Linguistic Terms
stop
a consonant made by the complete closure of the vocal tract
narrowing
a type of change in which a word becomes more specialized in meaning
diphthong
a vowel in which there is a perceptible change in quality during a syllable
acronym
a word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name or abbreviation (scuba)
clipping
creating a word by amputation (gymnasium became gym)
back-formation
creating a word from another word that's incorrectly assumed to be the word it derived from (edit came from editor)
dative case
in inflecting languages, a form that expresses an indirect object relationship equivalent to (i gave the letter *to the girl*)
alliteration
initial or internal rhyme in verse or prose
pleonasm
rhetorical redundancy (free gift or kneel down)
mid vowel
said of a vowel articulated between high and low tongue positions
syncope
shortening a word by dropping a letter or more (ne'er)
nasal
sound made with the soft plate lowered thus allowing air to resonate in the nose
back vowel
sounds made with the back part of the tongue
front vowel
sounds made with the front part of the tongue
metonymy
A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it (the Queen as the "crown")
backronym
An acronym that fits an existing word, to deliberately make a word out of it's letters (AMBER)
cognates
Words that look similar and have the same origin in two languages.
perjoration/deterioration
a change of meaning in which a word acquires a negative evaluation
amelioration
a change of meaning in which a word loses an originally unpleasant sense
object
a clause that expresses the result of an action
epithet
a label that travels with a name (Hector of the flashing helmet)
isogloss
a line on a map showing the boundary of an area in which a linguistic feature is used
affix
a meaningful form that is attached to another form, to make a more complex word
eponym
a name derived from the name of person (real or imaginary) (sandwich)
portmanteau
a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings (brunch)
vowel
a speech sound made with the vocal tract open, which functions as the center of a syllable
consonant
a speech sound that functions at the margins of syllables, produced when the vocal tract is either blocked or restricted
prefix
an affix added initially to a root (unhappy)
suffix
an affix that follows a stem
inflection
an affix that signals a grammatical relationship ('s or ed)
genitive
an inflection that expresses such meanings as possession and origin (girl's bag)
accusative
an inflection that identifies the object of a verb (objective case)
nominative
an inflection that typically identifies the subject of a verb
schwa vowel
an unstressed vowel made in the center of the mouth, heard at the end of such words as after
tense
change in the form of a verb to mark the time at which an action takes place (past, present...)
apocope
clipping a word at its end (knick from knickbocker)
high vowels
made by raising the tongue towards the roof of the mouth
low vowel
made with tongue in the bottom area of the mouth
metaphor
the analogy of two unlike things
voice
the auditory result of a vocal fold vibration
subject
the clause constituent about which something is stated in the predicate
predicate
the clause that gives information about the subject
stressed/ unstressed syllable
the degree of force that a syllable is uttered
case
the form of a noun, adjective, or pronoun, showing its grammatical relationship to other words
vehicle
the image in a metaphor
aphesis
the loss of letters or syllables at the start of a word (squire from esquire)
connotation
the personal or emotional associations aroused by words
denotation
the relationship between a word and the reality to which it refers
phoneme
the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language
morpheme
the smallest contrastive unit of grammar
syntax
the study of word combinations
morphology
the study of word structure, especially in terms of morphemes
verb
used to express an action
synecdoche
using a part of something to represent the whole thing (threads representing clothes)
calque
word that translates a foreign word or phrase piece by piece (Tele-vision)
antonyms
words that have opposite meanings
homonyms
words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings (sale/sail)
synonyms
words with the same meaning