Potential Pause

潜在停顿

A term often used in grammar to refer to a defining property of the word, seen as a grammatical unit. The criterion states that, in normal speech, pauses are not introduced within the structure of the word but are always possible (and often present) at word boundaries.

语法常用此术语指词作为一种语法单位的一个定义特性。按这条标准，正常言语中词的结构内部不会有停顿，但在词的边界处总是有可能有（并经常出现）停顿。