Sank's Glossary of Linguistics
T-Thel |
TAUTOSYLLABIC
- (Phonology) Part of the same syllable. E.g. a phonological diphthong analyzed into a sequence of two tautosyllabic vowels. | ?
- (Phonology) Two or more segments are tautosyllabic (with each other) if they occur in the same syllable. For instance, the English word cat, /kæt/, is monosyllabic and so its three phonemes /k/, /æ/ and /t/ are tautosyllabic. They can also be described as sharing a tautosyllabic distribution.
Phonemes that are not tautosyllabic are heterosyllabic. For example, in the English word mustard /ˈmʌstərd/, /m/ and /t/ are heterosyllabic since they are members of different syllables. | Wikipedia, 2022
- (Examples)
- (Phonology) Diphthongs refer to a tautosyllabic sequence of two vowels of different qualities. | Haruo Kubozono, 2015
- (Phonology) Such studies can initially disappoint if one is searching for phonetic correlates of diphthongs. However, perhaps people
like Salza (1988) are making tacit arguments that phonetics and phonology cannot be separated
when studying diphthongs. His work does seem to indicate that if one ignores syllable boundaries when studying diphthongs, one may reach wrong conclusions. These Italian studies also show that stress patterns can make a difference in the length of a segment and therefore determine whether it gets placed into a tautosyllabic or a heterosyllabic sequence. This means that while spectrograms are helpful in Italian in determining whether a segment is a diphthong or something else, they cannot be read in a vacuum and must constantly be informed by the phonology. | Pamela S. Arlund, 2007
- (Phonology) In addition, since the aim of this study is to explore the relations of the phonological transcriptions and dynamic properties of speech, using diphthongs as an example, it is natural that a related type of sound, conventionally called a triphthong will be included. The field of study will also include tauto-syllabic components other than diphthongs or triphthongs, if they can (at least partly) be characterized as an extension of the dynamic movement of F2 in the neighboring vocalic patterns. | Hongmo Ren, 1986
TEAM CREDIT INTERPRETATION
(Semantics) Dowty (1987) observes that some collective predicates are very liberal in their non-maximality. Example (1) is judged as true in a scenario where just a few of the kids actually built the raft, and the others sat idly and watched. This is known as a team credit interpretation.
- The kids built a raft.
| Omri Amraz, 2020
TELICITY
- (Semantics) The definitions of (a)telicity and (un)boundedness hinge on the notions of endpoint or terminal point and temporal boundary a situation may be limited in time: for instance, a situation of sunbathing may last for half an hour; it reaches a temporal boundary once the person in question leaves the beach. If someone runs a marathon, the endpoint to this particular situation is when the runner reaches the finish. A deliberate attempt to stay five minutes under a cold shower reaches its endpoint once the five minutes are over.
(A)telicity has to do with whether or not a situation is described as having an inherent or intended endpoint; (un)boundedness relates to whether or not a situation is described as having reached a temporal boundary (cf. Declerck 1989, 1991).
A clause is telic if the situation is described as having a natural (cf. (1a) and (1b)) or an intended endpoint (cf. (1c)) which has to be reached for the situation as it is described in the sentence to be complete and beyond which it cannot continue. Otherwise it is atelic. Examples (1a), (1b) and (1c) are telic, (1d) and (1e) are atelic:
- a. The bullet hit the target.
b. Sheila collapsed.
c. Sheila deliberately swam for 2 hours.
d. Sheila is working in the garden.
e. Sheila lives in Vienna.
| Ilse Depraetere, 1995
- (Semantics) From the Greek τέλος, meaning 'end' or 'goal'. The property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete in some sense. A verb or verb phrase with this property is said to be telic, while a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being incomplete is said to be atelic. | Wikipedia, 2017
See Also LEXICAL ASPECT.
