Glossary: morphology and phonology

The knowledge that speakers have of their language. Contrasts with performance.

Two sounds are said to be in complementary distribution in a particular language if they can never appear in the same phonetic environment. For example, aspirated stops in English always appear in absolute syllable-initial position in a stressed syllable, while unaspirated stops appear in other positions. Thus, these two types of allophones are in complementary distribution.

A morphological form that consists of more than one morpheme, whether it be two or more stems (compound word) or a stem plus one or more affixes, e.g., bookstore, optimality.

Defined (e.g., a word) entirely in terms of its parts.

A derived form resulting from the combination of two or more lexemes, e.g., space + ship > spaceship.

The rise in air pressure in an enclosed space caused by a decrease in the size of the space without outflow of air.

Term that describes morphology that builds words by the linear addition of morphemes (contrast non-concatenative).

See agreement.

In mood systems, the mood that indicates a hypothetical, unrealized action.

The environments in which different allomorphs of the same morpheme occur.