Morphology Flashcards
Morphology
The study of word formation and structure, including how morphemes combine to form words.
Morpheme
The smallest unit of meaning in a word.
Free Morpheme
Can stand alone as a word (e.g., cat, run, happy).
Bound Morpheme
Cannot stand alone and must attach to another morpheme (e.g., -s, dis-, -ed).
Content Words
Carry meaning (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs).
Function Words
Serve grammatical roles (prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns).
Root
The base morpheme of a word (e.g., teach in teacher).
Stem
A root + an affix (e.g., teaching).
Affixation
The process of adding bound morphemes to a root.
Prefix
Added to the beginning (e.g., disloyal).
Suffix
Added to the end (e.g., laughing).
Infix
Inserted inside a word (e.g., fan-friggin-tastic).
Circumfix
A split affix that surrounds a word (not found in English).
Open Class
Can accept new words (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives).
Closed Class
Does not change or add new words (e.g., prepositions, pronouns).
Inflectional Morphemes
Change tense, number, or comparison but don’t create a new word (e.g., -s, -ed, -ing, -er, -est).
Derivational Morphemes
Change a word’s meaning or category (e.g., -ly, -ize, -tion).
Neologisms
Newly created words from derivations, brand names, or classical roots (e.g., institutionalize, Windex, examphobia).
Compounds
Two complete words joined together to form a new word (e.g., greenhouse, mother-in-law).
Blends
A combination of parts of words to form a new word (e.g., motel, smog).
Acronyms
Pronounced as a word (e.g., NASA, SCUBA).
Initialisms
Pronounced letter by letter (e.g., NFL, FBI).
Backronyms
An acronym that was created after the fact by assigning words to letters (e.g., NEWS - North, East, West, South).
Back Formations
A word is formed backward from an existing word (e.g., editor → edit, swindler → swindle).
Eponyms
Words derived from people’s names (e.g., Sandwich, Boycott).
Toponyms
Words derived from place names (e.g., Bohemian, Denim).
Aptronyms
Names that are humorously appropriate to a person’s profession or personality (e.g., Tennis Sandgren).
Mononyms
People known by a single name (e.g., Beyoncé, Cher).
Clippings
Words that have been shortened (e.g., app, gym, phone).
Hypocorisms
Australian-style clippings with an ‘-ee’ sound (e.g., Barbie = barbecue).
Autonyms
A real name.
Pseudonyms
A fake name (e.g., Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain).
Anonyms
A reverse-order name (e.g., Harpo from Oprah).
Palindromes
Words or phrases that are spelled the same forward and backward (e.g., racecar, too hot to hoot).
False Splittings
A word was misinterpreted historically as having a different boundary (e.g., an apron from a napron).
Conversion
A word shifts into a different grammatical category without changing form (e.g., butter (noun) → butter (verb)).
Grammatical Morphemes
Morphemes that serve a grammatical function (e.g., -s, -ed, -ing).
Suppletion
A word’s form changes completely instead of following a pattern (e.g., go → went, child → children).
Cliticization
Two words combine using an apostrophe (e.g., I’m, you’re).
Proclitics
First word is shortened (e.g., Je t’aime in French).
Enclitics
Second word is shortened (e.g., He’s, I’m).
Apheresis
A silent letter at the beginning of a word (e.g., Knight, Know).
Lexical Morpheme
A set of nouns, adjectives, and verbs that carry the ‘content’ of messages (e.g., email, blog). These are an open class of morphemes.
Functional Morpheme
Grammatical words such as conjunctions (and), prepositions (above), and articles (the). These are a closed class of morphemes.
Inflectional Morpheme
A morpheme that indicates grammatical function without changing the word category (e.g., -‘s, -(e)s, -ed, -ing, -en, -s, -er, -est).
Free Root
The base form of a word that can stand alone (e.g., teach in teacher).
Bound Root
The base form of a word that cannot stand alone (e.g., tinct in instinct).
Stem
A free morpheme combined with bound morphemes (e.g., care in careless).
Inflectional Morphemes for Nouns
Two suffixes: -‘s (possessive case), -(e)s (plural).
Inflectional Morphemes for Verbs
Four suffixes: -(e)d (past tense), -ing (present participle), -en (past participle), -s (3rd person singular).
Inflectional Morphemes for Adjectives
Two suffixes: -er (comparative), -est (superlative).
Example Sentence Analysis
The sentence ‘The politician’s stupidity shocked the attendees’ contains 11 morphemes.
Breakdown of Morphemes in Example
The (functional), politician (lexical), ‘s (inflectional), stupid (lexical), ity (derivational), shock (lexical), ed (inflectional), the (functional), attend (lexical), ee (derivational), s (inflectional).
