Introduction

to
Morphology
MADE BY- MONA MANOHAR, ANANYA S.M,
ARNAV H.M, V.SRI LALITHA AND GOWRIDUTTA N.G
Morphology is one of
the main branches of
Linguistics.
What is Morphology?
Morphology in linguistics is the study of
the internal construction of words.
Morphology is the study of the structure
and formation of words.
Languages vary widely in the degree to
which words can be analysed into word
elements, or morphemes.
The term 'Morphology'
was introduced into
linguistics by August
Schleicher in 1859.
What are Morphemes?
Morphemes are the smallest units of
meaning in a language.
A morpheme is the smallest identifiable
grammatical unit.
A word is an important linguistic unit
which is typivally smaller than a phrase
but larger than a morpheme.
 Types of Morphemes-
1 2
Free Bound
Morpheme Morpheme
Morphemes that
Morphemes that
cannot stand alone
can stand alone as
as dependant words
independant words.
and are always
attached to a free
morpheme.
1 2
Free Bound
Morpheme Morpheme
Examples: 'unlikely', Examples:'unlikely'
'like' is a free 'un-' and '-ly' are
morpheme. bound morphemes.
1. Lovely 1. Illegal
2. Unhappy 2. Enable
 Affixes
an addition to the base form or stem of a
word in order to modify its meaning or
create a new word.
 Types of Affixes-
1 2
Prefixes- Suffixes-
Affixes attached at
Affixes attached at
the beggining of a
the endof a stem are
stem are called
called suffixes.
prefixes.
1 2
Prefixes- Suffixes-
Examples- Unhappy, Examples-
'un-' is a prefix. friendship, '-ship' is a
1. impossible suffix.
2. unstable 1. Girls
2. Nicely
 Classification of Affixes-
1 2
Inflectional- Derivational-
Affixes that change Affixes that change
the number,tense or the meaning of the
form of the word. word and create
(only suffixes) new words.
1 2
Inflectional- Derivational-
Examples- Walk-
Examples-Kind-
Walks , Write,'-
kindly
ing'(past principle)
1. Goodness
1. Written
2. Childhood
2. Writes
 Derivational affixes can
be classified further as-
1 2
Class Class
Changing- retaining-
Derivational affixes Derivational affixes
that bring about a that do not change
change in parts of in parts of speech
speech(word (word class) when
class)when added to added to a word.
a word.
1 2
Class Class
Changing- retaining-
Examples- 1.Kind Examples-
(adj.) to 1.Man(noun)
kindly(noun) to Manhood(noun)
2.Good(adj.) to 2.Child(noun) to
Goodness(adverb) Childhood(noun)
Conclusion
 Morpheme

Free Morpheme Bound Morpheme

Affixes

Prefixes Suffixes

Derivational Derivational
Inflectional

class- changing class- retaining

THANK
YOU