English for linguistics students and language teachers
Linguistics & Grammar Vocabulary: 100 Key English Terms
English is the main working language of linguistics: most textbooks, research articles, corpora and conferences use it, and English teachers meet the same terms in methodology courses and teaching qualifications. This glossary brings together the terms linguistics students and language teachers need first, from phoneme, morpheme and clause to tense and aspect, implicature, dialect and interlanguage, with Turkish equivalents and examples from lectures, seminars and classrooms. It also shows where the English and Turkish grammar traditions use different labels for the same idea, and where Turkish speakers typically make mistakes.
100 terms
10 topics
61 core terms
200 example sentences
Read, understand, keep going
No account needed. Read the meaning, see where the term is used, then study the examples. Click any word in the lesson for help. You can also select a word and press Alt + Enter.
Core Concepts
linguistics
noun
Meaning
The scientific study of human language: how sounds, words and sentences are structured, how meaning works, and how language is learned, used and changes over time.
Where you use it
The name of the academic field (study linguistics, a degree in linguistics) and of its branches (applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, historical linguistics). Although it ends in -s, it takes a singular verb: linguistics is.
Examples
Linguistics describes how people actually speak; it does not tell them how they should speak.
She did a master's in applied linguistics before she started teaching English at a university.
Usage note
A linguist is a scientist of language, not necessarily someone who speaks many languages; English calls that person a polyglot. The adjective is linguistic.
Common phrases
applied linguistics · historical linguistics · corpus linguistics · study linguistics · a linguistics degree
The system of rules that shows how words change their form and combine into phrases and sentences in a language; also a book that describes these rules.
Where you use it
Teachers use it for the rules taught in class (a grammar point, grammar exercises); linguists use it for the whole system a speaker knows, which in some theories includes sounds and meaning. Usually uncountable, but a grammar can mean a book or a description.
Examples
Today's grammar point is the difference between the past simple and the present perfect.
A descriptive grammar of a language records how its speakers really use it.
Usage note
The word ends in -ar: grammar, not grammer. This is one of the most common spelling mistakes in English, even among native speakers.
A person who learned a language from early childhood as one of their first languages and uses it naturally, without having studied it formally.
Where you use it
Used in research (native speaker judgements), job adverts and teaching debates. Many researchers now question the native speaker as the only model for learners and prefer terms like L1 user or expert speaker.
Examples
We asked ten native speakers whether each sentence sounded natural.
Most people who speak English today are not native speakers of it.
Common phrases
native speaker of English · native-speaker intuition · non-native speaker · near-native
All the words and meaningful word parts of a language, or the mental store of words a speaker knows, together with their meanings and how they are used.
Where you use it
Linguists talk about the mental lexicon in psycholinguistics and about lexical items in grammar. Lexicon is more technical than vocabulary; in everyday use it can also mean a dictionary, especially of an ancient language.
Examples
English borrowed a large part of its lexicon from French and Latin.
Studies of the mental lexicon test how quickly people recognize real and invented words.
Common phrases
mental lexicon · lexical item · the English lexicon · lexical access
A large, organized collection of real written or spoken texts, stored on a computer and used to study how language is actually used; the plural is corpora.
Where you use it
Corpus linguistics uses software to find frequencies, collocations and concordance lines. Well-known examples are the British National Corpus and COCA; Turkish has the Turkish National Corpus (TNC). Modern learner dictionaries are based on corpus data.
Examples
A quick corpus search shows that 'make a decision' is far more common than 'do a decision'.
We built a learner corpus of 500 essays written by Turkish university students.
Usage note
In academic writing the plural is corpora; corpuses exists but is rare. Do not confuse corpus with corpse, which means a dead body.
Common phrases
corpus linguistics · learner corpus · spoken corpus · corpus data · corpus-based
Describes an approach that tells people how they should speak or write according to rules of 'correct' usage, instead of describing how they actually use the language.
Where you use it
Usually contrasted with descriptive. Modern linguistics is descriptive, while style guides, usage manuals and some school grammars are prescriptive. The noun is prescriptivism, and its supporters are prescriptivists.
Examples
'Never end a sentence with a preposition' is a prescriptive rule that most linguists reject.
A descriptive grammar records 'Who did you see?', while a prescriptive one insists on 'Whom'.
A speaker's unconscious knowledge of the rules of their language, as opposed to performance, which is how they actually use it in real situations, with slips and hesitations.
Where you use it
The competence-performance distinction comes from Noam Chomsky (1965). Dell Hymes later proposed communicative competence, which became a basis of communicative language teaching. Teachers also talk about grammatical and pragmatic competence.
Examples
A native speaker's competence includes knowing that 'Colorless green ideas sleep furiously' is grammatical but meaningless.
The course aims to develop learners' communicative competence, not just their grammar.
Common phrases
linguistic competence · communicative competence · competence and performance · pragmatic competence
Language in use beyond the single sentence, such as conversations, lectures or newspaper articles, and the way these stretches of language are organized and connected.
Where you use it
Discourse analysis studies how texts hang together (cohesion, coherence) and how they reflect social relations. Teachers call words like however, anyway and well discourse markers. In social theory, a discourse can mean a way of talking about a topic.
Examples
Discourse markers like 'anyway' help listeners follow a conversation.
Her thesis is a discourse analysis of how doctors and patients reach decisions together.
Usage note
In Turkish, söylem often suggests political rhetoric; in linguistics, discourse is a neutral term for any language in use.
The branch of linguistics that studies speech sounds as physical events: how the mouth and throat produce them, how they travel and how the ear perceives them.
Where you use it
Found in course titles and textbooks; its three main areas are articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics. It takes a singular verb. Teachers use phonetic symbols from the IPA to show pronunciation.
Examples
In the phonetics lab we recorded our own vowels and measured them in Praat.
Articulatory phonetics explains why /θ/ is hard for many Turkish learners.
The study of how a particular language organizes its sounds into a system: which sound differences change meaning, how sounds combine and how they affect each other.
Where you use it
Often paired with phonetics in course titles. Phonetics asks what sounds are physically; phonology asks how they function in one language. You talk about the phonology of English, of Turkish, or of a learner's speech.
Examples
In English phonology, /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes because pat and bat mean different things.
Vowel harmony is one of the key features of Turkish phonology.
Usage note
Turkish students often mix up the Turkish names: phonetics is sesbilgisi or fonetik, phonology is sesbilim or fonoloji. Check which one an exam question really asks about.
The smallest unit of sound that can change meaning in a particular language, such as /p/ and /b/, which make pin and bin different words in English.
Where you use it
Written between slashes (/θ/), while detailed phonetic forms go in square brackets ([tʰ]). Used in phonology, pronunciation teaching and early reading (phonics). Standard British descriptions count about 44 phonemes in English; the number varies by accent.
Examples
English has two separate phonemes, /iː/ and /ɪ/, so sheep and ship are different words.
Turkish learners often merge the phonemes /v/ and /w/, so 'vest' and 'west' sound the same.
Usage note
A phoneme is a sound, not a letter: the word 'thick' has five letters but only three phonemes, /θ/, /ɪ/ and /k/.
