Terms - GREK 1110 - Greek I - Beginning Greek - Dr. Rollinson's courses and resources

GREK 1110

Greek I - Beginning Greek

Terms used in Linguistics and Language Studies

Here is a list of commonly-used words related to language. Please make yourself familiar with them.

Ablative: The Ablative is one of the cases of the noun in the Indo-European family of languages. It indicates "by, with, from". The Ablative is used in Latin, but in Greek its function is included in the Dative
Accusative: The Accusative is the case which indicates that a noun or pronoun is the Object of a verb. For example her is the Accusative of she.
Active: The Active voice of a verb indicates that the subject is doing the action. eg. The dog chases the cat.
Adjective: An adjective is a word used to describe a noun. eg. The big dog
Adverb: An adverb describes the manner in which a verb is performed. eg. The dog barks loudly.
Agent: The agent is the person or thing doing the action of a verb. Agent is most often used to indicate the doer of the action of a verb in the Passive voice, eg. The cat was chased by the dog. For verbs in the Active Voice, the agent is the same as the subject, eg. The dog chased the cat.
Anacoluthon: An anacoluthon is a break in syntactic continuity within a sentence - the sentence breaks off one thought and switches to another in the same sentence. eg. "I had a dog once - but if you train them properly they don't bark."
Anglo-Saxon: Anglo-Saxon, also called Old English (abbreviated OE), is the oldest form of the English language. It is an inflected language, with a case system and with several letters which have dropped out of the modern English alphabet. The language started to change after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and had developed into Middle English (ME) by the twelfth century.
Antecedent: An antecedent is a word or phrase which is referred to later by another word or phrase. For example, in the sentence "The dog was barking, so I let him out." the antecedent of him is the dog
Antonym: Antonyms are words which have opposite meanings. eg. good and bad are antonyms.
Aorist: The Aorist is a simple past tense in Greek, indicating an action that has finished or been completed. Grammar books speak of "First Aorist" and "Second Aorist" - this refers to the way in which the Aorist is formed, but does not indicate any difference in meaning.
Apodosis: The apodosis is the main clause in a complex sentence. eg. The dog will bark if someone comes into the yard.
Apostrophe: An apostrophe is the mark like a raised comma, used to show that a letter has been omitted. eg. don't, it's (for it is).
Apostrophe-s is used to indicate the Genitive, or Possessive, because it is a remnant of the old Anglo-Saxon -es inflected ending. For example, "The dog's bone" was originally "The dogges bone". In the case of a plural, where the word already ends with an "s", it is usual to omit the "s" of the apostrophe-s, and merely use an apostrophe by itself. eg. The "dogs' bones" (several dogs, not just one dog). The same may be done with names ending in -s, eg. Moses' family.
Note that it's is the shortened form of it is.
The Possessive (Genitive) of it is its (no apostrophe-s), similar to his as the Possessive of he - these are surviving remnants of the Anglo-Saxon case system.
Apposition: Two or more phrases or words are said to be in apposition when they have the same referent. For example, in the sentence "Babylon, the great city, is fallen" Babylon and the great city are in apposition. Either could be omitted without altering the meaning of the sentence ("Babylon is fallen." or "The great city is fallen.")
Aspirate: To aspirate is to pronounce the "huh" sound associated with h, or to pronounce something with an audible huff of air. Greek uses the rough breathing mark to indicate aspiration.
Fred : "I have a 'orrible 'eadache."
Bob : "You need a couple of aspirates."
Attribute: An Attribute is a noun or adjective used to describe a noun which follows it immediately. eg. in The black cat, the adjective black is an attribute of cat, and is said to be in the attributive position.
Auxiliary Verb: Auxiliary verbs are used to form the tenses, moods, or voices of other verbs. eg. We do speak. We might speak. We may speak. We were speaking. We have spoken. We did speak. Auxiliary verbs are more frequently used in English than in Greek or Latin.
Cardinal: A cardinal number is one which shows the quantity of something, eg. one, two, three, four
Case System: The case system is the system of inflexions used to indicate the function of a noun or pronoun in a sentence. English has lost most of its original case system, and now relies on word order and prepositions to show how words fit together in a sentence.
The English cases are the Common and the Genitive, found in singular and plural forms, eg. dog, dog's, dogs, dogs'
Latin has seven cases : Nominative-Vocative-Accusative-Genitive-Dative-Ablative-Locative. The Locative is rarely used, and is not given in tables of grammar.
