University of Caloocan city

Language, Culture and Society

Group 4 stalwart little

SIGN LANGUAGE
MORPHOLOGY
Sign languages, like spoken languages is rich in morphology structure like root and
affix morphemes, free and bound morphemes, lexical content and grammatical
morphemes, derivational and inflectional, and morphological rules for their
combination to form signed words.

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL)

WORD COINAGE
 1. New words were added to the vocabulary of language by derivational
processes.
2. Specific brand names are now used as generic names of a particular product.
3. Some words came from reordering of an existing word.
4. There are instances where Greek words or other words from different
country were being borrowed and coined.

ACRONYMS

- Are words derived from the initials of several words.

Examples:

NASA
Radar = National
= RAdio DetectingAeronautics
And Rangingand Space
Agency
laser = Light Amplification by Stimulated GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES
UNESCO
Emission = United National Educational,
of Radiation are tiny markers that can be added to
Scientific, and Cultural Organization
scuba = Self Contained Underwater Breathing
these words to add to or change their
UNICEF = United Nations International
Apparatus
Children’s Emergency Funds

meaning.

o These markers are crucial to speaking — and writing — standard English.

o A "morpheme" is a short segment of language that meets three basic

criteria:
1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.
2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without
changing its meaning or leaving a meaningless remainder.
3. It has relatively the same stable meaning in different verbal
environments.
 CLASSIFICATION OF GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES

FREE MORPHEME - Morphemes that can stand alone to function as words.

BOUND MORPHEME - Morphemes that can only be attached to another part of

a word (cannot stand alone).

CLASSIFICATION OF BOUND MORPHEMES

DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY – is defined as morphology that creates

new lexemes, either by changing the syntactic category (part of speech) of a base
or adding substantial “non-grammatical” meaning or both.

Affixation - is the process of adding a morpheme — or affix— to a word to

create either a different form of that word or a new word with a different meaning;
affixation is the most common way of making new words in English. (Prefixation,
Circumfixation, Suffixation)

o “Derivational affixes" serve to alter the meaning of a word by building

on a base.

EXAMPLE

NOUN TO ADJECTIVE NOUN TO VERB NOUN TO NOUN

boy + ish moral + ize human + ity

virtue + uos vaccine + ate king + dom

Elizabeth + an be + friend America + n

picture + esque humanity + arian

affection + ate friend + ship

VERB TO NOUN VERB TO ADJECTIVE ADJECTIVE TO
NOUN

acquit + al read + able tall + ness

clear + ance create + ive specific + ity

accuse + ation migrate + ory feudal + ism

conform + ist

predict + ion

ADJECTIVE TO ADJECTIVE VERB TO VERB

pink + ish un + do

il + legal re + cover

in + accurate dis + believe

red + like auto + destruct

un + happy

INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY – is the study of the processes that

distinguish the forms of word in certain grammatical categories.

o Inflectional Affixes - serve a variety of grammatical functions when

added to specific types of words.

THE EIGHT ENGLISH INFLECTIONAL

MORPHEME

-s     noun plural

-'s     noun possessive
-s     verb present tense third person singular
-ing     verb present participle/gerund
-ed     verb simple past tense
-en     verb past perfect participle
-er     adjective comparative
-est     adjective superlative
 WORD FROM
NAMES
EPONYMS are words derived from proper names and another of the many
creative ways that the vocabulary of a language expands.

Language is a fascinating thing. The words we use today are drawn from, and have
evolved for, today’s usage from a wide variety of sources. One source is
someone’s name. An eponym is a word that has its origin in a person’s name.

An eponym refers to a person or thing after which something else is named.

A person or thing’s name can come to be associated with the name of

another character, person, product, object, activity, or even a discovery.

The word eponym (pronounced ep–uh-nim) came into use around 1833 and comes
from the Greek word, “eponymos”. Broken down, its construction is as follows:
“epi”, meaning “upon or after” and “onyma”, meaning “name”. Simply put:
“named after”.

Examples of Eponym

Eponyms are prominent in our culture, though we may take some for granted. Here
are a few eponyms used in everyday speech:

 If you are said to have an “Achilles’ heel”, it means that you have a
weakness of some kind. This eponym goes back to the Greek myths and to
the Trojan War. The hero Achilles was dipped in the river Styx by his
mother, making him invulnerable, except for the part of his heel where his
mother held him. He was eventually killed by being wounded in his heel.

 Europa was a woman in Greek mythology, after whom the continent of

Europe is named.
  Sandwich was named for the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who put his food
between two slices of bread so that he could eat while he gambled.

 Narcissistic having an excessive obsession with one’s own appearance.

From the myth of Narcissus a beautiful hunter who caught sight of his own
reflection in a pool of water and fell madly in love with himself. Unable to
tear himself away he spent all his time gazing lovingly at his own reflection,
losing his will to live and eventually dying

 Draconian – excessively harsh laws. Named after the Greek law maker

named Draco, who in 621 BCE passed a number of very strict laws,
including the death penalty for minor infringements.

Eponyms can be derived by the person themselves or by others. As they come to

be used over time, sometimes their interesting origins can be forgotten or taken for
granted.

Types of Eponyms

There are six structural types of eponyms:

a. Simple

Eponyms in which a proper noun has been fully adopted and become the common
named of something else.

 The Greek figure Atlas holds the world on his shoulders. We now use his
name, atlas, as the common term for a book of maps.

 The watt is the common name for a unit of electric power named after its
developer, James Watt.

b. Compounds and attributive

Eponyms mix names and descriptions.

 The loganberry is named after a US lawyer, James Logan.

c. Possessives

Eponyms written in the possessive tense and attribute ownership to their namesake.
  Newton’s laws of physics are named for the physicist, Sir Isaac Newton.

 The Strait of Magellan is named for Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese

explorer.

d. Suffix-based derivatives

Eponyms in which the name of the person is combined with a suffix to make a new
word.

 Mesmerism is named after a German physician, Franz Mesmer.

 Narcissism is named after the mythical character, Narcissus.

e. Clippings

Eponyms in which a name has been shortened or adapted.

1. The word “dunce” is a combination of the middle and last names of Johns
Duns Scotus. He was a friar and a theologian who was considered to be a
fool.

2. A “gal” is the name of a unit of measurement of acceleration shortened from

the name of the scientist Galileo Galiei.

f. Blends

Eponyms in which two words are blended together to make a new one.

1. The word “gerrymander” is a combination of the name Elbridge Gerry and

the word salamander, and refers to an unfair practice of dividing voting
districts in a city.

2. The term “Reagonomics” is a combination of the name Reagan and the word
economics, and refers to the policies of US President Ronald Reagan.

  The Importance of Using Eponyms

Eponyms show how related terms can become names for specific things. Inventors,
founders, and scientists are often eponymous people, inspiring the eponymic terms
that come to describe their inventions, products, or discoveries. Eponyms provide
those who have created or imagined something with the power of a name and idea
that outlives them. They also highlight people who have characterized entire styles,
eras, or studies.