A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

46 auxiliary
linear arrangement of segments (or unordered sets of features) and boundaries
that are dependent on morphological and syntactic criteria. By contrast,
the autosegmental approach sees phonology as comprising several tiers,
each tier consisting of a linear arrangement of elements; these are linked to each
other by association lines which indicate how they are to be coarticulated.
Originally devised to handle tonal phenomena, the approach has now been
extended to deal with other features whose scope is more than one segment,
especially vowel and consonant harmony.
auxiliary (adj./n.) (aux, AUX) A term used in the grammatical classification
of verbs to refer to the set of verbs, subordinate to the main lexical verb,
which help to make distinctions in mood, aspect, voice, etc.; also called
auxiliary verbs. In English the main auxiliaries are do, be and have, e.g. she is
leaving, does she know, she has taken. The modal auxiliaries include can/
could, may/might, shall/should, will/would, must, ought to and used to. The
class of auxiliaries is distinguished grammatically from lexical verbs in several
ways; for instance, they have a special negative form (e.g. isn’t, hasn’t, can’t, as
opposed to *walkn’t), and they can be used with subject inversion (e.g. is he,
does he, will they, as opposd to *walks he). ‘Marginal’ or ‘semi-auxiliaries’, i.e.
verbs which display some but not all of the properties of the auxiliary class,
include dare and need.
auxiliary element
see terminal
auxiliary language In sociolinguistics, the term is used for a language which
has been adopted by different speech communities for purposes of communication,
trade, education, etc., being the native language of none of them. English
and French are auxiliary languages for many communities in Africa, for example;
Swahili is used thus in parts of East Africa. This sense must be clearly distinguished
from the use of the term to mean an artificially constructed language,
such as Esperanto. See artificial language.
avalent (adj.)
see valency
avoidance languages In linguistics, a term used to characterize languages
which permit communication between a person and others with whom there is
a social taboo; sometimes loosely called mother-in-law languages or taboo languages.
The concept relates chiefly to Australian Aboriginal languages, where
there may be strict taboos between certain relatives, such as a man and his
wife’s mother and maternal uncles. In Dyirbal, for example, the everyday language
is known as Guwal, and the avoidance language as Dyalnguy, which
would be used whenever a taboo relative was within earshot.
axiom (n.) An application in linguistics of the general use of this term in the
branch of logic known as axiomatics. It refers to a set of initial propositions
(or axioms) which a theory assumes to be true. Further propositions (or ‘theorems’)
are then deduced from these by means of specific rules of inference (to
which the term ‘transformational rule’ is sometimes applied). The full statement