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t. e. In linguistics, morphology (mor-FOL-ə-jee[1]) is the study of words, including the principles by which they are formed, and how they relate to one another within a language. [2][3] Most approaches to morphology investigate the structure of words in terms of morphemes, which are the smallest units in a language with some independent meaning.
Blend word. In linguistics, a blend —also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau[a] —is a word formed, usually intentionally, by combining the sounds and meanings of two or more words. [2][3][4] English examples include smog, coined by blending smoke and fog, [3][5] as well as motel, from motor (motorist) and hotel. [6]
v. t. e. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. [1] The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are considered roots (such as the morpheme cat); other morphemes, called affixes, are found ...
Bound and free morphemes. In linguistics, a bound morpheme is a morpheme (the elementary unit of morphosyntax) that can appear only as part of a larger expression, while a free morpheme (or unbound morpheme) is one that can stand alone. [1] A bound morpheme is a type of bound form, and a free morpheme is a type of free form.
In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of ...
Morphological derivation. Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as un- or -ness. For example, unhappy and happiness derive from the root word happy. It is differentiated from inflection, which is the modification of a word to form different ...
Allomorph. In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or in other words, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. [1] The term allomorph describes the realization of phonological variations for a specific morpheme. [1] The different allomorphs that a morpheme can become are ...
Lemma (morphology) In morphology and lexicography, a lemma (pl.: lemmas or lemmata) is the canonical form, [1] dictionary form, or citation form of a set of word forms. [2] In English, for example, break, breaks, broke, broken and breaking are forms of the same lexeme, with break as the lemma by which they are indexed.