LETRS Morphology & Spelling 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What distinguishes an inflectional morpheme from a derivational morpheme?
- Inflectional morphemes create new words; derivational morphemes change grammatical form
- Inflectional morphemes change grammatical form without changing part of speech; derivational morphemes create new words (Correct answer)
- Inflectional morphemes are always prefixes; derivational morphemes are always suffixes
- Inflectional morphemes come from Greek; derivational morphemes come from Latin
Correct answer: Inflectional morphemes change grammatical form without changing part of speech; derivational morphemes create new words
Inflectional morphemes modify grammatical properties like tense or number without changing the word's part of speech, while derivational morphemes create new words often with different parts of speech.
Question 2: How many morphemes are in the word 'dogs'?
- 1
- 2 (Correct answer)
- 3
- 4
Correct answer: 2
'Dogs' contains two morphemes: the free morpheme 'dog' and the inflectional morpheme '-s' indicating plural.
Question 3: The word 'telephone' contains roots from which language(s)?
- Latin only
- Greek only (Correct answer)
- Both Greek and Latin
- Old English only
Correct answer: Greek only
'Telephone' combines two Greek roots: 'tele' meaning far and 'phone' meaning sound or voice, making it entirely derived from Greek.
Question 4: Which of the following is an example of a compound word?
- unhappy
- teacher
- sunlight (Correct answer)
- walking
Correct answer: sunlight
A compound word is formed by combining two free morphemes: 'sun' + 'light' = 'sunlight,' while the others contain bound morphemes attached to a base.
Question 5: What does the prefix 'mis-' mean in words like 'misread' and 'mistrust'?
- Again
- Wrongly or badly (Correct answer)
- Before
- Against
Correct answer: Wrongly or badly
The prefix 'mis-' means 'wrongly' or 'badly,' indicating incorrect action, as in misread (to read incorrectly) and mistrust (to distrust without cause).
Question 6: Which syllable type ends with a vowel sound that is typically long?
- Closed syllable
- Open syllable (Correct answer)
- Vowel-consonant-e syllable
- R-controlled syllable
Correct answer: Open syllable
An open syllable ends with a vowel sound that is typically long, such as 'go,' 'me,' or the first syllable in 'be-fore'.
Question 7: What does the Latin root 'rupt' mean?
- Flow
- Break or burst (Correct answer)
- Write
- Turn
Correct answer: Break or burst
The Latin root 'rupt' means 'break' or 'burst,' appearing in words like rupture, interrupt, and erupt.
LETRS Morphology & Spelling 2
What distinguishes an inflectional morpheme from a derivational morpheme?