MorphemeIn linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression, especially within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this is the distinction, respectively, between free and bound morphemes. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
LanguageStructured system of communicationA mural in Teotihuacan, Mexico (c. 2nd century) depicting a person emitting a speech scroll from his mouth, symbolizing speechA Cuneiform tabletChildren of deaf adults using American Sign LanguageBraille, a tactile writing systemLanguage is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary.
Compound (linguistics)In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. Consequently, a compound is a unit composed of more than one stem, forming words or signs.GrammarIn linguistics, grammar is the system of rules that governs how a natural language is structured and used, as evidenced by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rules, a subject that includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, together with phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. There are in effect two different ways to study grammar: traditional grammar and theoretical grammar.Morphological derivationMorphological 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 wordhappy.It is differentiated from inflection, which is the modification of a word to form different grammatical categories without changing its core meaning or lexical category: determines, determining, and determined are from the root determine.
PhonologyPhonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics) is the branch of linguistics that concerns how languages organize the foundational elements that make their words. In spoken languages, these are phonemes like vowel and consonant sounds that affect meaning. Examples of this effect can be found in comparisons of English words like bat and gnat. In sign languages, these are components of signs such as hand shape and location.
SemanticsStudy of meaning in languageA central topic in semantics concerns the relation between language, world, and mental concepts.Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction between sense and reference.LinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of language. Specific areas of linguistic description and analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent manual gestures in sign languages), phonology (the abstract sound system of a particular language, and analogous systems of sign languages), and pragmatics (how the context of use contributes to meaning).Root (linguistics)A root (also known as a root word or radical) is the core of a word that is irreducible into more meaningful elements. In morphology, a root is a morphologically simple unit which can be left bare or to which a prefix or a suffix can attach. The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family (this root is then called the base word), which carries aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents.
AffixIn linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The two main categories are derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as un-, -ation, anti-, and pre-, introduce a semantic change to the word they are attached to.OrthographyAn orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and emphasis. Most national and international languages have an established writing system that has undergone substantial standardization, thus exhibiting less dialect variation than the spoken language.Contraction (grammar)A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds. In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations and initialisms (including acronyms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in layman’s terms.
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LanguageStructured system of communicationA mural in Teotihuacan, Mexico (c. 2nd century) depicting a person emitting a speech scroll from his mouth, symbolizing speechA Cuneiform tabletChildren of deaf adults using American Sign LanguageBraille, a tactile writing systemLanguage is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary.Compound (linguistics)In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. Consequently, a compound is a unit composed of more than one stem, forming words or signs.GrammarIn linguistics, grammar is the system of rules that governs how a natural language is structured and used, as evidenced by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rules, a subject that includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, together with phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. There are in effect two different ways to study grammar: traditional grammar and theoretical grammar.Morphological derivationMorphological 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 wordhappy.It is differentiated from inflection, which is the modification of a word to form different grammatical categories without changing its core meaning or lexical category: determines, determining, and determined are from the root determine.PhonologyPhonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics) is the branch of linguistics that concerns how languages organize the foundational elements that make their words. In spoken languages, these are phonemes like vowel and consonant sounds that affect meaning. Examples of this effect can be found in comparisons of English words like bat and gnat. In sign languages, these are components of signs such as hand shape and location.SemanticsStudy of meaning in languageA central topic in semantics concerns the relation between language, world, and mental concepts.Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction between sense and reference.LinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of language. Specific areas of linguistic description and analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent manual gestures in sign languages), phonology (the abstract sound system of a particular language, and analogous systems of sign languages), and pragmatics (how the context of use contributes to meaning).Root (linguistics)A root (also known as a root word or radical) is the core of a word that is irreducible into more meaningful elements. In morphology, a root is a morphologically simple unit which can be left bare or to which a prefix or a suffix can attach. The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family (this root is then called the base word), which carries aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents.AffixIn linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The two main categories are derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as un-, -ation, anti-, and pre-, introduce a semantic change to the word they are attached to.OrthographyAn orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and emphasis. Most national and international languages have an established writing system that has undergone substantial standardization, thus exhibiting less dialect variation than the spoken language.Contraction (grammar)A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds. In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations and initialisms (including acronyms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in layman’s terms.wordRelated word or term.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.