Glossary and index

Nullius in verba

Here is an alphabetical list of terms used in this tutorial, with links to the appropriate chapters and mostly with short explanations. Terms that are only used in Lemizh grammar, and those that have a special meaning there, are shown in bold. Terms from the pragmatics pages in the appendix are also included here; they are marked with a . Functional words such as pronouns or conjunctions are not listed here but in the dictionary.

There is a good glossary of linguistic terms on SIL International.

You may also want to skip this page and continue with the language’s history.

• A
  • Ablative case (abl), denoting place/region away from which. See Time and space adverbials for an example.
  • Absorption, a grammatical transformation by which a sub-category verb in an object and a super-category verb in its predicate are merged. Contrast desorption.
  • Abstract noun, a noun referring to an abstract concept. Gerund-like nouns and isms are also abstract nouns. Contrast concrete noun.
  • Accent, the prominence given to a syllable. Lemizh has a two-way pitch-accent system (low/high pitch).
  • Accommodation to an implicated premise, adding this premise to one’s cognitive environment.
  • Accommodation to a presupposition, adding this presupposition to one’s cognitive environment.
  • Accusative case (acc), denoting content. See also Nominative, accusative and dative.
  • Action-centred case, any of the cases (marked with an unrounded vowel) that describe the word’s relation to its predicate. Contrast agent-centred case.
  • Active voice, as in ‘Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle’, as opposed to ‘Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas’, which is in the passive voice.
  • Ad-hoc concept of a word: constructing ad-hoc concepts is a part of the interpretation process; a temporary meaning of a word or phrase that is narrower or wider than, or shifted with respect to, its lexical meaning.
  • Adjacency pair, a co-occurring pair of turns in a conversation, such as greeting+greeting, question+answer, request+fulfillment/refusal.
  • Adjectival clause or relative clause, a finite clause that qualifies a noun or pronoun; usually introduced with a relative pronoun or adverb. (But ‘that’ can sometimes be left out; see Weak bracket.)
  • Adjectival phrase, a phrase (a group of words) functioning like an adjective, such as ‘a man of wealth, the ship at the front’.
  • Adjectival verb, a Lemizh verb denoting a property (roughly corresponding to an adjective).
  • Adjective, a part of speech denoting a property. In Lemizh, short for adjectival verb.
  • Adjective of ability, necessity or predilection, such as ‘visible, regrettable, warlike’.
  • Adjective of comparison, such as ‘paternal friend’.
  • Adjective of emotion, manner or competence, such as ‘happy, afraid; naughty, nice; wise, fast’.
  • Adjective of possession, such as ‘paternal house, dammed river’.
  • Adjunct, a grammatically optional object. Contrast complement.
  • Adverb, a miscellany part of speech modifying verbs, adjectives, adverbs, clauses, or sentences. See also Adverbs of topicalised verbs, Adjectives as adverbs, take two, Modal adverbs, Dependent clauses: introduced with pronouns or adverbs.
  • Adverbial, either an adverb or an adverbial phrase.
  • Adverbial clause, a clause functioning like an adverb, such as ‘when you are ready; wherefore I’ll feed it’.
  • Adverbial phrase, a phrase (a group of words) functioning like an adverb, such as ‘in an hour; it is flying at the front’.
  • Affirmative case (aff), denoting fact / point in causal chain. See ‘that’-clauses for examples.
  • Agent (a), the initiator of an action, in Lemizh more specifically the source of the intention or will.
  • Agent-centred case, any of the cases (marked with a rounded vowel) that describe the word’s relation to its predicate’s agent. Contrast action-centred case.
  • Aggressive case (agg), denoting time towards which / temporal aim.
  • Allative case (all), denoting place/region towards which / spatial aim. See Non-receiving plot usage for an example.
  • Alphabet.
  • Alternative question, an ‘or’-question.
  • Alveolar consonant, one pronounced between the tongue and upper alveolar ridge, such as ‘l t z’.
  • Ambiguous plot usage, where the dative equals the accusative object.
  • Anaphoric (anaphora), pointing to another word, as in ‘He is talking to himself’. In Lemizh, relative pronouns are anaphoric unless they point to the parole. Contrast deictic.
  • Appositive, an attribute consisting of a noun or noun phrase. An appositive plus its head word is an apposition.
  • Aspect, a grammatical category describing temporal flow.
  • Astronomical symbols, having a number of uses in Lemizh.
  • Attribute, a grammatical unit modifying a noun or pronoun, for example an adjective, participle or genitive attribute.
  • Attributive clause, a clause functioning like an attribute.
  • Attributive use, the use of a definite noun or noun phrase to refer to whatever fits the description. Contrast referential use and generic reference.
  • Augmentative or intensive, expressing a stronger form of a word (e.g. an adjective or a verb).
  • Axis verb, any of the three spatial verbs that correspond to the three axes of a Cartesian coordinate system, meaning ‘in front’, ‘above’ and ‘at the right’.
• B
  • Backchannel, a reaction by the listener that signifies attention, understanding, surprise, etc., such as ‘uh-huh, yeah, right, oh’.
  • Bahuvrihi, a possessive compound such as ‘redthroat = [a bird] possessing a red throat’.
  • Benefactive case (ben), denoting beneficiary. See Other cases for an example, and see also Genitive, translated with the benefactive.
  • Bilabial consonant, one pronounced between the lips, such as ‘m p’.
