2. WHAT'S MORPHOLOGY?
ď˘ a) Morphology is the study of the structure of
words.
-Paradoxically, however, the concept of word itself
defies simple definition. In English, for
example, words tend to be smaller than the
sentence, and we combine words to form
sentences. One tricky thing, however, is that in
many languages, a single word can have
"sentence" meaning
3. SUMMING UP THE TOPICS :
ď˘ Morphology is the study of word structure and word
formation.
ď˘ Words, though impossible to define in absolute terms,
can be thought of as the units that are combined to form
sentences in a language such as English.
ď˘ Just as sentences can be broken down into smaller
units (words), we can break words down into smaller,
meaningful parts.
ď˘ The smallest meaningful part of a word is called a
morpheme.
ď˘ Note: not all words have more than one morpheme.
Words that have only one morpheme are also called
monomorphemic words (e.g. pig). Words with more than
one morpheme are called polymorphemic words, as in
foolishness (fool + ish + ness).
ď˘
4. MORPHEMES:
minimal unit in which there is an arbitrary union of a
sound and a meaning (lexical meaning or grammatical
function).
5. A morpheme: may be represented by a single sound (
âaâ in âamoralâ )
: may be represented by a single
syllable ( âchildâ âishâ )
: may be represented by more than one
syllable
2 syllables: (camel ,lady , water)
3 syllables: (crocodile)
4 syllables: (elevator)
6. MORPHEMES
Homonyms (a.k.a
Homograph
Homophones)
one of two or more words One of two or more words
pronounced alike but spelled identically but
differ in meaning or
differ in meaning or pronunciation
spelling. Example:
Example: to too two Bow and arrow
Bow of a violin
Bow of a ship
Bow a tie
Japanese bow
7. TYPES OF MORPHEMES
Free Morphemes :
is a morpheme that by itself can function as a word in
a language
Examples : Boy , desire , gentle , man.
8. CONTENT VERSUS FUNCTION WORDS
Content Words Function Words
ď˘ Content Words: The ď˘ Function Words: A word
nouns, verbs, adjective that does not have clear
lexical meaning but has a
s, and adverbs that grammatical function.
constitute the major Function words include:
part of the vocabulary. conjunctions, prepositions,
Content words are articles, auxiliaries,
referred to as OPEN complementizers, and
pronouns. Function words
CLASS words because are referred to as CLOSED
we can add new words CLASS words because we
to these classes can not add new words to
these classes.
9. Bound Morpheme:
is a morpheme that cannot stand by itself to form a
word; it must be joined to other morphemes It is
bound because although it has meaning, it cannot
stand alone. It must be attached to another
morpheme to produce a word.
Examples : -ish -ness -ly dis- trans-
Free morpheme : bad
Bound morpheme : ly
Word : badly
10. AFFIXES
ď˘ Affix: is a bound morpheme that occurs before
(prefix), after (suffix), in the middle of (infix), and
around (circumfix) stems (root morphemes)
Prefix: un-, pre-, bi-
Suffix: -ing, -er, -ist, -ly
Infix: un-freaking-believable
Morphemes that are inserted between other
morphemes
Circumfix:
Morphemes that are attached to another morpheme
both initially and finally. Also known as:
discontinuous morphemes
11. ROOTS & STEMS
ď˘ Root : is a non-affix lexical morpheme that cannot
be analyzed into smaller parts. Roots may or may
not stand alone as a word
Examples : Paint (paint-er) Read (re-read)
Ceive (con-ceive)
ď˘ Stem : is that part of a word to which grammatical/
inflectional affixes are added. It may consist
amongst others
a). Solely single root morpheme such as e.g.
(Simple stem such as dog)
12. b). Two root morphemes e.g. ( compound stem as in
blackbird)
c). A root morpheme plus a derivational suffix e.g.
(a complex stem as in unscrew)
a) cats: single root morpheme: cat + inflectional
suffix âs
b) crowbar: two root morphemes (crow + bar) ) +
inflectional suffix âs
c) inventions: : root morpheme invent + lexical suffix -
ion+ inflectional suffix -s
13. WORD FORMATION (WORD COINAGE)
In linguistics, the ways in which new words are made
on the basis of other words or morphemes.
