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Pseudoword
A pseudoword is a unit of speech or text that appears to be an actual word in a certain language, while in fact it has no meaning in the lexicon. It is a kind of non-lexical vocable. A pseudoword is a specific type of non-word composed of a combination of phonemes which conform to the language's phonotactic rules. Such words without a meaning in a certain language or no occurrence in any text corpus or dictionary can be the result of (the interpretation of) a truly random signal, but there will often be an underlying deterministic source, as is the case for: *nonsense words (e.g. ''jabberwocky'') *nonce words (e.g. ''galumph'') *ghost words (e.g. ''dord'') *cyphers *typos A string of nonsensical words may be described as gibberish. Word salad, in contrast, may contain legible and intelligible words but without semantic or syntactic correlation or coherence. Characteristics Within linguistics, a pseudoword is defined specifically as respecting the phonotactic restrictions of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accidental Gap
In linguistics an accidental gap, also known as a gap, paradigm gap, accidental lexical gap, lexical gap, lacuna, or hole in the pattern, is a potential word, word sense, morpheme, or other form that does not exist in some language despite being theoretically permissible by the grammatical rules of that language. For example, a word pronounced is theoretically possible in English, as it would obey English word-formation rules, but does not currently exist. Its absence is therefore an accidental gap, in the ontologic sense of the word ''accidental'' (that is, circumstantial rather than essential). Accidental gaps differ from systematic gaps, those words or other forms which do not exist in a language due to the boundaries set by phonological, morphological, and other rules of that specific language. In English, a word pronounced does not and ''cannot'' exist because it has no vowels and therefore does not obey the word-formation rules of English. This is a systematic, rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vocable
In the broadest sense of the word, a vocable is any meaningful sound uttered by people, such as a word or term, that is fixed by their language and culture. Use of the words in the broad sense is archaic and the term is instead used for utterances which are not considered words, such as the English vocables of assent and denial, ''uh-huh'' and ''uh-uh'' , or the vocable of error, ''uh-oh'' . Such non-lexical vocables are often used in music, for example ''la la la'' or ''dum dee dum'', or in magical incantations, such as ''abra-cadabra''. Many Native American songs consist entirely of vocables; this may be due to both phonetic substitution to increase the resonance of the song, and to the trade of songs between nations speaking different languages. Jewish Nigunim also feature wordless melodies composed entirely of vocables such as ''Yai nai nai'' or ''Yai dai dai''. Vocables are common as pause fillers, such as ''um'' and ''er'' in English, where they have little formal mea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonce Word
A nonce word (also called an occasionalism) is a lexeme created for a single occasion to solve an immediate problem of communication.''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language''. Ed. David Crystal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Some nonce words may acquire a fixed meaning inferred from context and use, possibly even becoming an established part of the language, at which point they stop being nonce words. Some nonce words may be essentially meaningless and disposable, but they are useful for exactly that reason—the words " wug" and "blicket" for instance were invented by researchers to be used in exercises in child language testing. Lexicology The term is used because such a word is created " for the nonce" (i.e., for the time being, or this once). All nonce words are also neologisms, that is, recent or relatively new words that have not been fully accepted into mainstream or common use. The term ''nonce word'' in this sense is due to James Murray ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |