An Introduction to English Morphology
A Textbook for Advanced University Students of Linguistics
©2014
Academic Paper
85 Pages
Summary
The experience of having taught English language and morphology – syntax in particular – for more than seven years convinced the author that students of linguistics and translation mostly need a solid grounding in the course of morphology and syntax. Once they have a basic understanding of these two important areas, they have little trouble mastering English language as a whole. Hence, both morphology and syntax are important parts of linguistic knowledge and constitute a component of student's mental grammar.
Of Course, the more courses are required of students within their discipline, the more they can benefit from the fields inside their major. Such factors often help students develop a positive attitude towards linguistics to be sensitized to the morphological and syntactic system of the language while being exposed to both morphology and syntax, and especially in an unfamiliar area.
Obviously, an introductory book such as this has several limitations. First, there are entire subbranches of morphology and syntax that are not included. In terms of content, this book delimits both its scope and audience by shedding new light on a subject the problems and obscurities of which look inexhaustible.
Therefore, a book of this kind is an attempt to, on the one hand, to make morphology and syntax – which usually appear to be incredible complicated at first glance – easier and, on the other hand, keep the standard high so that even postgraduate students can benefit from it; because the author strongly believes that students learn best by “doing” exercises, and, to this end,he has added dozens of practice exercises. In general, these require more research or analysis beyond what can be accomplished within a single classroom period. These exploratory exercises can also form the basis for short papers. Therefore, the book can be of immense help not only to students of linguistics and translation, but also to professors of linguistics and translation and research supervisors as well as advisors around the globe and in the Arab world in particular.
Of Course, the more courses are required of students within their discipline, the more they can benefit from the fields inside their major. Such factors often help students develop a positive attitude towards linguistics to be sensitized to the morphological and syntactic system of the language while being exposed to both morphology and syntax, and especially in an unfamiliar area.
Obviously, an introductory book such as this has several limitations. First, there are entire subbranches of morphology and syntax that are not included. In terms of content, this book delimits both its scope and audience by shedding new light on a subject the problems and obscurities of which look inexhaustible.
Therefore, a book of this kind is an attempt to, on the one hand, to make morphology and syntax – which usually appear to be incredible complicated at first glance – easier and, on the other hand, keep the standard high so that even postgraduate students can benefit from it; because the author strongly believes that students learn best by “doing” exercises, and, to this end,he has added dozens of practice exercises. In general, these require more research or analysis beyond what can be accomplished within a single classroom period. These exploratory exercises can also form the basis for short papers. Therefore, the book can be of immense help not only to students of linguistics and translation, but also to professors of linguistics and translation and research supervisors as well as advisors around the globe and in the Arab world in particular.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
and translation, but also to the professors of linguistics and translation and research
supervisors as also advisors around the globe and the Arab world in particular.
4
Contents
CHAPTERS
Subjects
P.No
PREFACE
3
CHAPTER ONE
9
Morphology: Important Basic
Concepts
9
1.1
Defining Morphology
9
1.2
Defining Morpheme
9
1.3
Lexical & Grammatical Morpheme
11
1.4
The Main Difference between
Morphology, Etymology and
Lexicography
11
1.5
The Two Main Branches or Fields of
Morphology: Inflectional and
Derivational Morphemes
11
1.6
Free & Bound Morphemes
12
1.7
What are Bases?
13
1.8
What are Roots?
13
1.9
What are Stems?
14
1.10
What are Affixes?
14
1.11
Types of Allomorphs
16
1.12
What is Cliticization ( Clitics)?
18
1.13
Differences between Inflectional affixes
& Clitics
18
1.14
What is a Morph?
