as by means of a question-answer sequence determining the …

Precategorial Class

The precategorial class is a category for a lexical item that needs more analysis before it can be assigned a more specific category in the Parts of Speech …

Precative Mood

Precative mood is a directive mood that signals that the utterance is a request.

Preclosing

A preclosing is a presequence that signals the end of a conversation is near. It provides opportunity for the discussion of any additional remaining topic …

Predicate

A predicate is the portion of a clause, excluding the subject, that expresses something about the subject.

Predicate Adjective

A predicate adjective is an adjective that is used to predicate an attribute of the subject.

Predicate Noun

A predicate noun is a noun (or noun phrase) that is used to predicate a description or identification of the subject.

Predicator

A predicator is the verb in its functional relation to the clause . It is comparable to the grammatical relations of subject and object .

Predictable Information

Predictable information is given information that the speaker assumes can be or could have been predicted by the addressee to occur in a particular …

Predictive Future Tense

Predictive future tense is a future tense, used in predictions, that does not express intention.

Preface

A preface is an audible device, such as one of the following, used within a turn to put off a dispreferred response : Items like well Token agreement …

Preferred Second Part

A preferred second part is a second part of an adjacency pair that consists of a sort of response to the first part that is not avoided by participants, …

Prefix

A prefix is an affix that is joined before a root or stem .

Prefixation

Prefixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme is attached to the front of a root or stem . The kind of affix involved in this process is …

Prehesternal Past Tense

Prehesternal past tense is a past tense that refers to a time in some span before that of an opposing hesternal past tense .

Prehodiernal Past Tense

Prehodiernal past tense is a past tense that refers to a time in some span before that of a contrasting hodiernal past tense .

Preinvitation

A preinvitation is a presequence that is likely to be understood by the respondent as a signal of a coming invitation. The coming invitation may be a …

Prenasalization

Prenasalization is the addition of a short nasal onset to a plosive or affricate at the same place of articulation.

Preparatory Condition

A preparatory condition is a state of affairs that must be presupposed by the speaker in employing a particular illocutionary force , and is a necessary …

Preposition

A preposition is an adposition that occurs before its complement .

Prepositional Phrase

A prepositional phrase is an adpositional phrase in which a preposition is the head . The preposition precedes its complement . The phrase is an exocentric …

Prerequest

A prerequest is a presequence that prefigures a request, possibly by ascertaining the ability of the respondent to satisfy the coming request.

Present Tense

Present tense is an absolute tense that refers to the moment of utterance . It often refers to events or states that do not merely coincide with the moment …

Presequence

Here are two senses of presequence: A presequence is a sequence that is used to introduce a conversational action, and often prefigures a particular sort …

Prespan-End Relation

A prespan-end relation is a temporal relation in which an event or state is expressed as marking the termination of a durative event or state.

Presupposition

A presupposition is background belief, relating to an utterance , that must be mutually known or assumed by the speaker and addressee for the utterance to …

Presupposition Denial

A presupposition denial is a noncontradictory negation of a presupposition in a clause by an assertion in another clause.

Presupposition Suspension

A presupposition suspension is the speaker's removal of a previously implied commitment to a presupposition without the denial of it.

Presupposition Trigger

A presupposition trigger is a construction or item that signals the existence of a presupposition in an utterance.

Preterit

A preterit, in traditional terminology, is a simple past tense not marked for aspect or modality.

Previousness Relation

A previousness relation is a temporal relation in which the event or state of a latter-expressed proposition is communicated to have occurred before the …

Primary Sense

A primary sense is the core, basic, literal meaning of a lexeme.

Pro-Adjective

A pro-adjective is a pro-form that substitutes for an adjective or adjective phrase.

Pro-Adverb

A pro-adverb is a pro-form that substitutes for an adverb or other expression having an adverbial function.

Pro-Form

A pro-form is a word, substituting for other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extralinguistic …

Pro-Verb

A pro-verb is a pro-form that substitutes for a verb or predicate.