A unit of pronunciation built around a vowel sound, often with consonants before or after it; 'banana' has three syllables: ba-na-na.
Where you use it
Teachers count syllables, mark the stressed syllable and clap syllables in class. Phonologists talk about the onset, nucleus and coda of a syllable. Related adjectives: monosyllabic (one syllable) and polysyllabic (many syllables).
Examples
How many syllables are there in 'comfortable'? Most speakers say three, not four.
Turkish learners sometimes add an extra syllable to 'school' and say 'is-kool'.
Extra force or length given to one syllable in a word, or to one word in a sentence, which makes it sound stronger and clearer than the others.
Where you use it
Teachers distinguish word stress (PHOtograph, phoTOgraphy) from sentence stress on the important words. Dictionaries mark the main stress with ˈ before the syllable. As a verb: stress the second syllable.
Examples
The stress moves when you add a suffix: PHOtograph, phoTOgrapher, photoGRAphic.
In 'I didn't take your pen', changing the sentence stress changes what you mean.
Usage note
Many Turkish words are stressed on the last syllable, so Turkish learners tend to stress the end of English words too: say deVElop, not develOP.
Common phrases
word stress · sentence stress · primary stress · stress pattern · stress-timed language
A speech sound made with the air flowing freely through the mouth, without the tongue or lips blocking it, such as the sounds in see, cat and boot.
Where you use it
Teachers separate vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u) from vowel sounds: English has five vowel letters but around 20 vowel sounds in standard British English. Vowels are described as short or long, front or back, high or low.
Examples
Turkish has eight vowels, but English has many more vowel sounds, which is why ship and sheep are tricky.
The vowel in 'cup' does not exist in Turkish.
Common phrases
vowel sound · long vowel · short vowel · vowel harmony · vowel chart
A speech sound made by partly or completely blocking the air in the mouth or throat, such as /p/, /s/ or /m/; also a letter that usually spells such a sound.
Where you use it
Phoneticians describe consonants by voicing, place and manner of articulation (/b/ is a voiced bilabial plosive). Teachers talk about consonant clusters, silent consonants and final consonants.
Examples
The word 'strengths' starts with a cluster of three consonants.
English has two 'th' consonants, /θ/ and /ð/, which Turkish learners often replace with /t/ and /d/.
The rise and fall of the voice across a phrase or sentence, which shows things like a question, surprise, the speaker's attitude or whether they have finished.
Where you use it
Teachers draw arrows to show rising and falling intonation and practise question tags and lists. In phonology, intonation belongs to prosody together with stress and rhythm.
Examples
With falling intonation, 'You're coming, aren't you?' expects agreement rather than an answer.
Flat intonation can make a polite request sound rude in English.
Short for International Phonetic Alphabet: a set of symbols in which each symbol stands for one speech sound, used to write down pronunciation in any language.
Where you use it
Learner dictionaries give pronunciations in IPA, and teachers use IPA charts in class. Phonemic transcription goes between slashes (/ʃɪp/), detailed phonetic transcription between square brackets.
Examples
If you can read IPA, you can check the pronunciation of any word in the dictionary.
Transcribe these ten words in IPA before next week's seminar.
Usage note
Say the letters: I-P-A. The same abbreviation also stands for the International Phonetic Association, which publishes the alphabet.
Common phrases
IPA symbol · IPA chart · transcribe in IPA · IPA transcription
Two words that differ in only one sound in the same position, such as ship and sheep or fan and van, which shows that the two sounds are separate phonemes.
Where you use it
Used in phonology to identify phonemes and in pronunciation teaching for listening and speaking drills. Teachers choose minimal pairs that match their learners' problems, such as /v/ and /w/ for Turkish speakers.
Examples
We practised minimal pairs like 'live' and 'leave' until the class could hear the difference.
'Pat' and 'bat' form a minimal pair, so /p/ and /b/ are different phonemes in English.
Common phrases
minimal pair drill · minimal pair test · practise minimal pairs · find a minimal pair
One of the different ways a single phoneme is pronounced in different positions, which native speakers usually hear as the same sound, like the /p/ in pin and in spin.
Where you use it
Written in square brackets: the [pʰ] in pin is aspirated, the [p] in spin is not. Allophones do not change meaning in that language, but using the wrong one can make a speaker sound foreign.
Examples
In English, the light [l] in 'leaf' and the dark [ɫ] in 'feel' are allophones of one phoneme.
Two sounds can be allophones in one language and separate phonemes in another.
Common phrases
allophone of a phoneme · allophonic variation · complementary distribution · aspirated allophone
Describes a speech sound produced while the vocal folds vibrate, such as /b/, /d/, /z/ and all vowels; sounds made without this vibration are voiceless.
Where you use it
Phonetics describes consonants in voiced and voiceless pairs (/p/-/b/, /s/-/z/). Teachers ask learners to touch their throat to feel the vibration. Voicing also explains the different pronunciations of the -ed and -s endings.
Examples
After a voiced sound, the -ed ending is pronounced /d/, as in 'played'.
Turkish speakers often make final voiced consonants voiceless, so 'bad' can sound like 'bat'.
The point in the mouth or throat where the airflow is blocked or narrowed to make a consonant, such as the two lips for /p/ or the teeth for /θ/.
Where you use it
Together with voicing and manner of articulation, it is one of the three labels used to describe consonants: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, velar, glottal and so on. Teachers use mouth diagrams to show it.
Examples
/θ/ and /s/ differ in place of articulation: for /θ/ the tongue touches the teeth.
Label each consonant on the chart with its place of articulation.
Common phrases
manner of articulation · place and manner of articulation · articulatory phonetics · point of articulation
The short, weak, central vowel /ə/, the most common vowel sound in English, heard in unstressed syllables such as the first sound of 'about' or the end of 'teacher'.
Where you use it
Teachers point out that almost any vowel letter can be pronounced as schwa when unstressed (banana, problem, police). The weak forms of words like to, a, of and can also use schwa in natural speech.
Examples
In 'computer', the first and last vowels are both schwa.
Turkish learners often pronounce every vowel fully, so they need to practise the schwa.
Common phrases
schwa sound · reduced to schwa · unstressed schwa · weak form
The study of the internal structure of words: how they are built from smaller meaningful parts such as roots, prefixes and suffixes.
Where you use it
Used for the field (a course in morphology) and for the word structure of one language (Turkish morphology is very rich). Its two main parts are inflectional and derivational morphology. In biology the same word means the study of the form of living things.
Examples
Turkish is an agglutinative language, so its morphology lets one word carry the meaning of a whole English sentence.
English verb morphology is fairly simple: a regular verb has only four forms, such as walk, walks, walked and walking.
The smallest part of a word that has its own meaning or grammatical job, such as un-, happy and -ness in unhappiness.
Where you use it
Linguists count and label morphemes when they analyse words. Free morphemes can stand alone (book); bound morphemes cannot (-s, re-). Teachers use the idea to show learners how word families are built.
Examples
The word 'teachers' has three morphemes: teach, -er and -s.
