Longman Dictionary of

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conservatism thesis
interpretations of a test that may have an impact on society will result in
fair and positive social consequences for all STAKEHOLDERs including test
takers.
conservatism thesis n
see LEARNABILITY THEORY
consonant n
a speech sound where the airstream from the lungs is either completely
blocked (STOP), partially blocked (LATERAL) or where the opening is so
narrow that the air escapes with audible friction (FRICATIVE). With some
consonants (NASALS) the airstream is blocked in the mouth but allowed to
escape through the nose.
With the other group of speech sounds, the VOWELS, the air from the lungs
is not blocked.
There are a number of cases where the distinction is not clear-cut, such as
the /j/ at the beginning of the English word yes where there is only very
slight friction, and linguists have sometimes called these semi-vowels or
semi-consonants.
see also MANNER OF ARTICULATION, PLACE OF ARTICULATION
consonant cluster n
a sequence of two or more consonants at the beginning of a syllable (e.g.
/splæ∫/ in splash) or the end of a syllable (e.g. /sts/ in tests. In English, with
clusters of two, either the first sound is /s/ or the second one is an APPROX-
IMANT (l, r, w, or y); in initial clusters of three, the first sound is always
/s/, the second is a voiceless stop (/p,t,k/), and the third is an approximant.
In final position, many more clusters are possible, but most final clusters
of three or more consonants are formed as the result of adding a plural or
past tense inflection to a STEM and therefore end in /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/.
Languages differ greatly in the ways in which consonants can form clusters
and in which positions in a word clusters can occur. Spanish, for
example, permits fewer clusters than English, and the Polynesian languages
do not permit any clusters.
consonant cluster reduction n
also consonant cluster simplification
a process of simplifying CONSONANT CLUSTERS by omission of one or more
consonants, especially common in casual speech. For example, English
final clusters of three or four consonants are often simplified by dropping
a middle consonant, e.g. when pronouncing facts (which ends in /kts/) as
if it were facks (ending in /ks/). Consonant cluster reduction is also
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