Procedural Discourse

A procedural discourse is a discourse that is used to tell the addressee how to do something presents a series of steps leading to a goal, and centers on …

Procedural Text

A procedural text is a text which gives instructions on how to do something.

Proclitic

A proclitic is a clitic that precedes the word to which it is phonologically joined.

Productive Affix

A productive affix is a derivational affix that is currently used in the derivation of new words.

Progressive Aspect

Progressive aspect is a continuous aspect that expresses processes, not states.

Prohibitive Mood

Prohibitive mood is a directive mood that signals a prohibition. It is distinguished by the use of a negated imperative sentence that employs a negative …

Prolative Case

Prolative case is a case that expresses motion along or by the referent of the noun it marks.

Pronominal

A pronominal is a phrase that functions as a pronoun. Note : The term pronominal is also used as an adjective to mean "of, constituting, or resembling a …

Pronoun

A pronoun is a pro-form which functions like a noun and substitutes for a noun or noun phrase.] `

Proper Noun

A proper noun is a noun that is the name of a specific individual, place, or object.

Proportional Relation

A proportional relation is a logical relation that establishes a range of conditional relations that together involve direct or inverse correlation.

Proposition

A proposition is that part of the meaning of a clause or sentence that is constant, despite changes in such things as the voice or illocutionary force of …

Propositional Act

A propositional act is a speech act that a speaker performs when referring or predicating in an utterance.

Propositional Content Condition

A propositional content condition is a limitation on the nature of the state of affairs described by the propositional content of an illocutionary act due …

Prospective

A prospective is a grammaticalization of the relationship of a present state to a future situation. It indicates that one is in a present state of being …

Prototype

The prototype of any category is the member or set of members of a category that best represents the category as a whole.

Proximal

A proximal is a distinction in place deixis that indicates location close to the speaker or other deictic center.

Proximal-Distal Dimension

A proximal-distal dimension is a distinction in place deixis that indicates distance from the speaker or other deictic center.

Proximate Person Deixis

Proximate person deixis is a third person deixis that distinguishes a referent that is more important at the present stage of the discourse from a referent …

Pseudo-Cleft Sentence

A pseudo-cleft sentence is a kind of cleft sentence in which the subordinated clause is a relative clause headed by an interrogative pro-form. In English …

Pun

A pun is a variety of a usually humorous play on words involving the multiple meanings of an expression, or two expressions that sound similar.

Quality Implicature

A quality implicature is a conversational implicature based on the addressee's assumption as to whether or not the speaker is observing or flouting the …

Quantifier

A quantifier is a determiner that expresses a referent's definite or indefinite number or amount. A quantifier functions as a modifier of a noun, or …

Quantity Implicature

A quantity implicature is a conversational implicature based on an addressee's assumption as to whether the speaker is observing or flouting the …

Question

Here are two senses of question : A question is an illocutionary act that has a directive illocutionary point of attempting to get the addressee to supply …

Quotative Evidential

A quotative evidential is an evidential that signals that someone else is the source of the statement made.

Range As A Semantic Role

Range is the semantic role of the entity that completes, is a product of, or further specifies an event.

Range Of Reference

A range of reference is a collection of all possible entities in the referential realm denoted by a lexical unit.

Rank

Rank is the relationship between units that refer to different values of some variable underlying property such as the following: Degree Grade Relative …

Rank Lexical Relation

A rank lexical relation is an association between lexical units which have different relative values based on some shared underlying semantic property.

Ratified Participant

A ratified participant is one who, in a speech event, has the role of speaker addressee , or intended audience.

Realis Modality

Realis modality is a modality that connotes the factuality of a proposition .

Reason-Result Relation

A reason-result relation is a causal relation in which the propositions express an event or state that brings about another event or state. The result …

Receiving Time

Receiving time is the time at which an addressee hears or reads a message. This time may be the deictic center for expressions of time deixis .

