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Lingayat ► Linnaeus I 1119
out India. Historically, the linga was a representation of the phallus, as sculptures from the lst-2nd century ad, the earliest dates of linga wor¬ ship, make clear, and most modern Hindus think of it in these terms. The stylization of the linga as a smooth cylindrical mass asserts an aniconic meaning. A sexual dimension remains in the most common form in which the linga appears today. The yoni, symbol of the female sex organ, often forms the base of the linga, a reminder that the male and female principles together represent the totality of existence. The linga is worshiped with offerings of flowers, water, fruit, leaves, and rice; the purity of the materials and the clean¬ liness of the worshiper are particu¬ larly stressed.
Lingayat Vliq-gg-yotX Member of a Hindu sect that worships Shiva as the only deity. It has a wide follow¬ ing in southern India. Its followers take their name (“linga-wearers”) from the small UNGAS that both men and women wear on a cord around the neck. The Lingayats’ belief in a single deity and their concept of bhakti (devotion) as an intuitive and loving knowledge of God show the influence of Ramanuja. They reject Brahma and the authority of the Vedas; their opposition to child mar¬ riage and the ill-treatment of widows anticipated the social reform move¬ ments of the 19th century.
Lingayen Uiq-ga-'yenX Gulf Inlet, South China Sea, northwestern coast of Luzon, Philippines. It is 26 mi (42 km) wide at its entrance and 36 mi (56 km) long. It has several islands, the largest of which is Cabarruyan Island. Dagupan, on the bay’s southeast coast, is the principal commercial centre. It was the scene of Japanese and U.S. troop-landing operations during World War II. " Sandstone linga, c. 900; in the British
Museum.
Iingcod Commercially popular fish courtesy of the trustees of the British museum species ( Ophiodon elongatus ) that is strictly marine, found along the
Pacific coast of North America. It is a voracious predator with a large mouth and caninelike teeth. Lingcods are popular game and commercial fish that may reach a length of 5 ft (1.5 m). They have well-developed fins and tails. The meat, though greenish, is considered highly edible.
lingonberry Fruit of a small creeping plant ( Vaccinium vitis-idaea) of the heath family, related to the blueberry and cranberry. Also known as cow¬ berry, foxberry, and mountain or rock cranberry, the lingonberry is a wild plant used for jelly and juice by northern Europeans and by Scandina¬ vians in the U.S. The plants grow densely in the forest understory and, like cranberries, can be harvested by raking.
lingua franca Vliq-gwo-'fraq-koX Language used for communication between two or more groups that have different native languages. It may be a standard language—for example, English and French are often used for international diplomacy, and Swahili is used by speakers of the many different local languages of eastern Africa. A lingua franca may also be a pidgin, like Melanesian Pidgin, widely used in the southern Pacific. The term lingua franca (Latin: “Frankish language”) was first applied to a pid¬ gin based on French and Italian developed in the Mediterranean. See also CREOLE.
linguistics Study of the nature and structure of language. It tradition¬ ally encompasses semantics, syntax, and phonology. Synchronic linguistic studies aim to describe a language as it exists at a given time; diachronic studies trace a language’s historical development. Greek philosophers in the 5th century bc who debated the origins of human language were the first in the West to be concerned with linguistic theory. The first complete Greek grammar, written by Dionysus Thrax in the 1st century bc, was a model for Roman grammarians, whose work led to the medieval and Renaissance vernacular grammars.
With the rise of historical linguistics in the 19th century, linguistics became a science. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Ferdinand de Saussure established the structuralist school of linguistics (see structural¬ ism), which analyzed actual speech to learn about the underlying structure of language. In the 1950s Noam Chomsky challenged the structuralist pro¬ gram, arguing that linguistics should study native speakers’ unconscious knowledge of their language (competence), not the language they actu¬ ally produce (performance). His general approach, known as transforma¬ tional generative grammar, was extensively revised in subsequent decades as the extended standard theory, the principles-and-parameters (government-binding) approach, and the minimalist program. Other gram¬ matical theories developed from the 1960s were generalized phrase struc¬ ture grammar, lexical-functional grammar, relational grammar, and cognitive grammar. Chomsky’s emphasis on linguistic competence greatly stimulated the development of the related disciplines of psychol¬ inguistics and neurolinguistics. Other related fields are anthropological linguistics, computational unguistics, mathematical linguistics, sociolinguis¬ tics, and the philosophy of language.
linguistics, historical Branch of linguistics concerned with examin¬ ing changes in phonology, grammar, and semantics during a language’s evolution, reconstructing earlier stages, and uncovering evidence of the influence of other languages. Its roots are in Classical and medieval writ¬ ings on etymology and in the comparative study of Greek and Latin dur¬ ing the Renaissance. Only in the 19th century did more scientific language-analysis methods lead to the development of historical linguis¬ tics as a scholarly discipline. The Neogrammarians, a group of German linguists who formulated sound correspondences in the Indo-European languages, were especially influential. In the 20th century the methods of historical linguistics were extended to other language groups.
linkage In mechanical engineering, a system of solid, usually metallic, links (bars) connected to two or more other links by pin joints (hinges), sliding joints, or ball-and-socket joints to form a closed chain or a series of closed chains. When one link is fixed, the possible movements of the other links relative to the fixed link and to one another depend on the number of links and the number and types of joints. With four pin- connected links, for example, the links all move in parallel planes, and regardless of which link is fixed, the others move in a fixed way relative to the fixed link. With various relative lengths of the links, this four-bar linkage becomes a useful mechanism for converting uniform rotary to non-uniform rotary motion or continuous rotary to oscillatory motion. It is the most commonly used linkage mechanism in machine construction.
linkage group All the genes on a single chromosome. They are inher¬ ited as a group; during cell division they act and move as a unit rather than independently. Variations in linkage groups can occur if a chromo¬ some breaks, and the sections join with the partner chromosome if it has broken in the same places. This exchange of genes between chromosomes, called crossing-over, usually occurs during meiosis. Sex linkage is the ten¬ dency of a characteristic to be linked to one sex; sex-linked traits in humans include red-green colour blindness and hemophilia.
Linkletter, Artfhur Gordon) (b. July 17, 1912, Moose Jaw, Sask., Can.) Canadian-born U.S. broadcasting host. He served as emcee for the variety show House Party (1943-67), which involved the audience in spontaneous contests and activities; he created the show’s popular seg¬ ment “Kids Say the Damdest Things.” He hosted another audience- participation show, People Are Funny, on radio (1943-59) and television (1954-61). He wrote more than 20 books, including the best-selling Kids Say the Damdest Things (1957), I Wish I'd Said That (1968), and Old Age Is Not for Sissies (1988).
Linnaeus \b-'ne-3s\, Carolus Swedish Carl von Linne (b. May 23,
1707, Rashult, Smaland, Swed.—d. Jan. 10, 1778, Uppsala) Swedish botanist and explorer. He studied botany at Uppsala university and explored Swedish Lapland before going to Holland to study medicine