Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla

Facultad de Lenguas

Licenciatura en la Enseñanza del Inglés

Summary: Morphology

Profesor Gaspar Ramírez - Cabrera

Student Gonzalez Aquino Sandra Kristhel

Activity #03

23/01/2024
 Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
Facultad de Lenguas Licenciatura en la Enseñanza de Inglés

Materia: Morfología y Sintaxis

Profesor: Gaspar Ramírez - Cabrera
Alum. González Aquino Sandra Kristhel

Morphology Tuesday, January 17th 2024

Many languages, what appear to be single forms actually turn out to contain a large number of “word-like”
elements. Perhaps a better way of looking at linguistic forms would be to use this notion of “elements” in the
message, on identifying only “words. Means “the study of forms,”. “Elements” in the form of a linguistic message
are technically known as “morphemes.”
The definition of a morpheme is “a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.” Includes forms used to
indicate past tense or plural. We can make a broad distinction between two types of morphemes. Free
morphemes can stand by themselves as single words. The other is bound morphemes cannot normally stand
alone and are typically attached to another form. Also we have described as free morphemes fall into two
categories. The first category is that set of ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs. These free morphemes are
called lexical morphemes. On the other hand functional morphemes consist largely of the functional words in the
language such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns. Bound morphemes can also be divided into
two types. We use derivational morphemes to make new words or to make words of a different grammatical
category from the stem. Inflectional morphemes indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word.
Inflectional morphemes are used to show if a word is plural or singular, if it is past tense or not, and if it is a
comparative or possessive form. There are four inflections attached to verbs: -s (3rd person singular), -ing
(present participle), -ed (past tense) and -en (past participle). There are two inflections attached to adjectives: -er
(comparative) and -est (superlative). All the inflectional morphemes are suffixes.
The difference between derivational and inflectional morphemes is than inflectional morpheme never changes
the grammatical category of a word. However, a derivational morpheme can change the grammatical category of
a word. A derivational suffix and an inflectional suffix attached to the same word, they always appear in that
order.
An extremely large number of English words owe their morphological patterning to languages like Latin and
Greek. Consequently, a full description of English morphology will have to take account of both historical
influences and the effect of borrowed elements.
The morphs as the actual forms used to realize morphemes. The allomorphs that is when we find a group of
different morphs.
Study questions of word formation
1. Which of the following pairs contains an example of calque? How would you describe the other(s)?
(a) footobooru (Japanese) - football (English) Borrowing
(b) trening (Hungarian) - training (English)Borrowing
(c) luna de miel (Spanish) - honeymoon (English) Calque

2. Can you identify the different word-formation processes involved in producing each of the underlined
words in these sentences?
(a) Eliza exclaimed, "Absobloominlutely!" Blending
(b) When I'm ill, I want to see a doc, not a vet.Clipping
(c) These new skateboards from Zee Designs are kickass. Compounding
(d) Don't you ever worry that you might get AIDS? Acronyms
(e) Shiel still parties every Saturday night. Conversion
(f) Do you have a xerox machine? Coinage
(g) I like this old sofa - it's nice and comfy. Clipping

3. Identify the prefixes and suffixes used in these words:

Carelessness, disagreement, ineffective, refillable, unfaithful

1. Carelessness:
Prefix: Care
Suffix: -ness
Disagreement:
Prefix: Dis-
Suffix: -ment
Ineffective:
Prefix: In-
Suffix: -ive
Refillable:
Prefix: Re-
Suffix: -able
Unfaithful:
Prefix: Un-
Suffix: -ful
4. More than one process was involved in the creation of the forms underlined in these sentences
Can you identify the processes involved in each case?
(a) Can you FedEx the books to me today? Conaige
(b) Are you still using that old car-phone?Compounding
(c) Police have reported an increase in corjackings in recent months. Borrowing
(d) Welcome, everyone, to karaokenight at Cathy's Bar and Grill! Compounding
(e) Jeeves, could you tell the maid to be sure to hoover the bedroom carpet? Conaige and compounding