| abessive |
a grammatical case indicating absence or lack. |
| ablatival |
relating to the ABLATIVE case. |
| ablative |
(a case) indicating direction from or time when: ABLATIVES, ABLATIVELY. |
| ablaut |
vowel change in related words, esp. that in Indo-European, which survives in English in, e.g., sing, sang, sung, song. |
| accidence |
the science of inflections in grammar. |
| accusatival |
relating to the ACCUSATIVE. |
| accusative |
a case indicating the direct object of a verb. |
| actant+ |
a noun phrase functioning as the agent of the main verb of a sentence. |
| active |
expressing action: ACTIVELY; (noun) the active mood of a verb. |
| adessive |
(a case) indicating place where or proximity to. Cf. ABESSIVE. |
| adjective |
added, dependent: ADJECTIVELY; (noun) a word added to a noun to qualify it. |
| adnominal |
pertaining to an ADNOUN; adjectival; (noun) a word attached to a noun. |
| adnoun |
an adjective used as a noun. |
| adverb |
a word used to modify the meaning of a verb, adjective, or other adverb. |
| adverbial |
relating to an adverb: ADVERBIALLY; (noun) an adverbial phrase: ADVERBIALS. |
| agentive |
a grammatical case indicating the agent performing an action. |
| allative |
a grammatical case indicating movement towards. Cf. ELATIVE, ILLATIVE. |
| amphibology amphiboly |
a grammatically ambiguous phrase or sentence. |
| anacoluthia |
a non-sequential syntactic construction in which the latter part of a sentence does not grammatically fit the earlier. |
| anacoluthic |
relating to ANACOLUTHIA. |
| anacoluthon |
a sentence or construction lacking grammatical sequence: ANACOLUTHA or ANACOLUTHONS. |
| antepenult |
the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable or word. |
| antibarbarus |
a list of words and sayings to be avoided in the classical usage of a language: ANTIBARBARUSES. |
| antonym |
a word opposite in meaning to another. |
| antonymic antonymous |
like an ANTONYM. |
| antonymy |
the state of being an ANTONYM. |
| aorist |
(a tense) expressing simple past time with no continuance. [Gk. aoristos, indefinite]. |
| aoristic |
indefinite; pertaining to the AORIST: AORISTICALLY. |
| apathaton |
(Shakesp.) = EPITHETON, an epithet. |
| apodosis |
the main clause in a conditional sentence: APODOSES. [Gk. apodosis, from apo, back, + didonai. to give]. |
| apposition |
the position of a word parallel to another in syntactic relation. |
| appositive |
relating to APPOSITION; (noun) a clause in apposition. |
| aptote |
a noun that has no grammatical cases. Cf. MONOPTOTE, TRIPTOTE, TETRAPTOTE. |
| aptotic |
uninflected; indeclinable. |
| assertoric+ |
stating a fact, as opposed to expressing an evaluative judgment. |
| asyndetic |
not connected by conjunctions: I came, I saw, I conquered. |
| asyntactic |
loosely put together, irregular, ungrammatical. |
| atelic |
pertaining to a type of verb form. |
| athematic |
without a thematic vowel. |
| bahuvrihi |
(Sanskrit) a class of compound words where the first element describes the second but cannot substitute for it, e.g. turncoat. |
| biliteral |
consisting of two letters; as, a biliteral root of a Sanskrit verb. |
| cacology |
bad choice of words or faulty pronunciation. |
| catachresis |
the use of a wrong word for the context; the strained use of a word or phrase. |
| causal |
relating to cause: CAUSALLY; (noun) a word expressing a cause or reason: CAUSALS. |
| causative |
relating to causation: CAUSATIVELY; (noun) a causative agency; a causative word: CAUSATIVES. |
| clausal |
relating to a clause. |
| clause |
a distinct part of a composition. |
| clausula |
a short clause ending a period in Latin prose: CLAUSULAE. |
| clausular |
consisting of, or having, clauses. |
| cohyponym |
a word which is one of multiple hyponyms of another word. |
| comitative |
expressing accompaniment; (noun) a comitative case. |
| conjugable+ |
