preverbal en · ADJ
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-i Proto-Indo-European *préh₂i? Proto-Italic *prai Proto-Italic *prai- Latin prae-lbor. Middle English pre- English pre- English verbal English preverbal From pre- + verbal.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) At an early stage of development in which one is not yet able to communicate by means of words.
The expressive power of intonation in communication with preverbal infants was a topic of considerable interest in the early literature on language acquisition.
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:
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(not-comparable, of a part of speech) Occurring before the verb in a sentence or expression.
Here, the more general construction is a simple transitive verb construction, such that the preverbal subject is the actor (causer) of the action, and the post-verbal object is the patient of the action.
2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Grammar” (chapter 3), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 85:I will attempt to document some recent syntactic (word order) changes involving preverbal noun phrases in the Coast Tsimshian language.
1974, J. A. Dunn, “Preverbal Position in Coast Tsimshian”, in International Journal of American Linguistics, volume 40, number 1, page 10:
Deriveds
Translations (4)
el προλεκτικός (stage of development before words) · it preverbale (stage of development before words) · fr préverbal (stage of development before words) · de präverbal (stage of development before words)