MORPHOLOGY By: Dr Azad H.

Fatah
DEFINITIONS 2033 -2023
MORPHOLOGY

Morphology is the study of the

ways in which lexemes and word
forms are built up from smaller
elements and the changes that are
made to those smaller elements in
the process of building lexemes
and word-forms.
Morph: A morph is a constituent element of a word
form. Or it is the realization of a morpheme (or
sometimes of more than one). It is a physically
(phonological and orthographical) identifiable
segment of a language.
A word such as invariables /inveWriWblz /
contains four morphs.
Free morphemes: are those that can stand alone in
English phrases, clauses, and sentences, such as
man, boy, work, nice, fast, etc.
Bound morphemes: are those morphemes that
cannot stand alone by themselves, as in-, un-, dis-,
pre-, post, -ity, -ness, -dom, -ic, -able, etc.
Lexeme: lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning that
can take a set of inflectional endings, such as
show , shows, showing, showed.
lexeme is a dictionary word, an abstract unit of
vocabulary. It is realized by word forms , in
such a way, that the word form represents the
lexeme and any inflectional endings that are
required. For example, small, smaller, and
smallest are all word forms that can realize the
lexeme SMALL.
Similarly, dance, dances danced, dancing are
word forms based on the lexeme DANCE.
Conventionally lexemes are written in capital
letters.
 ROOT

A root is that part of the word which remains

after all inflectional and derivational affixes
have been removed. Or it is irreducible core of
the word. For example, the root of the word
decentralizations is centre which is remained
after removing inflectional morpheme {-s of
pl} and all derivational prefixes and suffixes
{de-, -al, -ize, -ation}.
 STEM

A Stem is that part of the word which remains after removing all
inflectional suffixes. Or
The stem is that part of a word that is in existence before any
inflectional affixes (i.e grammatical morphemes) have been
added.
Examples are cat is the stem of cats, worker is the stem of
workers
Walk is the stem for walked, victimize is the stem of
victimized.
Cheap is the stem of cheaper.
 BASE
Base: A base is that part of the word to which an affix of any
kind is added.
A base is any unit whatsoever to which affixes of any kind can
be added. For instance, duck is the base of duckling and also
duckling is the base of ducklings.
Affixes
Affixes are bound morphemes that can be attached to the initial
or the final part of a word so as to form either a new from or a
new word. All English prefixes and suffixes are kinds of
affixes, such as in-, anti-, mini-, dis-, de-, un-, pre-, post-,
maxi-, -ance, -ment, -able, -age, -less, -ness, -er, -ous, etc.
 Differences between affixes and
roots:
Roots Affixes

1.They can stand alone i.e. they are free 1.They cannot stand alone by themselves
morphemes i.e. they are bound morphemes

2. They are in the central part of the 2. They are on the margins (peripheries)
words. of the words.

3.Their number somehow is open and 3. Their number is limited and fixed.
bigger than that of affixes

4. They can be divided into nouns, 4. They Can be divided into prefixes,
verbs, adjective and adverbs etc. suffixes, and infixes .
CLASSIFICATION OF AFFIXES
ACCORDING TO THEIR POSITION IN
THE HOST WORD:

Prefixes:
Prefixes are bound morphemes that can be added
to the beginning part of the base. They mostly
change the meaning of the root or base to which
they are added, few numbers of the prefixes
change the word class of the host word.
Examples are unhappy, disappointed, misplaced,
prewar, postmodern, antisocialist, encage,
impersonal etc.
 Suffixes
They are bound morphemes that are added to the terminal part of
words to form a new form or a new lexeme. They either change
the meaning of the base to which they are added or they only
change the word class of the base or they do both, for instance,
colourless, singer, depth, happiness, purify, etc.
Affixes in English are divided into either class-changing or class-
maintaining affixes.
Classs-changing affixes: are bound morphemes that are added to a
word and they change the meaning and the word class of the host
word. In English most, but not all, derivational suffixes are class
changing suffixes, e.g., happiness, penniless, dependent, carriage,
admirable, attractive, etc.
Class- maintaining affixes: are those dependent bound
morphemes that are added to the word and they never change the
word class of the host word, e.g., all inflectional suffixes,
mountaineer, lioness, booklet, kingdom, friendship, etc.
 Inflectional VS. Derivational Affixes

