Morphemes

Running head: MORPHEMES ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

A Contrastive Analysis of English and Vietnamese Morphemes inh L Vn Khanh Class 4A06 University of Pedagogy

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Abstract As you all know, a language is formed by four constituent parts: the phonological system, the morphological systems, the syntactic system, and the semantic system. Morphology, which is based on the morphological system, is the study and description of word-structure and word-formation of a language. In term of linguistics, according to Eugene A Nida, morphology is known as the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words (Nguyen, 2004, p. 6). Therefore, in order to understand how words in different languages are formed, we must learn and understand about its basic element: morphemes, first. It is the aim of this paper that will help readers to be clear about this term as well as the similarities and differences in the way it is present in English and Vietnamese.

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A Contrastive Analysis of English and Vietnamese Morphemes

Morphemes
Definition Today we know that words are not the smallest units of meaning in language. If we take a word and separate it into smaller parts, we may have morphemes (T t). So what are morphemes here? According to Eugene Nida, morphemes are the minimal meaningful units which may constitute word or parts of words (Nguyen, 2004, p. 9). In other words, morphemes are the smallest components of a word which contribute to its meaning. A word, therefore, can contain one or more than one morphemes. For examples, with the word teach in English, here we have one morpheme which is also the word. However, with the word teacher, we can divide it into teach and -er meaning the person who does the action, and get two morphemes here. Just bear in mind that whenever we can separate a word into smaller meaningful parts, then we can have morphemes. Morphemes, Words, Syllables Word, as for StateMaster-Encyclopedia, is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has phonetic value. As we can see from this definition, morphemes are the smaller parts of word which contribute to the meaning of that word. Syllable (m tit) is a unit of speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word (Nguyen, 2004, p. 10). Ex: In English: One 1 syllable

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Water 2 syllables (wa-, -ter) Information 4 syllables (in-, -for, -ma, -tion) A morpheme can be smaller, bigger or equal to a syllable, and a word can contain one or more than one syllables. Just like morphemes, syllables in different languages are very different. Therefore, we must accept them and should not try to bring our native languages knowledge of syllables to produce words from other languages. The table below will give you more clear examples about these three terms Language Word Morpheme 1. Dog English 1 1 2. Dogs English 1 2 (dog, -s) 3. Unproductive English 1 3 (un-, product, -ive) 4. Xamalt Russian 1 3 (xam-, a-, lt) 5. Nh my Vietnamese 1 2 (nh, my) 6. Cng nghip ha Vietnamese 1 3 (Cng, nghip, ha) Syllable 1 1 4 (un-, pro-, duc-, -tive) 3 (xa-, ma-, -lt) 2 (nh, my) 3 (cng, nghip, ha)

Knowing how to distinguish words, morphemes, syllables can be very useful in analyzing and contrasting languages in term of word-structure and word-formation. Types of Morphemes According to meanings, morphemes can be categorized into two types: free morphemes and bound morphemes. Free morphemes are those that can stand alone as a word. They usually occur in the central place of word-structure. In contrast, bound morphemes are those that cannot stand alone but have to be attached to the beginning and ending of other morphemes to form words. Ex: 1. English Interesting: interest => free morpheme

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-ing => bound morpheme Dislike: like => free morpheme dis- => bound morpheme Weaken: weak => free morpheme -en => bound morpheme 2. Vietnamese Nh ca: nh => free morpheme ca => free morpheme Ca s: ca => free morpheme s => bound morpheme Vui v: vui => free morpheme v => bound morpheme Free morphemes mostly function as the roots in words which have principal meaning while bound morphemes are the affixes which modify the basic meaning of the roots. According to functions, there are two types of morphemes: lexical morphemes and grammatical morpheme. Lexical morphemes are morphemes that determine the main meaning of words whereas grammatical morphemes are those that decide the grammatical function of them. For example, in English, the morpheme aqua is a lexical morpheme which means water. The morpheme -ed refers to the simple past tense in English and it is a grammatical morpheme. Most roots, prefixes, suffixes in words are lexical morphemes. As a result, we can find numerous lexical morphemes but limited grammatical ones in a language.

