Glossary of Linguistic Terms

Glossary of Linguistic Terms
affi x A morpheme, or word element, that can be attached to a word to form another word. An affi x is a prefi x when added to the beginning of a word (e.g., mis- in misdeed) and a suffi x when added to the end of a word (e.g., – er in grinder). Affi xation is a productive way to coin new words in PDE.
affricate A consonant in which a stop is released by a fricative articulated in the same position. PDE has two affricates: /cˇ/ or // as in char; // or /d/ as in jar. See further
“Note on Phonetic Symbols and Orthography.”
agreement Matching of grammatical forms within a phrase (e.g., this book, these books) or a sentence (e.g., there is a way, there are ways). Also called concord. allo- Indicates a variant form of a unit. For allophone, see phoneme.
A Companion to the History of the English Language Edited by Haruko Momma and Michael Matto
© 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-405-12992-3
alveolar A consonant produced by the tip of the tongue against the ridge behind the upper teeth: e.g., /t, d, s, z, n, l/. See further “Note on Phonetic Symbols and Orthography.” analytic language See synthetic language.
Anglo-Norman French spoken by the Normans in England after the Norman Conquest. A geographical variety of Norman French.
Anglophone English-speaking, usu. pertaining to a person or a region in a colonial or post-colonial setting. An Anglophone is an English-speaking person typically in Canada.
Anglo-Saxon See periodization.
animate Pertains to nouns that refer to living beings: e.g., child, lawyer, cat. Opposite of inanimate.
antecedent A constituent, or a part of a clause, that is referred back to usu. by a pronoun: e.g., in the sentence this is the man whom I mentioned, the noun phrase the man is the antecedent of the relative pronoun whom.