word formation Ι

Word Formation Ι

영어영문학과이선화

Contents

3.1 Morphemes3.2 Allomorphs3.3 Type of Morphemes 3.3.1 Free Morphemes

3.3.2 Bound Morphemes

3.4 Root and Stem

3.1 Morphemes

3.1 Morphemes(형태소 )

Morpheme is the smallest unit of a language. But structurally a word is not the smallest unit. Because many word can be separated into smaller meaningful units.

Ex) denaturalization

de- / nature / -al / -ize / -ation / → Each of them have meaning of its own

These fragments cannot divided = they would not make any sense.


Though -ation has a number of variants, such as –tion, -sion, -ion, they have same suffix.

They belong to the same suffix as they have the same meaning and grammatical function.


With this analysis, we can understand the mor-pheme isthe smallest functioning unit in the composition of words.


3.2 Allomorphs (이형태 )

Morphemes are realized by single morphs like

bird, tree, green, want..

They can stand by themselves and function freely in a sen-tence.

⇒ monomorphemic words


But some cases, there are exist more than one morph according to their position in a word.

Such alternative morphs are known as allomorphs.


Ex1) [ -s ]

To inform about plurality, we use [ -s ]. It has a number of allomorphs in different sound context.

cats /s/ bags /z/ matches /iz/

But this phenomena of language do not oc-cur at random. We can predictable.

t, p, k

+ s /-s/

d, b, g, l + s /-z/

s, zʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ + es /-iz/

Exception)

foot – feet man – men goose – geese deer - deer fish – fish zero morph


Ex2) [ -ed ] As past tense marker, it is realized by /t/, /d/, /id/.

/p/ /k/ + /ed/ = worked, helped /t/ /m,n,g,l/ + /ed/ = tried, warmed, enabled /d/ /t/ /d/ + /ed/ = wanted, landed /id/


Ex3) [ in- ]

This prefix has allomorphs such as /im, ir, il/ depend-ingon the first sound of the base to which the prefix is added.

/ im / + /p,b,m/ = improper, imbal-ance

/ ir / + / r / = irreconcilbale

/ il / + / l / = illegible


3.3 Type of Morphemes

Morphemes can divide into free morphemes and bound morphemes.

3.3.1 free morphemes

These morphemes have complete meanings in them-selves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences. Each of them consists of a single free root

Ex) man, earth, wind, car, anger

So we might as well say that free morphemes are free roots.


3.3.2 Bound Morphemes

These morphemes cannot occur as separate words are bound. And they are bound to other morphemes to form words.

Each of the three words comprises three morphemes.

Ex) recollection → re + collect + ion idealistic → ideal + ist + ic

exprisoner → ex + prison + er


collect, ideal, prison can exist by themselves, so we can call these free morphemes.

And the rest re, -ion, -ist, -ic, ex, and –er are bound as none of theme are freestanding units.


The English language possesses a multitude of words made up of merely bound morphemes.

ex) antecedent root meaning : approach, go to ante / ced / ent suffix meaning : a thing

prefix meaning : before Antecedent meaning is ‘something that goes before.’

These examples show clearly that bound morphemes include two types – bound root and affix


1. Bound root It is part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning like a free root. But unlike a free root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words.

ex) ‘-dict’ means say or speak, but it is not a word in its own right. So it can form words with affixes.

contra = against + dict

= speak

contradict = speak against

pre = before

predict = speak before

With the suffix, we form many words.

2. Affixes

Affixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or function. According to the functions of affixes, we can put them into two groups.

1) Inflectional affixes

2) Derivational affixes

1) Inflectional affixes

Affixes attached to the end of words to indicate Grammaticalrelationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional mor-

phemes.

There is the regular plural suffix –s(-es). It is added to nouns

ex1) machines, fridges, desks, radios, potatoes.

The same forms –s(-es) can be added to verbs to indicate the simple present for the third person singular.

ex2) She likes to boast about herself and her family.

He works like a professional. She goes to school early in the morning.

The form’s is another one used to indicate the pos-sessive case of nouns.

ex3)

A new children's library has proven a big hit with local parents. They also believed it was the man's role to make important de-cisions.

Ex4) -er -est

Suffixes are attached to simple adjectives or adverbs to show their comparative or superlative degrees.

happy - happier - happiest

hard - harder – hardest

The number of inflectional affixes is small and stable, it makes English one of the easiest lan-guages to learn.

2) Derivational affixes

Derivational affixes are affixes added to other mor-phemes to create new words. Also it can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes.

Prefixes come before the word. pre + war , sub + sea

Suffixes after the word blood + y , north + word

Diagram

free = free root

morpheme bound root prefix bound derivational affix suffix

inflectional

3.4 Root and Stem

Root

It is basic form of word which cannot be further and analyzed. Whether free or bound it carries the main component of mean-ing in a word.

ex) internationalists

inter-/ –al / -ist / -s and leaves the root nation. But if we divide nation into na/tion or nat/ion

the other part is meaningless and the original lexical identity is totally lost.

So now, we understand ‘root is that part of a word-form that remains when all inflectional and deriva-tional affixes have been removed’

Stem

Stem may consist of a single root morpheme as in iron or of two root morphemes as in a compound like handcuff. It is a form which is affixes of any kind can be added.

ex) internationalists

→ nation is a root and a stem as well. All the rest national, in-ternational, internationalist are stem.

To be safe, we will use stem only because it can replace root and also refer to any form which is larger than a root.

Thank you

word formation Ι

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