14. COMMON TYPES OF WORD
FORMATION
Coinages
Nonce words
Borrowing
Calquing
Clipping
15. COINAGES
Coinage is the word formation process in which a new
word is created either deliberately or accidentally
without using the other word formation processes and
often from seemingly nothing .For example, the
following list of words provides some common coinages
found in everyday English:
ď˘ Aspirin
ď˘ Escalator
ď˘ heroin
ď˘ Band-aid
ď˘ Factoid
ď˘ Frisbee
ď˘ Google
ď˘ linoluem
16. NONCE WORDS
Nonce words are new words formed through any
number of word formation processes with the
resulting word meeting a lexical need that is not
expected to recur. Nonce words are created for a
single occasion. For example, the following list of
words provide some nonce words with definitions
as identified in the Oxford English Dictionary
ď˘ Cotton-wool: to stuff or close ears with cotton wool.
ď˘ Twi-thought: an indistinct or vague thought
17. BORROWING
ARE ALSO REFERRED TO AS LOANWORDS
ď˘ Borrowing is the word formation process in which a word from one
language is borrowed directly into another language. For example, the
following common English words are borrowed from foreign languages:
ď algebra â Arabic
ď bagel â Yiddish
ď cherub â Hebrew
ď chow mein â Chinese
ď fjord â Norwegian
ď galore â Irish
ď haiku â Japanese
ď kielbasa â Polish
ď murder â French
ď near â Sanskrit
ď paprika â Hungarian
ď pizza â Italian
ď smorgasbord â Swedish
ď tamale â Spanish
ď yo-yo â Tagalog
18. CALQUING
ď˘ Calquing is the word formation process in which a borrowed
word or phrase is translated from one language to another.
For example, the following common English words are
calqued from foreign languages:
ď beer garden â German â Biergarten
ď blue-blood â Spanish â sangre azul
ď commonplace â Latin â locus commĹŤnis
ď flea market â French â marchĂŠ aux puces
ď free verse â French â vers libre
ď loanword â German â Lehnwort
ď long time no see â Chinese â hÇo jiÇ bu jiĂ n
ď pineapple â Dutch â pijnappel
ď scapegoat â Hebrew â ez ozel
ď wisdom tooth â Latin â dÄns sapientiae
ď˘ Calques are also referred to as root-for-root or word-for-word
translations
19. CLIPPING
ď˘ Clipping is the word formation process in which a word
is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning
of the word. Clipping differs from back-formation in that
the new word retains the meaning of the original word.
For example:
ď˘ advertisement â ad
ď˘ alligator â gator
ď˘ examination â exam
ď˘ gasoline â gas
ď˘ gymnasium â gym
ď˘ influenza â flu
ď˘ laboratory â lab
ď˘ mathematics â math
20. ď˘ memorandum â memo
ď˘ photograph â photo
ď˘ public house â pub
ď˘ raccoon â coon
ď˘ reputation â rep
ď˘ situation comedy â sitcom
ď˘ telephone â phone
The four types of clipping are back clipping, fore-
clipping, middle clipping, and complex clipping.
Back clipping is removing the end of a word as in
gas from gasoline. Fore-clipping is removing the
beginning of a word as in gator from alligator.
Middle clipping is retaining only the middle of a
word as in flu from influenza. Complex clipping is
removing multiple parts from multiple words as in
sitcom from situation comedy
21. IDENTIFYING MORPHEMES
1. Segmentation of words into minimal sound-
meaning constituents
ďľ basic strategy
ďˇ comparing and contrasting forms that are
partially similar in sound and meaning
ďˇ associating shared sound with shared meaning
ďˇ continuing to do so until forms cannot be broken
into smaller sound-meaning units
24. in- con-sist âent
ď˘ ď˘ ď˘ ď˘
prefix+prefix+root+suffix
ďˇ identifying the meaning of the various forms
ďł the meaning of re-pay-ment =
the meaning of re- + the meaning of pay- + the
meaning of -ment
ďł the meaning of in-struct-ion-s =
ďł the meaning of in- + the meaning of -struct + the
meaning of -ion + the meaning of âs
ď˘ ďł the meaning of in-con-sist-ent =
ď˘ the meaning of in- + the meaning of con- + the
meaning of -sist + the meaning of -ent
25. 2. Bound roots
ďˇ in segmenting a word into its constituent
morphemes,
not all morphemes obvious
ďˇ ďł some of the segmentations, or breaks, are
less obvious
compare: -sist in consist
re- in rewrite
-er in writer
ďł some root morphemes never occur alone
in modern English, morphemes such as -ceive, -
mit, -fer have lost their independent meaning â
their meaning depends on the entire word in
which they occur