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Webster 1913 Edition
Observational
Obˊser-va′tion-al
,Adj.
Of or pertaining to observation; consisting of, or containing, observations.
Chalmers.
Definition 2024
observational
observational
English
Adjective
observational (comparative more observational, superlative most observational)
- (sciences) Based on or pertaining to scientific observation.
- 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 10, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 535:
- An alternative way of defending the proposal to conflate NP MOVEMENT with XP MOVEMENT would be to question the observational adequacy of the claim that NP MOVEMENT only ever has NP constituents as its target. Sentences such as the following (from Radford (1981), p. 210) might be used to support the claim that NP MOVEMENT can indeed ‘raiseʼ constituents other than NP:
(23) (a) [APRather plump] seems — to be how he likes his girlfriends
(23) (b) [PPIn Paris] seems — to be where they first met
(23) (c) [ADVPA little too casually] seems — to have been how he addressed the judge
(23) (d) [CPFor the Prime Minister to resign] would seem — to be unthinkable
- An alternative way of defending the proposal to conflate NP MOVEMENT with XP MOVEMENT would be to question the observational adequacy of the claim that NP MOVEMENT only ever has NP constituents as its target. Sentences such as the following (from Radford (1981), p. 210) might be used to support the claim that NP MOVEMENT can indeed ‘raiseʼ constituents other than NP:
-
- Pertaining to observation in general.
Related terms
- observationalism
- observationalist
- observationality