Introduction to linguistics

Morphology

November 27th, 2008

Structure of the talk

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Definition of morphology

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The concept of the morpheme

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Free and bound morphemes

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Representation of word structure

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Common morphological processes:

affixation, cliticisation, internal

change, suppletion, reduplication,

compounding, derivation

Definition of morphology

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Morphology – the analysis of word
structure.

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Words – the simplest free forms, i.e.
meaningful elements that can occur in
isolation and in different positions within
the sentence.

For instance: The table is black.
They’ve bought a glass table.
What did you buy? A table.

The morpheme

•

The morpheme – the smallest unit

of language that carries information

about meaning or function.

•

Simple words – consist of one

morpheme, e.g. tall, build, furniture

•

Complex words – are composed of

at least two morphemes, e.g. driver,

tallest, impolite, Singabloodypour

Free and bound

morphemes

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A free morpheme is one that can be a

word by itself, e.g. class, like, polite

•

A bound morpheme has to be

attached to a word, e.g. – ify as in

classify, dis- as in dislike, im- as in

impolite.

•

Allomorphs – different phonetic

realisations of a morpheme, e.g. the

plural -s, the suffix -ed

Grammatical and lexical

morphemes

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Lexical morphemes (nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs) have a
dictionary meaning.

•

Grammatical morphemes (function
words) – express grammatical
notions such as number, tense or
gender differences.

Word structure

•

Complex words are represented by tree
structures.

•

The major components of complex words
are: the root and affixes.

•

The root belongs to a lexical category: noun,
verb or adjective, etc.

•

Base – the form to which an affix is attached.

•

Pseudo-morphemes: receive, deceive,
complete, strike

Analysis of word structure

Which derivation is

impossible?

How many morphemes do

these words have?

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Improbability

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Interchangable

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Disadvantageously

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Redistribution

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Disinterestedly

Word formation -

affixation

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Affixation: prefixes, suffixes, infixes.

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Prefixes are basically stress-neutral, i.e.
they don’t change stress-placement.

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Suffixes:

-

stress-neutral: -al,-able, -s, -ed, -ly, -ing

-

stress-attracting: -ese, -eer, -ation, -esque,

-

stress-fixing: -ic, -ion, -ity

Semantic classes of

prefixes in English

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Time – pre-, after-, e.g. prearrange,

aftershock

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Number – bi-, tri-, multi-, e.g. bilingual,

tricycle, multicultural

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Place – in-, inter-, e.g. inbuilt, interbreed

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Degree – super-, over-, e.g. supersensitive,

overconfident

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Privation – a-, un-, e.g. amoral, unlock

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Negation – un- anti-, e.g. unwise, antisocial

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Size – micro-, mini-,e.g. microchip, miniskirt

Morphological processes -

cliticisation

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Clitics – elements that cannot stand

alone for phonological reasons. They

are not syllables since they don’t

contain a vowel, e.g. ‘m, ‘s,

•

Proclitics – are attached to the

beginning of a following word (not

attested in English)

•

Enclitics – elements attached to the end

of a preceding word, e.g. I’m, He’s, etc.

Morphological processes -

internal change

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Process that substitutes one morpheme

with another, e.g. irregular verb forms

sit - sat, take – took, meet – met.

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Ablaut – vowel alterations that mark

grammatical differences

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Umlaut – the fronting of a vowel under

the influence of the front vowel in the

following syllable, e.g. foot – feet,

goose - geese

Morphological processes -

suppletion

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A morphological process that
replaces a root morpheme with a
phonologically unrelated form to
indicate a grammatical contrast,
e.g. go – went, is – were, or jest –
być in Polish.

Morphological processes -

reduplication

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Reduplication – consists in

duplicating all or part of the base.

1.

Exact reduplication: mama, papa,

goody-goody, hush-hush

2.

Ablaut reduplication: zig-zag, ping-

pong, wishy-washy, riff-raff

3. Rhyme reduplication: roly-poly,

boogie-woogie, helter-skelter, nitty-

gritty

Morphological processes

-compounding

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Compouning – consists in combining
words belonging to the same or
different lexical categories:

-

two nouns: raincoat, drug addict,

-

adjective – noun: happy hour, bluebird,

-

verb – noun: swear words, washcloth,

-

preposition – noun:
overdose,underachiever

Complex compounds

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Compound + inflectional affix, e.g
cross-examined, heart-breaking,
babysitter, etc.