Morphology and Syntax Flashcards
morpheme
the smallest meaningful unit found in language, it can be bound or free
allomorph
the different forms (or surface realizations) of a given morpheme
affixes
different types of (non-root) bound morphemes, prefix, suffix, and infix
three constraints governing derivational morpheme distribution
- word class of the base
- phonetic base
- language origin of the base
8 inflectional affixes, grammatical information, and word category
- -s, noun, plural
- -‘s, noun, possessive
- -s, verb, present tense, 3rd person singular
- -ing, verb, present participle
- -ed, verb, past tense
- -en, verb, past participle
- -er, comparative, adjective/adverb
- -est, superlative, adjective/adverb
word
smallest free form in a language, can be simple or complex
derivational
creates a new form of the word
compounding
process that forms new words not by means of affixes but from tow or more independent words
three things to remember about compounding
- there’s always a head word; can be free morphemes put together (blackbird)
- stress pattern can change; can be words derived by affixation (air-conditioner)
- not always possible to determine meaning based on the parts (redneck)
suppletion (Frankenstien Paradigm)
morphological process that occurs when a root will have one or more inflected forms phonetically unrelated to the shape of the root (bet, better, best—>good, gooder, goodest)
Reduplication
morphological process of forming new words by doubling either an entire free morpheme, or part of it (bye–>bye-bye)
Conversion
morphological process occurs when a word changes word class (the table—>to table)
Clipping
morphological process that shrinks a word down (condominium—>condo)
Blending/Amalgamated Compounds
morphological process that blends to separate words together (angry and hungry—>hangry)
Back Forming
morphological process of forming a new word by removing actual or supposed affixes from another word (editor–>edit)
phrase
syntactic group that act together-smaller than a clause-can be one word
clause
subject and verb plus other items
valency
- determines what can go around the verb
- can be intransitive or transitive
arguments
required for the sentence to make sense
adjuncts
occurrence is purely optional
noun phrase (NP)
- can be a single noun
- determiner (DET) plus a noun (N)
- DET + adjective (ADJ) + N (exact order)
- DET + N + prepositional phrase (PP) (has to be at the end)
prepositional phrase (PP)
prepositional (P) + NP
intransitive verbs
doesn’t require an object to act on (ex: slept)
transitive verbs
requires an object to act on (ex: hit)
specifier
optional, occurs that beginning of the phrase, boundary of the left side of the head word (ex: “NEVER walks to the park”
compliment
help make meaning of the head word more precise, right side boundary (ex: “never walks TO THE PARK”)
