Linguistic terminology terms | LETTER - P

What is a phonological derivation?

A phonological derivation is the set of stages used to generate the phonetic representation of a word from its underlying representation.

Here is a diagram of the stages in a derivation. Phonological rules influence each stage of a derivation:

Here are some examples of the derivations of words having the negative prefix /In/:

• What is generative phonology?

Kenstowicz and Kisseberth 1979

What is a parable?

A parable is a brief allegory that is used to teach a moral lesson.

• What is an allegory?

Corbett 1971 480

What is a paradigm?

1. A set of forms having a common root or stem , of which one form must be selected in certain grammatical environments.

2. The set of substitutional relationships a linguistic unit has with other units in a specific context.

Crystal 1997 277

Payne, T. 1997a 26

What is a paradigmatic lexical relation?

A paradigmatic lexical relation is a culturally determined pattern of association between lexical units that

• share one or more core semantic components
• belong to the same lexical category
• fill the same syntactic position in a syntactic construction, and
• have the same semantic function.

Here is a table showing some common paradigmatic lexical relations in English with example sets and underlying structure:

• What is a synonym lexical relation?
• What is a generic-specific lexical relation?
• What is a whole-part lexical relation?
• What is an individual-group lexical relation?
• What is an opposite lexical relation?
• What is a rank lexical relation?
• What is a development lexical relation?
• What is a hierarchical lexical relation?
• What is a scalar property lexical relation?

What is a paradox?

A paradox is a proposition that is or appears to be contradictory but expresses some measure of truth.

• What is a trope?

Corbett 1971 492–493

Mish 1991 853

What is paralipsis?

Paralipsis is a kind of irony in which the speaker proposes not to speak of a matter, but still somehow reveals it.

• What is irony?

Corbett 1971 490

Gove 1966 1637

What is parataxis?

Parataxis is the juxtaposition of syntactic units without use of a conjunction .

• He’s an engineer, isn’t he?
• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Noonan 1985 55, 76–77

Mish 1991 855

Crystal 1985 221

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 919

What is a parenthesis relation?

A parenthesis relation is an interpropositional relation in which some proposition(s) is a digression from those expressed before and after.

The phrase by the way signals the parenthesis relation:

• What is an interpropositional relation?

Beekman, Callow, and Kopesec 1981 108

What is paronomasia?

Paronomasia is the use of words that sound similar to other words, but have different meanings.

• Casting my perils before swains
• The end of the plain plane, explained

• What is a pun?

Corbett 1971 482–483

What is a participant role?

A participant role is a relation that persons have to each other with regards to their involvement in a speech event.

• What is an addressee?
• What is an audience?
• What is a bystander?
• What is a ratified participant?
• What is source as a participant role?
• What is a speaker?
• What is a target?
• What is an unratified participant?

Levinson 1983 68

Crystal 1985 221

What is a participle?

A participle is a lexical item, derived from a verb , that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives .

The adjectival form of the term participle is participial.

In English, participles may be used as adjectives, and in nonfinite forms of verbs.

Here are some examples of participles:

• 'He ate a boiled egg for breakfast.'
• 'I like to see smiling faces.'
• 'You are singing a good song.'
• 'I have exercised.'
• 'He has eaten dinner already.'
• 'She got a bad sunburn while playing in the pool.'

Crystal 1991 251

Neufeldt 1991 985

What is a particle?

A particle is a word that

• does not belong to one of the main classes of words
• is invariable in form, and
• typically has grammatical or pragmatic meaning.

The usage of the term particle varies. Some authorities include English prepositions and even English articles as particles.

• to (in marking infinitives)
• up (in set up)
• not
• well
• oh

• What is a verbal particle?

• What is a word?

Crystal 1985 222

Mish 1991 858

Crystal 1987 427

Pei and Gaynor 1954 161

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 208

Hartmann and Stork 1972 165

Schourup 1983 1

What is a particularized implicature?

A particularized implicature is a conversational implicature that is derivable only in a specific context.

• What is conversational implicature?

Levinson 1983 126

Grice 1975 56

What is partitive case?

Partitive case is a case that expresses the partial nature of the referent of the noun it marks, as opposed to expressing the whole unit or class of which the referent is a part.

This case may be found in items such as the following:

• Existential clauses
• Nouns that are accompanied by numerals or units of measure
• Predications of material from which something is made

It often has a meaning similar to the English word some.

The term partitive case is used especially in studies of Finno-Ugric grammar.

• What is case?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 161

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 208

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 249

Gove 1966 1648

Sebeok 1946 12–14

What is a partitive numeral?

A partitive numeral is a numeral that expresses a fraction.

Here are some examples of partitive numerals:

• half
• third

• What is a numeral?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 149

Hartmann and Stork 1972 165

What is a part-whole schema?

A part-whole schema is an image schema involving physical or metaphorical wholes along with their parts and a configuration of the parts.

• The body and its parts

• The family
• The caste structure of India

• What is an image schema?

Lakoff, G. 1987 273–274

What is a passing turn?

A passing turn is a move that

• indicates that its speaker has nothing further to say, and
• passes speakership to another participant.

• What is a move?

Levinson 1983 317

What is passive voice?

Passive voice is a voice that indicates that the subject is the patient or recipient of the action denoted by the verb .

Here is an example of a construction in passive voice:

The above example contrasts with the one below, which is in active voice :

• What is mediopassive voice?

• What is voice?

Crystal 1980 259

Pei and Gaynor 1954 161

Hartmann and Stork 1972 252

Nida 1949 1689

Mish 1991 860

Crystal 1985 222

What is past perfect tense?