that can be conjugated. |
| conjugate |
joined, connected: CONJUGATELY; (verb) to give the various inflections or parts of (a verb). |
| conjugateness |
the state of being CONJUGATE. |
| construe |
to analyse the grammatical construction of (a sentence). |
| construer |
one who construes. |
| copula |
a word which unites the subject and predicate: COPULAE or COPULAS. |
| copular |
relating to a COPULA. |
| copulative |
a CONJUNCTION that indicates combination e.g. 'and'. |
| datival |
relating to a DATIVE. |
| dative |
a grammatical case, indicating the indirect object of a verb: DATIVES, DATIVELY. |
| deictic |
relating to the time and place of utterance: DEICTICS, DEICTICALLY. |
| deixis |
the use of words relating to the time and place of utterance: DEIXES or DEIXISES. |
| denominal |
derived from a NOUN. |
| denotive |
serving to denote. |
| deponent |
a verb having a passive form but active meaning. |
| deverbal |
(a word) deriving from a verb: DEVERBALS(+). |
| diaeresis diereses |
the separation or resolution of one syllable into two; cf. SYNAERESIS: DIAERESES, DIERESES. [Gk. diairesis separation]. Also DIERESIS. |
| diaeretic |
pertaining to DIAERESIS, the separation or resolution of one syllable into two. |
| dieretic |
of or like DIERESIS, the separation of two vowels into two syllables. |
| disyllable |
a word with two syllables, |
| disyllabic |
having two syllables. |
| durative |
(a tense) denoting continuing action. |
| dvandva |
(Sanskrit) a compound word in which neither element is subordinated to the other, e.g. tragicomedy. |
| elative |
of a grammatical case, indicating movement away from. Cf. ILLATIVE, ALLATIVE. |
| emic |
relating to a type of linguistic analysis. |
| enallage |
the exchange of one grammatical case for another, as of singular for plural, present for past tense, etc. |
| enclisis |
the state of being an ENCLITIC: ENCLISES. |
| enclitic |
dependent, especially of a word or particle attached to the preceding word: in "Give 'em the works" the particle em has no independent accent and forms an accentual and graphemic unit with "give". |
| endeictic |
showing, exhibiting or demonstrating. [Gr. endeiktikos]. |
| endeixis |
an indication: ENDEIXES or ENDEIXISES. [Gk. endeiktikos]. |
| epithesis |
the addition of one or more letters to a word: EPITHESES. |
| epithet |
an ADJECTIVE or adjectival phrase; (verb) to apply an epithet to: EPITHETS, EPITHETING, EPITHETED. |
| epitheton |
an EPITHET: EPITHETONS. |
| equivoke equivoque |
an ambiguous term; a word susceptible of different significations. |
| ergative |
a grammatical case found in certain languages: ERGATIVES(+). |
| ergativity |
the state of being ERGATIVE, a grammatical case found in certain languages. |
| essive |
a case in Finnish and certain other languages expressing a continuous state of being. |
| etic |
relating to a type of linguistic analysis. |
| etymic |
relating to the ETYMON, the original form of a word, as, an etymic word. |
| etymon |
an earlier word form; a morpheme from which derivatives are formed: ETYMA or ETYMONS. |
| exocentric+ |
not fulfilling the grammatical role of any of its constituents; as in until last Easter, where the constituents are prepositional, adjectival, and nominal, while the whole construction is adverbial. |
| extremal+ |
a clause in a recursive definition. |
| factive |
designating or pertaining to a verb taking an assumed fact as object (e.g. English know, regret, resent). |
| finite |
limited: FINITELY; (noun) a finite verb: FINITES. |
| genitival |
relating to the GENITIVE case: GENITIVALLY. |
| genitive |
(a grammatical case) indicating possession, origin or relation: GENITIVES, GENITIVELY. |
| gerund |
a verbal form such as 'cooking' that functions as a noun: GERUNDS. |
| gerundial |
pertaining to, or resembling, a GERUND; as, a gerundial use. |
| gerundive |
