What is Morphology? Flashcards
affix
bound morpheme that attaches to a stem
affixation
process of forming words by adding affixes to morphemes
agglutinating language
a type of synthetic language in which the relationships between words in a sentence are indicated primarily by bound morphemes
allomorph
One of a set of nondistinctive realizations of a particular morpheme that have the same function and are phonetically similar
alternation
In phonology, a difference between two or more phonetic forms that one might expect to be related
ambiguity
the phenomenon by which a single linguistic form can be the form of more than one distinct linguistic expression
analytic language
type of language in which most words consist of one morpheme and sentences are composed of sequences of these free morphemes
bound morpheme
morpheme that always attaches to other morphemes, never existing as a word itself
bound root
morpheme that has some associated basic meaning, but that is unable to stand a lone as a word in its own right
closed lexical category
lexical category in which the members are fairly rigidly established and additions are made very rarely and only over long periods if time
compounding
word formation process by which words are formed through combining two or more independent words
conjunction
A lexical category that consists of function words such as and, but, however, etc.
content morpheme
morpheme that carries semantic content (as opposed to merely performing a grammatical function)
content word
A word whose primary purpose is to contribute semantic content to the phrase in which it occurs. All free content morphemes are content words.
derivation
In phonology, a process by which an underlying form is changed as phonological rules act upon it. In, morphology, a morphological process that changes word’s lexical category or its meaning in some predictable way.
determiner
The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as the, a this, all etc. Syntactically, consists of those expressions that when combined with an expression of category noun to their right result in expression of category noun phrase.
form
the structure or shape of any particular linguistic item, from individual segments to strings of words
free morpheme
A morpheme that can stand alone as a word
function morpheme
Morpheme that provides information about the grammatical relationships between words in a sentence
function word
A word that has little semantic content and whose primary purpose is to indicate grammatical relationships between other words within a phrase
fusional language
A type of synthetic language in which the relationships between the words in a sentence are indicated by bound morphemes that are difficult to separate from the stem
hierarchy structure
The dominance relationship among morphemes in a word, or among constituents in a phrase
homophony
The phenomenon by which two or more distinct morphemes or nonphrasal linguistic expressions happen to have the same form, i.e., sound the same
incorporation
Morphological process by which several distinct semantic components are combined into a single word in a polysynthetic language
infix
A type of bound morpheme that is inserted into the middle of the stem
inflection
A morphological process whereby the form of a word is modified to indicate some grammatically relevant information, such as a person, number, tense, gender, etc
input
The linguistic form before the application of a rule or a set of rules
lexical category
Class of words grouped together based on morphological properties. Traditionally known as part of speech.
lexicon
A mental repository of linguistic information about words and other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, morphological, and syntactic properties
morpheme
Smallest linguistic unit that has a meaning or grammatical function
morphology
The study of how words are constructed out of morphemes
open lexical category
Lexical category into which new members are often introduced
output
The linguistic form obtained after an application of a rule or a set of rules
partial reduplication
Morphological reduplication in which only part of a morpheme is reduplicated
polysynthetic language
A type of language that attaches several affixes to stem to indicate grammatical relationships
prefix
Affix that attaches to the beginning of a stem
preposition
The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as of, in, for, with, etc.
productive
Describes a rule that can be applied in novel situations to produce novel grammatical forms
pronoun
The name of a lexical category that consists of words such as I, she, us, etc.
reduplicant
The morpheme or part of a morpheme that is repeated in reduplication
root
The free morpheme or bound root in a word that contributes most semantic content to the word and to which affixes can attach
simultaneous affix
An affix that is articulated at the same time as some other affix or affixes in a word’s stem; exists only visual-gestural languages
stem
The base, consisting of one or more morphemes, to which some affix is added. The stem always includes the root and may also include one more affixes.
suffix
Affix that attaches to the end of a stem
suppletion
A morphological process between forms of a word wherein one form cannot be phonologically or morphologically derived from the other
