Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 666law of three syllableslaw of three moraelaxtense vs laxLazSouth Caucasianlect [Grk léktos ‘chosen, picked out; word,expression’]Term introduced in American variational linguistics to designate regional, social, andother types of language varieties. In compound words (e.g. sociolect, dialect, idiolect,isolect, etc.), the first element indicates the type of variety.left-branching constructionA type of phrase structure construction. In a left-branching structure in a tree diagrameach node which branches into constituents A and B is of the type that only A, the leftbranch, can contain any further branching. An English example of such a construction is[[[Mary’s] sister’s] book].ReferenceChomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA.left vs right dislocationTerm introduced by Ross (1967) for syntactic constructions in which a constituent,usually a noun phrase or an adpositional phrase, is moved to the beginning or the end ofthe sentence and the original position is marked by a pronominal element. These kinds ofdislocations are particularly characteristic of colloquial speech.