Morphology 1

morphology

understanding the internal structure of words

linguistic sign

pairing of form [spoken] and meaning [concept] - {word}

word

minimal (smallest) (phonologically) free form

potential to pause or hesitate b/t words not w/in

stress (1 primary stress per word)- in most languages

phonotactic restrictions

Morpheme

smallest meaningful form

free morpheme

morpheme that can stand in isolation as a phonologically free form eg cat

bound morpheme

must be attached to another morpheme, forming a morphologically complex word eg cat-s

root

carries the core meaning of word, cannot be broken into smaller parts, may be free or bound

stem

the base to which affixes are added, may be root or morphologically complex eg friend-s

positions of bound morphemes

prefix [before root], infix [inside root], suffix [after root]

affix

bound morpheme attached to a stem

A suffix followed by a suffix is not an infix

must appear w/in the root

affix

bound morpheme attached to a stem

lexeme (where is it use)

basic form of a word that would be used in the dictionary

derivation

creates new lexemes, may change word class eg noun → verb

inflection (eg tense)

does not alter the basic meaning of a lexeme, generally creates a related set of form called a paradigm

lexeme

is an abstract entity that may encompass various inflected forms

phonological conditioning

the choice of an allomorph is conditioned by the preceding phoneme

phonologically conditioned allomorphs are…

predictable