Chapter 6

Question 1

What is ablaut?

Answer 1

Vowel change to show past tense (speak-spoke)

Question 2

What is a bound morpheme that can be attached to a root to form a new word?

Answer 2

An affix; these include prefixes, suffixes, and infixes

Question 3

What is analytic language? An example?

Answer 3

Languages that rely on syntax to arrange function morphemes rather than morphology; an example is mandarin

Question 4

What is the idea that the words people speak have been built from different morphemes rather than single chunks called?

Answer 4

Assumption of composition; as in unhappy, the word is stored as “un” and “happy” in the lexicon instead of as one unit

Question 5

Describe derivational.

Answer 5

A bound and content morpheme; in contrast to inflectional; the -er in teacher is derivational but the -er in smarter is inflectional

Question 6

Describe inflectional.

Answer 6

A bound and function morpheme; examples include -ed and ‘s

Question 7

What are semi-weak verbs?

Answer 7

Verbs that are not quite regular or irregular; examples include sweep-swept and deal-dealt as they have ablaut but alveolar endings

Question 8

What are strong verbs?

Answer 8

Verbs that use ablaut to mark past tense; buy-bought

Question 9

What is the process where two or more previously distinct morphemes are combined into one lexical item?

Answer 9

Suppletion; bad has worse and worst for its comparative and superlative forms

Question 10

What are synthetic languages?

Answer 10

Languages with more morphemes per word than other languages; rely on morphology rather than syntax; example Spanish

Question 11

What are weak verbs?

Answer 11

Verbs that take -ed to mark past tense