  • Bracket, a two-word construction where the object’s outer case equals the predicate’s inner case; translating an appositive, an attributive adjective or participle, or a relative clause.
  • Bracket inversion, a grammatical transformation that exchanges predicate and object of a bracket.
• C
  • Cardinal numeral, such as ‘one, two’.
  • Case, a grammatical category describing the function of an object in relation to its predicate.
  • Case descriptor, a defining term for a case.
  • Case suffix, the consonantal part of a case ending.
  • Causal case, any of the cases (marked with an l in the case suffix) denoting causal relations.
  • Causal-receiving plot usage, where the causative or persuasive equals the dative object.
  • Causal-reflexive plot usage, where the causative or persuasive object equals one of the plot cases.
  • Causal-transporting plot usage, a construction where the causative or persuasive equals the accusative object.
  • Causative case (caus), denoting direct cause. See Non-sending plot usage for an example.
  • Causative verb, a verb meaning ‘to make someone do something’, such as ‘walk someone somewhere’.
  • Cessative aspect, expressing the ending of an action.
  • CI (conventional ‘implicature’), information encoded in a sentence that does not contribute to the basic explicature. Not an implicature, but traditionally named so.
  • Circumstantial clause, a participial clause at the beginning (or end) of a sentence, describing circumstances of this sentence.
  • Claiming grammatical reality: every sentence claims grammatical reality of its main predicate.
  • Clause, a grammatical unit containing at least a predicate. Higher in the grammatical hierarchy than a phrase. See also Dependent clauses: non-finite, introduced with conjunctions, introduced with pronouns or adverbs.
  • Cleft sentence, such as ‘It’s her who’s building bridges’. See also Presuppositions.
  • Clitic, an unstressed word. Absent in Lemizh.
  • Close vowel, one pronounced the tongue close to the roof of the mouth, such as ‘i u’.
  • Cognitive effect, an effect on an individual’s ‘mental world’, more specifically on the cognitive environment or set of facts that are probably true from the individual’s viewpoint.
  • Cognitive environment, the set of facts that are probably true from the individual’s viewpoint (everything the individual can perceive, infer or remember, including facts that he is not currently aware of).
  • Collective noun, one describing a group or ensemble of things.
  • Comitative case (com), denoting company. See Modified objects for an example.
  • Comma (punctuation mark), marks a pause beween words. See also Level of words.
  • Comparative, a degree of comparison expressing that something is more (or less) than something else.
  • Compared sentence, the part of a comparison sentence that includes the primary, but not the qualitative, objects.
  • Comparing sentence, the comparison sentence, but excluding the primary objects and having them replaced with the corresponding qualitative objects in the primary cases.
  • Comparing world, the hypothetical world in which all the qualitative objects are located.
  • Comparison.
  • Comparison clause, a clause expressing a comparison, as in ‘The horse runs faster than spectators assume’.
  • Complement, a grammatically necessary object; absent in Lemizh. Contrast adjunct.
  • Completeness of cases, governed by Rule Five of sentence grammar.
  • Completion of a semantically incomplete utterance to a proposition: a part of the interpretation process such as ‘The kiwifruit are too sour [for me]’. A kind of enrichment; contrast expansion.
  • Completive aspect, describing a completed action.
  • Composite numeral, such as ‘twofold/double/binary, threefold/triple/ternary’.
  • Compound word, such as ‘redthroat’.
  • Concept narrowing, widening and shift, parts of the interpretation process; assigning a temporary meaning to a word or phrase that is narrower or wider than, or shifted with respect to, its lexical meaning.
  • Concrete noun, a noun referring to a physical entity. Contrast abstract noun.
  • Conditional clause, a clause expressing a condition for the main clause, as in ‘I will/would be able to read Jacopo’s texts if I find/found the password’.
  • Conferring reality to a bracket’s object.
  • Conjunction, a part of speech that connects words, clauses, sentences, or the like. Examples are logical and subordinating conjunctions.
  • Conjunctional clause, a finite clause introduced with a subordinating conjunction such as ‘that’.
  • Consecutive case (cons), denoting direct consequence/effect. See also Adjectives.
  • Consonant, a sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, such as ‘r m p th z’. Contrast vowel.
  • Contextual case (ctx), denoting causal context. See also Weak linking and Weak bracket.
  • Continuous, capable of being divided without losing identity, such as a queue, water, or walking. Contrast discrete.
  • Continuous aspect or progressive aspect, expressing an ongoing action.
  • Conventional ‘implicature’ (CI), information encoded in a sentence that does not contribute to the basic explicature. Not an implicature, but traditionally named so.
  • Conversation structure.
  • Coordination, a construction with two sibling objects in the same outer case; sometimes translating an appositive, an attributive adjective or participle, or a relative clause. See also Predicate noun and Adjectives as adverbs, take two.
  • Counterfactual conditional clause, a clause expressing a false condition for the main clause, as in ‘I would be able to read Jacopo’s texts if I found the password’.
  • Counterfactual statement, expressing something that is not actually the case, such as ‘I could have helped him’.
  • Counting, ‘one, two, three, …’.
  • Cross-case reality, pragmatical reality that is not obvious because it works via a missing object.
  • Cumulative bracket, a bracket in the strict sense: the object’s outer case equals the predicate’s inner case. Contrast partitive and qualitative brackets.
  • Cumulative coordination, a coordination in the strict sense: two objects in the same outer case. Contrast partitive and qualitative coordinations.
