Phonology Final - Key Terms

natural class

Any complete set of sounds in a given language that share the same value for a feature or set of features

nucleus

The most sonorous part of a syllable

geminate

Long consonant

morpheme

Smallest meaningful linguistic unit that has meaning

root

Central morpheme to which other morphemes are attached

bound

A morpheme that cannot stand alone

free

A morpheme that can stand alone

stem

Thing affixes are attached to; can be the root or the root plus other affixes

affixes

Bound morphemes that attach to a base

phonotactics

Patterns of a given language’s sound system

prefixes

Affixes that precede the base

suffixes

Affixes that follow the base

infixes

Affixes that are inside the base

circumfixes

Affixes that are on either side of the base

conversion/zero derivation

When a word belonging to one part of speech is used as another part of speech without changing its surface form

reduplication

Morphological process in which all or part of the base are copied

compounding

Formation of a word by combining two or more words

derivation

Expands the stock of words in the language by forming new words from old; often takes a word of one part of speech and changes it to another

inflection

Renders words syntactically appropriate to their context; grammatical morphology

productivity

A morpheme’s capacity to apply in novel circumstances

allomorphs

Alternating forms of morphemes

feeding

Process in which one rule is ordered before another and the application of the first rule creates environments where the second rule applies

bleeding

Process in which one rule is ordered before another and the application of the first rule removes environments where the second rule would otherwise apply

phonetics is the study of physical speech properties, phonology is study of the theoretical abstract properties of the mental sound system, Studies systematic alternations of phonetic forms predicted by a set of phonological rules characterizing a given language

phonetics vs phonology

morpheme = a linguistic unit that bears meaning, phoneme = a contrastive speech unit that has no inherent meaning, only functions to signal contrast with other phonemes

morpheme vs phoneme