Morphology: Word Analysis

Word Structure
Word Formation
BY Ms. Terri Yueh
 How do we know there must be
something smaller than a word?

They gave it to me, Humpty Dumpty continued, for

an un-birthday present.
I beg your pardon? Alice said with a puzzled air.
Im not offended, said Humpty Dumpty.
I mean, what is an un-birthday present?
From Through
A present given when isn't your birthday, of course.
the Looking-
Glass. Illustration
by John Tenniel. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, 1871
 Morphology
the Study of Forms
What is Morphology?
What is a word?
What is a morpheme?
What is mental lexicon?

Morphology: deal with words, their structure, an how they are

formed
Morphemes: the smallest meaningful unit of linguistic form or
grammatical category
The Age of the Dictionary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7W7UgFxri8
 Morphology: The Internal
Structure of Forms
How to identify lexical categories?

Allomorphs: phonological variants of a morpheme, the

phonological realization of a morpheme (The English past tense
morpheme sounds different in different phonological contexts
jumped, kissed; robbed, amused; rooted, wedded
Homonyms (homophones) / homographs
Root Stem Word
Affixes: Prefixes -- Infixes Suffixes -- Circumfixes
 Infix
Example in Bontoc, Philippines
fikas strong
fumikas to be strong
kilad red
kumilad to be red
fusul enemy
fumusul to be an enemy
 Circumfix
Example in Chickasaw
chokma he is good
ikchokmo he isnt good
lakna it is yellow
iklakno it isnt yellow
palli it is hot
ikpallo it isnt hot
tiwwi he opens / iktiwwo he doesnt open
 How many morphemes are there?
hacker, hackers, hacking, hacked
Painter, lover
nicer, prettier
finger, brother, monster, sister
Unrewritable
Antidisestablishmentarianism
 Morphology
the Internal Structure of Words
Morphemes

Bound Free

Stem Closed Class Open Class

Affixes
(Base / Root) (Function words) (Content words)

Inflectional
Prepositions
Derivational (change Nouns,
Conjunctions
(new meaning) grammatical Verbs, etc.
etc.
function)

Prefix Suffix Suffix

 Morphology
The Hierarchical Structure of words
Nouns: sunlight, bluebird, redwood, ice cream
Verbs: window shop, undertake
Adjectives: ice-cold, undersized
prepositions: into, upon

Noun (word)

verb
The tree diagram of word structure
adj. Order of appearance

noun
(root)

Nation al ise ation

 Affixation: Inflectional Affixes
Root
Plural -S noun flowers
Possessive -S noun Tony s

Present -S verb talks

Past -ED verb walked
Present participle -ING verb looking
Past participle -EN verb given

Comparative -ER adjective longer

Superlative -EST adjective longest
 Affixation: Derivational Affixes
Verbs + ment noun (amazement, movement)
Verb + er/or noun (writer, director)
Adj. + ly Adv (truly, slowly)
Adj. + en verb (sweeten, darken, broaden)
Noun + en verb (frighten, hasten)
Nouns + ly Adj (friendly, manly)
Nouns + ful adj (doubtful, beautiful)

Mis + verb verb Re + verb verb

Un + adj. adj Ex + noun noun
Un + verb verb Under + verb verb
 Affixation: Derivational Affixes

Un+believe+able Non negative

Un+accept+able
Un opposite quality
Un+talk+about+able
in opposite quality
Un+speak+able
dis negative or opposite

Un + adj. adj
 Lexical Gaps

Systematic Gap ()
Impossible words
* unsystem

Accidental Gap

recite recital
refuse refusal
arrive arrival
describe * describal
derive * derival
Jeremy Lin
Word Generator
Jeremania

BerLin
Lin + innovator =
Linnovator

Source: GQ.com

one little, two

little, three
little
Lindians
image: http://news.gamme.com.tw/250524
 Morphological Analysis

How do we 1. Collect language data

identify from native speakers
morphemes?
2. Compare and look for
recurring forms
3. Distinction
4. Conclusion