Morphology Flashcards
what is a morpheme?
the smallest meaningful component of language that can not be further divided
ex: in, come, -ing are the morphemes of incoming
what purpose do morphemes serve?
morphemes allow the speaker to retain rules and functions instead of memorizing multiple versions of the same word
ex: remembering cat, cats, dog, and dogs, vs. cat, dog, and -s
what are 2 pieces of evidence we have in favor of morphemes?
- speakers can add morphemes to made up words in order to pluralize, conjugate, etc.
- new morphemes are being formed in real time, such as -gate and -maggedon
1a the plural of bloink is bloinks, even though bloink is not a real word
what are free morphemes?
free morphemes can stand alone
ex: drinking, drink can stand alone as its own word, but -ing can not.
what are bound morphemes?
bound morphemes must be attatched to something else
ex: un- must attach to a word like happy for unhappy or dead for undead
what are open class morphemes?
open class morphemes are a group of morphemes that can theoretically be expanded upon by adding new ones
nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
ex: words are often created with new technology, such as to google or xerox
what are closed class morphemes?
closed class morphemes are a group of morphemes that can not be expanded upon by adding new ones
prepositions, auxiliary verbs, etc.
ex: it would be very hard to introduce a new preposition into English, or to create a new word that serves a similar purpose to has in “the man has eaten enough.”
what is one literary work that can provide evidence for open and closed class morphemes?
Jabberwocky
in this poem, only open-class morphemes are replaced. closed class morphemes are untouched.
what is an affix?
a grammatical element that is attached to a word or stem to change it in some way
ex: dehumanize contains two affixes (de- and -ize) which serve to turn the word human from a noun, into a verb, and then into the opposite of that verb
what is a prefix?
an affix attached before a word stem
prefixes may not always be placed directly in front of the stem, as with cases of multiple prefixes, but they will always come before the word stem
what is an infix?
an affix attached inside a word stem
this does not mean that any affix in the middle of a word is considered an infix, only when it is placed inside the stem
as Dr. Norvin, MIT says, an infix is best described as an affix with special rules to it, like after the first consonant or before the first vowel of a stem
what is a suffix?
an affix attached after a word stem
as with prefixes, suffixes don’t necessarily have to be the last part of a word, especially in cases of multiple prefixes, but they will always come after the word stem
what are templates?
a form of morphology in which it is impossible to analyze the formation of words as the addition of affixes to a stem
ex: in Egyptian Arabic (and many other semitic languages), many words exist in consonant clusters, and by adding vowels in between said consonants, it will change their meaning: skn means to live in but sakan and baksun mean he lived in and i live in respectively
what is reduplication?
copying a word or part of a word to change it
ex: (Tagalog) bili = to buy | bibili = will buy
reduplicative morphemes are rules, not words. unlike English affixes like un- which will always be the same before a word, reduplicative morphemes will follow the same structure with different phonemes
what is truncation?
the removal of part of a word to change it
ex: (O’odham) neok = imperfect speak | neo = perfect speak
