Online encyclopedic English-Slovak and Slovak-English

Linguistics Dictionary

Term
The linguistics
field it belongs to

The conceptualization
in the language of origin

Example
Translation accounting
for the content equivalence

palatalization 

phonetics, phonology

Palatalization is any articulation involving a movement of the tongue towards the hard palate; in certain phonological environments, the place of articulation is shifted near or to the centre of the hard palate.

In this example, sound ‘s’ at the end of the word ‘year’ is influenced by the palatal approximant ‘j’. The place of articulation of ‘j’ influences the place of articulation of alveolar ‘s’ and moves it to nearer to hard palate. The palatalized version sounds more like ‘ʃ’.
This year → ðɪs
jɪə → ðɪʃ jɪə

palatalizácia

pararhyme 

stylistics

Partial rhyme between words with the same pattern of consonants but different vowels.

sing - song, light - late.

konsonancia

paremiology 

phraseology, paremiology

the study of provebs and sayings

deals with the usage and origin of proverbs and sayings, and is applied in folklore studies, education of children , literature studies and cognitive science

paremiológia

paronym 

a word derived from the same root as another word similar in sound that gives the misleading impression that they have the same or at least similar meanings but in fact are very different and only mistakenly interchangeable

ingenious – ingenuous, conception – inception,
affect – effect

paronymum

part of speech word class

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partial homonym 

lexicology

a homonym that belongs to a different part of speech

to know – no, a bear – to bear,
a seal – to seal

čiastočné homonymum

partial synonym loose synonym

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partially motivated idiom semi-opaque idiom

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participle 

morphology

the non-finite verb form ending in –ing (present participle) and –ed (past participle); in irregular verbs, the –ed participles display various forms; the basic function of the present participle is to form progressive aspect (to express so, it is combined with the verb ‘be’); the basic functions of the past participle is to form perfect aspect (to express so, it is combined with the verb ‘have’) and to form passive voice (to express so, it is combined with the verb ‘be’)

watching, cleaning; watched, cleaned I am watching TV.
I
have read the book.
The room
has been cleaned.

príčastie

particle 

morphology, syntax

a term with several meanings: 1) ‘not’, used for negating verbs, 2) ‘to’, in ‘to-infinitive’, 3) adverb or preposition, in multi-word verbs. Multi-word verbs consist of a full verb and a particle – in phrasal verbs, it is an adverb, in prepositional verbs, it is linked with a preposition, in phrasal-prepositional verbs, both adverb and preposition are present.

1) may not, does not, has not got

2) to be, to have, to do

3) finish up, look for, book in at

v slovenčine tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje;

partitive 

morphology

a quantifying expression used before an uncountable noun to specify units, parts or collections of things; it is a noun that changes an uncountable noun to countable, it is typically used in this structure: numeral + partitive + of + uncountable/mass noun

two sheets of paper, a loaf of bread, a speck of dust, a patch of fog,

v slovenčine tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje;

passive clause 

syntax

a clause in which the object of the active clause becomes the subject (as the focus is on the action rather than the “doer”) and the main verb takes the past participle form, while appropriate auxiliaries are used (various forms of to be and to have depending on the tense and aspect); only transitive verbs can be used to form passive clauses; the agent may or may not be expressed

Active: Someone is making soup. Passive: Soup is being made. Active: Mum has made soup. Passive: Soup has been made by mum.

pasívum

passive
construction 

morphology

typically, a construction with auxiliary ‘be’ followed by ‘past participle’ and optionally by ‘by-phrase’

The floor is usually mopped (by one of the tenants) once a week.

väzba s trpným slovesom (participiálny transformát)

past participle 

morphology

verb form used to form perfect aspect and passive voice forms.

taken, brought, been

trpné príčastie

past tense 

morphology

a member of the grammatical category of tense primarily indicating past time; it is marked by inflection –ed in regular verbs, and a variety of forms in irregular verbs.

He did it by himself. He wanted to prove he could do it.

minulý čas (gramatický) (préteritum)

pause 

phonetics, phonology

A pause is a brief interruption of the articulatory process between two or more linguistic units; from the perspective of phonetics there are two types of the pause, one that is silent and one that contains hesitation noise; pauses also fulfil the purpose of expressing multiple dimensions of meaning; in transcription, a pause is labelled as its duration in seconds in brackets. Pauses can be physiological or logical.

In case you want to know more about pauses, (0.2) read a book on phonetics and phonology.

pauza

peak 

phonetics, phonology

The peak is the centre of a syllable (note nucleus in phonology).

