LECTURE 6

morpheme

smallest meaningful unit of language

morph

shape, form; it can be a whole word or a part of a word like a prefix or suffix

free morphemes

are morphemes that can stand alone as complete words and carry meaning by themselves (eg. dog, run, happy)

bound morphemes

these morphemes must be attached to other morphemes to make sense. (eg. un-, in "undo")

complex words

are words with extra parts added to basic word to change its meaning or function

compound words

words that are made of combining two or more whole words together to create a new word (eg. tooth + brush = toothbrush)

derivational affixes

affixes that are like word builders; they attach to words to create new words or change their meaning (eg. happy by adding -un you get unhappy)

inflectional affixes

affixes which work like grammar helpers; they attach to words to show things like tense number or gender but don't change the fundamental meaning (eg. cat, you add -s to make it plural, cats)

allomorphs

are like different forms of the same morpheme. for example -s in cats is the same allomorph as -es in watches

non-predictable allomorphs

they don't follow regular rules so you can't guess their form. (eg. past form of "go" is "went")

zero-allomorphs

hidden helpers. they dont have a visible form, but serve a grammatical purpose. (eg. plural for of sheep is the same as singular)

plural-allomorphs

different options for making plural forms (adding -s or -es or adding nothing like in "sheep")

coinage

word formation process of creating your own words

adapting names

proper names, personal names, place names

borrowing

borrowing words from other languages

blending

smoke + fog = smog

clipping

is a process where a longer word is shortened by removing one or more syllables to create a new, shorter word with the same meaning (gas, flu, bus)

backformation

is when a new word is made by mistakenly removing a part from an existing word that was never therein the first place (edit - editor)

conversion

is a word formation process where a word changes its grammatical category without adding or removing any affixes (eg. "try" as a verb and "give it a try" as a noun)

derivation

is like adding pieces to words to change their meaning. (eg. happy to unhappy by adding -un)

acronyms

shortcuts in language (eg. NASA)

reduplication

zig-zag

compounding

combining words to make a new word. (toothbrush)

grammaticalization

is like words changing their job over time. They go from having specific meaning to becoming grammar helpers. (eg. form "going to")

blocking

if there is one word (laboriosity) and a similar word already exists (laboriousness) it can block or stop the new word from being used

potential words

these are words people might invent (derival, describal)

actual words

these are words that are real and accepted in the language

base

root

affixes

prefixes, suffixes and infixes