paradigmatic (adj.)

A basic term in LINGUISTICS to describe the set of substitutional relationships a linguistic UNIT has with other units in a specific CONTEXT. Paradigmatic relations can be established at all LEVELS of analysis, e.g. the selection of /p-/ as opposed to /b-/, /n-/, etc., in the context /-it/, or of the as opposed to a, this, much, etc., in the context – cake. Paradigmatic RELATIONS, together with SYNTAGMATIC relations, constitute the statement of a linguistic unit’s identity within the language system. CLASSES of paradigmatically related elements are often referred to as SYSTEMS, e.g. the ‘PRONOUN system’, ‘CASE system’. A set of GRAMMATICALLY conditioned FORMS all derived from a single ROOT or STEM is called a paradigm.

In PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, the term is used to refer to a class of ASSOCIATIVE responses which people make when hearing a stimulus word, viz. those which fall into the same WORD-CLASS as the stimulus. A paradigmatic response or association would be girl following boy, white following black, etc. The SYNTAGMATIC association, by contrast, involves a change of word-class in the response.