MORPHOLOGY

 Morphology
o The study of how words are structured and how they are put together from smaller
parts.
 Speaker‟s morphological knowledge includes:
o The ability to recognize words as being well-formed or ill-formed
o The ability to come up with new creations based on existing patterns.

WORD AND MORPHEME

 Words are potentially complex units, composed of even more basic units, called morpheme. A
single word may be composed of one or more morphemes.
 A morpheme
o the smallest part of a word that has grammatical function or meaning (the smallest unit
of linguistic meaning)
o written in { }
o e.g. sawed = {saw} + {-ed}
sawn = {saw} + {-n}
sawing = {saw} + {-ing}
saws = {saw} + {-s}
 Free morpheme
o Morpheme which can occur on its own as a word; it does not have to be attached to
another morpheme.
o E.g. {saw}
 Bound morpheme
o Morpheme which can only occur as a part of a word; must be attached (affixed) as
word parts
o E.g. {-ed}, {-n}, {-ing}, {-s}
o Affixes can be classified according to the place they are attached to.
 Prefixes
 Bound morpheme which is attached before or to the beginning of a word
or morpheme
 E.g. {un-} + {happy}  {unhappy}
 Suffixes
 Bound morpheme which is attached after or to the end of a word or
morpheme
 E.g. {fast} + {-er}  {faster}
 Infixes
 Bound morpheme which is inserted inside a word or morpheme
 Doesn‟t exist in English morphology
 E.g. {-el-} + {gigi}  {geligi}
 Circumfixes
 Bound morpheme which is attached to a root or a stem morpheme both
initially and finally.
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  E.g. {ke-} + {warga} + {negara} + {-an}  kewarganegaraan
 Root morpheme vs. Stem vs. Base
o Root morpheme
 The basic form to which other morphemes are attached
 Provides the basic meaning of the word
 Cannot be analyzed into smaller parts
 E.g. run, phone, saw, fast
o Stem
 A root morpheme which is combined with affix morpheme
 Other affixes can be added to a stem to form a more complex stem.
 E.g. {un-} + {count}  {uncount} stem
{un-} + {count} + {-able}  {uncountable}
o Base
 Part of word to which an affix may be attached; may but need not be a root
morpheme.
 E.g. count, countable, systematic
o Examples:
o Root: believe (verb)
o Stem: believe + able (verb + suffix)
o Word: un + believe + able (prefix + verb + suffix)

o Root: system (noun)

o Stem: system + atic (noun + suffix)
o Stem: un + system + atic (prefix + noun + suffix)
o Stem: un + system + atic + al ( prefix + noun + suffix + suffix)
o Word: un + system +atic + al + ly (prefix+noun+suffix+suffix+suffix)

 Derivational Morphemes
o Derive a new word by being attached to root morphemes or stems
o Can be both suffixes and prefixes in English
 E.g. beautiful, unhappy, impossible, recover
o Change the meaning
 E.g. {un} + {do} = undo (the opposite meaning of „do‟)
{sing} + {-er} = singer (a person who sings)
o Change the syntactic category (optionally)
 Change of category
 Noun to Adjective
 E.g. {boy}(noun) + {-ish}  boyish (adj.)
 Verb to Noun
 E.g. {sing}(verb) + {-er}  singer (noun)
 Adjective to Adverb
 E.g. {quiet} (adj.) +{-ly}  quietly (adv.)
 Noun to Verb
 E.g. {moral} (adj.) + {-ize}  moralize (verb)
 Adjective to Noun

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  E.g. {humid}(adj.) + {-ity}  humidity (noun)
 No change of category
 E.g. {friend} + {-ship}  friendship
{re-} + {print}  reprint

 Inflectional Morphemes
o Signal grammatical information, such as number (plural), tense, possession, and so on.
o Often called as bound grammatical morphemes
o Only found in suffixes in English
 E.g. boys, Mary‟s, walked
o No change of meaning
 E.g. walk vs. walks
toy vs. toys
o Never change the syntactic category of the words or morpheme to which they are
attached
 E.g. walk vs. walked or walks (V  V)
boy vs. boys (n  n)
eat vs. eating (progressive) (V  V)
o English has eight inflectional suffixes (morphemes)

Suffix Function Example

rd
-s 3 person singular present She waits at home.
-ed past tense She waited at home.
-ing progressive She‟s waiting at home.
-en past participle Mary has eaten the cake.
-s plural marker The boys are playing on the ground.
-„s possessive Mary’s hair is short.
-er comparative adj. or adv. Mary has shorter hair than Nina.
-est superlative adj. or adv. Mary has the shortest hair.

o English irregular forms

 Using different inflections than regular ones
 E.g. freeze  frozen break  broken
 Involving internal vowel changes
 E.g. man/ men, grow/ grew, ring/rang/rung
 Deriving from historically unrelated forms (suppletion)
 E.g. go  went good  better  best
 No inflectional change
 E.g. sheep (sing. & plural) hit (present & past tenses)
 Borrowed words
 E.g. alumnae (plural) alumna (sing.)