Recent Past Tense

Recent past tense is a past tense that refers to a time, culturally and situationally defined, within the span ranging from yesterday to a week or a few …

Reciprocal Pronoun

A reciprocal pronoun is a pronoun that expresses a mutual feeling or action among the referents of a plural subject .

Reduplication

Reduplication is a morphological process in which a root or stem or part of it is repeated.

Reference

Here are two senses for reference: Reference is the symbolic relationship that a linguistic expression has with the concrete object or abstraction it …

Reference Clause

Here are two senses of a reference clause: A reference clause is a clause with an argument that, in a marking clause elsewhere in the sentence, is signaled …

Reference Grammar

A reference grammar is a prose-like description of the major grammatical constructions in a language, illustrated with examples.

Referent

A referent is the concrete object or concept that is designated by a word or expression. A referent is an object, action, state, relationship, or attribute …

Referent Honorific

A referent honorific is an honorific for which both the referent and the target of the expression of relative social status are the same.

Referential Realm

The referential realm is anything, real or imagined, that a person may talk about.

Reflexive Pronoun

A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that has coreference with the subject .

Reflexive Verb

A reflexive verb is a verb whose agent performs an action that is directed at itself. It characteristically takes a reflexive pronoun as its object .

Reformulation

A reformulation is a self-repair by means of a paraphrase of the repairable item.

Rejection Finalizer

A rejection finalizer is a move that signals the speaker 's acceptance of a rejection by another participant. The rejection may be of an offer that has …

Relational Proposition

A relational proposition is a proposition that arises as an implicature between two propositions or groups of propositions that are related by an …

Relational Social Deixis

Relational social deixis is deictic reference to a social relationship between the speaker and an addressee , bystander, or other referent in the …

Relative Adverb

A relative adverb is a pro-adverb that marks a relative clause .

Relative Clause

A relative clause is a clause which describes the referent of a head noun or pronoun . It often restricts the reference of the head noun or pronoun.

Relative Future Tense

Relative future tense is a relative tense that refers to a time located after a contextually determined temporal reference point, regardless of the …

Relative Nonfuture Tense

Relative nonfuture tense is a relative tense that refers to a time simultaneous to, or before, a contextually determined temporal reference point, …

Relative Nonpast Tense

Relative nonpast tense is a relative tense that refers to a time simultaneous to, or after, a contextually determined temporal reference point, regardless …

Relative Past Tense

Relative past tense is a relative tense that refers to a time located before that of a contextually determined temporal reference point.

Relative Present Tense

Relative present tense is a relative tense that refers to a time that is simultaneous with some contextually determined temporal reference point.

Relative Pronoun

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause functions grammatically within the relative clause, and is coreferential to the word modified …

Relative Tense

Relative tense is a tense that refers to a time in relation to a contextually determined temporal reference point, regardless of the latter’s temporal …

Relativizer

A relativizer is a subordinating conjunction that links a relative clause to its head noun . It is distinguishable from a relative pronoun in that it does …

Relator

A relator is a lexical item whose function is to show the relationship between its surrounding constructions.

Relevance Implicature

A relevance implicature is a conversational implicature based on an addressee 's assumption as to whether a speaker is observing or flouting the …

Remote Future Tense

Remote future is a future tense that refers to a time that is considered relatively distant. It is characteristically after the span of time culturally …

Remote Past Tense

Remote past tense is a past tense that refers to a time considered more than a few days ago.

Repair

A repair is an alteration that is suggested or made by a speaker , the addressee , or audience in order to correct or clarify a previous conversational …

Repartee Discourse

Repartee discourse is a discourse that is used to recount a series of speech exchanges.

Restatement Relation

A restatement relation is an interpropositional relation in which a proposition(s) substantially paraphrases another proposition(s).

Restraint Removal Schema

A restraint removal schema is a force schema that involves the physical or metaphorical removal of a barrier to the action of a force, or absence of a …

Restrictive Relative Clause

A restrictive relative clause is a relative clause that helps to identify the referent of the word that it modifies.

Result

A result is a semantic role that refers to that which is produced by an event. This role is usually encoded as the surface object of a sentence .

