Morphology and Syntax

Question 1

morpheme

Answer 1

the smallest meaningful unit found in language, it can be bound or free

Question 2

allomorph

Answer 2

the different forms (or surface realizations) of a given morpheme

Question 3

affixes

Answer 3

different types of (non-root) bound morphemes, prefix, suffix, and infix

Question 4

three constraints governing derivational morpheme distribution

Answer 4

1. word class of the base
2. phonetic base
3. language origin of the base

Question 5

8 inflectional affixes, grammatical information, and word category

Answer 5

1. -s, noun, plural
2. -‘s, noun, possessive
3. -s, verb, present tense, 3rd person singular
4. -ing, verb, present participle
5. -ed, verb, past tense
6. -en, verb, past participle
7. -er, comparative, adjective/adverb
8. -est, superlative, adjective/adverb

Question 6

word

Answer 6

smallest free form in a language, can be simple or complex

Question 7

derivational

Answer 7

creates a new form of the word

Question 8

compounding

Answer 8

process that forms new words not by means of affixes but from tow or more independent words

Question 9

three things to remember about compounding

Answer 9

1. there’s always a head word; can be free morphemes put together (blackbird)
2. stress pattern can change; can be words derived by affixation (air-conditioner)
3. not always possible to determine meaning based on the parts (redneck)

Question 10

suppletion (Frankenstien Paradigm)

Answer 10

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)

Question 11

Reduplication

Answer 11

morphological process of forming new words by doubling either an entire free morpheme, or part of it (bye–>bye-bye)

Question 12

Conversion

Answer 12

morphological process occurs when a word changes word class (the table—>to table)

Question 13

Clipping

Answer 13

morphological process that shrinks a word down (condominium—>condo)

Question 14

Blending/Amalgamated Compounds

Answer 14

morphological process that blends to separate words together (angry and hungry—>hangry)

Question 15

Back Forming

Answer 15

morphological process of forming a new word by removing actual or supposed affixes from another word (editor–>edit)

Question 16

phrase

Answer 16

syntactic group that act together-smaller than a clause-can be one word

Question 17

clause

Answer 17

subject and verb plus other items

Question 18

valency

Answer 18

• determines what can go around the verb

- can be intransitive or transitive

Question 19

arguments

Answer 19

required for the sentence to make sense

Question 20

adjuncts

Answer 20

occurrence is purely optional

Question 21

noun phrase (NP)

Answer 21

• 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)

Question 22

prepositional phrase (PP)

Answer 22

prepositional (P) + NP

Question 23

intransitive verbs

Answer 23

doesn’t require an object to act on (ex: slept)

Question 24

transitive verbs

Answer 24

requires an object to act on (ex: hit)

Question 25

specifier

Answer 25

optional, occurs that beginning of the phrase, boundary of the left side of the head word (ex: “NEVER walks to the park”

Question 26

compliment

Answer 26

help make meaning of the head word more precise, right side boundary (ex: “never walks TO THE PARK”)