Glossary
Abstraction A generalisation, either through simplification or through omis-
sion of some (or more) part(s). For instance, the concept of ”friend-
ship” is an abstraction from all the individual instances of people
being friends. Similarly (an abstraction by generalisation), the con-
cept of ”walking” is an abstraction of the concerted effort of all the
muscles moving in the human body to effect that body walking on
two legs (an abstraction by omission, because for ”walking”, all the
unrelated information of muscles working, the brain balancing the
body, the eyes determining the direction of travel, etc. is irrelevant),
and the Japanese kana are abstractions of Chinese characters (either
by simplification in the case of hiragana, or omission in the case of
katakana)..
Accent Accent in speech is that part of a word that seems to jump out at
the listener, placing more focus on one or more syllables than on the
rest of the word. For instance, the word ”aĴention” has its accent
on ”ten” in English, while the accent lies on ”on” in French. Accents
are usually effected through a different pitch paĴern for the accented
syllable(s), typically in the form of a noticeably different pitch level or
gradient for the syllable(s) in question than for the rest of the word..
Accusative In this book, ’accusative’ is used in the natural language mean-
ing, not the grammatical meaning, representing a construction that
accuses someone of something. The grammatical ”accusative” form
refers to the role of a direct object to a word that can take such direct
objects (which typically means verbs)..
Active The verb form that describes actions taking place in the world, as
performed by someone or something. For instance ”I throw the ball”
describes an activity performed by me. Contrast to ”passive”..
Adverb Words that are used to describe the way in which a verb action
or state is in effect. For instance, ”To walk quickly” has the adverb
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