linguistic terrain

linguistic terrain (countable and uncountable, plural linguistic terrains)

1. A spatial conception of the character or use of language or languages.
   • 1987, David Justice, The Semantics of Form in Arabic in the Mirror of European Languages, John Benjamins Publishing, pages 7–8:

     The purpose is twofold: to show the reader the lions in the Arabian linguistic terrain, those unions of pattern and meaning in which the language may take special pride; and, where appropriate, to see what formal procedures are used in our own back yard to handle the same semantic task.

   • 1997 Laura (Riding) Jackson and Schuyler B. Jackson; edited by William Harmon, "Supplementary Essays: The New Grammar," Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words and Supplementary Essays, University of Virginia Press, 1997. p. 542

     The tracks laid for the systems of semantical linguistics were among the first evidences of the scientific invasion of linguistic terrain.

   • 2002, Meredith Williams, Wittgenstein, Mind and Meaning: Towards a Social Conception of Mind‎, Psychology Press, page 65:

     Instead of there being a single unified groundwork of all experience and knowledge, Wittgenstein is alleged to show us that the linguistic terrain is broken up into subdivisions each with its constitutive forms of representation .... Thus, Wittgenstein's appeal to the diversity of language is construed as the claim that there are numerous subdivisions to the linguistic terrain and not a single whole to be delimited.