LING 2100 Unit 2 Exam Study Guide: Morphology & Syntax

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts in morphology and syntax.

Derivation

The process of adding affixes to a root morpheme in order to create a new word.

Prefixation

Adding an affix at the beginning of a root morpheme. (un-bearable)

Suffixation

Adding an affix at the end of a root morpheme. (straight-en-er)

Circumfixation

Adding two affixes at the end and the beginning of a root morpheme at the same time. (ge-arbeit-et)

Infixation

Inserting an affix into the root morpheme. (abso-freaking-lutely)

Compounding

The process of combining two free morphemes together to form a completely new word. (carpool, babysit, daydream)

Borrowings

Lexical items that are/were directly borrowed from other languages. (hamburger=German, piano=italian)

Blends

Combining sounds from two different words. (motel= motor+hotel, vlog= video+blog)

Clipping

The process by which part of a word is removed. (gymnasium becomes gym)

Coinage

New words that are formed as a result of novel phenomena/things (Google, meme, selfie)

Eponyms

Names that used to be the proper names of a product/individual that later came to refer to something different. (tissues into Kleenex)

Acronyms

Words formed by taking the first letters of a group of words and putting them together. (Radar= radio detection and ranging)

Initialisms

Similar to acronyms, but they are pronounced by sounding out each letter. (lol= laughing out loud)

Morpheme

The smallest unit of language that carries meaning.

Bound Morphemes

Morphemes that cannot stand on their own. (-ness, -able, -ity)

Free Morphemes

Morphemes that can be used as stand-alone words. (cat in the word “cat-s", straight in “straight-en”)

Derivational Morphemes

Morphemes that form a new word by adding additional semantic meaning to a root. ( -ity in “ability”, -able in “flammable”)

Inflectional Morphemes

Also mostly bound ones. Similar too derivational
ones, they are also added to a stem/root, with the difference being that they do not add additional semantic meaning to a stem/root. Instead, they would often serve to add additional syntactic/grammatical information. “-s to add plurality, -ed to indicate past tense)

Lexical Morphemes

Free morphemes that carry actual meaning. (cat, dog, child)

Functional Morphemes

Free morphemes that serve syntactic functions. (and, or, with )

Syntax

The study of the structures, particularly sentence structures, of languages.

Parts of Speech

Categories used to classify words in a language. (NP, VP, PP etc)

Noun Phrase (NP)

Noun phrases that refer to real or imaginary objects, phenomena, individuals, and ideas. (tree, Jeffery, Man, She)

Verb Phrase (VP)

Phrases that describe an action.

Prepositional Phrase (PP)

Phrases starting with a preposition and ending with a noun phrase.

Determiner Phrase (DP)

Phrases that specify a particular noun phrase. (that, the his, few, many) don’t use on tree

Adjective Phrase (AdjP)

Phrases used to modify a noun phrase. (fast, slow, delicious, beautiful)

Adverbial Phrase (AdvP)

Phrases used to modify a verb. (slowly, closely)

Auxiliary Verb (Aux)

Auxiliary verbs are ones that are used to serve
a particular syntactic function, be it showing aspect, mood, voice, etc (do, have, will )

S bar (S¯)

A category denoting the node of an entire clause.

Conjunction (Conj)

Words used to join two phrases. (and, but, or)

Complementizer (Comp)

Words that start a clause. (that, which, when, what, who)

Syntax Trees

Visual representations that show the hierarchical structure of sentences.