2014-04-03
Sources
" Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia
of language, pp. 90-91.
Introduction to linguistics
" Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, Nina
Hyams. 2003. An introduction to language.
 Chapter 3: The words of language.
Lecture 4: Morphology
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Morphology Morphology
" Studies the structure of words. " The word yes cannot be divided.
" We can split it into [j], [e] and [s], but these units have no
" Words typically can be divided into smaller
meaning in isolation.
units, e.g.:
" The smallest meaningful units into which
 un-happi-ness
words can be divided are called MORPHEMES.
 dom-ek
" Each unit has some kind of independent " Morphology studies the way morphemes
meaning:
operate in language.
 un- has a negative meaning, -ness means a state,
 -ek in Polish indicates something small.
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Types of morphemes Types of morphemes
" Happy is a lexical (free) morpheme:
" Inflectional (grammatical) morphemes  carry
 it can function as an independent word.
grammatical function: E dog-s, jump-ed.
" Un- (a prefix) and -ly (a suffix) are bound
" Derivational (word-formation) morphemes 
morphemes:
 they must always be attached to at least one other
added to free morphemes to form new
morpheme.
words: E quick-ly, profit-able.
" Prefixes and suffixes are types of affixes.
" Inflectional and derivational m. are bound:
" Happy in the word unhappily is also called the
stem:
 they never exist on their own.
 the base form to which inflectional affixes are
attached.
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Types of stems Root vs. stem
" Stems can also be free or bound: " A root should be distinguished from the stem:
" ROOT  the morpheme which appears in all the
" Free stems belong to free morphemes, e.g.
different forms of a single word.
care-less-ness, un-believe-able.
 In Polish, the root of the verb napisał is -pis-:
 Blackberry, blueberry: both black and blue can
" na-pis-a-Å‚.
exist as free forms, so they are free stems.
 This root appears in all other forms of this verb:
" Bound stems are bound morphemes, e.g. re-
" piszę, zapisać, pisywał, etc.
ceive, re-duce, re-peat.
" STEM is the root plus some additional material.
 Cranberry, huckleberry: there are no words like
 In English the difference between the stem and the
cran and huckle, so they are bound stems.
root is rarely significant.
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Morphology: inflection
" Inflectional morphology  studies the way in
which words vary (inflect) to express
grammatical contrasts in sentences, e.g.:
 Singular vs. plural contrast;
 Past vs. present tense contrast.
" Head and heads, or foot and feet are two
forms of the same word.
 The choice between them (singular or plural) is a
matter of grammar: inflectional morphology.
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Morphology: word formation Morphology: word formation
" Derivational morphology  studies the way in
" In English, there are 4 common word
which new words are created.
formation processes:
 Derivation = word formation.
" Affixation:
" Word formation usually changes the syntactic
 Prefixation  a prefix is placed before the stem,
class of a word, e.g.:
e.g. dis-obey.
 dark (Adj.) to darken (Verb),
 Suffixation  a suffix is placed after the stem, e.g.
 faith (N) faithful (Adj.),.
cat-s.
" Exception: Boston (Noun) Bostonian
(Noun).
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Morphology: word formation Morphology: word formation
" Conversion: a word changes its class without " Clipping: an informal shortening of a word,
any change of form, e.g.: often to a single syllable, e.g. ad, flu.
 Green (Adj) Ä…ð the green (N).
" Acronyms: words formed from the initial
" Compounding: two base forms are added letters of the words that make up a name, e.g.
NATO, WWF.
together, e.g. blackbird.
" Blending: two words merge into each other,
Less usual processes include, for example:
e.g. brunch (breakfast + lunch)
" Reduplication: both elements are the same or
only slightly different, e.g.: tip-top.
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Inflectional vs. Derivational m. Words
" Inflectional morphemes never " Derivational morphemes can
" Words are at the boundary between morphology
change the syntactic class or change the syntactic class of
core meaning of the word. the word, and syntax.
" IM usually occur outside " DM create new lexical items
" They are classified into word classes (earlier
derivational morphemes: and are more numerous.
called: parts of speech).
 Boston-ian-s " Derivational morphemes are
closer to the stem:
 not*Boston-s-ian.
 Open classes (content words): nouns, verbs,
 Boston-ian-s,
" IM are usually bound
adjectives, adverbs; numerous, can be extended, e.g.
morphemes.  Except some compounds:
borrowings.
attorney-s-general,
mother-s-in-law.
 Closed classes (function / grammatical words):
" They are usually bound
pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, articles,
morphemes.
prepositions, etc.
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