English Words

Clipping
Word-formation where a long word is shortened to one or two syllables,
e.g. 
discotheque→disco
.
Cognates
Words of different languages which are to some degree related in
meaning and pronunciation because they come from a common
historical source.
Competence
Tacit knowledge of language that lies behind our ability to produce and
understand an indefinitely large number of things that can be said or
written.
Complementary distribution
If two elements are in complementary distribution, they never occur in
identical contexts. So it is not possible to use the difference between
them as the sole indicator of a difference in meaning.
Compound word
A word made of two or more words, e.g. 
rail+way →railway
.
Content word
see
Lexical item and
Function word
.
184 GLOSSARY

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Denominal
A word ‘derived from a noun’, e.g. 
bookish
(from the noun 
book
) is a
denominal adjective.
Dental
A consonant made with the tip of the tongue against the upper front
teeth, e.g. [t] in French 
théâtre
‘theatre’.
Derivation
A word-formation process that is used to create new vocabulary items,
e.g. by adding suffixes as in 
walk→walker
.
Deverbal
A word ‘derived from a verb’, e.g. 
teacher
(from the verb 
teach
) is a
deverbal noun.
Diagraph
A combination of letters representing a single sound e.g. 
ea
represents
[e] in 
bread, sh
represents [∫] in 
shin,
etc.
Distribution
The distribution of a linguistic item refers to all contexts where a
linguistic form occurs taken together.