Concise summary of the second edition of "An introduction to Language and Linguistics" by Ralph W. Fasold | Jeff Connor-Linton.
A straightforward and to the point summary using clear structure following that of the book's chapters. Important key words are printed in bold and the page overview is c...
Chapter 2
Words and their pairs
Morphology, the study of the internal structure of words and their meaningful parts. 2
basic purposes: (1) to create new words in a language (2) to modify existing words.
What is a word?
Words are fundamental building blocks of a language. Defined as smallest independent
unit of a language, or one that can be separated from other such units in an utterance.
Usually separated by spaces in writing and distinguished phonologically, as by accent.
Typically thought of as representing an indivisible concept, action, or feeling, or as
having a single referent. Word is an abstract sign that is the smallest grammatically
independent unit of a language. The words of one’s language make up its lexicon (=
mental dictionary with information about pronunciation, meaning and grammatical
appliance).
Morphology: study of word structure
Those who are concerned with the relation between meaning and form, within words
and between words, is knows as morphology. The study of form. Phonological form =
spoken sound that is associated with a particular meaning.
Morphological agreement = matching set of words (those + plural // that + single).
Sometimes the morphological form of a noun, rather than position in sentence, signals
its grammatical function. One of the most important functions of morphology is to
distinguish roles played by the various participants in an event.
Morphemes = smallest units of a language that combine both a form (the way they
sound) and a meaning. Words are made up of phonemes. In building words (and
phrases/sentences), two basic kinds of morphemes are used:
Lexical morphemes [lexemes] = morphemes with richer lexical vocabulary
meaning (things, qualities and actions). Belong to major part of speech (Nouns,
Verbs, Adjectives). Most are free.
Grammatical morphemes = morphemes that contribute mainly grammatical
information or indicate a relationship between lexemes. Glue that holds lexemes
in a sentence together, shows relations and helps identify referents within
particular conversational context.
Both can be either free (can stand alone) or bound (must be attached to either a root or
another morpheme). Depends on language.
Use infinitive marker (to) to mark untensed verb (to bite).
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