minimal pair

in linguistics, two forms that differ in just one phonological feature, thereby illustrating the critical contrastive role played by that feature. In English, for example, the spoken forms [pin] and [bin] are a minimal pair that serve to identify /p/ and /b/ as distinct phonemes. See binary feature; emic–etic distinction.

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Psychology term of the day

November 15th 2024

acquisitive stage

see Schaie’s stages of cognitive development.