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Glossary

Abstract

In narrative analyses, a brief summary informing the listener what the main point of the narrative will be. (15)

Accent

Systematic variation in pronunciation; involves the phonological systems of one's speech or signing. (1)

Acquired Language Disorder

A language disorder that was not present at birth; one that arises due to disease or injury. (15)

Active voice

In active voice sentences, the subject of the sentence typically denotes the initiator of the activity denoted by the main verb or verb phrase. (8)

Affix

A bound morpheme that attaches to a root. (4)

African-American Vernacular English

An umbrella term for related dialects of English that vary systematically from Standard English, at all levels. Spoken within working-class African American speech communities. (1, 2)

Agency

Having the capacity to initiate actions and exert power. (See Agent) (8)

Agent (Actor)

A semantic term for the noun phrase that denotes the primary initiator of the activity denoted by the main verb or verb phrase in a sentence. In the sentence “Mia kicked the soccer ball across the field,” “Mia” is the agent expression. (See “Patient") (8).

Someone who acts with agency (See “Agency”) (8)

Agentless passive

A passive syntactic construction in which there is no by-phrase indicating the agent. These passives have the effect of taking attention away from the unstated agent. Also known as a truncated passive. (8)

Allophone

A phonetic variant of a phoneme that is non-distinctive (doesn't change the meaning of the word) in a particular language. (See Phoneme) (3)

Alternation

A difference in phonetic form or variation in the pronunication of a given root or morpheme due to changes in its position within a larger word or a change in lexical class (See Root and Morpheme) (4)

Alzheimer's disease

A brain disorder that is progressive and degenerative; due to neuronal death and tissue loss particularly in areas of the brain which are responsible for memory and cognition. It is the major cause of dementia. (16)

Ambiguity

The property of being potentially assigned multiple meanings or analyses. Words and sentences can exhibit ambiguity. (10, 11)

Anachronism

Anything said or done which lies outside of the context of the time period or date for which it was appropriate. A word (or particular use of a word) from a previous time period. (4)

Antonyms

Words that are in some sense opposite to each other. (4)

Aphasia

An acquired language disorder due to damage to the language centers of the brain (possibly through cerebral vascular accident or “stroke”) that results in a loss of certain language abilities, including the ability to process or produce language (14, 16)

Arbitrary

Lacking a logical or predictable connection. The connection between the form and meaning that comprises a linguistic sign is often arbitrary, hence arbitrarianess of the sign. (See Iconic) (12, 13)

Argot

A special (and often private) jargon or slang used by a particular group of speakers. (5)

Aspergers Syndrome

A syndrome that falls within the Autism Spectrum Disorders. It is marked by difficulties in social interaction, though relative absence of language difficulties. (See Autism Spectrum Disorders) (17)

Aspirated

A phoneme is considered aspirated if it is followed by a puff of air. (See Aspiration and Phoneme) (11)

Aspiration

The little puff of air that sometimes follows a speech sound, especially the release of a stop component. For example, in English, the /p/ is aspirated at the beginning of the word pan. See Aspirated and Stop (Consonant)) (3)

Assimilation

A process in which one phoneme takes on the features of a neighboring phoneme. See Phoneme (3)

Associative

A semantic relationship of similarity between words or lexical items. For example, apple and orange are related by the category fruit. (16)

Attempt

In narrative studies, some action or series of actions taken by the main character in an effort to solve the problem posed by the narrative. (15)

Attributive Noun

A noun that is used as a modifier. In English, an attributive noun appears in front of another noun (e.g., cotton pants, car maintenance, power outlet). (6)

Audiologist

A professional who specializes in hearing and balance issues and can diagnose and treat people with disorders in this area. (14)

Auditory Comprehension

The ability to aurally understand spoken language. (16)

Auditory System

The sensory system for hearing, including the structures and function of the ear and the nerves that connect the ear to the auditory centers of the brain. (14)

Autism

(See Autism Spectrum Disorders) (17)

Autism Spectrum Disorders

A family of disorders that manifests in atypical development of social skills, communication, and may include ritualistic behavior. (14, 17)

Auxiliary

A verb, such as have, be, or doused in the formation of voices, tenses, or questions is an auxiliary verb. Sometimes called a “helping verb.”(11)

Backchannel

A brief response, usually positive, indicating that a listener is actively involved in a conversation. (2)

Beta-amyloid plaques

Dense, insoluble deposits of protein and cellular material that build between nerve cells. (16)

Bilabial Produced with both lips. A set of consonants are bilabials, including /b/, /w/, and /p/. (3)

Black English

See African-American Vernacular English. (2)

Bound Morpheme

A morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word, such as -ing and -ed. See Free morpheme (11)

Calque

A loan word or phrase translated word for word into another language. (See Loan word) (5)

Citation

In lexicography, examples of a word used in a variety of contexts and printed sources. (4)

Cluster reduction

The failure to pronounce one or more phonemes in a phoneme cluster. For example, omitting the /s/ in the word school. (11)

Coda

In narrative studies, a formalized ending or conclusion to the narrative. (15)

Code-switching

The act of alternating between two languages or dialects within the same conversation, sentence, or phrase. (5)

Cognate

A word that is related to another word across difference languages by origin, form, or meaning. (5, 12)

Common noun

A noun that is not generally considered a name in and of itself (contrasting with items like Tibet, the Red Sea, and Billy Holiday. In English, common nouns are not capitalized. The nouns book, table, salt, idea, and jealousy are common nouns. (See Proper noun) (6)

Communication

The process of sending and receiving messages (both verbal and nonverbal) between two or more persons, using techniques such as gestures, eye contact and spoken language. (14)

Communication disorder

A term that encompasses a range of problems with communication, regardless of the source. (14)

Communicative competence

The ability to use (produce and interpret) all aspects of language in a socially effective way. (See Linguistic competence) (2)

