Morphology

Morphology

• J.W. von Goethe• originally means the study of forms

and structures of living organisms.• consists of the study of form, inner

structure, function, and the occurrence of a morpheme.

• name comes from Greek words “Morphos”

(shape or form)

WORD• sound or a combination of sounds, or

its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes.(Farlex Online Dictionary)

• FREE FORM• an element that can occur in

isolation and/or whose position with respect to neighboring elements is not entirely fixed.

WORD

2 Types of Words1. SIMPLE- words that can’t be broken down

into smaller meaningful units.

2. COMPLEX- can be analyzed into constituents parts.• FORMS:

1.closed form- words are melded together (e.g. firefly, secondhand, softball, childlike, crosstown, redhead, keyboard, makeup, notebook)

2.hyphenated form- (e.g. daughter-in-law, master-at-arms, over-the-counter, six-pack, six-year-old, mass-produced)

3.open form- (e.g. as post office, real estate, middle class, full moon, half sister, attorney general)

Word Categories• Content / Open-Class Morphemes

-open to the invention of arbitrary new items (includes major lexical categories such as nouns, adjectives and adverbs).

• Function / Closed Morphemes

- are essentially closed to invention or borrowing (includes prepositions, articles, pronouns and conjunctions)

Allomorphs

Nondistinctive realizations of a particular morpheme that have the same function and are phonetically similar.

For example , the English plural morpheme can appear as [s] in cats, [z] as in dogs, or [‘z] as in churches.

Each of these three pronunciations is said to be the allomorph of the same morpheme.

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning, may be whole simple words (e.g. man, run, big) or parts of complex words (e.g. un-, faith-, and –ful in infaithful)

2 Types of Morphemes

1. Bound Morphemes

• must be attached to another elements.

2. Free Morpheme• can constitute a

word by itself.

Words consisting of one or two morphemes

one morpheme two three more than three

and - - -

boy boy-s

hunt hunt-er hunt-er-s

hospital hospital-ize hospital-iz-ation hospital-iz-ation-s

Gentle gentle-man gentle-man gentle-man-ness

Word Structure1. Affixation2. Structure without Affixes

a) Conversionb) Ablautc) Stress shift

In a morphologically complex word, one constituent may be considered as the basic one / the core of the form (stem, root or base), with the others treated as being added on (affixes).

3 Types of Affixes

1. PREFIXES – precede the stem

2. SUFFIXES – follow the stem

3. INFIXES – inserted within another form

Affixation

• morphological process whereby an affix is attached to a root or stem.

Other types of Affixes

• Reduplicative Affix• its form duplicates all or

part of the stem.• Examples:

• tatakbo• lalakad

• Full Reduplication• repetition of the entire

word.• Examples:

• ora ᵑ ora ᵑ• gyzel gyzel

• Partial Reduplication• repetition of the first

consonant-vowel of the root.

Structure without Affixes

Conversion or Zero-derivation

• creates a new word without the use of affixation by assigning an already existing word to a new syntactic category.

• Example:Noun Derived verb

fathership

fathership

Verb Derived Noun

condúctpermít

cónductpérmit

Ablaut• the

replacement of a vowel with a different vowel.

Examples:• sing to song• sell to sale• ball to bell

Stress Shift

• used in English to mark the difference between related nouns and verbs.

• Examples:

Noun Derived verb

fathership

fathership

Verb Derived Noun

condúctpermít

cónductpérmit

Word Formation1. Derivation2. Inflection3. Compounding4. Coinage5. Borrowing6. Blending7. Clipping8. Backformation9. Conversion10.Acronyms

Derivation• creates a new word by changing

the category.• make new words from old ones. • a new word is formed by adding

a morpheme that makes nouns out of (some) verbs.• Examples:

• hunt(v) + -er= hunter(n)• serve(v) + -ice= service(n)

Properties of some derivational affixes in

English-ation is added to a verb

finalizeconfirm

un- is added to a verbtiewind

un-is added to an adjectivehappywise

-al is added to a nouninstitutionuniverse

-ize is added to an adjective

concrete solar

to give a nounfinalizationconfirmation

to give a verb untieunwind

to give an adjectiveunhappyunwise

to give an adjectiveinstitutional universal

to give a verbconcretizesolarize

Compounding

• process involving the combination of two already existing words to yield a new word.

• examples:dog + house = doghouse(noun) + (noun) = nouncry + baby = crybaby (verb) + (noun) = nounstrong + box = strongbox(adjective) + (noun) =

noun

Inflection• modifies a word’s form in order to

mark the grammatical subclass to which it belongs.

