matrix (n.)

A term derived from mathematics to refer to a rectangular array of entities (usually symbols) made up of rows and columns, and used in all branches of LINGUISTICS as an aid in DESCRIPTION or analysis. In PHONOLOGY, for example, DISTINCTIVE FEATURES are usually described within a matrix, where the columns are SEGMENTS and the rows are features: the cells of the matrix are then filled with pluses or minuses (or, in some cases, zero) corresponding to whether a feature is or is not used.

A term used in linguistics, and especially in GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, to refer to the superordinate SENTENCE within which another sentence is EMBEDDED, e.g.

The student who shouted left, where The student left is the matrix sentence, and The student shouted is the embedded sentence.