Meanings
- not comparablehuman sciencesConcerned with or relating to the ways in which language varies across social, cultural or educational factors.
a diastratic usage label
2 more examples
According to Hausmann (1977, Ch. 8), lexically relevant units can receive — typically by means of labels or usage notes — any or all of the following types of diasystematic marking: diachronic (e.g. archaic, neologism); diatopic (e.g. American English for elevator 'lift', British English for loo); diaintegrative for foreign borrowings used in English (e.g. German for Weltanschauung); diastratic (e.g. informal for loo, formal for perambulator); diaconnotative (e.g. from Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (W9), often used disparagingly for dyke); diatechnical (e.g. law for tort, anatomy for clavicle; diafrequential (e.g. rare); dianormative (e.g. substandard for ain't).
1991, “Lexicography”, in Kirsten Malmkjær, editor, The Linguistics Encyclopedia, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 295, column 2The eschewing of Grantha letters despite their widespread use in modern Tamil, and the unnecessary diastratic and dianormative labelling of many common items as 'non-standard', echo traditional views that the language needs to be 'protected' against the innovations of ordinary everyday speech.
2000, Gregory James, Colporuḷ: A History of Tamil Dictionaries, Chennai: Cre-A, →ISBN, page 266
Origin
Cite this entry
diastratic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diastratic
“diastratic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diastratic. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “diastratic,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diastratic.
Source: diastratic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.