Language Development in Children

Definition of Morphology

the study of word structure, how words are formed out of more basic elements of language called morphemes

definition of morpheme

the smallest meaningful unit of language, a way to modify words or structures to change meaning

What are Base, root , or free morphemes?

words that have meaning, cannot be broken down into smaller parts, and can have other morphemes added to them (e.g., color)

What are bound or grammatical morphemes?

words that can also have other morphemes added to them, but cannot convey meaning by themselves, must be joined with a free morpheme (e.g., cook to cooking)

Definition of allomorphs

variations of morphemes, they do not alter the original meaning of the morpheme (e.g., “boxes”)

definition of dervational morphemes

include prefixes and suffixes; they change whole classes of words (e.g., “happy” - adj. + ‘ily’ = “happily” - adverb)

Definition of syntax

arrangement of words to form meaningful sentences, word order.

what is a passive sentence?

subject receives the action of the verb (“the cat was petted by mark'“)

what is an active sentence?

subject performs the actions of the verb (“mark petted the cat”)

what is an interrogative sentence?

a question (“did you see that gorgeous sunset?”)

what is a declarative sentence?

a statement (“the sunset was gorgeous”)

what is an imperative sentence?

state a command (“shut the door”)

what is an exclamatory sentence?

express strong feeling (“i never said that!”)

what is a compound sentence?

contains two or more independent clauses joined by a comma and a conjunction or semicolon

TRUE or FALSE: there are no subordinate clauses in a compound sentence

TRUE

What is a clause?

A phrase that contains a subject and predicate