Greek has five cases : Nominative-Vocative-Accusative-Genitive-Dative. The function of the Ablative has been taken on by the Dative.
German has four cases : Nominative-Genitive-Dative-Accusative (note the difference in order)
Clause: A clause is part of a longer sentence. The clause has a verb and its own subject. In the sentence "The dog chased the cat when I let him out of the house.", "The dog chased the cat." is the main clause, and "when I let him out of the house" is a subordinate clause.
Clitic: Clitic describes a small word which is not strong enough to stand by itself. It leans on another word. (Greek, κλίνω - I lean). Proclitics lean on the word following them - in English, a/an and the are proclitics. Enclitics lean on the word before them - In English, common enclitics are -n't (as in can't), -'re (as in we're), -'ve (as in we've), -'s as in he's (he is) or let's (let us).
Greek has similar enclitics, though they are usually written out in full and just pronounced as if they were joined to the preceding word.
Cognate: Cognates are words which have a common origin - they have developed from one word, either in the same language, or across different languages.
Examples of cognates are English father, paternal, patrimony, patriarch, Spanish padre, German Vater, French père, Latin pater, Greek πάτηρ, πάτρος.
'cognate' is from the Latin cognatus - related by birth
Collective noun: A collective noun is used for a group of individuals, eg. audience, family, people, herd, cattle, and can take either a singular or a plural verb. A singular verb is used if the group is considered as a unit, eg. "The Smith family lives on Broad Street." A plural verb is used if the group is considered as a collection of individuals, eg. "The Smith family are accomplished musicians."
Greek neuter plural nouns often behave like collective nouns, and can take singular verbs.
Comparative: Comparative adjectives and adverbs express a higher degree of the quality described by the basic (or Positive)) form. Comparative adjectives and adverbs are usually formed by adding -er to the Positive form, or by using the word more. eg. darker, larger, louder, quicker, more intelligent, more quickly, more loudly
Complement: A complement is any word or group of words needed to complete a copulative verb. eg. "The dog is very friendly.", "The cat is quite fond of fish."
Compound: A compound word is formed by combining two or more bases (or morphemes). Both English and Greek have many compound verbs.
English tends to keep the bases separate but in close proximity to each other, when they are better described as "Multi-word verbs", eg. throw up, break even, crack up.
Greek combines them into one long word. eg. ἐκβάλλω (I throw out); ἀναβλέπω (I look up)
Conjugation: Conjugation (as a verb) is to list or recite the various forms of a verb in a specific order. eg. I am, Thou art, He/she/it is, We are, You are, They are.
A conjugation (as a noun) is a family of verbs whose endings all inflect similarly. eg. in Latin, verbs whose infinitives end in -are are classed as the First Conjugation. Greek and English do not often use this term.
The word comes from the Latin coniugare (to yoke together, marry, join) - "I" always goes with "am", "It" always goes with "is"; it is incorrect to say "I is"
Conjunction: Conjunctions join other words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence. Common conjunctions are and, but, or.
Contract: Contraction occurs when a word or group of words is shortened by the omission of letters. eg. Ain't is a contraction of am not or are not.
Greek has a group of verbs known as Contract Verbs because their stems end in a vowel which combines with the vowels of the Personal endings.
Copula: A copula is a linking verb - it links the subject with a predicate nominative. The most common copula in English is the verb 'to be'. eg. " The dog is big."
Coronis: A coronis is a mark which looks like a smooth breathing or a comma, placed above the contracted syllable when crasis occurs.
Crasis: Crasis is the elision of a vowel or diphthong at the end of one word with a vowel or diphthong at the beginning of another word, to give one long word. This occurs particularly in Greek, eg. καὶ ἔγω (and I) gives κἀγω. The mark which looks like a comma or smooth breathing above the contraction is called a coronis.
Dative: The Dative is the case corresponding to the Indirect Object in English. In Latin it indicates to or for something. In Greek it indicates to, for, by, with, from and is also used for in.
Declension: A declension is the variation in form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective, to show all the different cases. Different traditions list the cases in different orders. The word is also used for families of words with the same case endings. eg. Greek words with a Nominative singular ending in -α or -η and a Genitive singular ending in -ας or -ης are said to belong to the First Declension, and are frequently Feminine.