In the Turkish word 'evlerimizden', each morpheme adds one piece of meaning: house, plural, 'our' and 'from'.
A piece added to a word to change its meaning or grammatical form, such as a prefix at the start (re-) or a suffix at the end (-ed).
Where you use it
The umbrella term for prefixes, suffixes and, in some languages, infixes. Affixes can be inflectional (-s, -ed) or derivational (un-, -ness). As a verb, stressed on the second syllable, affix means attach.
Examples
Turkish relies almost entirely on suffixes, while English uses both kinds of affix.
Learners can guess many new words by spotting a familiar affix such as -less or dis-.
A letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word to make a new word with a different meaning, such as un- in unhappy or re- in rewrite.
Where you use it
English prefixes are mostly derivational and usually keep the word class (happy, unhappy). Common groups are negative prefixes (un-, in-, dis-), time prefixes (pre-, post-) and number prefixes (bi-, multi-).
Examples
The prefix in- becomes im- before p, so we write impossible, not inpossible.
Ask students to sort these words by prefix: dislike, unfair, misread, overcook.
Common phrases
negative prefix · add a prefix · common prefixes · prefix meaning 'not'
A letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning, its word class or its grammatical form, such as -ness, -ful or -ed.
Where you use it
Suffixes can be inflectional (plural -s, past -ed) or derivational (-ness turns kind into kindness). Derivational suffixes often change the part of speech and sometimes move the stress.
Examples
Adding the suffix -ity moves the stress: ACtive, acTIVity.
In Turkish a single word can take five or six suffixes in a row.
The core part of a word that carries its basic meaning and cannot be broken into smaller meaningful parts, such as 'form' in reformation or 'kitap' in kitaplık.
Where you use it
Used in morphology and vocabulary teaching. Many English roots come from Latin or Greek (dict, scrib, graph), so knowing them helps with academic words. Root and stem are sometimes used loosely as synonyms, but linguists keep them apart.
Examples
The Greek root 'graph' appears in photograph, graphic and autograph.
Find the root of each word first, then look at what the affixes add.
A change in the form of a word, usually by adding an ending, to show grammatical information such as tense, number, person or case, without making a new word.
Where you use it
Contrasted with derivation. English has only eight inflectional endings (plural -s, possessive -'s, third-person -s, -ed, -en, -ing, -er and -est), while Turkish has many more. An older British spelling is inflexion.
Examples
In 'walks', the -s is an inflection that marks third person singular present.
Old English had far more inflection than modern English does.
The process of making a new word from an existing one, usually by adding an affix, as when teach becomes teacher or happy becomes unhappy.
Where you use it
Contrasted with inflection: derivation creates a new dictionary entry and often changes the part of speech. Other word-formation processes include compounding, conversion (email as a verb) and blending (brunch).
Examples
Derivation turns the verb 'employ' into employer, employee and employment.
Turkish derivation mostly uses suffixes such as -lik and -ci.
Usage note
In everyday English derivation also means origin (the derivation of a word from Latin); linguists call that etymology.
Common phrases
word derivation · derivational suffix · derivational morphology · word formation
A word made by joining two or more words, such as classroom, mother-in-law or bus stop; it can be written as one word, with hyphens or as separate words.
Where you use it
Compounding is one of the most productive ways to make new nouns in English. Noun compounds usually have stress on the first part: a GREENhouse (for plants) is different from a green HOUSE (a house painted green).
Examples
'Bus stop' is a compound even though it is written as two words.
In the Turkish compound 'otobüs durağı', the second noun takes a suffix, unlike English 'bus stop'.
Usage note
In sentence grammar, a compound sentence means two main clauses joined by and, but or or; this is a different idea from a compound word.
Common phrases
compound noun · compound word · compound adjective · form a compound
The part of a word to which inflectional endings are added; it can be a bare root (walk) or a root with derivational affixes (teacher in teachers).
Where you use it
Used in morphology and language teaching, especially for agglutinative languages like Turkish, where long words are built on a stem. In computing, stemming means cutting words down to their stem for searching.
Examples
In 'kitaplıklar', 'kitaplık' is the stem and 'kitap' is the root.
Add the plural -s to the stem 'teacher' to get 'teachers'.
The study of how words are combined into phrases and sentences, and the rules of a language that decide which word orders and structures are possible.
Where you use it
Used for the field and for the sentence rules of one language (English syntax, the syntax of questions). Programmers use the same word for the rules of a programming language. The adjective is syntactic.
Examples
English syntax requires a subject in almost every sentence, so we say 'It is raining', not 'Is raining'.
Our syntax module uses tree diagrams to show how phrases are built.
Common phrases
English syntax · syntactic structure · syntactic analysis · theory of syntax
A group of words that works as one unit in a sentence but usually has no subject-verb pair, such as 'the old library' or 'in the morning'.
Where you use it
Linguists name phrases after their head: noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, adjective phrase. In everyday English, phrase also means any short fixed expression (a useful phrase).
Examples
'In the morning' is a prepositional phrase that tells us when.
In syntax, even a single word like 'Ankara' can count as a noun phrase.
The usual order in which words and sentence parts such as subject, verb and object appear in a language, for example subject-verb-object in English.
Where you use it
Used in syntax, language typology and teaching (word order in questions, the position of adverbs). English is SVO and Turkish is SOV. English word order is fairly fixed because it has few case endings; Turkish word order is more flexible.
Examples
Changing the word order in 'The dog bit the man' completely changes the meaning.
Turkish learners sometimes keep Turkish word order and put the verb at the end of English sentences.
Common phrases
basic word order · SVO word order · free word order · word order in questions
A group of words built around a noun or pronoun that works as one unit, often as subject or object, such as 'the tall man in the blue coat'.
Where you use it
Abbreviated NP in syntax. A noun phrase has a head noun with optional determiners and modifiers before and after it. Academic English packs a lot of information into long noun phrases.
Examples
In 'The results of the second study were surprising', the whole noun phrase 'the results of the second study' is the subject.
Long noun phrases such as 'a significant increase in student numbers' are typical of academic texts.
Common phrases
head of a noun phrase · complex noun phrase · noun phrase modification · NP
A rule that makes words in a sentence match each other in features such as number, person or gender, as when a singular subject takes a singular verb.
Where you use it
In English the most important case is subject-verb agreement (she works, they work); pronouns also agree with the nouns they refer to. British grammars also use the word concord.
Examples
'The list of names are long' breaks subject-verb agreement, because the head noun is 'list'.
Turkish verbs show person agreement in every tense, but English agreement appears mainly in the third person singular -s.
Common phrases
subject-verb agreement · number agreement · agreement error · concord
A drawing that shows the structure of a sentence or word as branches, with each phrase and its parts shown as nodes connected by lines.
Where you use it
Standard in syntax courses and exams (draw a tree diagram for this sentence). Labels such as S, NP, VP and PP sit on the nodes. Some textbooks use labelled bracketing instead, which shows the same information on one line.
Examples
The tree diagram shows two possible structures for 'old men and women'.
Draw a tree diagram for the sentence and label every phrase.
