Linguistics - Morphology and Lexicology

Here you will learn some English words related to morphology and lexicology such as "affix", "stem", and "lexeme".

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Linguistics

the shortened form of a word, etc.

Ex: The textbook provided a key for all the abbreviations used throughout the chapters .

a process in morphology where affixes, which are bound morphemes, are attached to a base or root morpheme to create new words or modify the meaning or grammatical function of existing words

affix [noun]

(grammar) a letter or group of letters added to the end or beginning of a word to change its meaning

Ex: Learning affixes helps in understanding the etymology of words .

a short form of a word or a group of words used instead of the full form

Ex: The contraction " we 've " stands for " we have . "
prefix [noun]

(grammar) a letter or a set of letters that are added to the beginning of a word to alter its meaning and make a new word

Ex: The dictionary provided a list of prefixes and their meanings to help with word formation and understanding .
ending [noun]

the last part of a word, added to the main part

suffix [noun]

(grammar) a letter or a set of letters that are added to the end of a word to alter its meaning and make a new word

Ex: Students practiced adding different suffixes to root words to see how their meanings changed .
acronym [noun]

a word formed from the initial letters of a phrase, pronounced as a single word

Ex: The military often uses acronyms for complex terms .
blending [noun]

a process in language where two or more words are combined to create a new word that retains elements or sounds from the original words

a type of abbreviation in which a word or phrase is represented by a series of numbers, with the numbers typically corresponding to the number of letters omitted between the first and last letter of the word or phrase

a morpheme that cannot stand alone as an independent word and must be attached to other morphemes to convey meaning

a type of affix that consists of two parts, one attached to the beginning of a word and the other attached to the end

a morphological process in which a segment or a group of segments is inserted within a word, typically resulting in a change of the word's meaning or grammatical category

analogy [noun]

(linguistics) a process by which a new word or inflection is formed according to existing rules and regulations

Ex: Many children use analogy to form new words by mimicking the sounds of existing ones .
stem [noun]

(in linguistics) the base form of a word after removing affixes

Ex: Some verbs change their stem in different tenses .
root [noun]

(in linguistics) the base form of a word, remaining after removing all prefixes and suffixes

Ex:

a morpheme that can function as an independent word in a language

infix [noun]

a type of bound morpheme that is inserted within a word

clitic [noun]

a linguistic element that functions as a word but behaves phonologically or syntactically as a bound morpheme, often attaching to other words and lacking independent stress or full syntactic independence

the process of creating new words or modifying existing ones through morphological and lexical mechanisms in a language

lexeme [noun]

(linguistics) a basic linguistic unit that is meaningful and underlies a set of words which are related through inflection

Ex: Linguists study lexemes to understand how words are related morphologically and semantically within a language .

a morphological process in language where new words are formed by adding affixes or making internal modifications to a base or root word, resulting in a change in meaning, part of speech, or both

(grammar) a change in the structure of a word, usually adding a suffix, according to its grammatical function

Ex: Noun inflections in Russian indicate case , number , and gender .

a word-formation process in which a new word is created by removing what is mistakenly perceived as a derivative affix from an existing word, often resulting in a shorter word with a different part of speech

a word-formation process in which two or more individual words are combined to create a new word, typically resulting in a compound with a meaning that is related to or derived from the meanings of the individual words

a word-formation process in which a word changes its grammatical category or part of speech without any accompanying morphological changes, such as when a noun becomes a verb or a verb becomes a noun

paradigm [noun]

a structured set showing how a word changes to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, or case

Ex: In Greek , each verb has a paradigm that learners must memorize to master conjugation .
lexicon [noun]

the complete set of meaningful units in a language or a branch of knowledge, or words or phrases that a speaker uses

Ex: A specialized lexicon is essential in technical fields like medicine or law , where precise terminology is crucial .
clipping [noun]

the process of shortening a word by dropping one or more syllables

Ex:

a word-formation process in which a word or name is modified to create a shorter, affectionate, or informal version, often used to express familiarity, endearment, or intimacy

