Chapter 4: Morphology Flashcards
Morphology
part of grammar referring to words and word formation
word
the smallest free form in a language
free form
an element that does not have to occur in a fixed position with respect to neighbouring elements
morpheme
the minimal linguistic unit which has meaning or grammatical function
root
constitutes the core of the word and carries the major component of the meaning, typically belong to a lexical category
lexical category
noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc
affix
always bound morphemes
base
the form to which an affix is added
prefix
an affix that is attached to the front of its base
suffix
an affix that is attached to the end of its base
infix
an affix that occurs within another morpheme (much less common than pre or suf)
allomorphs
the variant pronunciations of a morpheme
ex- [-s], [-z], [-iz] (- plural) of the morpheme: [-s]
Non-concatenative morphology
word building does not proceed in a linear sequence (happens in languages such as Tagalog or Arabic)
morphophonemics
the effects that can change a words pronunciation including its internal structure
Ex- /s/, /z/, /ez/ for the words lips, pills, judges
derivation
uses an affix to build a word with a meaning and/or category distinct from that of its base
Ex- sell-er, teach-er, treat-ment
complex derivations
words with multiple layers of internal structure
Ex- activation (act-ive-ate-ion)
class 1 of derivational affixes
often trigger changes in the pronunciation of the bases consonants and vowels and may affect stress placement
class 2 of derivational affixes
tend to be phonologically neutral, having no effect on the segmental makeup of the base or on the stress placement
compounding
the combination of 2 already existing words, the resulting compound is most likely a noun, adjective or verb
head
the morpheme that determines the category of the entire word
endocentric compounds
compound denotes a subtype of the concept denoted by its head (ex- dog-food is a type of food, caveman is a type of man, etc)
exocentric compounds
the meaning of the compound does not follow the meaning of its parts (ex- redneck is not a type of neck it denotes a type of person, sabre-tooth is not a type of tooth rather a tiger)
inflection
the modification of a word’s form to indicate grammatical information of various sorts
affixation
process of adding an affix to a base
stem
the base to which an inflectional affix is added to
Four criteria used to identify if an affix is inflectional or derivational
category change, order, productivity, semantic transparency
category change
Inflection does not change the syntactic category or the meaning of the base of the word (ex- hearts, worked)
Derivational changes the category or the type of meaning of the form to which it applies (ex- heartless, worker, kingdom)
order
Derivational affixes must be closer to the base then inflectional affixes (ex- neighbour-hoodDA-sIA)
productivity
the relative freedom with which they can combine with bases of the appropriate category
Inflectional affixes are typically more productive than derivational affixes (ex- suffix -s can apply to any noun that allows a plural form)
Derivational affixes characteristically apply to restricted classes of bases (ex- -ize can only combine with certain adjectives to form a verb)
semantic transparency
The contribution of an inflectional affix to the words meaning is usually completely transparent and consistent (ex- adding plural suffix & adding past tense suffix)
In derivational affix it is often not possible to predict the words meaning from its parts (ex- actor is someone who acts but a professor is not someone to professes)
case inflection
indicates a words grammatical role in the sentence (subject, direct object, etc)
(ex- he is used for subjects, him is used for direct objects)
ablaut
vowel alternations that mark grammatical contrasts, like the change in vowels to form the past tense of some words (ex- sing-sang, sink-sank)
umlaut
change that reflects phonologically conditioned alternations from an earlier stage in the languages history (ex- goose-geese, foot-feet)
suppletion
Replaces a morpheme with an entirely different morpheme in order to indicate a grammatical contrast (ex- go present tense, went past tense)
partial suppletion
sometimes treated as an extreme form of internal change
reduplication
marks a grammatical or semantic contrast by repeating all or part of the base to which it applies
full reduplication
repetition of the entire base
partial reduplication
copies only part of the base
tone
In some languages (not english) tone is used to make the distinction between past and future tense, process called tone placement
clitics
morphemes that must always be pronounced with another word (known as a host)
ex- I’m, Mary’s, they’re
enclitics
clitics that attach to the end of their host
proclitics
clitics that attach to the beginning of the host
conversion
A process that assigns an already existing word to a new syntactic category
Sometimes referred to as zero derivation
ex- verb derived from a noun: butter (the bread), noun derived from a verb: (a long) run, verb derived from an adjective: dirty (a shirt)
clipping
A process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more syllables
Ex- names: Liz, Rob, Sue, casual speech: prof, psych, burger, general usage: ad, deli, demo, condo
blending
Creates words from non-morphemic parts of 2 already existing items
Ex- froyo, wi-fi, motel, infomercial, toonie, etc.
backformation
A process that creates a new word by removing a real or supposed affix from another word in the language
Ex- resurrect, enthuse, donate, self-destruction, etc.
acronyms
Formed by taking the initial letters of (some or all) the words in a phrase or title and pronouncing them as a word
Ex- organizations or scientific terms: UNICEF, AIDS, recent innovations: ASAP, YOLO, FOMO, BOGO
initialisms
Different from acronyms
Ex- PEI (prince edward island), USA, DIY, BYOB
onomatopoeia
Words that have been created to sound like the thing that they name
Ex- buzz, hiss, cuckoo, sizzle
coinage
When a word may be created from scratch
Common in product names
Ex- Kodak, Teflon, Dacron
eponyms
new words created from names (ex- watt, fahrenheit, boycott)
Brand names can become so widely known that they are accepted as generic terms (ex- kleenex, google, xerox)
