Linguistics: Phonetics and Morphology

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Questions and Answers

What is the primary reason why no two human languages use the same set of sounds?

Because of the variation in the movement of organs such as the tongue and lips

Because each language uses a distinct set of sounds from the infinite set (correct)

Because of the infinite number of sounds humans can produce

Due to the unique set of organs used in speaking

What is the main focus of Articulatory phonetics?

The study of the characteristics of human sound-making

The study of the physical properties of speech sounds (correct)

The description, classification, and transcription of speech sounds

The study of sound patterns in a language

What is the primary difference between Phonology and Phonetics?

Phonology is the study of speech sounds, while Phonetics is the study of their patterns

Phonology studies speech sounds, while Phonetics studies their patterns

Phonology is the study of language, while Phonetics is the study of speech

Phonetics studies speech sounds, while Phonology studies their patterns (correct)

What is the term for the smallest significant unit of speech?

Phoneme Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary interest of Phonologists?

The study of the patterns of speech sounds in a language Signup and view all the answers

Why are there no spaces between individual words in speech?

Because speech is a continuous process Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of Phonology?

The physical nature of speech sounds Signup and view all the answers

What is the term for the smallest unit of grammar patterns or a word that has grammatical function and meaning?

Morpheme Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is an example of a bound morpheme?

ly Signup and view all the answers

What is the term for morphemes that fulfill the same function but have slightly different forms?

Allomorphs Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between the words 'cook' and 'cooked'?

One morpheme versus two morphemes Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between free morphemes and bound morphemes?

Free morphemes stand alone, while bound morphemes do not Signup and view all the answers

What are the three various forms of the morpheme 'ed'?

/d/, /t/, /Id/ Signup and view all the answers

Another example of allomorphs is the morpheme 'in' used to form the opposite of a word such as which?

capable and incapable Signup and view all the answers

Examples of derivational morphology include:

beautiful, dangerous, unspeakable Signup and view all the answers

What are the two main functions of morphology in English?

Forming new words and marking tense and plurality Signup and view all the answers

Examples of inflectional morphology include:

beauty+ful, look+s, look+ing, look+ed Signup and view all the answers

Which section of morphology involves a change of word class?

Derivational morphology Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Morphemes

Morphemes are the smallest significant unit of grammar patterns or of a word that has grammatical function and meaning that cannot be further divided.
Examples: cat (one morpheme), cats (cat + s, two morphemes), cook (one morpheme), cooked (cook + ed, two morphemes), unbreakable (un + break + able, three morphemes)

Free and Bound Morphemes

Free morphemes: words like room, sky, fair, school, girl, etc. that can stand alone meaningfully and can be attached to other units known as bound morphemes.
Bound morphemes: do not stand by themselves, yet they carry full grammatical meaning, e.g., ly, s, es, ish, and are prefixes and suffixes that can't occur on their own.

Allomorphs

Allomorphs are morphemes that fulfill the same function but have slightly different forms.
Examples: the morpheme "ed" has three allomorphs: /d/, /t/, and /Id/, which indicate the past tense but have different pronunciations.

Derivational and Inflectional Morphology

Morphology fulfills two main functions in English:
- Derivational morphology: forms new words by changing the word class, e.g., beauty + ful = beautiful, danger + ous = dangerous.
- Inflectional morphology: forms new words by changing the tense, plurality, or possession, but does not change the word class, e.g., look + s, look + ing, look + ed.

Morphology vs. Phonology

Morphology is the study of morphemes, or the smallest significant unit of grammar patterns or of a word.
Phonology is the study of how speech sounds form patterns in a language.
Phonetics is the study of the physical nature of speech sounds (production).

Phonetics

Phonetics is the science that studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech.
It provides methods for their description, classification, and transcription.
Three branches of phonetics are:
- Articulatory phonetics
- Acoustic phonetics
- Auditory phonetics

Phonology

Phonology is not the study of speech sounds themselves, but the study of how these speech sounds form patterns in a language.
Phonologists investigate, for example, which function a sound has in a language and which sound can be combined with others.

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Description

Explore the basics of linguistics, including phonetics and morphology. Learn about the production of sounds in human language and how they are represented in written medium.