Morphology

Morphology

the study of the strucuture of words

Morpheme

smallest unit of meaning

Monomorphemic

Words with just one morpheme

Polymorphemic

Words that consist of more than one morpheme

Free Morpheme

morhemes that can stand alone as words

Lexical Morphemes

content words that carry the semantic meaning of messages we convey

Functional Morphemes

grammatical words that belong to the Closed Class of Parts of Speech, including conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, and articles

Bound Morphemes

Morphemes that cannot stand alone

Allomorph

different form/representation of a morpheme

Major word classes (Content/lexical)

• Nouns

• Verbs

• Adjectives

• Adverbs

Minor word classes (functional)

• Pronouns

• Adpositions

  • prepositions

  • postpositions

• Conjunctions

• Interjections

• Particles

• Numerals

Nouns

Name people, places, things, ideas (e.g., cat, freedom)

Verbs

Show actions or states (e.g., run, think)

Adjectives

Describe nouns (e.g., happy, blue)

Adverbs

Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g., quickly, very)

Pronouns

Replace nouns (e.g., he, they)

Adpositions

• Show relationships (e.g., in, on, to)

  • prepositions: before the word

  • postpositions: after the word

Conjunctions

Connect words or clauses (e.g., and, but)

Interjections

Express sudden feelings (e.g., Ouch! Wow!)

Particles

Small words often with grammatical functions (e.g., up in "look up")

Root

core meaning of a word (-port, -ject, -vid, -log, -dict, -struct, …)

Root change

the root transforms through internal vowel shifts

Affix

modify meaning or grammatical function

Derivational Affixes

• create new words, often changing the word class or meaning

  • prefixes (pre-, un-, con-, dis-, re-, …)

  • suffixes (-er, -ness, -ly, -ist, -ment, -ful, …)

Inflectional Affixes

• change a word's grammatical function

• 8 Suffixes only

  • -s (plural/3rd-person singular)

  • -'s (possessive)

  • -ed (past tense)

  • -ing (present participle)

  • -en (past participle)

  • -er (comparative)

  • -est (superlative))

Neutral Affixes

don't change the stress of a word, keeping it on the original syllable

Shifting affixes

pull the stress to a different syllable

Affixation

Adding prefixes (before) or suffixes (after) to a root word (un-happy, happi-ness)

Compounding

Joining two or more free morphemes to form a new word (book + shop = bookshop)

Conversion

Changing a word's class without changing its form (e.g., green (noun) → green (adjective))

Loanword

Taking a word directly from another language (e.g., Pizza)

Calque

A literal, word-for-word translation from another language 

(schau stehlen (German) from steal the show (English))

Reduplication

Repeating a sound or word (e.g., Ping-pong)

Clipping

Cutting a word short (e.g., Gas from gasoline)

Initialism

Saying a word letter-by-letter (e.g., DVD)

Acronym

Saying the letters as a single word (e.g., NATO)

Blending

Combining two words together (e.g.,Brunch from breakfast + lunch)

Back-formation

Removing a fake "ending" to make a new verb 

(e.g., worker → to work)

Contraction

When we reduce the size of the word, by omitting the middle letters (e.g., Mr. (Mister))

Eponym

A word named after a person (e.g., Pasteurize after Louis Pasteur)

Novel creation

Inventing a word from scratch (e.g., Kleenex)

e.g.

exempli gratia

i.e.

id est

etc.

et cetera

ca.

circa

a.i.

ad interim

a.m.

ante meridiem

id.

idem

i.a.

inter alia

p.a.

per annum

-us (alumnus)

-i (alumni)

-a (larva)

-ae (larvae)

-um (datum)

-a (data)

-ex/-ix (index)

-ices (indices)

-is (axis)

-es (axes)

-on (criterion)

-a (criteria)

-ma (dogma)

-mata (dogmata)

Generic reference

Points to a whole group (The whale is a mammal.)

Specific reference

Points to one individual. (The whale we saw yesterday was huge)

Specific indefinite reference

Introduces a new entity (I saw a man in the park.)

Specific definite reference

Points to a known entity (I saw the man again.)

Specific deictic reference

Words that "point" and change meaning depending on who is speaking, where they are, and when. (Put that here now.)

Specific implied reference

The referent is not explicitly named but is understood through logical association (I bought a new car, but the steering wheel is loose.)

Specific anaphoric reference

Points backwards to a previously mentioned entity (Sarah bought a bike. She loves it.)

Specific cataphoric reference

Points forwards to an entity that will be mentioned later (Since he was hungry, the boy ate the whole pizza.)