MORPHOLOGY

COMPOSED BY: MS SITARA TAJ

Morphology

In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, how they are formed, and their
relationship to other words in the same language. It analyzes the structure of
words and parts of words such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes.

What are Morphemes?

A "morpheme" is a short segment of language that meets three basic criteria:

1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.

2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without changing its
meaning or leaving a meaningless remainder.
3. It has relatively the same stable meaning in different verbal environments.
Types of Morphemes

Free and Bound Morphemes

1. "Free morphemes" can stand alone with a specific meaning, for example,
eat, date, weak. (Child ,harsh , beauty)
2. "Bound morphemes" cannot stand alone with meaning. Morphemes are
comprised of two separate classes called (a) bases (or roots) and (b)
affixes.
(childish, harshly , beautiful )

A "base," or "root" is a morpheme in a word that gives the word its principle
meaning. An example of a "free base" morpheme is woman in the word
womanly. An example of a "bound base" morpheme is -sent in the word dissent.
Affixes

An "affix" is a bound morpheme that occurs before or after a base.

• An affix that comes before a base is called a "prefix." Some examples of

prefixes are ante-, pre-, un-, and dis-, as in the following words:
• disrespectful, prehistoric , unhealthy, disregard

• An affix that comes after a base is called a "suffix." Some examples of

suffixes are -ly, -er, -ism, and -ness, as in the following words:
• happily , gardener, capitalism ,kindness
 lexical/open nouns ,verbs,
class adjectives,adverbs
Free
pronouns ,determiners
functional
conjuctions,interjections,
heme /closed class
morp prepositions

s, es, ed,
inflectional
er, ing
Bound affix
un. ness,
derivational
ly.ive
 • For instance, the plural morpheme in
ALLOMORPH English, generally written as {s} has 3
allomorphs.
• Allomorph is a variant
form of a morpheme. It
can be simply described • /s/ as in cats
as a unit of meaning that • /z/ as in dogs
varies in sound without
changing its meaning. • /ɪz/ as in boxes
Allomorph is an • The past form morphemes also have three
alternative pronunciation allomorphs.
of a morpheme in a • /d/ as in slammed
particular context.
• /t/as in slipped
• /ɪd/ as in stilted
MRPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
• morphological analysisis • closed : close + ed
the task of segmenting a V + PAST(3)
word into its
morphemes. • Cats : Cat + s
• affix N + PL
• lexicalmorphemes
• functional morphemes Undo: un +do
pfx + V
What is Word Formation?
word formation processes
• Word formation process is subject of •coinage.
morphology where we learn how new •compounding
words are formed. In linguistics, word
formation process is the creation of a
•borrowing
new word by making changes in •blending
existing words or by creating new •acronym
words. In other words, it refers to the •clipping
ways in which new words are made on •contraction
the basis of other words. •backformation
•affixation
Compounding Examples:

• Compounding is a type of word

Part + time = part-time
formation where we join two
words side by side to create a
Book + case = bookcase
new word. It is very common type
of word formation in a language.
Low + paid = low-paid
Some time we write a compound
word with a hyphen between two
words and some time we keep a Door + knob = doorknob
space and sometime we write
them jointly. Finger + print = fingerprint

Wall + paper = wallpaper

 Borrowing
• In word formation process, • Examples:
borrowing is the process by • Yogurt (Turkish)
which a word from one language • Piano (Italian)
is adapted for use in another
• Sofa (Arabic)
language. The word that is
borrowed is a loanword, or a
borrowed word. It is also known
as lexical borrowing. It is the
most common source of new
words in all languages.
 Blending
• it is a morphological process in
which the parts of two or more Examples:
words are combined together to • breakfast + lunch → brunch
form a new word. Usually, the parts
• motor+hotel → motel
consist of the beginning of one word
and the end of the other word(s). • Franglais ( French + English)
• It is different from compounding • Spanglish (Spanish + English )
where we add two words side by
side to make a new word but in
blending we do not use both words
in complete sense but new/derived
word has part of both words.
Abbreviations
• Abbreviation is a process where we create a new word by making a
change in lexical form of a word keeping same meaning. There are three
main types of abbreviations.
• 1. Clipping / Shortening / Truncation

• 2. Acronyms / Initialism

• 3. Contraction
 Clipping / Shortening / Truncation
• Clipping is the type of word
formation where we use a part of
word instead of whole word. This
form of word formation is used
where there is a long/multi-
syllable word and to save time we
use a short one instead of that
long word
Examples:
• Ad from advertisement
• Flu from Influenza
• Gas from gasoline
• Gym from gymnasium
• Lab from laboratory
• Exam from examination
Acronyms / Initialism Acronyms:
• An acronym is a word or name formed • United Nations Educational, Scientific and
as an abbreviation from the initial Cultural Organization → UNESCO
letters in a phrase. Commonly derived • Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission
word are written in upper case. of Radiation → Laser
• NASA is acronym of National Aeronautics
• An acronym is pronounced as a single and Space Administration
word rather than just a sequence of
Initialisms:
individual letters, which is
characteristic of initialisms. • Personal Computer → PC
• Asian Development Bank → ADB
• This process of word formation is
• Liquid Crystal Display → LCD
widely used in the field of
IT(Informationtechnology) • Automatic Teller Machine ----ATM
 Contraction
• A contraction is a word formed • Some common contractions are
as an abbreviation from a word. below:
Contractions are abbreviations • Dr is from Doctor.
in which we omit letters from
the middle of a word or more
than one words. • St is from Saint.

• He’s from He is.

• I’ve is from I have.

 Affixation
• Affixation is the word formation process Examples:
where a new word is created by adding
suffix or prefix to a root word. The • Prefixes: un+ plug = unplug
affixation may involve prefixes, suffixes,
infixes. In prefixes, we add extra letters
before root word e.g. re+right to make a • Suffixes: cut + ie = cutie
new word rewrite. In suffix, we add
some extra letters with a base/root
word e.g. read+able. In infixes, the base • Infixes: man + plural = men
word is changed in its form e.g. the
plural of woman is women that creates
new word “women”.
Backformation
• Backformation is the word Some very familiar words are
formation process where a new below:
word is derived by removing
what appears to be an affix.
When we remove last part of • Peddle from peddler
word (that looks like suffix but
not a suffix in real) from a word • Edit from editor
it creates a new word.

• Pea from pease

 Coinage / Neologism
• It is also a process of word Some common examples of
formation where new words (either coinage are:
deliberately or accidentally) are • Kodak
invented. This is a very rare process • Google
to create new words, but in the • Bing
media and industry, people and
• Nylon
companies try to surpass others
with unique words to name their
services or products.