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Descriptive Grammar test — etymology,

morphology & semantics 18.04

MORPHOLOGY LANGUAGE VARIETY

MORPHEME — minimal unit of meaning or grammatical — a system of expression whose use is governed by situa
function factors; systematic and predictable

indicating past tense -ed speech and writing

indicating ‘happening again’ re- regional and class

carrying specific meaning: shop occupational genres

free morpheme: can stand by themselves as single creative linguistic expressions (idioms)
words (shop, open, tour, room, basic N/V/Adj)
idiolect
lexical morphemes: carrying the ‘content’ of the
DIALECT — the variety you speak because you belong to
messages that they convey, e.g. girl, man, house
particular region, social class, caste, age, sex group
(easy to add to the lexicon)
regiolect - a variety spoken in a particular region
functional morphemes: mostly functional words
such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and sociolect - a variety of language (or register) used by
pronouns, e.g. but, of, the, he, and, when (hard to a socioeconomic class, a profession, an age group, or
add to the lexicon) ethnolect - a lect spoken by
bound morphemes: cannot stand alone, typically a specific ethnic group, e.g. Ebonics
attached to other forms (-s, re-, un-) idiolect -
derivational morphemes: used to make new the language or languages spoken by each individual,
words or words of a different grammatical REGISTER — a variation of a language that is determined
category from the stem (ill-ness, child-ish, in-apt) - situation or context
inflectional morphemes: indicate aspects of the JARGON — the specialized terminology associated with a
grammatical function of a word (-ing present particular field or area of activity
participle; -s plural; ‘s possesive; -s 3rd person; -
PIDGIN — system of communication that originated from m
ed past tense
two languages; language of means, reduced in structure,
ySTEM – native to any users
a type of free morpheme used with boundmorphemes attached, e.g. childhood, revisit

Descriptive Grammar test — etymology, morphology & semantics 18.04 1

 CREOL — a pidgin that has become the native language o

MORPHS — actual forms used to realise morphemes (- group of people; a language may be creolised
ed, d; morpheme is abstract) without going through a pidgin stage.

ALLOMORPH — variants of a particular morph (cat/s/, LINGUICISM — discrimination of people based on their us
turn/z/, watch/iz/) language and the characteristic of their speech

LEXICAL CONDITIONING — adding a word, meaning ETYMOLOGY

— the study of the origin and history of words
COINAGE — creating a new word from scratch
SEMANTICS
— the study of the meaning of words, phrases and trade names (aspiryn, nylon, vaseline, granola, teflon)
sentences; focuses mostly on what the words mean in eponyms: from the names of the inventors (hoover,
general rather than used by particular speakers and sandwich, farenheit, volt)
specific occasions
BORROWING — from other languages (french croissant, p
CONCEPTUAL MEANING — basic, essential components lilac, japanese tycoon
of meaning conveyed by the literal use of a word
loan translation / calque: direct translation of (element
(dictionary)
word) into the borrowing language
ASSOCIATIVE MEANING — associations/connections
attached to a word COMPOUNDING — combining two whole words (no shorte
(N+N bookcase, armchair, wallpaper; Adj+Adj fast-moving
SEMANTIC FEATURES — conceptual assessment (is it time, low-paid; N+Adj awe-inspiring, eye-catching)
animate, female, human, adult), the basic conceptual
components of meaning for any lexical items reduplication: tick-tock, knock knock

SEMANTIC ROLES — the underlying relationship that a BLENDING — combining two words - shortened (smog
participant/noun phrase has with the main verb in a smoke+fog; simulcast simultaneous+broadcast
clause CLIPPING — reducing a word consisting of more than 2 sy
agent: the entity that performs the action (can be (advertisement > advert > ad, delicatessen > deli)
human/non-human) hypocorisms: words reduced to a single syllable +y/ie
theme: the entity involved/affected by the action (hankie from handkerchief, horsie from horse)
(PATIENT) BACKFORMATION — reduction which consists in reducing
instrument: the entity used by the agent to perform word (mostly a noun) to form another word (liaison > liaise
the action option > opt; backform > backformation)