Comparative method

A technique is which linguists compare various linguistic forms from related languages, using knowledge of likely sound and meaning changes, in order to establish historical relationships among

the forms. The technique can be used to reconstruct an undocumented language; for example, Indo-European. (4)

Complementary distribution

The mutually exclusive relationship between two similar components of language. In phonetics and phonology, it is the mutually exclusive relationship between phonetically similar segments. One segment appears in a phonetic environment in which the other segment never appears. (3)

Complicating action

The chronological presentation of events that lead up to the high point of a narrative. (15)

Compound

A word formed by combination of two smaller words is a compound word. Blackboard is a compound word, as it is formed of the words black and board. (12)

Computational linguistics

A sub-field of linguistics that approaches linguistic analysis from a computational perspective, using computers (e.g., for pattern analysis). (10)

Conditional

Sentence meaning related to an “if -then”scenario. (12)

Confirmation bias

A biased view on an interpretation of data that can be characterized as viewing the data as a confirmation of one's own bias. (10)

Connotation

The social or affective meaning of a term. (See Denotation) (5, 8)

Consequence

In narrative analysis, the event or series of events following the Attempt. (See Attempt) (15)

Consonant

A phoneme that is produced by partially or completely blocking the airstream from the lungs at some point in the vocal tract. (3)

Constituent

A grouping of words (or grammatical units) that forms a distinct structural unit. A constituent could be a word, phrase, clause, or sentence. The constituents of the sentence My brother sings badly are the individual words in it, as well as the noun phrase my brother and the verb phrase sings badly. (6)

Constraint

Restrictions on the form and structure of language are called constraints. (11)

Content

The meaning aspects of language, such as semantics. (See Form and Use) (14)

Content word

A word with a substantial semantic meaning. Typically, content words are nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. (See Non-content word and Grammatical morpheme) (17)

Conventionally indirect speech act

A speech act that uses a semantic formula common in the language (See Speech act) (2)

Cooperative overlapping

Speaking at the same moment as another interlocutor either to show enthusiasm or when the other person's conversational turn appears to be over. (2)

Corpus (plural corpora)

A body of text or recorded speech. Some linguists rely on corpora to determine how language is used in real life. (4. 6)

Corpus lingustics

Linguistic analysis that uses corpora as the source for linguistic data. (See Corpus) (10)

Count Noun

A noun that denotes an entity that can be counted. Count nouns have a singular and plural form, as in boy-boys; table-tables; woman-women. Count nouns can be modified by words like a, many, few, and numbers, as in a boy, many tables, few women, and thirteen planets. (See Mass noun) (4, 6)

Critical discourse analysis

The study of discourse with special attention to power difference and dominance (e.g., racial, ethnic, and gender power imbalances ). (8, 9)

Critical incident

A situation in which it is difficult to know how to respond in order to create a successful outcome. (2)

Critical period

The time period from birth to early teens, during which children are arguably best able to acquire or learn the grammar of a first language. (11)

Cultural transmission

The transmission of aspects of communication through communicative interactions with other users of that system, members who belong to the community that “uses” the same communicative system. (13)

Deaf

A hearing disorder that limits oral and aural communication. (See Hard of hearing) (14)

Deixis

Reference by means of an expression (like this, that, here, there, you, me, now, and then) whose referent is relative to the context of the conversation. (8, 17)

Dementia

A general term for progressive cognitive decline (e.g., loss of memory and other intellectual abilities) that has a serious impact on the activities of daily living. (16)

Denotation

The referential meaning of a term. (See Connotation) (5, 8)

Descriptive

A descriptive approach is guided by observational reports and recordings of language and language use, rather than the introduction of judgments or rules (See Prescriptive) (10, 14)

Developmental language disorders

Disorders evidenced by deviations from typical language production and comprehension that manifest during the developmental period. (14)

Diachronic

Pertaining to existence or change over time. Diachronic linguistics is concerned with historical change in language, and the study of successive stages in a language's development. (12)

Diacritic

Symbols included in orthography that provide additional information about pronunciation of a consonant or vowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, diacritics appear on symbols to indicate important distinctions in sounds. (4)

Dialect

A language variety that varies systematically from another variety of the same language with respect to vocabulary, phonology, syntax, or semantics. The variation may be tied to regional or social class differences. The question of whether a variety is considered a dialect or a language is sometimes tied to social and political questions. (1, 5)

Dialectology

The study of dialects (See Dialect) (10)

Differential diagnosis

The process of systematically looking at a cluster of symptoms to determine what type of disorder a patient has, sometimes via a process of elimination. (16)

Direct object

The phrase usually a noun phrase that denotes the item that receives the action of the verb. In I washed the car, the direct object of the verb washed is the noun phrase the car. (6)

Direct speech act

A speech act in which the intention is explicitly stated (See Speech act) (2)

Discourse

A meaningful, sustained linguistic exchange between two or more individuals. A stretch of language longer than a sentence. Genres include conversational, narrative, and expository discourse. There can be discourses of particular social practices, and discourse can also be associated with bodies of knowledge and beliefs that are assumed (sometimes mistakenly) to be neutral or natural. (8, 17)

Disourse analysis

Analysis of a complete discourse, including the semantic and pragmatic information expressed. (10)

Discreteness

The property of a communication system that in which complex messages are constructed from smaller units that can be combined in different ways. (13)

Displacement

The property of a communication system that allows for communication about objects and actions not present in the same space or time in which the communicative exchange is taking place. (13)

Dominant discourse

The systemic means by which dominant groups have the overwhelming implicit support of seemingly “natural” ideological beliefs and values of societal institutions so that they benefit from the oppression of the non-dominant groups. (8)

Dominant hand

The hand used for writing. In sign language, this is the hand used to produce one-handed signs and the more active hand when producing two-handed signs. (12)

Double modal

The use of two modal verbs in a clause (e.g., I might could do that). (1)

Ebonics

(See African-American Vernacular English) (1, 2)

Electrophysiology

A broad term for the technique of obtaining electrical activity and function from the body (See Event-Related Potentials) (16)