in Latin, the verbal adjective formed from the gerund stem and having the sense 'that can or must be done': GERUNDIVES: GERUNDIVELY(+). |
| glosseme |
an indivisible unit in a language. |
| grammar |
the science which treats of the principles of language; the study of forms of speech, and their relations to one another. |
| grammatic grammatical |
belonging to, or according to the rules of, grammar: GRAMMATICALLY. |
| grammaticalness |
the state of being GRAMMATICAL. |
| heteroclite |
deviating from the ordinary rule; eccentric; (in grammar) irregularly inflected; (noun) an irregularly inflected word. |
| heteroclitic |
irregularly inflected. |
| heteronym |
a word having same spelling but different sound and meaning e.g. lead/lead. |
| holophrase |
a single word expressing sentence or phrase. |
| holophrastic |
expressing a sentence in one word, e.g. "Go"; expressing complex ideas in a single word, as in some Eskimo languages. [Gk. holo (whole) + Greek phrastikos, from phrazein (to speak)]. |
| homoeoteleuton |
the use of words with similar endings in close proximity. |
| homograph |
one of two or more words that have the same spelling but differ in origin, meaning, and sometimes pronunciation e.g. bow (in hair) and bow (of a ship). |
| homonym |
a word having the same sound as another but a different meaning e.g. noun 'quail' and verb 'quail'. |
| homonymic homonymous |
like a HOMONYM. |
| homonymy |
the state of being a HOMONYM. |
| homophone |
a word that sounds the same as another but is spelt differently e.g. ‘to’, ‘too’ and ‘two’. |
| hypercorrect |
refers to a linguistic construction or pronunciation produced by mistaken analogy with standard usage out of a desire to be correct, such as ‘open widely’ or ‘on behalf of my wife and I’. |
| hypercorrection |
a grammatical, usage or pronuciation mistake made by 'correcting' something that's right to begin with. |
| hypernym |
a word representing a class of words or things, e.g. DOG. |
| hypernymy |
the state of being a HYPERNYM. |
| hyponym |
a term which is a member of a larger class e.g. spaniel of dog. |
| hyponymy |
the state of being a HYPONYM. |
| hypotactic |
relating to HYPOTAXIS, a dependent or subordinate relationship of clauses with conjunctions. |
| hypotaxis |
a dependent or subordinate relationship of clauses with conjunctions: HYPOTAXES. |
| illative |
(a grammatical case) indicating movement into or toward: ILLATIVES, ILLATIVELY. Cf. ELATIVE, ALLATIVE. |
| imparisyllabic |
having different number of syllables in different cases. |
| imperative |
expressive of command, advice or request: IMPERATIVELY; (noun) a verb in the imperative mood: IMPERATIVES. |
| imperfect |
not perfect: IMPERFECTLY; (noun) a verb tense expressing ongoing action in the past: IMPERFECTS. |
| imperfective |
expressing action as incomplete or without reference to completion or as reiterated: IMPERFECTIVELY; (noun) an imperfective verb: IMPERFECTIVES. |
| inceptive |
marking the beginning or formation: INCEPTIVELY; (noun) an inceptive verb: INCEPTIVES. |
| inchoative |
expressing or pertaining to a beginning; inceptive; as, an inchoative verb: INCHOATIVELY. |
| inessive |
(a grammatical case) indicating location within): INESSIVES. |
| inferencing+ |
the practice of inferring the meaning of an unfamiliar word or expression from the meaning of familiar words occurring with it in a context together with one's knowledge of or beliefs about the context. |
| infinitive |
expressing the verbal idea without reference to person, number or time: INFINITIVELY; (noun) the infinitive mood; a verb in the infinitive mood: INFINITIVES. |
| inflection inflexion |
a change in the form of a word, usually modification or affixation, signalling change in such grammatical functions as tense, voice, mood, person. |
| intensive |
making intense: INTENSIVELY; (noun) an intensifier: INTENSIVES. |
| intercalation |