Decline: To decline a noun, pronoun, or adjective is to recite or write out its various forms in order.
Definite Article: The Definite Article is the word the - it indicates some particular object, rather than a general one.
Degree: The degree is the step on the scale by which adjectives and adverbs are compared. There are three degrees : positive, comparative, superlative. Examples : dark, darker, darkest; good, better, best; fast, faster, fastest.
Deponent: Scholars argue about the best way to define Deponent verbs. One rudimentary definition is that they are verbs which "look passive but are translated as active". They often have a sense like that of the English reflexive verb.
Enclytic: An enclitic is a word which 'leans on' the word before it - In English, common enclitics are -n't (as in can't), -'re (as in we're), -'ve (as in we've), -'s as in he's (he is) or let's (let us).
Greek has similar enclitics, though they are usually written out in full and just pronounced as if they were joined to the preceding word.
Etymology: Etymology is the study of the history of words. The etymology of a word refers to the origin of a word - which language it came from, and how it was used and developed during its history.
Euphemism: Euphemism is the substitution of a 'nicer-sounding word' for one which the speaker considers crude or offensive. From the Greek εὖ (well) and φημί (I speak). eg. pass away for 'die', effluvium for 'stink'.
Euphony: Euphony, from Greek εὖ (well) and φωνή (sound) is the tendency to change something to make things easier to pronounce. Greek verbs often employ a euphonic vowel when the consonant of a personal ending clashes with an ending consonant on the stem. eg. the First Person Singular personal ending -μαι may become -ομαι or -αμαι, the Third Person Singular ending -ται may become -εται or αται, the First Person Plural ending -μθε may become -ομεθε or αμεθε, the Second Person Plural ending -σθε may become -εσθε or -ασθε, and the Third Person Plural ending -νται may become -ονται or -ανται
Exclamation: An exclamation expresses emotion, and is often not a full sentence, or lacks conventional grammatical structure. e.g. "How horrible!", "Woe is me!", "You rotten sneak!"
First Person: The First Person refers to the person speaking, eg. I, we, as contrasted with Second Person (thou, you) and Third Person (he, she, it, they)
Future: The Future is one of the tenses of the verb. In English, the Future is usually formed by using auxiliary verbs such as shall, will, may, might, going to. In Greek, the Future is often formed by the addition of a sigma between the stem and the personal endings, eg. λύω (I loose) becomes λύσω (I shall loose).
Future Perfect: The Future Perfect is a tense of the verb which expresses an action that will be completed in the future. eg. "I shall have done my homework by this evening." Future Perfects are rare in the Greek New Testament.
Gender: Grammatical gender refers to the classification of nouns and pronouns, only partly according to the biological sex of the object. Some languages, such as French, Spanish, and Hebrew have only two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine. Other languages, such as English, Latin, and Greek, have three grammatical genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter.
Grammatical gender does not always align with biological sex. In several languages, including Greek, diminutives are automatically neuter regardless of the biological sex of the object. For example, in German das M�dchen (the maiden), neuter, is the diminutive of die Magd (the maid), feminine, and das Fr�ulein (the girl), neuter, is the diminutive of die Frau (the woman), feminine.
Genitive: The Genitive is the case of nouns and pronouns that indicates possession or close association. English has lost most of its case system; what remains is the apostrophe-s, eg. the dog's bone (a bone belonging to one dog), the dogs' bone (a bone belonging to several dogs), and the distinct genitive forms of the Personal Pronouns and determiners. The English Personal Pronouns are my, thy, his, her, its, our, your, their, whose; and the determiners, or absolute possessives are mine, thine, hers, ours, theirs.
Gerund: Gerund was a term brought into English from Latin grammar, to indicate the -ing form of a verb when it is used like a noun, eg. Singing is good for the voice. The gerund has the same from as the participle (though a different grammatical function), and many grammarians use the term participle for the -ing form of a verb when it is used as a noun and when it is used as an adjective.
Gerundive: Gerundive is a term used in Latin grammar for a function of the verb which has no true equivalent either in English or in Greek. The Latin gerundive is an adjective in the form of a passive participle derived from the gerund, and implies necessity or obligation - "that which must be done". The most famous use of the gerundive is the phrase used by Cato the Elder, who, during the Punic Wars, ended all his speeches with "Carthago delenda est." (Carthage is to be destroyed.)
