Glossary and Index with Questions

This page serves as both a glossary where terms are defined and an index to the site. Click on the underlined, linked words to go to the page where the topic is discussed. Here, too, are questions about these topics that stir my curiosity. If you have answers, opinions, suggestions for resources or comments, please email Diane at dw@think-ink.net

Back-formation

Word formation based on a mistaken morphological analysis. Usually this means dropping a part of the word when it is incorrectly thought to be an affix. In the case of "duh" and "Doh!" it has been done with a change in the vowel and other phonological refinements.

Great Vowel Shift

In Middle English, vowels in many words were prolonged. While today we speak of mice as "/majs/," in Middle English they were not only "meese" /mis/, but /mi:s/ or, in nonphonetic transcription, "meeeese." However, over the course of two centuries between 1400 and 1600, the prolonged "eee" /i:/ and "uuu" /u:/ vowels gradually became pronounced as dipthongs. At the same time other most other vowel sounds were modified.1 (Return to page about phonology or to conclusions.)

Morphology

Morphology is the study of how words are formed from morphemes, those bits of sound that have meaning.

Question: Here is a question I've put under morphology since it is loosely related to "word formation." "Gasp" is a word, while the the sharp intake of breath that we make when startled is not considered a word. Yet, that sharp-intake-of-breath sound is readily recognized to mean "I'm startled!" Why is the sharp-intake-of-breath sound not considered a word? Is it because the sound is usually made in direct response to a stimulus, so that it is more like an animal's vocalization? Does the command to make the sound originate in a different part of our brain than words do?

If this sound is not considered a word because it is only a direct visceral response to a stimulus, what about those times when someone makes the sound deliberately to indicate they are surprised or frightened? (My husband accuses me of doing that whenever we drive.) If the sound is used deliberately by a large number of people does it evolve into a word? What do you think?

Phonology

Phonology is the study of the sounds in a language, both the study of phonemes (those sounds that have a significance in a language) and phonetics (how we make and hear those sounds).

Question: Can new phonemes enter the language?

Consider the sharp intake of breath represented by the word "gasp" discussed in the question under "Morphology" above. The gasping sound is not even considered a phoneme in English, although it is used in Scandinavian languages. All the phonemes in English are "egressive" with the air being pushed out of our lungs. The sound when we gasp is "ingressive" as we suck in air.

Especially now, in a period of unprecedented international communication, it seems possible and even likely that new phonemes will enter the English language. And, of course, if it is possible that new phonemes enter the language, the retroflex "d" and pronounced glottal stop in "doh!" will be among the first to be acknowledged as authentic English phonemes. What do you think?

Semantics

Semantics studies the meaning of words, phrases and sentences.

Question: When I think of "semantics" I think of S.I. Hayakawa and William Safire. Are all who deal with semantics of that political pursuasion? Who are other well known semanticists? Is Safire genuinely a semanticist or merely a "word maven" (to use Pinker's label).

Syntax

Syntax studies the basic structure holding words and sentences together. It is this structuring that allows us to be infinitely creative in our language and yet be understood.

Notes:

1.The Great Sound Shift web site by Melinda J. Menzer explains this history and provides an opportunity to hear what changes occurred. In An Introduction to Language (sixth edition) by Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman describe the Great vowel Shift on pages 454-55. In The Language Instinct Stephen Pinker discusses the period on pages 250-251.

Return to Home Page or

see Purpose or Conclusions or Resources