Comparative Historical Linguistics Lexicon: 
Linguistics 450  

Glossary | Definitions | Etymology

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P  R S T U V W

A

abduction
ablaut
accusative languages
acronym
actuation
adaption
adoption
affixation
Afro-Asiatic family
Age-area Hypothesis
agglutinating languages
Altaic family
amelioration
Amerind family
analogical extension
analogical leveling
analogy
analytic languages
anaphora
anaptyxis
aphaeresis
apocope
arbitrariness
archeology
assimilation
attested forms
Austronesian family
automorphism

B
Babel
baby talk (see also foreigner talk)
back-formation
basic constituent order (see word order)
basic vocabulary (see core vocabulary)
bifurcation (see semantic split)
bilingualism
biological metaphor
bleaching
blending (see portmanteau)
Bloomfield
borrowing

C
calque
case
cataphora
category change
center embedding
chain
child language acquisition
clipping
clitics
cluster reduction
cognates
comparative historical linguistics
comparative method
compensatory lengthening
compounding
compression
consistent languages
consonant shifts
contact
contamination
content words
contiguity
convergence
convergent development
conversion (see category shift)
core vocabulary
Cratylus
creole
cross-category harmony
cultural reconstruction

D
daughter language
declension
decreolisation (see language suicide)
deduction
deontic
derivation
diachronic linguistics
dialects
diffusion
directionality
dissimilation
divergence
doublet
Dravidian family
drift

E
ellipsis
epenthesis
epistemic
equilibrium
ergative language
etymology
etymon
euphemism
exceptionality
excrescence
extension
external reconstruction

F
family tree model
folk etymology
foreigner talk
fortition
functional load

G
gap
geminization
generativism
genetic relationship
glottochronology
grammaticalization
Grassman’s Law
Great Canine Shift
Great Vowel Shift
Greenberg, Joseph
Grimm’s Law
 

H
Hamito-Semitic family
haplology
harmony
Heaviness Serialism Principle
historical linguistics
Hockett
homeostasis
homograph
homonym
homonymic clash
Humbolt’s Universal
hyperbole
hypercorrection
hyponymy

I
iconicity
idiolect
implementation
i-Mutation
Indo-European languages
induction
inflecting languages
inflection
internal reconstruction
isogloss
isolate
isolating languages
isolationism
isomorphism

J
Jakobson, Roman
Johnson, Samuel
Jones, Sir. William

K
Kurylowicz’s laws

M
Mańczak’s tendencies
metaphor
metathesis
metonymy
mixed language
monogenesis
morphological fusion
Mother Tongue
Murry, James A.H.

N
Naturalness
Natural Morphology
Neogrammarians
neologism
nonce word
Nostratic family

O
onomastics
onomatopoeia
opacity (see exceptionality)
orthogenetic line

P
palatalisation
paradigmatic relations
Peirce
pejoration
periphrasis
peripheral vocabulary
philology
phonemic shift
phonemic split
phonetic fusion
pidgin
polysemy
preterite present verbs
prothesis
protolanguage

R
Rask, Rasmus
reanalysis
reflex
regularity hypothesis
relexification
rephonemicisation
restriction
rhotacism
rule ordering

S
Saussure
semantic shift
Sino-Tibetan family
sonority hierarchy
sound change
sound correspondences
spelling pronunciation
splitting
Spoonerism
Structuralism
Sturtevant’s Paradox
subgrouping
substrate
superstrate
suppletion
synchronic linguistics
syncretism
syncope
synonymy
syntagmatic relations

T
taboo words
teleology
Trace Erasure Principle
Transparency Principle
Typology

U
umlaut
unpacking
Uralic family

V
Verner’s Law
vowel breaking

W
Watkins, Calvert
wave model
word order variation

Heather Nord
April 2002