ENGLISH

MORPHOLOGY

CHAPTER 2
 The concept of word

Morphology: studies the form of words.

Syntax: studies the combination of words.

What is a word?
MORPHEMES

Words are made up of morphemes:

The smallest units of language with a
constant form and a constant meaning.

Words may consist of:

1 morpheme: stupid, and, the, I, etc.
2 or more morphemes: great-ly, want-ed,
etc.
What is a word?
Three senses of word

You are working hard, but I am working

even harder.

1. Orthograhic sense 10 words:

A word is what is written between two
blanks.
Three senses of word
You are working hard, but I am working even harder.

2. Syntactic sense 9 words:

A word is every separate linguistic item that is written
differently from other items and has therefore a distinct
syntactic function.

working & working are two instances of the same word

from a syntactic perspective;

Hard & harder are different because they cannot replace

each other in the same syntactic constructions: *I work
hard than you.
Three senses of word
You are working hard, but I am working even
harder.

3. Lexical sense 7 lexemes

A lexeme is every lexical item with a separate
entry in the dictionary. There may be several
forms of the same lexeme:
E.g. HARD: hard / harder / hardest
E.g. BE: am / are / is / was / etc.
Word vs. lexeme

To avoid misunderstandings:
1. Syntactic perspective: WORD
2. Lexical perspective: LEXEME

Syntactically, hard and harder are

different WORDS.
Lexically, hard and harder are
different forms of the same LEXEME.
 TYPES OF MORPHEMES
(classification based on meaning)

morpheme

lexical
grammatical

function word inflectional affix content word derivational affix

Morpheme vs. morph
Morphemes are the smallest units of language with
a constant form and a constant meaning.
Morphemes are abstractions.

Morph is the concrete realization of a morpheme.

Most of the time, morphemes and morphs coincide,
but in English there are morphemes which have NO
CONCRETE REALIZATION: zero morph, e.g. fish
Fish has 2 morphemes FISH + plural .
But only 1 morph: fish.
 TYPES OF MORPHEMES
(classification based on form)
morph
bound
Free (root)

enclitic
affix bound root
content function
word: table word: the

prefix suffix
Auxiliary: Negative:
I-m Must-nt
Derivational: Inflectional:
Derivational:
driv-er driv-ing
Un-important
Types of morphs

Unavoidably

Overgrown

Disheartened

reclassify
FREE vs. BOUND MORPHEMES

FREE MORPHEMES:
May potentially function as independent words & have
lexical meanings.
Also called LEXEMES or ROOTS (table, house, short, etc.)

BOUND MORPHEMES:
May not function as independent words, but need to be
attached to other morphemes to form words.
Have grammatical meanings (-ed, -ing, -er, -est, etc.) or
lexical meanings (un-, im-, -able, -ous, etc.)
Also called AFFIXES (PREFIXES & SUFFIXES)
ROOT
ROOT:
Is any free morpheme that cannot be subdivided
into smaller units.

Example: dealings:
Root: deal (free morpheme)
Affixes: -ing + -s (bound morphemes)
Example: birthday:
Root 1 birth + root 2 day (2 free morphemes)
Branches of morphology:
inflectional vs.
derivational
Branches of morphology

Inflectional Derivational
morphology
morphology

Class changing: Class

Grammatical paint (V) maintaining:
meaning: paint-er (N) important (ADJ)
tense / un-important
number / etc. (ADJ)
WORD vs. LEXEME
Two branches of morphology:

1. INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY
Related to syntax (grammatical meanings)
New words are formed: house / house-s

2. DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY (lexical word-

formation)
Related to the dictionary (lexical meanings)
New lexemes are formed: fool / fool-ish
Root / base / stem
Root: free morpheme En gage ment s
which cannot be root
subdivided.

Base: root + derivational

affixes to which more En gage ment s
derivational affixes can be base
added.

Stem: root + derivational

affixes to which inflectional En gage ment s
affixes are added. stem
Types of words
Simple word: 1 free root: hand.

Complex word: 1 free root + 1 or more bound

morphemes: hand-y.

Compound word: 2 free roots: handbook.

Compound-complex word: 2 free roots + bound

morphemes: handwriting.
Inflectional
morphology
Types of lexemes
1. Invariable lexemes: the, and, etc.
2. Variable lexemes: two or more forms (BE: am / are /
is / etc.; BOY: boy / boys)

The variation found in variable lexemes in known as

INFLECTION.
INFLECTION applies to large sets of lexemes:
Verbs: tense (jump-jumps-jumped)
Nouns: number (boy boys)
Adjectives: degree (old older oldest)
Pronouns: case (I me; we us)
 Inflectional morphology
Deals with the inflectional forms of variable
lexemes (it is an appendix to syntax).

