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COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
MORPHOLOGY
Pepito, Cyril C.
Sabal, Lesterfran B.
Talde, Kimberly S.
Submitted to
Morphology……………………………………………………………............................... 3
Morphemes………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Allomorphs……………………………………………………………………………….... 4
Free Morphemes……………………………………………………………………………. 5
Bound Morphemes………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Inflectional Morphemes……………………………………………………………………. 6
Derivational Morphemes………………………………………………………………….... 7
Morphophonemic Rules…………………………………………………………………….. 11
References………………………………………………………………………………….. 16
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Morphology
It is the study of the internal structure of words and forms a core part of linguistic study
today. The term morphology is generally attributed to the German poet, novelist, playwright,
and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), who coined it early in the
nineteenth century in a biological context. Morphology came from the Greek words: morph-
which means ‘shape, form’ and –ology which means the study of something. In biology
morphology refers to the study of the form and structure of organisms, and in geology it
refers to the study of the configuration and evolution of land forms. In linguistics
morphology refers to the mental system involved in word formation or to the branch.
Morphemes
A major way in which morphologists investigate words, their internal structure, and how they
are formed is through the identification and study of morphemes, often defined as the
smallest linguistic pieces with a grammatical function. In English grammar and
morphology, a morpheme is a meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word such as dog,
or a word element, such as the -s at the end of dogs, that can't be divided into smaller
meaningful parts. They are commonly classified as either free morphemes, which can occur
as separate words or bound morphemes, which can't stand alone as words.
Examples:
dog
cat
lap
ant
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Allomorphs
Additive Allomorph
Replacive Allomorph
Suppletive Allomorph
Zero Allomorph
a. Irregular verb
- hit-hit-hit
- hurt-hurt-hurt
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Free and Bound Morphemes
Free Morphemes
There are two types of morphemes, bound morphemes and free morphemes. Free morphemes
are morphemes that can stand alone as words. It is divided into two general classes which are
the simple words and compound words. Simple words are just words that consists one
syllable or a word that couldn't be divided while compound words are two words with
different meaning that is combined to form another word.
1. Simple Word
Examples:
2. Compound word
Examples:
Bound Morphemes
Bound morphemes are morphemes that can't stand alone, these are words that are composed
of a base and are inserted with affixes.
These are word elements that cannot stand alone, including both prefixes and suffixes.
Examples:
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Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes
Inflectional morphemes - indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. There are
eight inflectional morphemes in English. Inflectional Morphemes are words that are created
from a lexeme, or a basic unit of meaning in language, without creating a new category in
one’s lexicon. And can form a new word that is created in the same grammatical category as
the original word.
Nouns
PLURAL “-(e) s”
POSSESIVE “-s”
Verbs
Adjectives
COMPARATIVE “-er”
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Example: faster, higher,
SUPERLATIVE “-est”
A derivational suffix like "-ly" can transform an adjective into an adverb, the suffix "-ment"
is often used to produce a noun. ... "(a) If an affix changes the part of speech of the base, it
is derivational. Affixes which do not change the part of speech of the base are usually
(though not invariably) inflectional.
Affix
Attached to a root or stem to form a new word, or a variant form of the same word, primarily
has 2 types:
Prefix – place before the stem of a word, adding it to the beginning of one word changes it
into another word.
Examples
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pre- before predate, pretest
sub- under, below subway
un- negate undo
dis- negate disengage, disagree
mis- wrongly mistreat
non- negate nonsense
pro- for proclaim
re again, repeat reread, rewrite
trans- across transatlantic
bi two, twice Bilingual
co- along with co-author
Suffix - placed after the stem or word, common examples are case endings, which indicate
the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjunctions
of verbs.
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Word formation process
Word formation is of great interest for linguists as it sheds light on other aspects of language.
How new words are being formed in the language.
Etymology- studies of the history of words, their origin, and how their form and meaning
changed over time
Affixation
Compounding
Examples:
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Coinage
A lexical item that is pure invention. Examples: Kodak, Xerox, Kleenex, Penicillin
Clipping
Cutting the beginning or the end of the word. The deletion of a part of a word resulting in a
new and shorter word.
Examples:
Blending
Taking parts of two words and putting them together to form a new word. Examples are
breakfast and lunch (brunch) and smoke and fog (smog)
Acronym
A word formed from the initial letters of a sequence of words (using the first letters of
several words). It is often written with capital letters.
Examples:
Borrowing
The incorporation of a word or other item from one language into another.
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Morphophonemic Rules
Morphophonology
The branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and
phonological or phonetic processes.
Morphophoneme
Morphophonemic Rules
Also called SANDHI (cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur
at morpheme or word boundaries). In more traditional terms, are changes which occur in the
phonological content of morphemes so that they can adapt to different grammatical functions
or categories.
Example:
Assimilation
Assimilation is such a morphemic change in which the last consonant of the prefixal
morpheme undergoes assimilation of sorts, changes into a phoneme identical with the
starting phoneme of the word root. More or less, this is a case of loss of phonemes.
Examples:
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Partial Assimilation
When the last prefixal phoneme is not completely merged, but changed into another from the
set of phonemes articulated on the same place of articulation.
Examples:
Dissimilation
With this stage, two phonemes form two different morphemes, most often the last of prefix
and the first of the root are dissimilated in such a way that they are no longer the same
phoneme, but the first one is changed into a different one.
Examples:
Synthesis
Also known as palatalization. It refers to the process of combining or fusing two different
consonants into a single one, different from the other two.
Examples:
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Morphemic Rules Affecting the Base
Voicing
Voicing refers to the change of the phonemic content of the base when an affix is to be
attached. The final consonant of the base is changed to match the consonant nature of the
initial phoneme in the affix.
Examples:
Calf > calves ; knife > knives; leaf > leaves; life > lives; thief > thieves; wife > wives; wolf >
wolves.
Baths /ba: θs/ or /ba: ðs/ ; youth /ju: θs/ or /ju: ðs/
With this change on or more than one phoneme is dropped from the original morpheme and
its phonological content is altered.
Examples:
This change involves adding another phoneme to the phonological content of the morpheme.
This is not a very customary change in english, and usually occurs with so called ‘silent’
letters in writing which represent no phonemes in the root.
Examples:
bomb – bombastic
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The last or final consonant in a morpheme undergoes a change of sorts when a suffix is to be
added.
Examples:
despise – despicable
electric – electricity
extinct – extinguish
Examples:
courage – courageous
industry – industrial
parent – parental
symbol – symbolic
Ablaut in Derivation
Change of syllabic vowel or mutation. As the names of this morphemic change suggest, it
refers to a kind of change in the syllabic vowel or a morpheme, or the vowel of a morpheme,
or the vowel which bears the primary stress.
Examples:
clear – clarity
long – length
strong – strength
wide – width
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Implication for Teaching
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References
eNotes Editorial, (2016). “With the aid of examples, distinguish between inflectional
morphemes.” Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/aid-examples-
distinguish-inflectional-morpheme-756448.
Yule, G. (2006). The Study of Language. (Third Edition) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, (pp. 65-66). Retrieved from
https://languageavenue.com/linguistics/general-linguistics/grammar-
syntax/item/morphemes-in-english
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