Embedded

In syntax, the property of being contained within another structure. For example, in the sentence Mary left the party because she was sleepy, the sentence she was sleepy is embedded within the sentence Mary left the party. (11)

End

In narrative analysis, a sentence or phrase that indicates that the narrative is over. (15)

Epenthesis

The insertion of a phoneme in the phonetic structure of a word or sentence. Often, epenthesis occurs as a way to make pronunciation of a word fit more closely the phonotactics of the speaker's first language. (3)

Equivalence

In translation, a similarity of meaning, intention, and impact sought between a source text and target text. (5)

Etymology

The historical development of a word. The study of the historical development and derivation of words. (4)

Euphemism

A word, phrase, or idea that is used as a replacement or substitute for another. Usually, the euphemism is a more neutral or positive word that replaces a potentially or overtly offensive one. One example is the substitution of the word jazz as a replacement and euphemism for the word fuck. Euphemisms often involve metaphor (See metaphor) (7)

Evaluation

In narrative analysis, the emotional information that reveals a speaker's attitude toward the narrative. (15)

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)

A neuroimaging technique that measures brain function in millisecond duration by mapping blood flow to different parts of the brain. ERP's are the particular components within the waveform that are elicited in connection with events such as making a decision or viewing an imaging. (See Electrophysiology) (16)

Expert

A subroutine in a machine translation program that represents knowledge about one aspect of natural language and guides the program in finding the correct interpretation. A probability expert might have knowledge about the relative frequency of the word record as a noun or verb. A semantic expert might have knowledge about what kind of nouns an adjective usually modifies. (6)

False belief task

A test devised to assess whether a person has the ability to attribute false or incorrect beliefs about the world to another person. This is one of the primary skills associated with “theory of mind.”(See Theory of mind) (17)

False deixis

A type of deixis in which the deictic element is never explicitly stated; there is no explicit referent provided for the pronoun (for example, it) to refer to (See Deixis) (8)

Fast mapping

The process by which children gain basic knowledge of a word through minimal exposure to it. This contributes to the speed of lexical acquisition. (11)

Fictional narrative

A narrative that relays an invented story. (15)

Fingerspelling

Using specific handshapes in a signed language to represent the letters of a written language. American Sign Language has 26 hand configurations that represent the English alphabet. (12)

First language acquisition (FLA)

The process by which children acquire linguistic competence in their native language. (See Linguistic competence and Language acquisition) (11)

Fluency disorder

A disorder characterized by interruptions in the flow of speech. (14)

Folk linguistics

Views of language and linguistics from the perspectives of amateurs or naïve individuals, often in opposition to what linguists and scientists have found. (2)

Forensic linguistics

A subfield of linguistics in which standard linguistic analytic methods are applied to answer questions related to criminal or civil cases. (10)

Form

Aspects of language (such as syntax, morphology, and phonology) tied to patterns in which smaller components can build larger ones. (See content and use) (14)

Frame of mind

The emotional state of being. One's mental outlook or perspective. (15)

Free morpheme

A morpheme that can stand on its own as a word, such as cat, run, and purple. (See Bound morpheme). (11)

Free radical

An atom, molecule, or ion with unpaired electrons. This causes them to be reactive, which can lead to changes in other nearby molecules. (16)

Fricatives

Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow constriction (3)

Garden path sentence

A sentence whose structure misleads the reader (or listener) into interpreting it one way, until the reader or listener is forced to provide a different structural analysis that allows the sentence to be interpreted (either differently or simply successfully). An example is The horse raced past the barn fell. (6)

Genre

In studies of discourse, a map or plan for a discourse or text. Also the type of communication event. (1, 15)

Gerund A verb form used as a noun.

In English, these forms end in -ing, as in reading in the sentence Reading is important for everyone. (See Present participle) (5)

Gesture language

Communication, whether intentional or not, conveyed through body movements and facial expressions, often referred to as “body language.”(17)

Grammar

The system and principles that characterize any given language, including how smaller linguistic components are built up into larger linguistic components. This includes how sounds are combined to form words and how words are combined to form sentences. (2, 4, 11)

In machine translation, a grammar is a set of rules necessary to parse all the sentences of a language. (6)

Grammatical

A sentence is grammatical if it can be created following the syntactic rules of the language. (See Ungrammatical) (11)

Grammatical morpheme

A morpheme which does not contribute significant semantic meaning, but is structurally or syntactically important (such as the and -ing). (17)

Grapheme

A letter or letter combination that represents a phoneme; for example, f, ph, and gh for the phoneme /f/. The fundamental symbolic unit in written language; examples include alphabetic letters, characters (as in Japanese and Chinese), numerals, and punctuation marks. (3)

Grapheme/phoneme correspondence

The relationship between a grapheme or letter and its corresponding phoneme or sound. (11)

Hard of hearing

The quality of having a (varying degree of) permanent loss of hearing or a fluctuating hearing loss. (see Deaf (14)

Headword

In lexicography, the headword is the word that introduces a dictionary entry. (See Lemma) (4);

(ii) In syntactic and morphological analysis, the headword forms the core of a complete word and gives the larger word its “name”and typically its grammatical category. (10)

Hedging

Use of a term such as kind of, sort of, maybe, I think to moderate the strength or weakness of an utterance. (8)

Helping verb

See Auxiliary) (11)

High-amplitude sucking (HAS)

An experimental technique that measures the rate at which babies suck at a nipple. (11)

Hippocampus

A structure deep in the brain that has a major role in memory formation. Humans have two such structures (hippocampi). (16)

Holophrastic stage

A stage in the acquisition of syntax in which children produce single-word utterances. (see Utterance) (11)

Home signs

Communicative signs developed by members of a family or small community. These signs are generally only understandable to the members of that group and do not constitute a complete language. (12)