Reverential Form

A reverential form is an expression of social deixis that encodes very high status.

Rhetorical Question

A rhetorical question is an illocutionary act that has the direct illocutionary force of a question , and is not generally used with the expectation of an …

Rhotacized Vowel

A rhotacized vowel is a vowel colored with the sound of an r.

Rime

A rime is the part of a syllable which consists of its vowel and any consonant sounds that come after it.

Root

A root is the portion of a word that is common to a set of derived or inflected forms, if any, when all affixes are removed is not further analyzable into …

Salient Information

Salient information is given information that the speaker assumes to be in the addressee 's consciousness at the time of the speaker’s utterance .

Same Subject Marker

A same subject marker is a distinction in the verb morphology of a clause that indicates that the subject is identical to the subject of another clause, …

Scalar Implicature

A scalar implicature is a quantity implicature based on the use of an informationally weak term in an implicational scale . The use implicates that all …

Scalar Property Lexical Relation

A scalar property lexical relation is an association between sets of lexical units which refers to the relative values for a property of an object or event …

Scale Schema

A scale schema is an image schema that involves an increase or decrease of physical or metaphorical amount, and consists of any of the following: A closed- …

Second Part

A second part is the second utterance in an adjacency pair .

Second Person Deixis

Second person deixis is deictic reference to a person or persons identified as addressee .

Secondary Articulation

A secondary articulation is an additional articulation process that affects vowel or consonant production.

Secondary Sense

A secondary sense is a meaning that is more abstract than a primary sense of a lexeme but still shares some of its semantic components . Because it has a …

Segment

A segment is any discrete unit or phone , produced by the vocal apparatus, or a representation of such a unit.

Self-Initiated Repair

Self-initiated repair is a repair that the speaker of the utterance that needs repair makes without a prompting from another participant.

Self-Repair

Self-repair is a repair that is performed by the speaker of the utterance that needs repair.

Semantic Component

A semantic component is a potentially contrastive part of the meaning of a lexical unit .

Semantic Role

A semantic role is the underlying relationship that a participant has with the main verb in a clause .

Semantics

Here are two senses for semantics: Semantics is, generally defined, the study of meaning of linguistic expressions. Semantics is, more narrowly defined, …

Sense

In LinguaLinks, the word "sense" is used in two ways: 1. In discussions about data storage and management, a sense is a structural part of a lexical entry …

Sense Group

A sense group is a collection of senses organized according to lexical category to conceptual extendedness , or to semantic similarity.

Sense Type

A sense type is a classification of a sense on the basis of its conceptual extendedness . In other words, it is a classification of the primary sense of a …

Sensory Evidential

A sensory evidential is an evidential signaling that the speaker’s evidence for the truth of his or her statement is derived from the speaker’s own sensory …

Sentence

A sentence is a grammatical unit that is composed of one or more clauses .

Sentence Adverb

A sentence adverb is an adverb that modifies a whole sentence .

Sentence Elicitation Frame

A sentence elicitation frame is a syntactic construction that has a blank left in it for eliciting or testing words.

Sentential Complementation

Sentential complementation is a kind of sentence in which one of the arguments of a verb is a clause. That clausal argument is called a complement clause .

Separable Affix

A separable affix is an affix that can be detached from its stem and located elsewhere in a construction .

Sequence

A sequence is a unit of conversation that consists of two or more adjacent and functionally related turns .

Sequential Relation

A sequential relation is a temporal relation in which the event or state of a latter-expressed proposition is communicated to have occurred after the event …

Serial Verb Construction

A serial verb construction is a string of verbs or verb phrases within a single clause that express simultaneous or immediately consecutive actions have a …

Setting Information

Setting information is a kind of nonevent in discourse that provides locative, temporal and circumstantial information about a sequence of events.

Silence

Silence is the absence of speech.

