Linguistic terminology terms | LETTER - M

What is a main clause?

A main clause is a clause that

• may stand alone as a complete sentence, and
• expresses the focal predication when occurring in a complex sentence .

• What is a clause?

Crystal 1980 217

Hartmann and Stork 1972 136

Mish 1991 718

Pei and Gaynor 1954 176

What is a major entry in a lexical database?

A major entry is a unit in a lexical database representing a lexeme with its phonological, semantic, grammatical, and anthropological information (where lexically relevant and available).

Insert the following types of lexemes as major entries:

• Morphemes
• Letters of the alphabet
• Loan words or phrases
• Proper names

• Pronunciation
• Part of speech
• Meaning
• Illustrative sentences
• Notes on usage
• Grammatical information
• Related subentries
• Related minor entries

Click the following jumps to see examples of major entries in the lexical database:

• Data Entry view
• Major entry in Publication view

What is manner as a semantic role?

Manner is a semantic role that notes how the action, experience, or process of an event is carried out.

• What is a semantic role?

Larson 1984 203

Givón 1984 126

What is a manner implicature?

A manner implicature is a conversational implicature based on an addressee 's assumption that the speaker is either observing or flouting the conversational maxim of manner .

If the speaker is assumed to be observing the maxim, then the addressee makes a standard implicature . If the speaker is assumed to be flouting the maxim, then the addressee makes a more nonstandard type of implicature.

• The manner implicature Miss Singer sang badly is derivable from the sentence Miss Singer produced a series of sounds corresponding closely to the score of an aria from ‘"Rigoletto."

• Because of the submaxim be orderly, an addressee can draw the implicature that the events presented in Alfred went to the store and bought some whisky happened in order.

• What is conversational implicature?

Grice 1975 46

Levinson 1983 107–108, 112

What is manner of articulation?

Manner of articulation is the type of closure made by the articulators and the degree of the obstruction of the airstream by those articulators.

What is a manner of discourse?

A manner of discourse is an identifiable style of speech that is suitable for a particular type of

• addressee
• social setting, or
• subject matter.

Here are some examples that illustrate distinctions in manners of discourse. The intended perlocutionary effect is the same, but the styles are different:

• Participants should remain seated throughout the ceremony.
• Don’t get up.
• Sit tight .

( Joos 1962 , cited by Hartmann and Stork 1972 136 )

Crystal 1980 219

Hartmann and Stork 1972 136

Levinson 1979 207

Levinson 1983 91

Joos 1962

What is a marker?

A marker is a lexical item that signals a morphosyntactic operation .

• The suffix -s added to a noun signals plurality, as in the following example:

  three hats

• The suffix -s added to a verb signals third person, singular, present tense, as in the following example:

  he sees

Pei and Gaynor 1954 132

What is a marking clause?

A marking clause is a clause, in a language with the grammatical category of switch reference , that contains an indication as to whether or not one of its arguments is coreferential with an argument of a reference clause .

The indication is often provided by a verbal affix . The argument is typically the subject .

• What is a clause?

Haiman and Munro 1983 ix–xiii

What is masculine gender?

Masculine gender is a grammatical gender that

• marks nouns having human or animal male referents , and
• often marks nouns having referents that do not have distinctions of sex.

• el hombre ‘the man’
• el gallino ‘the rooster’
• el libro ‘the book’

• What is grammatical gender?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 93

Mish 1991 730

What is a mass noun?

A mass noun is a noun whose referents are not thought of as separate entities.

It may have distinguishing features such as the following:

• The inability to take a plural form
• Cooccurrence with some determiners (such as some and much ), but not others (such as the English many )

Some nouns may permit treatment as either count or mass nouns.

• What is a noun?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 137

Crystal 1985 189

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 246

Mish 1991 731

What is a matrix?

A matrix is an arrangement of items into labeled rows and columns within a table.

It shows the relationship between two categories of features that are relevant to the items in the matrix. The row headings represent features belonging to one category. The column headings represent features belonging to another category.

Each column or row contains items having the feature described in the heading. Each cell in the matrix represents an item characterized by the features in the corresponding column and row.

Here is an example of a matrix showing the relationship of roots and affixes in Tuwali Ifugao (Philippines):

What is a matrix sentence?

A matrix sentence is a sentence in which a clause has been embedded as a constituent .

The clause may or may not be an immediate constituent , but it must be embedded by means other than coordination .

• What is a sentence?

Crystal 1980 222

Lyons 1968 266

What is meaning?

Meaning is a notion in semantics classically defined as having two components:

• Reference, anything in the referential realm denoted by a word or expression, and
• Sense, the system of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships between a lexical unit and other lexical units in a language.

Lyons 1977b 174, 175, 206

What is meaning and pragmatic function?

