Morphology/Phonology Exam (2) Flashcards
(30 cards)
Free morphemes
meaningful units that can stand as words on their own
Ex: cat, book, sheep
Bound morphemes
meaningful units that cannot stand as words on their own
Ex: -ing, -s, -ed
Derivational morphemes
A type of bound morpheme that changes the lexical category (part of speech) of a word.
Inflectional morphemes (definition)
A type of bound morpheme that does NOT change the lexical category of speech. (it also can attach to most members of the lexical category and has a predictable change)
Inflectional morphemes of English (7)
- 3rd person sing. present (-s) Ex: she plays
- past tense (-ed) Ex: she played
- progressive aspect (-ing) Ex: she is playing
- past participle (-en, -ed) Ex: She was played/she was shaken
- plural (-s) Ex: cats, dogs
- comparative (-er) Ex: greater, larger
- superlative (-est) Ex: biggest, largest, greatest
root
morpheme that is the core meaning of a word
affix
additional morpheme tacked on to the root
prefix
an affix at the beginning of a word
Ex: (pre-)fix
suffix
an affix at the end of a word
Ex: paint(-ed)
circumfix
an affix with 2 parts, one at beginning and one at end.
Ex: (ge-)___(-t) in German
infix
an affix that is inserted into the middle of a word
Content morphemes
Carry meaning (such as nouns or adjectives) Ex: cat, dog, red, blue
Function morphemes
serve a grammatical function (such as prepositions, determiners, some affixes)
Ex: the, a, an
Compound word
combine 2 stems/roots to form a new stem. usually the rightmost member gives the core meaning
Ex: doghouse, blackbird
Compound words: free morphemes (examples)
textbook, seatbelt, windowsill, blackbird, doghouse, popcorn
Compound words: affixed words (examples)
lawn mower, can opener, pickup truck, snow blower
Compound words: compounded words (examples)
seatbelt buckle, lifeguard chair, blackbird nest
Alternation
changes 1 segment (not a morpheme) with another completely different segment
Ex: men vs man, women vs woman
Suppletion
replaces 1 morpheme with another
Ex: go vs went, bad vs worse vs worst
Reduplication
repetition of all or part of a stem (not as common in English)
Ex: like vs like-like, at (hat) vs atat (wear a hat)
Clipping
Reducing the stem to only a portion of the original
Ex: brother to bro, dormitory to dorm
Blends
Combining non-morphemic parts of 2 separate stems to create a new morpheme
Ex: frenemy, chillax, staycation, quesarito
Backformation
A new morpheme is created by removing affixes (even if they weren’t there before), most times changes the part of speech
Ex: television created televise, tweezers created tweeze
Acronyms
Acronyms that are pronounced like a word
Ex: YOLO, SWAT, UNICEF, NASA, VSCO
