Key Terms
What is morphology?
The study of the internal structure of words
What are the smallest units of meaning that can be spoken alone ? (ie: the "minimal free form")
Words
What is the difference between a free morpheme and a bound morpheme?
A free morpheme that can occur alone as a unit.
A bound morpheme must always be attached to another unit.
What is the difference between simple and complex words?
Simple words have one morpheme, complex words have two or more morphemes.
What do you call speech that seems to be a linear stream of sound, but it is actually organized according to complex rules that interface with cognition?
A "Speech Stream"
What is phonology?
Inventory of sounds
What is the smallest unit of meaning?
Morphemes
What provides the underlying meaning of a word (the nuclear part of a word)?
(Can be free or bound)
Roots
What are inflection and derivation?
Inflection creates relationships between word-forms of one lexeme.
Derivation creates a relationship between lexemes of one word family.
Inflection creates paradigms of one lexeme
Derivation creates related words (word family) with new grammatical categories and/or transforms the relationship between the word and other parts of speech
Derivation happens in a hierarchical order, sometimes with more than one possible order
What is the difference between an infix and a circumfix?
Infixes are placed within the root.
Circumfixes go around the root.
What is a lexicon?
An inventory of words
What do you need to identify recurring partials?
(Step 1 of morpheme identification)
DATA!
You need sufficient information to identify recurring partials and patterns.
What attaches to roots and is always bound?
Affixes
Word class.
– Open: new words are frequently added to the inventory
– Closed: new words are rarely added
When two or more parts of a morpheme are separated from one another, this is called a:
Discontinuous morpheme.
What is grammar?
Rules that govern how sounds and words are segmented and combined
What is step 2 of morpheme identification?
Substitution and contrast:
– substitute different forms that can fit into the same context
– identify differences in forms (language data) and meanings (English translations)
■ If two forms are different morphemes, they should contrast in the same environment and also have different meanings
_________ are characterized by changes to suprasegmental features (i.e. features that characterize more than one phoneme, such as tone or stress.)
Suprafixes
Ex:
ˈrecord vs. reˈcord
ˈprogress vs. proˈgress
ˈrebel vs. reˈbel
ˈpermit vs. perˈmit
How many word classes are there in English?
What are they?
Eight.
■ Verb: action or existential word
■ Adverb: modifies a verb
■ Noun: person, place, or thing
■ Adjective: modifies a noun
■ Pronoun: stands in for a noun
■ Determiner: articles, this/that/these/those
■ Preposition: on, under, above
■ Conjunction: that, but, also, and
True or False: Optional categories will always appear in the data and translation.
False. We know that category is optional if it does not always appear in the data or translation.
What are the two key design features of language that describe grammar?
Productivity: using grammar to create new sounds, words, and utterances
Duality of patterning: the rules that govern how units combine on one level (ex: within words) can be projected into other levels (ex: within sentences)
What is step 3 of morpheme identification?
Locate recurring partials
(forms that are alike)
What is the difference between roots and stems?
A root is defined by commonalities in meaning.
A stem is referred to based on its role in affixation
(anything that an affix attaches to)
What is a lexeme and how does it vary from a word-form?
Bonus: What is a paradigm?
A lexeme is the word in an abstract sense, as the meaning exists in the total inventory of concepts in a given language.
A word-form is the actual occurrence of the lexeme.
Bonus: Paradigms are sets of related word-forms that fit under one lexeme.
– The individual inflected words are word-forms
– The lexeme is the shared, underlying meaning
What are three ways we categorize words?
- How many morphemes (simple vs. complex)
- Shared meaning (lexemes, word families)
- Shared functions (word class)