Meaning and pragmatic function is a general heading under which terminology relating to the various areas of study of language use and interpretation is collected. These areas are variously categorized as either semantic or pragmatic.

This inclusive grouping of meaning and pragmatic function is made because of the difficulty that theorists have in making in practice a sharp distinction between semantics and pragmatics. The topics that have been investigated and are presented under this topic are weighted heavily toward the pragmatic.

An expanded edition of the glossary projected for the future will likely include much additional terminology relating to the various areas of concern in semantics, especially case frames (that is, types of predications or propositions) and more semantic roles.

• What is conversation analysis?
• What is a discourse?
• What is given versus new information?
• What is an implicature?
• What is an interpropositional relation?
• What is pragmatics?
• What is reference?
• What is a semantic role?
• What is a speech act?
• What is a trope?

What is a means-purpose relation?

A means-purpose relation is a causal relation in which

• one proposition expresses a state or activity employed so as to bring about the state or event expressed by the other proposition, and
• the achievement or nonachievement of the desired state or event is not expressed.

• What is a negative purpose relation?

• What is a causal relation?

Beekman and Callow 1974 302–303

Beekman, Callow, and Kopesec 1981 102

Mann and Thompson 1987b 63–65

What is a means-result relation?

A means-result relation is a causal relation in which

• one proposition expresses a state or activity employed so as to bring about the state or event expressed by the other proposition, and
• the achievement or nonachievement of the desired state or event is expressed.

• What is a causal relation?

Beekman and Callow 1974 301–302

Beekman, Callow, and Kopesec 1981 102

What is measure as a semantic role?

Measure is a semantic role which notes the quantification of an event.

• What is a semantic role?

Larson 1984 199–203

Longacre 1983 159

What is a medial clause?

A medial clause is any clause in a clause chain which

• is not the final clause , and
• is distinguishable from the final clause by a difference in verb morphology .

• What is a clause?

Longacre 1985 264

Longacre 1983 299

What is mediopassive voice?

Mediopassive voice is a passive voice in which the

• verb has stative meaning, and
• actor is not expressed.

• What is passive voice?

Foley, W. and Van Valin 1985 322–323

What is meiosis?

Meiosis is the minimization of the importance of a referent by the use of an expression that is disproportionate to it.

• What is a trope?

Corbett 1971 488

Gove 1966 1405

What is a metaphor?

Here are two senses of metaphor:

1. A metaphor is the expression of an understanding of one concept in terms of another concept, where there is some similarity or correlation between the two.
2. A metaphor is the understanding itself of one concept in terms of another.

• What is a conventional metaphor?
• What are mixed metaphors?
• What is a new metaphor?

• What is a trope?

Johnson 1981b 4, 18–27, 43

Beekman and Callow 1974 124

Mish 1991 746

Lakoff, G. 1987 388–389

What is metaphorical entailment?

A metaphorical entailment is the imparting of a characteristic of the source domain (the metaphorical image) to the target domain (the concept receiving metaphorical treatment) by logical means.

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980 89–91

What is metonymy?

Here are two senses for metonymy:

1. Metonymy is, broadly defined, a trope in which one entity is used to stand for another associated entity.
2. Metonymy is, more specifically, a replacive relationship that is the basis for a number of conventional metonymic expressions occurring in ordinary language.

• The pen is mightier than the sword.

  Pen and sword represent publishing and military force, respectively.

• The following examples illustrate the

  controller-for-controlled metonymy

  :

  • Nixon bombed Hanoi.

    Nixon stands for the armed forces that Nixon controlled.

  • A Mercedes rear-ended me.

    The word me stands for the car that the speaker was driving.

• What is a conventional metonymy?
• What is antonomasia?
• What is a synecdoche?

• What is a trope?

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980 35–36, 38

Mish 1991 748

Beekman and Callow 1974 116

What is metrical phonology?

Metrical phonology is a phonological theory concerned with organizing segments into groups of relative prominence. Segments are organized into syllables , syllables into metrical feet, feet into phonological words, and words into larger units.

This organization is represented formally by metrical trees and grids.

Here is an example of a metrical tree of the word metricality:

On the word and foot level, s and w indicate relative stress. The w indicates weaker prominence, and the s indicates relative stronger prominence.

The internal syllable structure in the above figure has been omitted and is represented by triangles. Within the syllable, s and w refer to stronger and weaker degrees of sonorance, not stress, and s corresponds to the syllable nucleus, which is the most sonorant segment in a syllable.

In metrical trees, the strongest unit of the word is the one that is dominated by s all the way up the tree.

Here is an example of a metrical grid of the word metricality:

Stress within feet and words can be represented as a metrical grid:

In a grid, the most prominent unit is the one that is dominated by the most number of x ’s.

