Library: Linguistics by Credo Reference: Terms and Concepts

Grammatical Concepts

Accent: Topic Page
In speech, emphasis given a particular sound, called prosodic systems.
Adjective: Topic Page
Grammatical part of speech for words that describe nouns. Adjectives generally have three degrees (grades or levels for the description of relationships): the positive degree (new, beautiful), the comparative degree (newer, more beautiful), and the superlative degree (newest, most beautiful).
Gender: Topic Page
[Lat. genus =kind], in grammar, subclassification of nouns or nounlike words in which the members of the subclass have characteristic features.
Grammar: Topic Page
Description of the structure of a language, consisting of the sounds (see phonology); the meaningful combinations of these sounds into words.
Inflection: Topic Page
In grammar. In many languages, words or parts of words are arranged in formally similar sets consisting of a root, or base, and various affixes.
Lexicon
From Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
The lexicon of a grammar must provide a systematic and efficient way of encoding information about the words in a language.
Noun
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
In English, part of speech of vast semantic range. It can be used to name a person, place, thing, idea, or time. It generally functions as subject, object, or indirect object of the verb in the sentence, and may be distinguished by a number of formal criteria. A noun may be recognized by inflection (e.g., -'s and -s) or by derivation (e.g., -ness, -ity, and -tion).
Tense
From Good Word Guide
The tense of a verb is a set of forms expressing distinctions of time. Some modern grammarians say that fundamentally there are only two real tenses in English: the present: • It is hot today, and the past: • It was cloudy yesterday.
Verb: Topic Page
Grammatical part of speech for what someone or something does, experiences, or is. Verbs are of crucial importance to the construction of the sentence.

Linguistics Terms and Concepts

Accent: Topic Page
In speech, emphasis given a particular sound, called prosodic systems.
Alphabet: Topic Page
Set of conventional symbols used for writing, based on a correlation between individual symbols and spoken sounds.
Dialect: Topic Page
Variety of a language used by a group of speakers within a particular speech community. Every individual speaks a variety of his language, termed an idiolect.
Language: Topic Page
Systematic communication by vocal symbols. It is a universal characteristic of humans.
Lingua franca: Topic Page
An auxiliary language, generally of a hybrid and partially developed nature, that is employed over an extensive area by people speaking.
Phonetics: Topic Page
The identification, description, and classification of sounds used in articulate speech.
Pidgin: Topic Page
A lingua franca that is not the mother tongue of anyone using it and that has a simplified grammar.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
From A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics
A claim that languages can differ so greatly in the way they encode semantic information (in LEXIS and GRAMMAR) that they can determine the way that speakers of a language think.
Semantics: Topic Page
[Gr.,=significant] in general, the study of the relationship between words and meanings. The empirical study of word meanings and sentence structure.
Writing: Topic Pages
The visible recording of language peculiar to the human species. Writing enables the transmission of ideas over vast distances of time.