Grimm's Law: Jakob Grimm (the elder of the two brothers who collected the German folk tales now known as Grimm's Fairy Tales) was a German scholar who noticed consistent variations in sounds between words in the Indo-European languages. He postulated that the sounds of Latin words had been modified as they developed into the Germanic languages, and published this as a general law or statement in 1822. For example, Latin /p/ changed to /f/ (Latin pater, German Vater, English father); Latin /d/ changed to /t/ (Latin decem, German zehn, English ten
Homograph: A homograph is a word that has the same spelling as another word, but has a different meaning and a different pronunciation. For example "sow" can be pronounced S-OW, when it means a female pig, or it can be pronounced S-OH, when it refers to planting seeds.
Homonym: A homonym has the same spelling and the same pronunciation as another word, but has a different meaning. "row" can mean either a line of things, or it can mean to use oars in a boat. (These meanings of "row" are also homographs of "row" meaning a loud noise.)
Homophone: A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word, but has a different meaning and spelling. "one" and "won" are homophones.
Idiolect: Idiolect refers to the way an individual person speaks and writes a language. It depends upon the person's social milieu, education, word-choice, vocabulary, and knowledge of grammar. In the New Testament, the idiolect of Luke is markedly different from that of Mark.
Idiom: An idiom is a group of words which is 'fixed' in a language - it does not vary. The meaning of the group is usually different from the meanings of the individual words. eg. "Ace the course", "Kick the bucket", "Nailed it", "The apple of one's eye", "By hook or by crook", "Got his knickers in a twist"
Imperative: The Imperative is the form of a verb used for giving orders or prohibitions - "Do this!", "Don't do that!", "Stop doing that!". From the Latin imperator, which originally meant the General of an army, but became the title of the Emperor.
Imperfect: The Imperfect is one of the tenses of the verb. It indicates a continuous or repeated action in the past - an action in progress, or which has not been completed. eg. "They used to do this", "While they were doing that". In English grammar it is sometimes called the Progressive, the Imperfective, or the Continuous.
Impersonal: When applied to verbs, 'Impersonal' means that there is no identifiable subject other than "it". eg. "It is raining" (One cannot say "I am raining")
Indeclinable: In an inflected language, an indeclinable word is one which remains the same for all cases - it does not follow the normal pattern of case-endings. Such words are usually foreign names which have been imported into the language. For example, the name Δαυιδ (David) in indeclinable in Greek - it has no case endings.
Indefinite Article: The Indefinite Article in English is a / an. Greek and Latin do not have an Indefinite Article. The Greek word λόγος can be translated as "word" or "a word", depending on the context.
Indicative: The Indicative is one of the moods of a verb. It is used for statements of fact and for questions. For example, in "The dog chased the cat", "chased" is in the Indicative mood, as opposed to "The dog might chase the cat.", where "might chase" is in the Subjunctive mood (we do not know whether or not the dog will chase the cat.
Indirect Object: The Indirect Object is the recipient of the Object of a ditransitive verb. For example, in the sentences "The teacher gave me a book.", "He told me the time.", me is the Indirect Object.
Indirect Speech: Indirect speech reports what someone said, using an introductory clause followed by the reported speech as a subordinate clause. In indirect speech in English, pronouns and verb tenses are changed. For example, if a girl said "I want a cookie.", it would be reported as "The girl said that she wanted a cookie."
Infinitive: The infinitive is the uninflected form of the verb which is not related to time, person, or number. In English an Infinitive is usually used with to. eg. "The dog began to bark."
Inflexion: Inflexion describes the way a word may change to indicate tense, number, gender, case. etc. eg. the English verb 'say'; forms 'he/she/it says' for the Third Person Singular Present Indicative, said for the simple past, saying for the Present Participle; the English noun child forms the plural children and the possessives child's and children's; some English adjectives and adverbs also inflect : dark, darker, darkest; and less, lesser, least. Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek are inflected languages. Modern English has lost almost all of the original Anglo-Saxon inflections.
Instrumental: Instrumental is a term used in English grammar to show the inanimate object used to perform the action of a verb, eg. "The man hit the dog with a stick.". Greek uses the Dative case for this.
Interjection: An interjection is a word which exists outside the normal clause structure, and is generally used to show emotion. eg. Alas, Eeuw, Yuck, Oops, Tut, Hah, eh?
