Glossary

Entry

Definition

Equivalent terms

absolute generali­zation

the highest degree of generalization working on the level of notions

Cf.: relative generalization

absolute abstraction

adjective

a type of word identifying an attribute of a noun(a red chair),expressing contrasts of degree (redder, reddish)

adjunct

1. a less important or omissible element in a grammatical construction;

2. a secondary word in a junction (0. Jespersen)

Cf.: subjunct

a dependent unit

adverb

a word whose main function is to specify the kind of action expressed by a verb ( Ex. He spoke angrily); other functions include acting as intensifier(very big) and as a sentence connector (Moreover, they laughed)

adnex

a secondary word in a nexus (0. Jespersen)

agent(as a semantic role)

the person or other being that instigates the happening denoted by the verb, e.g.: Jenny has written me a letter.

allomorph

a concrete manifestation of a morpheme, a variant, an alternative of a morpheme

allo-term

a variant language unit actualized in a concrete speech string

Cf.: erne-term

aspect

a duration or type of temporal activity ,denoted by a verb, such as completion or non-completion of an action

Cf.:perfect

aspective seman­tics

semantics describing the inner character­istics of the verbal process; it can be expressed lexically or grammatically

auxiliary verb

a verb used along a lexical verb to make grammatical distinctions

(She is going/might go) Cf.: operator

base

the minimal form of a word to which affixes can be added

e.g. Sad, car

binding

syntactical relationship of clauses of different ranks (of an independent and a dependent clause) Cf.: Unking

bound form

a minimal grammatical unit that can’t occur on it’s own as a word, also known as a bound morpheme

case

a nounal category showing the relation of the referent to some other referent

clause

a structural unit smaller than a sentence but larger than phrases or words

cleft sentence

a sentence in which a single clause has been split into two sections, each with its own verb e.g.: It was Mary who arrived.

collective noun

a noun that denotes a group of entities( army, government)

collocation

a habitual association between particular words, such as "to" with "fro", the uses of "to" after "answer" and before "me" in "You'll answer to me!"

common gender nouns

Nouns able to actualize either masculine or feminine gender properties of the referent depending on the context

complement

an obligatory dependent language unit Cf.: supplement

complementary distribution

relation of formally different morphs having the same function in different environments, e.g.: cows - oxen

Cf.: contrastive distribution, non-contrastive distribution

complementive verb

a verb taking an obligatory adjunct, a verb having an obligatory valency

Cf.: uncomplementive verbs

complex sentence

a sentence consisting of more than one clause(especially if including a dependent clause)

componential analysis

an approach which makes use of semantic components. Lexical items are analyzed in terms of semantic features or sense compo­nents, treated as binary opposites distin­guished by pluses and minuses: [+ male]/ [-male]. It has been argued that projection rules can combine the semantic features of individual words to generate the meaning of an entire sentence and to account for ambiguity and anomaly (e.g.: He painted the wall with silent paint).

compositional analysis

common noun

a noun that refers to a class of objects or concepts(chair, beauty)

Entry

Definition

Equivalent terms\

conditional

said of a clause that express hypothesis or condition(If it rains you’ll get wet);said of a verb form that expresses hypothetical meaning(I would walk)

conceptual domain

information centred around some concept

concord

the relationship between units in which the form of one element requires the corresponding form of the other She eats

Cf.: government

agreement

conjunct

an adverb with a chiefly connecting function, e.g. however

consecutive phrase

a phrase based on logical domination of one member over another

Cf.: cumulative phrase

contextualization

establishing the context in which language units are typically used, i.e. finding out who, when, where, why and what for one can be expected to use this or that language unit with a certain meaning (J.R. Firth)

connective/connector

An item whose function is to link linguistic units, such as conjunctions and certain adverbs (moreover)

continuum

a set of language units interpolated between any two polar units made up by units having intermediary features; a space of transition between poles

contrastive distribution

relations of different morphs in the identical environment

Cf.: non-contrastive distribution, comple­mentary distribution

сoordination

coordinator

the linking of linguistic units

a conjunction used in coordination, such as and or now

copula

a verb whose role is to link other elements of the clause(it is ready)( D. Crystal)