• vary (or inflect) the form of words in order to express the grammatical features that a given language chooses, such a singular/plural or past/present tense. • -s (Plural)

• -ed (Past)• -ing (Progressive)• -er (Comparative)• -est (Superlative)

Other word formation

• Clipping

• process whereby a new word is created by shortening a polysyllabic word.ex.

prof – professorad – advertisementphys-ed – physical

educationpol-sci – political sciencelo-bat- low batterycheck-op- check operator

Coinages

• a new word is created either deliberately or accidentally without using the other word formation processes and often from seemingly nothing.

• Examples:

aspirinescalatorheroinband-aidfactoidFrisbeeGooglekeroseneKleenex

linoleumMuggleNylonPsychedelicQuarkXeroxzipperLaundromat

Borrowing• word from one language is borrowed

directly into another language.• Examples:

algebra – Arabicbagel – Yiddishcherub – Hebrewchow mein – Chinesefjord – Norwegiangalore – Irishhaiku – Japanesekielbasa – Polish

murder – Frenchnear – Sanskritpaprika – Hungarianpizza – Italiansmorgasbord – Swedishtamale – Spanishyo-yo – Filipino

Blending• words that are created from parts of two

already existing lexical items.• Examples:

1. biographical + picture → biopic2. breakfast + lunch → brunch3. chuckle + snort → chortle4. cybernetic + organism → cyborg5. guess + estimate → guesstimate6. hazardous + material → hazmat7. motor + hotel → motel

Clipping• word is reduced or shortened without

changing the meaning of the word.• Examples:

• advertisement – ad• alligator – gator• laboratory – lab• mathematics – math• public house – pub• raccoon – coon• reputation – rep• situation comedy – sitcom

• Backformation

• process whereby a word whose form is similar to that of a derived form undergoes a process of deaffixation.• Examples:

Original Backformation

babysitterdonationgamblerhazymoonlighterobsessiveprocessionresurrectionsassytelevision

babysitdonategamblehazemoonlightobsessprocessresurrectsasstelevise

Conversion• a word of one grammatical form becomes

a word of another grammatical form without any changes to spelling or pronunciation.• Examples:

Noun – Verbbottle – to bottlecan – to caneye – to eyehost – to hostknife – to knifemicrowave – to microwave

a) My grandmother bottled (verb) the juice and canned (verb) the pickles.

b) My grandmother put the juice in a bottle (noun) and the pickles in a can (noun).

c) She microwaved (verb) her lunch.d) She heated her lunch in the microwave

(noun).e) The doctor eyed (verb) my swollen eye

(noun).

• Acronyms

• formed from the initial sounds or letter of a string of words, such as the name of an organization or a scientific expression

• Examples:ASAP – as soon as possibleAWOL – absent without leavelaser - light amplification by stimulated emission of radiationNASA – National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASDAQ - National Association of Securities Dealers Automated QuotationsPIN – personal identification numberradar - radio detection and rangingscuba - self-contained underwater breathing apparatusTESOL – Teachers of English to Speakers of Other LanguagesWASP – White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

• Other sources • It is sometimes possible to create new words

from names.examples:

brand names accepted as generic terms xerox – photocopykleenex – facial tissue

scientific terms watt fahrenheitcurie kelvin

onomatopoeic words buzz cuckoo hiss sizzle

Eponyms• new word is formed

from the name of a real of fictitious person.• Examples:

• cardigan – James Thomas Brudnell, 7th Earl of Cardigan

• cereal – Ceres• dunce – John Duns

Scotusg• uillotine – Joseph

Ignace Guillotin• jacuzzi – Candido

Jacuzzi• luddite – Ned Ludd• malapropism – Mrs.

Malaprop• mesmerize – Franz

Anton Mesmer

Abbreviations

• word or phrase is shortened. Intialisms are a type of abbreviation formed by the initial letters of a word or phrase.• Examples:

• dept.-department• A.M.-ante meridiem• i.e.-id est (that is)• yd.-yard

Calquing

• a borrowed word or phrase is translated from one language to another.• Examples:

• beer garden – German – Biergarten

• blue-blood – Spanish – sangre azul

• commonplace – Latin – locus commūnis

• flea market – French – marché aux puces

• free verse – French – vers libre

Nonce Words

• new words formed through any number of word formation processes with the resulting word meeting a lexical need that is not expected to recur.• Examples:

• cotton-wool – to stuff or close (the ears) with cotton-wool.

• touch-me-not-ishness – having a ‘touch-me-not’ character; stand-off-ish.

• twi-thought – an indistinct or vague thought.

• witchcraftical – The practices of a witch or witches; the exercise of supernatural power supposed to be possessed by persons in league with the devil or evil spirits. Power or influence like that of a magician; bewitching or fascinating attraction or charm.

Labeled brackets or

Tree Diagram

used to present the structure of the entire word.

de moral ize

N Af

Af V

VExample: demoralize

Legend: V-verb N-noun Af-affix

Reference:Contemporary Linguistics by

O’Grady, et al., 1989