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MORPHOLOGY (THEORY)
WORD STRUCTURE
I. The Word:
A minimal free form that can occur in isolation , e.g. house
Its position to neighboring elements is not entirely fixed
II. The Morpheme
A. Definition
- The minimal meaningful unit of language used to build up the word
E.g. teacher
teach + er
Mor + Mor
B. Characteristics (features):
A morpheme cannot be broken down further, i.e. it cannot be divided
without altering or destroying its meaning.
E.g. are
a/r/e (meaningless)
G G
Lex
Affix
Affixes are BOUND FORMS that can be
added:
a. to the beginning of a word (= a prefix), e.g. English un- which
usually changes the meaning of a word to its opposite: kind
unkind
b. b to the end of a word (= a suffix), e.g. English -ness which
usually changes an adjective into a noun: kind kindness
4. Derivatitional morpheme vs. Inflectional
morpheme
Derivational morpheme a linguistic form (a MORPHEME) which
can help create a new word with new meaning and/or new syntactic
category,
E.g. work
+ er
worker
Action agent
agent of action
Inflectional morpheme:
a linguistic form (a MORPHEME) which does not help create new
word but just changes the grammatical forms of the same word,
E.g.
s (singular person)
-ed (past tense form)
WorkV
E.g. WORK+ER+S
Root
Der Inf.
Classification of morphemes
e)
i)
Group the morphemes of these words into free morphemes and bound
morphemes and state whether the bound morphemes are inflectional
affixes or derivational affixes.
The first two words (loneliness and White House) have been done for
you
Word
Free morpheme
Bound morpheme
Derivational
affix
Inflectional
affix
loneliness
lone
-ly, -ness
White House
White, house
undresses
dress
un-
es
unthinkable
think
un-, -able
immobility
mobile
im-, -ity
decentralizatio
n
centre
de-,
-al,
-ation
easiest
ease
-y
prefeasibility
fease
unhappiness
happy
un-, -ness
lovelier
love
-ly
optionality
opt
independently
depend
in-,-ent, -ly
-ize,
-est
-er
Ex.2.
Fill in the blanks with suitable words or phrases suggested
below in order to make the passages meaningful (some
words can be used twice) (3ms)
affixes, bases, bound, bound, derivational, free, independent, infixes,
inflectional
meaningful, morphemes, prefixes, single, suffixes, syllables, verb,
morphology
-----0 ------ is the arrangement and relationships of the smallest
------1------ units in a language. These minimum units of meaning are
called -----2------- . Note that morphemes are not identical to ----3------:
the form don't has one syllable but two -----4--------, do and not.
morphology
1
1
1
1
7
1
8
1
1
1
6
1
9
1
5
2
0
Ex3.
Consider the following words and answer the questions below
a) loneliness b) employees c) uncomfortably
killers f) ageless
d) invalid
e) lady-
Group the morphemes of these words into free morphemes and bound
morphemes and state whether the bound morphemes are inflectional
affixes or derivational affixes.
The first words (loneliness) has been done for you
Word
Free morpheme
Bound morpheme
Derivational
affix
E.g. loneliness
Lone
Inflectional
affix
-ly, -ness
employees
uncomfortably
Invalid
lady-killers
ageless
Ex4.
Fill in the blanks with suitable words or phrases suggested
below in order to make the passages meaningful (some
words can be used twice)
/ inflectional/ words/ derivational / bound / meaning / acronyms/ forms/
formation / free / internal
When you know a word you know both its sound and its (1)__________;
these are inseparable parts of the linguistic signs. The study of word (2)
__________and the (3) ___________structure of words is called morphology.
Morphemes combine according to the morphological rules of the
language. Some morphemes are (4) ___________; they must be joined to
other morphemes as parts of (5) _______. Other morphemes are (6)
__________; they need not be attached to other morphemes.
Morphemes may also be classified as (7) ___________ or inflectional. (8)
___________morphemes can change the syntactic category of the word
which they combine; (9) _____________morphemes never change the
syntactic category of the word.