Common phrases
draw a tree diagram · syntax tree · label the nodes · phrase structure tree
A word or group of words that functions as a single unit in the structure of a sentence, such as a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase.
Where you use it
A core term in syntax. Linguists use constituency tests, such as replacing a group of words with a pronoun or moving it, to check whether it forms a constituent. In politics the same word means a voter in an area.
Examples
'On the table' is a constituent, because we can replace it with 'there'.
In a tree diagram, each node represents a constituent.
The study of meaning in language: what words, phrases and sentences mean, and how their meanings relate to each other and to the world.
Where you use it
The name of the field and its branches (lexical semantics, formal semantics). In everyday English, 'it's just semantics' means an argument is only about words, not about real facts; avoid this sense in academic writing.
Examples
Semantics looks at what a sentence means on its own; pragmatics looks at what the speaker means by it.
In lexical semantics we compare words like big, large and huge.
The study of how context affects meaning: how speakers mean more than they actually say, and how listeners work out intended meanings, politeness and hints.
Where you use it
Used in linguistics and language teaching (pragmatic competence, pragmatic failure). Typical topics are speech acts, implicature, deixis and politeness. In everyday English the adjective pragmatic means practical or realistic, which is a different sense.
Examples
'Can you pass the salt?' asks about ability, but pragmatics explains why everyone hears it as a request.
Learners with good grammar can still struggle with pragmatics, for example by sounding too direct in emails.
A word or phrase that means the same or nearly the same as another one in at least some contexts, such as big and large, or start and begin.
Where you use it
Linguists point out that perfect synonyms are very rare: words differ in register, collocation or connotation (begin sounds more formal than start). Teachers use synonyms for paraphrasing in writing tasks and exams.
Examples
'Large' is a synonym of 'big', but we say 'a big mistake', not usually 'a large mistake'.
Use a dictionary of synonyms so you don't repeat 'important' five times in one paragraph.
Common phrases
close synonym · near synonym · synonym for · synonymous with
The situation, surrounding text and shared knowledge in which something is said or written, which help listeners and readers understand the intended meaning.
Where you use it
Central in pragmatics, discourse analysis and teaching (guess the meaning from context). Linguists separate the linguistic context, also called co-text, from the situational and cultural context.
Examples
Without context, 'It's cold in here' might be a comment or a request to close the window.
Try to work out the meaning of new words from context before you check the dictionary.
Common phrases
in context · out of context · context of situation · cultural context · from context
The quality of having more than one possible meaning, caused either by a word with several senses or by a structure that can be analysed in more than one way.
Where you use it
Linguists separate lexical ambiguity (bank: river side or money) from structural ambiguity (I saw the man with the telescope). Writers and editors try to remove ambiguity; jokes and headlines often use it on purpose.
Examples
'Visiting relatives can be boring' is a famous example of structural ambiguity.
Rewrite the instruction to remove the ambiguity.
Usage note
The adjective is ambiguous. It is not the same as vague: ambiguous means having two or more clear meanings, vague means not clear or not precise.
An utterance seen as an action, such as promising, apologizing, requesting, warning or thanking, rather than only as a way of giving information.
Where you use it
From speech act theory, developed by J. L. Austin and John Searle. Linguists distinguish direct and indirect speech acts; 'Could you open the window?' is an indirect request. Teachers use the idea to teach functions like making suggestions.
Examples
Apologizing is a speech act that varies a lot across cultures.
'I promise I'll be there' does not describe a promise; the speech act itself is the promise.
Common phrases
indirect speech act · direct speech act · speech act theory · perform a speech act
Meaning that a speaker suggests without saying it directly and that a listener works out from context, as when 'Some students passed' suggests that not all of them did.
Where you use it
The term comes from the philosopher H. P. Grice, who linked it to the cooperative principle and its maxims of quantity, quality, relation and manner. Unlike entailment, an implicature can be cancelled: 'Some passed; in fact, all did.'
Examples
If a reference letter only praises a candidate's handwriting, the implicature is that the candidate is weak.
Learners may miss the implicature in 'It's getting late', which often means 'I want to leave'.
Background information that a sentence takes for granted as true, such as 'I have a car' in 'My car is being repaired'.
Where you use it
Presuppositions survive negation: 'My car isn't being repaired' still assumes I have a car. Words like stop, again, the and regret trigger them. Loaded questions and advertising often exploit presuppositions.
Examples
'Have you stopped skipping classes?' carries the presupposition that you used to skip them.
Advertisers like presupposition because listeners accept it without noticing.
The use of words whose meaning depends on who is speaking, where and when, such as I, you, here, there, now, this and yesterday.
Where you use it
Linguists distinguish person deixis (I, you), place deixis (here, there) and time deixis (now, tomorrow). Deictic words often change in reported speech: here can become there, and tomorrow can become the next day.
Examples
A note that says 'Back in ten minutes' is useless if you don't know when it was written; that is deixis at work.
Turkish has a three-way system of place deixis: bu, şu and o.
Usage note
Both /ˈdaɪksɪs/ and /ˈdeɪksɪs/ are heard. The adjective is deictic.
Common phrases
person deixis · time deixis · place deixis · deictic expression
The feelings, attitudes or associations a word carries beyond its basic meaning, such as the positive feel of 'slim' compared with 'skinny'.
Where you use it
Contrasted with denotation, the literal meaning. Connotations can be positive, negative or neutral and often depend on culture, so translators and writers pay close attention to them.
Examples
'Cheap' has a negative connotation of low quality, so shops prefer 'affordable'.
'Stubborn' and 'determined' can describe the same behaviour, but their connotations are very different.
Common phrases
negative connotation · positive connotation · cultural connotation · connotation and denotation
The situation in which one word has several related meanings, such as 'head' meaning a part of the body, the leader of a group or the top of a page.
Where you use it
Contrasted with homonymy, where two unrelated words share the same form (bank of a river, bank for money). Dictionaries usually list polysemous senses under one entry and homonyms as separate entries.
Examples
The verb 'run' is a classic case of polysemy: you can run a race, a company or a computer program.
Polysemy makes frequent words like 'get' and 'take' surprisingly hard to learn.
Common phrases
polysemous word · polysemy and homonymy · lexical polysemy · regular polysemy
A word that means the opposite of another word, such as hot and cold, buy and sell, or alive and dead.
Where you use it
Linguists distinguish gradable antonyms (hot and cold, with warm in between), complementary antonyms (alive and dead) and converse pairs (buy and sell). Teachers use antonyms to build vocabulary and in exam tasks.
Examples
'Cheap' and 'expensive' are gradable antonyms, because something can be fairly cheap or very expensive.
What is the antonym of 'increase' in this graph description?
Common phrases
gradable antonym · complementary antonym · antonym of · synonyms and antonyms
One of the classes into which words are grouped by their grammatical behaviour, such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjunction.
Where you use it
Common in teaching and dictionaries (Which part of speech is 'fast' here?). Linguists often prefer the terms word class or lexical category. The plural is parts of speech.
Examples
'Fast' can belong to four parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective and adverb.
Dictionaries show the part of speech right after the headword, for example n. or adj.
