Info
Lexicology:: the study of the form, meaning, and behaviour of words.
Lexicon:: the pool of words or vocabulary of someone or something
Lexeme:: all the variations of a word, for marry would be marriage, married, etc
Etymology:: the history of how words became the words
Morphology
Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words.
In English and many other languages, many words can be broken down into parts, for example
- unhappiness -> un-happi-ness
- horses -> horse-s
- walking -> walk-ing
What is a morpheme? :: The smallest unit which has a meaning or grammatical function that words can be broken down into are known as morphemes
Free vs Bound Morphemes
Free Morphemes#card
Free morphemes are morphemes which can stand alone. We have already seen the example of “yes”.
Bound Morphemes#card
Bound morphemes never exist as words themselves, but ate always attached to some other morpheme. An example would be “un-”
Can further be divided into 4 categories:
- Prefix: un-happy
- Suffix happi-ness
- Infix: abso-blooming-lutely (only non-standard words in English)
- Circumfix: en-light-en, same meaning of affixes ∴ em-bold-en would have be an example of a circumfix
Derivational vs Inflectional Morphemes
Derivational Morphemes#card
Derivational morphemes create or derive new words by changing the meaning or changing the word class of the word. For example, happy turns into unhappy, and both words are adjectives but the meaning changes.
The Diminutive Suffix#card
A diminutive creates a meaning of ‘small’ or ‘little’ (this can be literal or notional) The most common diminutives are formed with and with suffixes such as -let and -y. We often use a diminutive with names or with abbreviated names when we want to be more informal, or to express affection for someone or something.
- Here’s a booklet which gives advice on keep-fit. (booklet = a small book)
- Right, Matty, I’ve got some very good news for you. (Matty is formed from the name ‘Matthew’)
- I think she’s the perfect kitty for Jennifer. (kitty is formed from ‘kitten’ a young cat)
- What a cute little duckling
Inflectional Morphemes#card
Inflectional morphemes don’t alter the meaning or word class of a word; instead they only refine and give extra grammatical information about the word’s already existing meaning. For example cat into cats or walk into walking.
In English, all inflectional morphemes are suffixes (only by chance, since in other languages this is not true) and there are 8 of them.
- -s, 3rd person sg. present “He waits”
- -ed, past tense (also -t as in “used to” or “spent”) “He waited”
- -ing, progressive “He is waiting”
- -en, past participle “I had eaten”
- -s, plural “Both chairs are broken”
- -‘s, possessive “The chair’s leg is broken”
- -er, comparative, can also be agentive but that’s derivational “He was faster”
- -est, superlative “He was the fastest”
Word Formations
Affixation#card
Forming new words by adding an extra bound morpheme, so an affix.
Compounding#card
Forming new words not from bound affixes but from two or more independent words: the words can be free morphemes, words derived by affixation, or even words formed by compounds themselves. e.g. girlfriend, blackbird
By putting stress on both words you seperate them into two words
Reduplication#card
This is forming new words either by doubling an entire free morpheme (total reduplication) or part of a morpheme (partial reduplication).
Blending#card
Where two words are merged together, such as:
- brunch - from breakfast and lunch
- smog - from smoke and fog
- spork - from spoon and fork
The Parts of Speech
A part of speech is a class of words based on the word’s function, the way it works in a sentence. They are sometime’s referred to as word classes.
Nouns#card
‘Noun’ is the name given to words that name things or concepts. There are many different types, or sub classes of nouns, some you will be familiar with, other maybe not.
Verbs#card
Verbs are words that describe what a subject is doing. They also describe relationships between one thing and another, allowing us to place an event, state, etc. in the past, present or future.
Adjective#card
A word that modifies or defines a noun, or a describing word.
Degrees of Adjectives
- Positive Degree: plain old adjective, e.g. happy
- Comparative Degree: e.g. happier
- Superlative Degree: e.g. happiest
- Absolute: e.g. unique
Adverbs#card
Adverbs are words that change, modify or qualify a verb, or another adjective/adverb.
Pronouns#card
Pronouns are words which we use in place of a noun, to avoid being repetitive. The noun they replace is known as the antecedent. The antecedent doesn’t always come before the pronoun that replaces it.
Saying “John did … He …” is anaphoric reference, whereas if the pronoun was before it would be cataphoric reference.
Prepositions#card
As the name suggests, a preposition places, links or connects words and phrases to other words and phrases within a sentence. Prepositions usually come directly before a noun in a sentence and can also precede a gerund verb (non-finite form, -ing version where it’s being used as a noun “shopping really annoys me”).
Conjunctions#card
Conjunctions connect words, phrases, clauses and sentences. They tell us the relationship between ‘thoughts’.
Interjection#card
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. The category is quite heterogeneous, and includes such things such as exclamations, curses, greetings, response particles, and hesitation markers.
Types of Writing Systems
Orthographic#card
This type of writing system is arbitrary and the language is “represented” in writing by something like an alphabet, such as English.
Iconographic#card
This type of writing system is less arbitrary and uses icons that visually represent what they’re meant to mean, such as Chinese or Korean.
Accent and Dialect#card
Accent is to do with how things are pronounced, purely to do with sound, while dialect is to do with words and the lexicon that people pull from. For example, a Yorkshire man may say tub instead of bath (a different dialect), but would still say grass and have it sound different.