Past perfect tense is an absolute-relative tense that refers to a time in the past relative to a reference point, which itself is in the past relative to the moment of utterance .

• What is absolute-relative tense?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 162, 170

Mish 1991 861

Comrie 1985b 65–66

What is past tense?

Past tense is an absolute tense that refers to a time before the moment of utterance .

• What is hesternal past tense?
• What is hodiernal past tense?
• What is immediate past tense?
• What is nonrecent past tense?
• What is nonremote past tense?
• What is prehesternal past tense?
• What is prehodiernal past tense?
• What is a preterit?
• What is recent past tense?
• What is remote past tense?

• What is absolute tense?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 166

Pei and Gaynor 1954 162

Mish 1991 861

What is a path?

Path is the semantic role describing the locale(s) transversed in motion or propulsion predications .

• What is a semantic role?

Longacre 1983 164

What is a path schema?

A path schema is an image schema that

• involves physical or metaphorical movement from place to place, and
• consists of a starting point, a goal, and a series of intermediate points.

• Paths
• Trajectories

• The

  purpose-as-physical-goal metaphor,

  as expressed in the following sentences:
  • Tom has gone a long way toward changing his personality.
  • You have reached the midpoint of your flight training.
  • She's just starting out to make her fortune.

  • Jane was sidetracked in her search for self-understanding.

• What is an image schema?

Johnson 1987 113–117

What is patient as a semantic role?

Patient is a semantic role that is usually the surface object of the verb in a sentence .

Some linguists define the patient and affected semantic roles in slightly different ways.

Longacre 1983 155–156 (following Chafe) defines a patient as the entity

• predicated with a state or location
• undergoing a change of state or location, or
• which is possessed, acquired or exchanged.

Larson 1984 199–203 defines the affected role as the

• thing that is affected by an event
• person or thing that undergoes a process, or
• person who experiences an event.

• The entity predicated with a state or location:

  • The door is open.
  • John is at home.

• The entity undergoing a change of state or location:

  • He opened the door.

  • The door swung open.

  • He threw the ball across the yard.

  • The ball rolled off the table.

• The entity which is possessed, acquired, or exchanged:

  • John has a new book.

  • John bought a new book.

  • John gave Mary a new book.

• The thing that is affected by an event:

  • The dog ate the meat.

  • The tree fell on the house.

• The person or thing that undergoes a process:

  • The water evaporated.
  • Mary became sad.

• The person who experiences an event:

  • John smelled the smoke.
  • Mary saw the snake.

• What is a semantic role?

Larson 1984 199–203

Longacre 1983 155

What is a perfect?

A perfect is a grammaticalization of the current relevance, at the moment of utterance , of an event or state that occurred prior to the moment of utterance.

• What is experiential perfect aspect?
• What is a perfect of persistent situation?
• What is a perfect of recent past?
• What is a perfect of result?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 163

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 211

Elson and Pickett 1988 28

Comrie 1976a 12, 52–53

Crystal 1980 224

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 190

Mish 1991 873

What is a perfect of persistent situation?

A perfect of persistent situation is a grammaticalization of the current relevance of a state or event begun prior to the moment of utterance , which is relevant because of its continuation until the moment of utterance.

• What is a perfect?

Comrie 1976a 60

What is a perfect of recent past?

A perfect of recent past is a grammaticalization of the current relevance of a state or event, occurring before the moment of utterance, which is relevant due to its proximity in time to the moment of utterance.

• What is a perfect?

Comrie 1976a 60–61

What is a perfect of result?

A perfect of result is a grammaticalization of the current relevance of a state or event, occurring before the moment of utterance , which is relevant because of a resulting state at the moment of utterance.

• What is a perfect?

Comrie 1976a 56–57

What is perfective aspect?

Perfective aspect is an aspect that expresses a temporal view of an event or state as a simple whole, apart from the consideration of the internal structure of the time in which it occurs.

This type of construction expresses a temporal view of walk distinct from those expressed in the following constructions:

• What is aspect?

Comrie 1976a 12, 18–19

Ducrot and Todorov 1979 307

Pei and Gaynor 1954 164

Hartmann and Stork 1972 20

Bybee 1985 142

Elson and Pickett 1988 28

Crystal 1985 224

Mish 1991 872

What is a performative?

A performative is a sentence in which the employment of a particular illocutionary force is made explicit by naming the force in the sentence itself.

• What is an illocutionary force indicating device?

Sadock and Zwicky 1985 157

Levinson 1983 244

Crystal 1985 225

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 180–181

Grimes, J. 1975:71ff

What is a performative verb?

A performative verb is a verb that names an illocutionary force . It is used in a performative to perform an illocutionary act having that force.

Levinson 1983 244

Crystal 1985 225

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 180–181

What is a perlocutionary act?

A perlocutionary act is a speech act that produces an effect, intended or not, achieved in an addressee by a speaker’s utterance.

Here are some examples of perlocutionary acts:

• Persuading
• Convincing
• Scaring
• Insulting
• Getting the addressee to do something

• What is a speech act?

Searle 1969 25

Crystal 1985 225

What is perlocutionary failure?

Perlocutionary failure is a lack of success in achieving an intended perlocutionary effect.

Here is an example in which perlocutionary failure is alluded to:

Leech 1983 204–205

What is a perlocutionary verb?

A perlocutionary verb is a verb that names a perlocutionary act .

Leech 1983 204–205

What are permissible mixed metaphors?

Permissible mixed metaphors are mixed metaphors that do not conflict with each other because they

• serve the same purpose, and
• exhibit a correlation with each other.

• What are mixed metaphors?

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980 92, 95–96

What is permissive mood?

