Week 7: Morphology I Flashcards
Define: MORPHOLOGY
The study of the form and structure of words
Define: WORD TYPE
Repetitions of words are not counted
Define: WORD TOKEN
The acknowledgement of each instance in which a word occurs, regardless of if it’s appeared or not
Define: WORD FORM
Any of the several forms that a lexical item may assume for grammatical purposes
Define: ORTHOGRAPHIC WORD
The word that we can identify with white space either side
Define: PHONETIC WORD
Something pronounced as a single unit
Define: OPEN WORD CLASSES
The classes of words that are easily added to, and are also known as content words e.g. nouns, verbs
Define: CLOSED WORD CLASSES
The classes of words that are not easily added to, and are also known as function words e.g. determiners, prepositions
Define: EX NIHILO
Completely new words that ‘come out of nothing’
Define: BORROWING
Taking words from other languages
Define: CALQUES
A word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, or non-literal word-for-word translation - also known as loan translations
Define: ACRONYMS
A word formed from the initial components of words of longer content
Define: CLIPPINGS
When words are shortened to make them easier to spell and write e.g. ‘ad’ for ‘advertisement’
Define: BLENDS
Formed from parts of two or more words e.g. ‘Brexit’
Define: SEMANTIC CHANGE
When a word gains a new meaning, but still holds the old one, leaving two identical orthographic words with different meanings e.g. ‘river BANK’, ‘financial BANK’
Define: COMPOUNDING
When two or more words are joined to make one longer word e.g. moonlight, classroom
Define: CONVERSION
The creation of a word from an existing word, without any change in form, also known as zero derivation e.g. the noun ‘green’ in golf is derived from the adjective ‘green’
Define: AFFIXATION
The process of adding a morpheme, or affix, to a word to create a new word form, or a word with a different meaning
Define: MORPHEME
A meaningful unit of a language that cannot be further divided
Define: PREFIX
A morpheme added to the beginning of a base word
Define: SUFFIX
A morpheme added to the end of a base word
Define: CIRCUMFIX
Two morphemes added either side of a base word e.g. ‘unhappily’
Define: FREE MORPHEMES
Morphemes that can stand on their own
Define: BOUND MORPHEMES
Morphemes that cannot stand on their own
Define: DIACHRONIC
The study of the changes in language over time
Define: SYNCHRONIC
The study of language use/linguistics at a certain point in time
Define: PRODUCTIVITY
How easily new words can be formed using certain (bound) morphemes
Define: INFIX
A morpheme added in the middle of a base word e.g. ‘abso-bloody-lutely’
