Amelioration
Improvement in the meaning or status of a word.
Analytic language
A language that uses whole words, rather than parts of words, to show grammatical relationships.
Anglicize
To make a borrowed word resemble English in pronunciation, spelling, or form
Archaic word
A word no longer in common use but retained in a language because it preserves the flavor of a period
Conjugation
The inflection of verbs; a class of verbs inflected in the same manner.
Connotations
The suggestions or implications associated with a word in addition to its literal meanings.
Declension
The inflection of nouns; a class of nouns inflected in the same manner.
Dialect
A variety of speech peculiar to a particular region; also, a social dialect peculiar to a social class.
Etymology
The history of a word traced through changes in meaning and form to the earliest form of the word.
Generalization
A meaning change in which a word changes from special to general or extends its meaning to include a related concept
Germanic Consonant Shift
A change in the pronunciation of consonant sounds occurring about 800 B.C. in the Germanic languages only
Grammatical meaning
Meaning determined by or through syntax and morphology.
Guttural
Produced in the throat
Imperative Mood
The verb form used to indicate a command or instruction.
Indicative Mood
The verb form used for ordinary statements and questions.
Inflection
A word ending used to indicate tense, mood, gender, case, number, etc; also the pattern of change expressed through inflected meanings.
Loan word
A word borrowed from another language, sometimes altered to fit the sounds or structure of the new language.
Morpheme
The smallest unit of semantic or grammatical meaning, including words, bases affixes and inflections
Morphology
The relationship of word parts to one another.
Orthography
A system of spelling
Pejoration
A meaning change in which a word is downgraded in meaning or status.
Phonetic
One letter or symbol corresponding to one sound.
Rhetorical punctuation
A style of punctuation popular in the 17th-19th centuries, characterized by long sentences and commas or semi-colons indicating pauses in the speaker's voice rather than grammatical relations.
Runic symbols
Symbols from an old Germanic alphabet of 24 characters (runes)
Semantic meaning
The denotative and connotative meaning (s) of a word; that which the word symbolizes.
Specialization
A meaning change from general to specific or broad to narrow.
Structural Punctuation
A style of punctuation that emphasizes and clarifies grammatical relationships of words in a sentence.
Subjunctive Mood
The verb form indicating desire, supposition, a situation contrary to fact or which may or may not exist, etc. Disappearing in Modern English.
Synthetic Language
A language that puts together word parts (inflections, etc) to form units of grammatical meaning.
Syntax
The aspect of grammar dealing with word order and word relationships.
Verbal
A word or phrase formed from a verb and acting as a noun or adjective; a participle, infinitive or gerund.
Amelioration
Improvement in the meaning or status of a word.
Analytic language
A language that uses whole words, rather than parts of words, to show grammatical relationships.
Anglicize
To make a borrowed word resemble English in pronunciation, spelling, or form
Archaic word
A word no longer in common use but retained in a language because it preserves the flavor of a period
Conjugation
The inflection of verbs; a class of verbs inflected in the same manner.
Connotations
The suggestions or implications associated with a word in addition to its literal meanings.
Declension
The inflection of nouns; a class of nouns inflected in the same manner.
Dialect
A variety of speech peculiar to a particular region; also, a social dialect peculiar to a social class.
Etymology
The history of a word traced through changes in meaning and form to the earliest form of the word.
Generalization
A meaning change in which a word changes from special to general or extends its meaning to include a related concept
Germanic Consonant Shift
A change in the pronunciation of consonant sounds occurring about 800 B.C. in the Germanic languages only
Grammatical meaning
Meaning determined by or through syntax and morphology.
Guttural
Produced in the throat
Imperative Mood
The verb form used to indicate a command or instruction.
Indicative Mood
The verb form used for ordinary statements and questions.
Inflection
A word ending used to indicate tense, mood, gender, case, number, etc; also the pattern of change expressed through inflected meanings.
Loan word
A word borrowed from another language, sometimes altered to fit the sounds or structure of the new language.
Morpheme
The smallest unit of semantic or grammatical meaning, including words, bases affixes and inflections
Morphology
The relationship of word parts to one another.
Orthography
A system of spelling
Pejoration
A meaning change in which a word is downgraded in meaning or status.
Phonetic
One letter or symbol corresponding to one sound.
Rhetorical punctuation
A style of punctuation popular in the 17th-19th centuries, characterized by long sentences and commas or semi-colons indicating pauses in the speaker's voice rather than grammatical relations.
Runic symbols
Symbols from an old Germanic alphabet of 24 characters (runes)
Semantic meaning
The denotative and connotative meaning (s) of a word; that which the word symbolizes.
Specialization
A meaning change from general to specific or broad to narrow.
Structural Punctuation
A style of punctuation that emphasizes and clarifies grammatical relationships of words in a sentence.
Subjunctive Mood
The verb form indicating desire, supposition, a situation contrary to fact or which may or may not exist, etc. Disappearing in Modern English.
Synthetic Language
A language that puts together word parts (inflections, etc) to form units of grammatical meaning.
Syntax
The aspect of grammar dealing with word order and word relationships.
Verbal
A word or phrase formed from a verb and acting as a noun or adjective; a participle, infinitive or gerund.