Permissive mood is a directive mood that signals the speaker’s act of giving permission.

Here is an example of a word that signals permissive mood:

• What is directive modality?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 165

Chung and Timberlake 1985 247

What is person deixis?

Person deixis is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent , such as

• the speaker
• the addressee , and
• referents which are neither speaker nor addressee.

Person deixis is commonly expressed by the following kinds of constituents :

• Pronouns
• Possessive affixes of nouns
• Agreement affixes of verbs

• What is first person deixis?
• What is second person deixis?
• What is third person deixis?

• What is deixis?

Levinson 1983 62

Crystal 1980 263

Hartmann and Stork 1972 168

Mish 1991 877

What is a personal pronoun?

A personal pronoun is a pronoun that expresses a distinction of person deixis .

• I
• he
• she
• it
• we
• they
• inflected forms such as me, my, mine, etc.

• What is an emphatic pronoun?
• What is a possessive pronoun?
• What is a reflexive pronoun?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 168

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 347

Mish 1991 878

What is personification?

Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person.

• What is an entity metaphor?

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980 33–34

Mish 1991 878

What is a pesky little particle?

A pesky little particle is a morpheme that is either

• lexically contentless, or
• behaves in a text in a manner that is anomalous with regard to its usual lexical content, and is intractable to grammatical analysis.

Therefore, it usually has a discourse or pragmatic function.

Here are examples of English pesky particles, when used to relate more than one sentence:

• now
• either
• moreover

J. Grimes 1975 :93–94

What is a phone?

A phone is an unanalyzed sound of a language. It is the smallest identifiable unit found in a stream of speech that is able to be transcribed with an

IPA

• What is a phone chart?

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

What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language.

Phonologists have differing views of the phoneme. Following are the two major views considered here:

• In the American structuralist tradition, a phoneme is defined according to its allophones and environments .
• In the generative tradition, a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features.

Here is a chart that compares phones and phonemes:

Here are examples of the phonemes /r/ and /l/ occurring in a minimal pair :

• rip
• lip

The phones [r] and [l] contrast in identical environments and are considered to be separate phonemes. The phonemes /r/ and /l/ serve to distinguish the word rip from the word lip.

Here are examples of the English phonemes /p/ and /i/ specified as sets of distinctive features:

/p/ /i/

-syllabic +consonantal -sonorant +anterior -coronal -voice -continuant -nasal +syllabic -consonantal +sonorant +high -low -back -round +ATR -nasal

• What is phonology?

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

Burquest and Payne 1993

Hyman 1975

What is a phonetically similar segment?

Phonetically similar segments are two or more sounds which share phonetic features and are frequently found as variants of a single phonological unit in a language.

Most phonetically similar segments are adjacent to each other in a

phone chart

Here is a table that gives examples of phonetically similar segments and the difference between the given segments.

Rensch 1991 29

What is phonetics?

Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds.

Phonetics is divided into three branches:

• Articulatory phonetics

  The study of

  how speech sounds are produced

  by the human vocal apparatus.

• Acoustic phonetics

  The study of the sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication.

• Auditory phonetics

  The study of how speech sounds are perceived by the ear, auditory nerve, and brain.

Crystal 1985 339

What is phonological hierarchy?

Phonological hierarchy is a ranking that organizes a stream of speech into levels of ascending size and complexity.

Here are the levels of the phonological hierarchy:

Units at one level of the hierarchy cluster together to form units of the next higher level. At each level, speech can be segmented into units that have similar kinds of phonetic features.

Rensch 1991

What is phonological symmetry?

Phonological symmetry is the even distribution of phonemes throughout the articulatory possibilities of a given language.

The inventory of sounds in a given language tends to be symmetrical. Sounds tend to be spread out evenly throughout the articulatory possibilities of a language.

The symmetrical patterning of phonemes in language makes the following easier:

• Perception

  Differences between sounds are most easily perceived when

  • sounds are distributed uniformly in the articulatory space (place and manner of articulation), and
  • the extremes of articulatory space are used (particularly for vowels).

• Production

  It is more efficient to use the same place of articulation or manner of articulation repeatedly.

Here is an example of a symmetrical vowel system:

Spanish is an example of a symmetrical five vowel system. The five vowel system is the most common among languages of the world.

Here is an example of an asymmetrical vowel system that is not known to exist:

Consonant systems are symmetrical in their

• points of articulation, and
• manners of articulation.

A symmetrical consonant system is one in which the following occur:

• Phones with the same points of articulation are repeated using several different manners of articulation.

  Example:

  For each voiceless plosive there is a corresponding voiced plosive (for example, [t] and [d]).

• Phones with the same manners of articulation are repeated using several different points of articulation.

  Example:

  Nasal consonants occur at some of the same points of articulation as other plosives, fricatives, or affricates (for example, [m], [n], [N])

The following three parameters define the articulatory space for vowel sounds:

• Tongue height
• Point of articulation
• Rounding

A symmetrical vowel system is one in which vowels are near the extremes of the articulatory space available for the sounds in a given language.

Symmetrical systems tend to be arranged in a “V-shaped” formation on a phone chart.

• What is a phonological universal?

What is a phonological universal?

A phonological universal is a common tendency found in the phonological systems of many languages.

Many phonological universals are based on principles of phonological symmetry .

Phonological universals are only tendencies. Phonological systems which do not conform to universals are possible, but not likely.

Here are some phonological universals concerning vowel systems:

• Vowel systems tend to be symmetrical.
• The minimal vowel system includes /i a u/. All known languages are said to have these three vowels, or slight variations of them.

• Back vowels tend to be rounded.
• Front vowels tend to be unrounded.