Homonym

A word that is spelled the same as another word (has the same “name”) but which differs in meaning. Bear, the animal) and bear (carry, endure) are homonyms. Homonyms may or may not also sound the same (see Homophone) (4, 6)

Homophone

Two or more words that sound the same but differ in their meaning. There, they're, and their are homophones. (See Homonym) (4, 6)

Hybridizing

The hybridizing of languages is the bringing together of two languages to create another. (5)

Hypercorrection

Overuse of a prestigious form that may result in misuse of the form. May be linked to a linguistic insecurity about standard usage. (1)

Hyperlexia

A syndrome characterized by the ability to read (decode) written language at a level superior to the individual's spoken language skills. (17)

Hyperpriming

Greater than the usual priming effect. (See Priming) (16)

Hypopriming

Less than the usual priming effect. (See Priming) (16)

Iconic

Describes the relationship between a word form and its denotation in which there is a non-arbitrary relationship between the form and its meaning. In spoken language, words may sound like what they mean. Onomatopoeia is one example. In signed language, signs may look like what they mean. (See Arbitrary) (12, 13)

idiom

A phrase whose meaning is non-compositional (cannot be derived from the meanings of the words that make it up); for example, shake a leg to mean hurry up. Idioms tend to be “frozen” in usage, so that they don't appear with syntactic variations. (6)

imperative

Sentences that are also called commands, with implied subject you (singular or plural), such as Get out of that car right now! (12)

Inclusive class setting

One in which children with varying types of atypical development are in regular education classes with typically-developing peers. (14)

Infinitive

A non-conjugated form of a verb. In English, the infinitival form consists of the word to, followed by the non-conjugated verb form, as in to run, to rest, to dream (5)

Initiating event (or problem)

In narrative analysis, the piece that sets a story in motion and typically establishes the goal for the narrative. (15)

Initiator

A person who, in discourse, initiates an idea or introduces a topic, in the form of either asking a question or offering a comment. (17)

Interchangeability

The property of some communication systems in which all individuals can both send and receive messages, in contrast with systems in which some individuals can only send or only receive messages. (13)

Internal plan

In narrative analysis, a statement of an idea that might fix the problem of the main story. (15)

Internal response

In narrative analysis, an emotional statement that reflects how a character feels about the initiating event. (See Initiating event) (15)

International Phonetic Alphabet

A system of phonetic notation based on the Latin and Greek alphabets, devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language. (3, 4)

Inter-stimulus interval (ISI)

The time interval between presentation points of prime stimulus and target stimulus. (16)

Intransitive verb

A verb that does not require a direct oject. For example, in the sentences She jumped and He is laughing, no direct object can follow. (See Direct object and Transitive verb) (1, 4, 6)

Jargon

A specialized, often highly technical, vocabulary spoken by members of a particular profession, practice, or group. (1, 5)

Joint attention

The interpersonal process of two individuals focusing on a shared experience or topic. Develops early in life. (17)

Labeled bracketing

A notational system for indicating the syntactic analysis of a phrase or sentence. Each constituent is enclosed in square brackets labeled with the constituent's lexical or grammatical category. (6)

Language

A system of arbitrary symbols spoken, written, or signed that is rule-based and is shared by members of a community to communicate. (13, 14, 17)

Language acquisition

The learning of a first or other language by children and adults. (See First language acquisition) (10)

Language disorders

Developmental or acquired disorders that limit the production or comprehension of language. (14)

Language-learning disorders

Difficulties with age-appropriate reading, spelling, and/or writing skills, based on existing language deficits. (14)

Larynx

The cartilaginous and muscular structures, located in the neck, that house the vocal folds. (14)

Lax vowel

The characteristic of vowels that are produced with the muscles of the tongue and jaw relatively relaxed (e.g., the vowel /ae/ in bat. (3)

Learner's Dictionary

A dictionary specifically designed for learners of the language in which the dictionary is written. (4)

Legalese

Technical legal language. (10)

Lemma

A collection of word forms grouped under the basic lexical item as presented in a standardized form. (See Headword) (4)

Lesion

Damage to tissue. In psycholinguistics, lesions found in the nervous system are particularly relevant. (16)

Lexical

Relating to the lexicon, or pairings between morphemes and their meanings. (5)

Lexical category

The grammatical category a word or morpheme belongs to, such as noun, verb, adjective, or preposition. (4)

Lexical decision task

A psycholinguistic task that typically involves making a choice of whether the second word in a word pair is a real word or non-word. (16)

Lexical hole

The lack of a word in a language to refer to a thing or concept. Also called a lexical gap. (6)

Lexical retrieval In psycholinguistics, the ability to name or “retrieve”(access) specific lexical terms, including nouns and verbs. (16)

Lexicographer

A person who compiles dictionaries and studies the words of a language. (4, 6)

Lexicography

The work of compiling dictionaries and studying words. (4, 10)

Lexicon

The component of grammar that consists of morphemes or the vocabulary of a language, including the pairing between words or morphemes and their meanings. (See Mental lexicon) (2, 6, 8, 11)

Linguistic competence

The ability of a speaker-hearer to speak and understand (to use) language. Linguistic competence expresses our internalized understanding of grammatical principles. (See Linguistic performance) (11, 17)

Linguistic performance

Actual language use. Linguistic performance can convey linguistic competence, though it is also affected by other factors such as fatigue and concentration levels. (See Linguistic competence) (11)

Loan word

A word borrowed from another language. One example includes manga (comic book), which is a loan word from Japanese to English. (See calque) (6)

Macrostructure

The global, general properties and organization of a narrative. (15)

Manner of articulation

Describes how the airstream is modified by the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs in making vowel or consonant sounds. (3)

Manual approach

A philosophy of deaf education that uses signed language as the mode of communication. (See Oral approach). (12)

Marked

A linguistic form that deviates from what is considered a normal usage. (See Markedness) (1)

Markedness

The asymmetric quality of certain language pairs, when one member is more common or considered to be more normal. (See Marked) (10)

