Words in English public website
Ling/Engl 215 course information
Rice University
Prof. S. Kemmer

Study Guide: Midterm #2 Review

Fall 2008

Midterm #2 will cover chapters 7, 9, and 11, class discussions, and web pages linked to course schedule. It focuses on these topics: semantic change and its various types, etymology, parsing, and classical morphology in English words. The midterm will build on concepts introduced in the previous chapters, especially on concepts relating to morphology, and also including loanword language identification and parsing of words introduced or discussed in class and quizzes.

Here are some skills the second midterm will test:

ability to recognize and produce examples of various types of semantic change

understanding of the cognitive processes underlying semantic change, particularly metaphor and metonymy

knowledge of some specific word histories discussed in class and on web links

Recognition of particular morphemes and parts of morphemes in English words that reflect categories of Latin and Greek morphology

understanding of why variation exists in categories such as plurals

understanding of changes in Latin vs. French that give us some doublets

a deeper understanding of parsing and transparency in morphology

knowledge of some of the basic categories of Latin and Greek morphology and how English loanwords can show these categories

An understanding of some changes that happened after classical Latin, particularly in the history of French

A deeper understanding of how spelling can reflect older forms and how it can diverge from pronunciation

Semantic change

etymology                         widening (generalization)
polysemy                          narrowing (specialization
metaphor                          taboo
metonymy                          euphemism
eponymy
synechdoche
amelioration (melioration)
pejoration (degeneration)

Latin and Greek morphology

inflection                        
base or stem                              
inflectional categories           
grammatical gender                person:  1st, 2nd, 3rd
masculine, feminine, neuter       verb conjugation class  
noun declension (noun class defined by set of endings)  
grammatical number                infinitive
singular, plural                  participles: past, present, future
case                              voice: active, passive    
principal parts

Changes in late Latin; Latin vs. French

learned vocabulary
spelling (spelling is the most conservative aspect of English words)
classical diphthongs ae, oe
pronunciation changes in late Latin 
approximimants /i/, /u/ --> affricates  /d3/ as in justice,  /v/ as in 
civil  (L. iusticia --> O. Fr. d3ustice --> Engl. d3ustice)  (L. civis
'citizen'  /kiwis/--> O. Fr. sivi )
velar stops /k/, /g/  --> /s/, /d3/ as in judge.
Great Vowel Shift affecting Latinate words
Latin -ula --> O. Fr. -le   (L. tabula --> O. Fr. table)
Latin -fic- 'make' --> O. Fr. -fy
Latin/French doublets
Latin --> French syllable deletions
Latin --> French coronalizations (usually called palatalizations):
   gaudiam --> joy, legalem -->loyal etc.
diphthongizationss (Lat. pictum --> Old Frn. paint, L. punctum --> O. Fr. point)

Parsing

also review Parsing page

gloss
transparent 
opaque
stem-forming morphemes from Latin
past participle (or perfect participle in book) morpheme
present participle morpheme  (stem vowel + nt)
future participle morpheme (or gerundive in book)  (stem vowel + nd)

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