A functional explanation for these vowel universals is that, in its vowel system, a language is likely to use those vowels that are the most perceptually different from one another. This makes it easier for the listener to distinguish between the vowels in the system.

Here are some phonological universals concerning consonant systems:

• Consonant systems tend to be symmetrical.

• Most obstruents are voiceless
• Most sonorants are voiced.

Here are some phonological universals concerning nasality, a process that commonly interacts with both consonants and vowels:

• Nearly all languages have nasal consonants.

• Nasal vowels are usually the exact counterparts of the oral vowels.
• If a language has fewer nasal vowels than oral, it is usually the mid nasal vowels that are missing.

Burquest and Payne 1993 34–39

What is phonology?

Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.

The phonological system of a language includes

• an inventory of sounds and their features, and
• rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.

Here is an illustration that shows the place of phonology in an interacting hierarchy of levels in linguistics:

Different models of phonology contribute to our knowledge of phonological representations and processes:

• In classical phonemics, phonemes and their possible combinations are central.
• In standard generative phonology , distinctive features are central. A stream of speech is portrayed as linear sequence of discrete sound-segments. Each segment is composed of simultaneously occurring features.

• In non-linear models of phonology, a stream of speech is represented as multidimensional, not simply as a linear sequence of sound segments. These non-linear models grew out of generative phonology:

  • autosegmental phonology
  • metrical phonology
  • lexical phonology

What is a phrasal verb?

A phrasal verb is a combination of a lexical verb and a verbal particle that forms a single semantic and syntactic unit.

The item gyee ... so ‘answered’ is a phrasal verb, as in the following:

Kofi gyee Kwame so

Kofi received Kwame on

‘Kofi answered Kwame.’

• What is a verb? (Linguistics)

Crystal 1985 232

Schachter 1985 45–46

Hartmann and Stork 1972 45

What is a phrase?

A phrase is a syntactic structure that consists of more than one word but lacks the subject - predicate organization of a clause .

Allowance may be made on a theory-specific basis for single-word, minimal instances of phrases.

• What is an adpositional phrase?
• What is a noun phrase?
• What is a pronominal?
• What is a verb phrase?

• What is a construction?

Crystal 1980 232–233

Pei and Gaynor 1954 169

Pike and Pike 1982 453

Mish 1991 886

What is pitch?

Pitch is the rate of vibration of the vocal folds.

What is place deixis?

Place deixis is deictic reference to a location relative to the location of a participant in the speech event, typically the speaker.

• this (way)
• that (direction)
• here
• there

• What is boundedness?

• What is deixis?

Levinson 1983 62

What is place of articulation?

Place of articulation is the relationship between the active and passive articulators as they shape or impede the airstream.

What is plural number?

Plural number is number that expresses reference to a quantity greater than that expressed by the largest specific number category in a language, such as "more than one" in English, and "more than two" in some other languages.

Here is an example of plural number:

• What is number?

Crystal 1980 245

Hartmann and Stork 1972 178

Crystal 1987 428

Mish 1991 906

What is polarity?

Polarity is a grammatical category that distinguishes affirmative and negative.

• What is a grammatical category?

Schachter 1985 10

Talmy 1985 131

What is politeness?

Politeness is social deixis that expresses a low degree of solidarity between the speaker and the addressee .

• What is solidarity?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 179

Brown, R. and Gilman 1960 253

What is a polysynthetic language?

A polysynthetic language is a language in which words tend to consist of several morphemes.

Here are the two kinds of polysynthetic languages:

• agglutinative
• fusional

The opposite of a highly polysynthetic language is a highly isolating language.

What is a portmanteau morph?

A portmanteau morph is a single morph that is analyzed as representing two underlying morphemes .

au ‘to (him)’ from a ‘to’ + le ‘masc. art’

du ‘of (him)’ from de ‘of’ + le ‘masc. art’

ne? ‘your’ from ne) ‘you’ + ?"@? poss.mkr.

Tu? ‘his’ from Tu$ ‘he’ + ?"@? poss.mkr.

• What is a morph?

Crystal 1985 237

Hartmann and Stork 1972 180

What is a position?

A position is an abstract place of one turn relative to another turn to which it is functionally related.

The place does not vary with the number or size of any insertion sequences that come between these functionally related turns.

Levinson 1983 348

What is a possessive noun?

A possessive noun is a noun that expresses possession.

Pei and Gaynor 1954 172

What is a possessive pronoun?

A possessive pronoun is a pronoun that expresses ownership and relationships like ownership, such as

• kinship, and
• other forms of association.

• my
• mine

• What is a personal pronoun?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 180

Mish 1991 918

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 361

Crystal 1980 248

What is possibility?

Possibility is a degree of contingency in modality that in

• alethic modality connotes logical possibility
• deontic modality connotes permission, and
• epistemic modality connotes uncertainty or speculation.

• What is mood and modality?

Chung and Timberlake 1985 242, 246

Lyons 1977b 791

Crystal 1985 12

What is post-hodiernal future tense?

Post-hodiernal future tense is a future tense that refers to a time, in relation to the moment of utterance , after the span that is culturally defined as "today."

• What is future tense?

Dahl 1985 125–126

What is a postposition?

A postposition is an adposition that occurs after its complement .

• What is an adposition?

Crystal 1980 277

Hartmann and Stork 1972 181

Kuno 1973 4–5

What is a postpositional phrase?

A postpositional phrase is an adpositional phrase in which a postposition is the head . The postposition follows its complement .

The phrase is an exocentric construction that functions as an adjectival or adverbial modifier. The complement to the postposition is typically one of the following:

• Noun
• Noun phrase
• Pronoun

• What is an adpositional phrase?

