What is Morphology:

An Introduction

By:
Diba Artsiyanti E.P. Basar
 Sample Matrix
Topic Catford Larson 1984 Newmark Nida & Taber
1964 1988 2004

Definition of An transferring the Rendering the reproducing in

Translation operation meaning of the source meaning of a the receptor
performed language into the text into language the
on receptor language. another closest natural
languages: This is done by going language in the equivalent of
a process of from the form of the way that the the source-
substituting first language to the author intended language
a text in one form of the second the text message, first
language language by way of in terms of
for a text in semantic structure. It is meaning and
another. the meaning which is secondly in
being transferred and terms of style
must be held constant,
as meaning is a
variable of greatest
importance in a
translation process.
 Morphology: the Term
• German Poet/novelist/philosopher Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe (1749-1832)  Morphology in biological
context
• Etymology – Greek: Morph (shape, form) 
Morphology is the study of form of forms
• Biology : Study of form and structure of organisme
• Geology: Study of the configuration and evolution of
land forms
• Linguistics  Mental system involved in word
formation or to the branch of linguistics that deals with
words, their internal structure and how they are formed
(Aronoff)
Important Concepts in Linguistic
Morphology
• Morpheme  the smallest linguistic
pieces with grammatical function
– Word (free): hand, jump, etc.
– Meaningful piece of a word : -ed, -ation,
etc.
• Morph  phonological realization of a
morpheme
- -ed (past)  [t] after voiceless p (jumped), [d]
after voiced [l] (repelled)  allomorph/variants
 Important Concepts in
Linguistic Morphology
Reconsideration 
Re – consider – ation
Consider  stem : a base morpheme to which
another morphological piece is attached 
simple if only one part, complex if more than
one piece
 Root: a stem constituting the core
of the word to which other pieces
attach  only simple
 Important Concepts in
Linguistic Morphology
Disagreement?

Stem?

Root?
 Important Concepts in
Linguistic Morphology
Re – consider – ation
Re- and –ation  affixes

re -  prefix
- ation  suffix
 Important Concepts in
Linguistic Morphology

• Another types of affixes:

– Infix: Indonesian – kesinambungan
– Circumfix: Indonesian - kesinambungan
 Exercise
• Divide the following forms into
morphemes.
a. password
b. sprayable
c. childhoods
d. autobiography
e. co-educational
 Exercise
When we read resulted in smog and pollution, our
initial interpretation is that the smog and pollution
are the result of the EU’s measures. Then when
we move on and read levels we have to reprocess
the information. This is not important if readers
have to change their interpretation only once or
twice in a paper. But if they have to do it many
times, the cumulative effort required becomes too
much. Some readers will stop trying to guess the
meaning and stop reading. In your case, it may
mean that your paper could be initially rejected.
 Morphology in Action
• Novel words and word play

Unbreak my heart, say you love me again

Uncry this tears

Your interpretation?
 Morphology in Action
• Abstract morphological facts
I eat one melon a day
I eat two melons a day

Indonesian:
Saya makan satu melon tiap hari
Saya makan dua melon tiap hari
Child -- Children
 Morphology in Action
• Abstract morphological facts

Today they claim that they will fix the clock

tower by Friday, but yesterday they
claimed that it would take at least a month
 Introduction to
Morphological Analysis
• Analytic Approach
breaking words down, and it is usually associated with
American structuralist linguistics of the first half of the
twentieth century (unfamiliar language)
• Synthetic Approach
putting back pieces together. Analytic  synthetic :
How does a speaker of a language produce a
grammatically complex word when needed?”
 Introduction to
Morphological Analysis
• Analytic Approach

• Synthetic Approach
putting back pieces together. Analytic 
synthetic
 Analytical Principles
1. Forms with the same meaning and the same
sound shape in all their occurences are
instances of the same morpheme
2. Forms with the same meaning but different
sound shapes maybe instances of the same
morpheme if their distributions do not overlap
(seats, shades, hedges)
3. Not all morphemes are segmental (run- ran,
speak-spoke)
4. A morpheme may have zero as one of its
allomorphs (fish as singular, fish as plural)
THANK YOU