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English Morphemes
Since English belongs to synthetic languages, it has a high morpheme-per-word ratio. That means a single word in English can contain many morphemes, which are mainly bound morphemes. As a result, bound morphemes in English are those that cannot stand alone as separated words and must be attached to others to form words. There are a large number of bound morphemes in English which are categorized into two main types: prefixes, suffixes. 1. Prefixes Prefixes are bound morphemes that are attached at the beginning of a root. Ex: inaccurate, unkind, discontinue, rewrite, ex-major, impossible, malfunction All prefixes in English are lexical morphemes which carry lexical meanings. Thus, there are many groups of English prefixes according to their own meanings, e.g. negative prefixes (un-, non-, dis- ), prefixes of degree and size (super-, out-, over-, sub-), prefixes of attitude (co-, anti-, counter-), prefixes of time and order (fore-, pre-, post-), number prefixes (bi-, multi-, poly-, mono-) 2. Suffixes Suffixes are bound morphemes that follow the root. Ex: childhood, kindness, refusal, friendly, singing, worked, toys, plays There are two kinds of suffixes in English which are derivational suffixes and inflectional suffixes. Derivational suffixes are those that can influence the meaning and change the word class of the word they are added in. Inflectional suffixes, in contrast, are grammatical morphemes which carry only the grammatical information of the word.

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Ex: Derivational Suffixes fail (v) refuse (v) hope (n) act (n) weak (a) civil (a) Inflectional Suffixes There are eight types of inflectional suffixes in English (Nguyen, 2004, p. 22):
a) The noun possessive morpheme: {-s1}: Bills b) The noun plural morpheme: {-s2}: cars c) The verb present third person singular morpheme: {-s3}: flies d) The verb present participle morpheme: {-ing1}: singing e) The verb past tense morpheme: {-ed1}: ended f)

=> => => => => =>

failure (n) refusal (n) hopeful (a) active (a) weaken (v) civilize (v)

The verb past participle morpheme: {-ed2}: worked

g) Comparative morpheme: {-er}: nicer h) Superlative morpheme: {-est}: nicest

Like prefixes, English suffixes can be categorized into four groups according to the part of speech: noun suffixes, verb suffixes, adjective suffixes, and adverb suffixes. Since its words consist of many morphemes and have the main structure: root + affix morphemes, it is not always easy to identify morphemes in English. Therefore, according to many linguists, it is easier for us to recognize English words than its

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morphemes. Besides, since it is a synthetic languages, there are fewer free morphemes occurring alone as a word in English than other languages, especially isolating ones. In English, morphemes can be bigger, smaller or equal to syllables. Ex: manager => Morpheme: manage, -er Syllable: ma- + -na + -ger Superman => Morpheme: super, man Syllable: su- + -per+ -man Eye => Morpheme: eye Syllable: eye

Vietnamese Morphemes
Unlike English, Vietnamese belongs to isolating language which has words composed by single morpheme. That means a single word in Vietnamese often contains only one morpheme which is also the word. From this, we can know that nearly all morphemes in Vietnamese as well as in isolating languages are free morphemes and they functions as single words (nh, t, nc, s, cuc, vic, , s, ang ) Vietnamese bound morphemes are still exist but in a very limited number and very different from English. Firstly, they are separated words that cannot occur alone to form words. Generally, they function as reduplicative elements (o , xanh xanh, la tha, lch bch ). Secondly, they are nearly all suffixes and only carry lexical information.

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Vietnamese words are not formed by root + affix morphemes like English. Instead, it is the combination of separated words which have the relationship with each other in meaning to form a new word. For example, b + m are the two separated words which have their own meanings when standing alone. Spontaneously, these two words have a relationship with each other since each of them refers to the person who brings up a child. Therefore, when we put them together, we will have a new word b m. Since the boundary between words and morphemes in Vietnamese are unclear and blurred, it is very easy for us to be mistaken about these two units. The easiest unit that can be recognized in Vietnamese is syllables. All Vietnamese syllables are equal to morphemes, and a large amount of them are even equal to words. Let take a look at the table below and you will see the differences between syllables and morphemes in English and Vietnamese: Vietnamese Syllable Morpheme T + quc T + quc Sn + xut Sn + xut c + gi c + gi Nng + xut Nng +xut English Syllable Na- + -tion Pro- + -duct Rea- + -der Pro-+ -duc + -ti+ -vi+ -ty Morpheme Nation product Read + -er Product + -iv(e)+ -ity

