Morphology

Adapted primarily from An overview of the English morphological system/ © 2004

Johanna Rubba; Retrieved on 9/30/13 from http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/morph/morph.over.html

Basic terminology with definitions and examples

MORPHEME = the smallest meaningful unit of language (any part of a word

that cannot be broken down further into smaller meaningful parts, including
the whole word itself). The word “items” can be broken down into two
meaningful parts: 'item' and the plural suffix '-s'; neither of these can be
broken down into smaller parts that have a meaning. Therefore 'item' and '-s'
are both morphemes. Notice that in writing, the initial chunk of the word
“items” includes “it” – which is spelled the same as the word “it”, which is a
meaningful unit of language. But the “it” in “items” is pronounced differently
and does not in any way share the function or distribution of the word “it.”
When looking for morphemes, it is important to ignore coincidental similarities
of this kind. Some single morphemes include many phonological parts. For
example, the single morpheme “salamander” contains many parts that look
and sound similar to other words and morphemes in the language (i.e., “man”
and “er”), but in this word these units of form are not separate meaningful
units, so they are not, in this word, separate morphemes.

 FREE MORPHEME = a morpheme that can stand alone as an

independent word (e.g. 'item').
 BOUND MORPHEME = a morpheme that cannot stand alone as an
independent word, but must be attached to another morpheme/word
(affixes, such as plural '-s', are always bound; roots are sometimes
bound, e.g. the '-ceive' of 'receive' or the ‘cept’ of “accept/except”.
 AFFIX = a bound morpheme which attaches to a base (root or stem).
o PREFIXES attach to the front of a base;
o SUFFIXES to the end of a base;
o INFIXES are inserted inside of a root.
o An example of a prefix is the 're-' of 'rewrite'; of a suffix, '-al' of
'critical'; and example of an infix (rare in English) is the morpheme
“freaking” in the slang term “abso-freaking-lutely” or “in-freaking-
credible”.

INFLECTION = the process by which affixes combine with roots to indicate

basic grammatical categories such as tense or plurality (e.g. in 'cat-s', 'talk-
ed', '-s' an d'-ed' are inflectional suffixes). Inflection is viewed as the process
of adding very general meanings to existing words, not as the creation of new
words.
DERIVATION = the process by which affixes combine with roots to create
new words (e.g. in 'modern-ize', 'read-er', '-ize' and '-er' are derivational
suffixes). Derivation is viewed as using existing words to make new words.
Derivation is much less regular, and therefore much less predictable, than
inflectional morphology. For example, we can predict that most English words
will form their plural by adding the affix <-s> or <-es>. But how we derive
nouns from verbs, for example, is less predictable. Why do we add <-al> to
'refuse', making 'refusal', but '-ment' to 'pay' to make 'payment'? 'Payal' and
'refusement' are not possible English words. We have to do more memorizing
in learning derivational morphology than in learning inflectional morphology.

CONTENT [or “Lexical”] MORPHEME: A morpheme that has a relatively

more-specific meaning than a function morpheme; a morpheme that names a
concept/idea in our record of experience of the world. Content morphemes fall
into the classes of noun, verb, adjective, adverb.

[Grammatical] FUNCTION MORPHEME: A morpheme that has a relatively

less-specific meaning than a content morpheme; a morpheme whose primary
meaning/function is to signal relationships between other morphemes.
Function morphemes generally fall into classes such as articles ('a', 'the'),
prepositions ('of', 'at'), auxiliary verbs ('was eating', 'have slept'), etc.

MORPHOPHONEMICS/ALLOMORPHY = the study of the processes by

which morphemes change their pronunciation in certain situations.

o ALLOMORPHS = the different forms (pronunciations) of a single

morpheme. Ex: the plural morpheme in English is {-z}. Its
allomorphs are / s /, / z /, / ə z /. Also, the morpheme 'leaf' has two
allomorphs: 'leaf' in words built from it (e.g.'leafy') and 'leav-',
found only in the plural: 'leaves'.
English inflectional morphology
English has only three categories of meaning which are expressed
inflectionally, known as inflectional categories, they result in 8 inflectional
morphemes (i.e., “the big 8”). The categories are number in nouns, tense /
aspect in verbs, and comparison in adjectives. Within these categories,
English has a remarkably small inventory of affixes compared to other
languages. English does not always use affixes to express these categories
(see the discussion below of irregular morphology). Mastery of inflectional
morphology is a useful way of tracking language development in children.
(see more in your reading Brown1973MLUm-augmented), and errors in use of
inflectional forms are a hallmark of impaired or delayed language
performance.

