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Questions tagged [linguistics]

This tag is for questions about linguistics, the scientific study of language and its structure. It can involve areas like phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and phonetics.

Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form (grammar), language meaning (semantics and pragmatics), and language in context (origins, changes, etc.).

If your question does not inherently relate to the linguistics of the English language, consider generalizing it and asking it on our sister site, Linguistics.SE.

385 questions
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Is there a term for "*cough**cough*"?

What I mean is the act of "coughing" something that you don't actually want to (or rather dare) say outright. So instead of writing, say, "Miss Parker", you'd write "*cough*Ms Parker*cough*" or fake a cough that sounds very much like "Miss…
Jürgen A. Erhard
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Exactly what language do I (we) speak?

As an American, and a particularly myopic one, I am a bit confused to the language that I speak. I understand that we were once a colony of England, where English was/is spoken, but do we in the present still speak English? Or, since the language…
ImmigrantSun
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Why is it half and not second?

5th is fifth, 4th is fourth, 3rd is third, 2nd is second. People in races come fifth, fourth, third, and second. Divisions are one fifth, one fourth, one third, and one half? Why is it one half and not one second, following the ordinal numbers?
cgde
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What is it called when one person calls another something they metaphorically resemble?

What name or word would be given for the examples below, metaphor? A mother calls her child cat, or tiger The wife calls her husband "Hey Baby". You're my moon. A very muscular person might be called "He's solid". Basically there's extreme…
Noman
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4
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1 answer

What's the purpose of differentiating the singular and plural forms of verbs?

It's not that I can't memorize them, but I have always been wondering how it has become the way it is - what's the purpose of differenting them? Why not just always use the singular form? I am a native Chinese, and in Chinese verbs don't…
BananaOnTheWall
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3
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3 answers

"Enormity" in figurative sense

The word enormity is widely used to mean excess of size, but if somebody talks about the enormity of his achievements he would look foolish. Why is that so? Does it depend on the tone used, or are there deep linguistic reasons?
user19148
3
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0 answers

Visually and audibly unambiguous subset of the Latin alphabet?

Imagine you give someone a card with the code "5SBDO0" on it. In some fonts, the letter "S" is difficult to visually distinguish from the number five, (as with number zero and letter "O"). Reading the code out loud, it might be difficult to…
elliot42
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2 answers

Can the word is be a noun?

So I got bored in geography class and decided to make a sentence that makes no sense and goes along the lines of "Is Muss isthmus? If Muss was isthmus, must he muss an if, if is, is thus?" The only thing I really care about making this sentence…
Firefork
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3
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1 answer

Substitution or Ellipsis? (Linguistics)

I want to ask a question which is not clear for me. In an exam, we were given such a question that it says which of the following dialogues doesnt have ellipsis. Two most possible answers are these below. According to test department the answer is…
user128891
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3
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What's the linguistic term for when you use an object in place of a person who uses or is associated with that object?

For example, a common one is calling someone who helps out a hired-hand. Another example is gumshoe for a detective, or a private eye. Sometimes the association might be metaphorical, like whips in politics. Is there a general term for this…
Xi Gua
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3
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2 answers

What is it called when a language sounds strange to a speaker of another language?

Is there a linguistic term for, for example, certain Russian words sounding strange to the ears of a native English speaker? Thanks
Catherine
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3
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2 answers

Which of these phrases are equivalent, if any, and why

Some say the following two phrases are equivalent because of Raising (linguistics)! Example 1 He doesn't believe that bigfoot exists He believes that bigfoot doesn't exist Are those two phrases really equivalent? In case they are, are the…
mr116
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Are there any collections of "autological cycles"? (e.g. calque -> loanword)

I am interested in a natural generalization of autological words: cycles of words that each describe their successor (but not themselves). e.g. an autological 3-cycle is a set of of words "A", "B", and "C" such that A describes B, B describes C,…
Tom
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Is there a word for words being lost and rediscovered in different time periods?

In this thread, it became clear that a verb, 'to bug', seems to have been current in the 1950s and 60s, then dropped out of favour entirely, then re-appeared in the Internet age. However, the new usage probably has nothing to do with the old form.…
Steve Cooper
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Is there a known reason that English has so many short words?

Anyone who has played scrabble-like games in English and other languages cannot help but notice that English has an extremely high number of two and three-letter words. Is there a known historic-linguistic reason that English has so many short…
Phira
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