morphological processes

MorphologicalProcesses


- alter stems to derive new words.

They may change the word’s meaning (derivational) or its

grammatical functions (inflectional).


There are several different types of processes, not all of which are present

in all languages. Some of these are concatenative,

meaning that they involve the linear combination of

morphemes (affixation, for example), while others are non-concatenative, involving the internal alternation of

morphemes.

Morphological Processes

Concatenative Non-concatenative

Compounding

Affixation

Incorporation

Reduplication(Repetition)

Internal modification

Conversion

Back Derivation

Concatenative (linear)

Compounding can be used to form new words through

combining two stems as in the words blackbird or housekeeper. Compounds can be composed of

many parts of speech. Some examples include:

•Compounding

noun-noun such as horseshoenoun-verb such as trouble-shootadjective –verb or high-jumpadjective-adjective such as bittersweetadjective-noun such as jumping beanverb-noun such as spelling beeverb- preposition such as push-uppreposition-verb such as out-cast

•Compounding

• Incorporation

similar to compounding, typically as noun-

incorporation where a nominal stem is fused with a verbal stem to yield a larger,

derived verbal stem,

e.g. to globe-trot

•Affixation

involves the attachment of morphemes to a stem. There are several types of affixes, classified in terms of where they attach to a stem: beginning, end, middle, or around.

Affixation: suffix, prefix, interfix, circumfix, and transfix.

Summary of Affixation

affi x

confix

suffi xprefix interfix transfixcircumfix

infix1 2

- affix- base (root or stem)

Non-concatenative

Reduplication

morphological process that involves copying part of the

base and attaching it as an affix; description involves determining how much is copied and where it appears in relation to the base.

Examples:

• bang-bang - sound of a gun when firing• cha-cha - ballroom dance (Latin)•bye-bye – goodbye•quak-quak – sound of an animal duck

• Internal Modification,Apophony

Apophonic alternations are cases of non-concatenative morphology: a grammatical

opposition is expressed via a vowel alternation.

•sing, sang, sung, song•rise, raise•bind, bound•goose, geese

•Examples:

Vowel Modification

strong’ verbs in English: [I] – [æ] begin – began, ring-rang, sing – sang.[i:] – [ou] speak –spoke, steal – stole, weave – wove.[ai] - [au] bind – bound, find – found, wind – wound.

Noun/Verb in English: [θ] – [ð] mouth – mouth, sheath – sheathe, wreath – wreathe[f] – [v] belief – believe, grief – grieve, proof – prove[s] – [z] advice – advise, device – devise, house –house[s] – [d] defence – defend, offence – offend[t] – [d] bent – bend, ascent – ascend, descent – descend

Consonant modification

Mixed modification- more than one segment.

e.g. English present/past: catch – caught, seek – sought, teach – taught, Verb / Noun:live –life, bath–bathe, breath–breathe, cloth-clothe

ConversionThis process is also known

as zero-derivation. This process changes the part of speech and

meaning of an existing root without producing any change in

pronunciation or spelling and without adding any affix.

Back Derivation

(back-formation) found in derivation and not inflection. The formation of a

new lexeme by the deletion of a suffix, or supposed suffix, form an apparently

complex formby analogy with other instances where the suffixed and non-suffixed forms are both

lexemes.

Examples:

transcription – to transcript, contraception – to contracept

A polysyllabic lexeme is shortened in a more or less arbitrary fashion.

Clipping

E.g. Back clipping: advertisement > ad, fanatic > fan, dormitory > dorm, gymnasium > gym,rhinoceros > rhino, temperature > temp, Joseph > Jo, Jesus > Jee

fore-clipping: hamburger > burger, violoncello > cello, telephone > phone, caravan > vanMixed clipping: influenza > flu, refrigerator > fridge

Acroniminsation

An artificial word-manufacturing, usually used with names of new scientific discoveries, trade names, organization names, offices:

AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency SyndromeLASER = light amplification by stimulated emission of radiationUNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural OrganizationRADAR = Radio Detecting And Ranging,SCUBA = Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus