floating en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˈfləʊtɪŋ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˈfloʊtɪŋ/ (General-American)
- (US) audio
Etymology
By surface analysis, float + -ing.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) That floats or float.
floating buoys
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(not-comparable) Not fixed in position, opinion etc.; free to move or drift.
In China, the large floating population has tended to gravitate to cities.
The outcome of the forthcoming election is still unclear due to the large number of floating voters.
You can drag the floating toolbars to any position on the screen.
"And I am much mistaken if she has not some floating fancy of her own."
1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 198:
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(not-comparable, of a tone, qualifier:or by extension any segment or feature) Present in the underlying phonological representation but not linked to an anchor on which it can surface.
Historically, there was an accompanying vowel, but synchronically, a mere "floating" high tone is posited. In stage (b) this high tone causes the preceding low tone to raise to a raised-low tone via the process of low-raising. Finally, in stage (c) the floating high tone is lost.
1974, Larry M. Hyman, Russell G. Schuh, “Universals of Tone Rules: Evidence from West Africa”, in Linguistic Inquiry, volume 5, number 1, →JSTOR, page 86:Two classes of suffixes beginning with [+constricted glottis] ([+c.g.]) must be distinguished: those that invariably begin with a glottal stop and those that induce the glottalization of a preceding segment. Following Kim (2003), we attribute the difference to whether the suffix begins with a full glottal stop or a floating glottal “subsegment” (Zoll 1996). The essence of the distinction is that the full glottal stops consist underlyingly of a root node linked to a [+c.g.] feature while the subsegments consist solely of a [+c.g.] specification.
2009 October 14, Eun-Sook Kim, Douglas Pulleyblank, “Glottalization and Lenition in Nuu-chah-nulth”, in Linguistic Inquiry, volume 40, number 4, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 567-617:
Deriveds
floating kidney · floating-point number · floating heart · floating signifier · floating point · floating gold · floating academy · floating point operation · free-floating planet · floating cellular data · floating-point · floating voter · unfloating · floating-point unit · floating vote · floating rib · floatingly · floating rate · floating market · floating car data · floating bridge · floating collar · floating ground · flixel · floating feeling · floating point processor · floating bus stop · floating island · floating garden · floating wind turbine · floating bog · floating beacon · floating screed · nonfloating · floating dock · floating panel · floating light · floating wood tile · floating tone · floating-point operation
Translations (23)
ro plutitor (that floats) · be плыву́чы (that floats) · mi māngina (not fixed) · ca surant (that floats) · ro flotant (that floats) · fi kelluva (that floats) · mi mōngina (not fixed) · cmn 浮動的 /浮动的 (not fixed) · ru плаву́чий (that floats) · be наплаўны́ (that floats) · grc πλωτός (that floats) · bg променлив (not fixed) · fi liikkuva (not fixed) · uk плаву́чий (that floats) · ca flotant (that floats) · ru наплавно́й (that floats) · ain アモㇺカ (that floats) · ro flotant (not fixed) · es flotante (that floats) · bg плаващ (that floats) · uk наплавни́й (that floats) · cmn 漂浮的 (that floats) · es flotador (that floats)