Inflectional categories and affixes of English

Word class to which Regular affix used to express

Inflectional category
inflection applies category
Number {PLU} -s, -es: book/books, bush/bushes
Nouns
Possessive {POSS} -'s, -': the cat's tail, Charles' toe
3rd person singular -s, -es: it rains, Karen writes, the
present {PRES} water sloshes
past tense {PAST} -ed: paint/painted
Verbs perfect aspect -ed: paint/painted ('has painted)
{PAST PART} (past participle)
progressive or
-ing: fall/falling, write/writing (present
continunous aspect
participle)
{PRES PART}
comparative {COMP}
-er: tall/taller
(comparing two items)
Adjectives
superlative {SUP}
-est: tall/tallest
(comparing +2 items)

In morphological analysis, you can use brackets and “+” to indicate the morphology
of the word. So, if a noun takes on the plural marker to change number, you would use
“{PLU}” to indicate this. For example “Balls” is made up of two morphemes, a
lexical morpheme “ball” and the plural morpheme {PLU}. So, “balls” could be
represented morphologically as “{Ball} + {PLU}”. Similarly, “children” would be
represented as “{Child} + {PLU}”. If a prefix or another morpheme is part of the
word, you would indicate these similarly. So, for example, in the word “Bicycles”
there are two morphemes in addition to the {PLU} that indicates number. “Bicycles”
could be represented as “{Bi}+ {Cycle}+ {PLU}. When irregular forms exist, you
treat inflectional morphemes as a suffix in this kind of analysis. So, for instance,
“Men” can be represented as “{Man} + {PLU}” even though the morphological
change is not addition of a suffix. English verbs often have several irregular forms. In
these cases you should use the infinitive version of the verb in your morphological
analysis. So, for instance, the infinitive form (the form that would follow “to,” such as
“to be” or “to run”) would be the morpheme used. For example the word “is” can be
represented as {be} + {PRES} while the word “ran” can be represented as
{run}+{PAST}. Errors in performance can be also indicated using this scheme. For
instance, if a child does not use an expected form in an obligatory context, the word
can be represented as expected with information on the error included. An example
might be the omission of an obligatory form with the analysis indicating a null form
(i.e. {Ø}) was used in the place of the expected form. If a child said “Two ball” the
omission of the plural form could be indicated as “target: {ball} + {PLU}; production:
{ball} + {Ø}”.

Regular and irregular inflectional morphology

Here are some ways English inflectional morphology is irregular (i.e., where
forms don’t follow the predicted/common pattern):

Type of
Noun plurals Verbs: past tense Verbs: past participle
irregularity
oxen, syllabi, taken, seen, fallen,
Unusual suffix
antennae eaten
run/ran, come/came,
Change of stem
foot/feet, flee/fled, meet/met,
vowel swim/swum, sing/sung
mouse/mice fly/flew, stick/stuck,
“apophony”
get/got, break/broke
Change of stem
write/written, do/done,
vowel +unusual brother/brethren/ feel/felt, kneel/knelt
break/broken, fly/flown
suffix
Change in send/sent, bend/bent,
send/sent, bend/bent,
base/stem form think/thought,
think/thought,
(sometimes with teach/taught,
teach/taught, buy/bought
unusual suffix) buy/bought
Zero-marking
deer, sheep,
(no suffix, no hit, beat hit, beat, come
moose, fish
stem change)
 More ways inflection can be irregular:

Suppletion (instead of a suffix, the whole word changes):

be - am - are - is - was - were - been
go - went - gone
good - better - best
bad - worse - worst
some - more - most

Syntactic marking (added meanings are indicated by a separate word rather

than marking with a suffix or change to the base):

Comparative & Superlative for adjectives:

More/most intelligent, more/most expensive, etc.

Syntactic marking in verbs: (for more see DanielKies2013AuxilaryVerbs in your

readings). English verbs use an auxiliary verb system to syntactically mark mood,
tense, modality, and voice. This syntactic marking is accompanied by inflectional
changes in the main verb.

Example Sentences Auxiliaries (added word) Main Verb

I do believe you are right. do believe

You can go. can go
He may have gone without you. may have gone
She is going to meet him there. is going
He has been waiting there. has been waiting
He might have been waiting for a long time. might have been waiting
They were hired. were hired
New workers are being hired all the time. are being hired
She should be trying harder to get the job. should be trying
Others might have been being interviewed
while she was shopping. might have been being interviewed

Auxiliary
Modal Perfect Progressive Passive Main Verb
Support
English derivational morphology

Derivational morphology is open-ended, and as a result we will only touch on

it briefly. Derivational processes allow language users to create new words,
and to transform words so that they can move from one syntactic category to
another. However, addition of a derivational morpheme may also shift the
meaning of a form without changing the syntactic category. For example

Theory to Theoretical (noun to adjective)

Theory to Theorize (noun to verb)
Theoretical to Atheoretical (Adjective to different Adjective)

Unlike inflectional morphemes, derivational morphemes can show up as

prefixes, infixes, or suffixes and there can be many in a word (e.g., think of
“cover” becoming “recover” becoming “recoverable” becoming
“unrecoverable” becoming “unrecoverability).

