04 Morphology Free Online FlashCards

What does morphology study?

Morphology is the study of how words are structured and formed, including their meaningful units and the patterns that combine them.

What is a morpheme?

A morpheme is a minimal unit associated with meaning or grammatical function. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts in that use.

How do free and bound morphemes differ?

A free morpheme can occur as a word on its own, like help. A bound morpheme, like un- or -ful, must attach to another form.

What distinguishes prefixes from suffixes?

An affix is a bound morpheme attached to a base. A prefix comes before the base, while a suffix comes after it.

How do a root and a base differ?

A root carries a word’s central lexical content. A base is the form to which a morphological process applies and may include more than the root.

What are allomorphs?

Allomorphs are different forms or pronunciations of the same morpheme. English plural marking has different pronunciations in cats, dogs, and horses.

What is compounding?

Compounding combines two or more words or stems into a word, as in toothbrush or raincoat.

What does inflection create?

Inflection creates grammatical forms of the same lexeme, such as walk, walks, walked, and walking. It generally preserves the word class.

What evidence supports identifying a morpheme?

Compare related forms and look for recurring parts that align with recurring meanings or grammatical functions. Spelling alone is not enough evidence.

In what order are the parts of unhappiness formed?

In unhappiness, un- first attaches to happy; then -ness attaches to unhappy. The structure is [[un- [happy]] -ness].

Why can unlockable have two meanings?

Unlockable is structurally ambiguous: it can mean “not able to be locked” or “able to be unlocked,” depending on how its parts combine.

How does reduplication form words?

Reduplication forms words by repeating all or part of a form. Depending on the language, it may express meanings such as repetition or plurality.