Morphology flashcard

Front

What is a morpheme?

Back

A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language that carries meaning. It can be a word or a part of a word.

Front

What is a free morpheme?

Back

A free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand alone as a word, such as 'book' or 'run'.

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What is a bound morpheme?

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A bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand alone and must be attached to a free morpheme, such as 'un-' in 'undo'.

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What are derivational morphemes?

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Derivational morphemes are morphemes that are added to a base word to create a new word with a new meaning, such as 'happiness' from 'happy'.

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What are inflectional morphemes?

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Inflectional morphemes are morphemes that modify a word's tense, number, aspect, mood, or gender without changing its meaning, such as 's' in 'cats'.

Front

What is the difference between a lexeme and a morpheme?

Back

A lexeme is a unit of meaning that can consist of one or more morphemes, while a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning.

Front

What is a prefix?

Back

A prefix is a type of bound morpheme that is added to the beginning of a word to modify its meaning, such as 'pre-' in 'preview'.

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What is a suffix?

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A suffix is a type of bound morpheme that is added to the end of a word to modify its meaning, such as '-ing' in 'running'.

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What is an infix?

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An infix is a bound morpheme that is inserted within a word, which is rare in English but can be seen in some languages.

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What is the role of morphology in language?

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Morphology studies the structure of words and how they are formed, which is essential for understanding language and grammar.