an insertion or interposing, as of a word between other words in a sentence. |
| intercalative |
relating to INTERCALATION, an insertion or interposing, as of a word between other words in a sentence. |
| jussive |
(a mood of a verb) expressing a command: JUSSIVES. |
| lapsus |
a slip e.g. of the tongue: LAPSUS. |
| lexeme |
the fundamental unit of the lexicon of a language e.g. ind, found, and finding are members of the English lexeme find. |
| lexemic |
of or like a LEXEME, one of the vocabulary items of a language. |
| loanshift |
the adaptation of a word from one language to another. |
| loanword |
a word borrowed from another language. |
| locative |
(a grammatical case) signifying place where: LOCATIVES. |
| locution |
a form of expression, a phrase. |
| meronym |
a word whose relation to another is that of a part to the whole, e.g. whisker to cat. |
| meronymy |
the state of being a MERONYM, a word whose relation to another is that of a part to the whole. |
| modal |
related to mood: MODALLY; (noun) a modal auxiliary: MODALS. |
| modality |
the property of a verb or verbal form that is represented or distinguished by its mood. |
| moneme+ morpheme |
a word or part of a word that contains no smaller unit of meaning. |
| monoptote |
a noun that has one grammatical case only: MONOPTOTES. Cf. TRIPTOTE, TETRAPTOTE. |
| monosemy+ |
the fact of having only one meaning. |
| monosyllable |
a word with one syllable. |
| monosyllabic |
having only one syllable. |
| morpheme |
see MONEME. |
| morphemic |
of or like a MORPHEME. |
| morphemics |
the study of MORPHEMES. |
| morphology |
the study of the forms of words. |
| morphophonemics |
linguistic structure in terms of the phonological patterning of MORPHEMES. |
| mumpsimus |
an erroneous word or spelling that, through long usage, has become absorbed into the language; an incorrect manuscript reading blindly adhered to by some scholar: MUMPSIMUSES. |
| mutative mutatory |
expressing a change of place or state. |
| nominal |
only in name: NOMINALLY; (noun) a noun or phrase etc. standing as a noun: NOMINALS. |
| nonpast |
a verb form that lacks an inflection for a past tense: NONPASTS. |
| nonstative+ |
denoting a verb describing an action rather than a state, as for example throw or thank as opposed to know or hate; (noun) a nonstative verb. |
| noun |
a word used to denote the name of something. |
| nounal |
of or pertaining to a noun: NOUNALLY. |
| nounless |
without nouns. |
| nouny |
having many nouns; having the nature of a noun: NOUNIER, NOUNIEST. |
| nunnation |
the addition of a final n in the declension of nouns. |
| optative |
a grammatical mood expressing a desire or wish. |
| orthographical |
relating to ORTHOGRAPHY, the part of language study that deals with letters and spelling. |
| orthography |
a part of language study that deals with letters and spelling. |
| parasynthesis |
the derivation of words using hyphenated compounds. |
| paronym |
a word from the same root or having the same sound as another. |
| paronymic+ |
of or like a PARONYM(!). |
| paronymous |
having the same derivation; allied radically; conjugate; -- said of certain words, as man, mankind, manhood, etc. |
| paronymy |
the quality of being PARONYMOUS; also, the use of paronymous words. |
| parsable |
that can be parsed. |
| parse |
to describe a word fully in terms of classification. |
| partitive |
parting, distributing: PARTITIVELY; (noun) a word indicating a part of a larger whole: PARTITIVES. |
| passive |
not active: PASSIVELY; (noun) the passive mood of a verb: PASSIVES. |
| pastless |
lacking a past. |
| paucal+ |
a grammatical number in some languages representing a few. |
| pejoration |
degeneration of a word or term e.g. "hector" has degenerated from "hero" to scourge. |
| penult penultima |
the last but one syllable. |
| perfective |
(of a verb aspect) denoting completed action: PERFECTIVELY. |
| perissosyllabic |
