8.12Combining Different Morphemes

Flashcards covering key concepts of morphemes, semantics, and the learning process involved in understanding language.

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful unit of speech, which can include root words, prefixes, and suffixes.

Productivity in language

The ability to create new meanings by modifying and combining different morphemes.

Deactivatable

A constructed word that combines morphemes meaning capable of being deactivated, understood through its constituent morphemes.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language, including how context helps to derive the meaning of words.

Ambiguity

The quality of being open to more than one interpretation; in language, it refers to words or phrases with multiple meanings depending on context.

Contextual learning

The process of understanding a word's meaning based on how it is used in sentences or spoken language.

Example of ambiguous sentence

"Sherlock saw the man using binoculars" can mean either Sherlock used binoculars to see the man, or the man was using binoculars.

Crash (as a vocabulary example)

A word that can mean different things based on context, such as an accident or a sound.