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A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

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80 cline

[!] formerly [t], and lateral [||] formerly []. coarticulations with clicks are

called click accompaniments.

(2) In early psycholinguistic experiments on speech perception and comprehension,

a click refers to a burst of acoustic noise introduced extraneously

into one ear while the listener attends to speech in the other. For example,

it was thought that by varying the position of the click in relation to the

grammatical structure of the speech, information could be gained concerning

the way in which grammatical units are perceived and organized by the

brain. The experiments were generally inconclusive and are rarely cited as

evidence today.

cline (n.) A term used in Hallidayan linguistics to refer to a continuum of

potentially infinite gradation, e.g. the range of possible contrasts between falling

and rising pitch levels, or the degrees of contrast capable of being drawn

along a time scale. Since its original use in scale-and-category grammar, the

term has come to be used in other fields than linguistics, often unnecessarily, as

a synonym for ‘continuum’.

clinical linguistics The application of linguistic theories, methods and descriptive

findings to the analysis of medical conditions or settings involving a disorder

(or pathology) of language. This application involves the linguist working in

collaboration with speech pathologists/therapists, audiologists and others in

helping to assess, diagnose and remediate disorders of the production and

comprehension of spoken or written language – disorders which may of course

occur in educational as well as clinical settings. The relevance of psycholinguistics,

neurolinguistics and language acquisition studies to this end

is noteworthy. See also language pathology.

clipped form

clipping (n.)

see abbreviation

see abbreviation

clitic (n.) A term used in grammar to refer to a form which resembles a

word, but which cannot stand on its own as a normal utterance, being phonologically

dependent upon a neighbouring word (its host) in a construction.

(The term ‘clitic’ comes from the Greek word for ‘leaning’.) Examples of cliticized

forms are the contracted forms of be, such as I’m and he’s. The articles of

English, French, etc., are sometimes referred to as clitics: a form like the cannot

stand on its own in normal utterance, but it would be called a word none the

less by native-speakers. Such clitic words (‘clitics’) can be classified into proclitics

(i.e. they depend upon a following word, as in the case of the articles) and enclitics

(i.e. they depend upon a preceding word, as in the attachment (cliticization) of

some pronouns to the end of a verb form in Italian or Spanish). The processes

are also referred to as proclisis and enclisis respectively. Clitic-climbing occurs

when a clitic moves from its local domain to a higher constituent, as in Italian

Maria lo vuole vedere (‘Maria wants to see him’), where the lo has moved from

the infinitive to before the first verb. Clitic-doubling occurs when a clitic is used

despite the existence of an element with the same meaning and function in the

same clause, as in Spanish Maria me visito a mi (‘Maria visited me’).

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