Mass Noun (or non-count noun)

A noun that denotes something that appears in bulk form, without boundaries that divide it into separate entities. Examples include oxygen, nonsense, happiness. Mass nouns can be modified by words like some or much. Some nouns can be both count and mass, like water and coffee. (See Count Noun). (4, 6)

Matched guise

A technique for studying participants' reactions to two recordings produced by a single speaker, when the recordings present the same information in two alternate languages or varieties. Listeners believe they are responding to recordings produced by distinct speakers. (2)

Mean length of utterance (MLU)

The average number of morphemes in a young child's utterances are determined by taking the mean of 100 of the child's utterances. In English, this is a more sensitive measure of syntactic development than a measurement of the child's average number of words. (11)

Mental lexicon

The mental “dictionary.” A presumed organization of referents with semantic and possibly orthographic representations that allows for normal processing of vocabulary and semantic concepts. (See lexicon) (4, 16)

Metalinguistic skill

The ability to conceive of language as an object beyond its communicative use. (11)

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two disparate objects. An expression of one word or concept in terms of another. (4, 5)

Minimal pair

Two words that differ with respect to only one unit or component. In phonetics and phonology, the two units or words in a minimal pair differ in respect to only one distinctive sound (and also differ in meaning). For example, pat and pet. In sign language, the two words in a minimal pair may differ with respect to just one parameter, such as handshape. (3, 12)

Mirror neurons

Nerve cells that fire both when an organism performs a particular action and when the organism observes the same action performed by another. (17)

Mode (or medium) of communication

The means for transmitting messages. (13)

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful linguistic unit a unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units. Morphemes could be roots, affixes, and words. (See Root and Affix). (1, 11)

Morphology

The study of morphemes (the smallest meaningful units in language) and the rules that govern word formation. Morphology, like syntax, is part of the Form component of language (See Form) (4, 10, 11, 12, 14)

Morphophonemic rule

A rule that indicates how a morpheme will be pronounced and that is influenced by both morphological and phonological rules of the language. (11)

Morphosyntax

The interaction of syntactic rules and principles and morphological rules and principles. (11)

Narrative

Oral or written discourse that conveys real or fictitious events, sequenced in time and conveying meaning. (15)

Narrative discourse analysis

The study of the relationships between language and the contexts in which it is used; specifically, how well people construct and express verbal ideas in a coherent manner to communicate their intent. Narrative discourse analysis is studied using various models, generally including a count of items such as themes, linguistic elements, and related details. (16)

Nasal cavities

The large air-filled spaces in the middle of the face above, behind, and in the nose. (3)

Nasal tract

The nostrils and space within the nasal cavities. (3)

Natural language

A naturally-occurring human language, as opposed to a programming language or a consciously-constructed language like Esperanto or Klingon. (6)

Neologism

A newly-coined word or expression, or an old word or expression with a new meaning. (6)

Neurofibrillary tangles

Insoluble twisted proten fibers inside a neuron. (16)

Neurolinguistics

An interdisciplinary science that investigates the structures and functions of the brain underlying the use of language and that is concerned with the mechanisms of the human brain in the comprehension and production of spoken, signed, or written language. (14, 16)

Neropathological

Abnormal with respect to the physical structure of the brain and communication within the brain. (See Neurotypical) (16)

Neurotypical

A term to identify individuals whose neurological development follows what is generally considered to be normal. (See Neuropathological) (17)

New Yorkese or New York working class speech A variety of English spoken by some working-class speakers from the New York Metropolitan area. (2)

Noise-induced hearing loss

Hearing loss caused by exposure to loud noise. (14)

Nonce

A nonce word or name is a made-up word that nevertheless typically honors the phonotactics of its subject language. (11)

Non-content word

A word in language that does not symbolize a particular object, experience, or event. Sometimes these words are termed “grammatical” to contrast with “lexical.” (See Content word and Grammatical morphemes (17)

Non-count word

(See Mass noun and Count noun) (4)

Non-manual signals

In sign languages, the specific facial movements that correspond to individual signs or that serve to mark the grammatical structure of a sentence. (12)

Noun phrase

A constituent that is headed by a noun. Noun phrases contain the noun with all the modifiers that precede and follow it. In the noun phrase the oldest girl in the room, the head noun girl is premodified by the oldest and postmodified by in the room. (6, 10)

Onomastics

The study of proper names, naming traditions, and practices. (9)

Oral approach

An approach to teaching deaf people that relies on speech and lipreading rather than signing. (See Manual approach) (12)

Orientation

In sign languages, the direction the palm is facing during a sign. Orientation is one of the parameters that make up the phonology of a sign. (15)

Overextension

An error children make in word learning in which a word is used to refer to more things (a broader category of things) than the words refer to as used by adults. (See Underextension) (11)

Overlaid function

Speech is often called an overlaid function because it uses structures of the body that serve a primary biological purpose. (14)

Parser

A program or system (often a computer program) that processes sentences of a language and produces parse trees or a syntactic analysis for them. (6)

Parse tree

A representation of the grammatical structure of a sentence or phrase that labels each part (subject, verb, object, modifier, etc) and shows its grammatical relationship to the other parts of the structure. (6)

Parsing

The process of analyzing and tagging linguistic data with relevant syntactic, semantic, and discourse information. (10)

Particle

A word, often an adverb or preposition, that appears as part of a multi-word (phrasal) verb. For example, up, about, and over are particles in drink up, move about, and look over. If the phrasal verb is followed by a noun phrase object, the particle can typically be placed to the right of it, as in Drink up your milk and Drink your milk up. (See Phrasal verb) (6)

Passive voice

Sentences in which the subject typically denotes the entity that has been acted upon rather than the agent of the activity. The soccer ball was kicked by the goalie is an example of a passive sentence. Some but not all passives have a by-phrase (by the goalie in this example) that denotes the agent. (See Agentles passive) (3)

