linguistics

Noun
  1. The scientific study of language (synset 106182505)
    associated with:
    • linguistic performance - (linguistics) a speaker's actual use of language in real situations; what the speaker actually says, including grammatical errors and other non-linguistic features such as hesitations and other disfluencies (contrasted with linguistic competence)
    • tone - (linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages
    • complementary distribution, complementation - (linguistics) a distribution of related speech sounds or forms in such a way that they only appear in different contexts
    • linguistic competence - (linguistics) a speaker's implicit, internalized knowledge of the rules of their language (contrasted with linguistic performance)
    • feature, feature of speech - (linguistics) a distinctive characteristic of a linguistic unit that serves to distinguish it from other units of the same kind
    • grammar - the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology (and sometimes also deals with semantics)
    • descriptive grammar - a grammar that is produced by descriptive linguistics
    • prescriptive grammar - a grammar that is produced by prescriptive linguistics
    • phrase structure, sentence structure, syntax - the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences
    • syntax - studies of the rules for forming admissible sentences
    • generative grammar - (linguistics) a type of grammar that describes syntax in terms of a set of logical rules that can generate all and only the infinite number of grammatical sentences in a language and assigns them all the correct structural description
    • phonemics, phonology - the study of the sound system of a given language and the analysis and classification of its phonemes
    • descriptivism - (linguistics) a doctrine supporting or promoting descriptive linguistics
    • prescriptivism - (linguistics) a doctrine supporting or promoting prescriptive linguistics
    • derivative - (linguistics) a word that is derived from another word
    • descriptor, form, signifier, word form - the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something
    • base, radical, root, root word, stem, theme - (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed
    • participant role, semantic role - (linguistics) the underlying relation that a constituent has with the main verb in a clause
    • postposition - (linguistics) the placing of one linguistic element after another (as placing a modifier after the word that it modifies in a sentence or placing an affix after the base to which it is attached)
    • preposition - (linguistics) the placing of one linguistic element before another (as placing a modifier before the word it modifies in a sentence or placing an affix before the base to which it is attached)
    • topicalization - (linguistics) emphasis placed on the topic or focus of a sentence by preposing it to the beginning of the sentence; placing the topic at the beginning of the sentence is typical for English
    • morphophoneme - (linguistics) the phonemes (or strings of phonemes) that constitute the various allomorphs of a morpheme
    • phoneme - (linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language
    • allophone - (linguistics) any of various acoustically different forms of the same phoneme
    • linguistic rule, rule - (linguistics) a rule describing (or prescribing) a linguistic practice
    • linguistic universal, universal - (linguistics) a grammatical rule (or other linguistic feature) that is found in all languages
    • sign - a fundamental linguistic unit linking a signifier to that which is signified
    • phylum - (linguistics) a large group of languages that are historically related
    • aphaeresis, apheresis - (linguistics) omission at the beginning of a word as in `coon' for `raccoon' or `till' for `until'
    • linguistic process - a process involved in human language
    • voice - (linguistics) the grammatical relation (active or passive) of the grammatical subject of a verb to the action that the verb denotes
    • obscure - reduce a vowel to a neutral one, such as a schwa
    • reduce - destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it
    • etymologise, etymologize - construct the history of words
    • topicalize - emphasize by putting heavy stress on or by moving to the front of the sentence
    • geminate, reduplicate - form by reduplication
    • analytic, uninflected - expressing a grammatical category by using two or more words rather than inflection
    • synthetic - systematic combining of root and modifying elements into single words
    • animate - belonging to the class of nouns that denote living beings
    • inanimate - belonging to the class of nouns denoting nonliving things
    • cacuminal, retroflex - pronounced with the tip of the tongue turned back toward the hard palate
    • inflected - showing alteration in form (especially by the addition of affixes)
    • uninflected - not inflected
    • descriptive - of or relating to an approach to linguistic analysis that aims at the description of a language's forms, structures and usage
    • early - of an early stage in the development of a language or literature
    • old - of a very early stage in development
    • middle - of a stage in the development of a language or literature between earlier and later stages
    • late - of a later stage in the development of a language or literature; used especially of dead languages
    • modern, new - used of a living language; being the current stage in its development
    • new - in use after medieval times
    • cognate - having the same ancestral language
    • received, standard - conforming to the established language usage of educated native speakers
    • acceptable - judged to be in conformity with approved usage
    • nonstandard - not conforming to the language usage of a prestige group within a community
    • bad - nonstandard
    • unacceptable, unaccepted - not conforming to standard usage
    • suprasegmental - pertaining to a feature of speech that extends over more than a single speech sound
    • segmental - divided or organized into speech segments or isolable speech sounds
    • autosemantic - of a word or phrase meaningful in isolation, independent of context
    • synsemantic - of a word or phrase meaningful only when it occurs in the company of other words
    • radical - of or relating to or constituting a linguistic root
    • polyphonic - having two or more phonetic values
    • homophonous - characteristic of the phenomenon of words of different origins that are pronounced the same way
    • ablative - relating to the ablative case
    • aspectual - of or belonging to an aspect (as an aspect of the verb)
    • prepositional - of or relating to or formed with a preposition
    • vocative - relating to a case used in some languages
    is a type of: science, scientific discipline - a particular branch of scientific knowledge
    subtypes:
    is a part of: cognitive science - the field of science concerned with cognition; includes parts of cognitive psychology and linguistics and computer science and cognitive neuroscience and philosophy of mind
  2. The humanistic study of language and literature (synset 106180756)
    is a type of: arts, humanistic discipline, humanities, liberal arts - studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills)
    subtypes:
    • dialectology - the branch of philology that is devoted to the study of dialects
    • lexicology - the branch of linguistics that studies the lexical component of language
    same as: philology

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