Morphology Basics Quiz

Study Notes

Morphology

Morpheme: The smallest unit of meaning in a language.
Free Morpheme: Can stand alone as a word (e.g., "cat", "run", "happy").
Bound Morpheme: Cannot stand alone and must be attached to a free morpheme (e.g., "un-", "-ing", "-ly").
Root/Base: The core of a word to which affixes are added.
Affix: A bound morpheme that is added to a root/base to modify its meaning or grammatical function.
Prefix: An affix that is added to the beginning of a word (e.g., "un-", "re-", "pre-").
Suffix: An affix that is added to the end of a word (e.g., "-ing", "-ed", "-ly").
Inflectional Morpheme: An affix that changes the grammatical function of a word (e.g., "-s" for plural, "-ed" for past tense).
Derivational Morpheme: An affix that creates a new word with a different meaning or category (e.g., "-ness", "-ly", "-er").
Allomorph: Variations of a morpheme that have the same function but different sounds (e.g., the plural marker "-s", "-es", or "-ies").
Zero Morpheme: A morpheme that has no sound but contributes to the meaning of a word.
Empty Morpheme: A morpheme that has no meaning or function beyond indicating the existence of a word (e.g., the "o" in "tomato").
Compound Words: Words formed by combining two or more words (e.g., "blackboard", "sunlight").
Phrasal Verbs: Verbs combined with prepositions (e.g., "look up", "give up").
Clitics: Words that are phonologically dependent on another word and have no meaning or function outside of it (e.g., "n't" in "don't").
Suppletion: When unrelated words are used for different forms of a word (e.g., "go, went, gone").

Feminine Forms

Forming feminine words often involves adding suffixes like "-ess" (actress), "-enne" (patronne), or "-ine" (heroine).
Some feminine forms are irregular and require memorization (e.g., "lioness", "aviatrix").

Word Formation

Word Formation: The process of creating new words.
Affixation: Adding affixes to a root/base.
Compounding: Combining two or more words.
Conversion: Changing the grammatical category of a word without adding an affix (e.g., "run" as a verb and "run" as a noun).

Other Concepts

Phonology: The study of sound systems in a language.
Syntax: The study of sentence structure.
Pragmatics: The study of meaning in context.

Additional Information

Multiple suffixes (affixes) can be attached to a single word, but the order can affect the resulting meaning.
Compound words can behave grammatically as single words.
Some words may not have an obvious morphological structure but are still considered words (e.g., "receive").