Morphology and Morphemes Quiz

Linguistic Universals

• Absolute universal: a linguistic characteristic found in every language (e.g., verbs and nouns)
• Non-absolute universal: a linguistic characteristic found in most languages (e.g., in most languages, Subject comes before Object)
• Implicational universal: a linguistic characteristic likely to be found in a language if the language has some other characteristic (e.g., SVO languages tend to have prepositions)

Branches of Linguistics

Phonology

• The branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages
• A phoneme is a basic unit of a language's phonology, represented by letters but not being letters themselves (e.g., /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/)
• Phonemes are combined to form words (e.g., /r/+/a/+/t/= RAT)

Morphology

• The study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language
• A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a word (e.g., Break: one morpheme, Breakable: two morphemes, Unbreakable: three morphemes)
• Morphemes are formed by combining phonemes (e.g., ‘cat’ is made of three phonemes: /k/ + /a/ + /t/)

Syntax

• The study of how words are arranged to create phrases, clauses, and sentences
• The syntax of a language has certain rules about the order of words to convey meaning (e.g., The funny professor, The professor is funny)

Semantics

• The study of the meaning of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences
• Meaning depends on lexical meaning (meaning of individual words) and the arrangement of words (e.g., Cats chase dogs, Dogs chase cats)

Neurolinguistics

• The study of language in the brain
• Examines how and where our brains store language knowledge, how we acquire it, and how we use it in everyday life