Vladimir Ž.

Jovanović

ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY
Lecture 3
WORD STRUCTURE ELEMENTS
 ROOT
All the elements that can
be detected in a WF are not
of equal relevance for the
overall constitution of the
word.
 ROOT
 There are elements considered:
 PRIMARY - generally contribute to the

meaning.
 SECONDARY - shape up the grammatical

identity of the item.

 ROOT

preconceptions
 {pre-}
 {concept}
 {-ion}
 {-s }
1
 ROOT
 The middle element - the most
important, as it decidedly affects
the meaning, whereas the others
modify the lexical and grammatical
meaning of the WF.
 This element of word structure is
called the ROOT.
 ROOT
DEFINITION: ROOT is the
central part of a WF in regard
to meaning and structure, to
which derivational and
inflectional affixes can be
added to form more complex
structures.
 ROOT
 The root - word core, can’t be
further broken down into smaller
segments with meaning.
 The root should always be associated
with certain meaning =>
 There are no roots which have no
meaning.
 ROOT
 cloud
 tri-es
 happi-ness
 joy-ous-ly
 en-joy-ment-s
 ROOT
To be sure that we have
identified the part which is the
root in a WF = eliminate the
affixes.
Whatever remains when all the
affixes are removed will be
taken as the root of that WF.
 ROOT
 pict-ur-esque
 
Lat. pictus, past participle of pingere "to make pictures, to paint, to embroider,"

 nutri-tion-al-ly
Lat. past participle stem of nutrire"to nourish, suckle"

 super-nat-ur-al
Lat. natus "born," past participle of nasci "to be born" 

 anti-in-flam-atory
Lat. flammare "to flame," from flamma "flame"
 ROOT
 A WF can consist of one root
only > simple words.
 If a WF contains more than
one root > compound words.
 There are as many roots as
there are free morphemes in a
word form.
 ROOT
 a. star = star
 b. fireman = fire +man
 c. storyteller = story + tell + -
er
 d. one-upmanship = one + up
+ man + -ship
 ROOT
 Roots can be:
 1. FREE ROOTS
 2. BOUND ROOTS

 This alters the strict division of

bound morphemes only into
derivational and inflectional.
 ROOT
FREE ROOTS - if they
are free morphemes,
we consider them
free roots, as well.
 ROOT
crocodile-s
free-dom
funn-y
un-believ-able
tree line
 ROOT
 ROOTS necessarily belong
to any of the major or open
lexical categories, such as
nouns, verbs, adjectives or
adverbs.
 The smokers were outed from the
faculty building.
 ROOT
 BOUND ROOTS - represented by
bound morphemes with lexical
meaning, usually of foreign origin.
 Their meaning is not always
transparent as they mostly come
from Greek and Latin originals, where
they functioned as independent units.
 ROOT
Basically, the full meaning
of bound roots is accessible
mostly when they are found
in relations with other
morphemes.
 ROOT
a. vis-ible
b. extra-terr-estri-al
c. loc-al
d. re-ceive
-cipere, comb. form of capere "to take"
e. petr-ify
f. de-hydr-ate
 ROOT
 This element suggests the etymological
origin of the word or any sense relation
that exists with other words in a
derivationally related group (paradigm).
 vary, variable, invariable, variability,
etc.
 The roots which originated from
Classical languages recur in a number
of derivatives.
 ROOT
 Lat. struere, structus = to assemble, build
structure, construct, destruct,
restructure
 Lat. palpare = to touch
palpable, palpably, palpability, impalpable
chronos = time
 Gr.
chronograph, chronology, synchronic
 ROOT
Roots can be combined with
other morphemes, namely
affixes.
The number of affixes that can
be attached to roots ranges
from one to up to seven.
 ROOT

fus-ion
de-nat-ion-al-iz-ation-s
con-ven-tion-al-iz-ation-s
 ROOT
 Some of the lexical items of
English can have very
elaborate structure in this
respect, usually LI of technical
or scientific nature which have
up to fifty phonemes.
 ROOT
 establish
– to set up, put in place, or institute (originally from the Latin stare, to
stand)
 dis-establish
– to end the established status of a body, in particular a church, given
such status by law, such as the Church of England
 disestablish-ment
– the separation of church and state (specifically in this context it is
the political movement of the 1860s in Britain)
 anti-disestablishment
– opposition to disestablishment
 antidisestablishment-ary
– of or pertaining to opposition to disestablishment
 antidisestablishmentari-an
– an opponent of disestablishment
 antidisestablishmentarian-ism 
– the movement or ideology that opposes disestablishment
 ROOT

NB
 In literature, the term root is often
equalized and replaced by the term
base.
 The terms have two separate and
clearly distinct uses for us, although
the concepts they refer to may
overlap depending on the context. ¶
 BASE
 Base - largely a technical term in
morphology used to mark a unit
in word structure to which we add
affixes of any kind:
– Inflectional (to form an inflected
WF)
– Derivational (to form a new
lexeme).
 BASE
 Base - a term in opposition
with the term affix.