Interrogative: Interrogatives are words that ask a question. Interrogative adverbs include how?, where? why?, when?. Interrogative pronouns include who? what? which? whose? whom?
Intransitive: Intransitive verbs are those which do not take an object. The action of the verb does not move from a subject to an object. Examples of intransitive verbs are : "The dog barks", "The cat purrs", "The child runs"
Irregular: Irregular describes a word or words which does not follow the normal grammatical rules. eg. I go, I went and I think, I thought are irregular verbs; good, better, best and bad, worse, worst are irregular degrees of comparison; man, men and mouse, mice are irregular plural nouns.
Jussive: The term Jussive is used in English grammar to denote a clause which gives a command of some sort. Jussives include not only the normal Imperatives, but also some expressions in the Subjunctive, eg. Let's do it.
Long Vowel: Vowels can be pronounced for various lengths of time, and the duration affects the sound of the vowel. The English long vowels are
/i:/ as in seed, bead, we
/a:/ as in start, heart, father
/ɔ:/ as in caught, sort, fought
/u:/ as in crude, food, crew
/ɜ:/ as in bird, herd, nurse
Lemma: A Lemma is the form of a word used in dictionaries; it is also known as the citation form or dictionary form. An English dictionary lists verbs in the form of their Infinitive, eg. "write, to". Greek dictionaries list verbs in the form of their First Person Singular Indicative Active, eg. "γράφω" (I write)
Lexeme: A Lexeme is a unit of meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It corresponds to the root word which carries the basic meaning in a group of words related by inflection. For example, write, writes, writing, wrote, written are forms of the lexeme WRITE
Liquid: Liquid is used to describe the flowing sounds of /l/, /m/, /n/, and /r/. In Greek, the liquid verbs are those whose stems end in λ, μ, ν or ρ
Loanword: A loanword is a word borrowed from another language, eg. English 'Amen', from the Hebrew for 'true, firm'
Locative: The locative was one of the cases of the older Indo-European languages. It is used to show the place where the action of the verb occurs. In many languages the Locative dropped out of use and was supplanted by the use of adverbs or pronouns of place, eg. "I put the book there.", "The bird is in the sky", "The cat is up a tree.". In Greek, the function of the Locative has been taken by the Dative.
Main clause: The main clause in a sentence is the one which is not subordinate to any other clause in the sentence. The main clause can stand as a sentence by itself - it does not depend on any of the other clauses for completion. eg. In the sentence "The dog was hungry, so I fed him.", "The dog was hungry." is the main clause, and "so I fed him." is a subordinate clause.
Main verb: The main verb in a clause is the one which gives the meaning of the action. It is usually the final word in a verb phrase. eg. "The dog chased the cat.", "Is the dog chasing the cat?", "The dog did not chase the cat.", "If the dog should chase the cat he will get scratched."
Metaphor: A metaphor describes the use of a descriptive phrase with an object or action to which it ss not literally applicable. eg. a golden example (examples are not really made of gold.)
Middle English: Middle English, ME, is the form of English used in England between ca. 1150 and ca. 1450. The language had incorporated Norman-French terms, and was losing its case system. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales belongs to this period.
Middle Voice, Middle Verb: Greek has a group of verbs which do not have the usual active endings. They usually describe an action in which the subject is closely involved. They often have a reflexive sense. The Middle Voice is the term used for these verbs which do not have a distinct Active Voice. eg, The Greek verb ἔρχομαι, usually translated as "I come" or "I go", has the sense of "I move myself".
Mixed Metaphor: A mixed metaphor occurs when someone applies unrelated or incompatible metaphors to the same object. eg. We are skating on thin ice if we don't know on which side our bread is buttered.
Mood: The mood of a verb describes the way in which it functions; "mood" is derived from the Latin modus (manner). English verbs can exhibit three moods : the Indicative, used for factual statements and questions, rg I am good; the Imperative, used to give orders and prohibitions, eg. Be good!; and the Subjunctive, used for hypothetical or doubtful statements, eg. If I were good.. Greek adds a fourth mood, the Optative, to express a strong wish that something should or should not, happen.
Morpheme: A morpheme is a small unit in the formation of a word; it may or may not be able to stand on its own as a word. For example, in the word walked the morpheme walk indicates the action, and the morpheme -ed shows that the action is in the past.