having an additional syllable. |
| phatic |
relating to a communication meant to generate an atmosphere of social relationship rather than to convey some information: PHATICALLY. |
| phrasal |
of the nature of a phrase; consisting of a phrase; as, a phrasal adverb: PHRASALLY. |
| pluperfect |
of a tense, signifying completion of action before a certain point in past time. |
| plural |
more than one: PLURALLY; (noun) a word that expresses more than one. |
| polyseme polysemant |
a word with many meanings. |
| polysemic+ polysemous |
relating to a POLYSEME(!), a word with many meanings. |
| polysemy |
the state of having many meanings. |
| polysynthetic |
of languages, where whole phrases are combined into one word. |
| postbase |
following a base word. |
| postfix |
a letter, syllable, or word, added to the end of another word; a suffix; (verb) to suffix. |
| postpositive |
of an adjective, placed after the word it modifies e.g. attornery general, Scrabble player manque. |
| predicator+ |
the part of a sentence or clause containing the verbal group. |
| prefix |
to add as a prefix (a form affixed to the beginning of a root word). |
| prefixal |
relating to a PREFIX: PREFIXALLY(+). |
| prelexical+ |
denoting or applicable at a stage in the formation of a sentence at which words and phrases have not yet replaced all of the underlying grammatical and semantic material of that sentence in the speaker's mind. |
| prenominal+ |
placed before a noun, esp. (of an adjective or sense of an adjective) used only before a noun. |
| preterit preterite |
the grammatical tense signifying past time or a completed action. |
| preteriteness |
the state of being PRETERITE. |
| preteritive |
used only in the preterite. |
| preverb |
a particle or prefix which precedes a verb. |
| privative |
indicating absence, deprivation or negation: PRIVATIVELY; (noun) a privative attribute, quality, proposition, or particle: PRIVATIVES. |
| proclitic |
a word transferring its stress to the following word. Cf. ENCLITIC. |
| prolative |
esp. of an INFINITIVE: serving to continue or complete a predication. |
| pronoun |
a word that may be used in place of a noun. |
| prosthetic |
of or pertaining to prosthesis; prefixed, as a letter or letters to a word. |
| protasis |
the first or introductory clause in a sentence; spec. the clause expressing the condition in a conditional sentence: PROTASES. Cf. APODOSIS. |
| provection |
the transferring of a letter from the end of one word to the beginning of the next, eg a newt from an ewt. |
| rankshift+ |
to shift or be shifted from one linguistic rank to another. |
| rection |
syntactical government, i.e. the influence of one word over another in determining the case of a noun, the mood of a verb, etc: RECTIONS. |
| reflexive |
indicating that the action turns back upon the subject; relating to a reflex: REFLEXIVELY; (noun) a reflexive pronoun or verb: REFLEXIVES. |
| relatival |
relative. |
| retronym |
a word coined for an existing thing to distinguish it from a new thing. |
| rhematic |
of words or verbs; forming a word or words. [Gk. rhema, word]. |
| rheme+ |
the constituent of a sentence that adds the most new information. |
| sandhi |
modification of the sound of a word or affix caused by the context in which it is uttered. |
| semanteme |
an irreducible linguistic unit of meaning. |
| semantic |
of or relating to meaning: SEMANTICALLY. |
| sememe |
the smallest unanalysable unit of linguistic meaning (e.g. a word or affix). |
| sememic |
pertaining to a SEMEME or meaning of a linguistic unit. |
| semiology semeiology |
the study of signs and symbols ((including but not confined to words). |
| semiotics semeiotics |
the study of signs and symbols (including but not confined to words) |
| singular |
not plural; strange: SINGULARLY; (noun) a singular word or form: SINGULARS. |
| solecise solecize |
