Morphology

Question 1

What types of words are considered open class items?

Answer 1

Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs

Question 2

What information do open class items carry?

Answer 2

They carry the main semantic content of sentence

Question 3

What can open class items sometimes be called?

Answer 3

Content words or content morphemes

Question 4

What types of words are considered closed class items?

Answer 4

-Pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions and other grammatical or function morphemes
-Inflectional and derivational affixes are also
considered closed class morphemes

Question 5

T/F: Closed class items outweigh the number of closed class items in a lexicon

Answer 5

False; there are more open class than closed class items

Question 6

Define morphology.

Answer 6

The study of the structure of words

Question 7

What are meaningful subparts of words called?

Answer 7

Morphemes

Question 8

Define the categories of morphemes

Answer 8

Affixes, Roots and Bases

Question 9

Define the function of roots

Answer 9

Roots are morphemes that serve as the core of words
They provide the primary meaning of words

Question 10

Define the function of affixes

Answer 10

Affixes are added to roots/bases and modify the meaning and/or function of a root

Question 11

Define base

Answer 11

Base refers to a form that an affix is added to

Question 12

T/F: Roots and bases are the same

Answer 12

False; a base may consist of a root plus an affix(es) whereas a root is simply the initial morpheme that gives its meaning to the word

Question 13

Name the types of affixes

Answer 13

Derivational and Inflectional

Question 14

Define derivational affixes

Answer 14

D.A.’s form words that differ from the base in meaning and/or function.
– Example: ‘un’ reverses the meaning of ‘happy’

Question 15

Define inflectional affixes

Answer 15

I.A.’s function to indicate syntactic or semantic relations between words in sentences
– Example: agreement between:
* subject and verb: he eats

Question 16

T/F: There can only be one derivational affix per root

Answer 16

False; words can be derived in layers and there can often be multiple D.A.’s in a word

Question 17

T/F: All languages have similar amounts of inflectional affixes

Answer 17

False; Languages with relatively few inflections fulfill the
functions expressed by inflections in other ways by using function words as prepositions

Question 18

T/F: There are only inflectional suffixes in English

Answer 18

True; There are no inflectional prefixes, infiexes or circumfixes in English
However, there are in other languages

Question 19

T/F: Inflectional affixes can change the fundamental meaning or part of speech of a word

Answer 19

False; the roots classification will stay the same (ie dog and dogs are both adjectives; strong, stronger and strongest are all adjectives)

Question 20

Explain the relationship between productivity and inflectional affixes

Answer 20

Despite some irregular forms (such as ‘go-went’), one inflection (with possible allomorphs ) will usually fulfill a designated grammatical function in the language.
* Think about how few exceptions there are to adding some form of the plural affix ‘s’ to nouns.
* New words in English generally receive regular inflection.

Question 21

T/F: When there are both inflectional and derivational affixes added to the word, IA’s will occur at the outer margins (end) of the word

Answer 21

True; This is because obligatory grammatical occasions are often dictated by sentence structure, after a word has been retrieved with its derivational affixes

Question 22

T/F: Morphemes are always stand-alone words

Answer 22

False; morphemes are not necessarily words on their own

Question 23

What are single mopheme words called?

Answer 23

Monomorphemic or simple words

Question 24

T/F: Morphemes are not equivalent to syllables

Answer 24

True

Question 25

Define morpheme

Answer 25

As a recurring sequence of segments with a constant meaning and/or function

Question 26

What are allomorphs?

Answer 26

Alternative pronounciations of a morpheme (ie [s] [z] [əz] )

Question 27

T/F: Morphemes are always spelled the same regardless of affixes

Answer 27

False; morphemes can have two or more spellings in English (ie rise and "ris" in rising)

Question 28

T/F: If a morpheme has multiple spellings, it is automatically an allomorph

Answer 28

False; if pronounciation remains the same, they are not considered allomorphs

Question 29

Define free morphemes

Answer 29

Morphemes that can stand alone as simple words

Question 30

Define the different categories of morphemes

Answer 30

Bound and Free

Question 31

Define bound morphemes

Answer 31

Morphemes that cannot stand alone as words as they must be attached to at least one other morpheme before they can occur in an actual utterance * Examples: -English plural ‘s’ and -past tense ‘ed

Question 32

List the types of positional affixes

Answer 32

1. Prefixes 2. Suffixes 3. Infixes (and Trilateral Roots) 4. Circumfixes

Question 33

Define prefixes and provide examples

Answer 33

An affix occuring in front of the root (ie "un"happy)

Question 34

Define suffixes and provide examples

Answer 34

An affix occurring after the root (ie read"er")

Question 35

Define infixes and provide examples

Answer 35

An affix inserted into the body of the root (ie b"um"ili in Tagalog)

Question 36

T/F: English does not have infixes

Answer 36

True

Question 37

Define Trilateral Roots

Answer 37

TR's consist of three consonants to which other elements (mostly vowels) are added or infixed

Question 38

Which languages are trilateral roots most commonly present in?

