Morphology

Content Words & Function Words

➢ Content Words / Open Class Words (denote concepts and ideas): nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs
➢ Function Words / Closed Class Words (only specify grammatical relations):
conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns
➢ Content Words & Function Words play different roles in language.
➢ Content words bear the brunt of meaning whereas, function words connect
the content words to the larger grammatical context

Morphemes: The Minimal Units of Meaning

➢ Morpheme: the most elemental unit of grammatical form
➢ Morphology: the study of the internal structure of words, and the rules of
how words are formed

A Word ~ One or More Morphemes

➢ one morpheme: desire
➢ two morphemes: desire + able
➢ three morphemes: desire + able + ity
➢ four morphemes: un + desire + able + ity
➢ more than four morphemes: anti + dis + establish + ment + ari + an + ism

Monomorphemic Words
➢ Singers Sing
➢ Flingers Fling
➢ But Fingers do not Fing: Finger is monomorphemic.

Constancy of Meaning
1) Same Form-Different Meaning
➢ The agentive morpheme -er means «one who does»
singer, painter, lover, worker
➢ The comparative morpheme -er means «more»
nicer, prettier, taller
! Phonetically the same; yet different meaning
2) Different Form, Same Meaning
➢ -er & -ster
Singer and Songster mean «one who sings»
Young + ster «one who is young»
! But monster is a single morpheme, or a monomorphemic word
Bound and Free Morphemes
➢ Free Morphemes can stand alone; they are words by themselves.
girl, desire, gentle, woman
➢ Bound Morphemes cannot stand alone; affixes are bound.
Prefixes: pre-, trans-, un-, in-, bi-, de- . . . Suffixes: -ish, -ness, -ly, –ing, -er, -ist, -ful . . .

Affixes
1) Prefixes
Isthmus Zapotec (plural prefix -ka)
➢ zigi “chin” kazigi “chins”
➢ zike “shoulder” kazike “shoulders”
➢ diaga “ear” kadiaga “ears”
2) Suffixes
Turkish (deriving a noun from a verb suffix -ak)
➢ dur “to stop” durak “stopping place”
➢ bat “to sink” batak “sinking place” or “marsh/swamp”
3) Infixes
Bontoc (Nouns/Adjectives Verbs)
➢ fikas “strong” fumikas “to be strong”
➢ kilad “red” kumilad “to be red”
➢ fusul “enemy” fumusul “to be an enemy”

4) Circumfixes
(Circumfixes are attached to a base morpheme (discontinuous morphemes)
both initially and finally.)
Chickasaw (the negative form prefix ik- and the suffix -o)
The final vowel of the affirmative is dropped before the negative suffix is added.
➢ chokma “he is good” ik + chokm + o “he isn’t good”
➢ lakna “it is yellow” ik + lakn + o “it isn’t yellow”
➢ palli “it is hot” ik + pall + o “it isn’t hot”
➢ tiwwi “he opens (it)” ik + tiww + o “he doesn’t open (it)”
Roots & Stems
When a root morpheme is combined with an affix, it forms a stem.

Root: system noun

Stem: system + atic noun + suffix
Stem: un + system + atic prefix + noun + suffix
Stem: un + system + atic + al prefix + noun + suffix + suffix
Word: un + system + atic + al + ly prefix + noun + suffix + suffix + suffix

! With the addition of each new affix, a new stem and a new word are formed
! Base = any root or stem to which an affix is attached

! Bound Roots !
Bound Roots acquire meaning only in combination with other morphemes.
➢ ceive (get): receive, conceive, perceive, deceive
➢ mit (to send; or miss): remit, permit, commit, submit, transmit, admit
➢ cept (taken): accept, except, deception, concept

Rules of Word Formation

Derivational Morphology
A Derivational Morpheme either
(1) changes the category, or
(2) alters the meaning of a word
! sometimes affects pronunciation
Inflectional Morphology
➢ An Inflectional Morpheme changes or reflects grammatical agreement / features.
➢ They are bound morphemes.
➢ They never change the grammatical stems to which they are attached (lexical
meaning DOES NOT change)
➢ They mark properties such as: tense, number, person, etc.

There are only 8 bound inflectional affixes:

Inflectional vs Derivational

Classification of English Morphemes

The Hierarchical Structures of Words
Morphemes are added in a fixed order, this order reflects the hierarchical
structure of the Word.
Tree Diagrams represent the hierarchical structure.
ex. unsystematic

! The root system is “closer” to -atic than it is to un-. un- is actually connected to
the adjective systematic, and not directly to system.
*unsystem is not a word.

Rule Productivity
➢ -able (able to be) ➢ -th (ex. health)
➢ un- (opposite) ➢ -en (ex. weaken)
➢ -er (one who does) ➢ -let; -ling (ex. piglet, sapling)
➢ -ity (ex. curiosity)

Exceptions; Suppletions and Reduplication

➢ suppletion: changing
child, man, foot, mouse = children, men, feet, mice
go, sing, bring, run, know = went, sang, brought, ran, knew
➢ Reduplication: repeat all, or part, of the root (base)
English: bye-bye, so-so, easy-peasy, teeny-weeny, itsy-bitsy
Turkish: uzun uzun, zaman zaman, tabak mabak, yeşil meşil
Swahili: piga (to strike); pigapiga (to strike repeatedly)
Lexical Gaps
Creating possible words to fill in gaps but these must also follow morphological
rules.
ex. curioser, Shakesperean, linguisticism, antiquify

Back Formations
Creating a base form (root form) that did not previously exist

➢ orientation (original word) ~ orientate, orient (newly created)

➢ peddler peddle
➢ editor edit
➢ television televise

Compounds
Putting words together to form new words

Fairly recent compounds: Facebook, YouTube, power nap, and carjack

➢ In English, the rightmost word in a compound is the head of the compound.

➢ The head is the part of a word or phrase that determines its broad meaning
and grammatical category.
So, when the two words fall into different categories, the class of the second
or final word determines the grammatical category of the compound:
noun + adjective = adjective, as in headstrong
verb + noun = noun, as in pickpocket.

! Two-word compounds are the most common in English, but there are no upper
limits:
three-time loser, four-dimensional space-time, sergeant-at-arms, mother-of-
pearl, man about town, master of ceremonies, daughter-in-law
Clipping and Blending
-Clipping = using part of a Word
➢ Examination ~ Exam
➢ Dormitory ~ Dorm
➢ Gymnasium ~ Gym
➢ Mathematics ~ Math

-Blending = merging two words

➢ Motorist + Hotel ~ Motel
➢ Spoon + Fork ~ Spork

Acronyms
Creating a new word by using the initial letters of words
➢ Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus = scuba
➢ Life Amplification by Stimulating Emission of Radiation = laser
➢ National Aeronautics and Space Administration = NASA
➢ Radio Detecting and Ranging = radar
➢ Special Weapons and Tactics = SWAT
➢ White Anglo-Saxon Protestant = WASP

Onomatopoeia
The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named
➢ Achoo ➢ Jingle
➢ Bark ➢ Knock
➢ Buzz ➢ Meow
➢ Click ➢ Oink
➢ Crash ➢ Ring
➢ Crunch ➢ Slap
➢ Ding-Dong ➢ Smash