Common phrases
identify the part of speech · the eight parts of speech · word class · lexical category
A word that names a person, place, thing, idea or feeling and can usually be the subject or object of a verb, such as teacher, Ankara, chair or freedom.
Where you use it
Teachers classify nouns as countable or uncountable, common or proper, concrete or abstract. Linguists define nouns by their behaviour: they take plural -s, follow articles and act as the head of noun phrases.
Examples
In 'The new teacher bought a laptop', teacher and laptop are nouns.
Abstract nouns like information and advice are uncountable in English, so they never take -s.
A word that shows an action, event or state, such as run, become or know; in English it changes its form to show tense and agreement.
Where you use it
Teachers talk about regular and irregular verbs, main and auxiliary verbs, and verb forms (base form, past simple, past participle). In a clause the verb is the core of the predicate.
Examples
Go, went, gone: irregular verbs simply have to be memorized.
In English the verb usually comes before the object, but in Turkish it comes at the end of the sentence.
Common phrases
irregular verb · main verb · verb form · phrasal verb · conjugate a verb
A word that describes a noun or pronoun or gives more information about it, such as tall, interesting or Turkish.
Where you use it
Adjectives can come before a noun (an old house) or after linking verbs like be, seem and become (the house is old). Teachers cover comparative and superlative forms and the usual order of several adjectives.
Examples
English adjectives do not take a plural ending: we say 'two big cars', not 'two bigs cars'.
Nationality adjectives such as Turkish and Spanish always start with a capital letter.
Common phrases
comparative adjective · superlative adjective · possessive adjective · order of adjectives
A word that adds information to a verb, an adjective, another adverb or a whole sentence, such as how, when, where or how often something happens.
Where you use it
Many adverbs end in -ly (quickly, carefully), but many do not (fast, often, here). Teachers group them as adverbs of manner, time, place, frequency and degree, and practise their position in the sentence.
Examples
Adverbs of frequency usually go before the main verb: 'She always checks her email first.'
In 'He drives really carefully', both really and carefully are adverbs.
Usage note
Not every -ly word is an adverb: friendly, lovely and lonely are adjectives. Say 'in a friendly way', not 'friendlily'.
Common phrases
adverb of frequency · adverb of manner · sentence adverb · adverb position
A word placed before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase to show its relation to the rest of the sentence, such as place, time or direction: in, on, at, to, with.
Where you use it
Teachers practise prepositions of time and place and dependent prepositions (interested in, depend on). In English they can also come at the end of questions and clauses: Who are you talking to?
Examples
Turkish expresses most English prepositions with case suffixes: 'in the house' is simply 'evde'.
We use the preposition 'at' with clock times, 'on' with days and 'in' with months.
Usage note
Turkish case endings cause typical errors: learners say 'arrive to the airport', copying 'havalimanına', instead of 'arrive at the airport'.
Common phrases
preposition of time · preposition of place · dependent preposition · end a sentence with a preposition
A word that joins words, phrases or clauses, such as and, but, or, because, although and when.
Where you use it
Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, so) join equal parts; subordinating conjunctions (because, although, if, when) introduce subordinate clauses. Teachers also say linking words or connectors, a group that includes adverbs like however.
Examples
'Because' is a subordinating conjunction, so 'Because I was tired.' is not a complete sentence.
'However' is not a conjunction, so it cannot join two clauses with just a comma.
One of the words a, an and the, used before a noun to show whether it is general or specific, and whether it is new or already known to the listener.
Where you use it
Grammar books call the the definite article and a/an the indefinite article; using no article is called the zero article. Linguists treat articles as one type of determiner.
Examples
Use the definite article when the listener knows which one you mean: 'Can you close the window?'
Article errors are among the most common mistakes in Turkish students' essays.
Usage note
A newspaper article and a grammatical article are the same word. Choose a or an by sound, not by spelling: an hour, a university.
Common phrases
definite article · indefinite article · zero article · article use
A noun that has singular and plural forms and can be used with numbers and a/an, such as book, idea or student; uncountable nouns like water or advice cannot.
Where you use it
Learner dictionaries mark nouns [C] for countable and [U] for uncountable. Countable nouns take many and few; uncountable ones take much and little. Many nouns are countable in one sense and uncountable in another (a coffee, some coffee).
Examples
'Suggestion' is a countable noun, but 'advice' is not: say 'some advice', not 'an advice'.
Check the dictionary to see whether 'research' is a countable noun.
Usage note
Information, advice, research, equipment, furniture and news are uncountable in English, although their Turkish equivalents can be made plural (bilgiler, tavsiyeler).
Common phrases
countable and uncountable nouns · count noun · mass noun · plural countable noun
A word that comes before a noun to show which one or how much is meant, such as the, a, this, my, some, every or two.
Where you use it
Modern grammars group articles, demonstratives (this, those), possessives (my, their), quantifiers (some, many) and numbers as determiners. Normally only one central determiner comes before a noun: we cannot say 'the my book'.
Examples
A singular countable noun needs a determiner, so 'I bought car' is incorrect.
In 'those three old books', 'those' and 'three' are determiners and 'old' is an adjective.
Common phrases
possessive determiner · demonstrative determiner · quantifier · zero determiner
A grammatical category, shown by the form of the verb, that places an event in time relative to the moment of speaking, such as present or past.
Where you use it
Teachers use tense for all the verb patterns in a coursebook (the present perfect tense, the twelve tenses). Many linguists say English marks only two tenses on the verb, present and past, and treat the rest as aspect or modality.
Examples
'She walked' and 'she walks' differ in tense: past versus present.
English has no future tense ending; it uses will, be going to or the present continuous instead.
Usage note
In grammar, time is the real-world idea and tense is the verb form: past tense can talk about the present ('I wish I knew'). Tense meaning 'nervous' is a different word.
Common phrases
past tense · present tense · tense and aspect · verb tense · sequence of tenses
A grammatical category that shows how an action unfolds in time, for example whether it is ongoing, completed or repeated, rather than when it happens.
Where you use it
English has two aspects marked with auxiliaries: progressive (be + -ing) and perfect (have + past participle). They combine with tense: the past perfect progressive is past tense with both aspects.
Examples
'I read the report' and 'I was reading the report' have the same tense but a different aspect.
Turkish marks aspect with suffixes like -yor, while English uses auxiliaries.
A verb used with a main verb to form tenses, questions, negatives and the passive, mainly be, have and do, plus modal verbs such as can and will.
Where you use it
Often shortened to auxiliary or called a helping verb. Auxiliaries move in questions (Have you finished?), take not (doesn't) and appear in short answers and question tags (Yes, I do; ..., isn't it?).
Examples
In 'Did you call her?', did is the auxiliary verb and call is the main verb.
English forms most questions by moving an auxiliary verb in front of the subject: 'Has she left?'
Common phrases
auxiliary do · modal auxiliary · primary auxiliary · auxiliary and main verb
An auxiliary verb such as can, could, may, might, must, should, will or would that expresses ideas like ability, possibility, permission, obligation or advice.
Where you use it
Modal verbs have only one form (no -s, no -ing) and are followed by the bare infinitive: she can swim, not she cans swim or she can to swim. Linguists study their meanings under the heading of modality.
