informant
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Informant
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin informans, participle of informo.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
informant (plural informants)
- One who relays confidential information to someone, especially to the police; an informer.
- (linguistics) A native speaker who acts as a linguistic reference for a language being studied. The informant demonstrates native pronunciation, provides grammaticality judgments regarding linguistic well-formedness, and may also explain cultural references and other important contextual information.
- 1977, A. E. Kibrik, The methodology of field investigations in linguistics
- The only material the linguist has to begin with are the informant's grammatical utterances in the target language pronounced arbitrarily in a natural or assigned communicative situation or stimulated artificially by the investigator.
- 2003, Sergei Nirenburg, H. L. Somers, Yorick Wilks, Readings in machine translation (page 116)
- The informant learns his language by formal training and, more importantly, by constant exposure to its use. He cannot repeat to the linguist what he has never seen or heard.
- 1977, A. E. Kibrik, The methodology of field investigations in linguistics
Synonyms[edit]
- (one who relays confidential information): blabber, gossip, narc, stool pigeon, tattletale, rat, canary, snitch, stoolie, squealer, grass, bigmouth
- See also Wikisaurus:informant
Translations[edit]
one who relays confidential information
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See also[edit]
French[edit]
Verb[edit]
informant
- Present participle of informer.
Latin[edit]
Verb[edit]
īnfōrmant
- third-person plural present active indicative of īnfōrmō
