across-the-board (ATB)

A term used in various branches of LINGUISTICS for an effect which applies to the whole of a designated linguistic system or subsystem. In particular, in language ACQUISITION it represents a view of PHONOLOGICAL development which asserts that, when children introduce a new pronunciation, the new form spreads to all the words in which it would be found in adult speech – for example, if /l/ and /j/ are at first both pronounced [j], and [l] is later acquired, it will be used only in adult words which contain /l/, and not /j/. There is no implication that the change takes place instantaneously. In GENERATIVE grammar, the term has also been used to refer to phenomena which affect all the constituents in a CO-ORDINATE structure; for example, a WH-phrase moves across-the-board in What did Mary make and sell? See also DIFFUSION.