discipline + -ary
inter- + disciplinary
 BASE
 In other words, the base for the
process of affixation is whatever
remains if the affix is removed.
 prolong < pro-long < long
 unnoticeable < un-noticeable
 BASE
 All roots can serve as bases to
the process of affixation at the
first level.
 The roots of the outcome
derivatives are at the same time
bases to which we attach the
affixes -ish and -ment.
 BASE

tall + -ish = tallish

care + -ful = careful
govern + -ment = government
 BASE
 However, this does not mean that all
bases are automatically roots.
 The root and the base of the
outcome derivative are not the same.
 Similarly, bases are called stems
when only inflectional suffixes are to
be added.
 BASE

honest + -y = honesty
leg-al +ize = legalization
careful + -ness = carefulness
government + -al = governmental
 BASE
 Ascan be verified by the examples
above, a base can be a
– simple lexical form such as
honest
– a more complex structure
consisting of a root and affixes,
one or more as in leg-al
 BASE
Finally, a base can be of
compound structure,
involving at least two free
forms, such as broken-heart
in the lexeme broken-
hearted. ¶
 STEM
The term stem refers to
that form in word structure
which is obtained after all
the derivational affixes have
been added to the root.
 STEM
DEFINITION: the stem is
that part of structure to
which we add grammatical
or inflectional endings,
changing the syntactic
function of the item.
 STEM
wise-est
work-s
work-ed
work-ing
smart-er
professor’s
non-smoker-s
 STEM
 Conforming to the previous
definition of base =>
stems must be some sort of
base at the same time, since
stems are forms to which
inflectional affixes are added.
 STEM
a. children-’s,
b. display-ed,
c. credit-s,
d. encourag-ed,
e. mind-boggl-ing
 STEM
 The statement means that every stem
can be taken as base, but the opposite is
not necessarily always the case.
 Simply, not all forms which can take
derivational affixes also take inflectional
suffixes, which is the reason why these
are called uninflected words.
 STEM
 Among lexical items of this
sort is good, which can be a
base for goodness and
goodish, but no adjectival
inflection can be appended
on the form, *good-er.
 STEM
 We can also generalize that stems are
necessarily free forms and they can
(almost) never be bound morphemes
or bound forms.
 conclude + -ed > concluded
 conclus- + -ive > conclusive
 *conclus- + -ed
 STEM
The same form can be the
root and the stem of a word
form, particularly if it can be
used as a simple word.
 cat > cat-s
 STEM
 Stems can be classified as:
 Simple stems, rooms, cars, trees,
books,
 Complex (derived) stem, as in
memoriz-ing, friendli-er, nationaliti-
es, and
 Compound stems: daydream-ing,
bathroom-s, bad-mouth-ed. ¶
 STEM EXTENSIONS
Sometimes, the WF is not
simply a sum of the base and
affixes.
There are formative elements
in word structure which are
apparently unaccounted for.
 STEM EXTENSIONS
 Their position is usually between the
root (base) and the affix.
 They seem to have no meaning at all,
and yet they serve as word-building
elements.
 These formatives are called empty
morphs.
 child + r + en breth-(e)r-en
 STEM EXTENSIONS
 One such formative is the
remnant of the old English plural
ending -er, which stayed on after
another plural ending -en was
added.
 The vowel phoneme of the former
has been dropped. ¶
 WORD CONSTITUTION
disconnections
entireform> word form
boldfaced>root
underlined>stem
 WORD CONSTITUTION
 A WF is analyzable in the following
manner: disconnections is a word or to be
more precise a word form, just like
untouchables, for example. Their roots are
connect and touch, respectively.
 After the affixes dis- and -ion are added
to the first, what we get is the stem
disconnection. It is to this stem that we
affix the inflectional suffix for manifesting
plurality of nouns.
 WORD CONSTITUTION
Re-formulation
 The ROOT of a word will be whatever
remains after we have removed all
the affixes there are.
 On the other hand, STEM of a word is
whatever we are left with when the
inflectional suffixes are removed. ¶
 AFFIXES
 An important and often an
integral part of word structure.
 Affixes - bound morphemes that
can be added to the root or base
of the word, preceding it, placed
within or following it, in the
process of creating word forms.
 AFFIXES
 There are 5 different types of affixes:
 Prefixes
 Suffixes
 Interfixes, existent in E. morphology
plus
 Infixes
 Circumfixes, types of affixes not
present in the language.
 AFFIXES
 As for the impact they can have on
the base:
– Inflectional, added to stems and
producing forms with particular
grammatical purpose and
– Derivational or formative, affixes that
are added to roots or other bases in the
process of forming stems.
In the English language, there are no
inflectional prefixes. ¶
 PREFIXES
 Prefixes - affixes positioned before or to
the front part of the base with which they
combine to form a complex lexeme.
 In English, prefixes are lexical
morphemes, i.e. they are used in the
process of derivation, rather than in
inflection.
 PREFIXES
 English words can have 2 prefixes at the
most, but normally only one prefix is annexed
to the base front, affecting the meaning and
sometimes lexical category.
 The process of adding prefixes to roots is
called prefixation.
 a) in-tolerable, dis-charge, en-liven
 b) re-re-make, meta-meta-theory, re-over-
invest
 SUFFIXES
 Placed after the root of the word they
make up in combination, either free
or bound roots.
 The number of suffixes in English is
impressive
 As many as 5 instances of suffixation
can be registered in an English word.
 SUFFIXES
 a) glad-ly, bright-ness, hand-ful
 b) hope-ful-ly, faith-ful-ness, develop-
ment-al
 c) nat-ion-al-ist, nat-ur-al-ist-ical-ly
 In English, as in other languages for that
matter, suffixes can be classified into two
major groups, the group of derivational
and the group of inflectional suffixes.
 INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES
 Inflectionalsuffixes -engaged in
the process of inflection.
 They are also known as
grammatical endings, because
they provide certain new
grammatical meaning to the stem
they are attached to.
 INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES
 Typically, they would not have any impact on
the lexical category of the form they are
combined with.
 An inflectional suffix added to a noun stem will
produce a nominal outcome, but the
grammatical job it performs in a sentential
context will be different.
 a. n sing. dress+ -es > n plur. dresses
 b. v pres. watch + -ed > v past watched
 DERIVATIONAL SUFFIXES
 Derivational suffixes - used to form
derivatives, and are therefore a part
of derivational morphology.
 They are called LEXICAL AFFIXES due
to the fact that they form new
lexemes with new lexical meaning
once they are appended to the base.
 DERIVATIONAL SUFFIXES
 Most of the derivational
suffixes change the lexical
category of the original base.
n form + -al > adj formal
 adj formal + -ity > n formality
DERIVATIONAL SUFFIXES
 INFIXES
 Infixes - affixes inserted within the root,
thus splitting it into two parts.
 Present in languages such as Arabic, Greek,
Hebrew, Tagalog, Turkish.
 Both inflectional and derivational affixes
inserted within other morphemes.
 Ar. v present t. ktb “write” > past t. katab
“wrote”
 INFIXES
 There are authors who argue that
infixation is just a special kind of
prefixation or suffixation.
 If free morphemes are inserted in the
root, they are largely part of affected
language and these items present
instances of inserting expletives within
word bases.
 INFIXES
 This is the reason why the
phenomenon is also called expletive
infixation or TMESIS, if the expletive
happens to be inserted within a
compound.
 abso-bloody-lutely
 be thou ware  for beware.
 INTERFIXES
 Interfix - a term which is used
to refer to a kind of affix that
appears in between two other
morphemes, as the name
suggests.
 Other names that may be tagged to this
are filler or linking morpheme.
 INTERFIXES
 Of light phonemic content (one
phoneme),
 Do not possess any specific
semantic content other than the
functional meaning of linkage.
 The morphemes that they bring
in contact can be free and bound,
e.g. spaci-o-temporal, politic-o-
historical, speed-o-meter
 CIRCUMFIXES
 Circumfixes - not present in English, but
are typical of certain other Germanic
languages.
 These affixes consist of two parts which
surround the base, a combination of a
prefix and a suffix that attach to a base
simultaneously to express a single
meaning or category.
 CIRCUMFIXES
 Another term used for this
phenomenon is discontinuous affix,
as they present discontinuous
morphemes.