- Accent: style switching
- Dialect: code switching
Definitions
Jargon#card
Words from any semantic field, namely specialist terminology that others won’t understand
Argo#card
A secret code, the jargon or slang of a particular group or class (usually thought of lower class)
Slang#card
Informal language that is non-standard but something that isn’t necessarily used by a particular group
- Normally made to avoid detection to make it harder for certain groups to understand
Colloquial Language#card
Conversational language that is informal
Vernacular#card
Colloquial language or dialect that is regional
- Street
- Jive
- Cant
- Demotic
- Idiomatic
- Parlance
- Patios
- Phraseology
- Archaic
- Dialect, Sociolect and Idiolect
Dialectal variation#card
Variation associated with the language of a particular locality, region or geographical area. one thing, multiple words
Flipping#card
Term used to suggest rapid semantic change in a word from its original meaning to its opposite (or near opposite)
Orthographical variation#card
How the use of symbols, letters and spellings varies among language users
Phonological variation #card
How the sounds of a language vary among different speakers (accent)
Semantic variation #card
How word (and phrase) meanings vary from place to place and group to group. one word, multiple things
Social variation#card
Variation associated with a particular social group i.e., social class or educational background
Etymology
The study of the history of use and origins of words.
Examples
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Sandwich (n.): 1762, said to be a reference to John Montagu (1718-1792), 4th Earl of Sandwich, who was said to be an inveterate gambler who ate slices of cold meat between bread at the gaming table during marathon sessions rather than rising for a proper meal (this account of the origin dates to 1770).
It also was in his honor that Cook named the Hawaiian islands (1778) when Montagu was first lord of the Admiralty (hence the occasional 19c. British Sandwicher for “a Hawaiian”). The family name is from the place in Kent, one of the Cinque Ports, Old English Sandwicæ, literally “sandy harbor (or trading center).”
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Berserk (adj.): 1844, from berserk (n.) “Norse warrior” (by 1835), an alternative form of berserker, a word which was introduced (as berserkar) by Sir Walter Scott in “The Pirate” (1822), from Old Norse berserkr (n.) “raging warrior of superhuman strength.” It is probably from *ber- “bear” + serkr “shirt,” thus literally “a warrior clothed in bearskin” (see n.%20+%C2%A0%5Bsark%5D(https://www.etymonline.com/word/sark?ref=etymonline_crossreference%20%22Etymology,%20meaning%20and%20definition%20of%20sark%22%7C%5Bhttps://www.etymonline.com/word/bear?ref=etymonline_crossreference#etymonline_v_8204%20%22Etymology,%20meaning%20and%20definition%20of%20bear%22)). Thus not, as Scott evidently believed, from Old Norse berr “bare, naked” and meaning “warrior who fights without armor.”
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Nightmare (n.): c. 1300, “an evil female spirit afflicting men (or horses) in their sleep with a feeling of suffocation,” compounded from night + etymonline_v_43707 “Etymology, meaning and definition of mare” (n.3) “goblin that causes nightmares, incubus.” The meaning shifted mid-16c. from the incubus to the suffocating sensation it causes. Sense of “any bad dream” is recorded by 1829; that of “very distressing experience” is from 1831.
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Quarantine (n.): 1660s, “period a ship suspected of carrying contagious disease is kept in isolation,” from Italian quaranta giorni, literally “space of forty days,” from quaranta “forty,” from Latin quadraginta”forty” (related to quattuor “four,” from PIE root *kwetwer- “four”).
The name is from the Venetian policy (first enforced in 1377) of keeping ships from plague-stricken countries waiting off its port for 40 days to assure that no latent cases were aboard. The extended sense of “any period of forced isolation” is from 1670s.
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Clue (n.): “anything that guides or directs in an intricate case,” 1590s, a special use of a revised spelling of clew “a ball of thread or yarn” (q.v.). The word, which is native Germanic, in Middle English was clewe, also cleue; some words borrowed from Old French in -ue, -eu also were spelled -ew in Middle English, such as blew, imbew, but these later were reformed to -ue, and this process was extended to native words (hue, true, clue) which had ended in a vowel and -w. The spelling clue is first attested mid-15c.
The sense shift is originally in reference to the clew of thread given by Ariadne to Theseus to use as a guide out of the Labyrinth in Greek mythology. The purely figurative sense of “that which points the way,” without regard to labyrinths, is from 1620s. As something which a bewildered person does not have, by 1948.
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Euphemism (n.): 1650s, from Greek euphemismos “use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one, superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies,” also of substitutions such as Eumenides for the Furies. This is from euphemizein “speak with fair words, use words of good omen,” from eu- “good, well” (see eu-) + phēmē “speech, voice, utterance, a speaking,” from phanai “speak” (from PIE root 2%20%22to%20speak,%20tell,%20say%22).%20See%20also%C2%A0%5BEuxine%5D(https://www.etymonline.com/word/Euxine?ref=etymonline_crossreference%20%22Etymology,%20meaning%20and%20definition%20of%20Euxine%22%7C%5Bhttps://www.etymonline.com/word/*bha-?ref=etymonline_crossreference#etymonline_v_52548%20%22Etymology,%20meaning%20and%20definition%20of%20*bha-%22), and compare Greek Greek aristeros “the better one,” a euphemism for “the left (hand).” In English, a rhetorical term at first; broader sense of “choosing a less distasteful word or phrase than the one meant” is first attested 1793.
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Emergency (n.): “unforeseen occurrence requiring immediate attention,” 1630s, from Latin emergens, present participle of emergere “to rise out or up” (see emerge). Or from emerge + -ency. As an adjective by 1881.