U
UG n
an abbreviation for universal grammar
unacceptable adj
see acceptable
unaccusative verb n
a type of intransitive verbwhose syntactic subject is not a semantic
agent. For example, in sentences such as The window brokeor The ball fell
to the ground, the grammatical subject (window, ball) is not actively
responsible for the action of the verb.
see also ergative
unanalyzed chunks n
also unanalyzed language
see formulaic language
unaspirated adj
see aspiration
uncountable noun n
see countable noun
underachiever n
a learner who performs below an expected level as indicated by tests of
intelligence, aptitude, ability, especially in school work.
underlying form n
see systematic phonemics
underlying structure n
another term for deep structure
underspecification n
in phonology, the theory that underlying representations are not fully
specified and that redundant (predictable) information is not present in
underlying representations. For example, in English, voiceless stops are
aspiratedwhen syllable initial and unaspirated when they follow /s/ (as
in spy, sty, sky). According to underspecification theory, neither of these
variants is taken as more basic. Aspiration is simply left unspecified in the
underlying representation, with the information added post-lexically.