Similar Pair

A similar pair is two words in which phonetically similar segments occur in quite similar environments, and no phonetically plausible rationale can be …

Similarity Relation

A similarity relation is an interpropositional relation indicating that the events or states expressed in the propositions have a likeness of function or …

Simile

A simile is a comparison between two things. It is signaled overtly; in English, a simile is expressed by the words like or as.

Simple Sentence

A simple sentence is a sentence containing one main clause and no subordinate clauses .

Simulfix

A simulfix is a change or replacement of vowels or consonants (usually vowels) which changes the meaning of a word.

Simultaneous Relation

A simultaneous relation is a temporal relation in which the events or states of proposition(s) are communicated as occurring at the same time.

Sincerity Condition

A sincerity condition is the psychological state of the speaker concerning the propositional content of an illocutionary act . The sincere or insincere …

Singular Number

Singular number is number that refers to one member of a designated class.

Singulative

A singulative is a grammatical form, adjunct, or variant of a word that expresses the individuation of a single referent from a group or mass.

Situational Elicitation Frame

A situational elicitation frame is a hypothetical situation that is constructed to help you constrain and control what you elicit.

Situationally Evoked Entity

A situationally evoked entity is a referent that is given information because of the prominence of the referent in the extralinguistic context.

Social Deixis

Social deixis is reference to the social characteristics of, or distinctions between, the participants or referents in a speech event.

Solidarity

Solidarity is a scale of perceived like-mindedness or similarity of behavioral disposition between a speaker and addressee deriving from their similar: …

Solutionhood Relation

A solutionhood relation is an interpropositional relation in which a proposition(s) is presented as an answer or remedy for a problem, such as one of the …

Sonority Scale

The sonority scale is a list of phonetic segments showing the relative resonance of phonetic segments in relation to other segments.

Source As A Participant Role

Source is the participant role of the referent from whom a message ultimately comes, especially in the case in which the referent is distinct from the …

Source As A Semantic Role

Source is the semantic role of the following referents: The place of origin (with verbs of motion, locomotion, and propulsion) The entity from which a …

Source Domain

A source domain is a concept that is metaphorically used to provide the means of understanding another concept.

Speaker

A speaker is the utterer of a message.

Specialized Figurative Text

A specialized figurative text is a text belonging to one of several creative genres that makes extensive use of stylized, poetic, and figurative language.

Specification Relation

A specification relation is an elaboration relation in which a proposition provides more information about another proposition by restating it more …

Specificity

Specificity is a kind of definiteness, expressed by the interpretation of or grammatical marking on a noun or noun phrase , indicating that the speaker …

Speculative Mood

Speculative mood is an epistemic mood that signals that the speaker judges from certain facts that the proposition expressed by his or her utterance is …

Speech Act

A speech act is an act that a speaker performs when making an utterance , including the following: A general act ( illocutionary act ) that a speaker …

Standard Implicature

A standard implicature is a conversational implicature based on an addressee 's assumption that the speaker is being cooperative by directly observing the …

State Of The Glottis

The state of the glottis is the amount of: vibration in the vocal folds, and closure in the glottis.

Statement

Here are two senses for statement: A statement is an illocutionary act that has the assertive illocutionary point of saying that some state of affairs is …

Stative Verb

A stative verb is a verb that expresses a state of affairs or being rather than action. Stative verbs differ from verbs of action not just in meaning but …

Status

Status is a scale of social standing that is often realized in differing socially deictic linguistic forms.

Stem

A stem is the root or roots of a word, together with any derivational affixes , to which inflectional affixes are added.

Stem Modification

Stem modification is a morphological process whereby an affix occurs simultaneously with a root or stem. The kind of affix involved in this process is …

Still Tense

Still tense is an absolute tense carrying the presupposition that an event or state held before the moment of utterance. In positive declarative clauses, …

Stop

A stop is a sound produced with a complete closure of the vocal tract.

Strength Of Illocutionary Point

Strength of illocutionary point is the strength of assertion of, commitment to bring about, direction to another to bring about, or expression of a …

Strength Of Sincerity Conditions

Strength of sincerity conditions is the strength of the psychological state that the speaker commits to in employing a particular illocutionary force .