Comrie 1989 91

What is a post-sequence?

A post-sequence is a sequence that is subordinate to and follows another sequence. It remedies some unresolved matter relating to the dominant sequence.

• What is a sequence?

McLaughlin 1984 184–185

What is a potential implicature?

A potential implicature is an implicature that would arise from any of the components of a given utterance if that component were uttered in some linguistic or extralinguistic context, whether or not the implicature is an actual implicature of the given utterance.

• What is an implicature?

Levinson 1983 133–134

Gazdar 1979 55

What is a potential presupposition?

A potential presupposition is a presupposition that is triggered by some part of an utterance (such as a subordinate clause ) taken in isolation, but that may or may not be a presupposition of the whole utterance.

• What is a presupposition?

Gazdar 1979 124

What is pragmatics?

Pragmatics is the study of the aspects of meaning and language use that are dependent on the speaker , the addressee and other features of the context of utterance , such as the following:

• The effect that the following have on the speaker’s choice of expression and the addressee’s interpretation of an utterance:

  • Context of utterance
  • Generally observed principles of communication
  • The goals of the speaker

• Programmatic concerns, such as

  • the treatment of given versus new information , including presupposition
  • deixis
  • speech acts, especially illocutionary acts
  • implicature , and
  • the relations of meaning or function between portions of discourse (see interpropositional relation ) or turns of conversation (see conversation analysis ).

• What is meaning and pragmatic function?

Levinson 1983 5–34

Crystal 1985 240

Leech 1983 2, 5–6

What is a preannouncement?

A preannouncement is a presequence for an announcement of news.

It consists of a turn in which the announcing participant checks on the newsworthiness of the item, and may also consist of a turn in which the recipient allows or disallows the newsworthiness of the item before beginning a request-acceptance or question-answer sequence to elicit the announcement.

• What is a presequence?

Levinson 1983 349–350

Terasaki 1976 36

What is a prearrangement?

A prearrangement is a presequence in which an attempt is made to arrange for later contact, as by means of a question-answer sequence determining the availability of one of the participants.

Prearrangements are frequently indistinguishable from preinvitations except in context.

• What is a presequence?

Levinson 1983 347–348

What is the precategorial class?

The precategorial class is a category for a lexical item that needs more analysis before it can be assigned a more specific category in the Parts of Speech authority list.

What is precative mood?

Precative mood is a directive mood that signals that the utterance is a request.

• What is directive modality?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 173

Palmer 1986 10

What is a preclosing?

A preclosing is a presequence that signals the end of a conversation is near. It provides opportunity for the discussion of any additional remaining topic before the participants proceed with the closing sequence.

• What is a presequence?

Levinson 1983 325

What is a predicate?

A predicate is the portion of a clause , excluding the subject , that expresses something about the subject.

• What is a compound predicate?

• What is a syntactic function?

Crystal 1980 280

Hartmann and Stork 1972 182

Pei and Gaynor 1954 173

Pike and Pike 1982 40

Mish 1991 926

Crystal 1985 241–242

What is a predicate adjective?

A predicate adjective is an adjective that is used to predicate an attribute of the subject .

• Roses are red.
• Noses often become red.

• What is a subject complement?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 173

Hartmann and Stork 1972 182

Mish 1991 926

What is a predicate noun?

A predicate noun is a noun (or noun phrase ) that is used to predicate a description or identification of the subject .

• He is a good man.
• He became a mathematician.

• What is a subject complement?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 174

Mish 1991 926–927

Hartmann and Stork 1972 182

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 737, 742

What is a predicator?

A predicator is the verb in its functional relation to the clause . It is comparable to the grammatical relations of subject and object .

The term predicator can be used to refer to the verbal element in Subject-Ver b-Object constructions, that is, Subject-Predicator-Object. This avoids the confusion of using verb to refer to both a form and a function.

• What is a syntactic function?

Crystal 1985 241–242

What is predictable information?

Predictable information is given information that the speaker assumes can be or could have been predicted by the addressee to occur in a particular position in the sentence .

• What is given information?

Prince 1981 226, 232

What is predictive future tense?

Predictive future tense is a future tense, used in predictions, that does not express intention.

• What is future tense?

Dahl 1985 110–111

What is a preface?

A preface is an audible device, such as one of the following, used within a turn to put off a dispreferred response :

• Items like well
• Token agreement
• Indications of appreciation, apology, or qualification
• Self-repair

• What is a delay?

Levinson 1983 334–336

What is a preferred second part?

A preferred second part is a second part of an adjacency pair that

• consists of a sort of response to the first part that is not avoided by participants, and

• is less likely than a dispreferred second part to be formally marked by such features as

  • delays
  • prefaces , and
  • accounts .

Preferred second parts are frequently indistinguishable from prearrangements except by context.

• An acceptance in response to a request, offer, or invitation
• An agreement in response to an assessment
• An expected answer in response to a question
• A denial in response to blame

• What is a second part?

Levinson 1983 332–336

What is a prefix?

A prefix is an affix that is joined before a root or stem .

The prefix un- attaches to the front of the stem selfish to form the word unselfish.

• What is an affix? (Linguistics)

Crystal 1980 281

Hartmann and Stork 1972 182

Mish 1991 927

What is prefixation?

Prefixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme is attached to the front of a root or stem .

The kind of affix involved in this process is called a prefix .

The prefix un- attaches to the front of the stem selfish to form the word unselfish.

• What is a morphological process?

What is prehesternal past tense?

Prehesternal past tense is a past tense that refers to a time in some span before that of an opposing hesternal past tense .