In word university [ˌj.nɪˈvɜː.sə.ti], [uː, ɪ, ɜː, ə, i] are the peaks of syllables.

vrchol

pejoration 

lexicology, historical linguistics

a type of semantic change referring to the development of a negative connotation in a lexical item

notorious, which once meant ‘widely known’ now means ‘widely and unfavourably known’; harlot meant ‘maidservant’ in Chaucer’s times and now means ‘a promiscuous woman, a prostitute’

v slovenskej lingvistike tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje; nadobudnutie negatívnej konotácie slova

perfect(ive)
aspect 

morphology

one member of the grammatical category of aspect formed by means of the auxiliary ‘have’ followed by a past participle; it is used to indicate present consequences (negative or positive) of a past action while not fucusing on when the activity happened, rather on the present state of the affairs

He has lost his keys. He has been to the USA.

v slovenčine tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje; ma blizko k dokonavému vidu

performative 

pragmalinguistics stylistics

An expression that serves to affect a transaction or that constitutes the performance through uttering something.

I attach a document.

performatívny výraz

periodic
sentence 

syntax/stylistics

A sentence with left branch clauses.

In spite of heavy snow and cold temperatures, the game continued.Because of adding a pool, spa and restaurant, the hotel is experiencing an increase in guests.

súvetie s vedľajšou vetou v antepozícii

perlocutionary
act 

pragmalinguistics stylistics

Perlocutionary act brings about consequences to the audiences, reaction from the hearer.

A: I will not be your friend. B: F***

perlokučný rečový akt

person 

morphology

the grammatical system classifying primarily a subset of pronouns in terms of the roles of speaker and addressee. 1) 1st person normally indicates reference to (a group including) the speaker; 2nd person normally indicates reference to (a group including) the listener but not the speaker; 3rd person refers neither to speaker nor to listener.

1) I, we

2) you

3) he/she/it/they

osoba (gramatická kategória)

personal gender
classes 

morphology

gender classes contrasting personal ‘he’/’she’/’who’ (for persons and sometimes certain animals) vs. non-personal ‘it’/’which’; personal reference pronouns are used to indicate affectionate relationship to the person or animal

The baby is crying; I think she is hungry. Look at the dog, he wants to play.

v slovenčine tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje;

personal pronoun 

morphology

the subclass of pronoun to which the system of person applies.

‘I’ and ‘we’ are 1st person; ‘you’ is 2nd person; ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, and ‘they’ are 3rd person

osobné zámeno (personálne pronominá)

phatic  language function

stylistics

Speech used for social or emotive purposes rather than for communicating information

small talk (weather talk);
Excuse me!

fatický

phonaestheme 

stylistics semantics phonetics

A sound that is associated with a certain meaning.

/i:/ may occur in words referring to smallness: teeny, weeny; /u:/ is found in words referring to big objects, e.g. moon.

fonestéma

phonation 

phonetics, phonology

Phonation refers to the vibration of the vocal folds (voicing).

fonácia

phone 

phonetics, phonology

A phone is the smallest perceptible discrete segment in phonic continuum (used in phonetics); phones, as opposed to phonemes, express a complexity of the vocal tract shaping during pronunciation; not only do they represent a perceived sound, they acknowledge for such phonetic modifications within the sound which are audible, yet not significant for meaning.

For example, the word ‘can’t’ can be produced with ‘n’ sound [kɑ:nt] (phonemic units) or ɑ: can be nasalised into [kɑ̃:t] (phonetic units) in which the symbol ̃ expresses the change in the pronunciation features from oral ɑ: to nasalized ɑ̃:.

fóna

phoneme 

phonetics, phonology

Phoneme is a minimal sequential contrastive unit in phonology; the stream of speech can be broken into a string of the smallest sound units, phonemes; each language has a set of phonemes it operates with; opposed to phones, phonemes are mental generalizations of phones, meaning they do not acknowledge for all the vocal tract modulations, they serve as the units of contrast for meaning.

In the words pin [pɪn] and pan [pæn], [ɪ] and [æ] are two different phonemes.

fonéma

phonemics 

phonetics, phonology

Up to 1940’s it primarily studied and listed phonemes and all their allophonic variations; current phonemics deals with studying and listing sounds in previously unwritten languages.

fonemika (fonematika)

phonetics 

phonetics, phonology

Phonetics is the science studying the characteristics of human sound making, especially sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification, and transcription.

