Morphology I (Word, Morphemes, Allomorph, Derivation, Compounding)

Question 1

Morphology

Answer 1

the structure and formation of words

Question 2

Lexeme versus Word form

Answer 2

form: a lexeme is an abstract lexical unit that comprises all grammatical forms of a word, called word forms
e.g. the lexeme GO comprises the word forms go, goes, went, going, gone
→ phrasal verbs (e.g. hang out, move on, get up) as well as compounds (e.g. office chair, travel bag) count as one lexeme

Question 3

Lemma

Answer 3

the dictionary or citation form of a lexeme

Question 4

Morpheme

Answer 4

the smallest linguistic unit that carries meaning (an abstract unit)

Question 5

Morph

Answer 5

the concrete realisation of a morpheme

Question 6

Allomorph

Answer 6

one variant in a set of morphs that realise a morpheme in different morphophonemic
environments

Question 7

simple words

Answer 7

words consisting of one morpheme

Question 8

complex words

Answer 8

words made up of more than one morpheme

Question 9

Classifying Morphemes - Autonomy

Answer 9

• free morpheme: can occur as a word by itself (play, warm)
• bound morpheme: must be attached to another morpheme
  (-ed, re-)

Question 10

Classifying Morphemes - Function/Meaning

Answer 10

• lexical morphemes: usually have a (relatively) concrete meaning and denote entities and events in the world (table, run) → form open word classes (N, V, Adj, Adv) new words can readily be added
• grammatical morphemes: have an abstract, largely language-
  internal function (the, -(e)s) → grammatical word classes
  (Conj., Det., Pronouns, …) are largely closed, no new words
  can be added spontaneously

Question 11

Classifying Morphemes - Position of bound morphemes (=affixes)

Answer 11

• prefix: attached to the front of its base (un-, mis-)
• suffix: attached to the end of its base (-ing, -est)

Question 12

Portmanteau morph(eme)

Answer 12

a morph(eme) that
carries several meanings at once
- s in (he) reads (4 gramamtical meanings)
- her (4 gramamtical meanings)

Question 13

Unique morpheme

Answer 13

a fossilised bound morpheme that has no transparent independent meaning and occurs only in a single combination with one other morpheme
- cran- in cranberry

Question 14

Root

Answer 14

• irreducible core of a word
• central morpheme to which further affixes are attached
• carries the major component of a word’s meaning
• free roots: e.g. tie in untied, sense in sensitivity
  -bound roots: e.g. -ceive in conceive, deceive, receive;

Question 15

Base (in the narrow sense)

Answer 15

• any morphological unit to which a(nother) derivational affix is added
• may be identical with or bigger than the root

e.g. dependent is the base of independent

Question 16

Stem

Answer 16

• the morphological unit to which inflectional suffixes are attached
• the part of a word that is common to all its grammatical forms

e.g. musician is the stem of musicians

Question 17

Base (in the broad sense)

Answer 17

may refer to the root, to the stem or to the base in the narrow sense

Question 18

Morphophonemics/Morpho(pho)nology

Answer 18

• the interface between phonology and morphology
• concerned with the phonological changes that take place in morphemes when they are combined

Question 19

Phonological conditioning

Answer 19

• the choice of the allomorph depends on adjacent speech sounds (and/or stress patterns)
• a regular and highly predictable process (rule-based; e.g. assimilation, palatalisation)

Question 20

Morphological conditioning

Answer 20

• the choice of the allomorph depends on the specific morphemes that are combined
• an irregular and unpredictable process

1) grammatical conditioning
when an inflectional affix conditions the choice of a different allomorph in the stem (e.g. slept vs. sleep)

2) lexical conditioning
when the lexical base morpheme triggers entirely irregular allomorphs (e.g. children vs. child)

Question 21

Suppletion

Answer 21

the resulting grammatical word form bears no resemblance to the root morpheme
e.g. {past} in went (vs. go)

Question 22

Zero allomorph

Answer 22

adds meaning without any formal change

e.g. {plural} in two sheep_

Question 23

Ways of creating new words

Answer 23

1. forming new words from (parts of) existing words
2. borrowing words from other languages
3. building new words from scratch

Question 24

Stages of word formation

Answer 24

(I) Nonce formation: invention of a (complex) word that did not exist before, typically by means of a highly transparent production pattern
(II) Institutionalisation: neologism is used by other members of the speech community, becomes included into dictionaries and may gradually lose its transparency
(III) Lexicalisation: At this stage, the complex word has lost its formal and/or semantic ties to the constituents originally involved in its formation, or the word-formation process is no longer productive

Question 25

Derivation

Answer 25

• the creation of a new word (lexeme) by means of affixation
• can apply multiples times, resulting in hierarchical levels of word structure

Question 26

derivational suffixation

Answer 26

• usually leads to a change of word class
• may alter the phonological shape of the base (i.e. it can
  yield base allomorphs)

Question 27

derivational prefixation

Answer 27

• generally, does not affect the word class
• never changes the form
  of the base

Question 28

Constraints on Derivation: Limits of Productivity

Answer 28

• Lexical blocking:already existing synonymous word makes the derivation redundant
• Semantic blocking: specific restrictions of a semantic nature
• Phonological blocking: would result in a tongue twister or violates (language-)specific phonological restrictions
• Morphological blocking: productivity of an affix is restricted to bases of a specific morphological type

Question 29

Compounding

Answer 29

creates a new word (lexeme) out of two or more already existing words (i.e. out of free morphemes)

Question 30

Semantic Types of Compounds - Endocentric

Answer 30

first/left element, called modifier, specifies the meaning of the second/right element, which is the semantic head

e.g. knee-deep, tablecloth

Question 31

Semantic Types of Compounds - Exocentric

Answer 31

Both parts give meaning features of an unexpressed semantic head

e.g. pickpocket, highbrow

Question 32

Semantic Types of Compounds - Appositional

Answer 32

Both elements provide contrary attributes of the same referent; two semantic heads

e.g. actor-director,

Question 33

Semantic Types of Compounds - Copulative

Answer 33

The compound denotes the sum of what its parts denote; two semantic heads
e.g. sweet-sour

Question 34

Semantic Types of Compounds - Hybrid formation

Answer 34

consisting of components that stem from different languages
e.g. coffee klatsch

Question 35

Neo-classical compound:

Answer 35

a hybrid compound that contains elements from Greek and Latin
e.g. automobile

Question 36

Distinguishing compounds from syntactic word groups

Answer 36

• compounds usually have one main stress on the first/left element
• compounds do not allow modification of their first/left element
• compounds are not separable, whereas syntactic word groups are

Question 37

word

Answer 37

smallest meaningful unit that can occur freely