• What is past tense?

Comrie 1985b 87–88

What is prehodiernal past tense?

Prehodiernal past tense is a past tense that refers to a time in some span before that of a contrasting hodiernal past tense .

• What is past tense?

Dahl 1985 125–126

What is a preinvitation?

A preinvitation is a presequence that is likely to be understood by the respondent as a signal of a coming invitation. The coming invitation may be a question-answer sequence concerning the availability of the participant to be invited.

• What is a presequence?

Levinson 1983 346

Atkinson and Drew 1979 143

What is prenasalization?

Prenasalization is the addition of a short nasal onset to a plosive or affricate at the same place of articulation.

What is a preparatory condition?

A preparatory condition is a state of affairs that

• must be presupposed by the speaker in employing a particular illocutionary force , and

• is a necessary condition for the nondefective employment of that force

  • including any conditions necessary due to the mode of achievement, but

  • excluding any limitations regarding the

    • nature of the propositional content of the illocutionary act (because these relate to its content, not its force), and
    • presuppositions of the speaker 's sincerity in performing it.

• The force of making a promise, in which the speaker presupposes his or her own capability of performing the promised action

• The distinction between promising and threatening

  The act of promising presupposes the addressee’s concern that the promised action be taken, whereas the act of threatening presupposes some harm in the action.

Searle and Vanderveken 1985 16–18

What is a preposition?

A preposition is an adposition that occurs before its complement .

• to
• with
• from

• What is an adposition?

Crystal 1980 282

Hartmann and Stork 1972 182–183

Mish 1991 929

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 657–659

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 227

What is a prepositional phrase?

A prepositional phrase is an adpositional phrase in which a preposition is the head . The preposition precedes its complement .

The phrase is an exocentric construction that functions as an adjectival or adverbial modifier. The complement to the preposition is typically one of the following:

• Noun
• Noun phrase
• Pronoun

• on the bus
• to town
• on the other hand

• What is an adpositional phrase?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 182–183

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 63, 657

Crystal 1980 282

What is a prerequest?

A prerequest is a presequence that prefigures a request, possibly by ascertaining the ability of the respondent to satisfy the coming request.

• What is a presequence?

Levinson 1983 347

Merritt 1976 324

What is present tense?

Present tense is an absolute tense that refers to the moment of utterance . It often refers to events or states that do not merely coincide with the moment of utterance, such as those that are

• continuous
• habitual, or
• lawlike.

• What is absolute tense?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 183

Comrie 1985b 36–40

Mish 1991 930

What is a presequence?

Here are two senses of presequence:

1. A presequence is a sequence that

   • is used to introduce a conversational action, and
   • often prefigures a particular sort of action and secures the addressee 's cooperation.
2. A presequence is the specific turn that has the function of prefiguring the coming action.

• A preinvitational turn, such as are you doing anything this weekend?

• A summons-answer sequence, such as the following exchange:

  A: John?
  B: Yes, honey?

• What is a preannouncement?
• What is a prearrangement?
• What is a preclosing?
• What is a preinvitation?
• What is a prerequest?
• What is a summons-answer sequence?

• What is a sequence?

Levinson 1983 345–346

What is a prespan-end relation?

A prespan-end relation is a temporal relation in which an event or state is expressed as marking the termination of a durative event or state.

Here is an example of a word that signals a prespan-end relation:

• What is a temporal relation?

Hollenbach 1975 16

What is a presupposition?

A presupposition is background belief, relating to an utterance , that

• must be mutually known or assumed by the speaker and addressee for the utterance to be considered appropriate in context
• generally will remain a necessary assumption whether the utterance is placed in the form of an assertion, denial, or question, and
• can generally be associated with a specific lexical item or grammatical feature (presupposition trigger) in the utterance.

• What is an actual presupposition?
• What is a potential presupposition?

Crystal 1980 283

Talmy 1985 79–80

Caton 1981 97–98

Levinson 1983 179–181, 204–205, 216–217

What is a presupposition denial?

A presupposition denial is a noncontradictory negation of a presupposition in a clause by an assertion in another clause.

Levinson 1983 194–195

What is a presupposition suspension?

A presupposition suspension is the speaker 's removal of a previously implied commitment to a presupposition without the denial of it.

Levinson 1983 195

Horn 1972

What is a presupposition trigger?

A presupposition trigger is a construction or item that signals the existence of a presupposition in an utterance .

Both positive and negative forms are presented, showing that the presuppositions are constant under negation:

• Definite descriptions

  In John saw/didn't see the man with two heads, the definite description the man with two heads triggers the presupposition "There exists a man with two heads." (The unbelievability of the presupposition is what makes the positive utterance unbelievable and the negative one odd.)

• Factive verbs

  In John realized/didn't realize that he was in debt, both realize and didn't realize that trigger the presupposition "John was in debt."

  Other factives are

  • (it) be odd that
  • be sorry/proud/indifferent/glad/sad that
  • know that , and
  • regret that.

• Implicative verbs

  In John managed/didn't manage to open the door, both managed/didn't manage to trigger the presupposition "tried to," as in "John tried to open the door."

  Other implicative verbs are

  • avoided (X-ing), which presupposes "was expected to"
  • forgot to, which presupposes "ought to have"
  • happened to, which presupposes "didn’t plan/intend to," and
  • intended to.

• Change of state verbs

  In Kissinger continued/didn’t continue to rule the world, both continued/didn’t continue to trigger the presupposition "had been," as in "Kissinger had been ruling the world."

  Other change of state verbs are

  • arrive
  • begin
  • come
  • enter
  • go
  • leave
  • stop, and
  • take (X from Y), which presupposes "X was at/in/with Y."

