preverbal

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English

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Etymology

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From pre- +‎ verbal.

Adjective

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preverbal (not comparable)

  1. (psychology, linguistics) At an early stage of development in which one is not yet able to communicate by means of words.
    • 1989, Anne Fernald, “Intonation and Communicative Intent in Mothers' Speech to Infants: Is the Melody the Message?”, in Child Development, volume 60, number 6, page 1497:
      The expressive power of intonation in communication with preverbal infants was a topic of considerable interest in the early literature on language acquisition.
  2. (linguistics, of a part of speech) Occurring before the verb in a sentence or expression.
    • 1974, J. A. Dunn, “Preverbal Position in Coast Tsimshian”, in International Journal of American Linguistics, volume 40, number 1, page 10:
      I will attempt to document some recent syntactic (word order) changes involving preverbal noun phrases in the Coast Tsimshian language.

Translations

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Noun

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preverbal (plural preverbals)

  1. (grammar) A preverb.

Spanish

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Adjective

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preverbal m or f (masculine and feminine plural preverbales)

  1. preverbal

Further reading

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