Morphology Flashcards
Test 2
Morphology
The study of units of meaning
Morpheme
the smallest unit of meaning. Ex. “cow” (a free base) the prefix “un-“ The suffix “’-‘s”
Kinds of Morphemes
free and bound morphemes
Free Morpheme
a morpheme that can stand alone. Ex: Golf, girl, cow
Bound Morpheme
a morpheme that must be used with a prefix or suffix ex: “-er” in golfer
Base
the morpheme that carries the basic meaning of a word
Free Base
a base that does not have to have any other parts to complete it. ex: cow, girl
Bound Base
must have prefixes , suffixes, or both to complete it ex: the “ven” in venture “voc” in vocal
Three types of Affixes
prefixes, suffixes, and infixes
Prefix
come before the base they are attached to ex: unlikely, precursor, mistake
Suffix
follow the base they are attached to ex: vented, ability, sadism
Infixes
come within the base they are attached to ex: drive/ drove tooth/teeth woman/women mouse/mice
Full Morphemes
include nouns, verbs, adjective, and adverbs- content or context words.
Empty Morphemes
include articles, prepositions, conjunctions- function words (adds to other words)
Derivational Affixes
modify the dictionary meaning of a word to which they are added ex: adding “con-“ to “vent” (meaning to come) gives us the word convent, a place where nuns live adding “-ation” to a base such as “voc-“ or “sanc-“ makes the word a noun: vocation, sanction
