Week 7: Morphology I

Question 1

Define: MORPHOLOGY

Answer 1

The study of the form and structure of words

Question 2

Define: WORD TYPE

Answer 2

Repetitions of words are not counted

Question 3

Define: WORD TOKEN

Answer 3

The acknowledgement of each instance in which a word occurs, regardless of if it’s appeared or not

Question 4

Define: WORD FORM

Answer 4

Any of the several forms that a lexical item may assume for grammatical purposes

Question 5

Define: ORTHOGRAPHIC WORD

Answer 5

The word that we can identify with white space either side

Question 6

Define: PHONETIC WORD

Answer 6

Something pronounced as a single unit

Question 7

Define: OPEN WORD CLASSES

Answer 7

The classes of words that are easily added to, and are also known as content words e.g. nouns, verbs

Question 8

Define: CLOSED WORD CLASSES

Answer 8

The classes of words that are not easily added to, and are also known as function words e.g. determiners, prepositions

Question 9

Define: EX NIHILO

Answer 9

Completely new words that ‘come out of nothing’

Question 10

Define: BORROWING

Answer 10

Taking words from other languages

Question 11

Define: CALQUES

Answer 11

A word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, or non-literal word-for-word translation - also known as loan translations

Question 12

Define: ACRONYMS

Answer 12

A word formed from the initial components of words of longer content

Question 13

Define: CLIPPINGS

Answer 13

When words are shortened to make them easier to spell and write e.g. ‘ad’ for ‘advertisement’

Question 14

Define: BLENDS

Answer 14

Formed from parts of two or more words e.g. ‘Brexit’

Question 15

Define: SEMANTIC CHANGE

Answer 15

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’

Question 16

Define: COMPOUNDING

Answer 16

When two or more words are joined to make one longer word e.g. moonlight, classroom

Question 17

Define: CONVERSION

Answer 17

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’

Question 18

Define: AFFIXATION

Answer 18

The process of adding a morpheme, or affix, to a word to create a new word form, or a word with a different meaning

Question 19

Define: MORPHEME

Answer 19

A meaningful unit of a language that cannot be further divided

Question 20

Define: PREFIX

Answer 20

A morpheme added to the beginning of a base word

Question 21

Define: SUFFIX

Answer 21

A morpheme added to the end of a base word

Question 22

Define: CIRCUMFIX

Answer 22

Two morphemes added either side of a base word e.g. ‘unhappily’

Question 23

Define: FREE MORPHEMES

Answer 23

Morphemes that can stand on their own

Question 24

Define: BOUND MORPHEMES

Answer 24

Morphemes that cannot stand on their own

Question 25

Define: DIACHRONIC

Answer 25

The study of the changes in language over time

Question 26

Define: SYNCHRONIC

Answer 26

The study of language use/linguistics at a certain point in time

Question 27

Define: PRODUCTIVITY

Answer 27

How easily new words can be formed using certain (bound) morphemes

Question 28

Define: INFIX

Answer 28

A morpheme added in the middle of a base word e.g. ‘abso-bloody-lutely’