A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

424 scansion
by establishing four theoretical ‘categories’ – units, structures, classes and
systems – and interrelating these by the ‘scales’ of rank, exponence and delicacy.
(This use of ‘scale’ should not be confused with that found in phonology,
in relation to strength values.) In the late 1960s, parts of this approach were
superseded by a systemic model of analysis.
scansion (n.) An application in some approaches to non-linear phonology
of a term used in traditional metrics (where it refers to the analysis of verse
rhythm) for the analysis of certain rhythmic properties of speech. A phonological
representation can be scanned to determine its properties – in particular,
to determine whether it satisfies the locality condition at various levels in the
feature hierarchy. In one approach, two kinds of scansion are recognized:
in minimal scansion, a rule scans a tier which contains a target node/feature;
in maximal scansion, a rule scans the highest level of syllabic structure
providing access to a target node/feature. In metrical phonology, the level of
scansion is the highest grid level where eurhythmy is relevant as a component
of the phonology. It is typically one level down from the level of the
stress peak.
schema (n.), plural schemata (1) A term used in psycholinguistics, especially
in the study of reading, for a mental structure in which knowledge is organized.
schema theory has been developed to explain how people use background
knowledge to shape their expectations about what a text (spoken or written)
will contain. Readers create mental models (schemata) which they actively use
to make sense of a text. See also image schema.
(2) See rule.
schwa/shwa /àwwp/ (n.) The usual name for the neutral vowel [v], heard in
English at the beginning of such words as ago, amaze, or in the middle of
afterwards; sometimes called the indefinite vowel. It is a particularly frequent
vowel in English, as it is the one most commonly heard when a stressed vowel
becomes unstressed, e.g. telegraph becoming telegraphy /ctelvìrwpf/ v. /tvcleìrvfi/.
It is also the usual pronunciation of the vowel in such words as the, a, an, and.
The term ‘schwa’ comes from the German name of a vowel of this central
quality found in Hebrew.
scope (n.) A term originating in logic, and now widely used in syntax, semantics
and pragmatics. In its strictest sense, scope is defined syntactically: if an
operator O combines with some other expression E, then E is the scope of O.
However, the term is often used more loosely to refer to that stretch of language
affected by the meaning of a particular form, even if it does not coincide with
the scope of that form as just defined. As a general illustration, in English the
scope of negation typically extends from the negative word until the end of the
clause; this therefore allows such semantic contrasts as I deliberately didn’t
ask her (= ‘I acted deliberately in not asking her’) and I didn’t deliberately ask
her (= ‘It is not true that I deliberately asked her’). adverbials, interrogative
forms and quantifiers are among the expressions which are often analysed in