Glossary of Linguistic Terms

digraph A combination of two letters to signify one phoneme or sound: e.g., th in three, sh in shine.
diphthong Vowels produced by having one sound gliding into another: e.g., /ɔi/ in boy; /ai/ in buy. See further “Note on Phonetic Symbols and Orthography.”
direct object (DO) See clause element.
discourse A linguistic unit larger than a sentence. Discourse may comprise a statement, a dialogue, a debate, etc.
disyllabic Consisting of two syllables: e.g., e·cho and be·lieve are disyllabic words. A word is monosyllabic when having only one syllable (e.g., bid, stretch), trisyllabic when having three syllables (e.g., un·der·stand, com·pa·ny). do as auxiliary See auxiliary. dual See number.
–(e)th ending See third person present singular.
etymology The historical study of words, in relation to their earlier forms and meanings and also to the forms and meanings of their cognates. feminine See gender. fi nite verb See conjugation.
fricative A consonant having audible friction produced by forcing air through a constricted part in the mouth: e.g., /f, v, s, z, θ, ð/. See further “Note on Phonetic Symbols and Orthography.”
fronting 1. Movement usually of back vowels to the front of the mouth: e.g., good sounding like gid in America’s West Coast speech. 2. Movement of a syntactic element from its unmarked, or regular, position to the beginning of a sentence: e.g., coming home he was, a construction found in parts of Wales.
front vowel A vowel articulated with the highest point of the tongue placed at the front of the month. Front vowels in PDE include /i, i, e, ε, æ/. See further “Note on Phonetic Symbols and Orthography.”
function word Refers to words belonging to parts of speech that convey grammatical or logical relationship rather than lexical contents: e.g., prepositions (on, from), conjunctions (but, or). future See tense.