TEMPLATIC MORPHOLOGY
- (Morphology) Or, position class morphology or slot-and-filler morphology. Typically understood as one form of morphological organization in which the linear order of morphemes bears little apparent relationship to other synchronic semantic, syntactic, or phonological factors (Good 2011). Although templatic morphological structures have been reported in many language families, Dene (Athapaskan, Athabaskan) languages are often upheld as offering particularly striking examples of morphological templates in action, with some Dene verbal constructions analyzed as having upwards of twenty distinct template positions (cf. Kari 1989). | Christopher Cox, 2017
- (Morphology) Morphology that imposes invariant shape on the word. | John J. McCarthy and Alan Prince, 1990
- (Morphology) In Arabic, various morphological distinctions are expressed by specifying a fixed canonical form of the stem that does not vary despite independent morphological or lexical changes in the consonants or vowels that fill this canonical form. For example, (1) demonstrates the property of shape-invariance for the Arabic causative, known as the faʕʕala or Form 2:
TABLE 1
| /ktb/ 'write'
| /drs/ 'study'
| /ʕm/ 'know'
| /sm/ 'poison'
|
perfect active
| kattab
| darras
| ʕallam
| sammam
|
perfect passive
| kuttib
| durris
| ʕullim
| summim
|
imperfect active
| kattib
| darris
| ʕallim
| sammim
|
imperfect passive
| kattab
| darras
| ʕallam
| sammam
|
| John J. McCarthy and Alan Prince, 1990
TEMPORAL SEMANTICS
- (Semantics) For a variety of semantic domains (particularly those related to the physical world) language provides a level of rich structural interpretation, at which a limited number of categories are identified and related algebraically (Talmy 1988). The temporal domain, as we shall see, is
such a semantic domain. Temporal semantics consists not only in the linear ordering of elements in time, but also in the temporal properties of the things which get ordered, namely events. Thus the linguistic structuring of time operates over concepts such as completion, termination, and ongoingness, in addition to the ordering concepts of anteriority and
simultaneity. Because of this complexity, there is much to be learned simply by understanding the structure of temporal semantics, but this is not, of course, all there is to know about our understanding of time. Semantics may be structured, but it is also about things. | Laura Wagner, 1998
- (Examples)
- (Semantics) I examine the syntax and semantics of subjunctive clauses in (Modern) Greek. These clauses are typically headed by the particle na and contain a dependent verbal form with no formal mood features: the perfective nonpast. I propose that the semantic contribution of na is temporal: it introduces the variable now (n) into the syntax, which then serves as the parameter for the temporal anchoring of the verb. At the same time, the perfective nonpast contains a dependent (in the sense of Giannakidou 1998, 2001) temporal variable, i.e. an anaphoric variable that cannot remain free, but must be identified with a previous time. It is the presence of this variable that renders the form polarity-like. If this analysis is correct, it has a number of interesting implications.
- Mood is no longer a "modal" category, but decomposable into a temporal semantics and directive illocutionary force (in main clauses).
- The futurate orientation of the subjunctive arises not as an inherent contribution of na itself, but of the combination of its n with the perfective nonpast.
- This analysis explains the polarity behavior of the subjunctive (both na and the dependent nonpast), namely the fact that they are selected by nonveridical elements, by appealing to their semantics, an obvious advantage over merely stipulated selection accounts.
| Anastasia Giannakidou, 2008
- (Semantics) I present a crosslinguistic study of the temporal semantics of noun phrases which demonstrates that the temporal interpretation of noun phrases and verb phrases is not completely parallel. One of the main claims is that the semantic categories grammatical ASPECT and MODALITY, but not the category TENSE, are relevant to the temporal semantics of noun phrases.
There are two lines of research on the temporal semantics of noun phrases.
- A theoretical semantic one, based almost exclusively on English data (cf.
Enç 1981, 1986, Musan 1995, 1999 and Tonhauser 2000, 2002). This line of research is concerned with identifying the constraints which determine the time relative to which a noun phrase is interpreted.
- A small number of papers which report on languages with (what I refer to as) nominal temporality markers, which are markers that affect the temporal interpretation of noun phrases. The term does not make a claim about the semantic category of these markers but subsumes tense, grammatical aspect, existence and modality markers. E.g. Hockett (1958) on Potowatomi (Algonquian), Joseph (1979) on Cree (Algonquian), Burton (1997) on Halkomelem (Salish), Haude (2004) on Movima (isolate in Bolivia), Lecarme (1999, 2004) on Somali (Cushitic).
| Judith Tonhauser, 2006
- (Semantics) The existence of ordinary temporal semantics in Chinese is illustrated in (1). In this sentence, the default perfective, which contains both aspectual and tense information, has applied, along with existential closure over the reference (topic) time. The tense information has been highlighted.
Zhangsan
Zhangsan
dapuo
break
yi-ge
one-CL
huaping
vase
'Zhangsan broke a vase.'
