Subsystems of Language - Morphology

Question 1

What is a morpheme and what are the two types?

Answer 1

A morpheme is the smallest written unit that still has meaning as a whole. The two types are:
- Free morphemes: Words with no prefixes or suffixes (e.g. ‘Mess’)
- Bound morphemes: Prefixes and suffixes bound to free morphemes (e.g. the ‘y’ in ‘Messy’)

Question 2

What are inflectional morphemes?

Answer 2

An inflectional morpheme is a type of bound morpheme that provides more information to a word, such as plurality, possession or tense, but DO NOT change its meaning
(e.g. the ‘ed’ in ‘Watched’).

Question 3

What are derivational morphemes?

Answer 3

A derivational morpheme is a type of bound morpheme that changes the overall meaning of the word, as well as, potentially, its word class
(e.g. ‘Swim (verb)’ to ‘Swimmer (noun).’

Question 4

What are the three types of affixes?

Answer 4

The three types of affixes:
- Prefix: Placed before a root word
(e.g. the ‘Mis-‘ in “Misuse)
- Infix: Placed in the middle of words, rarely used
(e.g. the ‘s’ in “Brothers-in-law)
- Suffix: Placed after a root word
(e.g. the ‘-ness’ in “Happiness”)

Question 5

What is shortening?

Answer 5

Shortening is the dropping of the ends and, sometimes, the beginnings of words to make them shorter
(e.g. ‘fridge’ instead of ‘refrigerator’)

Question 6

What is compounding?

Answer 6

Compounding involves creating a new word by adding two morphemes (NOT parts) together
(e.g. “Face” + “Book” = “Facebook”).

Question 7

What is blending?

Answer 7

Blending involves creating a new word by adding ONLY parts of two words (NOT the full words themselves) together
(e.g. “Situation” + “Comedy” = “Sitcom”)

Question 8

What is conversion?

Answer 8

When a morpheme gets converted from one word class to another over time, without the addition of any bound morphemes
(e.g. “Email” was originally a noun, but now, it can also be a verb (e.g. “Email him”))

Question 9

How does and acronym and an initialism differ?

Answer 9

An acronym is when the first letters of a sequence of words FORM a new word
(e.g. “ATAR”), whilst an initialism is similar to an acronym, but the first letters DO NOT FORM a new word (e.g. “VCE”).

Question 10

What is a contraction?

Answer 10

A contraction involves the shortening and combining of two words together to make a new word
(e.g. “I” + “Will” = “I’ll”)