General language

General language

Use this category for general terms related to languages.

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General language

abessive case

Language; General language

A grammatical case that expresses the lack or absence of the marked referent.

abjad

Language; General language

A type of writing system where there are graphemes for consonants but not for vowels. However, vowels may be shown by marks on the graphemes, e.g. written Hebrew and Arabic are abjads.

ablative case

Language; General language

A case that is used in Latin and other Indo-European languages to indicate motion away from something.

ablaut

Language; General language

A vowel-sound change within a word that shows changed grammatical function.

absent referent

Language; General language

A referent is a thing that a word refers to. If the thing that the word refers to does not exist, the thing that doesn't exist is called the absent referent.

absolute construction

Language; General language

A verbal phrase that is acting as a modifier but is not modifying any particular part of the sentence.

absolute modifier

Language; General language

A modifier that shouldn't be compared — i.e. be used in a comparative or superlative form — because it stands for a quality that is absolute and not a matter of degree.