synchronic
/sɪŋˈkrɒnɪk
/adjective
Concerned with something, especially a language, as it exists at one point in time: synchronic linguistics...Often contrasted with diachronic.
- Currently, linguists generally prefer the synchronic study of spoken language to the diachronic comparison of words in texts, and have tended to regard philology as pre-scientific.
- From a diachronic viewpoint, languages seem to change from being more pragmatic to more syntactic; from a synchronic perspective, different languages may simply be at different stages of this evolutional circle.
- One of the tenets of sociolinguistics is that synchronic variation of the type illustrated here and in the examples in Chapter 3 represents a stage in long-term change.
Derivatives
synchronically
- Part of the problem in making extrapolations from these patterns to build a theory is that the relationship between language and social structure may vary considerably, both synchronically and diachronically.
- Each can be studied synchronically or diachronically and the order in which they have been dealt with within a grammar has fluctuated over the years.
- Reading Scripture diachronically and synchronically, all views provided by the canon would be considered as in a kind of dialogue.
Origin
1920s: from late Latin synchronus (see synchronous) + -ic.