Past participle

The verb form used in combination with an auxiliary verb to express that an event occurred in the past; for example, eaten is the past participle in I have eaten here many times. This form also can be used in passive constructions, for example The sandwiches were eaten by a troll. (4)

Patient (acted upon)

A semantic term for the noun phrase in a sentence or clause that picks out the entity that was acted upon. In the sentence Mia kicked the soccer ball across the field, the soccer ball is the patient expression. (See Agent) (8)

Personal narrative

In narrative analysis, a narrative that relates a true, personal story. (15)

Perspective taking

The ability to see another's point of view or perspective. (15)

Phoneme

A constrastive category of speech sounds of a language; speakers can discriminate differences between sounds that belong to different phonemic categories. In sign languages, the correspondents of phonemes are the parameters that combine to form a sign, namely handshape, location, movement, orientation, and certain non-manual signals. (See International Phonetic Alphabet) (1, 3, 4, 11, 12, 17)

Phonetics

The study of speech sounds. (3, 5, 10)

Phonological awareness

The awareness that speech is composed of individual speech sounds. (11)

Phonological rule

A rule that determines the arrangement of phonemes in a language, especially when describing the relationship between a phoneme and its allophones. Phonological rules typically make reference to the environment in which a phoneme appears. (3)

Phonology

The module of language that involves the systematic interaction of phonemes. The study of the organization, patterning, and relationships of the sounds of a language, including which phonemes a given language uses and how phonemes combine to form words. Phonology is part of the Form component of language. (See Formand Phoneme) (1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17)

Phonotactics

The study of restrictions in a language on the permissable combinations of phonemes. (See Phoneme) (3, 10)

Phrasal verb

A verb that consists of a verb plus one or more particles or prepositions (e.g., wake up, look out for). (See Particle) (4, 6)

Place of articulation

The point of contact or obstruction in the vocal tract between an active (moving) articulator (typically some part of the tongue) and a passive (stationary) articulator (typically some part of the root of the mouth) when speech sounds are being produced. (3)

Polysemy

Having multiple meanings. (4)

Pragmalinguistic failure

Pragmatic failure due to a speaker's incomplete knowledge of the linguistic aspects of a second language or dialect. (See Pragmatic failure and Sociopragmatic failure) (2)

Pragmatic failure

A misunderstanding between interlocutors of what a speaker wants to convey to a listener. (See Pragmalinguistic failure and Sociopragmatic failure) (2)

Pragmatics

The study of how to use language, including the relationship between the formal meaning of a sentence and its implications. Informally, this is sometimes characterized as “what is meant”by what is said or as being related to “reading between the lines.” Also, the rules that govern language use across contexts. Pragmatics is part of the Use component. (See Use) (2, 11, 14, 16, 17)

Prefix

A bound morpheme that appears at the beginning of a word. (See Bound morpheme and Suffix) (4, 11)

Preposition

The grammatical category of word that appears before a noun phrase and that indicates the relationship of that noun phrase to the verb (e.g., in, at, by, under, over, through). In He yelled at his sister, the preposition at indicates the direction in which the yelling is directed. (See Prepositional phrase) (6)

Prepositional phrase

A phrase headed by a preposition. Typically, this will be a preposition followed by a noun phrase. The noun phrase is considered the object of the preposition. In under the bed, the object of the preposition under is the noun phrase (NP) the bed. (See Preposition) (6)

Prescriptive

In linguistics, a prescriptive approach is a view of language analysis that adheres to a regulated and encoded norm or standard. (See Descriptive) (1, 4, 10)

Present participle

The verb form used in combination with an auxiliary verb to express that an event is happening continuously in the past, present, or future. In English, present participles end in -ing. They can be used as part of a complex verb phrase, as in Mary is crying. They can also be used as a modifier, as in The crying children boarded the bus. They can also be used as a gerund, as in Crying will get you nowhere. (See gerund) (5)

Priming

A process in a psycholinguistic task that allows the study of how exposure to a stimulus is affected by an earlier exposure to the same stimulus. This can include how exposure to a specific item facilitates the recall of that item and similarly stored items in the mental lexicon. (See Hyperpriming and Hypopriming) (16)

Productivity

The aspect of natural language that allows creative production of novel forms and structures. (13)

Proper noun

A noun that names a unique individual (including collective individuals, like companies) or places. In English, proper nouns are capitalized. Some examples include Wednesday, John, and Google. (See Common noun) (6)

Prosody

The stress patterns and intonation of speech, including variations in pitch, loudness, rhythm, tempo, tone, intonation, and syllable length across an utterance. (2, 6, 17)

Psycholinguistics

A subfield of linguistics concerned with the psychological, neurobiological, and cognitive factors involved in the acquisition, use, and understanding of language. The methodologies of psycholinguistics are often similar to the research methodologies of experimental psychology. (8, 10, 16)

Qualitative

Pertaining to observable qualities (rather than quantities). Qualitative data is not measured in terms of numbers, but through what people say, such as through their stories or texts. (See Quantitative) (9, 10, 16)

Quantitative

Characterized in terms of quantities. Using numerical data to conclude findings. Requires large amounts of data, often collected through questionnaires or experimentation. Quantitative data is typically more generalizable than qualitative data. (See Qualitative) (9, 10, 16)

Referent

The referent of a term is the item it picks out (or denotes) in the world. (8, 17)

Reflexive pronoun

A pronoun with a particular form (in English, formed with the suffix “self”or “selves”) that refers to an already established person or referent. In the sentence Mary accidentally burned herself, herself is a reflexive pronoun. (1)

Reliability

The property of being reproducible. Reliability addresses whether the same results would be obtained if another researcher reproduced a given study or experiment. (10)

Resolution

In narrative analysis, a story element that resolves the high point action and prepares the narration for a conclusion. (15)

Responder

A person who, in discourse, responds to a question or comment initiated by the other person. (17)

Reverse dictionary

A dictionary that allows users to look up terms starting with a general category and then locating the specific term. (4)