• D
  • Dash (punctuation mark), separates parts of text.
  • Dative case (dat), denoting sink/recipient. See also Nominative, accusative and dative.
  • Dative viewpoint, the viewpoint of ‘I give her a bottle’ as opposed to ‘She gets a bottle from me’, which has a receptive viewpoint.
  • Declarative sentence, a sentence expressing a statement. Contrast questions, commands, exclamations and the like.
  • Defeasible (defeasibility), of a pragmatic inference from an utterance, cancellable by explicit information or by context without sounding self-contradictory.
  • Defective plot usage, where one or more plot cases are not overt (explicitly stated).
  • Definite numeral verb, a numeral verb denoting a specific number (‘one, two’). Contrast indefinite numeral verb as well as grouping and weighting numerals.
  • Definition of objects, governed by Rule Two of sentence grammar. See also the chapter on word order of sibling objects.
  • Degree of reality, governed by Rule Seven of sentence grammar.
  • Deictic (deixis), pointing to something ‘outside of language’, i.e. in the real world. In Lemizh, demonstrative pronouns are always deictic, whereas relative pronouns are only deictic when pointing to the parole. See also Referent assignment. Contrast anaphoric.
  • Demonstrative pronoun, a pronoun referring to an action outside of language, in the real world. In Lemizh, contrast relative pronoun.
  • Dental consonant, one pronounced between tongue and upper teeth, such as ‘th’.
  • Deontic modality, expressing how the world ought to be, according to the speaker. Contrast epistemic modality.
  • Dependent clause or subordinate clause, a clause that cannot stand on its own. See also Dependent clauses: non-finite, introduced with conjunctions, introduced with pronouns or adverbs.
  • Depictive predicative, a predicative describing an inherent property. Contrast resultative predicative.
  • Descriptor, a defining term for a case.
  • Desorption, a grammatical transformation by which a verb is split into a sub-category verb, which becomes an object, and a super-category verb, which becomes its predicate. Contrast absorption.
  • Detachable (detachability), the property of certain pragmatic phenomena that they can be removed from their parent sentences by rephrasing or just by omission. CIs and non-restrictive constructions are detachable, but implicatures aren’t.
  • Digressive case (dig), denoting time from which away.
  • Diminutive, expressing a weaker form of a word (e.g. an adjective or a verb).
  • Direct reference, a relative pronoun that points directly to its target word. Contrast indirect reference.
  • Direct speech, speech that is quoted literally, without any grammatical modifications. Contrast indirect speech.
  • Disambiguation of ambiguous words (e.g. deciding whether ‘kiwi’ means the bird or the fruit), a part of the interpretation process.
  • Discourse connective, a kind of utterance modifier that comments on a relation of an utterance to previous or following ones, such as ‘furthermore’ or ‘first of all’.
  • Discrete, not capable of being divided without losing identity, such as a person, an ant colony, or a sneeze. Contrast continuous.
  • Distributive aspect, expressing that an action is applied to members of a group one after another.
  • Distributive numeral, such as ‘one each, in pairs’.
  • Durative aspect, expressing an action with extended duration.
  • Durative case (dur), denoting duration. See also Temporal and spatial verbs.
• E
  • Egressive case (egr), denoting closing time. See Beginning and ending for an example. (Not to be confused with the case of the same name occurring in some Uralic languages.)
  • Elative, the usage of the superlative to express a very high degree (‘I have had a most rare vision’ = ‘I have had an extremely rare vision’).
  • Elative case (ela), denoting starting point/region. See the last Exercise in unit 9 for an example.
  • Ellipsis (punctuation mark), marks omissions.
  • Emphasis (punctuation mark), like a pause of speech but with added emphasis.
  • Enclosure (punctuation mark), a parenthesis or a quote.
  • Enrichment of an utterance, a part of the interpretation process, either completion of a semantically incomplete utterance to a proposition or further expansion of a proposition.
  • Entailment or implication – A follows from B, but B does not necessarily follow from A. Contrast equivalence.
  • Epenthetic case, the case connecting head and modifier of a compound word.
  • Episodic aspect, expressing a particular truth (as opposed to a general one).
  • Episodic case (eps), denoting episode, ‘act’. See Clauses with other conjunctions for an example.
  • Epistemic modality, expressing how the world may be, according to the speaker’s judgement. Contrast deontic modality.
  • Equivalence – A follows from B and B follows from A. Contrast entailment or implication.
  • Eventive verb, one denoting an action or event, such as ‘laugh, spit, speak, happen’. Contrast stative verb.
  • Exclamation.
  • Existential presupposition, a presupposition that is a prerequisite for its sentence to have referents, as in ‘The king of Narnia is bald’ or ‘Nothing astonishing happened while he was sitting there’.
  • Expansion of an utterance that has been completed to, or already is, a semantically complete proposition: a part of the interpretation process such as ‘I have had breakfast [today]’. A kind of enrichment; contrast completion.
  • Explanatory relative clause, a relative clause that serves as an explanation for the main clause.
  • Explicature (to explicate), a communicated proposition that the addressee reconstructs from the linguistic meaning of an utterance. Contrast implicature.
  • Exponential number, a power of the number system’s base. In decimal, these are 1, 10, 100, 1000, …; in hexadecimal, 1, 16, 256, 4096, …
  • Extensive case (ext), denoting spatial extent. See also Temporal and spatial verbs.
• F
  • Factive case (fact), denoting action. See also Inner case.