 Allomorphs
o When a morpheme is realized by more than one sound pattern, we call the variations
allomorphs.
o Written in / /
o E.g. English plural morpheme

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 English plural morpheme –s is realized (pronounced) in three ways:
dogs (dog[z]) cats (cat[s]) judges (judg[ɪz])

To describe this situation, we can say

- English has one plural morpheme, -s.
- English has three allomorphs of the plural morpheme /z/, /s/, /ɪz/

Another example: English indefinite article

English has two allomorphs of an indefinite article:
a dog an apple

 Morph
o a minimal meaningful form, regardless of whether it is a morpheme or allomorph

WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

 Compounding
o A word formed by the combination of two independent words  compound
o The parts of a compound can be morphemes, derived words, or other compounds.
o E.g. girlfriend, blackbird, air conditioner, astronaut, working girl, aircraft carrier,
life insurance salesman
o Compounds may be spelled
 as single word
 e.g. sawmill, astronaut, girlfriend
 using hyphen between the parts
 e.g. jig-saw, man-made, deaf-mute
 as two words or more
 e.g. looking glass, working girl, life insurance salesman
o A compound generally consist of a head word and a modifier.
o Compounds vs. Phrase
 Different stress pattern
 COMPOUND PHRASE
ˈWhite House white ˈhouse
ˈblackbird black ˈbird
 The meaning of the compound may differ to a greater or lesser degree from that
of the corresponding phrase
 Blackbird = a species of bird, regardless its color
 Black bird = a bird which is black, regardless its species
 In many compounds, the order of the constituent word is different from that in
the corresponding phrase
 COMPOUND PHRASE
sawmill mill for sawing
sawdust dust from sawing
sawing horse horse for sawing
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  Compound nouns allow no modification to the first element, while the noun
phrase does.
 E.g. a really-blackbird * a really black bird
 Derivation
o Process of creating separate but morphologically related words
o Some kinds of derivational processes:
 Adding affixes (bound morphemes)
 E.g. {un} + {do} = undo (the opposite meaning of „do‟)
{sing} + {-er} = singer (a person who sings)
{sulat} (write) + {-ul-} = sumulat (to write) – Tagalog
{pe-} + {rencana} (plan) + {an} = perencanaan – Indonesian
 Zero Derivation
 Conversion (or functional shift)
o Changing word-class (parts of speech)
o Some conversions may be
 Noun  Verb
 E.g.
Converted Verb Meaning
father, captain, etc. behave/ act like/ be X
group, cash, etc. make into X
bottle, jail, etc. put into X
brake, comb, etc. use X

 Adjective  Verb
 E.g. cool, empty, slow, etc.
 Verb  Noun
 E.g. cheat, spy, command, drink, etc.
 Conversion by stress
 E.g. ˈpermit (noun)  perˈmit (verb)
ˈcontact (noun)  conˈtact (verb)
 Reduplication
o All of a morpheme is doubled  total reduplication,
o A part of a morpheme is doubled  partial reduplication
o E.g.
 Indonesian uses total reduplication to form plural nouns
 [rumah] „house‟  [rumahrumah] „houses‟
 [ibu] „mother  [ibuibu] „mothers‟
 Tagalong uses partial reduplication to indicate future
 [bili] „buy‟  [bibili] „will buy‟
 [kain] „eat‟  [kakain] „will eat‟
 Abbreviation
o Shortening the existing words to create other words, usually informal versions of the
original
o E.g. doc (doctor), prof (professor)

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  Acronyms
o Taking initial sounds (or letters) of the words or a phrase and uniting them into a
combination which is itself pronounceable as a separate word.
o E.g. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
Laser (light amplification through the stimulated emission of radiation)
Radar (radio detection and ranging)
 Back Formation
o Making use of a process called analogy to derive new words, but in rather backwards
manner
o E.g. revision : revise :: television : televise
creation : create :: donation : donate
 Blending
o Combining the parts of two words, usually the beginning of one word and the end of
another
o E.g. smog (smoke and fog)
Brunch (breakfast and lunch)
 Clipping
o Shortening words without paying attention to the derivational morphology of the word
(or related word)
o E.g. exam (examination)
Dorm (dormitory)
 Coinage
o Creating of new words without reference to the existing morphological resources of the
language, i.e. solely out of the sounds of the language
o E.g. brand names such as Xerox, Kodak, Exxon

THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF COMPLEX WORDS

o Two important facts about the ways in which affixes join with their expressions
 The expression with which a given affix may combine normally belong to the
same part of speech.
 E.g. Suffix –able attaches freely to a verb, but not to adjective or noun.
o -able may attach to adjust, use, break, etc.
 The expression resulting from the addition of a given affix to some word or
morpheme also normally belong to the same part of speech.
 E.g. The result of the addition of suffix –able to a verb is always an
adjective.
o E.g. adjust + -able = adjustable
break + -able = breakable
o The internal structure of words is hierarchical; affixes are put together step by step.
o E.g. unchildish
Step:
1. Suffix –ish attaches to noun child  childish
2. Prefix un- attaches to adj. childish  unchildish

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 Tree diagram

unreadability [N[Adjun1[Adj[Vread]abil]]ity]

*how will you explain the process?

Exercise:
1. Identify the component morphs of these complex words. Indicate which are free morphs and
bound morphs, and which of bound morphs are inflectional and which are derivational.
a. encouragement
b. kingdoms
c. brotherhood
d. biannually
e. readings
2. A morphological analysis of Michoacan [mitʃɔɑˈkɑn] Aztec
The following list is taken from Michoacan Aztec.

1. nokali “my house” 9. mopelomes “your dogs”

2. nokalimes “my houses” 10. ipelo “his dog”
3. mokali “your house” 11. pelo “dog”
4. ikali “his house” 12. nokwahmili “my cornfield”
5. kali “house” 13. mokwahmili “your cornfield”
6. kalimes “houses” 14. ikwahmili “his cornfield”
7. nopelo “my dog” 15. ikwahmilimes “his cornfields”
8. mopelo “your dog” 16. kwahmili “cornfield”

Fill in the following chart.

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