A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

alternation 21
These are the main allo- terms which have been introduced, all opposed to an
-emic term, and the suggestion has been made that this relationship, of allo- to
-eme, is an important explanatory principle in linguistic analysis. Certainly many
other such allo- relationships have been postulated since the terminology was first
introduced in the 1930s. Some are allochrone (non-distinctive variant of a minimal
unit of length, or chroneme), allokine (non-distinctive variant of a kineme, i.e.
a minimal unit of body movement, such as a gesture or facial expression) and
alloseme (non-distinctive variant of a minimal unit of meaning, or sememe).
None has proved to be as useful as allophone or allomorph, however, and the
extent to which this terminology is helpful when applied to such other areas of
linguistic analysis – and to behavioural analysis generally, as in the classification
of units of dance, song, taste, movement – is disputed. See -emic/-etic.
allochrone, allograph, allokine, alloseme (n.)
see alloallomorph
(n.), allomorphic (adj.), allomorphy (n.)
see allo-, morpheme
allonym (n.) A term used in onomastics for a name assumed by an author
which belongs to someone else. It is not a common practice, because of legal
sanctions. The reasons for adopting a false name range from literary playfulness
to outright deception. See also pseudonym.
allophone (n.), allophonic (adj.), allophony (n.)
see allo-, phoneme
allophonic transcription
see transcription
allotagma (n.)
alphabetism (n.)
see tagmemics
see abbreviation
alpha notation A transcriptional convention in generative linguistics
which makes it possible to simplify the statement of a rule by introducing a
variable. In generative phonology, for example, it is used in cases where there
is a mutual predictability between sets of features, and avoids the necessity of
having to make separate statements for the conditions of occurrence of each
feature. For example, in order to state that a voiced plosive in a language is
always rounded whereas a voiceless plosive is always unrounded, one can
conflate the two rules by using the variable α to stand for the two possible
correlations [+voice] ~ [+round] and [−voice] ~ [−round], viz. [α voice] → [α
round]. Several developments of this convention will be encountered in this
approach to phonology, including the use of other variables. See also affect
alpha, move alpha.
alternant (n.)
see alternation
alternate (v.), alternating (adj.)
see metrical grid
alternation (n.) A term used in linguistics to refer to the relationship which
exists between the alternative forms, or variants, of a linguistic unit. The