Phonetics studies, for example, the way the sounds are produced by the movement of articulators and categorizes and lists them as physical units.

fonetika

phonology 

phonetics, phonology

Phonology is a branch of linguistics studying the sound systems of languages.

Phonology studies the abstract generalizations of physical realisation of sounds (studied by phonetics). We recognize sounds and their combinations based on certain mental patterns.

fonológia

phonotactics 

phonetics, phonology

Phonotacctics is the study of sequential arrangements of phonological units occurring in a language; the focus of phonotactics is syllable.

For example, it has been found that some combinations of sounds are related to certain shapes (bump, limp, hump, rump), type of action (muddle, cuddle, fiddle), etc. Moreover, phonotacticiants showed that some consonant clusters are unacceptable at the beginning of English syllable (pw, bw, tl, dl), while some similar variations are commonly occurring (pl, bl, tw, dw).

fonotaktika

phrasal verb 

morphology, idiomatology

a verb consisting of a lexical verb and a particle (adverb); it is followed by a noun that can be moved between verb and adverb

to see somebody off

v slovenčine tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje; používa sa doslovný preklad frázové sloveso

phrasal-
prepositional
verb 

morphology, idiomatology

a verb consisting of a lexical verb and two particles – adverb and preposition; it is followed by a noun; a noun cannot be moved to a different position.

to book in at the hotel

v slovenčine tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje; aj pre tento typ sa používa doslovný preklad frázové sloveso

phrase 

syntax

one of the syntactic structures combined to create a sentence, a group of words forming a conceptual unit, typically a component of a clause; a word or group of words which form clause units such as noun phrases, verb phrases, or adjective phrases.

a small house’ (noun phrase),
‘to buy a house
’ (verb phrase),
‘a house for sale’ (prepositional phrase)

slovenčina nemá adekvátny termín, keďže chýba tento koncept, najbližší význam má “syntagma/sklad”

phraseme 

phraseology

an institutionalized multi-word expression with semantic integrity, certain imagery, and certain lexico-grammatical fixedness

hair of the dog that bit you, red herring, build castles in Spain

frazéma

phraseological collocation 
semi-idiom

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phraseological
fusion 
pure idiom

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phraseological
unity 
semi-opaque idiom

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phraseologism 
idiom

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phraseology 

phraseology

a branch of linguistics which studies different types of set expressions, which like words name various objects and phenomena

deals with the formation and usage of multi-word expressions whose meaning is not fully deducible from the meaning of its components

frazeológia

Pidgin 

sociolinguistics stylistics

An auxiliary language that has come into existence through the attempts by the speakers of two different languages to communicate and that is primarily a simplified form of one of the languages, with a reduced vocabulary and grammatical structure and considerable variation in pronunciation.

Nigerian Pidgin English, Chinese Pidgin English, Hawaiian Pidgin English are examples of pidgin languages.

pidžin

pitch 

phonetics, phonology

Pitch is the attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which a sound may be ordered on a scale from low to high .

výška hlasu

place
(of articulation) 

phonetics, phonology

Is a place at which an obstruction to the air flow in the vocal tract is created in order to produce consonants.

It is a place at which two articulators come into contact or approach each other. [b] is a bilabial sound for during its pronunciation an upper and lower lip are pressed together. [w] is approximant because upper and lower lip are approaching each other but not coming into contact, etc.

miesto (atikulácie)

plural 

morphology

one member of a grammatical category of number that refers to more than one

books, they help, pronouns, they, those

množné číslo, plurál

politeness 

pragmalinguistics stylistics

The act of showing good manners toward others, as in behavior, speech, etc.; courteous; civil.

When you accidentally touch someone and say “Sorry” or “Excuse me.”

zdvorilosť

politeness
strategy 

pragmalinguistics stylistics

A speech act that expresses concern for others and minimizes threats to pragmalinguistic concept of face in particular social contexts.

Expressing disagreement in an idirect way: “Yes, I can see your point, however we may consider another option.”

zdvorilostná stratégia

polysemy 

lexicology

the situation where the same word has two or more different meanings which are at least partially semantically related

the lexeme HEAD is polysemous and has several meanings: the part of the body, mind and thoughts, front part of something, person in charge etc.

polysémia, mnohovýznamovosť

polysyllabic 

phonetics, phonology

A polysyllabic word is a word consisting of more than one syllable; in transcription, syllables are marked by a dot-[.] at the end of the syllable, unless there is a stress mark [‘] (see example).