Morphology: Morphology is the study of how words are formed. It includes inflections, eg. write, writes, wrote and derivations, eg. write, unwritten, writable
Nominative: In inflected languages, the Nominative is the case used to denote the subject of the verb.
Number: English grammar uses the term 'Number' to designate Singular (dealing with one of something) or Plural (more than one of something. Early Greek (as used by Homer) also had a Dual (used for two of something) which was distinct from the plural.
Object: The Object is usually a noun or noun-phrase (a phrase acting as a noun) associated with the action of a verb. In English, the Object follows the verb. A Direct Object (often referred to simply as the Object) receives the action of a transitive verb. For example, in The dog chased the cat., the Object is the cat. In inflected languages, the Object is put in the Accusative case.
An Indirect Object shows how the action of the verb relates to the Direct Object. In English, an Indirect Object often uses to, for, by, with, or from. In Greek, an Indirect Object is put in the Dative case. For example, in The child hit the ball with a stick, the Subject is the child, the Direct Object is the ball, and the Indirect Object is a stick. In The child asked the teacher for a book, the Indirect Object is a book. In The teacher gave a book to the child, the Indirect Object is the child
Optative: In Greek, the Optative is a mood of the verb denoting a strong wish that something should or should not happen. It is characterized by an omega replacing the usual epsilon in the personal endings of the verb. In the Greek New Testament the most frequent Optative is in the phrase μὴ γένοιτο (Oh please, please, please, let it not happen!), often translated as "God forbid!"
Ordinal: An ordinal number is one which shows a position in a series, eg. first, second, third, fourth
Orthography: Orthography is the study of how words are spelt - the "correct" spelling for words. What is orthographically correct may vary from one culture to another. There are orthographic differences between American English and British English, eg. color vs. colour, sox vs. socks, realize vs. realise
Participle: A Participle is a "verbal adjective"; it is a form of the verb which is used in an adjectival sense. Participles are like verbs, in that they have tense. In English, many Present Participles end in -ing, eg. looking, and some Past Participles end in -ed, eg. having looked.
Participles can be used in an adjectival sense, eg. in the sentences The garbage is stinking and The girl put the stinking garbage out of the house. the participle stinking describes the garbage; in the first sentence stinking is used as the predicate, in the second sentence stinking is used in the attributive position.
A Participle may also be used like a noun, in which case some grammars refer to it as a gerund, eg. Swimming is good for the health
Particle: The Greek particles are small words which Greek uses for rhetorical and stylistic coloring. Sometimes the nearest English equivalent may be a bodily motion such as a shrug, or one of the English sounds used while thinking of the next thing to say. e.g. "y'know, like". See Chapter 70 of the Greek Textbook for more on Particles.
Passive: The Passive is the voice of the verb used when the grammatical subject receives the action of the verb, rather than instigates it. English uses auxiliary verbs to form the passive. For example, in "The cat was chased by the dog" the subject is the cat, but it was chased rather than it chased. Greek uses sets of personal endings to form the passive. With a passive, the sentence does not have a grammatical object, but an agent who performs the action of the verb but is not the grammatical subject of the sentence. In the sentence above, the sentence is about the cat, not about the dog, so the cat is the subject, and the dog is the agent.
Perfect: The Perfect is one of the tenses of the verb. It implies something that has already been completed. English uses the auxiliary verb have, has to form the perfect, eg I have done my homework. Although the Perfect is usually associated with actions in the past, there is a less common Future Perfect used for completed actions in the future, eg By tomorrow, I will have done my homework.
In Greek, the Perfect is used to indicate actions which have been completed, and the effect of which is still in operation at the time of speaking or writing, in the sense of I have done my homework. (and here it is to prove it).
Person: Person is a grammatical category to indicate the relationship to the person(s) speaking. The First Person is the speaker (I,we); the Second Person is the person addressed (thou, you, y'all); the Third Person is the person or thing discussed (he, she, it, they).
Phoneme: A phoneme is the smallest element in the sound system of a language
Phonetics: Phonetics is the study of the sounds of a spoken language. The International Phonetic Association developed the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in an attempt to regularize the way spoken sounds are transcribed into written characters.
Phrase: A phrase is a section of text longer than one word but shorter than a clause. A phrase generally does not contain a finite verb. eg. "one of the best students at ENMU" is a phrase.
