MORPHOLOGY

(SESSION 1)
1. The English Morpheme
2. Classification & Characteristics
of Morphemes
3. Variations in Morphemes
 MORPHOLOGY
- Morphology: is the study of words, how they
are formed, and their relationship to other
words in the same language.
1. The English Morpheme
1.1. Definition

- Morpheme: the smallest unit of words that has a

meaning and cannot be subdivided further.

A morpheme is:
+ a word/part of a word that has meaning;
+ cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts;
+ recurs in different verbal environment with a
relatively stable meaning.
e.g. ‘unkind’ consists of 2 morphemes:
the prefix ‘un’+ the base ‘kind’
‘un’ = not; ‘kind’ = friendly and thoughtful to others
‘talks’ consists of 2 morphemes:
the base ‘talk’+ the suffix ‘s’
‘talk’= say something; ‘s’= third person singular
present tense form
‘brighten’ consists of 2 morphemes:
the base ‘bright’+ the suffix ‘en’
‘bright’ = light; ‘en’ = make
>> We can recognize a morpheme by either its lexical or
its grammatical meaning.
1.2. Distinction between Morphemes, Phonemes, Syllables
& Words
* Morphemes vs. Phonemes
- Morpheme: has meaning
- Phoneme: does not have meaning, but only distinctive
features that help to distinguish meaning.
e.g. b in ‘bitch’ is not aspirated, but p ‘pitch’ is aspirated.
I in ‘pin’ is a close vowel, but æ in ‘pan’ is an open vowel.

- Morphemes are short sequences of phonemes

(English morphemes = about 2 to 6 phonemes)
e.g. the morpheme ‘of’ consists of 2 phonemes ɒ and v
1.2. Distinction between Morphemes, Phonemes, Syllables
& Words
*Morphemes vs. Syllables
- Morpheme: a morphological unit
Syllable: a phonological unit
- A morpheme may consist of one syllable
e.g. the morpheme ‘strange’ and the syllable streIndʒ
- A morpheme may consist of more than one syllable
e.g. ‘lion’ ʹlɑIən (1 morpheme, 2 syllables)
‘crocodile’ ʹkrɒkədɑIl (1 morpheme, 3 syllables)
- A morpheme may be part of a syllable
e.g. ‘goes’ (2 morphemes: the base ‘go’+ the suffix ‘es’,
1 syllable)
1.2. Distinction between Morphemes, Phonemes, Syllables
& Words

*Morphemes vs. Words

- Words: are made up of morphemes, i.e. morphemes are the
constituents of words.

- A word may consist of 1 or more morphemes

+ 1 morpheme: boy, desire
+ 2 morphemes: boy+ish, desir(e)+able
+ 3 morphemes: boy+ish+ness, desir(e)+abil+ity
+ 4 morphemes: un+desir(e)+abil+ty
+ More than 4 morphemes: un+gentle+man+li+ness
2. Classification of Morphemes
2.1. According to Form
* Free morphemes vs. Bound morphemes
- Free morphemes: may stand alone as words as well as
enter into the structure of other words
e.g. ‘drink’, or ‘drink’ in drinkable, undrinkable, drinking water

- Bound morphemes: may occur only if they combine with

another morpheme.
e.g. the suffix ‘ing’ must be used after a verb form: writing
e.g. ‘defrost’ = bound morpheme (de-) + free morpheme (frost)
e.g. ‘unavoidable’ = 3 bound morphemes (un-, a-, -able)
+ 1 free morpheme (void)
2. Classification of Morphemes
2.1. According to Meaning
* Bases/Roots vs. Affixes
- Bases (Roots): the part of a word that has the principal
meaning
e.g. personal, teacher, re-enter (free base)
e.g. consent, sentiment, assent, dissent (bound base)
(-sent- means “feel”)
+ A free base: may be a word on its own right
once the other morphemes have been stripped away.
e.g. ‘break’ in ‘unbreakable’, ‘act’ in ‘deactivated’,
‘friend’ in ‘friendship’, ‘infan(t)’ in ‘infancy’,
‘pose’ in ‘position’, ‘view’ in ‘review’, ‘tend’ in ‘pretend’

+ A bound base: a base which can never occur alone

but can be only be joined to other bound morphemes.
e.g. ‘audi’ in audience, audible, audition, auditory, auditorium
(audi- = listening)
‘cide’ in suicide, patricide, matricide, homicide,
(-cide = killing)
- Affix: a bound morpheme that occurs before or behind
a base