19
Practice Exercise (1)
20
CHAPTER TWO
25
Inflectional & Derivational
Morphemes
25
2.1
Defining Inflection& Derivation
25
2.2
Inflectional and Derivational Affixes:
Historical & Critical Background
25
2.3
Characteristics of Derivational
Morphemes
25
2.4
Characteristics of Inflectional
Morphemes
26
2.5
Morphological Properties or Categories
that Characterize them
2
CHAPTERS
Subjects
P.No
2.6
Differences between Inflections &
Derivation
27
2.7
Differences between Types of Affixes
29
2.8
Class-maintaining and Classchanging
Derivational Prefixes
30
2.9
Class-maintaining and Classchanging
Derivational Suffixes
31
Practice Exercise (2)
32
CHAPTER
THREE
Prefixes in English
37
3.1
Prefixes & Suffixes: Critical & Historical
Background
37
3.2
Negative Prefixes
38
3.3
Reversative or Privative Prefix
38
3.4
Pejorative Prefix
39
3.5
Prefixes Referring to Parts of Human
Body or Their Functions
39
3.6
Prefixes of Degree or Size
40
3.7
Prefixes of Attitude
41
3.8
Locative Prefixes ( Prefixes of Place)
42
3.9
Number Prefixes
42
3.10
Other Common Prefixes
43
Practice Exercise (3)
45
CHAPTER FOUR Suffixes in English
49
4.1
Defining Suffix
49
4.2
Noun Noun Suffixes
50
4.3
Noun Adjective Suffixes
51
4.4
Adverb Suffixes
51
4.5
Noun Suffixes
52
4.6
Verb Noun Suffixes
52
4.7
Noun Noun Suffixes
53
4.8
Verb Suffixes
53
4.9
Other common suffixes
54
Practice Exercise (4)
57
CHAPTER FIVE
Word Formations
CHAPTERS
Subjects
P.No
5.1
Defining Word Formation
5.2
Compounding
5.3
Derivation
6
5.4
Reduplications
6
5.5
Blends( Portmanteau Words)
6
5.6
Borrowing
6
5.7
Conversion
6
5.8
Clipping
7
5.9
Back-formation
7
5.10
Acronyms
7
5.11
Word-manufacture( Coinage)
7
Practice Exercise (5)
7
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
7
CHAPTER ONE
MORPHOLOGY: IMPORTANT BASIC CONCEPTS
(Carve
(Carve (every word before you let it fall.)
Oliver Wendell Homles, Sr.(1994:6)
11.1 Defining Morphology
Morphology can be defined as:
a)
The study of how words are structured and how they are put together from
smaller linguistic units.
b)
The study of word structures and word formation.
c)
Branch of language studies which deals with what morphemes are and how
they operate in the structure of a word.
d)
The study of the rules governing the formation of words in a language.
e)
The study of words in terms of their constituent morphs. It is, in other words,
a study of how prefixes, suffixes and infixes are combined in accordance with
the rules of derivation and inflection.
f)
Study of word structure.
1.2 Defining Morpheme
A morpheme can be defined as:
a)
The minimal linguistic unit with a meaning or a grammatical function.
b)
The minimal linguistic element that carries grammatical and /or semantic
meaning; it is not further divisible into smaller grammatical component.
According to Robins(1998: 201):
... To take an example, boy in English is one grammatical unit, boys is two: it is
made up of the semantic element in boy and the signal of' more than-one'. This
latter information is given in boys by the /z/ termnation of the speech-stream. This is
9
an instance of the plural morpheme which also has other variants- for example,
'zero' as in deer,/s/ as in cats, and so on.
a)
a short segment of language that meets three criteria:
1.
it is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.
2.
It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violation of its
meaning or without meaningless remainders.
3.
It recurs in differing verbal environment with a relatively stable meaning.
b)
The common definition of the morpheme as the 'minimal meaningful unit'
implies the claim that every morpheme has a readily identifiable meaning. In this
context we can quote F. Katamba1992:20.
... The term morpheme is used to refer to the smallest, indivisible units of semantic
content or grammatical function which words are made up of. By definition, a
morpheme cannot be decomposed into smaller units which are either meaningful
by themselves or mark a grammatical function like singular or plural number in the
noun. If we divide up the word fee/fi:/ which contains just one morpheme ) into,
say/f/ and/I:/, it would be impossible to say what each of the sounds /f/ and/I:/ means
by itself since sounds in themselves do not have meaning.
a)
A morpheme is isolatable if it occurs under the following conditions:
i.