Rhetorical question

A question that is not asked with the intention of eliciting a response. (12)

Rhyming dictionary

A dictionary that organizes words based on their sound patterns. (4)

Root

The core or primary part of a word. (4)

Root and pattern system

A system in which the various inflections of a word can be characterized by a pattern of vowels inserted within the root. The roots in such systems typically consist of a set of consonants. (4)

Round dance

A bee dance indicating the presence of a food source close to the hive. (13)

Rule-based translation

A method of machine translation that relies upon the codification of a great deal of linguistic information about the vocabulary and grammar of the language pair involved. (6)

Schematic analysis

A systematic review of components of a language sample that results in extracting key elements that contribute to understanding on the part of the listener. This may include, but is not necessarily limited to, plot, characters, temporal elements, causal relations, and major informational items that convey meaning, relevance, and appropriateness. (16)

Segment encoding

Phonological substages of a lexical access model of speech production. These substages are involved in the retrieval of phonemes of the word to be articulated. (16)

Selectional restriction

A specification of the restrictions on the denotations of the subjects and objects associated with a particular verb, or the denotations of nouns modified by a particular adjective. For example, the transitive verb drink usually takes a human subject and a liquid object, as in Marcos drinks iced tea. (6)

Semantic

Pertaining to formal linguistic meaning. (see Semantics) (2, 5, 14, 16, 17)

Semantic differential scales

Scales with opposite adjectives at the extremes of the scale (for example, sweet and bitter, hot and cold). (2)

Semantic domain

The field of study or knowledge that a text represents (e.g., physics, car repair, cooking). (6)

Semantic feature

A tag that describes the category an expression fits into. For example, the words dog, elephant, human, and baby all have the semantic feature [+mammal]. The words lake, mountain, gulf, and mesa all have the semantic feature [+geographical formation]. In machine translation, these tags are used by the semantic expert to choose the correct meaning of a word. (6)

Semantic field

The set of meanings associated with a term. (5)

Semantic qualifier

Terms such as if, unless, and notwithstanding that can make the meaning of a text more precise but which can also make the text difficult to comprehend. (10)

Semantics

The component of language concerned with the formal linguistic meaning of the words, phrases, and sentences of a language. Semantics is part of the Content component of language. (See Content and Semantic) ( 10)

Senility

An “old-fashioned”term for decline in non-specific congnitive functions due to aging. (16)

Setting

In narrative analysis, the setting includes the primary location, time, and characters of the narrative. (15)

Shaking signal

A honey bee behavior in which a forager stimulates a nonforager to become a forager. (13)

Signifier

Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure defined a signifier as the representation of a concept or idea as it appears or is perceived visually or aurally. According to Saussure, this signifier becomes signified within the human brain as we process the signifier as the representation of whatever we have learned that it symbolizes. (7)

Simile

A comparison between two objects using like or as. (5)

Simple word

A word made up of only one morpheme (such as red or table). These are also called monomorphemic words. (11)

Slang

Vocabulary associated with an informal style. (1)

Social cognition

The skills that permit the processing of social information and the ability to function in social settings. (17)

Social indicator

Linguistic behavior that varies in an unmarked way. (1)

Social marker

Linguistic behavior that has social connotations. (See Marked) (1, 9)

Sociolect

A language variety used by members of a particular group definied in sociological terms (for example: social, ethnic, religious, or professional). (5)

Sociolinguistics

A subfield of linguistics that addresses questions of how social factors (such as race, gender, and class) interact with linguistics features. (2, 10)

Sociopragmatic failure

Pragmatic failure due to a speaker's transferring of knowledge of the socio-linguistic norms and conventions of a particular speech community to another speech community. (See Pragmatic failure and pragmalinguistic failure) (2)

Source

In translation (whether human or machine), the source language is the language that is being translated from, or the language of the source text. (See Target) (5, 6)

Species specific

Something pertaining to a specific species. Language, for example, is specific to our species. (13)

Specific Language Impairment

When a child experiences difficulty in acquiring language and continues to have difficulty in understanding spoken language, in expressing spoken language, in reading, and in written language expression but experiences no other deficits (e.g., motor, sensory, emotional, or cognitive), he or she is diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment. (14)

Speech

The primary mode of expressing language. Speech is produced by manipulating the oral structures to produce the sounds relevant to the language being spoken. (14)

Speech act

An expression associated with a particular intention on the part of a speaker. Examples include apologies, greetings, partings, compliments, complaints, and requests. In a speech act, an action is accomplished by means of speaking (or signing). (2, 9)

Speech community

A group of people who have a common dialect and/or communicative competence. (See Communicative competence) (2)

Speech event

Speaking that is organized for particular purposes and conducted according to particular rules. (8)

Speech-language pathologist

A professional trained to diagnose children and adults with speech and language disorders. They can help people develop speech and language skills and recapture speech and language skills that have been lost. (14)

Speech organs

The organs used in the production of speech, including the vocal tract and the nasal tract. (See Vocal tract and Nasal tract) (3, 11, 17)

Spoken discourse

The ability to produce sentences, converse, or relate narratives. (16)

Standard accent

The unmarked pronunciation system of a language. (See Marked and Markedness) (1)

Standard dialect

The unmarked form of a dialect at all levels (syntactic, phonological, and semantic). (See Marked and Markedness) (1)

Standard English

The English dialect of educated native speakers not referent to a particular geographic area. The prestige variety of English. (2)

Standard language

The unmarked form of a language at all levels (syntactic , phonological, and semantic) (see Marked and Markedness) (1)

Statistical machine translation

A method of machine translation that uses pairs of documents, with one of the pair in the source language and the other translated into the target language by a human translator. A computer program generates statistics about the patterns it finds in these document pairs and uses them to produce translations in new source documents. (6)

Stop (Consonant)

A consonant produced by completely closing the airflow at some point in the vocal tract. Examples of stop consonants are /b/, /p/, and /k/. (3, 11)

