Morphology Morphology Definition The study of wordformation processes

Morphology

Morphology • Definition The study of word-formation processes. The combination of constituent elements in a word.

Morphology • Morpheme A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function Ex. : -s read+ -er -ing -able un-[ ]-able All these elements are meaningful morphemes

Morphology • Morphemes (2) Free morphemes: they can stand for themselves as single words, ex. : read Bound morphemes: those which are always attached to another element, ex: -s, -ing, un-. . When a free morpheme is used with a bound morpheme, it is called stem

Morphology • Free morphemes Lexical morphemes: those which carry the content of the word/message, ex. : read, open, cat, dog, long, yellow (nouns, verbs, adjectives) Functional morphems: those which play a functional role between words, ex. : and, but, in, of, what, it, he (conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns)

Morphology • Bound morphemes (affixation) Derivational morphemes: affixes (prefix, infix, suffix) which give origin to new words in terms of meaning and grammatical category, ex. : -ness (change from adj. > noun good/goddness), -ful (noun>adj. joy/joyful), -ish, -ly, -less, dis-, pre-, un-, ecc. infix: an affix which is incorporated inside another word (not normally common in English) ex. : Hallebloodylujah, unfuckingbelievable, Singabloodypore

Morphology • Bound morphemes (affixation) Inflectional morphemes: affixes which only denote grammatical functions, they don't change meaning. There are only 8 inflectional morphemes in English: -'s (possessive), -s (plural), -s (3 rd person present singular), -ing (present participle), -en (past participle), -ed (past tense), - er (comparative), -est (superlative).

Morphology • Morphemes lexical free functional morphemes derivational bound inflectional

Morphology • Morphological description An example Jim's sister liked to study and has always taken things seriously

Morphology • • • • • Jim (lexical) -'s (inflectional) sister (lexical) like (lexical) -ed (inflectional) to (functional) study (lexical) and (functional) ha- (variation of the lexical morpheme have) -s (inflectional) always (functional) take (lexical) -en (inflectional) thing (lexical) -s (inflectional) serious (lexical) -ly (derivational)

Morphology • Prefixes (meaning) negative: dis- (disobey), in-(intolerant), un(unfaithful), non- (nonverbal) opposition: de- (decentralize), dis- (disconnect), un- (unsaid) deprivation: a-(amoral), de- (defrost), dis(dishearten), un- (unmask) denigration: mal- (malfunction), mis- (misfire), pseudo- (pseudo-intellectual) dimension and range: co- (cohabit), mega(megabite), mini- (miniskirt).

Morphology • Prefixes (2). direction: anti- (anticlockwise), contra(contraflow) distance: tele- (telephone, television) time and sequence: ex- (ex-husbund), fore(foresee), post- (postpone), pre- (prepaid), re(rewind) number: uni- (unilateral), bi- (bilateral) mono(monolingual).

Morphology • Suffixes (grammatical class) Nouns deriving from: nouns (history> historian); verbs (work>worker); adjective (national> nationalist). Verbs deriving from: noun (computer>to computerize), adiective (dark> darken), verb (spark> sparkle) Adjective deriving from: noun (care>careless)

Activity a) Write a morphological description of the following sentence: – The girl’s wildness shocked the teachers b) Identify the affixes used in the words: – Unfaithful, carelessness, refillable, disagree

Answer a The girl ‘s wild -ness shock -ed the teach -er -s functional lexical inflectional lexical derivational lexical inflectional functional lexical derivational inflectional

Answer b • prefix: un-, re-, dis • suffix: -ful, -less, -ness, -able,