What is middle voice?

Middle voice is a voice that indicates that the subject is the actor and acts

• upon himself or herself reflexively , or
• for his or her own benefit.

In the case of plural subjects, the actors may, perhaps, act upon each other.

Here is an example of middle voice [diacritical markings are omitted here]:

• What is voice?

Elson and Pickett 1988 31

Bybee 1985 20–21

Pei and Gaynor 1954 137

Hartmann and Stork 1972 252

Nida 1949 168

Mish 1991 752

What is a minimal pair?

A minimal pair is two words that differ in only one sound.

Sounds which differ: /p/ and /b/

• [lQp] ‘lap’
• [lQb] ‘lab’

Sounds which differ: /t/ and /d/

• [taka] 'liver'
• [daka] 'to rest'

• What is contrast in identical environments?

What is a minor entry in a lexical database?

A minor entry is a unit in the lexical database representing a lexeme that is an irregular variant of a major entry lexeme. It contains minimal phonological, semantic, and grammatical information about the variant.

Insert the following types of lexemes as minor entries:

• Irregularly inflected forms
• Irregular phonological variants

Click the following jumps to see examples of minor entries in the English lexical database:

• Data Entry view
• Publication view

What is a misplacement marker?

A misplacement marker is a device used in a turn of conversation to indicate that the turn is in some way out of place.

• What is a move?

Tsui 1989 558–559

What are mixed metaphors?

Mixed metaphors are different metaphors occurring in the same utterance , especially the same sentence, that are used to express the same concept.

Mixed metaphors often, but not always, result in a conflict of concepts.

• What are impermissible mixed metaphors?
• What are permissible mixed metaphors?

• What is a metaphor?

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980 92, 95

What is a mode of achievement?

A mode of achievement is the means employed by a speaker to accomplish the illocutionary point of an utterance .

• The exercise of authority due to position, in achieving a directive illocutionary point when giving a command
• Assuming the position of a supplicant in achieving a directive illocutionary point when begging
• Assuming the position of witness in achieving an assertive illocutionary point when testifying

Searle and Vanderveken 1985 15–16, 40

Searle 1979 5–6

What is a moderate epistemic qualification?

A moderate epistemic qualification is an epistemic qualification that signals a middle degree of certainty.

• It is probable that ...
• I believe ...

• What is an epistemic qualification?

Caton 1981 87

What is modification?

Modification is a morphological process which produces an alteration within a root or stem .

• What is subtraction?
• What is suppletion?

• What is a morphological process?

Matthews 1991 136

Hartmann and Stork 1972 196

Crystal 1985 263

What is a modifier?

A modifier is a constituent , in an endocentric construction , that imparts information relating to the head of the construction.

• What is a syntactic function?

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 181–182

Hartmann and Stork 1972 143

Crystal 1985 196–197

What is mood and modality?

Mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality.

Modality is a facet of illocutionary force , signaled by grammatical devices (that is, moods), that expresses

• the illocutionary point or general intent of a speaker, or
• a speaker’s degree of commitment to the expressed proposition 's believability, obligatoriness, desirability, or reality.

The term mood is used by some authors in the same sense modality is.

Others distinguish the two, as we do here, by using mood to refer to the contrastive grammatical expressions of different modalities and reserving modality to refer to the meanings so expressed.

If, in addition, modality is used to refer to meanings expressed by lexical means as well as grammatical, it is effectively a synonym of illocutionary force.

Here are some examples of mood and modality; items that signal certain modalities:

• Verbal inflections
• Auxiliary verbs

• What is irrealis modality?
• What is necessity?
• What is possibility?
• What is realis modality?
• What is alethic modality?
• What is deontic modality?
• What is epistemic modality?

• What is a grammatical category?

Chung and Timberlake 1985 241

Givón 1984 272

Palmer 1986 14–15, 26

Bybee 1985 169

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 219

Crystal 1985 198

Hartmann and Stork 1972 142, 144

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 183

Mish 1991 762, 770

What is a morph?

A morph is the phonetic realization of a morpheme .

• What is an allomorph?
• What is a portmanteau morph?
• What is a zero morph?

• Comparison of morpheme-morph-allomorph and phoneme-phone-allophone

Crystal 1985 199

What is a morpheme?

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of a language.

Current approaches to morphology conceive of morphemes as rules involving the linguistic context, rather than as isolated pieces of linguistic matter. They acknowledge that

• meaning may be directly linked to suprasegmental phonological units, such as tone or stress.
• the meaning of a morpheme with a given form may vary, depending on its immediate environment.

• Unladylike

  The word unladylike consists of three morphemes and four syllables.

