LING 108 MIDTERM

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful grammatical unit in a language. It cannot be broken down further without losing its meaning.

Root

The core, base morpheme of a word that carries the primary semantic meaning.

Affix

A bound morpheme that attaches to a root to modify its meaning or grammatical function.

Bound morpheme

A morpheme that cannot stand alone as an independent word; it must be attached to another morpheme (e.g., -ed in walked).

Free morpheme

A morpheme that can stand alone as a fully functioning word (e.g., book, run).

Portmanteau morpheme

A single, unanalyzable morpheme that simultaneously represents multiple distinct grammatical features or meanings.

Infix

An affix inserted directly inside a root morpheme.

Circumfix

A single affix made of two parts that attach to the beginning and the end of a root simultaneously. Removing either part makes it ungrammatical.

Clitic

A morpheme that functions syntactically as an independent word but phonologically acts like an affix (e.g., 'll in I'll).

Suffix vs. Enclitic

A suffix attaches to a specific class of words (like verbs), while an enclitic attaches to the end of an entire syntactic phrase.

Prefix vs. Proclitic

A prefix attaches to a specific class of words, while a proclitic attaches to the front of an entire syntactic phrase.

Suprafix

A morphological process that changes a suprasegmental feature (like tone, stress, or pitch) to convey a new meaning (e.g., récord vs. recórd).

Templatic morphology

Words are formed by mapping a root consisting of consonants onto a vowel template or pattern.

Hierarchical morphology

The concept that words have an internal structure and morphemes are added in a specific, ordered hierarchy.

Productive morphology

A rule or affix that speakers actively and freely use to form brand-new words (e.g., -ish).

Cranberry morpheme

A bound root that has no independent meaning or function outside of the specific word it appears in (e.g., cran- in cranberry).

Lexeme

An abstract unit of morphological analysis; the "dictionary form" or conceptual category of a word.

Wordhood Tests

Pausability (can pause before/after), Isolability (can stand alone as an answer), Syntactic mobility (can be moved as a unit).

Word family

A group of words that share the same root or base form, usually generated through derivational morphology.

Major Lexical Categories

Open class categories where new words are easily invented: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs.

Minor Lexical Categories

Closed class categories where new words are rarely invented: Prepositions, Pronouns, Determiners, Conjunctions.

Compound

A word formed by combining two or more independent roots/free morphemes that acts as a single syntactic unit.

Head of a compound

The morpheme that determines the primary semantic meaning and lexical category (usually on the right in English).

Endocentric compound

A compound where the entire word is a sub-type of its head (e.g., a taco stand is a type of stand).

Exocentric compound

A compound where the meaning is not a sub-type of either of its parts (e.g., a scarecrow is not a crow).

Neoclassical compound

A compound formed entirely from bound roots derived from classical languages like Latin or Greek (e.g., biography).

Rhyme-motivated compound

Compounds formed by reduplication where the two halves rhyme (e.g., walkie-talkie).

Ablaut-motivated compound

Compounds formed by reduplication where the vowel changes between the two parts (e.g., flip-flop).

Noun incorporation

A process where a noun argument is physically incorporated into the verb stem, creating a new, complex verb.

Nonce form

A word coined on the spot for a single specific occasion, not intended to enter the permanent lexicon.

Conversion

Changing a word's lexical category without adding any affixes; also called zero-derivation (e.g., Google -> to google).

Blend

Merging parts of two different words to create a new one, deleting overlapping sounds (e.g., smog).

Coinage

The absolute invention of a totally new word, not based on any existing morphemes (e.g., Xerox).

Backformation

Creating a new word by removing what is mistakenly assumed to be an affix from an existing word (e.g., editor -> edit).

Acronym

A word formed from the initial letters of a phrase, and pronounced as a single word (e.g., NASA).

Initialism / Alphabetism

A word formed from the initial letters of a phrase, but pronounced by spelling out each letter (e.g., FBI).

Clipping / Truncation

Shortening a multi-syllabic word without changing its meaning or lexical category (e.g., frat, gym).

Typology

The classification of languages based on their structural and morphological features.

Type frequency

The number of distinct dictionary entries or unique words in a text.

Token frequency

The total number of words in a text, regardless of whether they repeat.

Degree of fusion

Measures how easy it is to segment morphemes. Categories: Isolating, Agglutinating, Fusional.

Degree of synthesis

Measures the sheer quantity of morphemes per word. Categories: Analytic, Synthetic, Polysynthetic.

Head-marking vs. Dependent-marking

Head-marking puts the affix on the core of the phrase (verb); Dependent-marking puts the affix on the modifier (subject).

Formatting: Hyphen (-)

Used to mark clear boundaries between a root and an affix, or between two affixes.

Formatting: Template

Used in non-concatenative morphology to map root consonants onto a vowel template.

Formatting: Environment (/ __ V)

Used to define the phonological context that triggers allomorphy (a change in shape).

Formatting: Clitic (=)

Used to attach a clitic to its host.

Formatting: Standard Interlinear Gloss elements

1. Original data. 2. Morpheme breakdown. 3. Grammatical gloss. 4. Free translation.

1

first person

2

second person

3

third person

AUG

augmentative

CAUS

causative

COND

conditional

DU

dual

DES

desiderative

DIM

diminutive

EXCL

exclusive

F

feminine

INCL

inclusive

INF

infinitive

INS.NMLZ

instrumental nominalizer

IRR

irrealis

LOC

locative

M

masculine

NEG

negation

NMLZ

nominalizer

OBJ

object

PRF

perfect

PL

plural

REAL

realis

SG

singular

SBJ

subject

PST

past tense

PRS

present tense

FUT

future tense

PFV

perfective aspect

IPFV

imperfective aspect

PROG

progressive aspect

HAB

habitual aspect

DECL / IND

declarative / indicative mood

INT

interrogative mood

IMP

imperative mood

SBJV

subjunctive mood