• Expressions of repetition

  In Carter returned/didn’t return to power, both returned/didn’t return trigger the presupposition "Carter held power before."

  Other such expressions are

  • again
  • another time
  • anymore
  • come back
  • repeat, and
  • restore.

• Expressions of temporal relations

  In while Chomsky was revolutionizing linguistics, the rest of social science was/wasn’t asleep, the clause introduced by while triggers the presupposition "Chomsky was revolutionizing linguistics."

  Other such conjunctions triggering presuppositions are

  • after
  • as
  • before
  • during
  • since, and
  • whenever.

• Cleft sentences

  • In it was/wasn’t Henry that kissed Rosie, the cleft structure triggers the presupposition "someone kissed Rosie."
  • The pseudocleft structure in what John lost was his wallet triggers the presupposition "John lost something."

• Stressed constituents

  In John did/didn’t compete in the OLYMPICS, the stressed constituent triggers the presupposition "John did compete somewhere."

• Returned actions

  In Adolph called Marianne a Valkyrie, and she complimented him back/in return, too, both back/in return, too trigger the presupposition "to call Marianne a Valkyrie is to compliment her."

• Comparisons

  In Carol is/isn’t a better linguist than Barbara, the comparison triggers the presupposition "Barbara is a linguist."

• Counterfactual conditions

  In if the notice had only said ‘mine-field’ in English as well as Welsh, we would/would never have lost poor Llewellyn, the form of the condition triggers the presupposition "The notice didn’t say mine-field in English."

• Questions

  • Questions presenting alternatives tend to trigger a presupposition of the truth of one of the alternatives. The utterance is Newcastle in England or in Australia? triggers the presupposition "Newcastle is either in England or in Australia."
  • Questions containing interrogative pro-forms tend to trigger a corresponding presupposition containing an indefinite pro-form. The utterance who is the professor of linguistics at MIT? triggers the presupposition "someone is the professor of linguistics at MIT."

Levinson 1983 181–184

Karttunen No date

What is a preterit?

A preterit, in traditional terminology, is a simple past tense not marked for aspect or modality .

• What is past tense?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 184

Crystal 1987 428

Mish 1991 932

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 209

What is a previousness relation?

A previousness relation is a temporal relation in which the event or state of a latter-expressed proposition is communicated to have occurred before the event or state of a prior-expressed proposition.

• What is a temporal relation?

Halliday and Hasan 1976 262

What is a primary sense?

A primary sense is the core, basic, literal meaning of a lexeme .

A primary sense is generally the first meaning that comes to mind for most people when a lexeme is uttered alone. Usually it refers to an actual physical thing, an action, or a characteristic of a referent.

The word jungle has a primary sense meaning "land covered with dense growth of trees, tall vegetation, and vines, typically in tropical regions, and inhabited by predatory animals".

This is the meaning of jungle that generally first comes to a person's mind. It refers to an actual physical thing.

What is a pro-adjective?

A pro-adjective is a pro-form that substitutes for an adjective or adjective phrase .

• What is a pro-form?

Schachter 1985 34

What is a pro-adverb?

A pro-adverb is a pro-form that substitutes for an adverb or other expression having an adverbial function.

• What is a relative adverb?

• What is a pro-form?

Schachter 1985 34

What is a procedural discourse?

A procedural discourse is a discourse that

• is used to tell the addressee how to do something
• presents a series of steps leading to a goal, and
• centers on events that are contingent one on another, rather than focusing on the performer of the events.

Here are some features of procedural text:

• The steps of the procedure are often organized chronologically.
• First or second person pronoun forms are usually used.
• Text is not oriented around a specific agent.

• Directions on how to get somewhere
• Instructions on how to make something
• Recipes

• Problem or need
• Preparatory procedures
• Main or efficient procedures
• Concluding, often utilization procedures

• What is a discourse?

Longacre 1990 2

Peck 1981 286

Larson 1984 366, 369

Longacre 1983 3, 5, 9, 38

What is a procedural text?

A procedural text is a text which gives instructions on how to do something.

Larson 1984 366

Longacre 1983 5

What is a proclitic?

A proclitic is a clitic that precedes the word to which it is phonologically joined.

Crystal 1980 64

Hartmann and Stork 1972 185

Pei and Gaynor 1954 176

Mish 1991 938

What is a productive affix?

A productive affix is a derivational affix that is currently used in the derivation of new words.

• What is a derivational affix?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 176

Hartmann and Stork 1972 185

Mish 1991 938

What is a pro-form?

A pro-form is a word, substituting for other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extralinguistic context.

• Jim cooks better than she does.
• He did so.

• What is an interrogative pro-form?
• What is a pro-adjective?
• What is a pro-adverb?
• What is a pronoun?
• What is a pro-verb?

• What is a word?

Schachter 1985 24–25

Crystal 1985 247

What is progressive aspect?

Progressive aspect is a continuous aspect that expresses processes, not states.

• What is continuous aspect?

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 231

Chung and Timberlake 1985 215

Comrie 1976a 12, 33–36

Crystal 1987 428

Mish 1991 940

What is prohibitive mood?

Prohibitive mood is a directive mood that signals a prohibition. It is distinguished by

• the use of a negated imperative sentence that employs a negative marker distinct from that used in declarative sentences, or
• a verb form different from that of the imperative.

Here is an example of prohibitive mood, which is signaled by the negative infinitive:

• What is directive modality?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 176, 228

Bybee 1985 173

Hartmann and Stork 1972 185

Sadock and Zwicky 1985 175–176

What is prolative case?

