argument 33

(2) See chart parser.

archaism (n.) A term used in relation to any domain of language structure for
an old word or phrase no longer in general spoken or written use. Archaisms are
found for example in poetry, nursery rhymes, historical novels, biblical transla-
tions and place names. Archaic vocabulary in English includes damsel, hither,
oft, and yon. Archaic grammar includes the verb endings -est and -eth (as in
goest and goeth), and such forms as tis and spake. Archaic spellings can be seen
in Ye olde tea shoppe. See also obsolescence (1).

archiphoneme (n.) A term used in phonology referring to a way of handling

the problem of neutralization (i.e. when the contrast between phonemes is
lost in certain positions in a word). In such cases as plosives following initial
/s-/, where there is no opposition (e.g. there is no *sgin to contrast with skin),
the problem for the phonologist is how to analyse the second element of these
words. To choose either the voiceless transcription /sk}n/ or the voiced one
/sg}n/ would be to attribute to the element a contrastive status it does not
possess. The solution suggested by the Prague School phonologist Nikolai
Trubetskoy (18901939) was to set up a new category for such cases, which he
called an archiphoneme, and to transcribe it with a different symbol. A capital
letter is sometimes used, e.g. /sK}n/. Alternative ways of analysing the problem
have been suggested, as in morphophonemic approaches.

archistratum (n.) A term sometimes used in sociolinguistics, referring to a

privileged variety of language from which a community draws its cultured or
intellectual vocabulary. For example, Classical Arabic is used as an archistratum
throughout the Islamic world.

area (n.) A term used in dialectology for any geographical region isolated on
the basis of its linguistic characteristics. The study of the linguistic properties of
areas the analysis of the divergent forms they contain, and their historical
antecedents is known as areal linguistics. An areal classification would establish
areal types (or groups), such as the Scandinavian languages, or the London-
influenced dialects cases where it is possible to show certain linguistic features in
common as a result of the proximity of the speech communities. Such a classifica-
tion often cuts across that made on purely historical grounds. It is often possible
to identify a focal area the region from which these linguistic characteristics
have spread to the area as a whole (as in the case of London) and several other
significant parts of an area have been terminologically distinguished, e.g. the
transitional areas which occur between adjacent areas, the relic areas which
preserve linguistic features of an earlier stage of development. Areal linguistics is
contrasted with non-areal differences in language use, e.g. contrasts between
male and female speech, and between some social varieties. The German term
Sprachbund (language league) is also widely used in the sense of a linguistic area.

areal linguistics see area

argument (n.) (A, arg) A term used in predicate calculus, and often found in
the discussion of semantic theory, to refer to the relationship of a name or