Glossary: morphology and phonology
Technical terms
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Type frequencyThe number of lexemes that exhibit a given morphological pattern, e.g. past tenses. Contrast token frequency. | |
TypologyThe parametric study of crosslinguistic variation in grammatical structure. | |
U |
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UltrasoundHigh-frequency vibration above the upper frequency limit of normal human hearing. | |
UnarySee privative. | |
UnderextensionTerm that refers to the use of a word to refer to only a subset of its actual referents. For example, a child might underextend the word dog by using it to refer to more typical examples of the species such as golden or Labrador retrievers, but not to varieties like Chihuahua or Pekingese. Contrast overextension. | |
UnderlyingPertaining to the initial state in a phonological derivation; the phonological facts holding of a word or morpheme before phonological rules cause changes. | |
UnderspecificationIn phonology, the theory that segments, in underlying representation, are not necessarily specified for all values of all distinctive features. | |
Universal GrammarThe innate part of speakers’ grammatical knowledge. | |
UnmarkedThe more neutral case of two or more. For example, the active voice is unmarked with respect to the passive in most languages. Contrasts with marked. See also markedness. | |