Morpheme - Answer: the linguistic term for the most elemental unit of grammatical form
Morphology - Answer: The study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which
words are formed
Derivational Morphemes - Answer: affixes that can be added to a morpheme to change its
meaning and may change its part of speech
Bound Morphemes - Answer: must be attached to other morphemes (-ify and -cation). Usually
changes the part of speech
Inflectional Morphemes - Answer: affixes that can be added to a morpheme without changing
its part of speech/suffixes. (-ing, -s, -es, -est). They mark properties such as tense, number,.
person, etc.
Free Morphemes - Answer: morphemes that can stand alone (boy, desire, etc)
Affix - Answer: One or more letters occurring as a bound form attached to the beginning, end,
or base of a word and serving to produce a derivative word or an inflectional form (e.g., a prefix
or suffix).
prefix - Answer: comes before a root word
suffix - Answer: comes after a root word
infix - Answer: A type of bound morpheme that is inserted into the middle of the stem.
,circumfix - Answer: a bound morpheme, parts of which occur in a word both before and after
the root
coinage - Answer: the invention of new words
compounds - Answer: two or more words that are joined to form a new word
head of compound - Answer: The rightmost word: e.g., house in doghouse. It generally indicates
the category and general meaning of the compound.
blends - Answer: similar to compounds in that they are produced by combining two words, but
parts of the words that are combined are deleted (smog, from smoke and fog)
back-formations - Answer: new words can be created through misanalysis of morpheme
boundaries
content words - Answer: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
function words - Answer: Words such as articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs. Children first
learn to speak without using these words.
discontinuous morphemes - Answer: affixes that attach to both the beginning and end of a root
accidental gaps - Answer: well-formed but non existing words (like sounds)
roots - Answer: a word that may or may not stand alone as a word (paint and read do; -ceive
and -ling don't)
, bound roots - Answer: Morpheme that has some associated basic meaning but that is unable to
stand alone as a word in its own right.
stems - Answer: a root morpheme is combined with an affix.
base - Answer: refers to words that are both roots and stems
suppletive forms - Answer: A term used to refer to inflected morphemes in which the regular
rules do not apply (irregular nouns and verbs)
Distinctive features - Answer: one small changes makes a meaning difference
nondistinctive features - Answer: does not make a meaning difference
morphological rules for new word formation - Answer: simplification, falsification, and
purification
Syntax - Answer: the part of grammar that represents a speaker's knowledge of sentences and
their structures
Noun Phrase - Answer: a word or group of words that functions in a sentence as subject, object,
or prepositional object. (The child, John, a police officer, etc)
Verb Phrase - Answer: contains a verb, and it may contain other categories, such as a noun
phrase or prepositional phrase
Morphology - Answer: The study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which
words are formed
Derivational Morphemes - Answer: affixes that can be added to a morpheme to change its
meaning and may change its part of speech
Bound Morphemes - Answer: must be attached to other morphemes (-ify and -cation). Usually
changes the part of speech
Inflectional Morphemes - Answer: affixes that can be added to a morpheme without changing
its part of speech/suffixes. (-ing, -s, -es, -est). They mark properties such as tense, number,.
person, etc.
Free Morphemes - Answer: morphemes that can stand alone (boy, desire, etc)
Affix - Answer: One or more letters occurring as a bound form attached to the beginning, end,
or base of a word and serving to produce a derivative word or an inflectional form (e.g., a prefix
or suffix).
prefix - Answer: comes before a root word
suffix - Answer: comes after a root word
infix - Answer: A type of bound morpheme that is inserted into the middle of the stem.
,circumfix - Answer: a bound morpheme, parts of which occur in a word both before and after
the root
coinage - Answer: the invention of new words
compounds - Answer: two or more words that are joined to form a new word
head of compound - Answer: The rightmost word: e.g., house in doghouse. It generally indicates
the category and general meaning of the compound.
blends - Answer: similar to compounds in that they are produced by combining two words, but
parts of the words that are combined are deleted (smog, from smoke and fog)
back-formations - Answer: new words can be created through misanalysis of morpheme
boundaries
content words - Answer: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
function words - Answer: Words such as articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs. Children first
learn to speak without using these words.
discontinuous morphemes - Answer: affixes that attach to both the beginning and end of a root
accidental gaps - Answer: well-formed but non existing words (like sounds)
roots - Answer: a word that may or may not stand alone as a word (paint and read do; -ceive
and -ling don't)
, bound roots - Answer: Morpheme that has some associated basic meaning but that is unable to
stand alone as a word in its own right.
stems - Answer: a root morpheme is combined with an affix.
base - Answer: refers to words that are both roots and stems
suppletive forms - Answer: A term used to refer to inflected morphemes in which the regular
rules do not apply (irregular nouns and verbs)
Distinctive features - Answer: one small changes makes a meaning difference
nondistinctive features - Answer: does not make a meaning difference
morphological rules for new word formation - Answer: simplification, falsification, and
purification
Syntax - Answer: the part of grammar that represents a speaker's knowledge of sentences and
their structures
Noun Phrase - Answer: a word or group of words that functions in a sentence as subject, object,
or prepositional object. (The child, John, a police officer, etc)
Verb Phrase - Answer: contains a verb, and it may contain other categories, such as a noun
phrase or prepositional phrase
