F0 DECLINATION

1. (Prosody) It has been observed in many languages that the pitch contour over the course of an utterance has a downward trend, normally called F₀ declination in the literature (e.g., Cohen et al. 1982, Ladd 1984). F₀ declination is expected and used for normalization by listeners, e.g., when two stressed syllables sounded equal in pitch, the second was actually lower (Pierrehumbert 1979, Terken 1991, 1994).
    The causes of F₀ declination over an utterance have been under debate for a long time.
   • Some researchers claimed that F₀ declination is due to a drop in subglottal air pressure (Lieberman 1966, Collier 1975).
   • Maeda (1976) proposed that F₀ declination is caused by tracheal pull, which gradually lowers the sternum and the larynx (as a result of its linkage to the sternum) due to decreasing lung volume.
   • Breckenridge (1977) and Ohala (1978) argued that declination is part of the linguistic code, and is therefore purposeful and must be controlled by laryngeal muscles.
   • Vaissière (1983) proposed that F₀ declination could be due to a "laziness principle", because F₀ rises are harder to produce than F₀ falls (Sundberg 1979, Xu and Sun 2002).
   
    The most common way to characterize F₀ declination is in terms of straight lines fitted to F₀ contours. A line fitted to local F₀ valleys in an utterance is called the baseline, and a line fitted to local F₀ peaks is called the top line. | Jiahong Yuan and Mark Liberman, 2014
2. (Prosody) A large number of studies on fundamental frequency (F₀) of speech have reported the existence of F₀ downdrift from the beginning through the end of the utterance (Breckenridge 1977, Cooper and Sorensen 1977, Maeda 1976, O'Shaughnessy 1976, Pierrehumbert 1979, Sorensen and Cooper 1980). The phenomenon is found in many languages (UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 28 lists 37 papers dealing with F₀ declination; in Dutch, see Cohen and 't Hart 1967, 't Hart and Cohen 1973, 't Hart and Collier 1975).
    The question has arisen as to how universal is the existence of this phenomenon in speech. Strong supporters of the argument claim that F₀ of all spoken utterances has a downdrift contour as the baseform; even if the contour of a sentence does not look declining, it is still governed by an underlying declination rule. Their argument goes further: the same F₀ value on the syllable in a nonsense sentence is heard higher in pitch when it occurs at the end of the sentence is heard higher in pitch when it occurs at the end of the sentence than when it occurs near the beginning (Pierrehumbert 1979). Thus, they argue that F₀ declination is a fundamental operation phonologically, physiologically and psychologically in human speech.
    Other researchers are more skeptical (Lieberman and Tseng 1980). There are many sentences which do not show a downward drift of F₀ through the sentence (or the intonation group). F₀ control of sentences that have a declination, too, can be explained by stress and terminal fall.
    Both groups agree on one thing: some sentences have an overt visual declination in their F₀ contour and other sentences do not. Where they differ from each other is in the interpretation; one group tries to explain all sentences as having this tendency as a basic rule, and the other as not having it at all. | Noriko Umeda, 1982

FACE-WORK

1. (Pragmatics) Speech participants utilize linguistic politeness to avoid and reduce social friction and enhance each other's face, or public self-image, during social interaction. It is face-work that underlies the interpersonal function of language use and encompasses all verbal and nonverbal realizations that bring forth one's positive social value, namely, face. Face-work is founded in and built into dynamic social relations; these social and cultural relations and context directly affect the enactment of face-work. | Jung-ran Park, 2008
2. (Examples)
    ○ Brown and Levinson (1987/2018) have also suggested a scale—three universal, independent, and culturally sensitive social variables—to measure the degree of politeness in a certain specific social context.
   • D, the social distance.
   • P, the variable of power.
   • R, the variable of the imposition ranking.
   
    Each of these variables is specifically intrinsic to a particular act in a particular situation. The variables of D, P, and R are added values through which the amount of face work is known and understood. If the variables D, P and R are minimally considered, then, the request to the hearer to open the door will be:
   1. Please, open the window!
   
