English Morphology Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is morphology?
The study of the structure and formation of words.
True or False: Morphology only deals with the meaning of words.
False
What are the two main branches of morphology?
Derivational morphology and inflectional morphology.
Fill in the blank: A __________ is the smallest grammatical unit in a language.
morpheme
What is a free morpheme?
A morpheme that can stand alone as a word.
What is a bound morpheme?
A morpheme that cannot stand alone and must attach to a free morpheme.
Multiple Choice: Which of the following is an example of a derivational morpheme? a) -ed b) un- c) -s
b) un-
What does inflectional morphology indicate?
It indicates grammatical features such as tense, mood, aspect, person, number, gender, and case.
True or False: The word ‘dogs’ contains two morphemes.
True
What is the purpose of a prefix?
To modify the meaning of the root word.
Fill in the blank: The morpheme ‘s’ in ‘cats’ indicates __________.
plurality
What is a compound word?
A word formed by combining two or more free morphemes.
Multiple Choice: Which of the following is NOT an inflectional morpheme? a) -ing b) re- c) -ed
b) re-
What is a root in morphology?
The base part of a word, to which affixes can be added.
True or False: Morphological rules apply uniformly across all languages.
False
What is an affix?
A morpheme that is attached to a root word to modify its meaning.
Fill in the blank: The suffix ‘-er’ in ‘teacher’ indicates __________.
a person who performs the action
What is the difference between derivation and inflection?
Derivation creates new words with new meanings, while inflection modifies existing words for grammatical purposes.
Multiple Choice: Which of the following is a bound morpheme? a) happy b) -ly c) run
b) -ly
What is the role of morphology in language?
To help understand how words are formed and how they relate to each other.
True or False: The morpheme ‘un-‘ means ‘not’.
True
What is a syllable?
A unit of pronunciation that has a vowel sound and may or may not be accompanied by consonants.
Fill in the blank: The word ‘unhappiness’ contains __________ morphemes.
three
What does the term ‘allomorph’ refer to?
Different forms of a morpheme that appear in different contexts.