➢ Classified according to their POSITION in English words

+ Prefixes: occur before a base.
e.g. import, reconsider, unkind, over react
+ Suffixes: occur after a base
e.g. noisy, quickly, nails, dreamed, boyish, childlike
+ Infixes: occur within a base (debatable among linguists)
e.g. goose – geese, tooth – teeth, foot – feet
➢ Classified according to their FUNCTION in English words
+ Inflectional Affixes: always suffixes in English,
perform a grammatical function
(1) noun plural {-s pl} e.g. books, apples, boxes, oxen, teeth
(2) noun possessive {-s ps} e.g. man’s, students’, children’s,
(3) third person singular present tense {-s 3rd} e.g. walks, mixes
(4) present participle {-ING vb} e.g. playing, typing, digging
(5) past simple {-D pt} e.g. worked, drank, broke, thought
(6) past participle {-D pp} e.g. worked, drunk, broken, thought
(7) adjective or adverb comparative {-ER cp}
e.g. smaller, safer, thinner, longer, harder, happier
(8) adjective or adverb superlative {-EST sp}
e.g. smallest, safest, thinnest, longest, hardest, happiest
➢ Classified according to their FUNCTION in English words
+ Inflectional Affixes: always suffixes in English,
perform a grammatical function

e.g. - The inflectional paradigm of the verb ‘go’ consists of

go, goes, going, went and gone.

- The inflectional paradigm of the noun ‘student’ consists of

student, students, student’s and students’.

- The inflectional paradigm of the adjective ‘happy’ consists of

happy, happier and happiest.
➢ Classified according to their FUNCTION in English words

+ Inflectional Affixes: always suffixes in English,

perform a grammatical function
do not create new words

+ Derivational Affixes: may be prefixes or suffixes in English,

have a lexical function:
(create words out of existing words or morphemes)
(1) Class-changing e.g. nation (n) → national (adj)
(2) Class-maintaining e.g. pleasant (adj) → unpleasant (adj)
➢ Classified according to their FUNCTION in English words
+ Derivational Affixes:
e.g. (of derivational paradigms)
- MOTHER, MOTHERhood, MOTHERly, MOTHERli ness,
MOTHERless, MOTHERlike
- BREAK, BREAKable, unBREAKable, BREAKabil ity,
unBREAKabil ity, BREAKage, BREAKer
- PURE, PUREly, PURist, PURism, PURify, PURific ation,
PUREness, imPURE, imPURity
 CLASSIFICATION OF MORPHEMES

➢ The Relative Order of Morphemes in English Words:

Derivational Prefix – Base – Derivational Suffix(es) – Inflectional Suffix

3. Variations in Morphemes - Allomorphs
3.1. Definition:
- Allomorph: is any of the different forms of a morpheme.
e.g. -s, -Iz, -z are 3 allomorphs
of the inflectional noun plural morpheme, because:
+ They are in complementary distribution
-s occurs only after the voiceless consonants p, t, k, f, θ
-Iz occurs only after the sibilant consonants s, z, ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ
-z occurs only after voiced sounds
(vowels and voiced consonants b, d, g, v, ð except z, ʒ, ʤ)
+ They all have the same meaning (either lexical or grammatical)
-s, -Iz, -z all show plural and mean ‘more than one’
3.2. Selection of allomorphs

- Phonologically conditioned allomorphs (= regular):

each can occur only when a certain defined condition occurs,
(e.g. the phonetic nature of the preceding phoneme).
e.g. -s, Iz, -z of the inflectional noun plural morpheme

- Morphologically conditioned allomorph (= irregular):

the selection is determined by the specific morpheme(s)
forming the context, not by any phonological feature.
e.g. -en of the inflectional noun plural morpheme in ‘oxen’
3.3. Types of Allomorphes

- Additive Allomorphs: to signify some difference in meaning,

[a sound] is added to a word. e.g. asked, lived, needed

- Replacive Allomorphs: to signify some difference in meaning,

[a sound] is used to replace another sound in a word.
e.g. I in ‘drink’ is replaced by æ in ‘drank’ to signal
the simple past.

- Subtractive Allomorphs: to signify some difference in meaning,

[a sound] is deleted from a word.
e.g. (in Russia) a is deleted from ‘zopa’ to signal the plural form
of the possessive case.
3.3. Types of Allomorphes

- Suppletive Allomorphs: to signify some difference in meaning,

there is a complete change in the shape of a word.
e.g. go + the suppletive allomorph = went
bad + the suppletive allomorph = worse

- Zero Allomorph: some difference in meaning is identified but

there is no change in the shape of a word.
e.g. a series + zero allomorph = series (plural noun)
hurt + zero allomorph = hurt (past tense)
 MORPHOLOGY
SESSION 1 (ASSIGNMENTS)

Read (Chapter 1) pp.13-14

(Chapters 2 & 3) pp.19-23