inheritance (n.)

A term used in several domains of LINGUISTICS to refer to the passing on of information from one part of a structural REPRESENTATION to another. For example, in SEMANTICS, the relationship between subtype and TYPE (e.g. fish and food) can be characterized as the subtype inheriting all the properties of its supertypes. In GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, inheritance refers to the preservation of ARGUMENT structure under certain conditions (e.g. a NOMINALIZATION of a VERB, such as running, preserves the arguments of the input verb). In some models of NON-LINEAR PHONOLOGY, information can be inherited between certain types of unit in a PROSODIC HIERARCHY. An inheritance hierarchy is also recognized in some approaches to SYNTAX, referring to the organization of elements of a DOMAIN in a system of natural classes.