Examples
The modal verb 'must' and the phrase 'have to' both express obligation, but mustn't and don't have to mean very different things.
'Might' is a modal verb of possibility: 'It might rain later.'
Common phrases
modal verb of obligation · modal verb of possibility · use a modal verb · semi-modal
A sentence structure in which the subject receives the action instead of doing it, made with be plus a past participle, as in 'The bridge was built in 1973'.
Where you use it
Used when the doer is unknown, obvious or less important, and very common in scientific and academic writing (The samples were analysed). Teachers contrast it with the active voice; 'by' introduces the doer.
Examples
In the methods section, the passive voice keeps the focus on the procedure: 'The participants were interviewed twice.'
Rewrite these active sentences in the passive voice.
Usage note
Only verbs with an object can be passive: 'The accident was happened' is wrong because happen has no object. Say 'The accident happened'.
Common phrases
use the passive voice · in the passive voice · active and passive voice · passive construction
A verb form made with have or has plus a past participle, used to link a past action or state to the present, as in 'I have lost my keys'.
Where you use it
Teachers call it a tense; linguists describe it as present tense with perfect aspect. Typical uses are life experience (Have you ever...?), recent news, and situations that continue up to now (with for and since).
Examples
We use the present perfect with 'since': 'I have lived here since 2019.'
The present perfect is hard for Turkish learners because Turkish has no single equivalent form.
Usage note
Do not use it with a finished past time: say 'I saw him yesterday', not 'I have seen him yesterday'. American English uses the present perfect less often than British English.
Common phrases
present perfect tense · present perfect simple · present perfect continuous · use the present perfect
The verb form made with be plus the -ing form, used to show that an action is in progress, temporary or unfinished at a certain time, as in 'She is working'.
Where you use it
Linguists say progressive; coursebooks usually say continuous (present continuous, past continuous). It combines with any tense and with the perfect. Stative verbs like know and believe are rarely used in the progressive.
Examples
'I was cooking when you called' uses the progressive aspect for the longer, background action.
Turkish -yor covers some uses of the progressive aspect but also habits, so learners say 'I am going to work every day'.
The basic form of a verb, which shows no tense or person, often used with 'to' (to go, to write) and sometimes without it (She can go).
Where you use it
Grammar books distinguish the to-infinitive and the bare infinitive. Teachers practise verbs followed by the infinitive (want to, decide to) and compare them with verbs followed by a gerund (enjoy doing).
Examples
After 'decide', use the infinitive: 'We decided to postpone the exam.'
Modal verbs are followed by the bare infinitive, without 'to'.
Usage note
A split infinitive puts a word between to and the verb (to boldly go). Some style guides once condemned it, but most modern grammars accept it.
Common phrases
to-infinitive · bare infinitive · split infinitive · infinitive of purpose
The -ing form of a verb used like a noun, for example as a subject or object: 'Swimming is good exercise' or 'I enjoy reading'.
Where you use it
Teachers contrast verbs followed by a gerund (enjoy, avoid, finish) with verbs followed by an infinitive (want, hope, decide). Gerunds also follow prepositions: interested in learning. Some modern grammars simply say -ing form.
Examples
After a preposition we use a gerund: 'Thank you for coming.'
In 'Smoking is not allowed here', smoking is a gerund acting as the subject.
Usage note
Turkish learners often use the infinitive after prepositions: 'interested in to learn' instead of 'interested in learning'.
Common phrases
gerund or infinitive · gerund as subject · verb followed by a gerund · gerund phrase
A verb form without tense used in verb phrases and as an adjective: the present participle ends in -ing (working), the past participle often in -ed or -en (worked, broken).
Where you use it
Past participles form the perfect and the passive (has written, was written); present participles form the progressive. Both appear in participle clauses: 'Feeling tired, she went home.' Pairs like bored and boring are participle adjectives.
Examples
Irregular verbs have special past participles, such as written, seen and gone.
'Bored' is a past participle used as an adjective: 'The students looked bored.'
Usage note
Usually stressed on the first syllable (PAR-ti-ci-ple), although par-TI-ci-ple is also heard in British English.
A verb that needs a direct object to complete its meaning, such as make, describe or enjoy: 'She described the problem'.
Where you use it
Dictionaries mark verbs as transitive [T] or intransitive [I]; many verbs can be both (She is reading. She is reading a novel.). Only transitive verbs can be made passive.
Examples
'Discuss' is a transitive verb, so we say 'discuss the plan', not 'discuss about the plan'.
Check whether a verb is transitive before you try to make it passive.
Usage note
Turkish learners often add an unnecessary preposition after transitive verbs: 'discuss about', 'mention about', 'enter into the room'. These verbs take a direct object.
Common phrases
intransitive verb · ditransitive verb · used transitively · take a direct object
A group of words that contains a subject and a verb and forms a sentence or part of a sentence, such as 'because it was raining'.
Where you use it
Grammar books divide clauses into main (independent) and subordinate (dependent) clauses, and subordinate ones into noun, relative and adverbial clauses. A sentence can contain one clause or several.
Examples
'I stayed home because I was ill' has two clauses: a main clause and a clause of reason.
Underline the subject and verb in each clause before you add the commas.
Usage note
A phrase has no subject-verb pair, but a clause does: 'after the meeting' is a phrase, while 'after the meeting ended' is a clause. Clause in a contract (madde) is a different sense.
A group of words that expresses a complete idea and is grammatically complete; in writing it starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.
Where you use it
Teachers classify sentences by structure (simple, compound, complex) and by function (statement, question, command, exclamation). Linguists often say utterance for real stretches of speech.
Examples
A complex sentence has a main clause and at least one subordinate clause.
Try to keep each sentence in your abstract under 30 words.
The part of a clause that usually names who or what does the action or is described, and that the verb agrees with, such as 'my sister' in 'My sister works here'.
Where you use it
In English the subject normally comes before the verb and cannot be left out, even when it carries no meaning (It is raining. There is a problem.). The subject pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we and they.
Examples
In 'The results surprised everyone', the subject is 'the results'.
Turkish lets you drop the subject, but English needs one: say 'It is cold', not 'Is cold'.
A noun phrase or pronoun that receives the action of a verb or follows a preposition, such as 'the email' in 'She sent the email'.
Where you use it
Grammar books distinguish direct objects (She sent the email) from indirect objects (She sent me the email). Only transitive verbs take objects. In English the object normally follows the verb.
Examples
In 'She gave the students a test', 'a test' is the direct object and 'the students' is the indirect object.
Object pronouns come after the verb: 'I saw him', not 'I him saw'.
Common phrases
direct object · indirect object · object pronoun · object of a preposition
The part of a clause that says something about the subject; it contains the verb and everything that follows it, such as 'missed the bus' in 'Emre missed the bus'.
Where you use it
Used in traditional grammar, linguistics and logic. Be careful: in Turkish school grammar yüklem is usually just the verb or main element at the end of the sentence, while an English predicate also includes objects and adverbials.
Examples
Divide each sentence into subject and predicate with a vertical line.