corteme

a unit of language having no semantic content, e.g. phoneme (M. Blokh)

covert morpheme

a morpheme having no explicit representation in the actual expression

zero mor­pheme

countable

said of nouns denoting separable entities, as shown by their use with such forms as forms as a(dog ,chair)

dative case

in inflecting languages, a form that typically expresses an indirect object relationship equivalent to English. I gave the letter to the girl

degree

a contrast of comparison in adverbs or adjectives; usually identified as positive(big), comparative(bigger), superlative (biggest)

deep structure

the formal syntactical construction represented by dummy symbols replaced by lexical entities in ways determined by their feature content Cf.: surface structure

deixis

features of language that refer directly to the personal, temporal or locative characteristics of a situation(deictic forms)

derivational

referring to the formation of language units

derivational suffix

a suffix which may be followed by other suffixes (W.N. Francis)

"descriptive" plural

the plural form of the noun having a pronounced stylistic colouring due to the usage of the uncountable noun in the function of the countable noun, e.g.: sands, snows

diachronic

relating to, or dealing with phenomena (as of language or culture) as they occur or change over a period of time Cf.: synchronic

historical

dichotomy

division into two parts or categories

dicteme

an elementary topical unit fulfilling the functions of nomination, predication, topicalization, stylization (M. Blokh)

~ supra-sentential construction

distribution

a total set of linguistic environments in which an element of language(a sound or word) can occur

Cf.: conlrastive, non-conirastive, comple­mentary distribution

dominational phrase

a phrase based on the relationship of the modifier and the modified

Cf.: equipotent phrase

subordinative phrase

elementary unit

a unit indivisible into minor constituents

smallest unit

eme-term

a generalized invariant language unit Cf.: allo-term

equative

A clause which relates two elements that are identical on their reference (Mr.Jones is a butcher)

equipollent opposition

an opposition whose members have different positive categorial features Cf.: privative opposition, gradual opposition

equipotent phrase

a phrase based on logical succession of elements having an equal rank

Cf.: dominational phrase

etymon

the earliest traceable form from which a later word is derived

finite

a form of a verb that can occur on it’s own in a main clause and permits variations in tense, number and mood contrasts with non finite

focus

an element in a sentence to which the speaker wishes to draw special attention (It was John who wrote to me)

formative phrase

a phrase consisting both of notional and functional verbs Cf.: notional phrase, functional phrase

form class(word class)

A set of items that display similar or identical grammatical features

function

special purpose of a unit, its ability to serve a certain aim; sometimes equivalent to some abstract syntactic meaning

functional part of speech

a part of speech having a partial nomina­tive value Cf.: notional part of speech

form word

gender

the grammatical category which is closely tied to the sex of the referent and is reflected in co-occurrence patterns with respect to singular personal pronouns masculine, feminine ,neuter

generative grammar

a precisely formulated set of rules whose output is all (and only) the sentences of a language—i.e., of the language that it generates. There are many different kinds of generative grammar, including transformational grammar as developed by Noam Chomsky from the mid-1950s

genitive case

expresses such meanings as possession and origin which is marked by an apostrophe and addition of a suffix s(girl’s bag, man’s story)

possessive case

gerund

a noun derived from a verb(“a verbal noun”),especially as found in Latin grammar

gerundive

an adjective derived from a verb(“a verbal adjective”),especially as found in Latin grammar

government

a kind of concord in which one term controls or selects the form of the partner

Cf.: concord

gradual opposi­tion

an opposition whose members are characterized by the expression of a certain degree of one and the same categorial feature Cf.: privative opposition, equipollent opposition

half-gerund

a form having mixed, participial and gerundial, features

participial gerund

heterogeneous

consisting of dissimilar or diverse ingredients or constituents : mixed

differing in kind

hierarchy

organization of elements based on a graded or ranked series,especially an analysis of sentences into clauses, phrases, words and morphemes

homogeneous

of the same or a similar kind or nature having each term of the same degree if all variables are considered ‹a ~ equation› Cf.: heterogeneous

similar

hypotaxis

the linking of a dependent(hypotactic) clause to another part of the sentence using conjunctions(D.Crystal) The boy left when the bell rang

icon

a highly motivated sign (as a word or graphic symbol) whose form suggests its meaning