    On the contrary, if the maximization of D, P and R are meant, then the above mentioned expression would be changed to the following:
   2. It is too warm, don`t you feel? Would you mind opening the window, please?
   
    | Mian Shah Bacha, Rabia Rustum, Muhammad Umer, and Khalid Azim Khan, 2021
    ○ It is generally assumed in pragmatics that face is essentially a "socially attributed aspect of self", and that politeness is one kind of facework, alongside other forms of facework such as impoliteness, mock impoliteness, mock politeness, self politeness and so on. | Michael Haugh, 2013
    ○ The concluding paragraph of Goffman's essay "On the nature of deference and demeanor" (1956) is a revealing sketch of a characteristically Western, individualist persona which also informs the author's seminal piece "On face-work" (1955). | Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini, 2003

FACTIVE PREDICATE

1. (Semantics) A predicate which entails or presupposes the truth of one of its arguments.
    A sentence such as John knows that Bill is ill can be true only if its propositional argument Bill is ill is true. Factive predicates are distinguished from non-factive predicates (such as believe) and counter-factives (such as pretend). Thus, the truth-value of John believes that Bill is ill does not depend on the truth-value of the proposition Bill is ill, whereas John pretends that he is ill can only be true if he is not ill. | Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics, 2001
2. (Semantics) Clause-embedding predicates are predicates like know and think that take a finite clause as an argument, as shown in (1), where the finite clause (that) it is raining realizes the direct object. Kiparsky and Kiparsky (1970) proposed that there is a class of clause-embedding predicates called factive predicates, like know, that distinguish themselves from other predicates, like think, in that the content of their clausal complement is presupposed, that is, "[t]he speaker presupposes that the embedded clause expresses a true proposition". Thus, a speaker who utters (1) with know is typically taken to presuppose that it is raining, in contrast to a speaker who utters (1) with think.
   1.  Sam { knows / thinks } that it is raining.
   
    | Judith Degen and Judith Tonhauser, 2022
3. (Semantics) The verb know is a factive verb. A factive verb "assigns the status of an established fact to its object" (Oxford Dictionary of English 2005). The verb think is a non-factive. A non-factive is a verb "that takes a clausal object which may or may not designate a true fact" (ODE 2005). | Brendan Wyse, 2009
4. (Examples)
    ○ While Negative Polarity Items are generally ungrammatical in veridical environments (*I said anything), they are known to be found in factive environments that involve veridicality (I regret you said anything). | Patrick Duffley and Pierre Larrivée, 2019
    ○ It is suggested that factive predicates operate as indexical symbols (Jakobson 1971) to encode both a semantic, referential meaning or proposition, as well as to index pragmatically an epistemic stance on the part of the speaker. | Margaret Field, 1996

FACTORIAL TYPOLOGY

1. (Optimality Theory) One of the attractive properties of OT is that it provides a simple expression of the fact that the same configuration can be avoided in different ways and to different extents in different languages. The avoided configuration violates some markedness constraint(s), and each way of avoiding it violates some faithfulness constraint. Different rankings of these constraints yield different ways of avoiding the marked configuration, as well as the case in which the marked structure is allowed. These different results can be displayed in a factorial typology, in which each possible ranking of the relevant set of constraints is shown to be attested in some language. | Scott P. Myers, 2002
2. (Examples)
    ○ The factorial typology for moraic codas, nonmoraic codas, and final extrasyllabicity is summarized in (1).

   1. Factorial Typology

   Final Consonant Type	Ranking	Language
   Moraic Codas	WBP ≫ SSP ≫ WEAKEDGE, MAX	Maithili (Indo-European; India)
   Nonmoraic Codas	SSP ≫ WEAKEDGE ≫ WBP, MAX	Malayalam (Dravidian; India)
   Extrasyllabic	WEAKEDGE, MAX ≫ SSP, WBP	Russian (Indo-European; Russian Federation)