Stress

Stress is an increase in the activity of the vocal apparatus of a speaker.

Strong Epistemic Qualification

A strong epistemic qualification is an epistemic qualification that signals the highest degree of certainty.

Structural Metaphor

A structural metaphor is a conventional metaphor in which one concept is understood and expressed in terms of another structured, sharply defined concept

Subentry In A Lexical Database

A subentry is a unit in the lexical database representing a lexeme that is made up of more than one morpheme , and is lexically related to one or more …

Subject

A subject is a grammatical relation that exhibits certain independent syntactic properties, such as the following: The grammatical characteristics of the …

Subject Complement

A subject complement is a complement that is used to predicate a description of the subject of a clause .

Subjunctive Mood

Subjunctive mood is a mood that typically signals irrealis meanings, such as: potentiality uncertainty prediction obligation, and desire It most typically …

Subordinate Clause

A subordinate clause is a clause that is embedded as a constituent of a matrix sentence and that functions like a noun , adjective , or adverb in the …

Subordinating Conjunction

A subordinating conjunction is a conjunction that links constructions by making one of them a constituent of another. The subordinating conjunction …

Substance Metaphor

A substance metaphor is an ontological metaphor in which an abstraction, such as an event, activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as material.

Substantive

A substantive is a broad classification of words that includes nouns and nominals .

Subtraction

Subtraction is a morphological process of modification that removes one or more segments from a root or stem .

Success Of Fit

Success of fit is a correspondence between the state of affairs described by the propositional content of an illocutionary act and the state of affairs in …

Suffix

A suffix is an affix that is attached to the end of a root or stem .

Suffixation

Suffixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme is attached to the end of a stem . The kind of affix involved in this process is called a …

Summary Relation

A summary relation is a contraction relation in which a proposition(s) repeats, in abbreviated form, the information of a group of propositions previously …

Summons-Answer Sequence

A summons-answer sequence is a pre-sequence that consists of a that turn seeks attention, and grants it, opening the way for the talk to follow.

Superessive Case

Superessive case is a case that expresses location on the referent of the noun it marks. It has the meaning of "on" or "upon."

Superior Status

Superior status is social deixis that encodes high status.

Supplemental Information In A Definition

Supplemental information is an optional part of the definition of a lexical unit , containing culturally or logically expected information.

Suppletion

Suppletion is the replacement of one stem with another, resulting in an allomorph of a morpheme which has no phonological similarity to the other …

Suprafix

A suprafix is a kind of affix in which a suprasegmental is superimposed on one or more syllables of the root or stem, signalling a particular …

Suprasegmental

A suprasegmental is a vocal effect that extends over more than one sound segment in an utterance, such as pitch, stress, or juncture pattern. In SIL …

Switch Reference

Switch reference is a grammatical category with the following features: It signals the identity or nonidentity of the referent of an argument of one clause …

Switching Pause

A switching pause is silence between turns .

Syllabic Consonant

A syllabic consonant is a phonetic element that normally patterns as a consonant, but may fill a vowel slot in a syllable.

Syllabification

Syllabification is the process in which consonants function on the periphery of a syllable.

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of sound composed of a central peak of sonority (usually a vowel), and the consonants that cluster around this central peak.

Syllepsis

A syllepsis is the use of a single word in such a way that it is syntactically related to two or more words elsewhere in the sentence , but has a different …

Symbolic Usage

Symbolic usage is the use of a deictic expression in such a way that its interpretation depends only on general knowledge of the extralinguistic situation, …

Synecdoche

A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which the one of the following (or its reverse) is expressed: A part stands for a whole An individual stands for a …

Synonym Lexical Relation

A synonym lexical relation is a relationship between two or more lexical units which have identical core semantic components and which differ only with …

Syntactic Category

A syntactic category is a set of words and/or phrases in a language which share a significant number of common characteristics. The classification is based …

Syntactic Function

A syntactic function is the grammatical relationship of one constituent to another within a syntactic construction.

