Morphemic Structure of the

Words
Theory of Grammar
 Home Task

Segmental Units – ???

Suprasegmental Units - ???

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 Language Hierachy (1)
Level Units
Phonemic Phonemes
Morphemic Morphemes
Lexemic Words
Signemes
Phrasemic Phrases (word-groups)
(a sign has a
Proposemic meaning) Sentences
Supra- A textual unity of separate
proposemic sentences

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 Language Hierachy (2)
Level Units Functions
Phonemic Phonemes Differential
Morphemic Morphemes Significative
Lexemic Words Nominative
Phrasemic Phrases (word-groups) Polynominative
Signemes
(nomination of a
(a sign has
complicated
a
phenomenon)
meaning)
Proposemic Sentences Polynominative
Supra- A textual unity of (nomination of a
proposemic separate sentences situational event)

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 Grammatical Categories Task
Word-form/Categories
plays
wrote
am looking
had been done
will have prepared
speak
was crying
were told
geese
children’s
princess
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Relations Task

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 ?????
• the minimal potential sentence
• the minimal free linguistic form
• the elementary component of the sentence
• the articulate sound-symbol
• the grammatically arranged combination of
sound with meaning
• the meaningfully integral and immediately
identifiable lingual unit
• the uninterrupted string of morphemes

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 Descriptive Linguistics Basic
Categories
• the phoneme = the minimal formal segment
of language
• the morpheme = the minimal meaningful
segment
• the word
• the sentence
L. Bloomfield

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 Descriptive Linguistics Language
Levels
• the phonemic level
• the morphemic level
• (later) the level of "constructions", i.e. the
level of morphemic combinations

L. Bloomfield

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 Morpheme
• a meaningful segmental component of the
word
• formed by phonemes
• as a meaningful component of the word it is
elementary (i.e. indivisible into smaller
segments as regards its significative
function)

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 Morphemes Classification
Root-morphemes Affixal morphemes
Roots Affixes
express the concrete, "material" part of express the specificational part of the
the meaning of the word meaning of the word, the specifications
being of lexico-semantic and grammatico-
semantic character
The roots of notional words = classical prefixes, suffixes, and inflexions
lexical morphemes (grammatical inflexions commonly
referred to as "suffixes")
obligatory prefixes and lexical suffixes have word-
building functions, together with the root
they form the stem of the word
inflexions (grammatical suffixes) express
different morphological categories

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 Morphemes (1)
one and the same morphemic segment of
functional (i.e. non-notional) status, depending
on various morphemic environments, can be
used as an affix (mostly, a prefix) or as a root:
out, throughout, outing, outlook, outline,
outrage, out-talk, outlook, outline, outrage,
out-talk

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 Morphemes (2)
• out — a root-word (preposition, adverb,
verbal postposition, adjective, noun, verb);
• throughout — a composite word, in which -
out serves as one of the roots (the categorial
status of the meaning of both morphemes is
the same);
• outing — a two-morpheme word, in which
out is a root, and -ing is a suffix;

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 Morphemes (3)
• outlook, outline, outrage, out-talk, etc. —
words, in which out- serves as a prefix;
• look-out, knock-out, shut-out, time-out, etc.
— words (nouns), in which -out serves as a
suffix.

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 Abstract Morphemic Model

prefix + root + lexical suffix + grammatical suffix

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Hierachical Morphemic Model

W1 = {[Pr + (R + L)] +Gr}

prefabricated
W2 = {[(Pr + R) +L] + Gr}
inheritors

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 Morphs vs. Allomorphs
• Eme-terms denote the generalised invariant
units of language characterised by a certain
functional status: phonemes, morphemes
• Allo-terms denote the concrete
manifestations, or variants of the
generalised units dependent on the regular
co-location with other elements of language:
allophones, allomorphs

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 Distributional Analysis (1)
Stage 1 – the text is divided into recurrent
segments consisting of phonemes ("morphs“),
e.g.: the/boat/s/were/gain/ing/speed

Stage 2 - the environmental features of the

morphs are established and the corresponding
identifications are effected

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 Distributional Analysis (2)
1. contrastive distribution (concerns identical
environments of different morphs)
2. non-contrastive distribution (concerns
identical environments of different morphs)
3. complementary distribution (concerns
different environments of formally different
morphs united by the same meaning
(function))

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 Contrastive Distribution
if the meanings (functions) of the morphs are
different = such morphs constitute different
morphemes
returned, returning

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 Non-Contrastive Distribution
if the meanings (functions) of the morphs are
the same = such morphs constitute free
alternants/free variants of one and the same
morpheme

learned, learnt

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 Complementary Distribution
If two or more morphs have the same meaning
and the difference in their form is explained by
different environments = such morphs are the
allomorphs of the same morpheme
• the allomorphs of the plural morpheme /-s/, /-
z/, /-iz/ - phonemic complementary distribution
• the allomorphs of the plural morpheme /-s/, /-
z/, /-iz/ - morphemic complementary
distribution
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 Complementary Distribution
If two or more morphs have the same meaning
and the difference in their form is explained by
different environments = such morphs are the
allomorphs of the same morpheme
• the allomorphs of the plural morpheme /-s/, /-
z/, /-iz/ - phonemic complementary distribution
• the allomorphs of the plural morpheme /-s/, /-
z/, /-iz/ - morphemic complementary
distribution
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