Prolative case is a case that expresses motion along or by the referent of the noun it marks.

• What is case?

Pei and Gaynor 1954 176–177

Sebeok 1946 7, 14

Merlan 1982 57–59, 79

Andrews, A. 1985 92–93

Gove 1966 1683

What is a pronominal?

A pronominal is a phrase that functions as a pronoun .

• What is a phrase?

Hartmann and Stork 1972 186

Mish 1991 942

What is a pronoun?

A pronoun is a pro-form which functions like a noun and substitutes for a noun or noun phrase .

A language may have several classes of pronouns.

Here are some features found in various pronominal systems:

• Person (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th)
• Number (singular, duo, trio, quadral and plural)
• Inclusion (inclusive, exclusive)
• Gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter)
• Semantic class
• Morphological class
• Grammatical relation (subject, object; ergative, absolutive…)
• Semantic role (agent, patient…)
• Usage (formal or informal, regular or honorific)
• Spatial and temporal position

• Personal pronouns (I, they)
• Reflexive pronouns (herself)
• Demonstrative pronouns (this)
• Interrogative pronouns (who, which) in questions)
• Relative pronouns (who, which in relative clauses)

• What is a pro-form?

Crystal 1980 287

Hartmann and Stork 1972 186

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 335

Mish 1991 942

What is a proper noun?

A proper noun is a noun that is the name of a specific individual, place, or object.

• Joseph
• New York City
• Empire State Building

Neufeldt 1991 1078

Pei and Gaynor 1954 177

What is a proportional relation?

A proportional relation is a logical relation that establishes a range of conditional relations that together involve direct or inverse correlation.

• The more I talk, the less you listen.

• As Maine goes, so goes the nation.

  This utterance means that if Maine goes [votes] Republican, the U.S. goes Republican, and if Maine goes Democratic, the U.S. goes Democratic

• What is a logical relation?

Longacre 1983 105–106

Trail 1973b 18–19

What is a proposition?

A proposition is that part of the meaning of a clause or sentence that is constant, despite changes in such things as the voice or illocutionary force of the clause.

A proposition may be related to other units of its kind through interpropositional relations , such as temporal relations and logical relations .

The meaning of the term proposition is extended by some analysts to include the meaning content of units within the clause.

• What is a relational proposition?

Crystal 1985 249

Mish 1991 944

Searle and Vanderveken 1985 1

Hollenbach 1975 2

Fleming 1988 27, 53–57

Beekman and Callow 1974 287–288

What is a propositional act?

A propositional act is a speech act that a speaker performs when referring or predicating in an utterance.

• What is a speech act?

Searle 1969 23–24

What is a propositional content condition?

A propositional content condition is a limitation on the nature of the state of affairs described by the propositional content of an illocutionary act due to the nature of the illocutionary force employed.

Searle and Vanderveken 1985 16

What is a prospective?

A prospective is a grammaticalization of the relationship of a present state to a future situation. It indicates that one is in a present state of being about to do something.

The item going to is a statement of Bill’s present state and is true irrespective of whether he is stopped or not.

Dahl 1985 111–112

Comrie 1985b 64–65, 106

What is a prototype?

The prototype of any category is the member or set of members of a category that best represents the category as a whole.

Not everything fits perfectly in a category. Categories are defined by an intersection of properties that make up their members. Members that have all of the properties are the prototype members. Those that contain some, but not all, of the properties are less prototypical.

Prototypical nouns embody extremely and obviously time-stable concepts. ‘Rock’ and ‘tree’ are prototypical nouns.

Payne, T. 1997a 7, 33–35

The English word ‘fist’ is classified as a noun because it behaves distributionally the same as prototypical nouns. However, the concept ‘fist’ does not fit the prototype of a noun, because a ‘fist’ does not characteristically persist over a long period of time. Some languages do not express this concept with a simple noun at all.

What is a pro-verb?

A pro-verb is a pro-form that substitutes for a verb or predicate .

• What is a pro-form?

Schachter 1985 34

What is a proximal?

A proximal is a distinction in place deixis that indicates location close to the speaker or other deictic center .

• What is a proximal-distal dimension?

Levinson 1983 62

What is a proximal-distal dimension?

A proximal-distal dimension is a distinction in place deixis that indicates distance from the speaker or other deictic center .

Here are some examples of words that indicate a proximal-distal dimension:

• that
• this
• yonder

• What is a distal?
• What is immediacy?
• What is a proximal?

Levinson 1983 81

What is proximate person deixis?

Proximate person deixis is a third person deixis that distinguishes a referent that is more important at the present stage of the discourse from a referent that is less important.

• What is third person deixis?

Crystal 1980 247

Pei and Gaynor 1954 152

Hartmann and Stork 1972 168

Anderson, S. and Keenan 1985 262

What is a pseudo-cleft sentence?

A pseudo-cleft sentence is a kind of cleft sentence in which the subordinated clause is a relative clause headed by an interrogative pro-form . In English they are of the form:

X can be a constituent of one of many varieties.

The so-called 'inverted' pseudo-cleft sentence reverses the order of the two constituents:

• What is a complex sentence?
• What is a cleft sentence?

Crystal 1980 63

Levinson 1983 182–183

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 1383–1384

Sornicola 1988 343–344

Bromser 1984 327

Jespersen 1949 147–148

Delahunty 1984 74–88

What is a pun?

A pun is a variety of a usually humorous play on words involving

• the multiple meanings of an expression, or
• two expressions that sound similar.

• What is an antanaclasis?
• What is paronomasia?
• What is a syllepsis?

• What is a trope?

Corbett 1971 482

Mish 1991 954