  • Factual conditional clause, a clause expressing an unverified condition for the main clause, as in ‘I will be able to read Jacopo’s texts if I find the password’.
  • Figure of speech, non-literal use of language such as metaphor, metonymy, or hyperbole.
  • Final case (fin), denoting purpose/aim. See Other cases for an example.
  • Finite clause, a clause with a finite predicate and introduced with a conjunction, a relative or interrogative pronoun, or a relative or interrogative adverb.
  • Fragmenting partitive, a construction describing a part of something, usually a discrete entity.
  • Fricative, a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel in the vocal tract, such as ‘v f th z s sh’.
  • Full stop (punctuation mark), marks a pause beween sentences. See also Level of words.
  • Future tense, expressing an action in the future.
• G
  • Generic reference, the use of a definite noun or noun phrase to refer to the whole class it describes. Contrast referential and attributive use.
  • Genitive case, a case that can mark possession, among other things.
  • Gerund, a non-finite verb form such as ‘reading a book, spilling milk’. Contrast infinitive and participle.
  • Gerund clause, a clause with a gerund for a predicate.
  • Gnomic aspect, expressing a general truth.
  • Grammatical reality, reality that is licensed by Rule Seven of sentence grammar. We say every sentence claims grammatical reality of its main predicate. Contrast pragmatic reality.
  • Grouping numeral, one combining a number of individuals to form a ‘super-individual’.
• H
  • Habitual aspect, expressing a habitually occurring action.
  • Handwriting.
  • Head, the first part of a compound word, and the object of the compound’s modifier.
  • Headless relative clause, a relative clause without a head (predicate in Lemizh terminology), such as ‘He found what I wanted’.
  • Hesitation marker, an interjection indicating that the speaker is pausing to think, such as ‘er, uh, um’.
  • Hyperbole, a deliberate exaggeration used for strength of expression, such as saying ‘You are the best of beavers’.
• I
  • Identity of action, governed by Rule Four of sentence grammar.
  • Illative case (ill), denoting end point / ending region. See Non-receiving plot usage for an example.
  • Imperative, a grammatical mood expressing a command, request or advice. See also Propositional attitude.
  • Imperfective aspect, cover term for aspects describing actions with an inner structure, such as the iterative, the habitual, or the progressive.
  • Implicated conclusion, an implicature that is a conclusion from an utterance.
  • Implicated premise, an implicature that is a contextual premise needed to draw additional conclusions (i.e. implicated conclusions) from an utterance.
  • Implication or entailment – A follows from B, but B does not necessarily follow from A. Contrast equivalence.
  • Implicature (to implicate), a communicated proposition that the addressee reconstructs by taking the linguistic meaning of an utterance as input for drawing further conclusions. (Note that conventional ‘implicatures’ aren’t implicatures.) Contrast explicature.
  • Inchoative aspect, expressing the beginning of an action.
  • Incompletive aspect, describing an incomplete action.
  • Indefinite numeral verb, a numeral verb denoting an unspecific number (‘several, each’). Contrast definite numeral verb as well as grouping and weighting numerals.
  • Indirect question, a subordinate clause that is a question.
  • Indirect reference or reference via the predicate, a relative pronoun having an inner case matching the outer case of an object of its target word. Contrast direct reference.
  • Indirect speech, speech that is quoted, but not literally, often needing grammatical modifications. Contrast direct spech.
  • Infinitive, a non-finite verb form such as ‘(to) read, (to) spill’. Contrast gerund and participle.
  • Infinitive clause, a clause with an infinitive for a predicate.
  • Ingressive case (ing), denoting starting time. See Beginning and ending for an example.
  • ‘Inner agentive’, a construction acting like the inner case of a word were agentive.
  • Inner case, the case that describes the word’s relation to its own stem. See also this chapter on inner case. Contrast outer case.
  • Inner partitive case, the inner case of a word being a partitive case.
  • Inner qualitative case, the inner case of a word being a qualitative case.
  • Inquit, an introduction to reported (direct or indirect) speech, such as ‘He said …’.
  • ‘inside’ construction, for expressing ‘in(to)’ and ‘on(to)’ regarding discrete objects.
  • Instantiable (instantiability), of an action, capable of being instantiated (said or written in a grammatically correct way).
  • Instantiate (instantiation), to create an instance of a verb by saying or writing it.
  • Instrumental case (ins), denoting means/tool. See Non-sending plot usage for an example, and see also Verbs of work and profession.
  • Intensive or augmentative, expressing a stronger form of a word (e.g. an adjective or a verb).
  • Intentive case (int), denoting intention / intended point in causal chain.
  • Interlinear gloss, a word-for-word gloss with grammatical category labels (such as for case endings), breaking down the grammatical structure of a sentence.
  • Interrogative adverb, an adverb introducing a question, such as ‘where, when, why’.
  • Interrogative mood, a grammatical mood expressing a question. See also Propositional attitude.
  • Interrogative pronoun, a pronoun introducing a question, such as ‘who, which, that’.
  • Inversion, a grammatical transformation exchanging an object and its predicate while swapping inner and outer cases of the initial object.
  • Inversion ban, the fact that turning a negator into an object by inversion often creates a nonsensical sentence.
  • Irony, saying something that is patently ridiculous.
  • Iterative aspect, expressing a repeatedly occurring action.
• J
  • Judgemental ‘that’-clause, such as ‘It is good that you speak’.
• K
  • Kinship terms, such as ‘father, mother, child, aunt, nephew’.