In 'The new library opens next Monday', the predicate is 'opens next Monday'.
Usage note
As a verb (/ˈpredɪkeɪt/), predicate means 'base on' in academic English: the theory is predicated on two assumptions.
A clause that gives more information about a noun, usually starting with who, which, that, whose, where or when, as in 'the book that I borrowed'.
Where you use it
Teachers separate defining relative clauses, which identify the noun and take no commas, from non-defining ones, which add extra information between commas. That cannot introduce a non-defining relative clause.
Examples
In 'The student who won the prize is from Van', 'who won the prize' is a relative clause.
Turkish puts the relative clause before the noun ('kazandığım ödül'), while English puts it after ('the prize that I won').
A clause that depends on a main clause and cannot stand alone as a sentence, such as 'when the bell rang' or 'that she was right'.
Where you use it
Also called a dependent clause. Subordinate clauses work as nouns, adjectives (relative clauses) or adverbs (time, reason, condition), and usually start with a subordinating conjunction or a relative word.
Examples
'Although it was late' is a subordinate clause, so it needs a main clause to complete the sentence.
Academic writers often put the subordinate clause first: 'While these results are promising, more data is needed.'
A clause that can stand alone as a complete sentence and carries the main idea, such as 'we cancelled the trip' in 'Because it rained, we cancelled the trip'.
Where you use it
Also called an independent clause. Two main clauses can be joined with and, but or so, or with a semicolon; joining them with only a comma is a common error called a comma splice.
Examples
Every complete sentence needs at least one main clause.
In 'If you finish early, you can leave', the main clause is 'you can leave'.
Common phrases
independent clause · main and subordinate clauses · join two main clauses · comma splice
A sentence with an if-clause and a main clause, used to talk about a condition and its result, real or imagined: 'If it rains, we'll stay in.'
Where you use it
Coursebooks teach zero, first, second and third conditionals, plus mixed conditionals. Linguists prefer labels such as real and unreal, or open and hypothetical, conditionals. People often just say 'a conditional'.
Examples
'If I had known, I would have called you' is a third conditional sentence about the past.
In a second conditional sentence we use the past simple after if: 'If I had more time, I would learn Japanese.'
Usage note
Do not use will in the if-clause of a first conditional: say 'If it rains', not 'If it will rain'.
Common phrases
first conditional · second conditional · third conditional · mixed conditional · if-clause
The study of how language varies and changes with society: how age, region, social class, gender and situation shape the way people speak.
Where you use it
Topics include dialects, accents, register, bilingualism, code-switching and attitudes to language. Researchers often record real speech in interviews or everyday settings. The adjective is sociolinguistic.
Examples
Her sociolinguistics project compares how teenagers and their grandparents speak in Izmir.
Sociolinguistics shows that no dialect is lazy or broken; each one has its own rules.
A variety of a language used by speakers in a particular region or social group, with its own vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Where you use it
Linguists use dialect neutrally: everyone speaks a dialect, including the standard one. Dialect covers grammar and words, while accent refers only to pronunciation. Whether a variety is called a dialect or a language is often a political decision.
Examples
In some northern English dialects, 'bairn' means child.
Her fieldwork recorded the Black Sea dialect spoken in villages near Trabzon.
Common phrases
regional dialect · social dialect · local dialect · speak a dialect · dialect continuum
A way of pronouncing a language that shows where a speaker comes from, such as their region, social group or first language, as in a Scottish or a Turkish accent.
Where you use it
Everyone has an accent, and linguists avoid calling any accent wrong. Teachers now often aim for intelligibility rather than a native-like accent. Accent can also mean stress on a syllable or a mark on a letter, as in é.
Examples
He speaks fluent English with a slight Turkish accent.
Received Pronunciation is an accent, while Standard English is a dialect; they are not the same thing.
The ability to use two languages, or the regular use of two languages by a person or a community; using more than two is called multilingualism.
Where you use it
Researchers describe types such as simultaneous and sequential bilingualism, and individual versus societal bilingualism. A bilingual person rarely knows both languages equally well in every area of life, and this is completely normal.
Examples
Studies of Turkish-German bilingualism often look at families in Berlin.
Early bilingualism does not cause language delay, despite what some parents fear.
Moving between two or more languages or varieties within one conversation or even within one sentence, a normal practice among bilingual speakers.
Where you use it
Studied in sociolinguistics and bilingualism research, which shows that it follows rules and has social functions. Some writers use code-mixing for switches inside a sentence. In everyday English it also means changing your style for different groups.
Examples
'Bu akşam meeting var, sonra seni call ederim' is a typical example of code-switching among Turkish office workers.
Code-switching is not a sign of poor language skills; it often shows a high level of control over both languages.
Common phrases
intra-sentential code-switching · patterns of code-switching · code-switching and code-mixing · functions of code-switching
A variety of language used for a particular situation or purpose, from formal to informal, such as academic writing, legal language or chatting with friends.
Where you use it
Teachers label words as formal or informal and practise switching register, for example from a text message to an email to a manager. Linguists following Halliday describe register in terms of field, tenor and mode.
Examples
'Kids' is fine in conversation, but 'children' suits the register of an academic essay.
The email was polite, but its register was too informal for a first message to a professor.
A language used for communication between people who do not share a first language, such as English in international business or Latin in medieval Europe.
Where you use it
Researchers study English as a lingua franca (ELF), focusing on how non-native speakers communicate successfully with each other. The plural is lingua francas or, more rarely, linguae francae.
Examples
At the conference, English was the lingua franca for researchers from twenty countries.
Swahili serves as a lingua franca across much of East Africa.
Common phrases
English as a lingua franca · serve as a lingua franca · global lingua franca · ELF
The variety of a language used in education, government, the media and dictionaries, and generally accepted as the norm for formal writing.
Where you use it
Linguists see the standard as one dialect among others that gained prestige for social and historical reasons, not because it is more logical. People also say standard variety or, for English, Standard English.
Examples
Exams usually expect the standard language, even if students speak a regional dialect at home.
The standard language in Turkey developed mainly from the Istanbul dialect.
Usage note
Non-standard does not mean wrong or substandard: linguists use it neutrally for forms like 'ain't' or 'we was'.
Common phrases
standard variety · Standard English · non-standard forms · standard language ideology
The process by which people come to know and use a language, especially the natural way young children pick up their first language from the speech around them.
Where you use it
Used for first language acquisition in children and second language acquisition (SLA) in older learners. Some researchers, notably Stephen Krashen, contrast unconscious acquisition with conscious learning in the classroom.
Examples
Children's language acquisition follows similar stages in every culture.
Her thesis is on language acquisition in Turkish-German bilingual children.
Common phrases
first language acquisition · child language acquisition · theory of language acquisition · language acquisition device
The language a person learns first, from birth or early childhood, usually the one they know best; linguists often shorten it to L1.
Where you use it
Common in SLA research and teaching, often instead of mother tongue, which some find less precise. Teachers discuss L1 interference and whether, and how much, to use the first language in the classroom.
Examples
Many errors can be traced back to the learner's first language.
