Linguist 100 Lexic Flashcards
Morphology
Study of the internal meaningful structure of words
Monomorphemic words
Words who cannot be broken down in smaller morphemes
Root morphemes
Morphologically simple morphemes used to create longer words
Polymorphemic words
Words made up of a root morpheme and an affixe
Morphologically complex words
Words made up of a root morpheme and an affixe
Root vs base
Root: minimal form of a morpheme
Base: any morpheme to which we add smth
Free morpheme
Standalone morpheme, has a easily definedmeaning
Bound morpheme
Cannot standalone and by meaningful by itself
Testing for morpheme
See if morphemes making up words are present in other words as well (symphony-symbiosis/sympathy)
In unknown languages compare words with each others
Affixation
Most common method among human languages to create new words
-fixes
Who are they?
Pre/ suf/ af / in / circum/ trans are all bound morphemes
Prefix
Wbp: Is used in front of a base
Suffix
Wbp: Is used after a base
In english, the plural «-s» is a suffix
Infix
Wbp: added inside the base (not in english)
Circumfix
Wbp: Added to beginning and end.
It is a discontinuous morpheme
Transfix
Wbp: Vowels added inside the base
It is a discontinuous morpheme
Reduplication
Wbp: repetition of the root, which is sometimes altered
World building process
Are processes by which new words are being built:
- Affixation
- Non affixation
Ablaut
Wbp: alteration of a sound in a morpheme
Sing-sang-sung
Zero morpheme
Wbp: when a new word is created but no alteration is made
Sheep-sheep
Inflection
Wbp: a bound morpheme with grammatical info
9 form of inflections in english
- / : singular
- s : plural
- ‘s : possessive
- s : 3rd person singular
- ing: present participle
- ed : past
- en : past participle
- er : comparative
- est : superlative
Derivation
Create new words by affixation
We speak derivational affixes
Ordering
Preferred order of derivation / inflection
Complex words
At least one morpheme is bound
Con-struct-ion
Compound words
Only free morphemes
Stone age cave dweller
1st morpheme is stressed
Testing compound
Replace by pronoun
Endocentric compound
Made of X+Y morphemes, where morpheme Y is the head
Exocentric compound
There is no head i side the compound
Larger compound, the problem
They have a head and a modifier, but we need to use a dictionary to see where the head is
Calque
Wbp: words borrowed from other language
Rest in peace
Abbreviation
Wbp: every letter of the word stand for smth and is pronounced distinctly
Acronym
Wbp: every letter of the word stands for something
Conversion
Wbp: change word class but meaning is same Concrete, farm
Clipping
Wbp: reduced form, similar meaning
Exam (ination)
Blending
Wbp: two words merge together
Smog
Backformation
Wbp: when we remove a part
Television- televise
Productivity of affixes
Some affixes are more productive
While others fall out of use through morpheme decline