• L
  • Letter, a written character in an alphabet.
  • Level, a grammatical category describing sentence structure.
  • Liquid, an l- or r-like consonant. In Lemizh l, R and r.
  • Locative case (loc), denoting place/region. See also Temporal and spatial verbs.
  • Logical conjunction, such as ‘and, or’.
  • Loose talk, saying something that is strictly speaking false, but close enough to the truth for the present purpose, such as saying ‘I earn 2800 Euros a month’ when you really earn 2798.55 Euros.
• M
  • Main predicate, the first word in a sentence, and predicate of the rest of the sentence. See also Rule One of sentence grammar.
  • Material, such as thread, wood, or tomatoes.
  • Measuring physical dimensions in grammar.
  • Metaphor, referring to one thing or concept by mentioning another that is structurally similar to the first, such as saying ‘The temperature goes up’ for ‘The temperature increases’. Contrast metonymy.
  • Metonymy, referring to one thing or concept by mentioning another that is related to the first in some way, such as saying ‘pen’ for the publishing trade. Contrast metaphor.
  • Missing objects, governed by Rule Six of sentence grammar.
  • Misuse of presuppositions, presupposing something that is not in fact an uncontroversial background assumption.
  • M-narrowing, a part of the interpretation process; narrowing the meaning of a word with a compound modifier.
  • Modal adverb, one describing a modality such as a wish (‘gladly’), necessity (‘necessarily’), suggestion, permission, or opportunity.
  • Modality, an opportunity, permission, wish, suggestion, necessity, or the like. Modality can be expressed by modal verbs or adverbs or by grammatical moods such as the imperative or interrogative (a question).
  • Modal verb, one describing a modality such as a wish (‘want’), necessity (‘must’), suggestion (‘should’), permission (‘may’), or opportunity (‘can’). In English, their grammar is different from most other verbs.
  • Modification raising or mod-raising, a Lemizh generalisation of negation raising. See the Babel Text in the appendix for an example with ‘should’, and see also Narrowing by rephrasing on the pragmatics pages.
  • Modified object, an object modified (compounded) with a weighting numeral, negator, modal verb, or the like. See also the remark in Negation of modals; modification raising.
  • Modified sentence, an sentence modified with a negator or modal verb, or turned into a question or an imperative.
  • Modified topic, a construction modifying the existence of a topicalisation, for example with a weighting numeral, negator, or a modal verb, as in ‘She should stop singing.’
  • Modifier, the second part of a compound word, and the predicate of the compound’s head.
  • Mod-raising, see modification raising above.
  • Momentane aspect, expressing a short-lived action.
  • Mood, a grammatical category describing the speaker’s attitude towards what she is saying, such as a declarative (a statement), an imperative, or an interrogative (a question). See also Propositional attitude.
  • Mora, a unit of length in speech: a short syllable equals one mora, a long syllable equals two. (In Ghean, the definition is somewhat different.)
  • Motivational case (mot), denoting motivational context. See also Partitive agent, Weak linking and Weak bracket.
  • Multiplicative numeral, such as ‘once, twice’.
• N
  • Narrowing of a concept, a part of the interpretation process; assigning a temporary meaning to a word or phrase that is narrower than its lexical meaning.
  • Nasal, a consonant pronounced through the nose. In Lemizh n and m.
  • Negated topic, a construction negating the existence of a topicalisation, as in ‘She doesn’t stop singing.’
  • Negation raising or neg-raising, such as saying ‘I don’t want to speak’ for ‘I want not to speak’. In Lemizh, specifically ‘raising’ a negator from e.g. second level to a modifier of a second-level compound. See also Narrowing by rephrasing on the pragmatics pages.
  • Negator, a word conveying negation.
  • Neg-raising, see negation raising above.
  • Nesting of topics, a grammatical construction for conveying several topics at once.
  • N-narrowing, a part of the interpretation process; narrowing the meaning of a word to a noninstatiable concept.
  • Nominal verb, a Lemizh verb denoting a physical entity (roughly corresponding to a concrete noun).
  • Nominative case (nom), denoting source/sender. See also Nominative, accusative and dative.
  • Nonexistence negator, expressing absence of the negated entity. Contrast opposition negator.
  • Non-finite clause, a clause with a non-finite predicate (an infinitive, gerund or participle).
  • Noninstantiable (noninstantiability), of an action, not able of being instantiated (said or written in a grammatically correct way), such as an action of sailing for which a sail is the complete means.
  • Non-receiving plot usage, where the dative object is not overt (explicitly stated).
  • Non-restrictive clause or phrase, one that does not restrict the scope of its head but provides additional information about it. Contrast restrictive clause or phrase. See also Non-restrictive relative clauses and Non-restrictive constructions.
  • Non-sending plot usage, where the nominative object is not overt (explicitly stated).
  • Non-transporting plot usage, where the accusative object is not overt (explicitly stated).
  • Noun, a part of speech denoting a (concrete or abstract) entity. In Lemizh, short for nominal verb.
  • Noun phrase, a phrase functioning like a noun. See also Rule Seven of sentence grammar.
  • Number, a grammatical category denoting a number of entities, such as singular and plural.
  • Numbering, as in ‘room number eight’.
  • Numeral, a part of speech denoting a number.
  • Numeral verb, such as ‘two, several, each, many’.
• O
  • Object (in Lemizh), a word that is subordinate to another word (its predicate), plus all of its own objects.