In isolation.
ii.
In multiple combinations in at least one of which the unit with which it is
combined occurs in isolation or in other combinations.
iii.
In a single combination provided the element with which it is combined
occurs in isolation or in other combinations with non-unique constitutes.
b)
The morpheme is the smallest difference in the shape of a word that correlates
with the smallest difference in word or sentence meaning or in grammatical
structure.
c)
A morpheme is a linguistic unit that is defined by a ( more or less) constant core
meaning associated with a ( more or less) constant form.
10
11.3 Lexical & Grammatical Morphemes
The distinction between lexical and grammatical morphemes is not well defined,
although many linguists seem to agree that is a useful division to make. Lexical
morphemes have a sense (i.e., meaning) in and of themselves. Nouns, verbs, and
adjectives (e.g., {boy},{sell},{big} are typical of lexical morphemes.
Grammatical morphemes, on the other hand, don't really have a sense in and of
themselves; instead, they express some sort of relationship between lexical
morphemes. Prepositions, articles, and conjunctions (e.g., {of}, {the}, and{but}
are typical of grammatical morphemes.
1.4 The Main Difference Between Morphology, Etymology and
Lexicography
Etymology is the study of the origin and history of words of a language.
Lexicography is the science of dictionary making, or dictionary compiling.
Etymology and lexicography, however, are not the only disciplines which study
words.
One way in which morphology differs from etymology is that it looks at the
word at a particular point in time, not focusing on the historical aspects as
etymology does. An important way in which morphology differs from
lexicography is that it does not simply record and list the usages of words one by
one, but tries to uncover the underlying principles in creating words. It attempts to
give the rules, morphological rules, used in forming all the words in a language,
including possible but nonconcurring words.
1.5 The Two Main Branches or Fields of Morphology: Inflectional and
Derivational Morphemes
11
Morphology has two main branches: inflectional morphology and derivational
morphology. Inflectional morphology is a study of how words change their form
to indicate number, person, tense, etc. Derivational morphology is a study of how
morphemes are combined into forming new words. Inflectional morphology
deals with whatever information about word-structure.
11.6 Free & Bound Morphemes
Morphemes are of two kinds, free and bound. A free morpheme is one that can be
uttered alone with meaning, for instance, a morpheme that can be a word by itself
is called free. A bound morpheme, unlike the free, cannot be uttered alone with
meaning. It is always annexed to one or more morphemes to form a word. The
morpheme school, for example, is free, since it can be used as a word on its own,
plural {-s}, on the other hand is bound as Katamba (Ibid: 410: points out that:
... The free morphemes for example (girl, sugar, too, cook, pet, walk etc...) are
examples of lexical morpheme. They are nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions or
adverbs. Such morphemes carry most of the ' semantic content' of utterances-
loosely defined to cover notions like referring to individuals (e.g., the nouns John,
mother), attributing properties (e.g., the adjectives kind, clever), describing
actions , process or states(e.g., the verbs hit, write, rest ) etc., expressing
relations( e.g., the prepositions in, on, under) and describing circumstances like
manner (e.g., kindly) .
A function morpheme is a morpheme which only provides information about
grammatical function, i.e. relations between words in a sentence. Typical function
words include the following:
o Articles: a, an, the.
o Prepositions: of, on, in, at, above, under, etc.
o Demonstratives: this, that, these, those.
o Pronouns: I, you, who, which, them, whose, they, etc.
o Conjunctions: and, yet, but, however, etc..
12
1.7 What are Bases?
Another classification of morphemes puts them into two classes: bases. A base
morpheme is the form to which an affix is added .In many cases, the base is also
the root. In boys, for example, the element to which the affix (-s) is added
corresponds to the word's root. In other cases, however, an affix can be added to a
unit larger than a root. This happens in words such as blackened, in which the
past tense affix { -ed] is added to the verbal base blacken-a a unit consisting of
the root morpheme black and the suffix{en}.
