lesson 4: morphology Flashcards
define: morphology
the study of words and the rules for word formation in a language
define: word
a meaningful unit of language that can stand on its own
define: morpheme
the smallest meaningful unit of language
define: free morpheme
can occur as an independent word
define: bound morpheme
cannot stand alone; must be attached to other morphemes; may be roots or affixes
define: root
base to which affixes attach; cannot be analyzed into smaller parts
roots can be free or bound. provide an example of each.
cat -> cats, catty, catlike.
struct -> construct, structure, instruct.
define: affix
morphemes that attach to a root (or stem).
true or false: all affixes are bound.
true
define: prefix
attaches to the beginning of a word
define: suffix
attaches to the end of a word
define: infix
inserted in the middle of a word
define: circumfix
attached around a word (at both ends)
english has no __ or __. (prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes)
infixes; circumfixes
define: derivational affix
make or derive new words with new meanings; may change lexical category.
define: inflectional affix
indicates grammatical roles; never changes the lexical category; doesn’t change basic meaning of word
how do we know which affixes attach first in affix trees?
derivational affixes are constrained in which lexical categories they attach to
define: content morphemes
has some kind of semantic content of its own; includes derivational affixes
define: function morphemes
do not have substantial semantic content; provide grammatical function info by relating words of a sentence; includes inflectional affixes, prepositions, determiners, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries
define: reduplication
forming new words by doubling a whole morpheme (total_ or part of it (partial); e.g., bye-bye, peepee
define: alternation
morphological distinctions that are marked by morpheme-internal changes (e.g., plurals: man–men, goose–geese; verb tense: ring–rang–rung; derivation: strife (n.), strive (v.)
define: suppletion
when morphological inflection is indicated with phonetically unrelated forms
define: compound
combination of 2 or more independent words to form a new word (e.g., redhot, blackboard, dryclean, whiteboard)
define: blend
combine parts of two words (e.g., brunch)
define: clipping
delete syllables (e.g., zoo: zoological park)
define: acronym
take the initial letters of each phrase/title (e.g., Husky Union Building = HUB)
define: conversion
derive new words in new lexical category without form changes (e.g., Googling (v.) from Google (n.)
define: allomorph
different phonetic realizations for the same morpheme