  • O-narrowing, a part of the interpretation process; narrowing the meaning of a word with an object.
  • Open-mid vowel, one pronounced the tongue relatively low down, such as an open ‘e’.
  • Opposition negator, expressing that the opposite of the negated entity is the case. Contrast nonexistence negator.
  • Ordinal numeral, such as ‘first, second’.
  • Orientation with respect to some object, as in ‘The chair faces the door’.
  • ‘or’-question or alternative question.
  • Outer case, the case that describes the word’s relation to its predicate’s stem. Contrast inner case. See also Rule Three of sentence grammar.
  • Overt (of an object), explicitly stated in a sentence.
• P
  • Parenthesis (punctuation mark), encloses parts of text.
  • Parole, a concrete instance of spoken or written language. In Lemizh, specifically the parole of a sentence, i.e. the action of speaking or writing that sentence.
  • Participial clause, a clause with a participle for a predicate.
  • Participle, a non-finite verb form such as ‘reading children, spilt milk’. Contrast gerund and infinitive.
  • Partitive agent, a construction to mark only part of an object as agentive.
  • Partitive bracket, a construction like a cumulative bracket, but with the outer case of the object being a partitive.
  • Partitive case (part), any of a type of cases needed for restriction, roughly expressing ‘some of the …’. See also Partitive revisited.
  • Partitive coordination, a construction like a cumulative coordination, but with one of the outer cases being a partitive.
  • Partitive desorption, a desorption where the object has got an inner partitive case.
  • Passive voice, as in ‘Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas’, as opposed to ‘Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle’, which is in the active voice.
  • Past tense, expressing an action in the past.
  • Pause of speech, a pause beween words or sentences. In Lemizh, its length carries grammatical information. See also Level of words.
  • Perceptual verb, such as ‘see, hear, smell, taste’.
  • Perfect, an aspect or similar grammatical form expressing the consequence of a completed action. Not to be confused with the perfective aspect.
  • Perfective aspect, describing an action as a simple whole. Not to be confused with the perfect.
  • Person, a grammatical category referring to participants in an action: first (‘I, we’), second (‘you’), third (‘he, she, it, they’) person.
  • Persuasive case (psu), denoting reason. See Genitive, translated with the benefactive for an example.
  • Phrase, a grammatical unit consisting of a group of words, but without a predicate. Lower in the grammatical hierarchy than a clause (which does have a predicate).
  • Planetary symbols, having a number of uses in Lemizh.
  • Plosive or stop, a consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases, such as ‘b p d t g k’.
  • Plot, the perspective under which Lemizh views actions: a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient).
  • Plot case, any of the cases denoting plot relations. See also More about case.
  • Polar question, a ‘yes/no’-question.
  • Positive, a degree of comparison expressing that something is equal (e.g. in colour, in height) to something else.
  • Positive cognitive effect, a cognitive effect that is helpful rather than hindering for an individual (e.g. providing true information as opposed to wrong information).
  • Postalveolar consonant, one pronounced between the tongue and the back of the alveolar ridge, such as ‘sh’.
  • Poststem, the part of the word stem following the inner case.
  • Pragmatic reality, reality that is concluded using logic and/or context. Contrast grammatical reality.
  • Pragmatics, the phenomenon that context affects meaning. Also the study thereof. Contrast semantics.
  • Predicate, a word that has one or more subordinate words or word groups such as objects and a subject. In languages distinguishing parts of speech, it is often a verb.
  • Predicate adjective, an adjective used as a predicative, as in ‘She is beautiful. She paints the bridge green’.
  • Predicate noun, a noun used as a predicative, as in ‘He is a lace-maker. Susan calls Lucy a goose’.
  • Predicate participle, a participle used as a predicative, as in ‘Let’s call it finished’.
  • Predicative, a part of a sentence that ‘predicates’ (describes) the subject or object.
  • Present tense, expressing an action in the present.
  • Prestem, the part of the word stem preceding the inner case.
  • Presumption of optimal relevance, the presumption that an utterance is relevant enough for it to be worth the addressee’s effort to process it, and the most relevant one compatible with the communicator’s abilities and preferences.
  • Presupposition, an uncontroversial background assumption.
  • Primary case, a case denoted without a secondary case suffix.
  • Primary case suffix, a liquid (l, R or r) denoting a causal, temporal or spatial case, respectively.
  • Principle of relevance, the principle that every utterance conveys a presumption of its own optimal relevance.
  • Progressive aspect or continuous aspect, expressing an ongoing action.
  • Progressive case (prog), denoting time that is passed.
  • Projection of presuppositions, when a presupposition of a clause is also a presupposition of the whole sentence.
  • Prolative case (prol), denoting crossing point/region. See also Temporal and spatial cases.
  • Pronoun, a word which substitutes for a noun or noun phrase. In Lemizh, actually a ‘pro-verb’, i.e. substituting for a verb.
  • Proposition, a truth-evaluable statement, i.e. one that is unambiguously either true or false.
  • Propositional attitude, the attitude towards the uttered proposition that the speaker wants to communicate. Modal verbs and adverbs and grammatical moods are important cues indicating the propositional attitude.
  • Pseudo-cleft or ‘what’-cleft, such as ‘What she lost was her white mouse’.
  • Pseudo-desorption, a contruction that would be a desorption but for a wrong word stem and/or inner case.
  • Punctuation.
  • P-widening, a part of the interpretation process; widening the meaning of a sentence with a partitive case.
