Language Terms Explained

A word for a thing, person, place, idea or quality.

A noun-phrase item, such as an article or demonstrative, that helps anchor or quantify what the phrase refers to.

A word for an action, event or state — what is happening.

An overt grammatical element that supports some clauses with a nonverbal predicate.

A word that describes a noun — its size, colour, quality or state.

A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole clause — often saying how, when, where or to what degree.

A word that stands in for a noun phrase — 'she', 'it', 'them'.

A small word showing a relationship — in, on, under, after, with. Some languages put it after the noun instead of before.

The part of a clause that the verb agrees with — usually who or what performs the action.

The part of a clause that the action is done to.

A unit built around one verb, with its subject and any objects — the building block of a sentence.

Grammatical marking that locates an event in time — past, present or future.

A verb that supports a main verb, carrying grammatical information rather than the main meaning.

A verb expressing possibility, necessity, permission or ability — can, must, should, may.

A transitive verb takes an object; an intransitive one does not.

The direct object is what the action affects; the indirect object is usually the recipient.

A clause that cannot stand alone — it depends on a main clause.

A clause that modifies a noun — 'the book that I read'.

Grammatical marking of how an event unfolds — whether it is ongoing, completed, repeated or just beginning.

Verb marking showing whether something is stated as fact, wished for, commanded or hypothetical.

Whether the subject is the one doing the action or the one it is done to — active versus passive.

When one word changes form to match another — a verb matching its subject, an adjective matching its noun.

Endings on nouns showing their role in the sentence — who did it, who it was done to, whose it is.

A system sorting nouns into classes that other words must agree with.

A grammatical element used in counting constructions to mark a conventional class for the noun being counted.

The order in which subject, verb and object normally appear.

A group of words that behaves as a single unit inside a sentence.

A preposition plus the noun phrase it governs — 'on the table', 'after lunch'.

A modifier adds optional information; a complement is required to complete the meaning.

A sound unit that can change one word into another in a given language.

Two words or signs with different meanings that differ in exactly one sound or sign parameter.

One of the predictable pronunciations of a single phoneme, chosen by its environment.

A sound unit organised around a central peak, with optional sounds before or after it.

Extra prominence given to one syllable relative to nearby syllables.

A language-specific pitch pattern on a syllable or word that can distinguish meaning.

The smallest unit of a language that carries meaning or grammatical function.

One of the different shapes a single morpheme takes depending on its surroundings.

Changing a word's form to fit its grammar, without making it a new word.

Making a new word from an existing one — often changing its word class.

A word-building pattern that copies all or part of a form to express a grammatical or lexical contrast.

A small grammatical form that cannot stand prosodically on its own and leans on a neighbouring word.

A label for language patterns in which one word—often a verb—can contain many meaningful and grammatical parts.

How many participants a verb requires.

How a language groups the subject of an intransitive verb with either the subject or the object of a transitive one.

A case system where the doer of a transitive action gets a special marking that intransitive subjects do not.

Grammatical marking of how the speaker knows what they are saying.

Words whose meaning depends entirely on who is speaking, where and when — 'I', 'here', 'yesterday'.

How a sentence packages what is already known against what is new.

The idea that one member of a grammatical pair is the basic, default one and the other is the special case.

The hierarchical grouping of words into nested phrases.

An analysis of syntax as direct links between words — each word depends on one head.

Classifying languages by their structural features rather than their family history.

The process by which ordinary words gradually become grammatical markers.

How context supplies meaning that the words alone do not carry.

A neutral umbrella for a systematic form of language identified by who uses it, where or in what situation.

A recurring way of using language associated with a situation, purpose, participants or channel.

A pattern of linguistic choices through which speakers create or signal social meaning in an interaction.

Conventional words or grammatical forms that index a social relationship involving the addressee, a referent or another participant.