Diachronic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The adjective diachronic (from Greek elements dia "through" and chronos "time") means "historically", "over time".It is generally opposed to synchronic. It is used, for example, in:
- diachronic or historical linguistics, the study of how languages and language families change over time. Opposed to synchronic or descriptive linguistics, which studies a language at a specific point in time.
- diachronic distinction or diachronic contrast, between two entities that existed in different epochs, e.g. between the archaic English verbal suffixes -eth and the modern ones -s/-es. Opposed to a synchronic distinction, between two co-exisiting entities, e.g. between the English pronouns he and she.
- diachronic process, in modern philosophy of mind, a process that occurs over a long period of time.
