Chapter 4 Morphology: The Analysis Of Word Structure

Words and Word Structure V. Morphemes Words and Word Structure Morpheme: The smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function (e.g., book, dog, -s, -ing). Free morphemes: boy, girl, pen, tree Bound morphemes: -s, -ed, -ing   Simple words: and, boy, act, man, hunt Complex words: boy-s, hunt-er, hunt-er-s, gentle-man-li-ness Allomorphs: Variants of a morpheme (e.g., [-s], [-z], and [-z] are allomorphs of the English plural morpheme).

C. Classification 1. Bound morphemes: Morphemes that cannot occur unattached are bound morphemes. a.    Prefixes: morphemes that occur only before other morphemes, such as, dis- in “dishonest”, bi- in “bicycle”

b.   Suffixes: morphemes that occur only after other morphemes, such as, -er in “worker”, -ist in “pianist” c. Infixes: morphemes that are inserted into other morphemes, such as, -um- inserted into “fikas”,which becomes “fumikas” in the language, Bontoc

d. Circumfixes: morphemes that are attached to a stem morpheme both initially and finally. 2. Free morphemes: Morphemes that can constitute words by themselves are called free morphemes, such as “man”, “sick”.

D. Problems of classification and definition 1 D. Problems of classification and definition 1. huckles: Some morphemes are not meaningful in isolation but acquire meaning by connection with other morphemes in words, such as huckle-, boysen-, in “huckleberry” and “boysenberry” 2. ceives: Some morphemes may occur in many words, but for which it is very difficult to find constant meanings for them, such as -ceives in “receives”, “perceives”, and “conceives”.

E. Representing Word Structure Root: The morpheme in a word that carries the major component of the word’s meaning and belongs to a lexical category (collect in the word collections). Affix: A morpheme that does not belong to a lexical category and is always bound (e.g., -ing, -un). Base: The form to which an affix is added (e.g., book books, modernize modernized). Tree structures: N A V Af Af A teach er un kind

2. The derivational word may have a different meaning than the original word and possibly be in a different grammatical class. a. Noun to Adjective: boy＋ish health + ful alcohol + ic b. Verb to Noun: accus＋ation sing＋er confer + ence

c. Adjective to Adverb: exact＋ly quiet＋ly swift＋ly d. Noun to Verb: moral＋ize vaccin＋ate haste＋n

3. Not all derivational morphemes cause a change in the grammatical class. a. Prefixes: re＋print a＋moral semi + annual ex + wife b.Suffixes: music＋ian pun＋ster vicar＋age fadd＋ist

C. Some morphological rules are quite productive. 1. VERB＋able＝able to be VERB-ed ex: acceptable, adaptable 2. un＋ADJECTIVE＝not-ADJECTIVE ( antonyms ) ex: unbelievable , unacceptable, unchangeable, unsimplified 3. VERB＋er＝one who performs an action ex: lover, hunter

VII. Lexical gaps A. There are gaps in the lexicon such as googol, ‘words’ which are not in the dictionary but which can be added. B. Two facts cause them: 1. A permissible sound sequence has no meaning attached to it ( like blick, slark). 2. Possible combinations of morphemes have not been made( like uglyify, unsad, unbrave).

D. The morphological rules can help us guess the meaning of a word we don’t know, but sometimes we guess wrong. ex : gullible--to do with sea birds(×) Longevity--being very tall(×)

NOTE: When someone uses such words as coolth (like warmth), fullen ( like weaken ), usually it is either an error or an attempt at humor.

3.      meaning: a.      predictable ex. girlfriend b.     partially predictable ex. blackboard c.      completely unpredictable ex. cathouse/jack-in-a- box 4. universality of compounding: This process can be applied to many languages to enlarge vocabulary.

VIII. Word Coinage A. Compounds: to string words together 1 VIII. Word Coinage A. Compounds: to string words together 1. category combination n+n:n mailman a+a:a icycold n+a:a watertight v+n:n pickpocket 2. number of words: no definite answer

B. Acronyms: initials of several words ex B. Acronyms: initials of several words ex. TGIF: Thank God This Friday ASAP: As Soon As Possible IOU: I Owe You AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

C. Blends: words that are “less than” compounds ex C. Blends: words that are “less than” compounds ex. smog: smoke + fog motel: motor + hotel brunch: breakfast + lunch D. Back-formations: to subtract an fix ex. peddle: peddler edit: editor typewrite: typewriter

Extending word formation rule: from existing words which appear to be analyzable ex. bikini bi (two) monokini mono(one) act/action televise/television

E. Abbreviations: short forms by clipping ex E. Abbreviations: short forms by clipping ex. ad: advertisement doc: doctor gym: gymnasium F. Words from Names: ex. sandwich: the Earl of Sandwich gargantuan: Gargantuan, the creature with a huge appetite jumbo: an elephant brought to the US

IX. Grammatical Morphemes A IX. Grammatical Morphemes A. In the discussion of derivational morphology, we see that certain aspects of morphology have syntactic implications in that nouns can be derived from verbs, verbs from adjectives, adjectives from nouns, and so on.

B. Some morphemes do not derive a meaning until combined with others in a sentence. For example, what is the meaning of it in the sentence “It takes me five hours to finish my work.” or in “We found it too difficult to lie.” What is the meaning of to in “He wanted her to go”? To has a grammatical meaning as an infinitive marker, and it is also a morpheme required by the syntactic, sentence-formation rules of the language.

Similarly for have in “I have lived here for ten years”, which is a grammatical marker for the “present perfect”; and for the different forms of be in both “The dog is running.” and “ The screen of the window was changed.”, which function, respectively, as a “progressive” marker and a “ passive voice” marker.

C. Inflectional Morphemes   1. Many languages, including English to some extent, contain “bound” morphemes that, like to, are for the most part purely grammatical markers, representing such concepts as “tense”, “number”, “gender”, “case”, etc.. Such “bound” grammatical morphemes are called inflectional morphemes: they never change the syntactic category of the words or morphemes to which they are attached. They are always attached to complete words.

The End