Children who grow up with two first languages are called simultaneous bilinguals.
Usage note
L1 and L2 are read 'L one' and 'L two'. L2 can mean any language learned after the first, not only the second one.
Common phrases
first language acquisition · L1 interference · L1 transfer · use of the first language
The process of learning another language after the first one, and the research field that studies how this happens; usually shortened to SLA.
Where you use it
In SLA, 'second' means any language learned after the first, including a third or fourth, and the term covers both classroom and naturalistic learning. Key topics are input, interaction, interlanguage, age effects and individual differences.
Examples
Her research in second language acquisition focuses on how adults learn English articles.
Second language acquisition research consistently shows that learners need plenty of meaningful input.
Common phrases
SLA research · theories of second language acquisition · instructed second language acquisition · SLA researcher
A learner's developing language system, which has its own rules and is neither the first language nor the target language; the term was introduced by Larry Selinker in 1972.
Where you use it
Used in SLA to describe learner language positively, as a system rather than a list of errors. Researchers study how an interlanguage changes over time and where it stops developing.
Examples
'He goed home' shows that the learner's interlanguage has a rule for past -ed, applied too widely.
Each learner's interlanguage moves step by step towards the target language.
The point at which some features of a learner's language stop developing and keep their errors, even with more input and teaching.
Where you use it
A term from Selinker's interlanguage theory. Teachers use it for stubborn errors in advanced learners, such as a missing third-person -s. Some researchers prefer stabilization, since it is hard to prove an error is permanent. British spelling: fossilisation.
Examples
Years of living abroad did not fix his article errors, a classic case of fossilization.
Regular feedback may help prevent the fossilization of pronunciation errors.
Common phrases
fossilization of errors · fossilized error · risk of fossilization · stabilization
The idea that there is a limited time in childhood, ending around puberty, when a language can be acquired fully and naturally; after it, native-like mastery becomes much harder.
Where you use it
Associated with Eric Lenneberg (1967). Researchers still debate the exact age limits and whether the idea applies to every area of language; the evidence is strongest for accent. Some prefer the term sensitive period.
Examples
The critical period hypothesis would explain why adult learners rarely lose their foreign accent.
Evidence for the critical period hypothesis is mixed when it comes to grammar.
Common phrases
support the critical period hypothesis · sensitive period · age of onset · age effects
The language a learner hears or reads and tries to understand, which is the raw material for acquiring a language.
Where you use it
A key concept in SLA. Krashen's input hypothesis says learners acquire language through comprehensible input slightly above their current level (i + 1). Teachers talk about rich, authentic and graded input.
Examples
Extensive reading gives learners a large amount of comprehensible input.
Children receive thousands of hours of input before they produce full sentences.
Usage note
In this sense input is uncountable: say 'a lot of input', not 'many inputs'.
The theory, associated with Noam Chomsky, that all humans are born with a set of basic grammatical principles shared by all languages, which helps children acquire language.
Where you use it
Often shortened to UG. Supporters point to the speed of child language acquisition and the 'poverty of the stimulus' argument; critics, including usage-based linguists, argue that general learning abilities and rich input are enough.
Examples
According to universal grammar, children do not learn language only by imitation.
Whether adult learners can still access universal grammar is a long-running debate in SLA.
Common phrases
Chomsky's universal grammar · access to universal grammar · UG-based approach · principles and parameters
A learner's habit of applying a grammar rule to cases where it does not apply, as when a child says 'goed' or 'mouses' instead of 'went' or 'mice'.
Where you use it
Seen in both first and second language acquisition, and taken as evidence that learners build rules rather than simply copying what they hear. Teachers treat it as a normal developmental error. British spelling: overgeneralisation.
Examples
'She can sings' is an overgeneralization of the third person -s.
Overgeneralization errors usually disappear as the learner meets more input.
Common phrases
overgeneralization error · overgeneralization of a rule · developmental error · overregularization
The influence of a learner's first language, or another language they know, on the language being learned; it can help (positive transfer) or cause errors (negative transfer).
Where you use it
Also called cross-linguistic influence or L1 transfer; negative transfer is often called interference. Teachers use the idea to predict learners' errors, although not every error comes from the first language.
Examples
'I live in Izmir since 2018' is a typical case of language transfer from Turkish '2018'den beri İzmir'de yaşıyorum'.
Positive language transfer helps Turkish learners with loanwords like 'taxi' and 'telephone'.
Common phrases
negative transfer · positive transfer · L1 transfer · cross-linguistic influence
Ten questions from this glossary. Pick the right meaning for each term and see your score.
How to learn linguistics & grammar vocabulary
Learn the core terms in the pairs that linguists contrast: phonetics and phonology, inflection and derivation, semantics and pragmatics, competence and performance, prescriptive and descriptive.
Read real texts from the field every week, such as textbook chapters, research article abstracts and learner dictionaries, and note how terms like clause, aspect and register are used in context.
Learn the IPA early: it lets you check any pronunciation in a dictionary on your own and makes phonetics and phonology classes far easier.
Compare English with Turkish as you study. Knowing that Turkish has no articles, uses case suffixes instead of prepositions and puts the verb last helps you understand both the terms and typical learner errors.
Keep a two-column list of coursebook labels and linguistic labels, such as continuous and progressive, or the twelve tenses and tense plus aspect, so you can follow both teacher training materials and academic linguistics.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between phonetics and phonology?
Phonetics studies speech sounds as physical events: how the mouth and throat produce them, their acoustic properties and how we hear them. Phonology studies how one particular language organizes its sounds into a system, for example which sound differences change meaning. The /p/ in pin and the /p/ in spin are physically different, which is a phonetic fact, but English speakers treat them as the same phoneme, which is a phonological fact.
Are tense and aspect the same thing?
No. Tense places an event in time, mainly past or present, while aspect shows how the event unfolds, for example as ongoing or as completed. In 'I was reading', the tense is past and the aspect is progressive. Coursebooks often call every verb pattern a tense and count twelve of them, but linguists usually say English has two tenses and two aspects, progressive and perfect, which combine.
What is the difference between language acquisition and language learning?
Some researchers, especially Stephen Krashen, use acquisition for the unconscious process of picking up a language through meaningful input, as children do, and learning for the conscious study of rules in a classroom. Many other researchers use the two words almost interchangeably, so check how each author defines them before you compare their claims.
Should I learn linguistics terms in English or in Turkish?
Both. Most international research, textbooks and teaching qualifications use the English terms, so you need them for reading and exams. Turkish universities and publications use Turkish equivalents such as sesbirim, biçimbirim and sözdizimi, and knowing both helps you explain ideas to your own students. Turkish often has two parallel terms for one concept, such as fonem and sesbirim or sentaks and sözdizimi, so learn the common alternatives too.
How can I learn linguistics vocabulary in English effectively?
Study by area, such as phonology, morphology and syntax, and learn each term with a real example, ideally one from English and one from Turkish. Read real texts from the field regularly, for example introductory textbook chapters, research article abstracts and the grammar notes in learner dictionaries. Then practise explaining a concept aloud in English in two or three sentences, as you would to a classmate or a student.
