Linguistics Exam

Lexeme

The minimal unit of vocabulary (or base unit of meaning) underlying a set of variant grammatical forms

Lexical Ambiguity

Homonyms, homographs, homophones

Homonyms

Same sound, same spelling

Homographs

Different sound, same spelling

Homophones

Same sound, different spelling

Fixed word combinations

Count as single lexeme, e.g. prepositional units, phrasal verbs, idioms

Prepositional units

Near to, in accordance with, in order to

Phrasal verbs

Put on, switch off, fall down

Idioms

Kick the bucket

Reference

Use word to direct audience attention to particular entity

Sense

Definition of a word

Semantic features

Components of meaning smaller than the word which capture the similarities and differences between words

Sense relations

Hyponymy, synonymy, antonymy

Hyponym

A word within a category

Superordinate

The category of hyponyms e.g. fruit

Co-hyponyms/Subordinate terms

Words within same category, e.g. banana, apple, orange

Synonyms

Words with similar meanings

Partial synonymy

In one context they can be substituted for one another

Antonyms

Words with opposite meanings

Complementarity

Non-gradable binary opposites, e.g. animate/inanimate

Converseness (Relational antonyms)

Non-gradable, binary contrasts where one member of the pair presupposes the other, e.g. parent/child

Directional opposites

Up/down, in/out, come/go, open/close, day/night, summer/winter

Collocation

The mutual predictability of words, e.g. He cracked an egg

Morphology

The study of word structure

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful part in a language, categorised by both form and meaning

Roots

‘Irreducible core’, chunk of word to which other bits are added

Affixes

Prefixes, suffixes, productive aspect of English (add to lexicon)

Prefixes

Affixes that precede the root

Suffixes

Affixes that follow the root

Free morphemes

Can occur as independent words, usually roots

Bound morphemes

Do not occur on their own, generally affixes, contracted forms, derivational morphemes (some bound roots, e.g. inept)

Affixation

Morpheme is added to the root

Compounds

Words formed by joining two (or more) roots

Compound nouns

Bluebell, ashtray, telltale

Compound adjectives

Icy-cold, easy-going

Compound verbs

Joyride, sleepwalk, word-process

Derivational morphology

Word formation rules, and how derivational affixes attach to roots to build longer, more complex words

Inflectional morphology

Words changing their shape for grammatical reasons, inflectional morphemes are used to signal different grammatical functions

Derivational Affixes/Morphemes

• Create new words

• Can change word class

• Are many and varied

• Both prefixes and suffixes

Inflectional Affixes/Morphemes

• Do not create new words

• Never alter word class

• Mark grammatical function

• Always suffixes

• Limited in number (8) and regular in behaviour

Inflectional Affixes (examples)

-s plural

-s verb form (walks)

-’s possessive (John’s brother)

-ing verb form (walking)

-ed verb form (walked)

-en verb form (taken)

-er comparative (taller)

-est superlative (tallest)

Inflectional Suffixes

Always follow derivational suffixes (work worker workers)

Reduplication

A morpheme is repeated to change meaning (not in English)

Modification

Part/all of root is changed

Partial modification

Vowel in root changes, e.g. man - men, mouse - mice

Total modification (suppletion)

Root undergoes complete change in form, e.g. go - went

Subtraction

Part/all of morpheme is removed to change meaning

Morph

Physical form or shape of a morpheme, how the morpheme is realised (in speech/writing)

Allomorphs

Different realisations of morphemes (plural: -s, -z, -es)

Mean length of utterance (MLU)

Divide total number of morphemes in language sample by number of utterances

Word Classes

Parts of speech

Content words (major class words)

Provide main lexical meaning in a sentence, open-class, may be added to by newly coined words: nouns, main (lexical) verbs, adjectives, adverbs

Function words (minor class words)

Play grammatical role, closed-class: pronouns, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, determiners, conjunctions

Nouns

A person, place or thing (follow determiners)

Verb

A doing word (add ‘ing’)

Determiners

Specify, identify or quantify the following noun or noun phrase

Determiners (examples)

the, a/an, my, your, his, her, our, their, this, these, that, those, some, many, one, two, three, etc.

Determiners: definite and indefinite articles

the, a/an

Determiners: possessives

my, your, his, her, our, their

Determiners: demonstratives

this, these, that, those

Determiners: quantifiers/numerals

some, many, one, two, three

Pronouns

Can be substituted for nouns or noun phrases

Personal pronouns

I, we, you, he, she, it, they

First person singular pronoun

I, me

First person plural pronoun

we, us

Second person singular pronoun

you

Second person plural pronoun

you

Third person singular pronoun

he/she/it, him/her/it

Third person plural pronoun

they, them

Objective case pronouns

me, us, you, him, her, it, them

Primary auxiliaries

Forms of be, have, do (can function as main verbs)

Modal auxiliaries

can, may, will, might, should, must, could, might, would

Passive auxiliary

Always ‘be’

Adjective

Describes a noun

Adverb

Tells when, how and where

Gradable (or scalar) adjectives

Comparative ‘-er’, superlative ‘-est’; can be modified by intensifiers

Intensifiers

Very, really, so, extremely, rather

Attributive use of adjectives

Before a noun, often following a determiner

Predicative use of adjectives

Following a form of be, can modify pronouns

Prepositions

Manner/agency, accompaniment/possession, concession, support

Progressive aspect

BE + ing

Perfective aspect

HAVE

Perfect progressive aspect

HAVE + BE

Present progressive tense

I am walking

Past progressive tense

She was walking

Present perfective tense

We have called

Past perfective tense

We had called

Present perfective progressive tense

We have been walking

Past perfective progressive tense

We had been walking

Sentence Elements

Phrases or groups of words which operate as single units of meaning, fulfilling different functions within the sentence

Simple sentences

One clause, finite, SVO, SVC, SVA

Clause

A complete grammatical unit that must include a verb element

Adverbials

Where, when, how, or why information

Direct object

Most directly related to verb

Indirect object

May be expressed as prepositional phrase with either ‘to’ or ‘for’

Declarative sentence

Statement

Polar interrogative

Yes/no question

Wh-interrogative

Wh-question

Imperative sentence

Command

Compound sentences

Two (or more) clauses joined by coordinating conjunction, each clause is finite