Phonology & Morphology

Contrastive Distribution

Sounds that occur in the same environment; swapping them changes the meaning of the word (Minimal Pairs). They are separate Phonemes.

Complementary Distribution

Sounds that never occur in the same environment (they are "mutually exclusive"). Swapping them does not change meaning. They are Allophones of the same phoneme.

Phoneme

the mental category/unit of sound

Allophone

The physical way that sound is actually pronounced in a specific environment.

Minimal Pair

Two words with different meanings that differ by exactly one sound in the same position. Example: team [tim] and beam [bim].

Assimilation

A sound becomes more like a neighbor. Example: "unbelievable" /ʌn/ → [ʌm] (the [n] becomes bilabial to match [b]).

Dissimilation

Two sounds become less alike to make them easier to distinguish. Example: "fifth" /fɪfθ/ → [fɪft].

Insertion

Adding a sound that isn't in the mental "spelling." Example: "hamster" /hæmstɹ/ → [hæmpstɹ] (adding a [p]).

Deletion

Removing a sound. Example: "friendship" /fɹɛndʃɪp/ → [fɹɛnʃɪp] (dropping the [d]).

Metathesis

Two sounds switch places. Example: "ask" /æsk/ → [æks].

Strengthening

Making a sound "stronger" (more air/emphasis). Example: Aspiration of [p] in "pat" [pʰæt].

Weakening

Making a sound "weaker" or faster. Example: Flapping in "writer" /ɹaɪtɹ/ → [ɹaɪɾɹ].

Natural Class (Definition)

A group of sounds that share one or more phonetic features (e.g., "Voiced Stops").

Sibilants

High-pitched, "hissing" sounds: [s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ].

Labials

Sounds made with one or both lips: [p, b, m, f, v, w, ʍ].

Obstruents

Sounds produced with a significant obstruction of airflow: Stops, Fricatives, and Affricates.

Sonorants

Sounds produced with a more open airflow: Nasals, Liquids, Glides, and Vowels.

Morpheme (Definition)

The smallest linguistic unit that has a meaning or grammatical function.

Free vs. Bound Morpheme

Free: Can stand alone as a word (e.g., cat). Bound: Must be attached to another morpheme (e.g., -s, un-).

Root vs. Affix

The core meaningful part of the word. Affix: A bound morpheme added to a root (Prefix, Suffix, Infix, Circumfix).

Content vs. Function Morpheme

Content: Carries concrete meaning (Nouns, Verbs, Adjs). Function: Provides grammatical information (Prepositions, Articles, Pronouns, Conjunctions).

Derivational Morpheme

Creates a new word by changing the meaning or the part of speech. Example: cat (Noun) + -ty = catty (Adj).

Inflectional Morpheme

Creates a different grammatical form of the same word; does not change the core meaning or category. Example: wait → waited.

Compounding

Forming new words from two or more independent words. Example: girlfriend, textbook.

Reduplication

Doubling an entire free morpheme or part of it. Example: Indonesian rumah (house) → rumah-rumah (houses).

Alternation

Morpheme-internal changes. Example: man → men, ring → rang → rung.

Suppletion

Inflected forms that are phonologically unrelated to the root. Example: go → went, good → better.

Templatic Morphology

Roots consist of a "frame" of consonants; vowels are slotted in to change meaning (common in Arabic/Hebrew).

Analytic (Isolating) Language

Sentences made of sequences of free morphemes; words usually consist of a single morpheme (e.g., Mandarin).

Synthetic Language

Bound morphemes are attached to other morphemes; words are made of several elements.

Agglutinative Language (Type of Synthetic)

Morphemes are joined together loosely; easy to see where one ends and the next begins (e.g., Hungarian, Swahili).

Fusional Language (Type of Synthetic)

Affixes are "fused" with the stem; one affix may carry several pieces of grammatical info (e.g., Spanish).

Polysynthetic Language (Type of Synthetic)

Highly complex words formed by combining several stems and affixes; often an entire sentence is one word.