    | Trevor Driscoll, 2019
    ○ OT posits a universal set of constraints, and the factorial typology of the constraints, i.e. through all logically possible permutations of constraints to generate all possible constraint rankings, is predicted to produce possible grammars and exclude impossible ones. | Yen-Hwei Lin, 2015
    ○ We think that factorial typology should be given precedence over holistic conceptions of language types, both for theoretical and for practical reasons. One obvious problem with a holistic approach to language types is the fact that it is hard to decide on which phenomena a holistic typology should be based. One cannot compare languages as a whole, and it is not clear whether determining, for instance, the morphological type of a language allows more essential conclusions about a holistic language type than, let's say, the statement of its system of morphophonemics. Thus, for very practical reasons, holistic typologists will always end up doing factorial typology, at least for a start. | Daniel Hole, 2000
    ○ To construct a factorial typology of a set of constraints, we sum up all logically possible rankings of this set of constraints, and compute the different outcomes. With large sets of constraints the number of possible rankings rises steeply, as with a constraint set of size n, we must consider all n! rankings. (This equals 2 rankings for 2 constraints, 6 rankings for 3, 24 for 4, 120 for 5, 720 for 6, etc.) Fortunately, many of the individual rankings in a factorial typology produce identical surface patterns. Therefore the number of predicted patterns is much smaller than the total number of logically possible rankings. | René Kager, 1999

FAITHFULNESS CONSTRAINTS

1. (Optimality Theory) Suppose that the input-output relation is governed by conditions on the well-formedness of the output, markedness constraints, and by conditions asking for the exact preservation of the input in the output along various dimensions, faithfulness constraints. | Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky, 1993/2004
2. (Optimality Theory) In contrast with markedness constraints, faithfulness constraints make a rather different type of requirement of surface forms: that they match specific properties of other forms, for example their lexical input. Their effect is to prohibit deletions, insertions, featural changes, or other changes in mappings from inputs to outputs. Faithfulness constraints are the natural antagonists of markedness constraints, since the former preserve lexical properties that the latter may ban at the surface. | Amalia Gnanadesikan, 2004
3. (Optimality Theory) Faithfulness is the force that attempts to make the output identical to the input.
    There are three constraints representing Faithfulness:
   1. MAX-IO: each segment in the input (I) has a corresponding segment in the output (O).
       Deletion of segments is prohibited.
   2. DEP-IO: each segment in the output has a corresponding segment in the input; the output is dependent on the input, and the constraint is violated by an inserted segment.
       Insertion of segments is prohibited.
   3. IDENT (F): every feature (F) of the input segment is identical to every feature in the output segment.
       A segment in the input is identical to the corresponding segment in the output.
   
    | Zita McRobbie, 2011

FALLACY OF PERFECTION

1. (Optimality Theory) Constraints are intrinsically conflicting, hence perfect output candidates will never occur in any tableau:

   Fallacy of Perfection
   No output form is possible that satisfies all constraints.

    An output is optimal since there is no such thing as a "perfect" output: all that grammars may accomplish is to select the most harmonic output, the one which incurs the minimal violation of constraints, taking into account their ranking. Nothing better is available. | René Kager, 1999
2. (Examples)
    ○ Translation also incorporates OT's assumption that there are no optimal perfect outputs, dubbed fallacy of perfection (Kager 1999/2004). It is commonly assumed that no translated text is fully identical to the source text. Even the optimal translation that any translator seeks to achieve violates some language structures or constraints of the target text. No optimal target text is perfect in that it satisfies all source text and target text constraints. Therefore, translators attempt to produce a translated text that is the most harmonic one compared to any other competing candidates, the one that involves minimal violations of ranked constraints. | Ahmed Smirkou, 2021
    ○ OT has a fallacy of perfection. That is, no output form is possible to satisfy all constraints. In our study, some Taiwanese (Sino-Tibetan; Taiwan, China) names satisfy all constraints. The reason is that our constraints do not include all possible ones in naming. Say for example, fortune teller's suggestions or family's pedigree names are beyond our discussion. | Chi-hua Hsiao, 2005
    ○ It is important to note that usually not all of these parameters can be optimized in any given form. The principle underlying this circumstance is often called the fallacy of perfection. (Cf. also Vennemann 1988.) For instance, words that are entirely made up of CV syllables—this being the "optimal" syllable structure—may be lengthy or otherwise clumsy to pronounce. | Lutz Edzard, 2000

