MORPHOLOGY

–is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language
e.g. cats : 2 parts: cat –which refers to a particular type of furry four-legged animal; and
-s – which indicates that there’s more than one animal.
Phon is a minimal form in that it cannot be decomposed/ ‘pertaining to sound.’
Morpheme/s – the smallest meaningful units of meaning.
(a) Bases (or roots) – it is a morpheme gives its principle meaning. E.g. woman
(b) Affixes – is a morpheme affixed to the root. E.g. womanly
1, FREE or UNBOUND 2. BOUND
- Can stand alone - cannot stand alone

Lexical – (Open Class Words)set of ordinary nouns, adjectives, & verbs that carry the “content”
e.g. Girl, sad, open, follow
Functional – (Closed Class Words)prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, modals & auxiliary verbs) Eg. In,
he, but, will, is
2 Main kinds of COMPLEX WORD:
1. single free root
E.g. read-able, hear-ing, en-large, perform-ance
2. single bound root
E.g. legible, audi-ence, magn-ify, clar-ity
ALLOMORPHS – one of a set of forms that a morpheme may take in different contexts.
e.g. cats : cat oxen : ox
-s -en
HAVE 2 OR MORE DIFFERENT PRONUNCIATIONS, called ALLOMORPHS.
1.Preceding sound is sibilant the kind of ‘hissing’ or ‘hushing’
(horse, rose, bush, church, judge,)
2. VOICELESS, i.e. produced with no vibration of the vocal folds in the larynx
(as in cat, rock, cup or cliff), the [s] allomorph occurs.
3. VOICED CONSONANT
(dog, day), the [z] allomorph occurs.
1. INFLECTIONAL : regular, applies to every noun, verb, whatever or at least the majority of them.
2. DERIVATIONAL : morphemes usually change “form class” (part of speech”), e.g. makes a verb
out of a noun, or an adjective out of a verb, etc.
LEXEME – a basic lexical unit of a language
A. read-able B. leg-ible
hear-ing audi-ence
en-large magn-ify
perform-ance rend-ition
white-ness clar-ity
dark-en applic-ant
Adverbs derived from adjectives
All adverbs end in –ly
- (often, seldom, never, soon); while
- (nowhere, everywhere, today, yesterday).

B. NOUNS DERIVED FROM NOUNS

(5) ‘small X’: -let, -lette, -ie e.g. droplet, booklet, cigarette, doggie
(6) ‘female X’: -ess, -ine e.g. waitress, princess, heroine
(7) ‘inhabitant of X’: -er, -(i)an e.g. Londoner, New Yorker, Texan, Glaswegian
(8) ‘state of being an X’: -ship, -hood e.g. kingship, ladyship, motherhood,priesthood
(9) ‘devotee of or expert on X’: -ist, -ian e.g. Marxist, historian
C. Nouns derived from members of other word classes
(10) –ity e.g. purity, equality, ferocity, sensitivity
(11) –ness e.g. goodness, tallness, fierceness, sensitiveness
(12) –ism e.g. radicalism, conservatism

D. Nouns from Verbs

(13) –ance –ence: e.g performe+ance, ignore+ance, reference, converge+nce
(14) – ment: e.g. announce+ment, commit+ment, engage+ment
(15) – ing: e.g. paint+ing, sing+ing, build+ing, ignor+ing
(16) – (a) t)ion: e.g. denunciat+ion, commission, confus+ion
(17) – al: e.g. refus+al, arriv+al, referr+al, committ+al
(18) –er: e.g. painter, singer, organizer, grinder
(19) Change in the position of the stress: e.g. (Noun) Permit
(verb) Permit
(20) Change in the final consonant: e.g. (Nouns) belief, proof, defense
(verbs) believe, prove, defend
(21) Change in vowel: e.g. (Nouns) song, seat
(verbs) sing, sit
F. ADJECTIVES FROM ADJECTIVES
a. UN – “ungood” or “bad” eatable/uneatable
b. IM– possible/impossible
c. IN- tangible/intangible
d. IL – legal/illegal
e. IR- regular/irregular
H. ADJECTIVES FROM VERBS, with their basic meanings:
(23)-able breakable, readable, reliable, watchable
(24) -ent, -ant repellent, expectant, conversant
(25)-ive repulsive, explosive, speculative

ADJECTIVES FROM NOUNS

(27) –ful: joy+ful, hope+ful, help+ful, meaning+ful
(28) –less: joy+less, hope+less, help+less, meaning+less
(29) – al: origin+al, normal, person+al, national
(30) –ish boy+ish, self+ish

J. VERB FROM VERB

paint, enter repaint, re-enter
tie-tangle untie, untangle
Compose, sensitive decompose, desensitive
Entangle, believe disentangle, disbelieve

Intransitive Transitive
lie (past lay) lay (past laid)
 rise (past rose) raise (past raised)
fall (past fell) fell (felled) (to cut, knock, or bring down)
sit (past sat) set (past set)

VERBS FROM NOUNS

(38) de: de+bug, de+forest, de+louse
(39) –ise: organ+ise, patron+ise, terror+ise
(40) –(i)fy: beautify, gentrify, petrify

Nouns Verbs
bath bathe
breath breathe
house […s] house […z]
wreath wreathe

COMPOUND NOUNS
(1) black bóard bláckboard
‘board that is black’ ‘board for writing on’
(2) silk wórm sílkworm
‘worm made of silk’ ‘caterpillar that spins silk’
(3) hair nét háirnet
‘net made of hair’ ‘net for covering hair’
(4) white hóuse (the) Whíte House
‘house that is white’ ‘residence of the US President’
(5) toy fáctory tóy factory
‘factory that is a toy’ ‘factory where toys are made’

-2nd word stress

Made of, that is

COMPOUND VERBS
(6) verb-verb (VV) : stir-fry, freeze-dry
(7) noun-verb (NV) : hand-wash, air-condition, steam-clean
(8) adjective-verb (AV) :dry-clean, whitewash
(9) Preposition-verb (PV) :underestimate, outrun, overcook
COMPOUND ADJECTIVES
(10) noun-adjective (NA) :sky-high, coal-black, oil-rich
(11) adjective-adjective (AA) : grey-green, squeaky-clean, red-hot
(12) preposition-adjective (PA) :underfull, overactive
COMPOUND NOUNS
(13) verb-noun (VN) : swearword, drophammer, playtime
(14)noun-noun (NN) : hairnet, mosquito net, hair restorer
(15) adjective-noun (AN) :blackboard, greenstone, faintheart
(16)preposition-noun (PN) : in-group, outpost, overcoat
Here are some more compounds whose second element is derived from a verb:
(17) sign-writer, slum-clearance, crime prevention, wish-fulfillment
Headless
(18) pickpocket, killjoy, cutpurse
(19) take-off, sell-out, wrap-up, sit-in