Morphology

Question 1

Morphology

Answer 1

The study of word formation and structure, including how morphemes combine to form words.

Question 2

Morpheme

Answer 2

The smallest unit of meaning in a word.

Question 3

Free Morpheme

Answer 3

Can stand alone as a word (e.g., cat, run, happy).

Question 4

Bound Morpheme

Answer 4

Cannot stand alone and must attach to another morpheme (e.g., -s, dis-, -ed).

Question 5

Content Words

Answer 5

Carry meaning (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs).

Question 6

Function Words

Answer 6

Serve grammatical roles (prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns).

Question 7

Root

Answer 7

The base morpheme of a word (e.g., teach in teacher).

Question 8

Stem

Answer 8

A root + an affix (e.g., teaching).

Question 9

Affixation

Answer 9

The process of adding bound morphemes to a root.

Question 10

Prefix

Answer 10

Added to the beginning (e.g., disloyal).

Question 11

Suffix

Answer 11

Added to the end (e.g., laughing).

Question 12

Infix

Answer 12

Inserted inside a word (e.g., fan-friggin-tastic).

Question 13

Circumfix

Answer 13

A split affix that surrounds a word (not found in English).

Question 14

Open Class

Answer 14

Can accept new words (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives).

Question 15

Closed Class

Answer 15

Does not change or add new words (e.g., prepositions, pronouns).

Question 16

Inflectional Morphemes

Answer 16

Change tense, number, or comparison but don’t create a new word (e.g., -s, -ed, -ing, -er, -est).

Question 17

Derivational Morphemes

Answer 17

Change a word’s meaning or category (e.g., -ly, -ize, -tion).

Question 18

Neologisms

Answer 18

Newly created words from derivations, brand names, or classical roots (e.g., institutionalize, Windex, examphobia).

Question 19

Compounds

Answer 19

Two complete words joined together to form a new word (e.g., greenhouse, mother-in-law).

Question 20

Blends

Answer 20

A combination of parts of words to form a new word (e.g., motel, smog).

Question 21

Acronyms

Answer 21

Pronounced as a word (e.g., NASA, SCUBA).

Question 22

Initialisms

Answer 22

Pronounced letter by letter (e.g., NFL, FBI).

Question 23

Backronyms

Answer 23

An acronym that was created after the fact by assigning words to letters (e.g., NEWS - North, East, West, South).

Question 24

Back Formations

Answer 24

A word is formed backward from an existing word (e.g., editor → edit, swindler → swindle).

Question 25

Eponyms

Answer 25

Words derived from people’s names (e.g., Sandwich, Boycott).

Question 26

Toponyms

Answer 26

Words derived from place names (e.g., Bohemian, Denim).

Question 27

Aptronyms

Answer 27

Names that are humorously appropriate to a person’s profession or personality (e.g., Tennis Sandgren).

Question 28

Mononyms

Answer 28

People known by a single name (e.g., Beyoncé, Cher).

Question 29

Clippings

Answer 29

Words that have been shortened (e.g., app, gym, phone).

Question 30

Hypocorisms

Answer 30

Australian-style clippings with an '-ee' sound (e.g., Barbie = barbecue).

Question 31

Autonyms

Answer 31

A real name.

Question 32

Pseudonyms

Answer 32

A fake name (e.g., Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain).

Question 33

Anonyms

Answer 33

A reverse-order name (e.g., Harpo from Oprah).

Question 34

Palindromes

Answer 34

Words or phrases that are spelled the same forward and backward (e.g., racecar, too hot to hoot).

Question 35

False Splittings

Answer 35

A word was misinterpreted historically as having a different boundary (e.g., an apron from a napron).

Question 36

Conversion

Answer 36

A word shifts into a different grammatical category without changing form (e.g., butter (noun) → butter (verb)).

Question 37

Grammatical Morphemes

Answer 37

Morphemes that serve a grammatical function (e.g., -s, -ed, -ing).

Question 38

Suppletion

Answer 38

A word’s form changes completely instead of following a pattern (e.g., go → went, child → children).

Question 39

Cliticization

Answer 39

Two words combine using an apostrophe (e.g., I’m, you’re).

Question 40

Proclitics

Answer 40

First word is shortened (e.g., Je t’aime in French).

Question 41

Enclitics

Answer 41

Second word is shortened (e.g., He’s, I’m).

Question 42

Apheresis

Answer 42

A silent letter at the beginning of a word (e.g., Knight, Know).

Question 43

Lexical Morpheme

Answer 43

A set of nouns, adjectives, and verbs that carry the ‘content’ of messages (e.g., email, blog). These are an open class of morphemes.

Question 44

Functional Morpheme

Answer 44

Grammatical words such as conjunctions (and), prepositions (above), and articles (the). These are a closed class of morphemes.

Question 45

Inflectional Morpheme

Answer 45

A morpheme that indicates grammatical function without changing the word category (e.g., -'s, -(e)s, -ed, -ing, -en, -s, -er, -est).

Question 46

Free Root

Answer 46

The base form of a word that can stand alone (e.g., teach in teacher).

Question 47

Bound Root

Answer 47

The base form of a word that cannot stand alone (e.g., tinct in instinct).

Question 48

Stem

Answer 48

A free morpheme combined with bound morphemes (e.g., care in careless).

Question 49

Inflectional Morphemes for Nouns

Answer 49

Two suffixes: -‘s (possessive case), -(e)s (plural).

Question 50

Inflectional Morphemes for Verbs

Answer 50

Four suffixes: -(e)d (past tense), -ing (present participle), -en (past participle), -s (3rd person singular).

Question 51

Inflectional Morphemes for Adjectives

Answer 51

Two suffixes: -er (comparative), -est (superlative).

Question 52

Example Sentence Analysis

Answer 52

The sentence 'The politician's stupidity shocked the attendees' contains 11 morphemes.

Question 53

Breakdown of Morphemes in Example

Answer 53

The (functional), politician (lexical), 's (inflectional), stupid (lexical), ity (derivational), shock (lexical), ed (inflectional), the (functional), attend (lexical), ee (derivational), s (inflectional).