Inflections carry syntactic meanings and do not

change the part of speech of the lexeme:
Nouns: form forms (meaning: plural)
Verbs: bring brings brought (meaning: present 3rd
p. sing. past tense)

Most inflections are highly productive.

Derivational
morphology
Derivational morphology
Deals with the formation of new lexemes by
adding morphemes to an existing lexeme (it is
related to the dictionary).

Derivational morphemes carry lexical meanings

and often, but not always, do change the part of
speech of the lexeme:
Paint (verb) paint-er (noun)
Care (noun) care-less (adj.)
Regular (adj.) ir-regular (adj.)
Inflectional vs.
derivational morphology

Inflectional morphology:
Each suffix creates a new form of the same
lexeme (girl girls, look looked).

Derivational morphology:
Each prefix or suffix creates a new lexeme
(help help-ful, adequate - in-adequate).
Inflectional vs.
derivational morphology
Derivation produces new lexemes & inflections new forms
of the same lexeme.

Inflection is more productive (-s; -ing; -ed)

Inflection has more regular meanings: - s (plural), -ed

(past)

Dictionaries include derived lexemes but not inflected

words.

Inflection closes words to further derivation: drive driv-er

driv-er-less *driversless
Morphology in
English
Inflectional morphology
in English

Relates to syntax.
Expresses grammatical meanings:
number, tense, aspect, degree, etc.
Creates new forms of the same lexeme.
Is greatly reduced & simplified in
Present-day English.
Inflectional morphology
in English
In English it is exclusively expressed by means
of suffixes:
-s plural
-s genitive
-s 3rd p. sing.
-ing progressive aspect
-ed past tense
-ed/-en past participle
-er/-est comparative / superlative degree (adj. & adv.)
Inflectional morphology
in English
Irregular (nonproductive) ways of expressing
grammatical meanings morphologically:
1. Vowel change in the root:
Man / men, foot / feet, drive / drove, sing / sang

2. Syncretism (conversion / zero derivation):

Sheep (sing.) / sheep (pl.)
Put (pres.) / put (past)

3. Foreign words (Latin & Greek):

alga-algae, alumna-alumnae, larva-larvae
alumnus-alumni, bacillus-bacilli, stimulus-stimuli
corpus-corpora, genus-genera, opus-opera
Stratum-strata; curriculum-curricula
Appendix-appendices, index-indices, codex-codices
Criterion-criteria, phenomenon-phenomena
Inflectional morphology
in English
Extremely reduced.
The only complications are:
1. A few irregularities (man-men; child-
children; sheep-sheep).

2. A few changes in spelling & pronunciation:

consonant doubling: big, bigg-er.
e-deletion: nice, nic-er, nic-est.
y-replacement: pretty, pretti-er, story-stori-es.
Derivational morphology
in English
Relates to the dictionary.

Adds lexical meanings to the root:

important un-important
mother mother-hood

Creates new lexemes.

There is a wide range of means available in

English for forming new lexemes.
Derivational morphology
in English
Three main strategies:
1. Derivation or affixation (prefix or suffix):
bake-baker; kind-unkind.

2. Compounding (combining 2 roots):

birth-rate, teapot, weekend, hairdresser.

3. Syncretism (conversion / zero derivation):

To fly (verb) a fly (noun)
To dry (verb) dry (adj.)
A bottle (noun) to bottle (verb)
 Minor
word-formation
processes

(derivation)
COINING & BORROWING
Coining: new words are added to the
language (root creation):
Hypertext

Borrowing: words are taken from another

language:
dj vu
mosquito
cosmonaut
CLIPPING
Clipping is the result of deliberately dropping
part of a word, usually either the end or the
beginning, or less often both, while retaining the
same meaning and word class:
Lab < laboratory
Deli < delicatessen
Mike < microphone
Cello < violoncello
Fridge < refrigerator
 BLENDING
A blend involves two previous processes of word
formation:
compounding + clipping

Two free roots are combined and blended, usually by

clipping off the end of the 1st word and the beginning of
the 2nd.
Smoke + fog > smog
Motor + hotel > motel
Breakfast + lunch > brunch
REDUPLICATION

Word process in which the initial syllable

or the entire word is doubled, exactly or
with a slight phonological change:

Hush-hush, so-so, etc.

Zig-zag, walkie-talkie, tick-tock, etc.
Helter-skelter, nitty-gritty, etc.
Flower-power, brain drain, etc.
BACK FORMATION

Back formation occurs when speakers

derive a morphologically simple word
from a more complex word:

Typewriter > to typewrite

Babysitter > to babysit
Sedative > to sedate
ACRONYMS

Extreme form of clipping.

The initial letters of words in a phrase are

pronounced as a Word:
UN (United Nations)
EU (European Union)
WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestan)
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)