to commit a SOLECISM. |
| solecism |
a nonstandard usage or grammatical construction; a violation of etiquette. |
| solecist |
one who commits a SOLECISM. |
| solecize |
see SOLECISE. |
| sprachgefuhl |
an intuitive sense of what is linguistically appropriate: SPRACHGEFUHLS. |
| statal |
of a passive verbal form: expressing a state or condition rather than an action. |
| stative |
a verb indicating a state rather than an action. |
| subclause |
a part of a CLAUSE. |
| subordinative |
containing a subordinate clause or clauses. |
| suffix |
to add as a suffix (a form affixed to the end of a root word). |
| suffixal |
relating to a SUFFIX. |
| sumpsimus |
a correct expression that replaces a popular but wrong one: SUMPSIMUSES. Cf. MUMPSIMUS. |
| supine |
lying on the back, passive: SUPINELY; (noun) a Latin verbal noun: SUPINES. |
| svarabhakti |
development of a vowel between consonants. |
| syndetic |
connected, esp. by conjunctions. |
| syndeton+ |
a type of grammatical construction. |
| synesis |
a construction in which a form differs in number but agrees in meaning with the word governing it: e. g. If anyone arrives, tell them to wait: SYNESES or SYNESISES. |
| synonym |
a word having the same meaning as another. |
| synonymatic |
of, consisting of or relating to synonyms. |
| synonyme |
a synonym. |
| synonymic synonymical |
like a SYNONYM. |
| synonymise synonymize |
to make synonymous. |
| synonymist |
a student of synonyms. |
| synonymous |
having the character of a synonym: SYNONYMOUSLY. |
| synonymousness |
the state of being synonymous. |
| synonymy |
the state of being synonymous. |
| syntactic |
relating to SYNTAX. |
| syntactics |
the branch of semiotics that deals with the formal properties of signs and symbols. |
| syntagm |
a syntactic unit comprising one or more (esp. linguistic) signs or elements. |
| syntagma |
a syntactic unit comprising one or more (esp. linguistic) signs or elements: SYNTAGMAS or SYNTAGMATA. |
| syntagmic+ |
relating to a SYNTAGMA(!). |
| syntax |
grammatical structure in sentences. |
| tagmeme |
any of the positions in the structure of a sentence into which a certain class of grammatical items can fit. |
| tagmemic |
relating to TAGMEMES. |
| tagmemics |
the analysis of the grammar of a language based on the arrangement of spoken elements. |
| tatpurusha |
(Sanskrit) a class of compound words in which the first element modifies the second by standing to it in various types of relation e.g. goatskin, fieldmouse. |
| taxeme |
any element of language that can affect the meaning of an utterance. |
| taxemic |
relating to a TAXEME, a unit of grammatical relationship. |
| tenseless |
without tenses, e.g. a language. |
| tetraptote |
a noun that has four grammatical cases only. Cf. APTOTE, MONOPTOTE, TRIPTOTE. |
| tmesis |
the separation of the parts of a word by insertion of another word: TMESES. |
| transitive |
(a verb) taking a direct object: TRANSITIVES(+). |
| transitiveness |
the state of being TRANSITIVE. |
| trilieral |
(a word) consisting of three letters: TRILITERALS. |
| triptote |
a noun that has three grammatical cases only. Cf. APTOTE, MONOPTOTE, TETRAPTOTE. |
| trisyllable |
a word with three syllables. |
| tuptowing |
present participle of TYPTO, to work at Greek conjugation. |
| typto |
to work at Greek grammar (literally to conjugate the Greek verb typto, I strike): TYPTOS, TUPTOWING, TYPTOED. |
| ultima |
the last syllable of a word. |
| unmeaning |
having no meaning or signification; as, unmeaning words: UNMEANINGLY. |
| verb |
a word used to express an act, occurrence, or mode of being. |
| verbid |
the non-finite part of a verb. |
| verbify |
to convert into a verb. |
| verbing+ |
the use of nouns as verbs. |
| verbless |
without a verb. |
| vocative |
a grammatical case indicating calling or personal address: VOCATIVES, VOCATIVELY. |
| volitive |
a verb expresing desire. |