Word [pɪn] has one syllable, therefore, it is a monosyllabic word. Word tomorrow [təˈmɒr.əʊ] has three syllables tə, mɒr, and əʊ, therefore, it is considered a polysyllabic word.

viacslabičné

portmanteau
word 
blend

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position
of adverbial 
(front, mid, end)

syntax

the location of a grammatical element in a clause. The three possible positions are front (a), mid (b) and end (c). Some adverbials can take more than one position.

a) Usually, we have lunch around 1 pm. (front ); b) We usually have lunch at 1 pm. (mid); c) We have lunch at 1 pm, usually. (end)

pozícia príslovky

positive face 

pragmalinguistics stylistics

In accordance with Brown and Levinson´s politeness theory (1987) it is the desire to be liked, appreciated, approved, etc. It is defined as the individual desire of a person that his/ her personality is appreciated by others. Furthermore, this includes the way a person wants to be perceived by his/ her social group.

One example for positive face is the appreciation of individual achievements. According to this definition, a painter would, for instance, desire other people's appreciation of his/ her paintings.

pozitívna „tvár“

positive 
politeness
strategy

pragmalinguistics stylistics

A communication strategy used in order to avoid giving offense by highlighting friendliness.

Juxtaposing criticism with compliments, establishing common ground, and using jokes, nicknames, honorifics, tag questions, special discourse markers (please), and in-group jargon and slang

pozitívna zdvorilostná stratégia

possessive  adjective
(determiner)

morphology

Determiners: my, your, his, her, its, our, their - i.e. forms always followed by a noun, nevers standing by themselves.

My book is on the table. I can see your brother.

privlastňovacie zámeno (posesívne pronomen)

possessive case
 
Genitive

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possessive pronoun 

morphology

Possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs - i.e. forms always standing by themselves, never followed by a noun.

This book is mine.

privlastňovacie zámeno (posesívne pronomen)

postdeterminer 

syntax

an element in a noun phrase after the central determiner (ordinals, cardinals, and quantifiers).

first, two, many/few, more/less

koncept v slovenčine neexistuje, táto syntaktická pozícia môže byť vyjadrená číslovkou, neurčitým zámenom, atď.

postmodifier 

syntax

an optional element in a noun phrase placed after the head, usually expressed by a prepositional phrase, appositive, a non-finite -ing clause, or a finite relative clause.

the girl in the corner,
the girl sitting in the corner,
the girl
who is sitting in the corner

koncept v slovenčine neexistuje, táto syntaktická pozícia môže byť vyjadrená neurčitým slovesným tvarom, vedľajšou prívlastkovou vetou, atď.

postponement 

syntax, stylistics

The movement of an element towards the end of clause, emphasizing it as new, relatively consequential, of greater importance, and possibly climatic.

It is obvious that you have been misled. It might be a good idea to wear a respirator mask when you’re working with fiberglass.

koncová dôrazová pozícia vetného člena

pragmatic context 

pragmalinguistics stylistics

Communication participants´knowledge and experience. Who the audience is and how they are feeling will have an impact on how the speaker’s messages will be received.

If a speaker is making a presentation to the experts in the same field, the presentatoion will be different from the situation if they are making a presentation to general audience.

pragmatický kontext

pragmatic implication 

pragmalinguistics stylistics

The conclusion (of an action) that can be drawn from something that is is not explicitly stated.

The statement “The karate champion hit the cinder block” implies that the block was broken. This occurs because there is an interaction between the actual input and the persons’ knowledge of the world.

pragmatická implikácia

predeterminer 

syntax

an element in a noun phrase before the central determiner

all, both, half, double

koncept v slovenčine neexistuje, táto syntaktická pozícia môže byť v angličtine vyjadrená súhrnovým kvantitatívnym výrazom

predicate 

syntax

a function fulfilled by a verb or a verb phrase; the sentence element which elaborates what the subject is, does or experiences. It is either simple (consisting of a main verb) or complex (consisting of either a main verb+auxiliaries, or a linking verb/copula+complement).