(10) ____________are words derived from the initials of several words.
Please write the answers in the box below.
1.
06.
2.
07.
3.
08.
4.
09.
5.
10.
Ex5.
The representation of the internal structure of words
Words consisting of one or more morphemes
Single word
One morpheme
Complex word
Two
Three
And
Boy
boy-s
Hunt
hunt-er
hunt-er-s
hospital
hospital-ize
hospital-ize-ation
hospital-izeation-s
Gentle
gentle-man
gentle-man-ly
gentle-man-liness
Derivation
II.
Compounding
Verb
combne
implnt
rewrte
transprt
Adjective
concrte
abstrct
V. Clipping:
Clipping is a morphological process to create new words by by
shortening of a polysyllabic word (usually N and A)
Examples: bro (< brother)
pro (< professional)
prof (< professor)
math (< mathematics)
veg (< 'vegetate', as in veg out in front of the TV)
Types of Clipping :
+ Initial clipping : the first part of a word is clipped :
E.g. telephone
phone, helicopter
copter
mike
+ Initio - final clipping : the first and the last part are clipped
E.g. influenza flu , detective tec
+ Elliptico - conversional clipping (phrasal clipping):
E.g. popular music
Popular (music)
Pop(ular)
popA
popN
perm (from permanent ware), taxicab (from taxi meter - cab)
VI. Acronymy:
Acronymy is a morphological process by which new words are
formed from the initials of a group of words.
Examples: AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)
radar (radio detecting and ranging)
VII. Blending:
Blending is a morphological process by which parts of two alreadyexisting words are put together to form a new word.
Examples: motel (motorist hotel)
brunch (breakfast & lunch)
smog (smoke & fog)
telethon (television & marathon)
modem (modulator & demodulator)
Spanglish (Spanish & English).
VIII. Backformation:
Backformationg is a morphological process to create new words by
cutting an affix off an already-existing word
Examples: pronunciate (< pronunciation < pronounce)
enthuse (< enthusiasm)
self-destruct (< self-destruction < destroy)
burger (< hamburger)
IX. Adoption of brand names as common words:
Backformationg is a morphological process by which a brand
name becomes the name for the item or process associated with the
brand name and acts as a normal verb/noun.
Examples: xerox, yahoo
X. Onomatopoeia (pronounced: 'onno-motto-pay-uh'):
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS
FORMATION)
ON
MORPHOLOGY
(THEORY
ON
+ ize
+ ize
modernize (V)
(action/ process of X)
WORD
horrorize
(V) ( -)
Besides the principles mentioned above, it can be seen that inflection
makes use of only suffixes whereas derivation utilizes either prefixes or
suffixes, e.g.
Inflectional affixes: suffix
suffixes
worked
co-worker
inflectional
derivational
derivational
Column 2
Morphological
air-condition
1) employ
employer
....................................
2) breakfast and lunch
brunch
....................................
3) house-keeping
house-keep
....................................
4) peel (N)
peel (V)
....................................
5) memorandum
memo
....................................
Back derivation
6) 'subject
sub"ject
....................................
7) sun, rise
sunrise
....................................
8) Palestine Liberation Organization PLO
....................................
9) advertisement
ad
....................................
10) lose
loser
....................................
Ex2.
Consider the following words in column 1
From each of the words in column 1, create new words and write
them in column 2
as suggested in the morphological process.
Column 1
process
Column 2
Morphological
E.g. "record
re"cord
stress shift
1) refrigerator
clipping
.........................
2) editor
formation
.........................
3) calm
conversion
.........................
4) day, dream
compounding
5) useful
derivation
6) human immunodeficiency virus
acronymy
7) binary, digit
blending
8) intercommunication system
clipping
initial-final
.........................
.........................
.........................
.........................
.........................
Ex3.
.........................
back-
+ N
ADV
+ -ing participle
Obj
~ X sees sights
+ verbal N
Obj
X controls birth
+ deverbal N
Obj
Obj