ling chapter 5

subordinate clause

A clause that is part of a complex sentence and which appears at a lower level than the main clause.

infinitive

A form of the verb that exists in some languages (such as English); it is a non-finite verb form and appears in some forms of subordinations, or as the citation form of a verb. In English it appears with the infinitive marker to, e.g. to walk.

imperative

A form of verbs (cf. mood) used to express an order. In English, subjects of imperatives are left out, such as walk! where the subject is understood as the addressee 'you'.

comparative

A grade in adjective and adverb comparison, for example bigger for the adjective big.

object

A grammatical function in a clause, for example cake in: I like cake. Transitive verbs appear with (or at least have underlying) objects. Ditransitive verbs even have two underlying objects, as in I brought him cake. Where him and cake are two separate objects in the clause.

neuter

A grammatical gender (see also masculine and feminine).

feminine

A grammatical gender form, often loosely based on sex.

masculine

A grammatical gender. In English, gender is only distinguished in singular personal pronouns, where he is the masculine form. In other languages (such as Spanish), gender appears in many other areas of grammar.

conditional

A mood that expresses that something may happen under certain conditions.

subjunctive

A mood that is typical of some languages (such as Spanish), where it appears in certain types of subordinate clauses. It only exists in very formal varieties of English and does not take special inflection forms. For example: I expect that he read this, in which case read is in the subjunctive and appears in the unmarked morphological form of the verb, as opposed to the marked form reads, which may have been expected in this place instead.

free morpheme

A morpheme that can appear on its own (as a word), such as able in the example un-able. It contrasts with bound morphemes.

bound morpheme

A morpheme that has to appear together with another morpheme (and that cannot appear on its own). An example is un- in un-able.

affix

A morpheme which is attached to another morpheme to form a word. Affix is the generic term (hypernym) for suffix (an affix that is added to the end of a word, such as walk-ed), prefix (an affix that is added to the beginning of a word, such as un-able) or infix (an element that appears in the middle of a word).

participle

A non-finite form of the verb, used to form certain tense, aspect or voice structures. Includes the present participle and the past participle. Participles can be used to e.g. form the progressive aspect: he was walking. The combination of the present participle walking with an auxiliary (was) forms the progressive aspect.

past participle

A non-finite verb form that is used in certain constructions to express aspectual and temporal distinctions, as well as voice. For example he has eaten, it was arranged (by me).

present participle

A non-finite verb form that is used in certain constructions to express aspectual and temporal distinctions. For example in he is walking, the progressive aspect is formed by the auxiliary verb be and the present participle ending walking in -ing.

pluperfect

A perfect aspect in the past tense: something that has been completed in the past, for example. He had eaten dinner (when I came to visit).

derivation

A process through which new words can be formed. In most cases, derivation is carried out through the addition of affixes, yet there are also instances such as conversion where no morphological elements are added.

unmarked

A structure in its basic, default form. The opposite of marked.

declension

A term traditionally used for the inflection of nouns and words classes other than verbs.

determiners

A term used for a specific position in a noun phrase. Typically, elements such as articles act as determiners in noun phrases, such as the house, where the is the determiner.

preterite

A term used for the past tense (and corresponding to the past tense in English) that is used in a range of readings in different grammatical traditions (including past events completed in the past and similar). It is hence often avoided by linguists talking about tense and aspect.

present tense

A type of verb inflection that marks that an action or event takes place at the time of speaking (or the time taken as the 'now').

past tense

A type of verb inflection that marks that an action or event took place in the past.

syllables

A unit of sound that is divided on its sound-related features (its structure, its rhythm) rather than its meaning. Syllable structures can vary across languages; they are given as CVC or CVC(C) or similar, with C referring to consonant and V referring to vowel.

iterative

A verbal aspect that expresses the repetition of an action, such as to clap repeatedly.

comparison

A way of grading adjective and adverbs in comparison to other elements in the context, for example nice, nicer and nicest, in which case nicer is in the comparative and nicest in the superlative grade.

modality

A way to express wishes, beliefs, attitudes and obligations to what is said. This could be done through modal auxiliaries, or through certain complex sentences, e.g. It is important that he read the letter immediately. [note also the additional use of the subjunctive with read]

inceptive

A way to mark a verb in some languages to express that an action is beginning, such as he starts to read.

habitual

A way to mark the verb to express that an action happens habitually. In English, the use of the present tense without further marking usually expresses such a meaning. For example he walks may be understood as 'he walks as a habit', whereas an ongoing action in the present tense would be expressed using the progressive aspects, as in he is walking.

