Morphology

The Study of Words, Word Formation, and Word Structure

What is a Word?
 Easier To Recognize Than To Define

 If you ask a speaker of any language to identify a word, they will be able to do it
readily.
 It will be pronounceable.
 It will be associated with a meaning or function (or both).
 It will be able to be combined with other words to form phrases and sentences.
What is a word?

 Things that are words in one language may require many words to express in
another.
 Ro’itulaatuka’u ‘S/he who had been crippled’ (Hiaki)
 Schadenfreude ‘joy taken at another’s misfortune’ (German)

 But speakers of these languages all agree that they are words.
What is a word?

Every word is a package of different types of information.

Pronunciation koh-AH-luh
Meaning

Connotation neutral
Part of Speech noun
Spelling ‘koala’
What is a word?

Thrifty Stingy
Pronunciation THRIHF-tee STIHN-gee
Meaning using money carefully unwilling to give or spend
money
Connotation good bad
Part of Speech adjective adjective
Spelling ‘thrifty’ ‘stingy’
The Lexicon

The “dictionary” in your mind.

*The average college freshman has a lexicon of about 60,000 words.

The Lexicon

 Remember the activity – in what ways could we access the lexicon?

 Based on letters Like a dictionary!
 Based on sounds
SynonymsW t o
 Based on meaning

s t h a
NOT like a dictionary!
r ds t h
 And much more!
for
W o d
‘weird’
r r h y m ’ a t
i t h ‘ Ae w i t h
t ar t w ‘ f a r ’
s