Download Chapter one Invitations to Linguistics

Chapter Four
Morphology
What is morphology?
•
•
•
The total number of words stored in
the brain is called the lexicon.
Words are the smallest free units of
language that unite sounds with
meaning.
Morphology is defined as the study of
the internal structure and the
formation of words.
Morphemes and allomorphs
• The smallest meaningful unit of language is called a
•
•
•
•
morpheme.
A morpheme may be represented by different forms, called
allomorphs.
“zero” form of a morpheme and suppletives
Some countable nouns do not change form to express
plurality. Similarly, some regular verbs do not change form to
indicate past tense. In these two cases, the noun or verb
contains two morphemes, among which there is one “zero
form” of a morpheme.
Some verbs have irregular changes when they are in past
tense. In this case, the verbs also have two morphemes.
Words which are not related in form to indicate grammatical
contrast with their roots are called suppletives.
Free and bound morphemes
• Some morphemes constitute words by themselves.
•
•
•
These morphemes are called free morphemes.
Other morphemes are never used independently in
speech and writing. They are always attached to free
morphemes to form new words. These morphemes are
called bound morphemes.
The distinction between a free morphemes and a
bound morpheme is whether it can be used
independently in speech or writing.
Free morphemes are the roots of words, while bound
morphemes are the affixes (prefixes and suffixes).
Inflexional and derivational
morphemes
• Inflexional morphemes in modern English indicate case
•
•
•
•
and number of nouns, tense and aspect of verbs, and
degree of adjectives and adverbs.
Derivational morphemes are bound morphemes added to
existing forms to construct new words.
English affixes are divided into prefixes and suffixes.
Some languages have infixes, bound morphemes which
are inserted into other morphemes.
The process of putting affixes to existing forms to create
new words is called derivation. Words thus formed are
called derivatives.
Conclusion: classification of
morphemes
• Morphemes
• Free morphemes
• Bound morphemes
• Inflexional
• Derivational: affixes
• Prefixes: -s, -’s, -er, -est, -ing, -ed, -s
• Suffixes
Complementary distribution
– allophones
• Sounds that are not found in the
same position are said to be in
complementary distribution.
• If segments are in complementary
distribution and share a number of
features, they are allophones of the
same phoneme.
Formation of new words
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Derivation
Compounding
Conversion
Clipping
Blending
Back-formation
Acronyms and abbreviations
Eponyms
Coinage
Derivation
• Derivation forms a word by adding an affix to a free
•
•
•
•
morpheme.
Since derivation can apply more than once, it is possible to
create a derived word with a number of affixes. For
example, if we add affixes to the word friend, we can form
befriend, friendly, unfriendly, friendliness, unfriendliness,
etc. This process of adding more than one affix to a free
morpheme is termed complex derivation.
Derivation does not apply freely to any word of a given
category. Generally speaking, affixes cannot be added to
morphemes of a different language origin.
Derivation is also constrained by phonological factors.
Some English suffixes also change the word stress.
Compounding
• Compounding is another common way to form words. It
•
•
•
is the combination of free morphemes.
The majority of English compounds are the combination
of words from the three classes – nouns, verbs and
adjectives – and fall into the three classes.
In compounds, the rightmost morpheme determines the
part of speech of the word.
The meaning of compounds is not always the sum of
meaning of the components.
Conversion
• Conversion is the process putting an
existing word of one class into another
class.
• Conversion is usually found in words
containing one morpheme.
Clipping
• Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic
•
•
word by deleting one or more syllables.
Clipped words are initially used in spoken
English on informal occasions.
Some clipped words have become widely
accepted, and are used even in formal styles.
For example, the words bus (omnibus), vet
(veterinarian), gym (gymnasium), fridge
(refrigerator) and fax (facsimile) are rarely used
in their complete form.
Blending
• Blending is a process that creates new words by
•
putting together non-morphemic parts of
existing words.
For example, smog (smoke + frog), brunch (a
meal in the middle of morning, replacing both
breakfast and lunch), motel (motor + hotel).
There is also an interesting word in the textbook
for junior middle school students – “plike” (a
kind of machine that is like both a plane and a
bike).
Back-formation
• Back-formation is the process that creates a new
word by dropping a real or supposed suffix.
• For example, the word televise is back-formed from
television. Originally, the word television is formed
by putting the prefix tele- (far) to the root vision
(viewing). At the same time, there is a suffix –sion
in English indicating nouns. Then people consider
the –sion in the word television as that suffix and
drop it to form the verb televise.
Acronyms and abbreviations
• Acronyms and abbreviations are formed by
•
•
putting together the initial letters of all words in
a phrase or title.
Acronyms can be read as a word and are usually
longer than abbreviations, which are read letter
by letter.
This type of word formation is common in
names of organizations and scientific
terminology.
Eponyms
• Eponyms are words that originate from
proper names of individuals or places.
• For example, the word sandwich is a
common noun originating from the fourth
Earl of Sandwich, who put his food
between two slices of bread so that he
could eat while gambling.
Coinage
• Coinage is a process of inventing words
not based on existing morphemes.
• This way of word formation is especially
common in cases where industry requires
a word for a new product. For example,
Kodak and Coca-cola.