Flashcard on English Lexicology

Front

What is a bilingual dictionary?

Back

A dictionary that translates between two languages.

Front

What is the term for the ability of a word, morpheme or phoneme to occur in different environments?

Back

Distribution.

Front

What is valency in linguistics?

Back

The combining power of an element, specifically the number of grammatical elements with which a particular word, especially a verb, combines in a sentence.

Front

What are blendings in linguistics?

Back

Words made up of parts of two or more words where the common parts serve as a connecting element (e.g., 'smog', 'brunch').

Front

What is a root morpheme?

Back

The central part of a word that expresses its main lexical meaning.

Front

What is an affix?

Back

A morpheme that is attached to a root word to modify its meaning or create a new word.

Front

What is a suffix?

Back

A morpheme added at the end of a word to change its meaning or grammatical function.

Front

What is a prefix?

Back

A morpheme added at the beginning of a word to alter its meaning.

Front

What are acronyms?

Back

Words formed from the initial letters of a series of words (e.g., 'NASA' from 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration').

Front

What are abbreviations?

Back

Shortened forms of words or phrases (e.g., 'etc.' for 'et cetera').