Glossary

Sociolinguists strive to observe 'unobserved' or natural speech (the vernacular). However to do so requires observation in natural settings, not artificial ones. As soon as an individual is aware of being observed, the setting becomes 'unnatural.'

Obstruents are a class of sounds in which airflow is somehow obstructed during production. Example: stops, fricatives, affricates

Occam's Razor is a principle formulated by the 14th century logician and Franciscan monk, William of Occam that states "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." .

Onomasiology is an element of lexicology, which starts from a concept (i.e. an idea, an object, a quality, an activity, etc.) and then asks for its names. Thus, an onomasiological question would be, "What are the names for long, narrow pieces of potato that are deep-fried?" (The Answer: French Fries in the US, Chips in the UK, etc.) The opposite approach is known as semasiology.

The onset of a syllable is the node that precedes the nucleus. Example: /k/ in /kip/ 'keep'

The term 'open-class' refers to a lexical class of words to which new words can be added. Example: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

A term first formulated in the Prague School of Phonology (Nikolai Trubetzkoy) which is used to describe phonetic contrasts in sets of phonemes. The four main types ofopposition are: 1. bilateral/multilateral 2. proportional/isolated 3. privative/gradual/equipollent 4. constant/neutralisable (See terms for more detailed explanations.)

Optimality Theory, or OT, is a framework for conducting linguistic analyses, formulated by Prince, Smolensky, and McCarthy (1993), which ranks universal and language-specific constraints to an 'input' in order to account for any given 'output'.

An oral stop (sometimes referred to as a plosive) is a sound produced in 3 stages. 1. The 'catch' or 'implosion' or 'closing' in which the airflow in the oral cavity is completely obscured by the articulators 2 The 'blockage' or 'closure' in which the air builds up behind the articulators 3. The 'release' or 'explosion' Example: /p, t, k/

The oral cavity area in the mouth through which air passes in the production of sounds (as opposed to the nasal cavity).

The output of a linguistic element is the realization of its form after any language-specific rules have been applied. This term is used primarily when conducting analysis within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT).

'overgeneralization' is the term used when a child uses regular form of an inflected word in place of an irregular form. Example: buy --> buyed