Questions relating to the scientific study of language.
8
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4answers
15k views
What are “coherence” and “cohesion” in text linguistics?
I am still learning English. My English language professor has given me an assignment on coherence and cohesion. But it seems difficult to me. I've consulted my friend and he told me:
Cohesion and ...
0
votes
0answers
70 views
Is English more creative than other languages in practice? [closed]
I just read an interesting answer to a recent question. A sentence attracted my attention, as I never thought this way, but I see it is so true in different ways:
Furthermore, native speakers have ...
1
vote
0answers
31 views
Does there exist an EBNF-like description of English? [duplicate]
In programming, languages are often specified by what's called an EBNF grammar, a recursive way of specifying the language's structure. For example, all super simple arithmetic operations using the ...
5
votes
2answers
3k views
What's the difference between grammar and syntax?
I've never understood the difference between these two terms. I understand the difference between semantics and syntax, or between semantics and grammar, but I'm not sure what's the difference between ...
2
votes
1answer
518 views
What are the degrees of synonymity?
In several questions and answers on this site I've read phrases that suggest there can be a scale of synonymity between words—something I haven't thought much about before. Some examples I've seen are ...
7
votes
1answer
153 views
What is it called when an antecedent noun follows the pronoun?
Here is the example that raised the question in my mind:
He was splashing, enjoying the jungle's great joys, when Horton the elephant heard a small noise.
Here, He refers to Horton; but one ...
6
votes
2answers
139 views
Are there names for consonant-shifts when suffixes are added?
I saw a spelling mistake on an SO question: submittion. That got me wondering, is there a name for the shift of ‑mit‑ to ‑miss‑ in submission, permission, admission and so on? Are there other patterns ...
10
votes
5answers
4k views
Where does “ta!” come from?
Where does the expression "ta" come from?
Wikipedia has only this to say:
"ta!", slang, Exclam. Thank you! {Informal}, an expression of gratitude
but no additional information or links about ...
3
votes
3answers
369 views
Retroflex approximants in AE dialects
While looking up the best way to describe the aboriginal pronunciation of Uluru (/uluɻu/), I stumbled across retroflex approximants. The linked Wikipedia page states:
The retroflex approximant ...
98
votes
9answers
8k views
Is there a word or phrase for the feeling you get after looking at a word for too long?
(Perhaps this only happens to me, but I doubt it.)
Sometimes after looking at a word for a while, I become convinced that it can't possibly be spelled correctly. Even after looking it up, sounding ...
19
votes
3answers
637 views
Old English instead of Latin in early Britain
For almost 400 years, Britain was a Roman province. During that period, naturally, Latin was an important language in the region. When the Germanic tribes invaded the British Isles (around the 5th ...
17
votes
5answers
1k views
Is it true that iambic pentameter is “natural” to English? If so, why?
When I first read Dante's Divine Comedy in high school, I remember once being puzzled at what I thought were strained rhymes in the translation, and mentioned it to my English teacher. In reply, she ...
4
votes
1answer
630 views
Good and bad - suppletive adjectives
In English, there are three suppletive adjectives: good, bad and far. Their comparative and superlative forms derive from different stems, i.e., we have best instead of *goodest, worse instead of ...
6
votes
1answer
375 views
Is the [ʊ] sound pronounced with lip rounding?
This [ʊ] sound is the vowel sound for words like hook, pull, and good. When I began to learn English a bit more seriously two decades ago, I used a book that taught me to pronounce it shorter and ...
0
votes
0answers
102 views
Great expectations - Spare the rod and you'll spoil the child [closed]
I haven't really got an idea of where to put this question, so I'll just ask it here. I have read 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens and I really enjoyed the book. I think he was way ahead of his ...
2
votes
0answers
216 views
Syntax, contrastive analysis [closed]
Could anyone help me with this question? What are the main types of contrast involved in contrastive analysis of syntax? Give examples.
I tried to find answer, but unfortunately I find nothing.
4
votes
2answers
728 views
Are any of the t-glottolization, th-fronting, h-dropping, etc. in English a phonological complex?