A base also can be defined as:
... a linguistic form that meets one or more of these requirements:
i.
It can occur as an immediate constituent of a word whose only other immediate
constituent is a prefix or suffix.
Examples: react, active, fertilize.
ii.
It is an allomorph of a morpheme which has another allomorph that is a free
form.
Example: depth,(deep),wolves( wolf).
iii.
It is a borrowing from another language in which it is a free form of a base.
Example: biometrics, microcosm, phraseology.
According to Katamba (Ibid: 45)
... a base is any unit whatsoever to which affixes of any kind can be added.
The affixes attached to a base may be inflectional affixes selected for syntactic
reasons or derivational affixes which alter the meaning or grammatical category
of the base.
1.8 What are Roots?
13
A root is the (base form) of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total
loss of identity. A root is that part of the word left when all the affixes are
removed, in this context we can quote Thukur (2000:18)
... a root is that part of a word which remains after all the affixes have been removed.
A root, in other words, cannot be analyzed further either in terms of inflectional or in
terms of derivational.
In the word meaningfulness, for example, removing {-ing), (-ful) and (-ness) leaves the
root mean. On his turn, Katamba (Ibid: 45) defines a root as:
... The irreducible core of a word, with absolutely nothing else attached to it. It is the
part that is always present, possibly with some modification, in the various
magnifications of a lexeme. For example, walk is a root and it appears in the set of
word-forms that instantiate the lexeme WALK such as walk, walks, walking and
walked.
1.9 What
are
Stems?
The stem of a word is that part of the word to which the last morpheme in the word is
structurally added. For example, in the word-form boys, the plural suffix {-s} is
attached to the simple stem boy, which is a bare root.
According to Thakur(ibid:18);
...in many cases, the same part of word happens to be a root as well as a stem. In
Ali's, for example, Ali is a root as well
as a stem. Similarly, teach is the root as well as the stem of the word teaching,
and walk is the root as well as the stem of walked.
Fittingly, a root can be also be a stem and a stem can be a root. While all roots can be
stems, not all stems, however, are roots.
1.10 What are Affixes?
14
An affix is a morpheme which only occurs when attached to some other morpheme
or morphemes such as a root or stem or base. Affixes are, in other words, formative
morphemes added to roots.
There are three types of affixes known as prefixes, suffixes and infixes:
a)
Prefixes:
A prefix is a word-element that is added at the beginning of a word to from another
word. Obviously by definition a prefix is an affix attached before a root or stem or base
like {-Re},{-un} and {-in} and{ -in} :
For example: re-
make, un-kind in-decent.
Re-read un-tidy in accurate.
b)
Suffixes:
A suffix is a word element that is added at the end of a word to form another word.
Obviously, by definition a suffix is an affix attached after a root ( or stem or base) like
{ly },{-er.} {-ist,}{-s,} -ing and ed.
For example: - slowly
teacher birds played.
c)
Infixes:
An infix is a word- element to form that is inserted into the middle of a word to form
another word. According to Katamba (Ibid: 44):
... Infixes are very common in Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew. But
infixing is somewhat rare in English..
In their turns, Sloat and Taylor (1978:11) suggest that:
...the only infix that occurs in English morphology is {-n} which is inserted before
the last consonant of the root in a few words of Latin origin, on what appears to be an
arbitrary basis. This infix undergoes place of articulation assimilation. Thus, the root
{-cub} meaning 'lie in, on or upon' occurs without {m} before the {b} in some words
15
containing that root, e.g., incubate, incubus,, concubine, and succubus . But {m] is
infixed before that same root in some other words like incumbent, succumb, and
decumbent. This infix is a frozen historical relic from Latin.
