Prescriptive Descriptions — Unit 1 Study Guide

Vocabulary flashcards covering morphology, phonology, grammar types, noun classifications, adjective order, and syntax from the Unit 1 study guide.

Morpheme

The smallest part of a word that has meaning or a grammatical job; it can be an entire word (like book) or part of a word (like un- in unhappy).

Root

The main part of a word that carries its basic meaning.

Prefix

A word part added to the beginning of a word, such as un- in unhappy.

Suffix

A word part added to the end of a word, such as -less in hopeless.

Derivational Affix

An affix that can make a new word or change a word's basic meaning or word type, such as the suffix -ly in lovely or the prefix un- in unhappy.

Inflectional Affix

An affix that adds grammatical information—such as whether something is plural or happened in the past—without altering the word's basic meaning or word type, such as -er in colder.

Eight Inflectional Suffixes in English

Plural -s (cats), possessive -'s (dog's), third-person singular verb -s (walks), past tense -ed (jumped), past participle -en (eaten), present participle -ing (running), comparative -er (colder), and superlative -est (coldest).

Phoneme

A single speech sound that can help distinguish words, such as the sounds /k/, /a/, and /t/ in cat, which do not hold meaning on their own.

Prescriptive Grammar

An approach to language that gives rules about how people are supposed to speak or write.

Descriptive Grammar

An approach to language that describes how people actually use language, recognizing that different varieties of English (such as Scots, Jamaican English, and Southern American English) possess their own patterns and rules.

Root Vowel Alternation

A sound shift where the vowel in the root changes when a suffix is added, such as long i to short i in divine/divinity, long e to short e in serene/serenity, and long a to short a in sane/sanity.

Pronunciation of Plural -s

The variation in the sound of the plural ending -s across words: sounding like /s/ in cats, /z/ in dogs, and an extra syllable like 'iz' in buses.

"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously"

A sentence demonstrating that an utterance can follow standard English grammatical patterns and structure while completely lacking logical meaning.

Count Noun

A noun that names something that can be counted as distinct individual items, such as couch (e.g., one couch, two couches).

Mass Noun

A noun that names something not usually counted as separate items, such as furniture (expressed as 'some furniture' rather than 'two furnitures').

Natural Adjective Order

The conventional English sequence for ordering adjectives before a noun: opinion (lovely), size (small), color (red), and material (wooden), followed by the noun (box).

Lexical Words

Words that carry the main meaning in a sentence, exemplified by flonkish, warzile, blork, and yerkon in 'The flonkish warzile will blork one yerkon.'

Functional Words

Words that serve to show grammatical relationships, exemplified by the, will, and one in 'The flonkish warzile will blork one yerkon.'

Subject (Noun Phrase)

The part of a sentence that identifies who or what the sentence is about, such as 'The flonkish warzile' in 'The flonkish warzile will blork one yerkon.'

Predicate (Verb Phrase)

The part of a sentence that states what happens, such as 'will blork one yerkon' in 'The flonkish warzile will blork one yerkon.'