Linguistics - Morphology

Question 1

What are the two different types of morphemes?

Answer 1

Free morpheme: forms that can stand alone e.g. walk
Bound morpheme: forms that cannot stand alone and have to occur with other forms e.g. -un

Question 2

What are the two types of word formation in English?

Answer 2

1. Compounding - the process of forming words by combining at least two free morphemes (e.g., sketchpad)​
2. Affixation - the process of adding prefixes and suffixes to a form​:
   Prefix: e.g., mislead, unhappy​
   Suffix: e.g., leader, leading, leads​

Question 3

What is an inflectional suffix?

Answer 3

Inflectional: addition of a grammatical word-ending which indicates features such as number, possession, person or tense (more later)​

Question 4

What is a derivational suffix?

Answer 4

any suffix that is not inflectional, is called as derivational

Question 5

What are the two types of internal word structure?

Answer 5

1. Mono-morphemic​ - some words can’t be analysed into smaller components, e.g., pencil, mammoth, red
2. Polymorphemic​ - many words do have internal structure, e.g., unhappy, bookshelf (processes: compounding, affixation)

Question 6

What is compounding and what are some examples?

Answer 6

Combination of two or more free morphemes (morphemes that can stand alone as words), e.g.​
bluebell (A, N)​
test-drive (N,V)​
carrot cake (N, N)​
​May be written as a single word, hyphenated form or sometimes two separate words

Question 7

What is a root of a word?

Answer 7

Carries the dictionary meaning of the word​ and is a free morpheme e.g. cook in uncooked

Question 8

What is an infix?

Answer 8

Infixes​ - appear in the middle e.g. English: abso-blinking-lutely!​
Rare in English

Question 9

Can suffixes and prefixes appear more than once in a word?

Answer 9

A word can contain more than one prefix and more than one suffix​, e.g
Anti (prefix)+dis (prefix)+establish (root)+ment (suffix)​