stylistic variation n
differences in the speech or writing of a person or group of people accord-
ing to the situation, the topic, the addressee(s) and the location. Stylistic
variation can be observed in the use of different speech sounds, different
words or expressions, or different sentence structures.
For example, in English:
aPronunciation: People are more likely to say /csitn / sitt’n /cmeikivn/ mak’n
instead of /csitiº/ sitting /cmeikiº/ making if the style is more informal.
bWords and sentence structures:
more formal: We were somewhat dismayed by her lack of response
to our invitation.
less formal: We were rather fed up that she didn’t answer when we
invited her.
The stylistic variation of an individual or group can be measured by
analysing recorded speech and making comparisons.
see also style
stylistic variety n
see style
SU n
an abbreviation for subject relative clause
see noun phrase andaccessibility hierarchy
subcategorization n
restrictions on a verb indicating which syntactic categories can or must occur
with it. For example, a transitive verb must be followed by a direct object NP.
This establishes transitive verbs as a subcategory of the category of verbs.
subcategory n
a subset of some category.
For example, countable nouns are a subcategory of the category noun.
subjacency n
see bounding theory
subject n
(in English grammar) generally the noun, pronoun or noun phrase^1
which:
atypically precedes the main verb in a sentence and is most closely related
to it
bdetermines concord
subject