Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 969Redfern, W. 1984. Puns. Oxford.Ross, E. 1991. Aspects of the interpretation of puns in newspaperadvertisements. In C.Feldbusch et al. (eds), Neue Fragen der Linguistik.Tübingen. Vol. 2, 439–46.punctual (also achievement)Verbal aspect included among the non-duratives ( durative vs non-durative):punctual verbs refer to a sudden change in a situation and thus cannot be combined withtemporal modifiers denoting duration: *He found the key for an hour/an hour long.aspectReferencespunctuationRules for the optical arrangement of written language by means of non-alphabetic signssuch as periods, commas, and exclamation marks. Such delimiting symbols clarify bothgrammatical and semantic aspects of the text. They indicate quotes, direct speech andcontractions, and can reflect the intonation of spoken language.push chain vs drag chainTerms from the structuralist theory of language change ( structuralism) that denotephonologically motivated sound changes ( also sound shift). ‘Push’ in the sense ofsystem pressure occurs when a phoneme /X/ encroaches on the allophonic field of aphoneme /Y/, which, in turn, moves over to the field of phoneme /Z/. The Great VowelShift in English is an example of this phenomenon. In this way, sound changes of thistype preserve phonological distinctions. On the other hand, a gap in the phonologicalsystem can bring about a ‘drag chain’ which causes the empty slot to be filled by a newphoneme and, thus, ‘improves’ the system in the sense that it brings about preferredsymmetry within the system.