• Q
  • Qualitative bracket, a construction like a cumulative bracket, but with the outer case of the object being a qualitative.
  • Qualitative case (qual), any of a type of cases needed for comparison.
  • Qualitative coordination, a construction like a cumulative coordination, but with one of the outer cases being a qualitative.
  • Quality in comparison, such as ‘like mad’.
  • Quantity in comparison, such as ‘as big as, bigger than’.
  • Question, a sentence in the interrogative mood. See also Propositional attitude.
  • Quotation or direct speech, speech that is quoted literally, without any modification. Contrast indirect speech.
  • Quote (punctuation mark), encloses mentioned parts of text (including quotations).
  • Q-widening, a part of the interpretation process; widening the meaning of a sentence with a qualitative case.
• R
  • Reality of the parole, the fact that the parole is part of the real world, and thus more real than the sentence’s main predicate (and the main predicate more hypothetical than the parole).
  • Receptive viewpoint, the viewpoint of ‘She gets a bottle from me’ as opposed to ‘I give her a bottle’, which has a dative viewpoint.
  • Reciprocity (reciprocal), as in ‘They are talking to each other’ as opposed to ‘They are talking to themselves’, which is reflexive.
  • Reference object, a nominative object that serves for aligning a Cartesian coordinate system.
  • Reference via the predicate or indirect reference, a relative pronoun having an inner case matching the outer case of an object of its target word. Contrast direct reference.
  • Referent assignment to pronouns, proper names, etc., a part of the interpretation process.
  • Referential use, the use of a definite noun or noun phrase to identify an individual. Contrast attributive use and generic reference.
  • Reflexive plot usage, where the nominative object equals one of the other plot cases.
  • Reflexivity (reflexive), as in ‘They are talking to themselves’ as opposed to ‘They are talking to each other’, which is reciprocal.
  • Relative adverb, an adverb introducing a relative clause, such as ‘where, when, why’.
  • Relative clause or adjectival clause, a finite clause that qualifies a noun or pronoun; usually introduced with a relative pronoun or adverb. (But ‘that’ can sometimes be left out; see Weak bracket.)
  • Relative pronoun, a pronoun introducing a relative clause, such as ‘who, which, that’.
  • Relative pronoun (in Lemizh), a pronoun referring to an action denoted by another word or by the parole. Contrast demonstrative pronoun.
  • Relevance of an utterance: the more positive cognitive effects (helpful effects on an individual’s ‘mental world’) an utterance has and the less effort is needed to process it to achieve these effects, the more relevant it is.
  • Reported or indirect speech, speech that is quoted, but not explicitly, often needing grammatical modifications. Contrast direct spech.
  • Restrict (restriction), to ‘cut down’, or describe more specifically, the set of actions described by an instance of a word, by adding one or more objects.
  • Restrictive clause or phrase, one that restricts the scope of its head and thus helps identify its referent. Contrast non-restrictive clause or phrase. See also Restrictive relative clauses.
  • Resultative predicative, a predicative describing the result of an action. Contrast depictive predicative.
  • Rhetorical question, one that does not need to be answered, but is asked to make a point.
  • R-narrowing, a part of the interpretation process; narrowing the meaning of a sentence by rephrasing.
  • Rounded vowel, one pronounced with rounded lips, such as ‘o u’.
  • Round number, a multiple of an exponential number (a power of the number system’s base).
  • Rules of compounding.
  • Rules of sentence grammar.
• S
  • Scalar inference, formerly ‘scalar implicature’, an inference working on a scale such as ⟨some, many, all⟩, e.g. ‘The witch turned many Narnians into statues.’ → ‘The witch didn’t turn all Narnians into statues.’
  • Scenic case (sce), denoting scene/‘stage’. See also Temporal and spatial cases.
  • Secondary case, a case denoted with a secondary case suffix, i.e. a partitive or qualitative case.
  • Secondary case suffix, a nasal (n or m) denoting a partitive or qualitative case, respectively.
  • Self-receiving plot usage, where the nominative equals the dative object.
  • Self-transporting plot usage, where the nominative equals the accusative object.
  • Semantics, the meaning of words, phrases and sentences, independently of context. Also the study thereof. Contrast pragmatics.
  • Semantic tree, a simple model of semantic (meaning) relationships between words, assigning them to sub- and super-categories.
  • Semelfactive aspect, expressing a one-time action.
  • Sentence, a self-contained grammatical unit consisting of one or more words.
  • Sentence adverb, an adverb that modifies a whole sentence, such as ‘Luckily, Zarathustra speaks’.
  • Sentence structure, governed by Rule One of sentence grammar.
  • Separator (punctuation mark), separates parts of text.
  • Shift of a concept, a part of the interpretation process; assigning a temporary meaning to a word or phrase that is shifted with respect to its lexical meaning.
  • Sibling (objects), objects that share the same predicate.
  • S-narrowing, a part of the interpretation process; narrowing the meaning of a word to one of its sub-category words in the semantic tree.
  • Sound (in speech).
  • Space (punctuation mark), marks a pause beween words. See also Level of words.
  • Spatial case, any of the cases (marked with an r in the case suffix) denoting spatial relations. See also Time and space.
  • Spatial verb, one conveying spatial information such as ‘in front, at the right, tall, nearby, outside’.
  • Speaker-orientation, information attributable to the speaker even if it occurs in a subordinate clause. CIs and non-restrictive constructions have this property.
