sublanguage

English

Etymology

sub- +‎ language

Noun

sublanguage (plural sublanguages)

1. (computing) A subset of a language, in particular of a programming language.
   • 2015, Miguel Cebollero, Michael Coles, Jay Natarajan, Pro T-SQL Programmer's Guide, Apress, →ISBN, page 4:

     DML is considered a sublanguage of SQL. It's concerned with manipulating data stored in the database. DML consists of four commonly used statements: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and MERGE.

2. (linguistics) A language restricted to a specific context, such as a particular subject area.

   the sublanguage of weather bulletins

   • 1982, Richard Kittredge, John Lehrberger, editors, Sublanguage: Studies of Language in Restricted Semantic Domains, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 27:

     We define sublanguage here as the particular language used in a body of texts dealing with a circumscribed subject area (often reports or articles on a technical speciality or science subfield), in which the authors share a common vocabulary and common habits of word usage.

   • 1995, Douglas Biber, Dimensions of Register Variation: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 16:

     Sublanguages are usually taken from science and technology domains and are restricted to a particular topic.

See also

• DSL (“domain-specific language”)
• LSP (“language for specific purposes”)