Semester 2 Flashcards
(15 cards)
Morpheme
The smallest meaningful unit in a language.
eg, prefix, suffix, root
Allomorphs
Different realisations of the same morpheme.
eg, French has multiple noun plural allomorphs:
s, x, nothing - “zero morpheme”
Inflectional morphology
Creates different forms of the same word
- Always suffixes eg, ‘s’, ‘e’, ‘ent’
Derivational morphology
Creates different words, often involves a change of word class.
eg, ‘able’, ‘er’, ‘ment’
Prepositional object
A complement with a preposition
eg, il a hérité D’UNE PETITE MAISON
Syntax
The system which determines the possible ways in which words can be combined to produce valid sentences.
Phrases
A sequence of words which, taken together form a syntactic and semantic unit.
Sentence
The largest unit of syntactic analysis
Palatalisation
Process of Latin syllable-initial velar consonants from Classical Latin to Later Old French.
Exceptionlessness
Sound change as it goes on changes as many sounds as possible
Analogy
One linguistic form is modelled after another based on perceived similarities or patterns.
Sociolinguistics factors
- Socioeconomic class/status
- Gender
‘women conform more closely than men to sociolinguistic norms that are overtly prescribed, but conform less than men when they are not.’ - Ethnicity
- Age
Age - Two fundamental concepts
- Real time
= Longitudinal studies, involve comparison of 2+ points in time.
Panel study = same speakers studied at time 1 and 2
Trend study = different speakers - Apparent time
= Relies on the finding that linguistic traits of an age cohort will remain the same over time.
Speech community
A group of speakers who share the same norms in regard to language.
Linguistic variable
First and also last step in analysis of variation
