Grammar

Question 1

What is -eth? What time period is it most frequent in and what does it signify?

Answer 1

1) An inflection
2) Old English, fell out of use by EME
3) Signified 3rd person singular

Question 2

What is an inflection?

Answer 2

A change in the form of a word, usually at the end to express a grammatical function

Question 3

What is affixation?

Answer 3

Adding an affix (prefix/suffix/circumfix) onto a lexeme

Question 4

What is grammatical conversion? ✉️

Answer 4

A lexeme of one word class becomes a lexeme of another word class, without change to its spelling or pronunciation

e.g. email and ‘to email’, eye and ‘to eye’

Question 5

What is back formation?

Answer 5

Removing an affix (prefix/suffix/circumfix) from a lexeme to create a new word

e.g. editor –> edit

Question 6

What is erosion

Answer 6

The gradual loss or simplification of linguistic (typically grammatical) features
e.g. terminal e