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Open in new tab Morpheme
the smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning
or function
free morpheme
a morpheme that can be a word by itself, also called a lexical
morpheme
bound morpheme
a morpheme that must be attached to another element
morphology
the study of the system of categories and rules involved in word
formation and interpretation
lexicon
a speaker’s mental dictionary, which contains information about the
syntactic properties, meaning, and phonological representation of a
language’s words. it is distributed in brain, not a dictionary
root
base form of a word which cannot undergo further analysis without
loss of the word’s identity, the part left when “deaffixed” may be free
affix
a bound morpheme that modifies the meaning/syntactic (sub)category
of the stem in some way.
- prefix: beginning (re-, pre-, anti-)
- infix: middle (-freakin-)
- suffix: end (-tion, -ism)
- circumfix: both ends (en- -en as in enlighten)
derivational morpheme
morphemes that
- change the meaning or
- change the part of speech involve word formation rules of change
inflectional morpheme
never creates a new word, but a different form of the same word; it
refines, gives extra grammatical information
zero derivation (conversion)
a word formation process that assigns an already existing word to a
new syntactic category
allomorph
variants of a morpheme (e.g. -s and -z are allomorphs of the English
plural morpheme)
morphophonemics
rules that account for alternations among allomorphs
affixation
words formed by the combination of bound affixes and free
morphemes. it is the process that attaches an affix to
the base.
compounding
words formed by the combination of two or more independent words
(e.g. bluebird)
reduplication
words formed by doubling an entire word or part of the word (e.g.
hocus-pocus)
ablaut
irregular forms by a vowel change, that marks a grammatical contrast
(e.g. sing/sang)
suppletion
irregular forms by substitutions, a morphological process that marks a
grammatical contrast by replacing a morpheme with an entirely
different morpheme (e.g. am/was)
blends
a word that is created from parts of two already existing forms (e.g.
smoke + fog → smog)
ellipsis/clipping (abbreviations)
removal of (redundant) parts (e.g. motor car → car)
back-formation
subtracting an affix, a word formation process that creates a
new word by removing a real or supposed affix from another word in
the language (e.g. peddler → peddle)
folk etymology
changes based on people’s conception of certain words, or how the
world works (e.g. “eggcorns”)
hypercorrection
an attribution of some form to a particular social group and stats, or
articulating the sound to a degree past the prestige form
acronyms
words derived from the initials of several words (e.g. NASA)
eponyms
a word that comes from someone’s name (e.g. Mackintosh)
borrowing
make another language’s word your own, often because of need and
prestige (e.g. chocolate (Nahuatl))
grammaticalization
a content word becomes a functional word and perhaps a bound affix
- weakening of meaning (semantic bleaching)
- weakening of sound shape (phonological reduction)
phoneme
cover symbols for sets of distinctive features
phonology
the study of the elements and principles that determine how sounds
pattern in a language
phone
any sound used in human language
allophone
variants of a phoneme
contrastive distribution
when sounds occur in the same position and environment in a
string of sounds
minimal pair
two forms with distinct meaning that differ by only one segment
found in the same position in each form
environment
the phonetic context in which a sound occurs
free variation
the free alternation of allophones and/or phonemes in a given
environment
complementary distribution
the distribution of allophones in their respective phonetic
environments such that one never appears in the same phonetic
context as the other
natural class
groups of phonemes unified by one or more distinctive features
major class features
phonological features that represent the classes consonant, obstruent,
nasal, liquid, glide, and vowel
distinctive feature
a feature that distinguishes one phoneme from another
syllable
a unit of linguistic structure that consists of a syllabic element and any
segments that are associated with it
deletion
a process that removes a segment from certain phonetic contexts
assimilation
the influence of one segment on another, resulting in a sound
becoming more like a nearby sound in terms of one or more of its
phonetic characteristics (e.g. vowels become nasal if followed by a
nasal consonant)
dissimilation
a process whereby one segment becomes less like another segment in
its environment (e.g. anma (Latin) → alma (Spanish))
metathesis
a process that reorders a sequence of segments (e.g. in child language,
pronouncing spaghetti as pasghetti)
Written Questions
variants of a phoneme
irregular forms by a vowel change, that marks a grammatical contrast (e.g. sing/sang)
morphemes that
change the meaning or
change the part of speech involve word formation rules of change
an attribution of some form to a particular social group and stats, or articulating the
sound to a degree past the prestige form
the study of the system of categories and rules involved in word formation and
interpretation
5 Matching Questions
1.
minimal pair
2.
lexicon
3.
compounding
4.
affix
5.
folk etymology
a words formed by the combination of two or more independent words (e.g. bluebird)
b two forms with distinct meaning that differ by only one segment found in the same
position in each form
c changes based on people’s conception of certain words, or how the world works (e.g.
“eggcorns”)
d a speaker’s mental dictionary, which contains information about the syntactic
properties, meaning, and phonological representation of a language’s words. it is
distributed in brain, not a dictionary
e a bound morpheme that modifies the meaning/syntactic (sub)category of the stem in
some way.
prefix: beginning (re-, pre-, anti-)
infix: middle (-freakin-)
suffix: end (-tion, -ism)
circumfix: both ends (en- -en as in enlighten)
5 Multiple Choice Questions
a morpheme that must be attached to another element
bound morpheme
morpheme
free morpheme
allomorph
the free alternation of allophones and/or phonemes in a given environment
free morpheme
free variation
back-formation
reduplication
a word that comes from someone’s name (e.g. Mackintosh)
eponyms
acronyms
phoneme
phone
removal of (redundant) parts (e.g. motor car → car)
dissimilation
ellipsis/clipping (abbreviations)
free variation
assimilation
the phonetic context in which a sound occurs
phone
environment
borrowing
lexicon
5 True/False Questions
acronyms → words derived from the initials of several words (e.g. NASA)
True False
syllable → a unit of linguistic structure that consists of a syllabic element and any
segments that are associated with it
True False
allomorph → variants of a morpheme (e.g. -s and -z are allomorphs of the English
plural morpheme)
True False
grammaticalization → the free alternation of allophones and/or phonemes in a given
environment
True False
distinctive feature → a feature that distinguishes one phoneme from another
True False
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