Glossary

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Languaging

A sociolinguistic concept that reframes language as an ongoing activity rather than a fixed system. Developed by scholars including Alastair Pennycook and Li Wei, languaging treats communication as the dynamic use of all available linguistic and semiotic resources — words,…

Lexical Access(also: Lexical Retrieval, Word Access)

The cognitive process of retrieving words from the mental lexicon during language production or comprehension. Lexical access involves activating the phonological, semantic, and syntactic properties of a word stored in memory. Disorders of lexical access, such as those seen in…

Lexical Chain(also: Lexical Chaining, Lexical Cohesion)

A sequence of semantically related words running through a text — for example, "doctor", "hospital", "nurse", "patient" — connected by relations like synonymy, hypernymy, or hyponymy. Lexical chains capture the topical coherence of a document and are used in readability…

Lexical NMS(also: Lexical Non-Manual Sign)

Non-manual signs that are an integral part of a specific sign's production, required to distinguish it from other signs that share the same manual component. For example, the ASL sign for "NOT YET" includes a hand gesture combined with the tongue touching the lower lip and a…

Lexical Signing(also: Lexical Sign, LS)

In American Sign Language and related signed languages, the production of meaning by syntactically combining individual lexical signs drawn from the language's vocabulary — analogous to combining words into sentences in a spoken or written language. Lexical signing is contrasted…

Linguistic Minority(also: Language Minority)

A group whose primary language differs from the dominant language of the surrounding society, often placing them at a disadvantage in education, employment, civic participation, and access to information. Deaf sign language users are frequently described as a linguistic and…

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