362 Glossary
Out-groupEveryone who is not part of your in-group..
Particles A class of words that are used to characterise words or parts of
phrase as having a particular grammatical role..
Passive The verb form that describes some state of (part of) the world,
rather than some action taking place in it. For instance, the sentence
”the cake was eaten by the children” is in passive voice, as it describes
the state of the cake (eaten) rather than the action taken to effect this
state. Contrast to ”active”..
Perfect A verb tense that indicates the action described by the verb has
been completed..
Personal zoneRefers to the conceptual locations available for referenc-
ing to. In English, there are two personal zones, namely ”near me”
and ”not near me”, leading to the pronouns ”here” and ”there” or
”this” and ”that” respectively. In Japanese, there are three personal
zones, namely ”near me”, ”near my conversational partner(s)” and
”not near either of these two”, leading to the kosoado words ”koko”,
”soko” and ”asoko” or ”kore”, ”sore” and ”are” respectively..
Pitch The main identifiable frequency at which something is pronounced..
PluralThe word form used to indicate multiple instances..
Polarity It indicates what a verb asserts. In English, as in Japanese, ”affir-
mative” and ”negative”..
Potential Indicating that some state or action is possible..
Prefix Something that is added to the front of a word to change its meaning
in some way. Contrast to ”suffix”..
Preposition A word that is added before another word or part of phrase
to indicate its relation to the rest of the phrase. Contrast to ”postpo-
sition”..
Present tense The verb tense that indicates some state is the case, or some
action is taking place, at this moment..
Presumptive Expressing a belief about some maĴer without evidence to
support the belief..