Word Structure & Morphological Analysis Flashcards

Which of the following is an example of a bound morpheme?

Answer: -tion

'-tion' is a bound morpheme because it cannot stand alone as a word; it must be attached to a base (e.g., action, nation).

What is 'derivational morphology' primarily concerned with?

Answer: Creating new words by adding affixes that often change word class

Derivational morphology involves creating new words (often changing their grammatical class or core meaning) by adding prefixes or suffixes to base words.

Which of the following pairs shows zero-derivation (conversion)?

Answer: email (noun) / email (verb)

Zero-derivation occurs when a word changes its grammatical category without any morphological change, as with 'email' used as both noun and verb.

What does the Latin root 'port' mean in words such as 'transport,' 'portable,' and 'export'?

Answer: To carry

The Latin root 'port' means 'to carry,' which explains 'transport' (carry across), 'portable' (can be carried), and 'export' (carry out).

In morphological analysis, 'affixation' refers to:

Answer: Adding prefixes, suffixes, or infixes to a base word

Affixation is the process of adding any type of affix—prefix, suffix, or infix—to a base word to form a new word or grammatical variant.

The word 'bicyclist' can be divided into which set of morphemes?

Answer: bi + cycle + ist

'Bicyclist' contains three morphemes: 'bi-' (two), 'cycle' (from Greek kyklos, meaning wheel/circle), and '-ist' (one who does).

Which of the following words is morphologically simple (contains only one morpheme)?

Answer: depth

'Depth' contains only the single morpheme 'depth'—it cannot be further divided into meaningful parts (unlike teacher = teach + -er, running = run + -ing, cats = cat + -s).