Linguistics - Morphology

prefixation

affix attached before stem

suffixation

affix attached after stem

infixation

affixation within stem

circumfixation

affixation around stem

reduplication

affixation that duplicates all or part of the stem

compounding

form a new word by combining two existing words

zero derivation/conversion

creates a new word without affixation, assigning an existing word to a new syntactic category

stress shift

forms new word by putting stress on different syllable

ablaut

word formation by replacement of a vowel with a different vowel

suppletion

the use of a word as an inflected form of another word, when the two do not share pronunciation

back formation

a word whose form is similar to that of a derived from undergoes de-affixation

clipping

new word created by shortening a polysyllabic word

blending 

words created from parts of two existing lexical items

acronyms

formed from initial sounds/letters of a string of words

coining

introduction of a new word into the language

compositionality

meaning of whole deducible from meaning of parts

endocentric compounds

have a head that expresses core meaning and determines syntactic category

exocentric compounds

lack a head and have a noncompositional meaning

morpheme

minimal unit pairing sound and meaning (constant sound, constant meaning)

allomorphs of a morpheme

different pronunciations of the same morpheme where the pronunciation is conditioned by the phonological environment

voiced sounds

produced with vocal folds

voiceless sounds

produced without vibration of vocal folds

complementary distribution

allomorphs of a single morpheme

overlapping distribution

two different morphemes

inflectional affixes

produce a different form of the same word, underlying concept remains the same

derivational affixes

create new lexemes or change part of speech

Structural ambiguity

different meanings correspond to differences in structure

lexical ambiguity

different meanings due to different lexical elements

linguists’ goal 

to specify grammar, to detail the full set of rules that underlie speakers’ knowledge of language

grammar

the system of rules stored in the mind of a speaker that generates the words and sentences of that speaker’s language

competence

what you know when you know a language

performance

actual language use 

descriptive rules

describe how language is actually used

prescriptive rules

proper or correct use of language

morphology

field of linguistics which examines the internal structure of words and processes of word formation 

diachronic

through time, historical perspective

synchronic

at a particular point in time, describe current linguistic knowledge

bound morpheme

must be attached to another morpheme

free morpheme

can stand alone

explicit knowledge

things you know that you know

tacit knowledge

learned in an unstructured, informal way

productivity

high probability of a word with that pattern being accepted in the language

morphological constraints

the stem must have a certain morphological structure or belong to a certain defined class in order to participate in some processes

syntactic constraint

most affixes only attach to stems specific syntactic category

semantic constraints

certain affixes are constrained by the meaning of the stem

blocking constraints

a possible form is prevented because another with the same meaning and function already exists

predictability of form 

the degree to which you can predict the complex form based on knowledge of the rest of the language

compositionality of meaning

the degree to which you can predict the meaning of the complex word based on the meaning of its parts

frequency of occurence

words that are used very often are less likely to be product of rules

overgeneralizations 

rule applied unexpectedly are also evidence for rules

semantic drift

occurs when complex word is stored in lexicon and takes on a new or more specific meaning

spell out

affix pronunciation is subject to phonological constraints

adjectives

can precede nouns and can appear after linking verbs like seem

noun

can appear after a determiner and can take plural morphology with -s suffix

verb

it can take past tense morphology with ed suffix and can take progressive morphology with ing suffix

adverb

can appear before or after the verb and can be modified by degree adverbs like very and quite