Cf: symbol, index, sign

identification

the act of singling out a referent Cf: classification

individualiza-tion

immanent category

a category expressing the inherent features of a part of speech (M. Blokh)

Cf.: reflective category

inherent category

immediate constituents

constituent elements immediately entering into any meaningful combination

immediate constituent analysis

also called  Ic Analysis,  in linguistics, a system of grammatical analysis that divides sentences into successive layers, or constituents, until, in the final layer, each constituent consists of only a word or meaningful part of a word.

indicative

relating to, or constituting a verb form or set of verb forms that represents the denoted act or state as an objective fact ‹the ~ mood› 2 : serving to indicate ‹actions ~ of fear›

implication implicit, implied (deriv.)

information which is not given explicit verbal expression to, but which is eniailed by some other elements of the context

Cf.: explication, verbalizationa

index

a partially motivated sign (to the extent that there is a connection, usually of causality, between sign and referent, e.g.: smoke is indexical of tire) (Ch.S, Peirce)

Cf.: symbol, icon, sign

indicative verbal forms

verbal forms expressing the categorial meanings of the indicative mood and describing the denoted action in terms of absolutive time

Cf.: subjunctive forms, oblique verbforms

mood forms of reality

infix

a derivational or inflectional affix appearing in the body of a word Cf.: prefix, suffix, root

inflectional suffix

an affix that signals a grammatical relationship, e.g. case ,tense (girl’s, walked)

Cf.; suffix

grammatical suffix

intensional semantics

a branch of semantic studies concerned with the analysis of the content (i.e. meaning) of a given expression, but not the relations of signs to the objects of the real world

Cf.: exten.fionai semantics

intransitive

said of a verb or a sentence that can not take a direct object(She is going)

intralinguistic

concerning relations of units within a particular language system

Cf.:extralinguistic

internal

junction

relationship of two elements which is so c!ose that they may be considered to be one composite name for what might in many cases just as well have been called by a single name (0. Jespersen)

Cf.: nexus

Entry

Definition

Equivalent terms

level

one of a series of structural layers within a sentence(a clause, phrase, word etc.)

rank

lexeme

a meaningful linguistic unit that is an item in the vocabulary of a language

lexical item

lexical verb

a verb expressing an action, event or state, also called a full verb

main verb

limitive verb

a verb expressing a potential limit in the development of the denoted action

Cf.: non-limitive verb

termmative verb

linking

syntactic relationship of clauses of the same rank (either both independent or both dependent)

Cf.: binding

main clause

a clause that doesn’t depend on any other part of a sentence(The man arrived after the bus left)

independent clause

major sentence

a type of sentence which is highly productive, such as those with a subject plus predicate structure

minor sentence

a type of sentence with a limited productivity, where the structure lacks some of the constituents found in the major type

mass

said of nouns that typically express general concepts and lack an indefinite article or plural(information) (D.Crystal)

modality

the classification of logical propositions according to their asserting or denying the possibility, impossibility, contingency, or necessity of their content It shows the relation of the nominative content to reality

Cf.: predication

mood

distinction of form or a particular set of inflectional forms of a verb to express whether the action or state it denotes is conceived as fact or in some other manner (as command, possibility, or wish)

morph

a distinctive collocation of phones (as a portmanteau form) that serves as the realization of more than one morpheme in a context

morpheme

the smallest meaningful part of a word expressing a generalized, significative meaning.

neutralization

a type ofoppositional reduction by which a neutralized language unit becomes fully functionally identified with its counter-member

Cf.: transposition

nexus

a predicative (and semi-predicative) relation between words (0. Jespersen)

Cf.: junction

nomination

naming a referent Cf.: predication

non-contrastive distribution

relations of different morphs having the same function in the identical environ­ments, e.g.: learned - learnt

