(less complex morphology more complex morphology)
(low morpheme-to-word ratio high morpheme-to-word ratio)
(low morpheme-to-word ratio high morpheme-to-word ratio)
analytic / isolating > agglutinative / fusional > polysynthetic
- lexeme – a word concept. A lexeme can represent multiple surface forms of a word that comprise the paradigm of the lexeme (e.g. run, runs, ran and running are the same lexeme, RUN). As parts of a single concept, the forms of a lexeme will have the same syntactic category (runner is a different lexeme).
- lemma – a particular form of a lexeme conventionally chosen to represent the canonical form. In a dictionary the lemma is the headword.
- paradigm - complete set of words associate with a given lexeme.
- inflectional rules – relate a lexeme to its forms. Generally the syntactic category remains the same (e.g. eat and eaten, boy and boys)
- derivational rules – relate a lexeme to a new lexeme. Generally, but not always, the syntactic category changes (e.g. slow and slowly). Necessarily the meaning of the base changes (e.g. write and rewrite, circle and encircle). Derivational affixes are bound morphemes.
- zero derivation or conversion – changing from one lexeme to another without any surface change (e.g. telephone and to telephone).
- endocentric compound – The compound has a head which represents the basic meaning (and same part-of-speech) of the whole (e.g. house and doghouse)
- exocentric compound – meaning of the compound is not transparent from the constituents (e.g. white-collar and must-have).
- copulative – …
- appositional – …