future tense

A way to mark the verb to express that an action or event is to happen in the future.

paradigm

A way to organise linguistic information into a table or present such information consistently. For example, verb inflection can be presented in a paradigm to show the different forms for person, number, gender or other categories.

infix

An affix that appears in the middle of a word (e.g. in the middle of a root). Some English swearwords make use of infixation, such as abso-freakin'-lutely, where the infix freakin' appears in the middle of the word (the root) absolute, which cannot normally be split up further.

suffix

An affix that is added at the end of a 'base', i.e. that appears at the end of a word, such as -ed in watch-ed. Because it is added to something at the end, the dash - indicating where it is attached to the other word - appears before it.

prefix

An affix that is added before a base (i.e. a word), for example un- in un-available. It contrasts with suffix, which appears after a base.

progressive

An aspect that is ongoing, such as he is walking, where the progressive aspect is formed by combining the temporal-aspectual auxiliary is with the present participle walking.

perfect

An aspect that marks that an action or event has been completed.

punctual

An aspect, expressing that an action happens only once. For example a sneeze can be described as a punctual action.

modifiers

An element that is added to describe or classify another element. For example, an adjective can act as a modifier for a noun, as in good work. In this case, good tells us more about work. Similarly, in straight into the house, straight modifies the preposition into.

case

Case is a grammatical category that marks for an element's function in a clause. In English, case only appears with pronouns. The nominative case is used with subject pronouns such as I, while the accusative case is used with object pronouns such as him.

animacy

Certain grammatical structures differ depending on the animacy of the elements present. Sometimes there is a distinction between animate (a dog) and inanimate (a book).

third person singular

Elements in the singular that do not refer to I or you, i.e. noun phrases that can be replaced by he, she, it.

regular

For example in paradigms when the structures encountered are as expected without exception. The opposite of irregular.

inversion

In English: the switching of place of subject and auxiliary verb, for example in yes-no questions and in negated clauses.

superlative

In adjective (and adverb) comparison, the highest level, such as best, clearest, nastiest and the like.

gender

In grammar, this is a way to divide nouns into different groupings, for example masculine, feminine and neuter. Gender becomes evident through agreement, such as by articles or adjectives in a noun phrase. Sometimes these systems are based on other distinctions than sex and are also referred to as class.

irregular

In grammar: a structure that does not follow the normal patterns. For example irregular plural forms other than the regular -s/-es.

person

In linguistics: refers to the difference between I (first person), you (second person) and he/she/it (third person), which may play a role in a language's inflection system.

marked

In relation to grammar, marked refers to something that is not the default. A marked plural, for example, is a form that has no -s (or -es). For example ox - oxen displays a marked plural.

noun class

In some languages nouns can be divided up into different classes, depending on the grammatical contexts in which they occur and/or the meaning of the nouns. Class is often discussed in combination with gender, and some linguists argue that the two should be treated under the same heading.

subject

In the clause: the noun phrase that generally attracts the main focus. The only noun phrase of an intransitive verb such as sleep, as in she sleeps, in which case she is the subject.

morphemes

Often defined as the smallest meaningful unit. An element of meaning from which words are built up. Either free (appearing on its own as a word) or bound (always appearing with one or more other morphemes).

verb class

Some languages have verb classes, which may present differences in the way the verbs are inflected. For example Spanish verbs can be divided up into different classes depending on whether the infinitive forms of the verbs end in -ar, -er or -ir.

number

The grammatical category of marking for singular and plural. Some languages also have further numbers, such as a dual.

inflection

The grammatical marking of verbs, nouns and other word classes by certain categories (such as person, gender, number, case).

agreement

The link between different elements, for example in a clause, showing grammatical features. For example The mans eats. In this case, the -s in eats agrees with the subject in person (a third person) and number (singular). Other types of agreement include noun phrases such as these stones (as opposed to this stone). In the plural, the demonstrative pronoun these agrees in number with the plural noun stones.

indicative

The most basic mood form of a verb, which contrasts with e.g. imperative. Thus, when a verb is in its most basic, unmarked mood, it is said to be in the indicative. For example you walk is in the indicative, while walk! is in the imperative.

gloss

The word-by-word translation and grammatical information often given in linguistic examples of other languages. The gloss is usually the line directly below the data, followed by an overall translation in the third line of the example.