Phonology and morphology glossary

Sentence rhythm.

The part of an utterance over which a particular intonation pattern extends. There may be one or more tone groups in an English sentence.

A verb that does not take a direct object, e.g., English fall.

International Phonetic Alphabet, or International Phonetic Association.

Term applied to languages with little morphology, where grammatical concepts such as tense are expressed by separate words.

An approach to morphology in which words are broken up into their component morphemes.

A processual approach to morphology. Instead of seeing complex words as arrangements of morphemes, item-and process sees a complex word as arising out of a simple form that has undergone one or more processes or functions.

"Repeating" - an iterative stress system is one in which a secondary stress appears on every other syllable (e.g. the first, third, fifth, etc.). This indicates that multiple feet are assigned, not just one. Rules can also apply iteratively, indicating that they apply more than once.