lexicon as an element of morphology?

Question

Thank you very much for your help. I need to explain lexicon as an element of morphology in my class. I seeked for your assistance to get an idea on how to present this as simply altho a bit extensive. Anyhow, thanks again.

Answer 1

In the first place, Joe, if you are serious, you need to phrase your question as a question.

Under "details, you need to " give us enough information to let us know how knowledgeable you already are on the subject (or are not), exactly what you are hoping to learn, and why you want/need this information.

For example, I would like to know whether you are interested in brain research, wondering how the brain works to produce language. Are you interested in computer science, wondering how computers can be programmed to produce or translate languages? Are you interested in special education, wondering how the brain may fail to function normally in a learning disabled person or someone with a brain injury? How knowledgeable are you already? Are you a beginner seeking basic knowledge? Or a specialist interested in competing perspectives?

Ordinarily, I would ignore a question that didn't give a clue as to what the person needed to know and why.

However, your topic interests me and has for a long time. Hence, at the risk of insulting your intelligence, I will attempt to answer at a very basic level.

A lexicon may be thought of simply as a list of words or of elements (lexemes) to be used in forming words; e.g., root words and affixes.

Morphology, on the other hand, is usually spoken of as one of three closely related branches of linguistics, each devoted to linguistic processes. Morpology, thus, is the study of the most basic linguistic forms (called morphemes) and how they may be combined. Phonology is the study of linguistic sounds (phones and phonemes). Syntactics (or grammar) is the study of the sentence and other structures of language in which morphemes are used.

Given this over-simplified approach, let me give you an example of the way items from a lexicon feed into morphological processes. Think of there being four types of lexemes in English: root words, affixes (inflectional and derivational), and function words.

Take the root word, "grace," having to do with charm, beauty, favor and the like.

Then you can add inflectional suffixes. If you use "grace" as a noun, you can add a plural morpheme, "s," to form "graces." If you use it as verb, you can add a past morpheme, "d," to say, "She graced me with her present."

Or you may add derivational prefixes and suffixes to form such words as "disgrace," "graceful," "gracious," "graceless," and the like.

Finally, you can add function words to put "grace" in a phrase that may be used in a sentence; for example, auxiliary verbs, "has graced," or articles, "the grace," or comparatives, "more graceful," or prepositions, "with grace," or conjunctions, "grace and . . . ," or indefinitives, "every grace," or negatives "no grace," and the like.

To put it very, very simply, root words, prefixes and suffixes, and function words are morphemes drawn from one's mental lexicon--or from a computer's lexicon--to form structures that can be combined into sentences.

And that's what grammar is all about.

I hope this proves helpful. More important, I hope I have helped you ask better questions next time.

Answer 2

Some phrases that Canadians use have the UK English which means for instance bum is used for bottom versus a vagrant. It can range from province to province primarily Quebec cos they have a tendency to talk French.