Ex: Linguists study hypocorism to understand how languages and cultures create and use affectionate or informal forms of names .

the process of creating or treating a group of phonological segments as a distinct morpheme, which carries meaning and can be combined with other morphemes to form words

a linguistic process where affixes attach to a root word, each keeping a distinct meaning and form

a type of morpheme that carries the core lexical or semantic meaning of a word

all the words used in a particular language or subject

Ex: Our English class today focused on vocabulary related to the environment .

(in linguistics) a word that is developed from another word or base

Ex: She studied the derivatives of common prefixes .
base [noun]

(linguistics) the form to which affixes or other morphological operations are added to create a new word

Ex: The base " child " can expand to " childish " or " childhood . "

a process in language where a word or phrase, typically a verb or an adjective, is transformed into a noun, either by adding a suffix or by changing its syntactic function, allowing the expression of concepts or actions as nominal entities

a process in which a word or phrase evolves from being a combination of grammatical elements or a non-lexicalized expression to becoming an established lexical unit with its own meaning and usage

a word form or affix that is added to a base word to express smallness, endearment, or a sense of familiarity

Ex: The term " bottlelet " employs a diminutive to describe a very small bottle .

a newly created word or expression that has not yet gained widespread acceptance or recognition within a language community

a non-existent or erroneous word that has been mistakenly created and entered into a dictionary or other linguistic sources

a string of letters or sounds that resemble real words but do not have any actual meaning or lexical representation in a particular language

a term or expression created and used for a specific occasion or context, typically with a limited or one-time purpose, and not intended for long-term or widespread usage

a word or form that appears only once within a specific corpus or body of text

morph [noun]

the smallest unit of a word's sound or written form that conveys a distinct grammatical or lexical meaning

Ex: In " cats , " cat and -s are separate morphs .
morpheme [noun]

(linguistics) the smallest meaningful unit of a language that does not necessarily stand alone and cannot be divided

Ex: Understanding morphemes helps linguists analyze how words are formed and how they convey meaning .

a type of morpheme that conveys grammatical information and serves a functional role in a sentence, rather than carrying lexical or content-related meaning

(linguistics) a word, a group of words or a part of word that has a meaning and forms the basic element of any language

a new word that is formed by the combination of two other words blending their meaning and sounds

Ex: In linguistics , a portmanteau word merges the sounds and meanings of two different words to create a new , unique term .
lexis [noun]

(linguistics) all the words and phrases of a language, including the function words

word [noun]

(grammar) a unit of language that has a specific meaning

Ex: The word " science " comes from the Latin word " scientia " , which means knowledge .

a particular combination of words that are used together very often

Ex: He found that learning collocations was more effective than memorizing individual vocabulary words .
idiom [noun]

a group of words or a phrase that has a meaning different from the literal interpretation of its individual words, often specific to a particular language or culture

Ex: The phrase ' spill the beans ' is an idiom that means to reveal a secret , rather than literally causing beans to fall .

a situation in which a word or phrase has multiple meanings or interpretations, often leading to confusion or uncertainty in understanding the intended message or context

the process of duplicating all or part of a word or morpheme to create a new form, often with a change in meaning or grammatical function

Ex: Linguists study reduplication to understand how languages use repetition to create new words , intensify meaning , or indicate grammatical aspects such as plurality or verb tense .
blocking [noun]

a phenomenon where the presence of one linguistic form prevents the occurrence or acceptance of another form with a similar meaning or function

a set of principles or patterns that govern the formation or derivation of words and their meanings within a particular language or lexical system

sniglet [noun]

a playful, made-up word used to describe something for which there is no existing term, often adding humor and creativity to language

the process in which a new word or morpheme is created by combining a sound component that resembles an existing word with a semantic component that reflects its meaning