Phonology + Morphology Flashcards
What is the difference between phonetics vs phonology?
phonetics studies actual articulation of sounds/signs + physical properties
phonology studies behaviour of sounds, the mental organization of speech
phoneme
- smallest unit of sounds that distinguishes meaning between words
- in contrastive distribution
i.e. can appear in the same contexts
how can we determine if sounds are allophones of a single phoneme?
- no minimal pairs
- in complementary distribution
(i.e. in different environments) - phonetically similar
what do the brackets / / and [ ] mean?
/ / brackets indicate contrastive distribution (phoneme)
[ ] brackets indicate allophone or unknown status
natural class
a group of similar sounds that pattern together
segmental vs suprasegmental phonemes
segmental: vowels, consonants
suprasegmental: word stress, tone
Elements of a syllable
Onset
- one or more consonants
Rhyme
- a vowel (nucleus) and any following consonants (coda)
phonotactics
how we can combine phonemes together to build words
Sapir-whorf hypothesis
structure of our language shapes the way we think and perceive the world
2 diff versions:
strong = linguistic determinism
weak = linguistic relativity
Linguistic relativity
language conditions thought
languages are different, knowing one doesn’t let us predict how another may categorize the world
cultural emphasis
language reflects culture of its speakers
Are there expressive differences between languages?
No differences in what can be expressed, but in grammaticalization (which conceptual categories are encoded in grammar)
languages don’t differ in what they CAN express, but in what they MUST express
inflectional affixes
- no change in lexical category
- predictable
- available to all members of a lexical category (except irregular stuff)
- attaches outside
- only suffixes
ex/ tense, plurality
derivational affixes
- changes lexical category
- create new words (compounding)
- not predictable
- attaches close to root
- prefix or suffix
morphology
study of internal structure of words, how they’re formed
coinage
invent a completely new term
ex/ google
eponym
use someone’s name
ex/ Morse code
acronym
combine first letters of existing words
ex/ ASAP
borrowing
take word from another language
ex/ sushi
calque
literal translation from another language
ex/ flea market
compounding
join two existing words together
ex/ blackboard, dog food
(note stress pattern, spelling doesn’t matter)
RHR: head of a word that determines properties of the compound is on rightmost side
blending
combine parts of two words
ex/ snowpocalypse
clipping
shorten existing word without changing the meaning
ex/ examination -> exam
hypocorism
clipping + “ie” or “y” ending
ex/ tourney
conversion
change the word’s lexical category
ex/
- to be schooled (noun -> verb)
- funnest (noun -> adj)
- up the volume (preposition -> verb)
derivation
add affix to an existing word, usually changing the lexical category
ex/ instable
backformation
subtract affix from existing word in a way that changes the meaning
ex/ enthuse
lexical category
a part of speech or word class
ex/ noun, verb
morpheme
smallest meaningful unit of language
- must have meaning on its own
- must be minimal
free vs bound morphemes
free
- can stand alone
- most roots
bound
- cannot stand alone
- ALL affixes
types of affixes
prefix, infix (none in eng), suffix
in hopefulness, ful is what kind of affix?
suffix, it is inserted after the root “hope”
what kind of morpheme are all affixes?
bound
allomorphy
morpheme appears in different shapes (allomorphs) depending on envo
ex/ allomorphs of -s
Regular:
[s] like pets
[z] like pods
[ez] likę churches
Irregular:
oxen is the en
geese change in root
women change in root
sheep no change
suppletion
radical form of irregular allomorphy where the whole root is replaced
ex/
- good / better / best
- go / went
- conjugation of the verb to be (is, are, am)
True or false: an affix always changes lexical category in the same way
true
what type of affix is closer to the root?
derivational is closer to root than inflectional
in English compounds, the ___-most morpheme determines the compound’s lexical category
right
