counterexpectational

counterexpectational

English

Etymology

From counter- +‎ expectational.

Adjective

counterexpectational (comparative more counterexpectational, superlative most counterexpectational)

1. (chiefly linguistics) That goes against expectations; unexpected.
   • 2018, John H. McWhorter, The Creole Debate, Cambridge University Press, p. 18:

     For example, in Saramaccan, property items can be reduplicated to encode counterexpectational semantics.