  Morpheme breaks:

  un- 'not'

  lady '(well behaved) female adult human'

  -like 'having the characteristics of'
  None of these morphemes can be broken up any more without losing all sense of meaning. Lady cannot be broken up into "la" and "dy," even though "la" and "dy" are separate syllables. Note that each syllable has no meaning on its own.

• Dogs

  The word dogs consists of two morphemes and one syllable:

  dog, and

  -s, a plural marker on nouns
  Note that a morpheme like "-s" can just be a single phoneme and does not have to be a whole syllable.

• Technique

  The word technique consists of only one morpheme having two syllables.
  Even though the word has two syllables, it is a single morpheme because it cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful parts.

Morphemes may be classified, on the basis of word formation, characteristics into the following types:

• What is a constituent?

• Comparison and contrast of wordform, word, morpheme, and syllable

• Comparison of morpheme-morph-allomorph and phoneme-phone-allophone

Crystal 1985 198–199

Hartmann and Stork 1972 145

Mish 1991 772

Pike and Pike 1982 450

What is a morpheme type?

A morpheme type is a category based upon how a morpheme combines with other morphemes to form a word.

• What is an affix? (Linguistics)
• What is a bound morpheme?
• What is a free morpheme?
• What is a root?
• What is a stem?
• What is a clitic? (Grammar)

What is a morphological process?

A morphological process is a means of changing a stem to adjust its meaning to fit its syntactic and communicational context.

Most languages that are agglutinative in any way use suffixation. Some of these languages also use prefixation and infixation. Very few languages use only prefixation, and none employ only infixation or any of the other types of morphological processes listed below.

• What is affixation?
• What is prefixation?
• What is suffixation?
• What is circumfixation?
• What is infixation?
• What is modification?
• What is reduplication?

• What is a morphosyntactic operation?
• What is inflection?

Matthews 1991 125–126, 130

What is morphological typology?

Morphological typology is the categorization of a language according to the extent to which words in the language are clearly divisible into individual morphemes .

Languages can be classified according to their degree of

• synthesis (the degree to which a language uses multimorphemic words), along a continuum from isolating to polysynthetic languages, and
• fusion (the degree to which a language fuses multiple grammatical meanings into a single morpheme), along a continuum from fusional to agglutinative languages.

How to determine the morphological type of a language

Payne, T. 1997a 27–29

What is morphology?

Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words.

Morphology can be thought of as a system of adjustments in the shapes of words that contribute to adjustments in the way speakers intend their utterances to be interpreted.

What is a morphophonemic rule?

A morphophonemic rule has the form of a phonological rule, but is restricted to a particular morphological environment.

Morphophonemic rules are sensitive to their environment, unlike phonological rules. Whenever morphological information is required to specify the environment for an allophonic rule, the rule is morphophonemic.

• The prefix /in-/ has the allomorphs [il] and [ir]:

The rules n G l / __l and n G r / __r are not phonological rules in English, however. If they were, the prefixes /un-/ and /non-/ would also exhibit this regular pattern, but they do not.

Therefore, there must be a morphophonemic rule which determines the allomorphs [il] and [ir] of the prefix /in-/.

Payne, T.1997a :23–24

What is morphophonemics?

Morphophonemics is the study of phonemic differences between allomorphs of the same morpheme ; a description of variations in a particular language.

What is a morphosyntactic operation?

A morphosyntactic operation is an ordered, dynamic relation between one linguistic form and another.

A morphosyntactic operation is often manifested (or coded) by a formal operator, such as a prefix , a suffix , a stress shift or a combination of two or more of these. However, some operations are not overtly coded. One method of noting the existence of a morphosyntactic operation that has no overt realization is to posit a zero morpheme .

Morphological processes encode morphosyntactic operations.

Morphosyntactic operations have conceptual content and may be associated with particular functions.

• What is derivation?
• What is inflection?

Payne, T. 1997a 7–8, 29

What is a motivation relation?

An interpropositional relation in which the speaker expresses a proposition(s) to increase the addressee 's willingness to accept the directive communicated in another proposition.

The last sentence is intended to motivate attendance at the concerts mentioned in the first.

• What is an interpropositional relation?

Mann and Thompson 1987b 55–56

Matthiessen and Thompson 1987 25–26

What is a move?

A move is a stretch of talk that forms a unit. It has a functional relation to the conversation of which it is a part.

• What is a continuer?
• What is a downgrade?
• What is a misplacement marker?
• What is a newsmark?
• What is an oh-receipt?
• What is a passing turn?
• What is a rejection finalizer?
• What is a try-marker?
• What is an upgrade?

Goffman 1981 24

What is a multiplicative numeral?

A multiplicative numeral is a numeral that expresses how many fold or how many times.

• once
• twice
• thrice

• What is a numeral?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 149

Hartmann and Stork 1972 147