Morphology (basic terms)

What is a morpheme?

• A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

• The study of the basic elements used in a language

• A content word such as a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb

• An element that makes new words or changes the grammatical category of a word

What is morphology?

• A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

• The study of the basic elements used in a language

• A content word such as a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb

• An element that makes new words or changes the grammatical category of a word

What is a functional morpheme?

• A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

• A content word such as a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb

• A free morpheme that is has a functional purpose, eg. conjunction

• An morpheme that makes new words or changes the grammatical category of a word

What is a lexical morpheme?

• A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

• A content word such as a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb

• A free morpheme that is has a functional purpose, eg. conjunction

• An element that makes new words or changes the grammatical category of a word

What are the two types of free morphemes?

• Open and bound

• Lexical and open

• Lexical and functional

• Derivational and inflectional

Choose the correct type of morpheme for this affix: -ness

• Prefix

• Suffix

• Functional

• derivational

What is the type of morpheme for the superlative form, -est in prettiest?

• Prefix

• Suffix

• inflectional

• derivational

Joan is a pretty girl. How would you identify the underlined morpheme?

• Lexical

• Functional

• inflectional

• derivational

teacher = teach + er. How would you identify the -er in teacher?

• Lexical morpheme

• Functional morpheme

• inflectional morpheme

• derivational morpheme

Which statement is FALSE?

• Derivational morphemes change the grammatical category of words.

• Inflectional morphemes change the grammatical category of words.

• Functional morphemes are stable in number and almost never increase.

• Inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes are bound morphemes.