Morphology Part 1 What is morphology The study

Morphology Part 1

What is morphology? • The study of morpheme, the unit that constitute words. • The study of internal structure of words and of the rules by which words are formed. • We study morphology to know about the meaning of words, hence we can construct and understand a language. • We also learn about content words and function words.

Content words • A kind of words that denotes concepts such as subjects, objects, actions, attributes, and ideas. • It consists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. • Sometimes, content words are called openclass words, because the kind of word can be added, improved, or vanished.

Function words • A kind of words which do not have clear meaning or concept. • It consists of pronoun, conjunction, preposition, and articles. • It is also called as closed-class words because we cannot easily add or improve any of them.

Morpheme • The minimal units of meaning. • There are 2 kinds of morpheme in every language, those are free morpheme and bound morpheme. • If a word consists only one morpheme, it is called monomorphemic word. • The decomposition of words into morphemes is called discreteness.

Free and Bound Morpheme • Free morphemes may constitute words by themselves. Ex: boy, sing, fast, gentle, man • Bound morphemes cannot constitute words by themselves, they must be attached to another morpheme or to free morpheme. Ex: ish, -ment, un-, -im, -ous, etc. • Bound morpheme is also called as affixes.

Affixes Kinds of affixes include • Prefixes: affixes located before other morphemes, ex: un- (undo), ir- (irregular), etc. • Suffixes: affixes following other morphemes, ex: ment (derpartment), -ous (famous), etc. • Infixes: affixes inserted in other morphemes, ex: el- (lelaki), -em- (temurun), -er- (rerata), etc. • Circumfixes: affixes located before and after other morphemes, ex: re-able (removable), inous (infamous), etc.

Affixes and their class word Noun Verb Noun -ship, -ity, dom, -ite, age, -ine, -n, -arian, mono-, dis-, ex-, auto- -ize, -ate, en Verb -al, -ance, - Un-, re-, dis ation, -er, - -, autoist, -ion -ness, -ity, -ly ism, -dom Adjective Adverb Adjective -ish, -ous, an, -esque, ate, -ful, -ic -able, -ive, ory, -y -ish, -like, a -, il-, in-, un -, semi-, dis -, sub-

Exercise • Zapotec language in Mexico • Turkish

Exercise • Bontoc language in Philiphines • Karuk language in Pacific Northwest

Root, Stem, Base • A morphologically complex word consists of root, stem, and base. • A root is a morpheme of when it is not attached by any affixes. • When a root has been attached by an affix, it is called stem. • Any root and any stem to which an affix is attached is called base.

Example Inaccessibilities • • • Root access Stem accessible Stem accessibility / inaccessible Stem inaccessibility Word inaccessibilities Base

Root • A root may or may not stand alone as a word • So, there is free root and bound root. Example of free root: access inaccessibility • Bound root does not have any meaning until it is attached to a morpheme. Example of bound root –ceive in “perceive”, “receive”, “conceive”, “deceive”

Exercise 1 • Logical • Changeable • Formations • Impossible • Humanitarians • Departments • Healers • Humorlessness • Antisocial Exercise 2 • Illogicalness • Interchangabilities • Informational • Incredibleness • Unemotional • Abnormalities • Irregularities • Imperfections • Combinations