Morphology and

Syntax
Complex Words
 Simplex words and complex words
to walk, to dance, to laugh, to kiss
to purify, to enlarge, to industrialize, to head-hunt

house, corner, zebra

collection, builder, sea horse

green, old, sick

regional, washable, honey-sweet
 Morphemes
A morpheme is the smallest part of a word that
adds its own distinct bit of meaning to the
word.

kill-er, work-er, print-er

wash-able, laugh-able
re-paint-ing
 Cranberry morphemes
blueberry
blackberry
gooseberry (goose?)
cranberry (cran???)
 Free morphemes and bound
morphemes
Free morphemes can stand on their own.
Bound morphemes, or affixes, cannot:

Q: Is that green?
A: *No, at best it’s –ish.

Q: Is she any good at football?

A: *Yes, she’s a great –er.

Q: Does he play the piano often?

A: *Yes, he –s it all the time.
 Suffixes and prefixes
Suffixes
green-ish
build-er
wash-able
solid-ify
industry-al-ize

Prefixes
en-large
re-en-act
de-throne
ex-minister
 Circumfixes and infixes
Circumfixes:
leef ge-leef-d huur ge-huur-d
play played live lived

Infixes:
base: labas verb: l-um-abas ‘come out’
base: pasok verb: p-um-asok ‘enter’
base: bili verb: b-um-ili ‘buy’
 Compounding
Combining two free morphemes:

sea + horse  sea horse

head + strong  headstrong
hand + made  handmade
 Productivity
Some types of compounding are more productive than others.
N-N compounding is completely productive in English:

word + kitchen  word kitchen (e.g. a kitchen for morphologists)

tree + laptop  tree laptop (e.g. a laptop with a picture of a tree)
gorilla + window  gorilla window (e.g. a window through which
you can see a gorilla)
window + gorilla  window gorilla (e.g. a gorilla that always sits
behind a window)
 Derivation
Making a completely new word with an affix:

buildverb  build-ernoun
largeadjective  en-largeverb
industrynoun  industry-aladjective

industry-aladjective  industry-al-izeverb
 Inflection
Providing grammatical information about a word with an
affix:

workverb-s (expresses that the verb has a third person

singular subject)

workverb-ed (expresses that the event expressed by the

verb took place in the past)

housenoun-s (expresses that we are dealing with more than

one house)
Inflectional morphology can be obligatory in some
syntactic contexts.

*Sylvia usually walk to work.

Sylvia usually walks to work.
 Conversion
‘Invisible’ morphology

to build – a build-er
to dance – a danc-er
to run – a run-er
to kill – a kill-er

to cook – a cook
Conversion between different categories:

to runVERB – a runNOUN
yellowADJECTIVE – to yellowVERB
downPREPOSITION – to downVERB
greenADJECTIVE – a greenNOUN
Null affixes in inflection:

I/You usually go- to the market on Saturdays.

 Tree structures
Representing the structure of a complex word in the form of a tree
diagram

N plural

N N s

school V N

teach er
 Structural ambiguity
This ex-president-office-manager works for Bill
Clinton.

This ex-president-office-manager is now a street

artist.
 N N

N N ex N

N N manager N N

ex N office N N manager

president president office