| Term | Definition |
|---|
| morphology | the study of word structure |
| morpheme | the smallest meaningful units in language such as -est, -ing, -ful, small, unit, in |
| aggluntinative language | a language in which words are formed from strings of relatively stable parts or morphemes--morphemes change little in the process of combination |
| analytic language | a language that depends mostly on word order for sentence structure and meaning i.e. english |
| synthetic language | a language where nouns change form according to number (singular or plural) and case (grammtical funtion of a noun, adjective or determiner) i.e. latin, russian, german, old english |
| closed morphological classes | tend not to add new members and appear in the same form regardless of how they are used--includes conjunctions, all types of pronouns, auxiliary verbs (may, can), determiners (the, a), prepositions (in, for), and inflectional suffixes |
| open morphological classes | word forms adapt to new grammatical and semantic demands--new items can be added to or subtracted from these classes, and frequently are |
| allomorphs | two or more different phonological realizations or forms i.e. -en and -ed |
| free morphemes | the word form consists of exactly one morpheme, and that morpheme functions independently as an english word |
| bound morphemes | cannot stand independently as words |
| inflectional morphemes | will never change the part of speech of the root word and always suffixes--N: plural or possessive -s, V: 3rd person singular present tense -s, progressive -ing, past tense -d, past participle -ed/-en, ADJ: comparative -er, superalative -est |
| derivational morpheme | usually change the part of speech i.e. nerd (noun) becomes nerdy (adjective) |
| affix | an element of a word joined in some fashion to a base or root word--prefix, suffix, and infix |
| prefix | precedes the root word i.e. a-, dis-, un- |
| suffix | follows the root word i.e. -age, -ness, and -y |
| infix | is placed within the root word and is typically an intensifier i.e. f***ing in absof***lutely |
| matrix | root word |
| combining form | when the morphemes aren't really affixes i.e. alcoholic = alcohol + -ic |
| morphology tree | illustration of a word's hierarchical organization |
| lexical gap | a perceived gap in english where there isn't a word to express an idea |
| nonce word | a word created only once--once it is used enough times, it may enter common english vocabulary and even end up in dictionaries |
| combining morphemes | processes include compounding, prefixing, and suffixing |
| compounding | combinations of free morphemes i.e. chatroom |
| prefixing | attach a bound morpheme at the head of an already existing word i.e. reboot, encryption, hyperlink |
| suffixing | attaching a bound morpheme to the foot of an already existing word i.e. diskette, hacker, or scrollage |
| shortening | english words can be shortened to form new words in four common ways: alphabetism, acronymy, clipping, and backformation |
| alphabetism | when a word is formed from the initials of a phrase and is pronounced as the sequence of letters i.e. CPU, URL, and BTW |
| acronymy | when groups of words are shortned to initials and then pronounced as though the initials were merely letters in a typical word i.e. RAM, ROM, SWKT |
| clipping | when a word loses an element |
| foreclipped | clipping the last part of the word i.e. net from internet, server from file server, and scanner from optical scanner |
| hindclipping | clipping the first part of the word i.e. email to e, cellular to cell |
| backformation | a new word is formed by removing an affix from a word to form a word that never existed before i.e. beggar became beg, burglar became burgle |
| blending | created by joining two or more words, at least one of which must be clipped in the process i.e. internet is a blend of inter(connected) net(work), netiquette blends (inter)net with (et)iquette, smog is smoke + fog |
| functional shift | when a word form employed in one lexical category moves into another category i.e. text message (noun) shifted to text (verb) |
| reanalyze | redistribute the sounds of morphemes in ways that create new morphemes i.e. a napron became an apron, an apkin became a napkin |
| eggcorn | phonetic reinterpretations of words wihin a dialect i.e. people say duck tape instead of duct tap, eggcorn instead of acorn |
| folk etymology | commonly accepted but strictly historically incorrect account of a word's origin i.e. praying mantis is because of how it holds its hands--not. it's from preying mantis because the females devour the males |
| reduplication | process of forming new english words by repeating a morpheme i.e. knock-knock or no-no |
| nouns | refer to persons, places, things, ideas, concepts, states (confusion), activities (studying), time (yesterday) |
| countable nouns | are quantifiable (they can be counted) and can take plural -s |
| uncountable nouns (mass nouns) | describe objects (water), ideas (peace), or other referents that cannot be counted |
| adjectives | words that describe things or modify the meaning of nouns |
| comparative | addition of inflectional ending -er |
| superlative | addition of the inflectional ending -est |
| attributive position | position of adjective before the noun (and after the determiner if it is present) i.e. the furry (<---*** position) animal |
| predicative position | position of adjective after the verb i.e. grammar makes me happy (<---*** position) |
| verbs | action words |
| conjugate | change form |
| bare infinitive | base for the other forms, created through the addition of inflectional endings or through internal vowel exchanges |
| past tense | created through the addition of the inflectional ending -ed |
| strong verbs | verb ending in something other than -ed |
| suppletion | the change in a verb like go to the very irregular past-tense form went |
| progressive aspect | describes a continuing action, whether in the past or present |
