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MORPHOLOGY:Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes

and Infixes

by Don L. F. Nilsenby Don L. F. Nilsen

and Alleen Pace Nilsenand Alleen Pace Nilsen

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Michael Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm

• Smith and Wilhelm have three rules to determine what terms (metalanguage) to teach in a grammar class:

1. The term is so commonly used that teachers, texts, and tests presume that students know it.

2. The term is essential to being able to explain an important issue of style or correctness.

3. The term becomes essential to the work of a class (such as ENG 506).

(Smith & Wilhelm 13-14)

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Parts of Speech: Traditional Definitions

A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing.

A verb expresses action or state of being.

An adjective describes or modifies a noun.

An adverb modifies verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

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• A pronoun takes the place of a noun.

• A preposition shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence.

• A conjunction joins words or groups of words.

• An interjection shows excitement or emotion.• (Smith & Wilhelm 11)

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Smith & Wilhelm’s Parts of Speech to Teach

Content Classes:

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Content or Grammatical? You Decide

Pronouns

Grammatical Classes:

Prepositions

Conjunctions

Interjections

(Smith & Wilhelm 15)

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Word Choice Smith & Wilhelm find these Common

Confusions in Student PapersAggravate-annoy

Amount-number

Can-may

Collective-collectedConscience-

conscientious-conscious

Criterion-*criterions-

criteria

Definitely-defiantly

Disinterested-

uninterested

Eligible-legible

Enumerate-remunerate

Etc. (not ect.): et cetera

Fewer-less

Good-well

I-me-myself

Illegible-ineligible

Imply-infer

In-into

Incredible-incredulous

Lay-lie

Media-medium

Past-passed

Raise-rise

Set-sit

That-which

Use-utilize

Woman-women

Your-you’re

BAD WORD-BREAKING:

A lot-a lot

Any body-anybody

Every day-everyday(Smith & Wilhelm 150-169)

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Semantic vs. Structural Definitions of Parts of Speech

• T’was brillig, and the slithy toves

• Did gire and gimble in the wabe.

• All mimsy were the borogroves,

• And the mome wraths outgrabe.

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CONTENT WORDS VS. FUNCTION WORDS

• You may have been told that there are eight Parts of Speech in English.

• You may have been told that their names are: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives.

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• What your teachers told you is not a lie, but it is very much an oversimplification.

• These Part-of-Speech Categories need to be divided into two very different types of Parts of Speech.

• The Content Words carry real-world meaning.

• The Function words carry only grammatical meaning.

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• The Content Words are Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs.

• The Function Words are Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives.

• The Pronouns belong to neither of these categories. Pronouns can stand in the place of Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositional Phrases, or even Sentences.

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• Since Content Words carry real-world meaning:

• Content words can be stressed.

• Content words cannot be easily figured out if they are deleted.

• Content words can be inflected.

• Content words more readily enter into compounds.

• Content words are an open set; new ones enter our language daily.

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• Pronouns meet some of these criteria but not others. They carry some real-world meaning, but not as much as the words they replace.

• They can sometimes be stressed.• They can be figured out if deleted.• They can be inflected.• They don’t enter into compounding.• They are a closed set.

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CATEGORIES VS. FUNCTIONS

• “Noun” is a category. “Subject” is a function.

• A Noun or a Pronoun can function as a Subject, a Subject Complement, a Direct Object, an Indirect Object, an Object Complement or an Object of a Preposition.

• Pronouns functioning as S or SC are in subject form; those functioning as DO, IO, OC, or OP are in object form.

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• A Verb functions as a Predicate.

• An Adjective or an Adverb functions as a Modifier.

• An Adjective answers “which,” “what kind of,” or “how many” and modifies a Noun.

• An Adverb answers “how,” “when,” “where” or “how much” and modifies a Verb, an Adjective, an Adverb or a Sentence.

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• Function Words have only grammatical meaning.

• Prepositions relate Nouns to other Nouns (fourth of July).

• Conjunctions relate Sentences to other Sentences.

• Articles mark Nouns.

• Auxiliaries mark Verbs.

• Expletives mark the place of the Subject so that the Subject can be postponed.

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OLD AND NEW INFORMATION

• The Subject of a sentence gives Old Information. It provides the “subject” for the people to talk about.

• The Predicate of a sentence gives New Information. It provides new and insightful information about the Subject.

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• Subject and Predicate are important not only to Linguists, but also to Rhetoricians, Psychologists, Logicians, etc., but different names are used in different fields:

• Subject vs. Predicate• Topic vs. Comment• Old Information vs. New Information• Theme vs. Rheme• Presupposition vs. Assertion

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Contrast the following

• Bound vs. Free Morphemes

• Stem vs. Affix

• Prefix vs. Suffix vs. Infix

• Derivational vs. Inflectional

• Content vs. Functional Morphemes

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Analyze the following word

• antidisestablishmentarianism–STEM: stable or establish

–Suffixes: -ment, -arian, -ism

–Prefixes: dis-, anti-

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NOUNS

• PLURAL: cats, dogs, horses, deer, data, mice, alumni

• POSSESSIVE: dog’s, its

• PLURAL POSSESSIVE: dogs’

• NOTE: English used to have four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative

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VERBS

• THIRD PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT INDICATIVE: goes

• PAST TENSE: buzzed, walked, heated, sang

• PAST PARTICIPLE: driven, hit, liked

• PRESENT PARTICIPLE: driving

• NOTE: English used to have two more forms: driveth, drivest

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SUPPLETIVE VERBS

• A suppletive form is one which comes from two different paradigms. These must be high-frequency words, or they will become regularized through common use.