Pluperfect: The Pluperfect is sometimes called the Past Perfect in English grammar. In English, the Pluperfect is formed by using had as the auxiliary verb; it refers to an action with was completed before some other action in the past. eg. I had finished my homework before I went to bed.
Polyseme: A polyseme is a word which has more than one meaning. In strict grammars, a polyseme has various meanings which have developed from one word in the past, eg. draw (to pull, to make a picture, to score equally in a game). In contrast, homonyms are words which now have the same spelling and pronunciation but which have come from different words in the past, eg. fair (equitable, an entertainment or exposition, pale colored). Distinguishing between polysemes and homonyms is a subject for Historical Linguistics; it is part of the historical development of a language. In practice it is often difficult to decide between the two classifications, eg. rose (a flower, a color, past tense of rise) is both a polseme and a couple of homonyms. Polysemy is the term used to describe the possession of multiple meanings.
Positive: The Positive is the first degree in the comparison of adjectives and adverbs. For example, in the series small, smaller, smallest, the Positive is small, the Comparative is smaller , and the Superlative is smallest.
Possessive: The Possessive is the case which shows ownership. In English it is shown by an apostrophe-s, all that remains of the Anglo-Saxon -es inflected ending, eg. the dog's bone; James' book.
Possessive Adjectives are my, your, his, her, its, our, their, eg. my book
Possessive Pronouns are mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs eg. the book is mine
In inflected languages, the Possessive is shown by the Genitive case.
Predicate: The Predicate is all the part of a sentence which is not the Subject. For example, in the sentence "On Tuesday, the dog chased the cat up a tree the Subject is the dog and the Predicate is chased the cat up a tree on Tuesday
Prefix: A prefix is a lexical unit affixed to the beginning of a word, with a resulting change in meaning. eg atheist, non-denominational, hyperactive
Preposition: Prepositions tell us the relation between two words - they generally tell us where something is or takes place. They usually come just before the word they 'govern'. eg. The cat is up a tree. The child went into the house.
Present: The Present is one of the tenses of the verb. It usually implies an action going on at the present time, but it can also be used in a timeless sense. eg. The dog chases the cat whenever he gets the chance.
The Historical Present or Narrative Present refers to the use of the present tense to describe actions in the past, in order to make them more vivid to the listener or reader. This is used much more frequently in Greek than in English.
The Present Continuous or Present Progressive is a tense used for an action which is going on at the time of speaking or writing. It is formed with the present tense of the verb to be and the Present Participle, eg. She is writing a letter.
The Present Participle is the -ing form of the verb. In English it is used to form the progressive tenses of the verb. eg. The dog is chasing the cat. I was reading a book.
Preterite, Preterit: The Preterite is the simple past tense of the verb in English, eg. I did my homework. In Greek, this tense is called the Aorist
Principal Parts: The Principal Parts of a verb are the forms which it is necessary to know in order to build all the other forms can be built. English verbs have three Principal Parts : the basic form, the simple past, and the past participle, eg. go, went, gone and sing, sang, sung and talk, talked, talked
Latin verbs have four Principal Parts : First Person Singular Present Active Indicative, Present Infinitive, First Person Singular Perfect Active Indicative, and the Supine (used mainly for Perfect Passives), eg. amo, amare, amavi, amatum
Greek verbs have six Principle Parts. See Chapter 28 and Appendix C-01 of the Online Greek Textbook
Pronoun: Pronouns typically stand in for nouns. For example, the sentence "The girl saw the boy." can be expressed as "She saw him." where both she and him are pronouns.
English Personal Pronouns include I, thou, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, thee, him, her, us, them.
English Reflexive Pronouns include myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
English Relative Pronouns include who, which, whom, whose, that. NB, the word that is also used as a demonstrative adjective (eg. That dog chased the cat.), as a demonstrative pronoun (eg. I did not say that.), and as a relative adverb (eg. I did it in the same way that you did it), and as a conjunction (eg. She said that the dog was hers.)
English Demonstrative Pronouns are this and its plural these, and that and its plural those. For example I prefer this to that.
Proper Noun: A Proper Noun is the name of a particular person, animal, place, etc, (eg. James, Maria, Portales, Fido, Saturday, France) as distinguished from a common noun (eg. dog, boy, town, day, country). English proper nouns are usually capitalized, and do not normally take a definite article; one does not say "I saw the James yesterday.", though this construction is common in some other languages, including Greek.
