Longman Dictionary of

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unmarked
2 The learner’s Core Grammar is fixed and UG is no longer available to
the L2 learner, particularly not to the adult learner.
3UGispartly available but it is only one factor in the acquisition of
L2. There are other factors and they may interfere with the UG influence.
unmarked adj
see MARKEDNESS
unreleased adj
see ALLOPHONE
unrounded vowel n
see VOWEL
unstructured interview n
see STRUCTURED INTERVIEW
unsystematic error n
see ERROR OF MEASUREMENT
uptake n
the illocutionary force (see SPEECH ACT) a hearer interprets from an utterance.
For example in the following exchange:
Child: I’m tired.
Mother: You can stop doing your homework now.
the uptake or interpretation by the mother is as if the child had said
“Can I stop doing my homework now?” But sometimes there may be a
difference between the intended uptake (what the speaker wants the
hearer to understand) and the actual uptake (what the hearer actually
understands).
see also PRAGMATICS
usage 1 n
the ways people actually speak and write. In this sense, usage is closely
related to PERFORMANCE, and can be studied by the analysis of specimens
of AUTHENTIC language and by experiments of various kinds. The study of
usage can reveal, for example, that the passive voice (see VOICE 1 ) is more
than ordinarily frequent in scientific writing, or that the spellings all right
and alright both occur. It is also possible to study reactions to usage, and
on this basis to make recommendations when usage is divided. Usage
guides attempt to do this. They may say, for example, that people write
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