Morphemes

Morpheme

smallest unit of meaning in a language, may be a word or a part of a word

Morphology

the study of word formation, changes in the form of words

Etymology

the study of word origins

Monomorphemic

a single (free) morpheme

Free Morpheme

A morpheme that can stand alone as a word (can carry a meaning)

Content Words

OPEN CLASS, real meaning, more added everyday (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Function Words

CLOSED CLASS, words used to connect content words (pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, determiners)

Bound Morpheme

morpheme that only has meaning when attached to a word, can't stand alone

Root Morpheme

the form left after all the affixes are removed from a word, can be either Bound or Free

Affix

type of bound morpheme, attached to Content Words as either a PREFIX (front) or SUFFIX (end)

Derivational Morpheme

Bound Morpheme that's combined w/ a Free Morpheme to create new words

1. may change the meaning from the original

2. may change the grammatical class (ex: N+ize=V, V+ful=Adj)

Can be multiple within one word

Go BEFORE Inflectional Suffixes

Inflectional Morpheme

Bound Morpheme that can be added to Content Words w/o changing the part of speech or meaning

ONLY 8 SUFFIXES

N: plural -S, possessive -'S

Adj: comparative -ER, superlative -EST

V: present 3rd person -S, past -ED, past participle -EN, present participle -ING

Can only be ONE within a word

Go AFTER Derivational Affixes

Affixation

CreateNewWord: Combining, the Derivational process that adds a prefix or suffix

Compounding

CreateNewWord: Combining, Derivational process that combines two Free Morphemes

Blending

CreateNewWord: Combining, blends parts of 2+ words into 1 (brunch, smog)

Intitializations

CreateNewWord: Shortening, say each initial letter as a letter (TNT, DNA, NFL, NCAA, FBI)

Acronyms

CreateNewWord: Shortening, using the first initial to form a new word (NASA, SONAR, SCUBA)

Clipping

CreateNewWord: Shortening, abbreviated words to make new words (dormitory to dorm, telephone to phone, fanatic to fan)

Borrowing

CreateNewWord, use words from other languages (Spanish, French, German, Yiddish, practically every language borrows from one another)

Functional Shift

CreateNewWord: Shift, change from one part of speech to another (impact both N&V, position both N&V)

Semantic Shift

CreateNewWord: Shift, changes meaning, part of speech stays the same,

aka Metaphorical Extension: literal to figurative meaning

(mouse=animal & computer, spam=meat & junk email)

Generalization

CreateNewWord: Shift, a brand name turns into a generic term (kleenex, band-aid, jello)

Eponyms

CreateNewWord: Shift, names from mythology & history turn into words/phrases (Napoleon Complex, being a Benedict Arnold, Bunsen burner)

Pure Creation

CreateNewWord: word coinage, making up words w/o basing it off others (Kodak, zipper, Camry, Hagen Daz)

Can the morpheme stand alone?

KeyQuestion#1

YES: it's a Free Morpheme (bubble, orange)

NO: it's a Bound Morpheme (-ing in bubbling, -s in oranges)

Does the morpheme carry the main meaning of the word it's in?

KeyQuestion#2

YES: it's a Root (happy in unhappiness)

NO: it's an Affix (pre- in preview, -or in contributor)

Does the affix create a new word by changing the morpheme's meaning or part of speech?

KeyQuestion#3

YES: it's a Derivational Prefix or Suffix (re- in rewind, -ly in quickly)

NO: it's an Inflectional Suffix (-ed in wagged, -est in smartest)