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Introducing Morphology

Rochelle Lieber

Chapter 2

Words, Dictionaries, and the Mental Lexicon - all with Video Answers

Educators

Chapter Questions

00:36

Problem 1

Go to the OED Online website and search for words that are in the dictionary but have no known definition. To do this, click on Advanced Search (look towards the top of the $O E D$ home page), and type into the first open box "meaning obscure" or "of obscure meaning." Then choose three words and read through their entries. Do you think the OED was justified in including these words? If so, why? If not, why not?

Joanna Quigley
Joanna Quigley
Numerade Educator
00:50

Problem 2

Make a list of five words that you consider to be slang. Now look them up in your dictionary (you may use any dictionary at hand, whether print or online). First note whether or not you find them. If you do, is the dictionary definition the one that you had in mind? Does your dictionary list them as slang? If not, speculate on why they might not be listed as slang.

Sage Copling
Sage Copling
Numerade Educator
05:37

Problem 3

Make a list of at least ten words that come to mind that end in the suffix less. Look these words up in a dictionary (you may use a standard college desk dictionary like the American Heritage Dictionary or you may use the online $O E D)$. How many of your words are in the dictionary? Is there any pattern that you can discern with respect to the words that are listed, as opposed to the words that are not?

Leah Lampen
Leah Lampen
Numerade Educator

Problem 4

Visit the Word Spy website (www.wordspy.com). Look at the list of new words and decide which ones, if any, are part of your own mental lexicon. If some of them are, compare your understanding of them with the definition that Word Spy gives.

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Problem 5

Of all the original words created by J. K. Rowling in the Harry Potter books, the only words that have so far made their way into the online Oxford English Dictionary are the words muggle, quidditch, Butterbeer, and hippogriff. Look up the meanings of these words in the $O E D$ and speculate on why they have made it into the $O E D$ as opposed to other Harry Potter words like house elf, bludger, or dementor.

Danielle Fairburn
Danielle Fairburn
Numerade Educator