λto ∃tTop ∃t ∃x [ t ⊆ tTop & tTop < t0 & breakʼ (t, z, x) & vaseʼ (x) ] Lin (2005)
| Lisa Matthewson, 2005
TENSE
(Phonetics) Articulated, or claimed to be articulated, with greater effort of the relevant muscles. | Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, 2007
TENSE PHRASE
See TP.
TENSE TRANSPOSITION
- (Grammar) The category Tense is specific only for verbs. Grammatical tenses can be absolute or relative.
- Absolute tenses are determined on the time axis in terms of the moment of speaking about the event.
- For determining relative tenses, in addition to the moment of speaking about the event, some other moment or time segment of the time axis is relevant as well. In Macedonian, relative tenses are future perfect and past perfect tense.
In a language, forms are associated with meanings. Elementary forms that have meanings are morphemes. Accordingly, the forms of the grammatical category of tense which are formed with appropriate morphemes, but
with auxiliary verbs and particles or other forms of verbs (non-finite or tense related) as well, have their own meanings. Forms of grammatical tenses can be used in their essential meanings, but they can also be used in
meanings that are not their essential meanings, which are primary for other grammatical forms. This usage of forms of grammatical tenses, in their non-essential meanings, a usage which is essential for other forms of grammatical
tenses, is called a transpositional usage of forms of grammatical tenses. It is a transposition of form, characteristic for a respective tense up to the meaning of another grammatical tense, which in turn has its basic form of expression. | Violeta Nikolovska, 2016
- (Grammar) By a certain method for generating exercises for transposition of verb tenses, it is possible to transpose each verb tense on a sentence to another verb tense. The verb tenses transposition method can also be applied in other contexts, making it easy to choose an action (verb) and applying it to verb tense. | Kledilson Ferreira and Álvaro R. Pereira Jr., 2018
- (Grammar) There are cases where a perfect is interpreted locally in a protasis or apodosis. Wolfgang Klein actually provides a few examples of these mixed constructions, as in (3). Semantically, such would (have)-conditionals are still embedded under a semantic present:
- Present counterfactuals
NOW [would/could [-ed protasis] [apodosis]]
- Past counterfactuals
NOW HAVE [would/could [had protasis] [apodosis]]
- Mixed present perfect counterfactuals
a. NOW [would/could [-ed protasis] [HAVE apodosis]]
b. NOW [would/could [-ed HAVE protasis] [apodosis]]
The phenomenon is known as tense transposition: What looks like a past is semantically present; what looks like a pluperfect is a semantic past, or, more marginally, a semantic present perfect. Our analysis of this anti-past behavior makes use of a theory of temporal agreement in terms of interpreted/uninterpreted features. | Atle Grønn, 2021
TH-FRONTING
(Sociolinguistics) Th-fronting is the pronunciation of the English [θ] as [f] or [v]. When th-fronting is applied, [θ] becomes [f] (for example, three is pronounced as free) and [ð] becomes [v] (for example, bathe is pronounced as bave). (Here fronting refers to the position in the mouth where the sound is produced, not the position of the sound in the word, with the [θ] coming from the tongue as opposed to the [f] or [v] coming from the more-forward lower lip.) Unlike the fronting of [θ] to [f], the fronting of [ð] to [v] usually does not occur word-initially (for example, while bathe can be pronounced as bave, that is rarely pronounced as vat) although this was found in the speech of South-East London in a survey completed 1990-4 (Tollfree 1999). Th-fronting is a prominent feature of several dialects of English. | Wikipedia, 2022
THAT-TRACE EFFECT aka THAT-T EFFECT
(Syntax) The phenomenon that the complementizer (that) cannot be followed by a trace (except in relative clauses) in some languages (e.g. English). Thus, in languages showing the that-t(race) effect, a subject cannot be extracted when it follows that. This is shown by the contrast in (1) and (2).
- who did you think [CP t' [C' e [IP t would win ] ] ]
- * who did you think [CP t' [C' that [IP t would win ] ] ]
As noted, the that-t effect is not a universal phenomenon. It is absent in e.g. Dutch, as shown by the fact that the Dutch translation of (2) is grammatical:
- wie denk je [CP t' [C' dat [IP t gewonnen heeft ] ] ]
(Chomsky and Lasnik 1977, Chomsky 1981, 1986, Kayne 1984, Perlmutter 1971, Pesetsky 1982; Taraldsen 1978) | Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics, 2001
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