Adjacency
Word-internal conditioning, of whatever kind, is commonly observed to be local rather than remote. In rules of derivation and compounding which are conditional on word-class categorizations, it tends ...
Affixation
The term “affixation” denotes the technique of concatenating affixes—morphological (not lexical) elements which are non-words—either directly to roots or stems, or to affixes in the case of affix ...
Analogy
Analogical change, or simply analogy, is a historical process which projects a generalization from one set of expressions to another. The term “analogy” has been used also in reference to ...
Autolexical Syntax
Though the name implies a syntactic theory, Autolexical Syntax (ALS) is actually a view of the relationship between the various components of a grammar, only one of which is syntax. ...
Case
This entry includes the following subentries:OverviewCase TheoryCase AlignmentOverviewCase TheoryCase AlignmentCase is a notoriously ambiguous notion. The traditional notion of morphological case ...
Causative
While the term “causative construction” could in principle refer to any grammatical device that encodes causation, in practice the term has come to be used to express the kind of ...
clitic
A linguistic item that resembles a word but cannot function independently because of its dependence on an adjoining word and can never be stressed. A clitic is thus intermediate between a word and an ...
Computational Morphology
This method creates and implements models of word formation, i.e. inflection, derivation, and compounding. Typical applications are systems for word-form recognition and generation. Recognition ...
Conversion
Also known as functional shift or zero derivation. This is the process whereby a new word is derived by change in part of speech, without adding a derivational affix; e.g. ...
Generative Morphology
Within the theoretical framework of early generative grammar, morphology was not considered an autonomous component of the grammar; it was split between morphophonology, as part of phonology, and ...
Incorporation
Incorporation is a phenomenon in which two roots that would normally head distinct phrases are combined into a single morphological word. Ex. (1), from Mohawk, is a prototypical example:(1) ...
inflection
1. The modulation of vocal intonation or pitch.2. A change in the form of a word to indicate a grammatical function: e.g. adding the letter ‘s’ to make a simple plural in English.3. Often used in ...
linguistics
(also ‘theoretical’ or ‘general’ linguistics), a term used to characterize the study of language in the 20th cent. owing much to the Swiss linguist Saussure; it distinguishes itself from earlier ...
mindscape
A conflation of mind, intended to refer to the act of contemplation, and scape, defined as a representation or formation; a mindscape is a space that is both conceptual and ...
morpheme
The smallest distinctive unit of a language having a definite grammatical function. For example, unhappiness contains three morphemes: un- (a morpheme denoting negation) + happi (happy) + -ness (a ...
Natural Morphology
The approach known as N[atural] M[orphology] originated from the attempt to describe and explain certain universal tendencies, e.g. the preference for forming complex words by addition of material. ...
Natural Phonology
This theory of the acquisition, structure, and change of phonological behavior was developed originally by David Stampe (1969, 1973, 1987). It is based on phonetically motivated or “natural” ...
phonology
A branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the sound systems of different languages. See also phoneme; compare phonetics.
physiognomy
1. The physical appearance of one's face.2. The assessment of someone's character or personality from their face and other external bodily features.
Polysynthesis
The typoloigcal term “polysynthesis” characterizes the class of polysynthetic languages (PLs) which typically have long, internally complex verbs in which morphemes attached to the verbal root bear ...
