General Study Notes

Nouns are words that represent people, places, or things. But remember, there are exceptions!

Countable nouns can be singular or plural (e.g., one cat, two cats). Uncountable nouns can't be pluralized (e.g., water, information).

Verbs describe actions, but not always. Some verbs express states of being or conditions.

Adjectives describe nouns (e.g., 'blue' car) adding more detail. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g., 'quickly' ran, 'very' blue).

Verb conjugations change verb forms to indicate tense (past, present), aspect (completed, ongoing), voice (active, passive), and mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive).

The function of a word describes its role within a phrase or clause, indicating what it does in a grammatical context.

Open-class lexical categories are broad categories of words that can create new terms, like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These categories can be expanded with new words over time.

Nouns become plural by adding the inflectional ending -s, which represents the morpheme PLURAL.

Countable nouns are items that can be counted individually, such as books or chairs.

Uncountable nouns refer to concepts or substances that cannot be counted individually, such as water or happiness.

Adjectives modify nouns, providing more detail about their qualities.

Adjectives appear before a noun (attributive) or after a linking verb (predicative).

The study of how the ear translates sound waves into electrical impulses and how the brain interprets these as speech sounds.

The tube that connects the throat to the lungs.

The flap of cartilage at the root of the tongue that blocks foreign objects from entering the lungs. It directs food and other objects to the stomach.

Muscles located in the larynx that produce sound vibrations when air passes through them.

The ridge behind your teeth, a point of articulation for some consonant sounds.

The hard, flat surface of the roof of your mouth.

The soft, movable back part of the roof of your mouth. It can be raised to block the mouth or lowered to allow air to flow through the nose.

Sounds characterized by an obstruction of airflow caused by the articulators coming together or near each other.

An element of a word joined to a base or root word.

An affix that precedes the root word.

An affix that follows the root word.

An affix placed within the root word.

The root word of an affix.

Bound morphemes that aren't affixes. They can be combined with other morphemes to create new words.

A new word created when there's no existing word to express an idea.

A newly created word used only once in a specific context.

The process of creating new words by combining existing morphemes.

A type of combination where two free morphemes are joined together.

A word that's created by attaching a bound morpheme to the beginning of an existing word.

A word that's created by attaching a bound morpheme to the end of an existing word.

A type of word formation where a morpheme is inserted into an existing word.

A process where a word form shifts from one lexical category to another.

A language in which word order, rather than inflection, is used to show grammatical function.

A part of a sentence that contains a subject and a predicate.

The part of a clause that tells us what the subject is doing or being.

A word that describes a noun or pronoun.

A word that modifies verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

A word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in the sentence.

A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses.

A word that stands in for a noun or noun phrase.

A word that introduces a noun phrase and provides information about its quantity, definiteness, or number.

A verb that helps another verb express time, aspect, modality, or emphasis.

A verb that expresses the action or state of being.

The direct object of a verb receives the action of the verb.

The indirect object receives the benefit of the action.

A verb that connects a subject to a subject-predicative or an object to an object-predicative.

A noun used to modify another noun.

An allophone is any variant of a phoneme.

Sounds produced with a complete obstruction of airflow followed by a release, creating a burst of air. Examples include /p/,/b/,/t/,/d/,/k/,/g/.

Sounds produced with a close approximation of articulators, creating friction as air passes through the mouth. Examples include /f/,/v/,/θ/,/ð/,/s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/,/h/.

Sounds formed by combining a stop and a fricative. Examples include /tʃ/,/dʒ/.

Sounds where airflow is directed through the mouth. Examples include stops, fricatives, and affricates.

A category of sounds that involve an obstruction of airflow in the mouth. Includes stops, fricatives, and affricates.

Sounds produced with airflow through the nose, categorized as stops due to the obstruction of airflow in the mouth. Examples include /m/,/n/,/ŋ/.

Consonants formed when airflow is not completely blocked but the articulators are near each other. Include liquids and glides.

A type of approximant, with tongue touching the roof of the mouth and air flowing around the sides of the tongue. Example is /l/.

A type of approximant with the tongue bunched up. Example is /r/.

Consonants that act as syllables, often occurring word-finally or in stressed syllables. Examples include /m/,/n/,/ŋ/,/l/.

Sounds produced with a continuous stream of air through the oral cavity, all of which are voiced. They are defined based on height, frontness/backness, and tenseness/laxness.

Vowels produced with the tongue in a high position, such as /i/, /u/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/.

Vowels produced with the tongue in a low position, such as /æ/, /ɑ/, /ɒ/.

Vowels produced with the front of the tongue near the hard palate, such as /i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /æ/.

Vowels produced with the back of the tongue near the velum, such as /u/, /o/, /ɔ/, /ɑ/.

Vowels produced with the tongue in a central position, such as /ʌ/, /ə/.

A sound that combines two vowels, starting at the articulation point of one and ending at the articulation point of another. Examples include /aɪ/, /aʊ/, /ɔɪ/.

A group of sounds that share specific features, excluding other sounds. Examples include oral stops, voiceless stops, sibilants.

The organization of allophones based on their predictable occurrences in different environments.

Words that differ in meaning only by changing one sound.