experiencer: the entity (person) who has a CONVERSION — a change in the function of a word (eg. N
feeling/perception/state butter, chair (person)) + nationalities (The Dutch), possible
changes in meaning (to doctor)
location: the role which designates where an entity is
INITIALISMS/ACRONYMS — words formed from the initia
source and goal: where the entity moves from/to of a set of other words
LEXICAL RELATIONS initialisms: read separately (EU, CD, DVD)
synonymy — 2 words with very closely related acronyms: pronounced as words (NATO, UNESCO)
meanings - synonyms
DERIVATION — forming new words by adding affixes
antonymy — 2 forms with opposite meanings -
prefixes: added to the beginning of the word (misuse)
antonyms
suffixes: added to the end of the word (misundersand-
gradable (modifiable)/non-gradable (non-m);
good/bad, tall/short vs dead/alive, true/false infixes: rare, added inside words (passers-by, fan-
bloody/fucking-tastic)
reversives: dress/undress, enter/exit
circumfixes: at the end and beginning (ge-dach-t)
hyponymy — the meaning of one form is included in
another MULTIPLE PROCESSES: deli; borrowing (delicatessen) and
clipping (to deli)
hyponyms: rose-flower (rose is a hyponym of
flower; more narrow)

superordinates - higher level terms: dog-animal ENCLITICS — connect to the end of a word (can’t)
(animal is a superordinate, broader) PROCLITICS — attach to the beginning of the words (m’ap
y’all) - cant be independent

Descriptive Grammar test — etymology, morphology & semantics 18.04 2

 co-hyponyms - words that share the same
superordinate: dog, human-living creature SUPPLETION — irregularity in conjunction (go > went)
prototype - most characteristic instance of a
superordinate: bird-sparrow (sparrow is the
Write the words for the definitions.
hyponym of bird, but to some researchers it is the
most common example, the best representative a) the study of meanings in a language – semantics
of the category b) the combination of words formed when two or more wo
homophones: 2 different written words with the same often used together in a way that sounds correct – colloca
pronunciation c) the cause or initiator to an event (one of thematic roles)
homonyms: 1 form has 2/more meanings (bank - agent
institution/of a river, race chase/ethnic group) d) (the inventing of) a new word or phrase in a language –
polysemy: 2/more words with the same form and coinage
related meanings (face head, foot N, V, run, put, set) e) reducing a word consisting of two or more syllables –cl

collocation: frequent occurrence of words together f) words formed from the initial letters of a set of other wo
(make the bed, dinner, deliver/give the presentation) acronyms

metynomy: close connection based on everyday g) forming new words by adding affixes – derivation
experience (drank the whole bottle as in of water) h) minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function - morp
meronymy vs holonymy: constituents/parts i) actual forms used to realise morphemes – morphs
(face/eyes, tyre/bumper) vs whole entity (head, car)
j) he basic conceptual components of meaning for any lex
4. Identify the processes behind the emergence of item – s/f - semantic features
the following words
2. Decide whether the following sentences are true (T) o
a.rep (from REPRESENTATIVE) - clipping (F)
b. (to) laze (from lazy) — back formation a) Metonomy is a lexical relation consisting in close conne
c. bedtime — compounding based on everyday experience t

d. (to) initialise (initial + ise) — derivation b) Polysemy is a relation of words having unrelated meani

e. (a) sitcom — blending c) Homonyms have unrelated meanings.t

f. Andy (from: Andrew) — hypocorisms d) The superordinate is the most characteristic instance of
prototype.f
g. sandwich — eponym coinage
e) Conceptual assessment involves semantic features.t
h. blah-blah — reduplication
f) According to Virginia Woolf, words live in dictionaries.f
i. spaghetti — borrowing
g) A morpheme can’t indicate past tense in English.f
j. supercalifragilistic (from: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious) — clipping
h) Bound morphemes cannot stand alone.t

i) Inflectional morphemes indicate aspects of the grammat

5. Write down the original words.
function.t
a) Gym – gymnasium
j) Conversion involves a change in the function of a word.t
b) Deli — delicatessen
3. Name the lexical relations.
c) Vibes — vibrations
a) Chair – furniture — hyponym, superordinate
d) Memo — memorandum
b) iPhone – smartphone — hyponymy, superordinate
e) Pram — perambulator
c) deer-monkey — co-hyponyms
f) disco — discotheque
d) full – empty — antonyms, reversible ?
g) exam — examination
e) The crown will not tolerate this type of conduct. — met
h) phone — telephone
f) ‘do business’ or ‘run a business’ — collocation
i) flu — influenza
g) ‘red’ as colour and ‘read’ /red/ as past form of ‘read’ /’ri
j) apron * — napron homophones
h) bright and dark — antonym gradable
i) band (as in armband) and band as a group of musicians
— homonyms

Descriptive Grammar test — etymology, morphology & semantics 18.04 3

 j) pet – cat / dog — superordinate, hyponym

Descriptive Grammar test — etymology, morphology & semantics 18.04 4