target language
The language which is being acquired or that some type of discourse, written or spoken is being translated into.
tautology
A tautology is a sentence whose parts render the sentence always true, regardless of the context. These types of sentences are often referred to as redundant. ex: I am my father’s daughter.
teaching grammar
A means of teaching language by prescribing a set of grammatical rules.
telegraphic speech
A common symptom of many types of aphasia. Describes the dropping of all or most function words and relying on content words when speaking.
telegraphic stage
A stage in L1 acquisition in which children have not yet incorporated certain grammatical forms (plurals or tense markers) or functional morphemes.
telic/telicity
telicity/telic aspect- This term refers to the lexical aspect of a verb/predicate, which denotes the completion of an action. 1) Harriet painted the fence pink. Telicity can be tested for in English by adverbial modification. 2) Harriet painted the fence pink yesterday/all week/for 6 hours. These adverbial phrases communicate that the action of the verb has been completed.
tense (vowels)
A vowel sound which is longer in duration and produced with the tongue in a higher position in the vocal tract than its lax counterpart. ex: [i], [e], [u], [o]
tenuis
Refers to a stop which is [-voice] [-aspiration] thus displaying a 0 VOT (voice onset timing).
tenuis consonant
A consonant, usually a stop of affricate, which bears no distictive features such as voicing, aspiration, or glottalization and whose voice onset time is close to zero. Some examples from English are [p], [k], [t] after an [s] as in ‘spar’ ‘scar’ star.’ Some examples from French are [t], [p], [k] as in ‘tout’ ‘poux’ ‘coup.’
terminal node
The node with no branching below it. ex: N, V, P
thematic role
Semantic content assigned to noun phrases which show their relationship to the verb. ex: agent, theme, experiencer, instrument, source, goal.
theme
The thematic role of a noun phrase whose referent receives the action of the verb. ex: John hit Mary. (where Mary is the theme)
theta criterion
States that in a sentence, a noun phrase may only receive one thematic role, and that each thematic role may only be assigned once.
time deixis
A reference to a moment in time whose interpretation or meaning relies on the context of the discourse. ex: I will buy a new dress today. (Without knowing the date, today cannot be clearly interpreted.)
tone
The pitch (i.e., high, mid, low, etc.) of a syllable or word which, in certain languages, distinguishes it from another. Chinese and Bantu languages are a highly tonal.
tongue root advancement and retraction
Advanced and retracted tongue root is a 2- way contrast for vowels; Tongue root advancement is also known as tense and tongue root retraction is known as lax.
top-down processing
The analysis of language which uses contextual clues from larger parts of speech (sentence, context) to interpret the smaller parts (words, morphemes).
transformational rule
A syntactic rule which, when applied to the deep structure, derives the surface structure. ex: yes/no questions Ken is finishing his paper. –> move aux –> Is Ken __ finishing his paper?
transitive verb
A verb which must be accompanied by an objet. ex: to hit
tri-consonantal root
Also referred to as a Semitic root, the tri-consonantal root consists of three (in mostcases) consonants which serve as the basic element of a lexeme. A well-known example from Arabic is ‘k-t-b’ from which many words are derived including ‘ketab’ book. Words are formed by adding vowels around and between the consonants of the root.
trill
A speech sound in which the tip of the tongue vibrates against the alveolar ridge. ex: Spanish [r]
truth condition
The context of discourse which determines the truth of a statement.
typology
A system used for putting things into groups according to how they are similar: the study of how things can be divided into different types.