| direct object | described as the recipient of the verb's action |
| indirect object | is to or for whom the action is done |
| temporal adverbs | describe when an action or state occurs i.e. yesterday, soon |
| manner adverbs | describe how an action or state occurs i.e. quickly, safely |
| discourse adverbs (or sentence adverbs) | describe the speaker's or writer's stance on the clause or sentence i.e. frankly, bluntly |
| prepositions | closed class--indicate a location, direction, time, duration, or manner--everywhere a plane can go with respect to a cloud i.e. up/down/around/to/from/into/in/off |
| conjunctions | connect things |
| coordinating conjunctions | connect words or phrases of the same category i.e. FANBOYS--for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so |
| subordinating conjunction | connect two clauses: a main clause and a dependent clause i.e. because, although, when, after, before, unless, if, while, in order that, as long as |
| correlative conjuuntions | refer to paired conjunctions and involve a conjunction at the beginning of each phrase i.e. either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also |
| pronouns | closed class within the open class of nouns i.e. he, she, hers, his |
| personal pronouns | three persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd), two numbers (single, plural), and three cases (subject, object, possessive) i.e. thee/thou/thine |
| indefinite pronouns | stand in for an unknown or unspecified element in a clause i.e. one, anyone, someone, everyone, no one, neither, either, another, both |
| interrogative pronouns | stand in for an unknown element in order to create a question i.e. who/whom/whose, what, which |
| demonstrative pronouns | point to things either previously mentioned in the text or in the physical environment i.e. this, that, these, those |
| relative pronouns | act as the subject or object of a dependent/subordinate clause to link the clause to a preceding NP i.e. who/whom/whose, that, which, whoever/whomever, whichever |
| complementizers | i.e. that, what, whether, who, where why, how |
| determiners | encompass the class of function words that indroduce NP often indicating determinacy, quantity, number, and specification i.e. the, all, this, third, many |
| auxiliary verbs | occur before main or lexical verbs in order to indicate time (will give), aspect (have given), modality (might give), or emphasis (do give) |
| epistemic | verbs that are necessary/possible, given known facts or conditions--unsure i.e. she may be ill |
| deontic | expressing obligation, permission--forceful i.e. he must apologize |
| branches | in a phrase structure tree |
| node | end, often the intersection of branches |
| coordinated sentence | contains two indpendent clauses i.e. i read the chapter, and i went to bed |
| complex sentence | a sentence with one or more subordinated clauses in addition to the main clause |
| complementizer clauses | dependent clauses that fill a NP position |
| personal deixis | how i see things vs. how you see them |
| spatial (space) deixis | this vs. that, here vs. there |
| temporal (time) deixis | now vs. later |
| compontential analysis | compare to similar things i.e. dog and wolf |
| hyponymy | denotes a set of heirarchical semantic relationships |
| meronymy | figures in the relation of whole to part i.e. tail, whiskers, paw, ears, and snout all represent parts of a dog |
| synonym | words that mean the same thing |
| denotative meaning | dictionary definition, universal |
| connotative meaning | what it has evolved in to--determined by speaker experience and intention, context, and cultural understanding |
| antonyms | words that mean the opposite of each other |
| gradable | antonyms that represent values near to ends, with many in between i.e. wet and dry, hot and cold |
| nongradable/complementary antonyms | those that admit no more or less, just absolutes at opposite conceptual poles i.e. single and married, male and female, dead and alive |
| conversenesss | antonyms that are semantically reciprocal and depend on each other i.e. husband and wife, parent and child |
| homonyms | words that can sound and be spelled the same, but have radically different meanings i.e. sink (n) and sink (v) |
| homophones | words that sound the same but are spelled different i.e. two and to, their and there |
| homographs | words that are spelled the same but sound different i.e. dove (n) and dove (v), read and read |
| priming | tests the activation of the lexicon in our brains--we're primed for all words associated with a particular word |
| collocates | words that often occur in proximity to each other i.e. cooking pots, hot pots, pots and pans, smoke pot |
| semantic shift | meanings change--not lexical shift--must be same part of speech i.e. train on wedding dress and choo choo train |
| generalization | a word's meaning becomes more general, encompasses more meaning |
| specialization | the meaning narrows or becomes specialized |
| metamorphical extension | when a word reaches beyond its primary meaning and applies to something perceived imaginatively as similar to what the word usually represents i.e. now we look at time in relation to money--spending, wasting, free, spare |
| euphemism | a word or phrase meant to sound better than it is i.e. instead of death we say pass away, instead of trashman we say sanitation worker |
| dysphemisms | words or phrases meant to sound worse in some context than when used literally i.e using racial slurs "we don't want mexicans taking our jobs" |
| pejoration | words that start as neutral terms and end up dyshpemistic i.e. ****** |
| amelioration | the development of positive or socially accepted senses from negative or socially unacceptable senses i.e. ******, f*** |
| reappropriation | process of claiming or reclaiming a historically derogatory term by a community that has been oppresssed |
Combine with other sets
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