FAMILIARITY MARKER
(Examples)
 ○ In the Magahi (Indo-European; India) noun phrase, there is a familiarity marker -waa with the following allomorphs: -waa, -aa, -(i)yaa, -(i)yãã, -maa. -waa requires a definite interpretation and is incompatible with indefinites, generics, and kinds.
 -waa is called a familiarity marker (Alok 2012, 2022, Kumar 2020, Sharma 2025) because it requires nouns it attaches to to be familiar in the discourse. | Aidan Sharma, 2025
 ○ Emotional valence results were converted into extremity of valence values (the higher the score, the more positive or negative the stimulus is; Rocklage et al., 2017/2018) to calculate statistical variances/correlations in order to account for the dualistic nature of emotionality. On the other hand, familiarity values were included as originally provided by the participants on a 7­-point Likert scale. Extremity of valence and familiarity values proved to be closely linked as results indicate a moderate positive correlation r(961)=.553, p<.05, echoing with de Sousa's (2002) note that the emotional aspect of recognition is subject to a familiarity marker. | Yu Kanazawa and Louis Lafleur, 2023
 ○ Another case in point is -aa, which is a familiarity marker that is often affixed to NPs in Magahi (Indo-European; India). NPs bearing this element normally trigger nonhonorific (NH) agreement on the verb, as in (1).

1.  
    

   Santee-aa
   Santee-FM

   Bantee-aa-ke
   Bantee-FM-DAT

   kahl-ai
   tell:PFV-3.NH.S

   ki
   that

   ...
   ...

    'Santee told Bantee that ...'

1. a.
    

   pesar-a-ro
   boy-E-RA

   did-am.
   saw-1SG

     'I saw the boy.' (familiar to hearer)
   b.
    

   ye pesar-i-ro
   a-boy-I-RA

   did-am
   saw-1SG

     'I saw a (specific) boy.' (unfamiliar to hearer)

FAST MAPPING

1. (Acquisition) A hypothesized process enabling children to rapidly create lexical representations for the unfamiliar words they encounter. | Chris Dollaghan, 1985
2. (Acquisition) In a classic study by Carey and Bartlett (1978), preschool children were presented with two trays and prompted to: Bring me the chromium tray, not the blue one. The chromium one. One week later, a new task context was used to test what children thought chromium refers to (e.g., Show me the chromium one). Results show that 3- and 4-year-olds were able to learn the meaning of chromium even after a single exposure. This phenomenon was termed fast mapping. It captures the mental process of narrowing down the meaning of a word during a casual experience.
    Fast mapping shows the impressive ability of children to learn. It helps explain the steep learning curve during language acquisition. And it gives credence to the claim of implicit learning: the process by which information is remembered spontaneously, even when there is no specific requirement to learn. Crucially, findings on fast mapping illustrate the importance of background knowledge during learning. | Heidi Kloos and Hannah McIntire, 2025
3. (Acquisition) Carey and Bartlett (1978) introduced the term fast mapping, which has become central to developmental psychology's narrative about how words are learned. In this narrative, it is children's accuracy in fast mapping that cries out for explanation. How can children arrive at the correct meaning of a word given only indirect and incomplete evidence? Yet in Carey and Bartlett's famous "chromium" study, fast mapping was not so successful. Fewer than one in ten of the 3-year-olds appeared to have linked the word chromium to its intended meaning ('olive green'). The children who had been exposed to the word in the study's naturalistic teaching context (bring me the chromium one; not the red one, the chromium one) were scarcely more likely than controls to pick out the correct referent from an array of color patches upon hearing the word.
    For Carey and Bartlett, the demonstration of fast mapping was noteworthy not because children appropriately determined that chromium was a color word (the sort of pragmatic inference that was dissected in dozens of follow-up studies). Rather, it was noteworthy because after very few exposures children were able to create a new lexical entry and maintain it in memory for several days, and because children's exposure to the word often changed their interpretation of how the color space is lexicalized. | Daniel Swingley, 2010

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