Derivational suffixes precede inflectional suffixes, generally. For example the

word “Universals” ({Universe} + {al} + {PLU}) follows this pattern, but we don’t
see words like “Universesal” ({Universe} + {PLU} + {al})

Exceptions to this rule are tough to interpret, but typically can be

explained away by historical development of the language or other
morphosyntactic factors.

Spoons full → Spoonfuls; Mothers-in-law → Mother-in-laws.

Another difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes is how

widely a particular form can be used. Typically, an inflectional morpheme can
be affixed to (almost) all members of a syntactic category. Derivational
morphemes, on the other hand, tend to have a narrow application, working
with a limited number of lexical morphemes within a particular syntactic
category. For example, the prefix {a}, meaning “not,” is used in a limited
number of forms (e.g., atheist, amoral, agnostic, asymmetrical). It can’t be
used with most forms (e.g., “aderivational” can’t be used to indicate “not
derivational”).

Below is a sample of some English derivational affixes. This is only a sample;

there are far more affixes than presented here.
Some derivational affixes of English

Class(es) of word to Nature of change in

Affix Examples
which affix applies meaning
Prefix Noun: non-starter
Noun, adjective Negation/opposite
'non-' Adj.: non-partisan
Suffix '- electric/electricity
Adjective Changes to noun
ity' obese/obesity
tie/untie,
Prefix Verb Reverses action fasten/unfasten
'un-' Adjective opposite quality clear/unclear,
safe/unsafe
Suffix '- fame/famous,
Noun Changes to adjective
ous' glamor/glamorous
Prefix
Verb Repeat action tie/retie, write/rewrite
're-'
Changes to adjective;
Suffix '- print/printable,
Verb means 'can undergo
able' drink/drinkable
action of verb'

Allomorphy, or morphophonemic variation in English

Many morphemes of English have more than one way of being pronounced;
this is often not reflected in the spelling of the morpheme. Such variations
affect both affixes and roots. Sometimes the pronunciation varies because of
nearby sounds; sometimes there is no logic to it — its motivation lies in
forgotten history.

The pronunciation variants of a morpheme are called allomorphs (remember

Allophones?). The phenomenon of variation in the pronunciation of a
morpheme is called allomorphic variation or morphophonemic
variation (since it is the phonemic makeup of a morpheme that is varying).
The variations themselves are sometimes called morphophonological
processes. For example, the English past-tense morpheme has three
allomorphs: /ə d/, /t/, and /d/.

Morpheme: Past tense '-d'/'-ed'

Allomorphs: / ə d/, /t/, /d/
Distribution: / ə d/ after /t/ and /d/, /t/ after other voiceless consonants, /d/ after other
voiced Cs and vowels
Motivation: Phonological. /d/ occurs after vowels and voiced consonants other
than /d/; /t/ occurs after voiceless consonants other than /t/; and / ə d/ occurs
after the alveolar stops /t/ and /d/.

/t/ after other voiceless /d/ after other voiced Cs and

/ ə d/ after /t/ and /d/
consonants vowels
faded, stated, petted, kissed, leaped, fluffed, buzzed, played, mooned,
sounded stocked sued

Unmotivated allomorphy: A change in the pronunciation of a morpheme that is

not based on the phonological surroundings. Most of these simply must be
memorized.

Examples:

 'Electric' usually has final /k/; but has final /s/ in 'electricity'. The
morpheme 'electric' has two allomorphs: 'electri/k/' and 'electri/s/-'; the
second occurs only when the suffix -ity' is attached to the word.

 Words such as 'life', 'shelf', 'leaf' have a final /f/ in most forms, but when
they are pluralized, the base has a final /v/: 'lives', 'shelves', 'leaves'.
Thus these words have two allomorphs: one final in /f/ in the singular
('life', 'shelf', 'leaf') and one final in /v/, which occurs only when the plural
suffix is added: 'live-', 'shelv-', 'leav-'. Notice that not all words that end
in /f/ undergo this change: the plural of the noun 'proof' is not 'prooves'.
Dialects differ in how they pluralize words such as 'roof', 'hoof'; some
people say 'roofs' while others say 'rooves'; some say 'hoofs' and others
'hooves'. The plural of 'loaf' is 'loaves', but the plural of 'oaf' is not
'oaves' but 'oafs'. A learner of English has to memorize which words
change from /f/ to /v/ and which don't.