• “Go-went” is a suppletive verb, as is “is-be.” “Go” comes from the “go” paradigm, while “went” comes from the “wend” paradigm.

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ADJECTIVES

• COMPARATIVE: higher, more beautiful, more friendly

• SUPERLATIVE: highest, most beautiful, most friendly

• NOTE: Old English Adjectives used to have four cases (Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc), agreed with nouns, and came after nouns

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ADVERBS

• COMPARATIVE: faster, more imaginatively

• SUPERLATIVE: fastest, most imaginatively• (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 98-101)

• Adverbs usually end in –ly, however there are– FLAT ADVERBS: fast, first– AND –LY ADJECTIVES: friendly

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PERSONAL PRONOUNS

• Sing Nom Obj Pos Substantive Reflexive

• 1st I me my mine myself• 2nd you you your yours yourself• 3rd he him his his himself• she her her hers herself• it it its its itself

• Plural• 1st we us our ours ourselves• 2nd you you your yours yourselves• 3rd they them their theirs themselves

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RELATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS

• RELATIVE: INTERROGATIVE• when when• where where• why why• how how• which which• what what• that

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DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

singular: plural:

• close: this these

• far: that those

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Contrast these sentences

• When did she arrive? (Int Pro)

• I know when she arrived. (Rel Pro)

• This is the pen that you borrowed. (Rel Pro)

• Please give me that pen. (Dem Pro)

• I know that you wanted to do well. (SC)

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INDEFINITE PRONOUNS (GO WITH A SINGULAR VERB)

THING: PLACE: TIME: BODY

ANY anything anywhere ever anybody

NO nothing nowhere nevernobody

SOME- something somewhere sometimes somebody

EVERY- everything everywhere always everybody

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ARCHAIC FORMS:SHAKESPEARE & THE BIBLE

NOMINATIVE: POSSESSIVE: ACCUSATIVE:

SINGULARS: thou (Nom), thy, thine (Gen), thee (Acc)

PLURALS: you, ye

DUALS: wit, uncer, unc, git, incer, inc (NOTE: In Old English, but not in Middle English nor in Modern English

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!MORPHOLOGICAL HUMOR

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UGLIFICATION

• “I never heard of ‘Uglification,’ Alice ventured to say. ‘What is it?’ The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. “never heard of uglifying!” it exclaimed. “You know what to beautify is, I suppose?’ ‘Yes,’ said Alice doubtfully: ‘it means—to make—anything-prettier.’ ‘Well, then,’ the Gryphon went on, ‘if you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.’”

• (Carroll 128-129)

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• The term “uglification” is part of a longer quote in which Alice is being told about the education system in Wonderland. Students in Wonderland study “Reeling, Writhing, Uglification and Derision.”

• They call their teacher “Tortoise” because he “taught us.”

• Lessons get shorter each day. That’s why they’re called “lessens.”

• In Wonderland, “Latin and Greek” becomes “Laughing and Grief,” and “drawing, sketching and painting in oils” becomes “Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.”

• (Carroll 128-129)

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CLICK AND CLACKTHE TAPPET BROTHERS

• On National Public Radio’s “Cartalk,” Click and Clack are playing with Morphology in their list of credits:– Copyeditor: Adeline Moore– Accounts Payable: Ineeda Czech– Pollution Control: Maury Missions– Purchasing: Lois Bidder– Statistician: Marge Innovera – Russian Chauffeur: Picov Andropov– Legal Firm: Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe.

(Fromkin Rodman Hyams 72)

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!BILINGUAL MORPHOLOGICAL WORD PLAY

• “Un petit d’un petit• S’étonne aux Halles”

• This makes no sense in French, but it makes perfect sense in English:

• “Humpty Dumpty• Sat on a wall”

(Fromkin Rodman Hyams 72)

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!!WATERGATE• The Watergate Hotel is where the break-in of the National

Democratic headquarters occurred.

• Today’s dictionaries give more room to the metonymous meaning of Watergate than to the literal meaning of “a gate controlling the flow of water.”

• “Gate” has now become a suffix meaning “scandal” as in

Irangate, Contragate, Iraqgate, Pearlygate, Rubbergate, Murphygate, Gennifergate, Nannygate, Monicagate, ad infinitum.

(Nilsen & Nilsen 180)

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!!!NEW DEFINITIONS

• ArteryArtery: The study of painting: The study of painting

• BacteriaBacteria: The back door of a cafeteria: The back door of a cafeteria

• BariumBarium: What doctors do when patients : What doctors do when patients die.die.

Nilsen & Nilsen 177)Nilsen & Nilsen 177)

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References:

Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York, NY: Random House, 1960.

Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa. Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th Edition. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. “Morphology: The Words of Language.” An Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, 71-114.

Gleason, H. A. Jr. “The Identification of Morphemes” (Clark, 144-153).

Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.

Smith, Michael W., and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Getting It Right: Fresh Approaches to Teaching Grammar, Usage and Correctness. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2007.