Wikipedia gives the following, with plenty others ommitted by me, as some of the features of Cockney English:
T-glottalisation: Use of the glottal stop as an allophone of /t/ in various ...
13
votes
3answers
789 views
When and why did the letter “u” begin being called [ju]?
We pronounce the name of the twenty-first letter of the alphabet homophonically with the word you.
Was this what the letter was always called (ever since the analogous letter in Latin), or did it at ...
7
votes
4answers
655 views
What is the name of the phoneme produced in an upper-class Briton's pronunciation of the word “Duke”? What's different in the articulation?
When someone with a Received Pronunciation accent pronounces the word duke, as in The Duke of York, he doesn't pronounce it with a "hard" 'd', as one might pronounce the word duh, but a softer type ...
4
votes
1answer
44 views
Is there a term for ambiguity coming from a modifier modifying multiple parts of a sentence?
Given the sentence
Before starting the machine, mount the machine with the battery installed on the harness.
This could be taken to mean that
1) the battery is installed on the harness and the ...
14
votes
4answers
893 views
How do you proceed from pronouncing “t” in the regular way to t-glottalization, as found in various English accents?
It's just strange to me because "t" is pronounced with the front teeth, while the glottalized "t" is produced with the back of the throat; that seems like quite a noticeable journey that couldn't have ...
4
votes
2answers
741 views
Analysis (tree diagram) of “She hugged and kissed her mother”
I was wondering how linguists analyze sentences like "She hugged and kissed her mother" or "Will you have that with or without syrup?" or "Four and five are the square roots of sixteen and ...
13
votes
4answers
1k views
English questions and negation with *do* in syntax
A former lecturer of mine once explained why, from a syntactic point of view, the English rule that negation and questions are formed with the auxiliary do follows from other syntactic facts about ...
10
votes
6answers
1k views
Exactly what language do I (we) speak?
As an American, and a particularly myopic one, I am a bit confused to the language that I speak. I understand that we were once a colony of England, where English was/is spoken, but do we in the ...
0
votes
0answers
100 views
'Kill' vs. 'cause to die' [closed]
The processes available to the speaker if a particular unit, say a vocabulary item, does not fit the message context, are (I think) the following:
1) Get another lexical item.
2) Modify the ...
3
votes
3answers
145 views
“Enormity” in figurative sense
The word enormity is widely used to mean excess of size, but if somebody talks about the enormity of his achievements he would look foolish.
Why is that so? Does it depend on the tone used, or are ...
2
votes
2answers
175 views
What's the linguistics term for “Schubertiaden” and similar words? [closed]
What's the linguistics term for "Schubertiaden" and similar words (that refers to a group of people based on a person's name)?
"Schubertiaden" refers to the group of people of similar interest and ...
9
votes
3answers
340 views
Is spell-checking software becoming a linguistic authority?
It seems that‒whether intentionally or not‒spell-checking software in web browsers and productivity suites heavily influence our use of language. For example: in drafting a document, I found that my ...
3
votes
0answers
157 views
Visually and audibly unambiguous subset of the Latin alphabet? [closed]
Imagine you give someone a card with the code "5SBDO0" on it.
In some fonts, the letter "S" is difficult to visually distinguish from the number five, (as with number zero and letter "O").
Reading ...
9
votes
3answers
3k views
Origin of “you lot” and other plural forms of “you”
I've often heard the phrase "you lot" in British programs on PBS, e.g. "Oi! You lot! Shift y'selves" or thereabouts, and have sometimes wondered about its origin and how it gained currency. It seems ...
25
votes
3answers
11k views
Meaning of “native speaker of English”
Who is considered a native speaker of English? I am a little confused by the various answers found online.
4
votes
4answers
270 views
Alternative Descriptive Statement - Calling something like it really is; both intentionally/unintentionally funny
I'm curious to know if there is a type of speech or name for what I am about to describe... For example, instead of saying "let's go on a night hike," one would say, "let's go stumble around in the ...
0
votes
0answers
223 views
What defines a unique writing style? [closed]
I'm an amateur writer that happens to be a professional programmer.
I say this because I've recently jumped back into a personal research project in which the goal is to automate the de-anonymization ...
