Chapter 4 Roots, bases, stems & other structural things Morphology Lane 333

Roots Some elements of the word are more central than others Root: the central morpheme, or the key element to which others are added Roots have a lexical (dictionary) meaning, but some (lingu, arrog) have a full meaning only when joined to other elements

Exercise 4.1 identify the roots of the following words. hymns breakage insane majority outbreak linked renew boarder knowingly actions rediscover untainted

Exercise 4.3 identify the morphemes which are used to form derived lexemes warmth passage accountable endanger neutralize hearty consultant preschool

Affixes & the base Affixes not independent added to other elements not all affixes are lexical (also grammatical)

The base Base: whatever you can add affixes to All roots are bases (but not vice versa) can be a plain root (e.g. switch) or more than one plain root (e.g. window-seat) or a root + one or more affixes (e.g. ex-husband)

The stem Stem: what you add grammatical affixes to a special kind of base All stems are bases, but not all bases can be stems in English because some lexical categories (e.g. prepositions) don’t take grammatical affixes

Summary Root: morpheme in which the rest of the word is built Base: any structure to which an affix may be added Stem: any base to which a grammatical affix may be added Affix (1): lexical affixes form separate dictionary words by being attached to bases (derivation) Affix (2): Grammatical affixes add grammatical meanings to the meaning of their stems (inflection)

Examples crow base consisting of a single root crows base consisting of a single root; stem+ gram. Affix crowbar base consisting of two roots crowbars stem+ gram. Affix minority base consisting of root+ affix gentlemanly base consisting of two roots+ lexical affix southernmost base consisting of root+ lexical affix deserted base consisting of a root; also a stem Irish- American base consisting of two bases, each consisting of a root+ a lexical affix

Exercise 4.8 which words consist entirely of roots and/or affixes which are bound morphemes? outgrow presently quicksilver bathrooms agriculture reinvent bricklayer sleepyhead

Conversions Conversions: pairs of words which belong to different lexical categories (e.g. drink, love, review)

Compounds Head: the most important element in a compound (e.g ‘bag’ in ‘handbag’; a kind of bag) The head is of the same lexical category as the compound itself e.g.: pathway (noun) househunt (verb) headstrong (adj) Dependant: the element in a compound word which depends on the head (e.g. hand)

Compounds Endocentric: having the centre inside (e.g. junkmail) Exocentric: having the centre outside (e.g. Redeye)