 sagen ”say” > ge-+sag+-t ”said”

 COMBINING FORM
 At this point we have to make a
difference between an affix and a
bound root, since the
demarcation line between the two
may be sometimes confusing.
 COMBINING FORM
 When we consider these, it
should be kept in mind that here
we take into account derivational
affixes and also that both
derivational affixes and bound
roots are bound lexical
morphemes.
 COMBINING FORM
 In English, there is a number of
bound morphemes that have
originated from lexemes imported
from Latin or Greek.
 Their combinations with other
elements are more recent, that is why
we call them neoclassical elements:
COMBINING FORM
 COMBINING FORM
 physiotherapy
 geothermal
 television
 anthropology
 psychoanalysis
 phonograph
 geology
COMBINING FORM
 COMBINING FORM
 Being bound, these morphemes
are often experienced as affixes,
or affixoids.
 However, we would be faced here
with the problem that words such
as biology would consist of a
prefix and a suffix.
 COMBINING FORM
 This would go against our basic
assumptions about the general
structure of words already expressed
that there has to exist an element in
a word structure which carries the
central meaning, an element which
would be the root of the lexical item.
 COMBINING FORM
Alternatively,we could assume
that we are not dealing with
affixes, but with bound roots,
so that we are in fact talking
about cases of compounding,
and not of affixation.
 COMBINING FORM
 We are familiar with such words or
we can readily say that bio- has the
meaning “life”, and this insight leads
us to think that suchlike words
behave exactly like compounds.
 For instance, a blackboard is a kind of
board, university campus is a kind of
campus, etc.
 COMBINING FORM
 And biochemistry is a kind of
chemistry, biorhythm is a kind of
rhythm, etc.
 These forms, which are most
often used in combination with
other such elements, are
therefore called combining forms.
 COMBINING FORM
 The only difference between them and
native compounds is that the non-
native elements are obligatorily bound.
 Those compounds that involve
neoclassical elements or combining
forms are called NEOCLASSICAL
COMPOUNDS.
Reading
 Chapter 4