PSY315H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cookie Monster, English Plurals, Morpheme
Document Summary
Morpheme: the smallest unit of language that has meaning; includes function words such as to, the, many and prefixes (-un, -re) and suffixes (-s, -ing, -ed) Morphology: component of grammar that specifies how morphemes are combined. Syntax: component of grammar that specifies the combination of words and phrases in sentences. When we use language we don"t simply utter words in some arbitrary sequence. We use morphology and syntax to indicate relationships among the things that words denote. Order in which children acquire words (see lecture slides) Seems to be replicable: observed in children other than the original set, observed in other languages. Language-specific factors (whether language has complex/simple morphological system) Learning morphology: involves more than simply whether/when certain elements can be combined together (e. g. form of plural s in english) For a made up word, if they apply the right sound to make it plural then they must understand the underlying rule.
