A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

26 anchor
vowels are also known as parasite vowels or svarabhakti vowels (the latter term
reflecting the occurrence of this phenomenon in Sanskrit). An example is the
pronunciation of film as [cf}lvm] in some dialects of English.
anchor (n./v.) In non-linear phonology, an application of the general use of
this term to refer to a unit on which some other unit depends. For example,
root nodes are said to serve as ‘anchors’ for the features which define a
segment, and a segment to which another segment associates is said to be its
‘anchor’. A unit which is not ‘anchored’ may be said to be floating. The term
has a special application in prosodic morphology, in the context of the
phonological analysis of reduplication, where anchoring (which supersedes
alignment) is a constraint which places a structural restriction on the relation
between the base (B) and the reduplicant (R): in R+B sequences, the initial
element in R is identical to the initial element in B; and in B+R sequences, the
final element in R is identical to the final element in B. Stated more generally in
optimality theory, anchoring is a class of correspondence constraints which
requires that a segment at one edge of an input form should have a corresponding
segment at the same edge of the output form, and vice versa.
anchoring (n.)
see anchor
angled brackets notation
see bracketing
animate (adj.) A term used in the grammatical classification of words (especially
nouns) to refer to a subclass whose reference is to persons and animals,
as opposed to inanimate entities and concepts. In some languages, distinctions of
animateness are made morphologically, as a contrast in gender. In English,
the distinction can be made only on semantic grounds, apart from a certain
correspondence with personal and relative pronouns (he/she/who v. it/which).
In adjectives expressing the concept ‘old’, for example, elderly is animate, antique
inanimate; old is neutral, being applicable to either category.
anomalous sentences
see nonsense
antagonistic constraints
see grounding
antecedent (n.) A term taken over from traditional grammar, and used for
a linguistic unit from which another unit in the sentence derives its interpretation
(anaphoric reference), typically a later unit. In particular, personal and
relative pronouns are said to refer back to their antecedents, as in The car
which was parked . . . It was . . . An instance where the anaphor is to more than
one noun phrase is said to be a split antecedent, as in Mike suggested to John
that they should leave. Antecedent-contained deletion refers to cases where the
antecedent of an elliptical phrase itself contains an elliptical phrase. For example,
in Mary read every book John did, the elliptical VP after did is contained
in the antecedent VP, read every book John did. This kind of construction is
problematical, because if one tries to reconstruct the elliptical VP, the reconstructed
form will contain another elliptical VP, and this goes on ad infinitum.
See also apodosis.