linguistics - 2

word

smallest free form

free form

letters that have meaning on their own

how many morphemes in the word moisturized

3

• moisture

• ize

• ed

Allomorph

morpheme with variants

• a vs an

• in- vs im-

What is the base in the word blackened, the root, the affix

• blacken

• black

• ed

concatenative morphology

words that are built in a linear manner

• root + prefix + suffix

is it possible for a root to be a bound morpheme?

yes

• -kempt for unkept

do all words have to have transparent morphology?

no, some roots are from latin/french 

derivation

when the root lexical category changes because of the addition of an affix

ambiguous

a single word can have 2 meanings

can all suffixes attach to all roots?

some suffixes only combine with bases from latin origin not english

blocking 

some words are blocked from words being made by adding affixes because of words that already exist 

morphology

study of words and word structure

phonological properties

affixes can only attach in certain environments

Derivation constraints

origin of the word (dif language), blocking, phonological properties

Compounding

compound words. can be separated by -, space or no space

what is the head in compound words

right most word

endocentric compounds

right most word carries meaning - dogfood (type of food)

• modified plural (wisdom teeth)

exocentric compounds

left morpheme carries meaning - sabretooth (type of sabre)

• add regular plural

inflection

when adding an affix doesn’t change the lexical category

• -s

• -ed

• -est

• -ing

• -en

are inflectional affixes more productive

yes, they can combine with more bases

internal change

sang vs sing

• also know as ablaut

non-morphic segment

segment with no meaning on its own

suppletion

replaces morpheme with another morpheme

• go vs went

reduplication

part of word repeated creating new meaning

full reduplication 

full word repeated

• bili bili means buy repeatedly 

partial reduplication

duplication of part of the word

cliticization

small words that can’t be on their own

• i’m

• they’re

• can’t

conversion

gives word new lexical category based on words around it

• “go for a run” changes the word run (a verb) into a noun

clipping

shorts word

• prof

• psych

• app

blending

non-morphemic parts

• fro-yo (frozen yogurt)

backformation

removes affix and creates a new word

• resurrect from resurrection

acronyms

NATO, ASAP, NASA - pronounced together as a word

initialisms

PEI, USA, DIY - pronounced letter by letter

onomatopeia

words that sound like what they are describing

content word

contributes meaning to sentence

det

the, a, this, these

deg

very, more, quite, too

aux

will, would, can, could, may, must, be, have, do

adverb

sadly, always, quietly, suddenly, now

conjunction

and, or, do

head

core of phrase

compliment

right

• eat candy - candy is the compliment, eat is the head

specifier

left

• quite certain - quite is specifier, certain is the head

compliments

right

• eat candy - candy is compliment eat is the head

recursion

the infinite ability to combine words and phrases to make more and more complex sentences

sentences

multiple phrases

substitution test

the children will stop at the corner vs they will stop there

• VP - do so

• NP - they/it

• PP - there

• AP - so

Movement test

the children stopped at the corner vs at the corner the children stopped

coordination test

the child stopped at the store AND looked at the sky

subject

what is doing the verb.

transitive verb

required a NP compliment

• the child devoured [the vampire]

intransitive verb

doesn’t take NP compliment

• the ghost vanished

subcategorization 

the memory [of a friend] - PP_of

compliment clauses

the fans [hope that the team won]

• the whole sentence is the matrix

complimenter phrase

has words like: that, whether, if

syntactic movement

words move to a different position to create different sentence structures

sentence structures

1. yes/no question 

2. wh- question 

3. statement 

deep structure

original form of a sentence (syntactic movement)

formal syntax

system that models grammar

universal grammar

differs across all languages but is also similar in other ways because all language shares a common system