MORPHOLOGY

Morphology area of grammar

concerned with the structure of words
and with
relationships between words that
involve the morphemes that compose
them.
 Morphology?

Terminologies

Classification of Morphemes

Morphological Description
 Morph = form or shape, ology = study of

Morphology is the study of the forms and

formation of words.
The branch of linguistics (and one of the major
components of grammar) that studies word
structures, especially in terms of morphemes.
Word:
An affix:
Morpheme :
Suffix:
Prefix:
Infixes:
Root:
Stem:
 Word:
Is a sound or sound groups
articulated that express a idea.
Morpheme :
Is the smallest meaningful unit in the
grammar of a language.
An affix:
Is a word element, such as a prefix or suffix,
that can only occur attached to a base, stem, or
root.
 Prefix:
Is that morpheme which is
attached to the start of a word.
Example of prefixe:
un + kind = unkind
Suffix:

The suffix is that morpheme that is added to

the end of a word. The suffix may consist of
character more then a single or complete
character. Example: reason + able = reasonable
 Infixes:
Bound morphemes which are inserted into other
morphemes.
Example: Fikas ------ Strong
Fumikas To be strong
Root:

Root words are the basic part of a word that

usually carries meaning.
Stem:

When a root morpheme is combined with affix

morphemes.
 Free morphemes-units:
That can stand alone as words
by themselves.
Example : TREE

Bound morphemes-units:
That must be attached or
bound to a free morpheme
Example: TREES
 Open Class Morphemes:
Open Morpheme has independent
meaning.
It can stand alone.
Also known as content words.
Closed Class Morphemes
Closed Morpheme has dependent
meaning.
It can not stand alone.
Closed Class are not re-productive.
Closed class morphemes have listed functions
Definiteness

Comparison
Quantity
Conjoining
 BOUND MORPHEME
Bound morphemes(affixes) must be attached to
the word.

They are two kinds of bound morphemes.

Contractible Morphemes
Affixes
 Contractible morphemes are like;
I will Ill
They had Theyd

So, they are auxiliary modals such as will, shall,

has, have, had and would can be contracted in
informal style of language.
 Affixes divided into 3 groups;

Prefixes unclean

Infixes nowadays

Suffixes adjustment
 Derivational Morphemes
Are those bound morphemes that we use in making new
words or making words of a different grammatical category
from the stem.
Example:
good(adj.)+-ness(derivational morpheme) =goodness(noun)
care(noun)+-ful(derivational morpheme) =careful(adj.)
A list of derivational morphemes concludes;
suffixes:-ish, -less, ly etc.
prefixes: re-,pre-, un-, ex-, mis-, co- etc.
 Inflectional Morphemes
Are those morphemes that are used to indicate
aspects of the grammatical function of a word.

Example:
clean+(-ed)=cleaned tenses

Inflectional morphemes are also

called(inflections).
 1. -'s (possessive) with nouns *Jane's brother
2. _s (plural) * pens

3.-ing (present participle) *teaching

4. s (3rd person singular) with verbs *she likes
5.-ed(past tense) *played
6. en(past participle) *forgotten

7. est (superlative) with adjectives *happiest

8. er (comparative) *happier
 what's the difference between inflectional
morpheme and derivational morpheme?
Inflectional morpheme ,never change the
grammatical category of a word.

-Old (adj.) Older (adj.)

While derivational morpheme can change

the grammatical category of a word .

-teach (v.) teacher (n.)