13
votes
5answers
348 views
Regarding the “i” in “think” vs “bit”
This is a phonetics question.
I am teaching English as a Second Language. In phonetics, we all know the "i" in "think" is a "short i" sound. Additionally, the "i" in "bit" is a "short i" sound. ...
10
votes
3answers
191 views
What is the standard of proof in etymology?
In this question the idea I put forward as a possible etymology for "ta" garnered the response that it is a well known false etymology for the word. That got me to wondering - being strictly a dabbler ...
1
vote
4answers
203 views
Text vs. audio representations of words
"Word"
This can refer to at least three things:
A textual representation of a _
A sonic representation of _
_ , the superconcept containing 1 & 2.
What are specific...words for each of these ...
8
votes
1answer
837 views
Is there a maximum number of suffixes that can be added to an English word?
You can add various derivational and inflectional suffixes on to most English words to create new longer words (or forms of words). But is there a definite or theoretical maximum that can be added in ...
9
votes
4answers
643 views
Why did “insofar” become a word, not “insofaras”?
So I'm thinking about how "insofar" became a word. This slightly unfair comparison shows that it happened relatively recently.
Now, whenever I've seen it written, "insofar" is followed by "as". So ...
7
votes
2answers
550 views
Etymology of “binky” — three questions
Definition 2 of binky at
wiktionary is "(rabbit behavior) A high hop that a rabbit may perform when happy." This definition is consistent with that at
rabbitspeak, and not inconsistent with "A kind ...
9
votes
4answers
352 views
Why we say “save file” and not “keep/preserve file”
Why do we say save the file/image instead of keep/preserve the file/image? Is it because the original meaning was to save (rescue) the object from being lost?
1
vote
1answer
463 views
Differences between Case Frames and Semantic role labeling
I'm learning about some basic linguistics theory and have come across case frame analysis and semantic role labeling as methods of determining agents within sentences, and arguments for verbs.
...
5
votes
3answers
380 views
Adjectives that do not have predicative position
I've read somewhere that some adjectives cannot be used in the predicative position; for example "this is a major problem" is acceptable, but "the problem is major" is not acceptable.
I'm wondering ...
5
votes
3answers
897 views
What makes a non-native English speaker sound foreign? [closed]
I'm not a native speaker. However, I have tried a lot during last 10 years to learn English at a high level of proficiency and to become fluent in conversation.
However, when I talk to some of my ...
4
votes
2answers
305 views
Is it possible to regard “vacant” and “vacancy” as allomorphs (variants) of the same root in Modern English?
Am I right to consider /΄veikənt/ and /΄veikəns/ in those words as variants of one and the same root morpheme in Modern English. But it makes me hesitate in my morphemic division if we take for ...
21
votes
7answers
814 views
Has English adopted any common morphemes from languages that are not Greek, Latin, or French?
Has English adopted any common morphemes from any "exotic"-type languages? By that, I'm trying to exclude our most frequent borrowings; i.e. French, Latin, and Greek, from which nearly all our ...
5
votes
3answers
434 views
Linguistics term for word choice
I was taught a word once by a linguist. I can't remember it, but it would be very useful for a Google search I am trying to do to solve another question on a different StackExchange.
It was a similar ...
6
votes
4answers
765 views
If someone is an expert in written (rather than spoken) language, can they still be called a “linguist”?
When I think of “linguistics”, I typically think of the study of spoken languages, particularly phonetics. Compared to “language”, which of course is used of writing systems, ...
3
votes
2answers
4k views
Semi-vowels in English [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
When is “Y” a vowel?
Why are 'w' and 'y' called semi-vowels in English?
3
votes
3answers
430 views
Is there a term for switching syllables of words?
Primary question: A common speaking mistake is to exchange syllables of words, saying "It's trace rhyme!" instead of saying "It's race time!", or pronouncing "kickin' chackatory" instead of "chicken ...
7
votes
4answers
341 views
Are there any indications that English is going to split into different languages in the next hundred years? [closed]
Are there any indications that (global) English is going to split into different languages in the next hundred years?
