ENG 261 Linguistics - Final Exam

morpheme

smallest meaningful unit in a language that cannot be broken down any further

eight inflectional morphemes

“S-S-S-Ed-Ed-Ing-Er-Est”

N: plural -s (“cats”)

N: possessive -’s (“the girl’s cat”)

V: 3rd person singular present tense -s (“he walks”)

V: past tense -ed (“he walked”)

V: past participle aux + -ed/en ("they have walked")

V: present participle aux + -ing ("they are walking")

A: comparative -er ("faster")

A: superlative -est ("fastest")

compounding - WFP

(combining) combining two or more independent words, with primary stress on the first word; can be written as one word, a hyphenated compound, or a phrase (“railroad”, “mother-in-law”, “White House”)

affixation (derivational morphology) - WFP

(combining) attaching affixes to roots to create new words (“retain”, “glamorous”, “transfiguration”)

blending - WFP

(combining) combining two or more words, at least one of which has been clipped (combination of clipping and compounding) (“mansplain”, “staycation”, “brunch”)

reduplication - WFP

(combining) forming a new word by doubling an entire free morpheme (total reduplication) or part of a free morpheme (partial reduplication) (“that’s a no no”, “choo choo train”)

clipping - WFP

(shortening) cutting off part of an existing free root to make a new term (“legitimate” → “legit”, “vegetable” → “veggie”)

acronymy - WFP

(shortening) fusing the first letter of each word in a phrase to form a word that is pronounced as a word ("NASA", "scuba").

alphabetism/initialism - WFP

(shortening) using the first letter of each word in a phrase to form a word that is pronounced as individual letters/initials ("FBI", "ATM").

backformation - WFP

(shortening) taking a free root and shortening it to get a root of another lexical category (requires etymological knowledge) (“television” noun → “televise” verb, "obsessive” adj. → “obsess” verb)

stress shift - WFP

(shifting) creating a new word by shifting the stress on an existing word (requires etymological knowledge) (“produce” noun → "produce" verb, "record" noun → "record" verb)

zero derivation (functional shift) - WFP

(shifting) creating a new word by doing nothing to an existing word except using it in a different lexical category (no stress shift!) (“party” noun → “party” verb, “email” noun → “email” verb)

false etymology (“eggcorns”) - WFP

(shifting) speakers break up an existing word into different morpheme boundaries that it was originally composed of, and then use the newly broken off morphemes in new ways (“alcoholic” → -oholic → “chocoholic”)

borrowing - WFP

(other) adopting a word from another language; can be unaltered, have changed spelling and/or pronunciation, or translated literally (“salsa” → “salsa”, “aeroplane” → “airplane”, “espresso” → “expresso”, “aardvarken” → “ground hog”)

coining - WFP

(other) making up an entirely new word, often to name something newly created - very rare! (“Kleenex”, “frisbee”, “alakazam”)

free root

lexical roots that can stand alone (“cat”, “love”, “eight”)

bound root

lexical roots that cannot stand alone and must be attached to a free morpheme to convey meaning (“-ceive” in “receive”, “-fer” in “infer”)

derivational affixes

prefixes and suffixes that change the meaning or lexical category of the attached root (noun + -y = adjective [“cat” → “catty”], verb + -er = noun [“build” → “builder”])

inflectional affixes

only suffixes in English that attach to word roots to mark traits like number, person, tense, etc. that never change its lexical category OR meaning (see “eight inflectional morphemes” entry)

open class lexical categories (new ones are added)

nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs

closed class lexical categories (almost never add new ones)

pronouns, determiners, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions

noun (N) identification tests

1. N + plural -s = cats

2. N + possessive -’s = the girl’s cat

P N = about time

Det (A) N = the happy dog

verb (V) identification tests

1. V + 3rd person singular present tense -s = he walks

2. V + past tense -ed = walked

3. Aux + V + past participle -ed/en = I have written

4. Aux + V + present participle -ing = running

Aux + “not” + V = should not go

“Don’t” + V + ! = Don’t run!

(infinitive) “to” + V = to be; to write

adjective (A) identification tests

1. A + comparative -er = colder

2. A + superlative -est = coldest

“be more/most” + A = was most beautiful

Det + A + N = the happy cat

N + “is” + A = the dog is friendly

adverb (Adv) identification tests

A + “-ly” = happily; repeatedly; consciously

Adv, S. = Hopefully, I will win the race.

(infinitive) “to” + Adv + V = to quickly run

Adv + A = more disconcerting, most unhappy

pronoun (Pro)

stand in for entire Noun Phrases (NPs)

• Personal: I/me, you/y’all, she/he/it, we/us, they/them

• Indefinite: anyone, something, both, either, all

• Demonstrative: this, that, these, those

• Interrogative: who, what, which, where, how

• Relative: that, which, who/whom

determiner (Det)

indicate specificity, quantity, and possession (the, out, her, some, one, this, that); always precedes N/NP

Det + (Adj) + N = my favorite book

Det + NP = the politicization of public discourse

preposition (P)

mark location, direction, time, duration, and manner (of, to, from, in, on, under, above, at, by, as; always precedes N/NP

P + NP = around the corner

“right” + P + NP = right in the basket

auxiliary verbs (Aux)

precede main verbs to indicate tense, aspect, mood, emphasis, politeness, etc. and are used to form negatives and interrogatives in English (be, have, do, can, could, might, will, would)

SUBJ + Aux + V = I can work.

(Y/N Qs): Aux + NP + V? = Has he arrived?

(negatives) SUBJ + Aux + “not” + V = I do not know.

coordinating conjunction (CC)

connect two or more equivalent components (“FANBOYS”: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

• XP + CC + XP =

  • NP + CC + NP = soup or salad

  • VP + CC + VP = wanted cake but got salad

  • PP + CC + PP = in the oven or on the stove

S, CC S. = I was sick, yet I went to class.

subordinating conjunction (SC)

connect two non-equivalent components (although, because, unless, if, whether, etc.)

SC DC, IC. = Because I was sick, I stayed home.

IC SC DC. = I stayed home because I was sick.

conjunctive adverb (CA)

separate two independent clauses/complete sentences (however, nonetheless, moreover, etc.)

IC. CA, IC. = He ran quickly. Nonetheless, he lost the race.

IC; CA, IC. = Playing football is fun; however, it is also dangerous.

simple sentence

one single IC (one verb) (“they took the money and ran.”)

compound sentence

two or more ICs joined by a CC (“I woke up this morning, and I got myself a coffee.”)

complex sentence

an IC and one ore more DCs (“Although she was sick, she worked a full shift.”)

compound-complex sentence

two or more ICs connected by a CC, in which at least one of the ICs also contains a DC (“Although I would like to go camping, I haven’t had the time to go this year, and my friends are too busy.”)

adverbial (ADVL) DC

starts with a SC or P and modifies the VP of the IC that immediately precedes or follows it (answers questions like how, when, where, & why) (“The students were exhausted because they had been studying all night".”)

nominal (NOML) DC

starts with a complementizer and functions as the DO of the verb (“complete” VP) (“The teacher asked whether we finished our homework.”)

adjectival (ADJL) DC

starts with a RP (that, which, who/whom) and modifies the NP immediately before it (“The child, who is full of candy, did not eat dinner.”)