Protasis: In a conditional sentence, the Protasis is the clause which expresses the condition, eg. The dog will get scratched if he chases the cat. The clause giving the consequences of the Protasis is the Apodosis.
Reflexive: A reflexive verb is one in which the action of the verb comes back to the Subject. eg. I sit (myself) down
The reflexive pronouns are myself, thyself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
Second Person: The Second Person refers to the person(s) being addressed, eg, you, thou, y'all
Semantics: Semantics deals with meaning in a language. It includes the meanings of words (and hence, dictionaries), and their meaning when in combination (hence interpretation and translation).
Semantic Shift: Semantic shift is the change in meaning which might happen to a word during its history. For example, in Shakespeare's time (1563-1613) naughty meant extremely bad or wicked, and evil just meant bad or rotten (some figs were said to be too evil to eat). Over time both these words have changed in meaning - evil is now much worse than naughty.
Meat once meant food in general (and included bread and anything else to eat) while flesh included not only the the flesh of living creatures, but also meat for eating.
Rubric originally meant something printed in red ink - the instructions in a Prayer Book for what was to be done were, and sometimes still are, printed in red, and what was to be said was printed in black. Over time rubric came to mean instructions for how to do something; over the past thirty years rubric has come to include a matrix used for assessing student achievement.
Sememe: A semene is the smallest unit of meaning carried by a morpheme. eg. the meaning of negation in the prefix a- in atheist, agnostic, amoral
Subject: The Subject of a sentence (or clause) is what the sentence is about; it usually comes first in the sentence. With inflected languages, the Subject is in the Nominative case. With an active verb, the Subject is the person or thing doing the action of the verb; with a passive verb, the Subject is the person or thing acted upon. For example the dog is the subject in the sentences The dog chased the cat. and The dog was scratched by the cat,
Subjunctive: The Subjunctive is the Mood of a verb used to express an element of doubt, or for statements which are 'contrary to fact'. eg. If I were you . . (but I'm not you). I recommend that he apologize (but in fact he might not apologize).
Greek uses the subjunctive much more frequently than English.
Modern colloquial English rarely uses the subjunctive, but uses the indicative even for hypothetical remarks and for statements which are 'contrary to fact'. eg. "If it rains tomorrow . . " (Indicative), rather than "If it should rain tomorrow . . " (subjunctive - we don't know whether or not it will rain tomorrow.)
Subordinate: A subordinate clause is part of a longer sentence, and depends on the main clause of the sentence. For example, in the sentence The student got a good grade because she did her homework. the main clause is The student got a good grade, and the subordinate clause is because she did her homework
Superlative: The superlative degree of comparison for an adjective or adverb is the highest degree possible (above the positive and comparative forms. eg best, largest, most beautiful, latest, most quickly
Suffix: A suffix is the ending of a word, and which gives grammatical meaning rather than lexical meaning, to the word. For example, the suffix "-ing" is used to form a participle, as in "talking", and the suffix "-ed" is used to form a past tense, "talked"
Synonym: A synonym is a word which has the same, or a very similar, meaning as another word. eg. girl and lass are synonyms.
Syntax: Syntax is the set of rules in a language for the order of words in a sentence. For example, in English one says The dog is barking, not Barking the dog is.
Tense: As applied to verbs, Tense means the form of the verb used to indicate the time at which an action takes place. English tenses include the Present, eg. I sing, the Future, eg. I will sing, the Simple Past, eg. I sang, the Imperfect, eg. I was singing, the Perfect, eg. I have sung, and several other less frequently used tenses.
Third Person: The Third Person refers to the person or thing that is being spoken about, eg he, she, it, they
Transitive: As applied to verbs, transitive refers to the transferring of the action of the verb from the subject to an object. For example, The dog chased the cat. is transitive, whereas The dog went to sleep. is intransitive.
Vocative: In inflected languages, the Vocative is the case used when addressing someone or something.
Voice: In grammar, Voice refers to the action of a verb. English verbs can be Active (eg. The dog chased the cat) or Passive, (eg. The dog was chased by the children).
Greek also has a Middle Voice, with a Reflexive meaning. This includes verbs in which the subject is affected by the action of the verb. For example, verbs of motion, with the sense of I move myself (I come, I go); and verbs of decision, with the sense of I think about something and come up with a decision (I answer, I deny)

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Last Updated : August 2, 2022

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