Answer 38

Semitic languages such as Arabic or Hebrew

Question 39

Define circumfixes

Answer 39

An affix added both before and after the root Also called discontinuous morpheme (ie chokma to ikchokmo in Chickasaw)

Question 40

T/F: English has circumfixes

Answer 40

False

Question 41

T/F: when expanding the lexicon, closed class items are regularly expanded

Answer 41

False; open class is regularly expanded while closed class remains relatively stable over time

Question 42

Define the ways in which the lexicon can be expanded

Answer 42

1. Through derivational affixes 2. Through compounding

Question 43

Define compounding

Answer 43

A morphological process that occurs by combining two or more free, usually open class, morphemes to create a new word

Question 44

T/F: The meaning of a compound may not be directly discernible from the meanings of the individual morphemes

Answer 44

True

Question 45

Which part of a compound determines the part of speech of a compound?

Answer 45

The rightmost or "head" morpheme Examples: adjective + noun = ‘hotdog’ (noun) noun + verb = steamroll (verb)

Question 46

Define reduplication

Answer 46

A morphological process that involves copying or repeating a specified syllable of the root (partial reduplication) or the entire root (full reduplication) Example: rumah (house) becomes rumahrumah (houses) in Indonesian

Question 47

Define internal change/alteration

Answer 47

A morphological process where the remaining parts of the morpheme do not recur elsewhere in the language Example: s"i"ng becomes s"a"ng s-ng is not a morpheme in English

Question 48

T/F: Infixing and Internal Change are the same morphological process

Answer 48

False

Question 49

Explain the difference between infixing and internal change

Answer 49

With internal change, the inserted sounds do not carry specific grammatical meaning elsewhere in the language while infixes do carry the same meaning throughout many words

Question 50

Define suppletion

Answer 50

A morphological process in which the root morpheme is complete relaced Examples: go becomes went

Question 51

T/F: Internal change and suppletion sometimes overlap

Answer 51

True; some linguists use the term partial suppletion to deal with these cases Example: think becomes thought

Question 52

T/F: All morphological processes are predictable and can be done if the speaker understands the rules of the language

Answer 52

False; Morphological rules do not predict: suppletive forms or forms produced through internal change Thus, these forms must be stored as separate items in the speaker’s mental lexicon

Question 53

List the classifications of languages based on morphological process

Answer 53

1. Analytic (isolating) languages 2. Synthetic Languages

Question 54

Define analytic languages and provide examples

Answer 54

AL use individual free morphemes to convey meaning and content as opposed to affixes Examples: Chinese

Question 55

Define synthetic languages

Answer 55

Synthetic Languages use bound morphemes (affixes) attached to other morphemes (roots/stems) to convey meaning and content Examples: Hungarian, English

Question 56

Define the categories of synthetic languages

Answer 56

1. aggulating languages 2. fusional languages 3. polysynthetic languages

Question 57

Define an aggulating language

Answer 57

Language which consists of morphemes are stuck together loosely, with boundaries fairly easy to identify. Morphemes do not change Example: Swahili

Question 58

Define a fusional language

Answer 58

A language in which morphemes are stuck together but boundaries may not be easy to identify. Morphemes change (allomorphs). Examples: Spanish, Russian

Question 59

Define a polysynthetic language

Answer 59

A language in which morphemes (1+ root + 1+affix) are combined into complex words. Morphemes may change (allomorphs) Examples: Sora (India)

Question 60

List the seven question to draw a tree diagram for a multi-affixated word

Answer 60

1. What is the root? 2. What lexical category is the root? 3. What affix is added to the root? 4. What word does this yield? 5. What is its lexical category? 6. Does it serve as the base for another affix? 7. What is the lexical category of the word resulting from the addition of this other affix?

Question 61

How many inflectional affixes are there in English?

Answer 61

7

Question 62

Define the following inflectional affix: -s

Answer 62

Function: 3rd person singular present Attaches to: verbs Example: wait becomes waits

Question 63

Define the following inflectional affix: -ed

Answer 63

Function: past tense Attaches to: verbs Example: wait becomes waited

Question 64

Define the following inflectional affix: -ing

Answer 64

Function: progressive aspect Attaches to: verbs Example: wait becomes waiting

Question 65

Define the following inflectional affix: -en, -ed

Answer 65

Function: past participle Attaches to: verbs Example: taste becomes tasted eat becomes eaten

Question 66

Define the following inflectional affix: -s

Answer 66

Function: plural Attaches to: nouns Example: chair becomes chair

Question 67

Define the following inflectional affix: -er

Answer 67

Function: plural Attaches to: adjectives and adverbs Example: tall becomes taller fast becomes faster

Question 68

Define the following inflectional affix: -est

Answer 68

Function: superlative Attaches to: adjectives and adverbs Example: tall becomes tallest fast becomes fastest

Question 69

T/F: The longer the word, the more amount of morphemes within it

Answer 69

False; morphemes do not equate to syllabi Example of lengthy single morphemes: Madagascar and pumpernickel Examples of short, multiple morphemes: ads (two) and unused (three)

Question 70

List the morphological processes found in English

Answer 70

1. dervitational affixes 2. inflectional suffixes 3. compounding 4. alternations/internal change 5. suppletion

Question 71

Define ambiguous morphemes

Answer 71

Words that are associated with more than one meaning (ie unlockable)

Question 72

T/F: All affix morphemes can only attach to one lexical category of words

Answer 72

False; some affixes can attach to multiple lexical categories

Question 73

Which morphemes can attach to multiple lexical categories?

Answer 73

In English, the morpheme suffix pre- can attach to multiple lexical categories and alter the root's lexical categories Example: pre-exist (attaches to a verb that stays a verb) pre-season (attaches to a noun and becomes a adjective) pre-frontal (attaches to a adjective that stays an adjective)