Hi ! First I just want to apologize for how incredibly late this is. I am aware of how this will affect my grade for this post – but that is my own fault. I still wanted to complete this assignment, nonetheless.

For my final paper one idea that comes to mind to write about is slang words. The generational divide regarding slang words is a topic that always interested me. As someone who is on the cusp between being identified as a millennial and / or identified as generation z – this topic is ever so present and relevant towards me. I want to focus on how slang words come into creation and how these words eventually become real words. When slang words begin, they start off as nonsense words that have little to no significance to a majority of the world’s population. However, as time goes and these slang words become more and more popularized, they become easily recognizable and can be considered real words – some even make it into the dictionary. I personally feel this topic has great potential to write about because slang words will never stop coming into creation. Every generation creates their new slang words, and that is how it has been and how it will forever be. 

 

1. “Lamb Chop” [[lamb] N [chop] V] N → endocentric
2. “Carrot Cake” [[carrot] N [cake] N] N → endocentric 
3. “Sweet Potato” [[sweet] A [potato] N] N → endocentric 
4. “Buffalo Wings” [[buffalo] N [wings] N] N → exocentric (they are not wings from a buffalo)
5. “Hot Dog” [[hot] A [dog] N] N → exocentric (they are not dogs (the animal) which are hot) 

• Verb as an input; noun as an output

• [[x]V ion]N
• Experiment → Experimentation
• Elect → Election
• Operate → Operation

• Noun as an input; verb as an output

• [[x]Y ify]y=N or A
• Pure → Purify
• Solid → Solidify
• Example → Exemplify 

• Outcome

• Experimentationify
• Electionify
• Operationify 
• The resulting words (experimentationify and operationify) are not well-formed words and do not exist. In this case the two affixes that I utilized “ion” and “ify” do not work together and result in nonsense words most of the time. These two nonsense words are examples of constraints. They’re considered to be constraints because the ordering of affixes is too complex. However, there are always exceptions. For instance, the word “electionify” utilizes both the “ion” and “ify” affixes and is a valid word. To be honest, I expected all three of these words to be constraints.

Simplex words are words that simply cannot be broken down any further. They are words that have a single morpheme with the affixes that cannot be broken down any further. Complex words are words that can be broken down into various parts. They are words that have two or more morphemes with affixes that are able to be broken down into smaller parts. Looking at the words forbid, forget, forgive, forgo, and forswear I can conclude that they are all complex words. Each one of these words begins with the prefix for and ends in a root word which is attached. There is no evidence that these words are simplex because each word can be broken up into two separate words. For instance, forbid can be broken down to two standalone words: for and bid. Now, say you wanted to further break down the constituents of these complex words – you cannot. The constituents of these complex words happen to be simplex words themselves. Take the word forget for example. Forget is a complex word that breaks down into for and get. The constituents for and get can no longer be broken down because they are simplex words and only contain one morpheme rather than multiple. 

 

hiya 🙂