A person who is not dead must be alive, but something which is not big is
not necessarily small, it may be somewhere between the two sizes. Dead
and alive are called complementaries(or ungradable antonyms); big and
small are called gradable antonyms or a gradable pair.
Some linguists use the term antonym to mean only gradable pairs.
see also synonymanxiety n
see language anxiety
a-parameter n
see item response theory
apex n
the tip of the tongue
see also apical,place of articulation
aphasia naphasic adj
also dysphasia
loss of the ability to use and understand language, usually caused by damage
to the brain. The loss may be total or partial, and may affect spoken and /or
written language ability.
There are different types of aphasia: agraphiais difficulty in writing; alexia
is difficulty in reading; anomiais difficulty in using proper nouns; and
agrammatismis difficulty in using grammatical words like prepositions,
articles, etc.
Aphasia can be studied in order to discover how the brain processes
language.
see alsoneurolinguistics
apical adj
describes a speech sound (a consonant) which is produced by the tip of the
tongue (the apex) touching some part of the mouth.
For example, in English the /t/ in /tin / tin is an apical stop.
If the tongue touches the upper teeth, the sounds are sometimes called
apico-dental, e.g. French and German /t/ and /d/. If the tongue touches the
gum ridge behind the upper teeth (the alveolar ridge), the sounds are some-
times called apico-alveolar, e.g. English /t/ and /d/.
see also place of articulation,manner of articulation
a posteriori syllabus n
see a priori syllabus
anxiety