He works in a library. He has been working there for over a year. He is a librarian.

prísudok, predikát (jednoduchý, zložený)

predicative adjective 

syntax

an adjective that is a part of a predicate; it follows a linking verb (copula) or a sense verb; the adjectives used in this position are a) health adjectives, b) adjectives expressing feelings, and c) adjectives beginning with a-.

a) I feel ill. I feel well. b) I am glad that you like it. c) He is awake. The door was left ajar.

predikatívne adjektívum; spĺňa syntaktickú funkciu ‘doplnok

prefix 

word-formation

an affix which comes before morpheme to which it is attached; English prefixes are usually derivational

dis-connect; un-interested,
dis-interested; re-organize

prefix, slovotvorná predpona

premodifier 

syntax

an optional element in a noun phrase placed before the head, usually expressed by an adjective or adjectival phrase, participle or a noun.

a nice room; a broken window; table manners

koncept v slovenčine neexistuje, táto syntaktická pozícia môže byť v angličtine vyjadrená podstatným alebo prídavným menom

preposition 

morphology

a class of words denoting relationships in space or time; they are followed by nouns/pronouns/gerund

by, at, in, on, in front of, due to, etc.

predložka (prepozícia)

prepositional verb 

morphology

a verb consisting of a lexical verb and a particle (preposition), followed by a noun; a noun cannot be moved between verb and preposition

to ask for help, to look for a key

verbum s predložkovou väzbou

present tense 

morphology

an inflectional category of verbs the primary use of which is to indicate present time.

I am a student.

prítomný čas (gramatický) (prézent)

primary verb 

morphology

a closed class of verbs (1) that can function in a sentence as either main or an auxiliary (2), the members of this class can be mutually combined to form verb phrases (3)

1) be, do, have

2) He is a doctor (main); He is reading (auxiliary).

3) I have been there.

v slovenčine tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje;

principle of resolution 

stylistics

Placing the final clause of a multiple sentence towards the end as a result of which it carries the maximum emphasis.

Because the man upstairs makes a lot of noise when he comes home at midnight,
I have decided to move. As a result of its posistioning, the final clause carries the maximum emphasis.

koncová dôrazová pozícia časti súvetia

progressive aspect 

morphology

a member of the paradigm of the grammatical category of aspect; the combination of auxiliary ‘be’ and present participle; it usually represents a situation as being in progress.

I am studying English.

v slovenčine tento koncept nie je, a preto slovenský termín neexistuje; ma blízko k nedokonavému vidu

prominence 

phonetics, phonology

Prominence is an acoustic property of a syllable; a syllable standing out and bearing stress.

A prominent syllable in word accent [ˈaks(ə)nt] is [aks]. At the beginning of the syllable it is marked by a stress mark [‘].

výraznosť (prominencia)

pronoun 

morphology

an item used to refer to entities; the main sub-classification includes personal pronouns (1), possessive (2), reflexive (3), interrogative and relative pronouns (4), reciprocal (5), demonstrative (6), and indefinite (7).

1) he, you, 2) his, yours, 3) himself, yourselves, 4) who, what, which, 5) each other, one another, 6) this, these, that, those, 7) some, none

zámeno (pronomen)

proper noun 

morphology

a large subclass of noun; a name refers to a particular person, place, etc:

John, Prague, Slovakia, Islam

vlastné podstatné meno (proprium)

proposition 

stylistics

Anything stated, affirmed or denied.

“All men are mortal” is a proposition stating a fact.

propozícia, tvrdenie

prosody 

phonetics, phonology

Prosody is a term referring to variations in pitch (in a narrow sense), loudness, tempo and rhythm (in a broader sense). Prosody is a modulation of the intensity, melody and time of speech.

prozodické javy

proverb 

phraseology, paremiology

traditional fixed expression expressing truth, wisdom and having explicit didactic meaning

out of sight, out of mind; all that glitters is not gold; when the cat´s away the mice will play

príslovie

pseudosynonym paronym

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publicity of situation 

stylistics

The state of being public, or open to general observation or knowledge.

Situations such as at the university, on public transport, in the cinema, etc.

“verejný komunikačný priestor

pun 

stylistics

The humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

“The dreamers often lie” the pun is that dreamers lie in bed but also lie about dreams.

slovná hračka

punctuation 

stylistics, syntax

The practice or system of using certain conventional marks or characters in writing or printing in order to separate elements and make the meaning clear, as in ending a sentence or separating clauses.

There are fourteen punctuation marks commonly used in English grammar. They are the period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces, apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipsis.

interpunkcia

pure idiom 

phraseology

a unit whose meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of its component parts

red tape, a mare’s nest,

frazeologický zrast

purpose of communication 

general linguistics stylistics

To pass information from one person to another and to understand the information. The chief purposes for communication are to inform, imagine, influence, meet social expectations and express feelings.

by stating “I´m off colour today”, you communicate your physical condition or your feelings.

komunikačný zámer