Morphology

Think about this!

▪ Suppose splinch is a verb that means “step on broken glass”, what is
its past tense?
splinched
▪ Speakers of English use the suffixes –ize and –ify to form verbs
from nouns. If you had to form a verb that means “do something
the way ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair does it”, which suffix would you
use? How about a verb meaning “do something the way ex-President
Bill Clinton does it”?
Blarify Clintonize
▪ It’s possible to rewash or reheat something? Is it possible to relove,
reexplode, or rewiggle something? Weird, if not impossible
▪ Think about and list down some Vietnamese words which are new
to you. Is that possible for those words to be used?

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 I. Morphology

II. Morphemes

III. Morpheme Types

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 I. Morphology
Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of
words:
= the study of how words are built:
▪ The ways new words are coined in the languages;
▪ The way forms of words are varied depending on how they’re
used in the sentences; >>> table +s
= the study of morphemes & their arrangement of words in forming
words;
e.g.: replayed consists of re+play+ed

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Why study Morphology?
To gain an understanding of:
▪ Where our words come from;
▪ What the properties of words are;
▪ How parts of words added together to form
meaningful separate words;
▪ How dictionaries are formed.
▪ Antidisestablishmentarianism
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II. Morphemes
According to Nida (1946):
▪ Morphemes (Gr. morphe “form” + -eme “the smallest distinctive
unit”) are the minimal meaningful units which may constitute words/
parts of words”. (Nida, 1946: 1)
• >>>>> Morphemes: units of semantic content/ grammatical function.
• >>>>> Morphemes can be compared to pieces of Lego that can be
used again and again to form # words.
• >>>>> Morphemes are clear in meaning: un-, -er, -ic, -ive, -tion…
• >>>>> Morphemes can be restricted to relatively few words: ir-, im-,
il-, -ric
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 Morphemes: Examples
One morpheme Boy
Desire
Crocodile
Salamander
Two morphemes Boyish
Desirable
Three morphemes Boyishness
Desirability
Four morphemes Gentlemanliness
More than four Ungentlemanliness
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Morphemes, Morphs or
Allomorphs?
Morpheme
{a}

Allomorph Allomorph
a an

Morph Morph
/ei/ /∂n/

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Morphemes, Morphs or
Allomorphs?
Morpheme
{-ed}

Allomorph Allomorph Allomorph

Morph Morph Morph

/id/ /d/ /t/

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Morphemes, Morphs or
Allomorphs?
Morpheme
{in-}

Allomorph Allomorph Allomorph

Morph Morph Morph

/Im-/
/Iη-/
Before a labial /In-/
Before a velar
consonants: g, b, p,
m consonants: k, g Elsewhere ☺

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 Morphemes, Morphs or
Allomorphs?
▪ Some morphemes are realized by one or more morphs
according to their position in a word or a sentence.
▪ A morpheme is a set of allomorphs that have the same set
of features.
▪ An allomorph is a morph that has a unique set of
grammatical or lexical features. All allomorphs with the
same set of features forms a morpheme.

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Morphemes, Morphs or
Allomorphs?

▪ More information about Morphs & Allomorphs: Read An

Outline of Morphology – Nguyen, H.L. (2000, 12 – 16)

▪ More information about The Nature of Morphemes: Read

An Outline of Morphology – Nguyen, H.L. (2000, 16 – 19)

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III. Morpheme Types
Lexical/ Open
Class (3)
Free (1)
Morphemes

Functional/ Closed
Class (4)

Prefix
Root (5)
Derivational
Bound (2)
Suffix
Affix (6)

Inflectional Suffix

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 Morpheme Types
Free (1) Bound (2)
“Cannot be uttered alone with
meaning; … is always annexed to 1/ more
“one that can be uttered alone with
morphemes to form a word” (Stageberg,
meaning” (Stageberg, 1965: 87)
1965: 87)
“can be used on its own” (Richards, Platt
“is never used alone but must be used
& Weber, 1987: 31)
with another morpheme” (Richards,
Platt & Weber, 1987: 31)

e.g. hunt, kill, the, play, child, book.... -s in dogs

-ness in happiness
What are they, actually?
-ed in walked

What about these words: readers, Reading, wanted, Connecticut,

rhinoceros, asparagus…???

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 Morpheme Types: Free
Lexical (3) Functional/ Grammatical (4)

a.k.a content words: carry the a.k.a function words

content/ meaning of the
message
I n c l u d e s n o u n s , v e r b s , Include pronouns, articles,
adjectives, adverbs such as, conjunctions, prepositions as,
child, love, beauty, play, sing, the, on, from, and, in, etc.
etc.
Open class words Closed class words

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 Morpheme Types: Bound
Root (5)
▪ Is the morpheme that has the
principal meaning;
▪ Constitutes the cores of all
words;
▪ Cannot be analyzed into
smaller parts
▪ Numerous;
▪ Some single words may have
more than 1 root: blackbird, he
goat…
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Affix (6)
• Are bound morphemes that
occur before or behind a root
and somewhat modify the
basic meaning of the root;
• Including prefix, suffix,
infixes, suprafix (English:
prefix & suffix only)
• tie >< untie
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 Derivational vs. Inflectional
Morphemes
▪ Derivational morphemes are ▪ Inflectional morphemes are to
to make new words in a indicate aspects of
language. grammatical function of a
▪ It changes the category word; e.g. suffix –ed in walked
and/or the type of meaning of indicate past tense.
the words, e.g. suffix –ness in
▪ It does not change either the
happiness, suffix –ment in
grammatical category or the
government.
type of meaning found in the
▪ care + ful: n > adj; quan tâm >
word, e.g. suffix –s in books.
cẩn thận; careful + ness: adj >
n; cẩn thận > sự cẩn thận
▪ Bound morphemes always appear in order, first derivational
then inflectional; e.g. teachers
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English Derivational Morphemes
-ic: Noun� Adj; alcohol � alcoholic
-ly: Adj � Adv; exact � exactly
-ate: Noun � Verb; vaccine � vaccinate
-ity: Adj � Noun; active � activity
-ship: Noun � Noun; friend � friendship
re-: Verb � Verb; cover � recover
... ... ...

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 English Inflectional Morphemes
Nouns
–s/es plural
–’s/ ’ possessive
Verbs has = have + s
–s/es third person singular present >>> is: be + s///
are: be + plural present
–ed past tense >>> was = be + ed
–en/ed/t past participle >>> been = be + en
–ing progressive
Adjectives: better = Good + er/ best = good + est
–er comparative >>>> more: much/ many+er
–est superlative >>>> most: much/ many + est

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Analyzing Words
The girl’s wildness shocked the teacher.
The � functional
girl � lexical
-s � inflectional
wild � lexical
-ness � derivational
Shock � lexical
-ed � inflectional
the � functional
teach � lexical
-er � derivational

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Describe the italic affixes
1) impossible 1) Derivational prefix
2) terrorized 2) Inflectional suffix
3) terrorize 3) Derivational suffix
4) desks 4) Inflectional suffix
5) dislike 5) Derivational prefix
6) humanity 6) Derivational suffix
7) fastest 7) Inflectional suffix
8) premature 8) Derivational prefix
9) untie 9) Derivational prefix
10) darken 10) Derivational suffix
11) fallen 11) Inflectional suffix
12) oxen 12) Inflectional suffix
13) faster 13) Inflectional suffix
14) lecturer 14) Derivational suffix
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Analyze different types of morphemes

The young boy played with his friends.

The � Functional
Young � Lexical
Boy � Lexical
Play � Lexical
-ed � Inflectional
With � Functional
His � Functional
Friend � Lexical
-s � Inflection

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