Morphology Flashcards
Reduplication
repeating the word, ex: like like, green green
Affixation
Anything that uses an affix, ex: undo, redo, fucking
Compounding
two free morphemes combining to make one word, ex: girlfriend, boyfriend, blackbird
Infixation
Anything with an affix in the middle of the word: abso-frickin-lutely, un-frickin-believable
Alternation
Anything where a sound is changed to make a new word, ex: goose and geese, thief and thieves
Suppletion
Anything when the whole word is changed to make a new word, ex: go and went; good, better, best
Argument
Necessary for the sentence to make sense
Adjunct
Not necessary for the sentence to make sense, just extra info
VP
Slept
TV
Liked
DTV
Gave
SV
Believed
Proposition
Asking if something is true or not, if it’s a sentence it’s basically a proposition
Backformation
A word is borrowed from another language, ex: cherries borrowed from cherise
Acronyms
ex: Laser, NATO, Radar
Blends
Combining two words, ex: brunch - breakfast lunch, smog - smoke and fog, chortle - chuckle and snort
Clipping
Shortening words without paying attention to derivational morphology. Ex: Examination - exam, taxicab - taxi or cab, dormitory - dorm
Coinages
Words are just made, Kodak, Exxon, pooch
Conversion
Created when changing the lexical category, laugh, run, buy, steal - used to be verbs now they’re also nouns
Eponyms
Words that are named for people, ex: Washington is named after George Washington, Watt is from James Watt, Faraday is from Michael Faraday
