process (n.) 

Any approach to LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION which sees some ELEMENTS (STRUCTURES, etc.) as being the result of a change operating on some other element in the LANGUAGE. The process of change may be real (as in ATTESTED processes of DIACHRONIC change) or part of the abstract system of relationships found in a particular MODEL of description (as when plural NOUNS are derived from singulars by a process of pluralization). This notion is fundamental to the ITEM-AND-PROCESS model of linguistic description, and several important terms in contemporary linguistics reflect a process approach, e.g. DERIVATION, REWRITE RULE, BLEND and the many terms ending in -ization, such as LABIALIZATION, PASSIVIZATION. In PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, considerable discussion has taken place concerning the extent to which the linguistic processes encountered in a linguistic model can be related to processes of a psychological kind.

One of the two main categories of Aktionsarten in the classification of US philosopher Zeno Vendler (1900–2004). Process predicates are divided into ACCOMPLISHMENT, ACHIEVEMENT and ACTIVITY types, and contrasted with STATE predicates.