Morphology

Question 1

What is a morpheme

Answer 1

part of a word which can make sense on its own. They are not the same thing as syllables, although it is usually split up due to this.
Zebra is a morpheme (because zeb and ra do not make sense on their own)

Question 2

What are free morphemes

Answer 2

Morphemes which can stand alone as their own word

e.g. cat

Question 3

What are bound morphemes

Answer 3

Morphemes which cannot stand alone as words.

e.g. plurals - s

Question 4

What are the two main types of morphology

Answer 4

inflectional

derivational

Question 5

What is inflectional morphology

Answer 5

Where children can change the word or create a new one with the addition of an inflection (ending of the word)

Question 6

Examples of inflectional morphology

Answer 6

singular/plural (s suffix)
present/past tense (ed suffix)
comparatives/superlatives (er and est suffixes)

Question 7

What is derivational morphology

Answer 7

Creating new words by applying different patterns to them

Question 8

What are the different patterns of derivational morphology

Answer 8

conversion
affixation
compounding

Question 9

What is conversion (derivational) morphology

Answer 9

using a word as a different word class (change of word class)
e.g. “I jammed the bread” instead of “I put jam on the bread”

Question 10

What is affixation (derivational) morphology

Answer 10

addition of suffixes (and prefixes) to existing words to create new ones.
e.g. “it’s crowdy in here”
Children often add a ‘y’ on the end of a noun to make it into an adjective.

Question 11

What is compounding (derivational) morphology

Answer 11

the joining of two different words together into new combinations
e.g. “tractor-man” for farmer.

Question 12

What theory does morphology support

Answer 12

Innateness - because a child could not have copied these new creative words or virtuous errors off of other people.