Glossary 357
Cohortative A word form or construction that suggests performing some
action. In English, cohortatives are typically statements such as ”shall
we ...?” or ”let’s ...”..
Colloquial Spoken conversation, usually used to mean the informal spo-
ken version of a language, as contrasted to formal language..
Commanding A word form or construction that commands the listener or
reader to perform some action. Contrast to ”prohibiting”..
Comparative A word form or form of phrase that compares one or more
things to each other in some way..
Compound A word that has been formed by combining two or more words..
Conditional A word form or construction that indicates something is de-
pendent on something else happening, or being a particular way. The
general description is in the form ”If A, then B”, with A representing
a condition, and B representing the consequence should the condi-
tion be met..
Conjugation A derived form of a verb, adjective or noun through inflec-
tion, either by modification, additions, or both..
Conjugational bases A conjugational base is the most basic ”building block”
in Japanese verbal grammar, upon which all inflections are built. These
are the ( ), the imperfect base, the (
), the continuative base, ( ), the finalising base
(in modern Japanese this base is no longer used), (
), the aĴributive base, ( ) the perfective base, and
( ), the commanding base. Of these, the is
no longer used, and the is also referred to as the (
), potential base, in modern Japanese, as it is only used for a
hypothetical construction..
Connotation The commonly understood meaning of a word or phrase,
rather than its literal meaning. For instance, ”take a chair” connotes
siĴing down, rather than the literal taking of a chair. Contrast to ”de-
notation”..
ContextAll information, both explicit and implied, that indicates how to
interpret pronouns and referential information in one or more sen-
tences..