Morphemic Structure of English Words
What is a morpheme?
The smallest meaningful unit of a language.
What is an affix?
A morpheme added to a word to change its meaning or grammatical function.
What is lexicology?
The study of words and vocabulary.
What is compounding?
A word-formation process in which two or more words are combined to form a new word.
What is semantics?
The study of meaning in language.
What are the two main types of morphemes?
Free morphemes and bound morphemes.
What is a prefix? Give an example.
A prefix is added to the beginning of a word, for example, unhappy.
What is a word?
A linguistic unit that has meaning and can be used in communication.
Give two examples of compound words.
Toothbrush and bedroom.
What is denotative meaning?
The basic, direct meaning of a word.
How many morphemes are there in the word unhappy?
Two: un- and happy.
What is a suffix? Give an example.
A suffix is added to the end of a word, for example, kindness.
What is the difference between a synonym and an antonym?
Synonyms have similar meanings, while antonyms have opposite meanings.
What is shortening in English word formation?
The process of making a word shorter, for example, advertisement → ad.
What is connotative meaning?
The additional emotional or cultural associations of a word.
What is the difference between a free morpheme and a bound morpheme?
A free morpheme can stand alone as a word, while a bound morpheme cannot.
What is conversion in English word formation?
Conversion is the process of changing a word’s part of speech without changing its form. For example, email (noun) → to email (verb).
What are homonyms? Give an example.
Words that have the same form but different meanings, such as bank (a financial institution) and bank (the side of a river).
What is the difference between an acronym and an initialism?
An acronym is pronounced as a word, such as NASA, while an initialism is pronounced letter by letter, such as BBC.
What is the difference between denotation and connotation?
Denotation is the literal meaning, while connotation includes the feelings or associations connected with a word.
Identify the morphemes in the word disagreement.
Three: dis-, agree, and -ment.
What is the difference between derivational and inflectional affixes?
Derivational affixes can create new words or change a word’s class, while inflectional affixes express grammatical information, such as book → books.
What is the difference between the vocabulary and the grammar of a language?
Vocabulary consists of words and their meanings, while grammar deals with the rules for combining words.
What is blending? Give an example.
Blending combines parts of two words to create a new word. For example, breakfast + lunch = brunch.
What is semantic change? Give one example.
Semantic change is a change in a word’s meaning over time. For example, mouse originally referred to an animal but is also used for a computer device.