Cf.: contraslive distribution, complementa­ry distribution

non-limitive verb

verb not expressing a potential limit in the development of the denoted action

Cf.: limitive verbs

non-terminative verb, durative,

non-personal verb

a verb which doesn't agree with a subject, the doer of the denoted action

Cf.: personal verbs

notional part of speech

a part of speech of full nominative value Сf.: functional part of speech

noun /noun phrase

a word class with the naming function, typically showing contrasts of countability and number, capable acting as a subject or object of a clause

a phrase with a noun as head(the tall man in a hat)

nucleus (of a morphological construction)

a root or a combination of roots includ­ing possible non-roots, attributive to respective roots

Cf.: root. stem, affix

impersonal verb

number

the grammatical category that expresses such contrasts as singular/plural/dual/ (cat/cats; he is/they are)

object

a clause element that expresses the result of an action

objective verb

a verb taking an object of any kind (direct, indirect, prepositional)

Cf.: transitive verbs

oblique verbal form

the form of a verb which expresses the categorial meanings ofirreality

Cf.: indicative verbal form

non-real mood form of a verb, Subjunctive

opposition

correlation ofcategorial forms having a certain function

oppositional reduction

the process of curtailing an opposition of categorial forms

Cf.: neutralization, transposition

oppositional substitution

paradigm

the set of inflectional forms of a word

parataxis

constructions joint without the use of conjunctions I had tea, eggs

parsing

analyzing and labeling the grammatical elements of a sentence

diagramming

participle

a word derived from a verb and used as an adjective(smiling face ,parked car); also applied to such non finite forms of the verb as

He’s smiling, He has smiled

past tense

a verb tense which refers to a time of action prior to the moment of utterance

perfect

relates to considerations such as the completion or lack of completion of events or states described by a verb

person

a grammatical form (especially pronoun or verb) referring directly to the speaker(first person),addressee(second person),or others involved into interaction (especially third person)

phoneme

the smallest constituent of a word having no meaning but fulfilling the function of differentiating morphemes

phraseme

a combination of two or more words as a representative of the corresponding language level

phrase, word-group,

Pluralia Tantum nouns

nouns having only the plural form Cf.: Singularia Tanlum nouns

absolute plural nouns

polarity

The system of contrast between affirmative and negative in a language

pragmatic factor

a factor relevant for the actualization of a message in a concrete communicative situation

predication

the act of referring the nominative content of the sentence to reality (M. Blokh) Cf.: nomination

prefix

an affix added initially to a root or base to form a new word, e.g.: re-write

Cf.: suffix, root

primary predica­tion

predication expressed in a sentence which has as its predicate a finite form of the verb Cf.: secondary predication, potential predication

complete pre­dication, ex­plicit predica­tion, actual predication

privative opposi­tion

an opposition based on the principle of presence/absence in its counter-members of one and the same feature Cf.: gradual opposition, equipollent opposition

pronoun

any of a small set of words in a language that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and whose referents are named or understood in the context

proposeme

a language unit expressing a thought

~ sentence

reduction

the lack of one or more of the normal constituents in a construction

reference

1. mentioning someone or something, either directly or indirectly;

2. (logic, ling.) the activity or condition through which one tenn or concept is related to another or to objects in the world

Cf.: sense (2)

referent

the denoted object of the world Cf.: sign

reflective category

a category expressing categorial meanings which are not inherent in the referent in question, e.g.: person and number in the verb system (M. Blokh)

Cf.: immanent category

secondary category, non-inherent category

regular

said of a linguistic form that conforms to the rules of a language

relative generali­zation

relative degree of abstraction, working on the level of broad or general concepts

Cf.: absolute generalization

abstraction

replacive mor­pheme

a morpheme built up on the basis of root (or vowel) interchange; usually a root vowel that replaces another in a categori" a! form, e.g.: sing - sang

Cf.: additive morpheme

restrictive

said of a modifier that is an essential part of the identity of another element(my brother who’s abroad)

defining

retrospective coordination

establishing relation between the given action and some prior action or moment

root

the element left after all affixes have been removed from a complex word, carrying the basic lexical meaning of the word

Cf.: nucleus, stem, affix

segment

a unit whose boundaries can be clearly identified in the streem of speech

semantic feature

(in componential analysis) an elementary component of meaning.

semes

meanings differentiated by the opposition of signemic units

semantic feature

sememe

a generalized element of meaning

lexico-semantic variant

semi-notional words

words which have a complete nominative meaning but fulfil syntactic functions typical of functional words.

