Morphology and Lexicology

Morphology

the study of the structure/form of words

morpheme

The smallest meaning unit of language

Free morpheme

A morpheme that has its own meaning and can stand on its own

Bound morpheme

A morpheme that requires a free morpheme to be connected to

inflectional morpheme

Doesnt change word class, just add extra information, like plurality, possession or tense

derivational morpheme

Changes the meaning of a word and can change the word class

root morpheme

the sematic base or center of a word

affixation

the process of adding affixes to a word

prefix

an affix that comes before a word

suffix

an affix that comes after a word, always inflectional morpheme

inflix

an affix that’s added into the middle of a word

Lexicology

the study of lexicons, basically vocabulary

lexeme

a word or phrase with a specific meaning

Nouns

Word that give names to: people, places, things, qualities or actions.

concrete nouns

things that can be touch in the real world (split into countable and non countable)

abstract nouns

concepts that cannot be touched

Proper nouns

always capitalized, and name specific things like places or people

collective nouns

collective name for group of animals

adjectives

Define or modify nouns – essentially, they are providing additional information about nouns.

main verbs

Denote actions (to run), processes (to think) and states (to be).

regular verb

doesnt change when suffix is added

irregular verb

changes stem word when suffix is added

Auxiliary verbs and modal verbs

verbs that help other verbs to show meaning.

auxiliary verb

Modify and change something about the main verb. They indicate information such as tense, mood, voice and other grammatical aspects of the action. They are states of being. (Am, is, are, was, were, will, have, has, had, may, might, can, could)

modal verb

Carry information about ability, permission, likelihood and obligation. (“can,” “could,” “will,” “would,” “shall,” “should,” “may,” “might,” “must,” and “ought.”)

difference between modal and auxillary

modal is not subject to inflection

adverbs

Usually modify (give additional information about) verbs, but can also modify adjectives or even some adverbs like

• Time: soon, later

• Frequency: always, occasionally, never

• Manner: unconvincingly, slowly, torrentially

• Place: around, everywhere, here, there

• Degree: completely, totally, very, somewhat

How do I know if something is an adverb?

It answers the questions: How? How often? Where? When? How much?

determiner

are used in front of noun phrases and work to modify something about the noun. (that, my, every)

prepositions

They tell us where a noun is, when a noun is taking place, or describe the manner in which a verb is being performed. (in, at, on, of, to, by)

pronoun

replaces a noun

interjection

words/phrases that express a sudden or strong emotional or feeling.

FANBOYS

For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

function words

words that exist to explain or create grammatical or structural relationships

content words

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are content parts of speech

Initialism

abbreviation that consists of the first letter or letters of words in a phrase

acronym

word or name formed as an abbreviation from the initial components of a phrase or a word,

blending

joining the beginning of one word and the end of another to make a new word with a new meaning. (motel)

shortening

shortening of a longer word

compounding

A compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word) that consists of more than one stem.

contraction

word or phrase that's (that has) been shortened by dropping one or more letters.

collocation

Words with phrases so closely associated with one another that when we hear one we almost automatically provide the other.

neologisms

a newly formed word

borrowing

borrowing a word from another language

commonisation

development of common, everyday words from words that began life as proper nouns

morphological over generalization

using prior patterns of language to new words in an incorrect manner