Glossary

The manner of articulation of a sound describes how the airstream is manipulated by articulators as it travels through the vocal tract; stop, nasal, affricate, fricative.

A linguistic element that is considered 'marked', has had a feature added to its unmarked representation. ex: phonetics: /t/ voiceless alveolar stop is unmarked; /d/ voiced alveolar stop is marked.

A mass noun is one whose referential cannot be counted. ex: water, mud, oxygen

In linguistics, a maxim is a principle or criterion that states guidelines for discourse, the most familiar of which is Grice's Maxims. ex: maxim of manner (one should be brief and clear) , maxim of quality (one should always tell the truth),maxim of relevance (one should always be connected to the conversation at hand), maxim of quantity (one should contribute that which is required in the discourse, not more, not less).

This one of Grice's four maxims: an utterance must be clear, void of obscurity and ambiguity, delivered in a chronologically orderly fashion.

This one of Grice's four maxims: Only say what you know to be true. (Do not lie.)

This one of Grice's four maxims: An utterance must be as informative as necessary without being more informative than necessary. In other words, do not say too much or too little.

This one of Grice's four maxims: Only state facts or opinions related to the topic at hand. In other words, stay on topic.

The mean length of utterances (MLU) is a manner of estimating a child's stage of language acquisition by counting the number of morphemes in any given utterance. MLUs are not to be confused with the method of counting morphemes in theoretical linguistics.

Metaphony is a specific type of vowel harmony, often seen in Romance languages, in which a high vowel will cause a preceding non-high vowel to raise. Furthermore, the target vowel will always be stressed. EX: Italian 'ver.de green/singular becomes 'vir.di/green plural The plural morpheme [i] which is high, has a raising effect on the previous non-high vowel [e].

A metaphor is an expression which attributes the qualities of another object to itself as a figure of speech. ex: 'The fury of the clouds descended on us' describes an approaching storm.

Metathesis as a phonological process in which phonological segments are reversed. This is often motivated by rendering a word or string of words easier of articulate. Example 1: spaghetti --> pasketti Example 2: ukra 'finger,toe + ppalu 'bachelor' = 'index finger' /ukar + ppalu/. (Leti, Hume 1997)

A mid vowel is one that is produced with the tongue positioned neither high nor low [-hi, -low] in the oral cavity. ex: /e/, /o/

A minimal pair is a set of words which are minimally different (by one sound). These are used to identify which sounds are distinct in any given language, since the alternation of one for the other alters meaning. This change in meaning shows that the speaker recognizes that each sound is separate, or distinct. Example: bit/pit, sip/zip, seat/set

In psycholinguistics, modularity refers to the fact that in language processing, more than one system or 'module' (linguistic aspect) can operate independently of others. The term can also refer to the fact that language processing is independent from other cognitive areas such as memory and acquisition.

A monophthong is a vowel that consists of one sound (as opposed to a diphthong). Example: /a/

A monosyllabic utterance consists of one syllable. Example: hit, streets

A morpheme is the smallest unit of linguistic meaning in a language; it may be a syllable ('-ed' in trusted), a word ('couch'), or an affix ('-s' in hats').

Morphology is the study of word formation and construction in terms of discrete units of meaning, i.e.,morphemes such as affixes, root words, stems, and parts of speech.

Motherese, currently referred to as Child Directed Speech, is Intentionally exaggerated speech that adults often use with babies and young children (baby talk), and is characterized by intensified intonation and reduplication ('ba-ba' for bottle).

In syntax, movement, which is also referred to as a transformation, is the process by which a syntactic unit moves from deep structure position to a surface structure position. Example: yes/no questions 'you are leaving the party' vs 'are you leaving the party'

Multilateral is a term used to describe the contrast of features in sets of phonemes. In English, /t/ and /f/ are in multilateral opposition, since these phones can be contrasted on several levels, i.e., voicing, place of articulation, manner of articulation.