connection (n.)

A term used by some FIRTHIAN linguists, as part of the phrase renewal of connection, referring to a way of validating an analysis predictively: an analysis made on the basis of a set of data (S1) is applied again to a further sample (S2) and is found to be adequate, in that in S2 one meets again the EXPONENTS of the abstract UNITS originally postulated in S1 (i.e. there has been a ‘renewal of connection’).