Syntagmatic Lexical Relation

A syntagmatic lexical relation is a culturally determined pattern of association between pairs of lexical units (A1-B1, A2-B2, A3-B3…) where the two …

Tag Question

A tag question is a constituent that is added after a statement in order to request confirmation or disconfirmation of the statement from the addressee . …

Tag Statement

A tag statement is an elliptical statement that follows and echoes a main clause statement.

Target

A target is the ultimate intended recipient of a speaker 's message, especially when distinct from the addressee .

Target Domain

A target domain is a semantic domain that is structured and understood metaphorically in terms of another domain.

Temporal Relation

A temporal relation is an interpropositional relation that communicates the simultaneity or ordering in time of events or states.

Tense

Tense is a grammatical category, typically marked on the verb , that deictically refers to the time of the event or state denoted by the verb in relation …

Test Term

Text

A text is a sequence of paragraphs that represents an extended unit of speech.

Text Genre

A text genre is a type of written or spoken discourse.

Textually Evoked Entity

A textually evoked entity is a referent that is given information because it has been previously included in the text.

Theme

A theme is the initial constituent of a sentence , viewed in relation to a more highly communicative theme or focus elsewhere in the sentence.

Thesaurus Category

A thesaurus category is an etic semantic category.

Third Person Deixis

Third person deixis is deictic reference to a referent(s) not identified as the speaker or addressee .

Third Turn Repair

A third turn repair is a self-repair in a third conversational turn . It is preceded by an initial turn in which the repairable item occurs and another …

Time As A Semantic Role

Time is the semantic role of the temporal placement of an event.

Time Deixis

Time deixis is reference to time relative to a temporal reference point. Typically, this point is the moment of utterance.

Token-Reflexive Deixis

Token-reflexive deixis is discourse deixis in which the deictic expression refers to the expression or speech act in which it occurs.

Tone

A tone is a pitch element or register added to a syllable to convey grammatical or lexical information.

Topic

A topic is a noun phrase that expresses what a sentence is about, and to which the rest of the sentence is related as a comment .

Transcription

Transcription is the process of representing oral text in a written format.

Transitive Verb

A transitive verb is a verb that takes a direct object .

Transitivity

Transitivity is the number of objects a verb requires or takes in a given instance.

Translational Equivalence

Translational equivalence is the similarity between a word (or expression) in one language and its translation in another. This similarity results from …

Translative Case

Translative case is a case indicating that the referent of the noun , or the quality of the adjective , that it marks is the result of a process of change.

Transverse

A transverse is an expression of place deixis that indicates movement across the line of sight of the speaker .

Trial Number

A trial number is a number that refers to three members of the designated class.

Trope

A trope is the figurative use of an expression.

Try-Marker

A try-marker is a device that is used to indicate a test of the addressee 's recognition of a referent . The device is followed by a hesitation pause in …

Turn

A turn is a time during which a single participant speaks, within a typical, orderly arrangement in which participants speak with minimal overlap and gap …

Turn Location

A turn location is the actual place of a turn in a series. It is represented by a number obtained by counting from the initial turn of the series.

Twin-Pan Balance Schema

A twin-pan balance schema is a balance schema that involves physical or metaphorical countervailing forces acting on either side of a fulcrum.

Ultimate Constituent

An ultimate constituent is one of the grammatically irreducible units that constitutes a construction .

Unbound Root

An unbound root is a root which can occur by itself as a separate word. Another morpheme need not be affixed to it in order for it to be a word .

Unbound Stem

An unbound stem is a stem which can occur by itself as a separate word. Another morpheme need not be affixed to it in order for it to be a word .

Unbounded Deixis

Unbounded deixis is a distinction in place deixis that indicates the lack of a defined border.

Universal

A universal principle is something that exists everywhere; something characteristic of all languages.

Unproductive Affix

An unproductive affix is a derivational affix which is no longer used to form new words.

Unratified Participant

An unratified participant is a person present at, but not a recognized participant of, a conversation or other speech event.