Inflectional Derivational
1. Never change the part of speech of the 1. They may change the part of speech of the
base to which they are added. words to which they are added.
2. They are related to syntax. 2. They are related to semantics.
3. Inflectional affixes have a regular 3. Their meaning is irregular.
meaning.
4. They are farther to the root than 4. They are nearer to the root.
derivationals.
5. They close off the word 5. They never close off the word
6. They can only be added to the stems. 6. The can be added to the base.
7. Inflection uses a close set of suffixes 7. Derivation uses an open set of affixes i.e,
and their number is quite smaller than their number is much bigger that that of
derivationals inflectionals.
8. By adding an inflectional suffix, a new 8.By adding aa derivational suffix, a new word
form of the same morpheme will be (lexeme) will be obtained.
obtained.
9. Only one suffix can occur within a 9. More than one affix can occur within one
word word.
Allomorphs or Positional Variants:
Simply, allomorphs mean (an)other shapes of
the same morpheme. Allomorphs are the
alternative realizations of a morpheme.
Two or more morphs are said to be allomorphs
of the same morpheme if
1. They have the same grammatical function or
the same meaning.
2. They must be in complementary
distribution, i.e., they must be in mutually
exclusive relation.
 ALLOMORPHS
An allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme which
differs only in sound not in meaning. It is an
alternative manifestation of a morpheme which varies
in pronunciation according to phonological conditions.
Allomorphs are either regular, rule-governed
phonological alternation,(a situation where the choice
between alternative allomorphs is regulated in quite
predictable ways by the phonological properties of the
different morphs that occur near each other), or
morphologically (lexically) conditioned. This means
that
Choice of an allomorph is obligatory and it
is dependent on the presence of the specific
lexeme or word. This can be done by our
identification for that lexeme. For example,
by adding the plural morpheme to the noun
ox we know the plural form of the word is
oxen.
In Phonologically Conditioned allomorph,
the phonological environment determines
the shape of the morpheme. Consider the
realization of {-s of pl } in English:
 PHONOLOGICALLY
CONDITIONED
ALLOMORPHS
cups/ kUps / the noun is ended with a voiceless consonant
Watches /wotSiz / the noun is ended with a sibilant
consonant
Rooms /ru:mz /the noun is ended with a voiced consonant
The {-s of pl} is realized by three different phonological
shapes depending on the final sound of the host word with
which the plural morpheme is combined. All these forms are
in complementary distribution. This means that they never
co-occur in the same enivronment, the presence of one of
them will exclude the other forms.
 COMPLEMENTARY
DISTRIBUTION
Two forms are in complementary distribution if they have a different
shape in a particular phonological, morphological or syntactic
environment, and can hence be said to represent the same morpheme;
e.g. a and an placed before singular nouns.
If two elements never occur in the same context but, instead, divide up
some set of contexts between them, they are said to be in
complementary distribution.
The phonological environment determines which one must be used or
selected. If a noun starts with a vowel sound so the phonological
context will assign that an must be used not a.
A cat
An ant
By the way, distribution is the sum of the contexts in which a linguistic
item can occur.
 REPLACIVE ALLOMORPH

Replacive allomorph: sometimes a morpheme can be

realized by replacing one medial vowel sound by another.
For example, the past form of the verb give which is gave
is formed by changing one vowel sound to another, i.e.,
the vowel sound /i/ is replaced by /ei/ .
Other examples include:
Tooth + {-spl}= teeth
/ ti:Q/ = / tu:Q/ + u: > i:
Take + {-ed past} = took
/tuk/= /teik/ + ei > u
 ZERO MORPH

Zero morph
When there is not overt phonological and
orthographical realization of a morpheme, so
the morph is zero. For example, the past
forms of the verbs shut, cut, hit, cost, etc. are
the same as their present forms. This means
that there is no overt orthographical or
phonological change.
 PORTMANTEAU MORPH
It is a togetherness of more than one morpheme
in one morph. Portmanteau morph: is a morph
which represents a togetherness of two or more
morphemes in one word.
Consider the morph is, which contains the
following morphemes:
1. verb to be,
2. Tense: simple present,
3. number: singular,
4. person: third person.
 Suppletion
Suppletive forms: when there is no direct
phonological relation between the stem and
the new form after adding an inflectional
morpheme to the stem, the new form is
suppletive form.
For example, the phonological form of the
stem of the verb go has no phonological
relation with the past form went after adding
the morpheme of {-ed of past}. Other
examples are good –better, bad- worse, etc.
 TRUNCATION

Truncation: In some cases, a part of

the base is dropped before a
derivational suffix is added to the
final part of the base. As in,
philosophy > philosopher
Humanity > humanitarian
Nominate > nominee
 Inflectional paradigm:
It is a set of related forms having the same stem
with different inflectional suffixes. Examples:
Walk, walks, walking, walked.
Give, gives, giving, gave, given.
Be, being, been, is , am, are, was, were.
Small, smaller, smallest.
Girl, girls, girl’s, girls’.
 DERIVATIONAL
PARADIGM

It is a set of related words(lexemes)

having the same root with different
derivational affixes. Examples are:
human, inhuman, humanity,
inhumanly, antihuman, etc.
Happy, happiness, happily, unhappy,
unhappily.
 IMMEDIATE
CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS
It is the process of drawing a diagram
to show the layers of structure by
which the word has been composed
down to the ultimate constituents.
Immediate constituents of a unit are
the smaller units into which it is
directly analysed.
 Anti- nationalists

Anti- nationalist {-s of pl.}

anti nationalist
(aganist)
National -ist noun-forming suffix - deadjectival

Nation -al denominal – adjective forming suffix

root
When we draw a diagram to show the
structure of the words , the following points
must be taken in our consideration:
1. the first division must be between the
inflectional morpheme, if there is, and the rest
of the word,
2. one of the constituents must be a free
morpheme. This means that it has its own
meaning and can stand alone,
3. the meaning of the constituents must be
related or have connection to the original
word.
 EXERCISES

EXERCISE 1:
Explain why ‘a’ and ‘an’ are two allomorphs of the
same morpheme.

EXERCISE 2: Identify the allomorphs of the

inflectional past simple morpheme {−ed pt} in the verb
‘be’. How are they conditioned?