Story grammar

A thematic organization of a story containing causal and temporal relationships. A story grammar includes a setting and episode structure (initiating event, internal response, internal plan, attempt, consequence, resolution, or inner reactions). (15)

Style

Language variety or way of speaking at all levels that move along a formality continuum. (1)

Stylemarker

An idiosyncratic linguistic feature that can be used by forensic linguistics to determine the person responsible for the linguistic sample being analyzed. (10)

Subject/auxiliary inversion

The process of inverting the position of the subject and the position of the auxiliary verb. This occurs in question formation in English. For example, the subject the cat and the auxiliary verb has in the sentence The cat has eaten two mice invert, producing the question Has the cat eaten two mice?(11)

Sublanguage

A subset of a language that uses only a portion of its vocabulary and grammar. Sublanguages are used in specialized fields whose members speak about restricted subject matter. (6)

Suffix

A bound morpheme that appears at the end of a word. (See Prefix and Bound morpheme) (4, 11)

Suppressed discourse

Supression of one's own speech, usually in relation to dominating forces or dominant discourse. Monitoring and censoring of one's own expression; or the suppression, by members of certain groups, of their own speech. (8)

Survivor discourse

Includes the actual language used by those who have been sexually assaulted or who talk about sexual assault. Survivor discourse is informed by interactions among people using this language combined with the role of context. (8)

Syllable encoding

Phonological substages of a lexical access model of speech production. These substages are involved in the retrieval of syllables of the word to be articulated. (16)

Synonyms

Words that have substantial meaning overlap. (4)

Syntactic awareness

The ability to discriminate well-formed (grammatical) sentences from ill-formed (ungrammatical) sentences. (See Grammatical and Ungrammatical) (11)

Syntax

The rules that govern phrase and sentence formation in any given language. Syntax is part of the Form component. (see Form) (4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17)

Taboo

Unmentionable or inappropriate terms or topics in social or public contexts. (4, 8)

Tag question

A short question typically found “tagged on”to the end of an utterance (for example: He's arrogant, isn’t he?). (9)

Target

In translation (whether human or machine), the language a text is being translated into. (See Source) (5, 6)

Tautologous

Sentences whose truth can be verified solely by virtue of the terms they contain. Characterized by repetition of the same word or words that have the same meaning. (4)

Tense vowel

A particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. Tense phonemes are produced with the tongue and jaw muscles tensed. (3)

Theory of mind (ToM)

A theory whose primary characteristic is the ascription of mental states to another mind and the recognition that others may hold beliefs different from one's own. (17)

Tinnitus

A hearing disorder characterized by experiencing ringing, hissing, or other noises. (14)

Topic-associating story structure

An organizational pattern of discourse in which contiguous topics are related. The structure differs from the constraints of the topic-centered discourse structure common in mainstream Anglo culture. (2)

Topicalization

A sentence structure (in speech or signing) that begins with an entity, separated from the main clause, that will be important to what follows (e.g., That street, it's closed). (12)

Transitive verb

A verb that takes a direct object. Slice is a transitive verb, and in the sentence She sliced the vegetables, the direct object is the vegetables. (See Intransitive verb) (1, 4, 6)

Translation-by-example

An approach to machine translation in which a corpus in one language (the source language) is matched with translations in the second language (the target language). (See Source and Target/) (6)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI)

An acquired disorder caused by trauma to the brain. Problems with language production, comprehension, memory, and other cognitive functions can result. (14)

Tremble dance

A honey bee behavior in which a bee stimulates others to process nectar into honey. (13)

Truncated passive

(See Agentless passive) (8)

Unaspirated

A phoneme is unaspirated if it is not followed by a burst of air. (See Aspirated and Aspiration) (11)

Unconventionally indirect speech act

A speech act in which a speaker uses language in a new way to send a message indirectly. (2)

Underextension

An error children make in word learning in which a word is used to refer to a smaller set of things than the word is used to refer to by adults. (See Overextension) (11)

Ungrammatical

A sentence is ungrammatical if it cannot be produced given the syntactic rules of the language. (11)

Universal grammar

The set of grammatical principles shared by all human languages. (11)

Unmarked

Characterization of linguistic forms that are considered normal by users. (See Marked and Markedness) (1)

Use

Related to pragmatics, the socially appropriate use of language. (See Form and Content) (14)

Utterance

A unit of language spoken (or signed). (11)

Validation testing

A means of testing any given method's ability to arrive at or obtain the correct or valid response. (10)

Validity

The genuineness of findings (10)

Verb phrase

A phrase headed by a verb, including the noun phrases, prepositional phrases and adverbs that (in English) follow it. In the sentence John drove his car into the lake last night, the verb drove, the direct object noun phrase his car, and the prepositional phrase into the lake together constitute a verb phrase. (6)

Visual dictionary

A dictionary characterized by pictures that have detailed labeling, so that users can find the word they are looking for visually . (4)

Vocabulary spurt

An increase in the rate of word learning that begins when children have between 50 and 100 words in their productive lexicons. (11)

Vocal folds

The folds of tough, flexible tissue, muscle, and membrane in the larynx extending from back to front. (3)

Vocal tract

The tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs involved in making speech sounds. (3)

Voice disorder

A disorder that affects voice quality in an abnormal way. (14)

Voiced sounds

Speech sounds that are produced with the vocal folds vibrating. (See Voiceless sounds) (3)

Voiceless sounds

Speech sounds that are produced with no vibration of the vocal folds. (See Voiced sounds) (3)

Vowel

A phoneme that is produced without blocking the air stream from the lungs at any point in the vocal tract. (3)

Waggle dance

A bee dance that indicates the distance of a food source, the direction to the source, and even the quantity of food; typical for distances greater than 100 meters. (13)

Wh-question

A question formed with a wh/em>-word, such as what, when, or why. (11, 12)

Yes/No question

A question that elicits a yes or no response, such as Did you find the house keys? (11, 12)

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