Unused Entity

An unused entity is a referent referred to for the first time in the discourse, but assumed to be already a part of the addressee 's knowledge.

Upgrade

An upgrade is a move that is intended to strengthen a previous utterance .

Usage Type

A usage type is a classification for lexical units on the basis of sociolinguistic and historical factors.

Utterance

An utterance is a natural unit of speech bounded by breaths or pauses. An utterance is a complete unit of talk, bounded by the speaker 's silence.

Utterance Act

An utterance act is a speech act that consists of the verbal employment of units of expression such as words and sentences .

Valency

Valency refers to the capacity of a verb to take a specific number and type of arguments (noun phrase positions).

Verb (Linguistics)

A verb is a member of the syntactic class of words that typically signal events and actions constitute, singly or in a phrase, a minimal predicate in a …

Verb Phrase

Here are two senses for verb phrase: 1. In traditional terminology, a verb phrase is a phrase that has the syntactic role of a simple verb , and is …

Verbal Adjective

A verbal adjective is an adjective which is similar to a verb in form and meaning.

Verbal Noun

A verbal noun is a noun that is morphologically related to a verb and similar to it in meaning.

Verbal Particle

A verbal particle is a member of a closed class of particles which co-occur with some verbs to form phrasal verbs. In some languages, verbal particles are …

Vertical Deixis

Vertical deixis is place deixis that indicates location upward or downward in relation to the speaker or other deictic center .

Verticality Schema

A verticality schema is an image schema that involves “up” and “down” relations.

Visual Evidential

A visual evidential is a sensory evidential signaling that the speaker 's evidence for the truth of his or her statement is derived from the speaker’s own …

Vocative Case

Vocative case is a case that marks a noun whose referent is being addressed.

Vocoid

A vocoid is a sound made with an open oral cavity such that there is little audible friction in the mouth. It has the potential to be analyzed phonemically …

Voice

Voice is a grammatical category that expresses the semantic functions attributed to the referents of a clause. It indicates whether the subject is an actor …

Voiceless Vowel

A voiceless vowel is a vowel that is produced with no vibration of the vocal folds.

Volitive Modality

Volitive modality is a deontic modality that expresses the speaker’s attitude of hope, wish, or fear concerning the proposition expressed by the utterance …

Vowel

A vowel is a sound made when the impedance of the air through the vocal tract is minimal and the vocal tract is completely open.

Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony is a type of assimilation which takes place when vowels come to share certain features with contrastive vowels elsewhere in a word or phrase …

Vowel Modification

A vowel modification is an addition or alteration to the basic way that a vowel is articulated.

Weak Epistemic Qualification

A weak epistemic qualification is an epistemic qualification that signals the lowest degree of certainty.

Wh-Question

A wh-question is a question that contains an interrogative pro-form .

Whole Presupposed Proposition

A whole presupposed proposition is a presupposition that does not contain a variable to be instantiated.

Whole-Part Lexical Relation

The whole-part lexical relation is an association between a lexical unit representing a part and a lexical unit representing its corresponding whole.

Word

A word is a unit which is a constituent at the phrase level and above. It is sometimes identifiable according to such criteria as being the minimal …

Writing And Style Manuals

Writing and style manuals are reference guides for writers. They contain information on composition grammar punctuation, and other relevant topics for …

Yes-No Question

A yes-no question is a question for which an answer of yes or no is acceptable. In some languages, a yes-no question is formally distinguished by features, …

Zero

Here are two senses for zero: A zero is a constituent proposed in an analysis to represent an element held to be present at an abstract level but not …

Zero Affix

A zero affix is the member of a set of inflectional affixes which is represented by the absence of an expected morpheme .

Zero Anaphora

Zero anaphora is the use of a gap, in a phrase or clause, that has an anaphoric function similar to a pro-form . It is often described as “referring back” …

Zero Morph

A zero morph is a morph, consisting of no phonetic form, that is proposed in some analyses as an allomorph of a morpheme that is ordinarily realized by a …