  • Speech act, in the narrow sense a statement that isn’t about the world but is an action in the world (e.g. ‘You are hereby promoted’). In the wider sense any act that is achieved by an utterance, such as expressing a desire or regret, persuading or reassuring someone, etc. See also Speech act theory.
  • Stative verb, one denoting a state, such as ‘sit, owe, be’. Contrast eventive verb.
  • Stem, the part of a word that (at least some of) its grammatical forms have in common. In Lemizh, it always denotes an action.
  • Stop or plosive, a consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases, such as ‘b p d t g k’. Not to be confused with full stop.
  • Strengthening (intensifying) of words and objects.
  • Sub-category, a category more specific, or ‘further down’ in the semantic tree, than another, its super-category.
  • Subordinate, dependent on another word. In Lemizh, one level lower down in the hierarchy of a sentence.
  • Subordinate clause or dependent clause, a clause that cannot stand on its own. See also Dependent clauses: non-finite, introduced with conjunctions, introduced with pronouns or adverbs.
  • Subordinating conjunction, a type of conjunction introducing a finite subordinate clause, such as ‘that, where, because’.
  • Super-category, a category more general, or ‘higher up’ in the semantic tree, than others, its sub-categories.
  • Superlative, a degree of comparison expressing that something has the highest degree of a property.
• T
  • Tag question, such as ‘isn’t it, don’t they, will you?’.
  • Temporal case (temp), denoting time. See also Temporal and spatial verbs.
  • Temporal case, in Lemizh also any of the cases (marked with an R in the case suffix) denoting temporal relations. See also Time and space.
  • Temporal verb, one conveying temporal information such as ‘later, long lasting, during’.
  • Tense, a grammatical category describing the time of an action.
  • Tentive case (ten), denoting intention. See also Tense and Infinitive subtleties.
  • ‘that’-clause, a finite clause introduced with ‘that’.
  • Tool noun, such as ‘sail, bell, trumpet, shovel’.
  • Topic (to topicalise, topicalisation), what a sentence is about; in Lemizh more specifically the inner case of the [main] predicate, whose existence is claimed.
  • Topic nesting, a grammatical construction for conveying several topics at once.
  • Transition relevance place (TRP), the end of a turn construction unit, where another speaker may take the floor.
  • Turn construction unit (TCU), a pragmatically self-contained bulding block of a turn in a conversation.
  • Turn request, an attempt to gain the floor while someone else is speaking, such as ‘um, OK, wait’.
  • Turn-taking in a conversation.
  • Type numeral, such as ‘two/three sorts/kinds/types of’.
• U
  • Unrounded vowel, one pronounced without rounded lips, such as ‘a e i’.
  • Unvoiced or voiceless consonant, one spoken without vibrating vocal folds, such as ‘p s’.
  • Utterance modifier, a word or phrase that comments on the act of uttering a sentence, such as ‘frankly, confidentially, in case you’re interested’.
• V
  • Velar consonant, one pronounced between the back part of the tongue and the soft palate, such as ‘ng k’.
  • Verb, a part of speech denoting an action, a state or the like. In Lemizh, all words are verbs.
  • Verb of certainty, such as ‘assure, present evidence, claim, give hope, make believe’.
  • Verb of communication, such as ‘say, ask, request, command’.
  • Verb of comparison, ‘make some amount’, ‘make more / a larger amount’ and ‘make the most / the largest amount’.
  • Verb of emotion, such as ‘like, hate, scorn, fear / be afraid of, be happy’. See also Ambiguous plot usage and Adjectives.
  • Verb of movement or placement, such as ‘move, walk, sink, sit down, hide’.
  • Verb of work or profession, such as ‘make lace, bake, garden, teach, play the trumpet’.
  • Voice, a grammatical category: e.g. active (‘Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle’) or passive (‘Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas’).
  • Voiced consonant, one spoken with vibrating vocal folds, such as ‘r m b z’.
  • Voiceless or unvoiced consonant, one spoken without vibrating vocal folds, such as ‘p s’.
  • Vowel, a sound pronounced with an open vocal tract, such as ‘a e i o u’. Contrast consonant.
  • Vowel trapezium, a diagram showing vowel pronunciation.
• W
  • Weak bracket, a bracket with an inner motivational or contextual case, used for translating some relative clauses.
  • Weakening (toning down) of words and objects.
  • Weak implicature (to weakly implicate), an implicature for which the speaker can hardly be held responsible.
  • Weak linking, linking a sentence to another by turning it into a motivational or contextual object.
  • Weighting, strengthening or weakening of words and objects.
  • Weighting numeral, one describing a relative quantity such as ‘much, quite a lot, a bit’.
  • ‘what about’-question.
  • ‘what’-cleft or pseudo-cleft, such as ‘What she lost was her white mouse’.
  • Wh-question, a question introduced with a pronoun or adverb, as these words often begin with ‘wh’ (e.g. ‘who, where’).
  • Widening of a concept, a part of the interpretation process; assigning a temporary meaning to a word or phrase that is wider than its lexical meaning.
  • Word composition, the functional parts of a word.
  • Word stem, the part of a word that (at least some of) its grammatical forms have in common. In Lemizh, it always denotes an action.
  • World of the parole, the world a sentence is talking about.
• X
• Y
  • ‘yes/no’-question or polar question.
• Z
  • Zero, empty, consisting of zero sounds.
  • Zero, the level of the Lemizh parole.

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