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October 04, 2005
Number 1 for homework 3
I think that there are several of advantages in having morphological modifications to words in a language which makes the language easier to learn. People don't just learn words in a matter of a minute. In order to actually remember the meaning of a word it might take a few minutes for one person, but I know for myself it takes several of times reading the definition and using it in context. If people have a sense of what prefixes, suffixes, and circumfixes, you can create many words from just one root word. For example, I know what happy means, but if I say unhappy, I know that it is the opposite of happy becuase of the prefix un-...also I know that happyness is the noun form of happy because of the suffix -ness. These added suffixes and such allow our language to be more fun and diverse. It allows people to create words if they are stumped and can't think of the correct term, they can just turn a root word into that adjective or noun. I think without this ability to do this, our language would be pretty dull and consist of a million more words than it already does and make it even more complex.
Posted by lcisnelson at October 4, 2005 04:07 PM
Comments
Using morphological modifications is something that we do on a daily basis, and I agree that without it our languages would be pretty boring, and mostly repetitive. There are so many ways that we can say something, and still have it mean something else to someone else. I think its what makes language unique.
--Yasmin
Posted by: Yasmin at October 4, 2005 10:09 PM