Cf.: notional words, functional words

semi-predicative construction

a construction made up by a non-finite form of the verb and a substantive element denoting the subject or object of the action expressed by the non-finite form of the verb Cf.: fully predicative construction

potentially predicative construction, prepositional construction

semi-proper nouns

proper nouns with mixed, identifying and typifying, meanings

semi-names

sense sign

1. = meaning; 2. paradigmatic (intensional) meaning. Cf.: reference; 3. actual meaning of a language unit;

4. a submeaning, e.g: various senses of the word "mark"

a material designator of a meaning, a con­crete token element used in the concrete process of communication and reference.

sineme

a unit of language having a semantic con­tent, e.g.: morpheme, word (M. Blokh)

Cf.: corteme

Singularia Tantum nouns

nouns having only the singular form Cf.: Pluralia Tantum nouns

absolute sin­gular nouns

stem

a term in grammar and word-formation for a root plus the element that fits it into the flow of speech

Cf.: root, nucleus, affix

stratificational analysis

based upon the notion that every language comprises a restricted number of structural layers or strata, hierarchically related in such a way that units or combinations of units on one stratum realize units or combinations of units of the next higher stratum

structure

1. the set of relations between the elements of a system;

2.construction

stylization

the function of a dicteme which consists in referring it to a particular style (M. Blokh)

subjunct

a tertiary word in a junction (0. Jespersen)

Cf.: adjunct (2)

substance

1. the essence or material part;

2. the essence which underlies all phenom­ena;

3. that which is real;

4. that which has qualities and character­istics

substantive

a noun o noun like item

suffix

an affix that follows a base, or root to form a new word or form of the word Cf.: prefix, infix, root

suppletion

the use of unrelated form to complete a paradigm(go/goes/went/gone)

suprasegmental

of or relating to significant features (as stress, pitch, or juncture) that occur simultaneously with vowels and consonants in an utterance

Cf.: segment

surface structure

the resultant syntactic construction derived through transformations of the deep structure

Cf.: deep structure

symbol

1. smth. that represents smth. else, smth. concrete or material used to represent smth., abstract or non-material;

2. the most arbitrary kind of sign: the word in language, the rose representing love in literature, etc. (Ch.S. Peirce)

Cf.: icon. index, sign

synchronic

concerned with events existing in a limited time period and ignoring historical antecedents Cf.: diachronic

syntagma (syntactic)

a word-group consisting of two or more notional elements

word combi­nation, phrase

syntagmatic

connected on a linear basis Cj.: paradigmatic

system

a structured set of elements connected by a common function

tagmeme

an element of a construction

topic

something about which something is said (predicated)

Cj.: comment

topicalization

moving an element to the front of a sentence, to act as a theme

(Smith his name is)

thematization

transformation

an operation that converts (as by insertion, deletion, or permutation) one grammatical string (as a sentence) into another

Transformational-Generative Grammar

A generative grammar, in the sense in which Noam Chomsky uses the term, is a rules system formalized with mathematical precision that generates, without need of any information that is not represented explicitly in the system, the grammatical sentences of the language that it describes, or characterizes, and assigns to each sentence a structural description, or grammatical analysis.

transitivity

the ability of a verb to take a direct object

Cf.: objectivity

unit

a constituent of a system

element

valency

the ability of a language unit to take an adjunct, potential combinability of a language unit

Verb/verb phrase

a word class displaying such contrasts as tense, aspect, voice and mood and typically used to express an action, event or state in generative grammar the whole of the sentence apart from the first noun phrase

voice

distinction of form or a system of inflections of a verb to indicate the relation of the subject of the verb to the action which the verb expresses(active and passive)

word

1.the smallest unit of grammar that can stand alone as a complete utterance

2.any segment of written or printed discourse ordinarily appearing between spaces or between a space and a punctuation mark

word class

a set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution

Part of speech

word formation

a process of creating words out of sequences of morphemes(un-happi-ness)

word order

the sequential arrangement of words in a language

yes-no question

a question formed by an inversion, typically answered by yes or no (Were they there?)

zero article

the non use of definite or indefinite article before a noun, where one would normally be found(in school vs. in the school)