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Conclusion
For some Vietnamese people, learning English is definitely not an easy task. They can encounter many difficulties that will keep them from mastering this language. As people all know, one of those difficulties is its new vocabulary items. When meeting a new vocabulary, some people usually lean on the dictionary for meaning. Others will try to predict it through the context. These ways are actually good but can waste us a lot of time for looking up or reading the whole sentences or paragraphs. Therefore, if we know another effective way to understand difficult words in English, our learning must be much easier. Through what I have mentioned about morphemes in this paper, I think you can figure out what the method I want to say here is. Since you have already known that English words are formed by smaller morphemes, which you probably know their meanings before, it can help you predict and guess the meaning of the new words effectively without wasting too much time. And once you can make a clear distinction about English and Vietnamese word structure, you will feel more comfortable when writing or translating both languages. Therefore, learning word structure in English as well as other languages are very important and must be taught to students in order to acquire the language easily.

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References Elearning.khoaanh: Word Formation in English and Vietnamese. Retrieved November 23, 2009, from page 5 at http://elearning.khoaanh.net/file.php/6/Topic_5_CA_Principles_and_Methodology /4A05_Le_Truong_My_Loc_Word_Formation_in_English_and_Vietnamese.pdf Le, Q. T. (2004). Nghin cu i chiu cc ngn ng. Ha Noi: Ha Noi National University Press Nguyen, H. L. (2004). An Outline of Morphology. Ho Chi Minh City: University of Education Press Nguyen, T. G., Doan, T. T., & Nguyen, M. T. Dn lun ngn ng hc. Ho Chi Minh City: Educational Publisher StateMaster Encyclopedia. (n.d). Word. Retrieved December 28,2009, from http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Word

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APPENDIX
Common English Prefixes
Prefix a-, ananteantiautocircumcocom-, concontradedisenexextraheterohomohyperil-, im-, in-, irininterintramacromicromonononomnipostpre-, prosubsyntranstriununiMeaning without before against self around with with against off, away from not put into out of, former beyond, more than different same over, more not, without into between between large small one not, without all, every after before, forward under same time across three not one Example amoral antecedent anticlimax autopilot circumvent copilot companion, contact contradict devalue disappear enclose extract, ex-president extracurricular heterosexual homonym hyperactive illegal, immoral, inconsiderate, irresponsible insert intersect intravenous macroeconomics microscope monocle nonentity omniscient postmortem precede, project submarine synchronize transmit tricycle unfinished unicorn

Common English Suffixes

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1. Noun Suffixes Suffix -acy -al -ance, -ence -dom -er, -or -ism -ist -ity, -ty -ment -ness -ship -sion, -tion 2. Verb Suffixes Suffix -ate -en -ify, -fy -ize, -ise 3. Adjective Suffixes Suffix -able, -ible -al -esque -ful -ic, -ical -ious, -ous -ish -ive -less -y 4. Adverb Suffixes Suffix -ly -way, -ways Meaning like In (such) a way, course, Example boldly, wisely, freely Straightway, anyway, Meaning capable of being pertaining to reminiscent of notable for pertaining to characterized by having the quality of having the nature of without characterized by Example edible, presentable regional picturesque fanciful musical, mythic nutritious, portentous fiendish creative endless sleazy Meaning become become make or become become eradicate enlighten terrify civilize Example Meaning state or quality act or process of state or quality of place or state of being one who doctrine, belief one who quality of condition of state of being position held state of being Example privacy refusal maintenance, eminence freedom, kingdom trainer, protector communism chemist veracity argument heaviness fellowship concession, transition

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-wise -ward, -wards

direction, manner Manner, mode turning to

always likewise, otherwise homeward, backward, upwards, towards