Infixes in English are most commonly replacements, not additions. They occur in a
few noun plurals, like the {-ee} in gee
se, replacing the {-oo-} of goose, and more
often in the past tense and past participles of verbs, like{-o-} of chose and chosen
replacing the{-oo-} of choose.
It is absolutely important to draw your attention to that: words are not invariably
formed by tight adherence to formal rules. Language is much more dynamic and fluid
than that. As Dwight Bollinger expressed it in his Aspects of Language (1991:123)
... Practically all words that are not imported bodily from some other language ... are
made up of old words and their parts. Sometimes those parts are pretty well standards
pieces that some inventive speaker manages to refit...Hamburger yields -burger,
which is reattached in nutburger, Gaineburger, and cheeseburger. Cafeteria yields
teria, which is reattached to valeteria, grocteria ,washeteria. Trade names make easy
use of almost any fragment, like the -roni of macaroni that is reattached in Rice-a-
Roni and Noodle-Roni. The fabrication may re-use elements that have been re-used
many times, or it may be a one-shot affair such as the punning reference to being a
member of the lowerarchy , with archy extracted from hierarchy .The principle is the
same. Scientists and scholars may give themselves airs with high-bred affixes borrowed
from classical languages, but they are linguistically no more sophisticated than the
common speakers who are satisfied with leftovers from the vernacular.
1.11 Types of Allomorphs
Allomorphs are distribution variants, or the various phonetic representations of the
same morpheme. There are two main types of allomorphs in English:
16
i.
Phonologically Conditioned Allomorphs:
Allomorphs of a morpheme are phonologically conditioned when their distribution can
be explained in terms of their phonemic environment. But simply, an allomorph of a
morpheme is phonologically conditioned when its occurrence is conditioned by the
sound(s) in its immediate vicinity:
Example: Past Tense marker{-ed}:
o {-id} after {t}, {d] : tasted, divided.
o {t} after voiceless consonants : baked, switched, locked.
o {d} elsewhere: played, rained, browsed.
ii.
Morphologically conditioned Allomorphs:
Morphologically conditioned Allomorphs are allomorphs whose variation cannot be
explained phonologically. That is why they are often regarded as exceptions or
irregular as opposed to phonologically conditioned allomorphs which are considered
regular.
Example:
a.
Irregular Plurals:
Child children.
alumnus alumni.
ox oxen.
deer deer.
b.
Irregular Past Tense:
drink drank.
buy bought.
swim swam.
have had.
catch caught.
17
c.
Irregular Past Participle:
drive driven.
buy bought.
take taken.
see seen.
drink drunk. ( language Files:8)
1.12 What is Cliticization (Clitics)?
The term ' clitic' comes from the Greek word for' leaning'. It refers to a form of some
words which are unable to stand alone as independent forms for phonological reasons.
Hence, they must be attached to another word in sentence. Examples are the contracted
forms of {be}, such as {I'm, he's..etc..)
o I'm leaving now.
o Fatima 's going to succeed .
o They 're here now.
The clitic words (clitics) can be classified into two types:
A.
Proclitics:
Proclitics depend upon following words, as in the case of the articles.
B.
Endclitics:
Endclitics depend upon a preceding word, as in the attachment (Cliticization) of some
pronouns to the end of adverb form in Italian or Spanish.
1.13 Differences between Inflectional Affixes & Clitics
Zwicky an Pullum, (1983: 504) listed six criteria for separating affixes from
Clitics:-
18
a)
Clitics can exhibit a low degree of selection with respect to their hosts,
while affixes exhibit a high degree of selection with respect to their stems.
b)
Arbitrary gaps in the set of combinations are more characteristics of affixed
words than of clitic groups.
c)
Morphological idiosyncrasies are more characteristics of affixed words than
of clitic groups.
d)
Semantic idiosyncrasies are more characteristics of affixed words than of
clitic groups
e)
Synaptic rules can affect words, but cannot affect clitic groups.
f)
Clitics can attach to material already containing Clitics, but affixes cannot.
1.14 What is a Morph?
A morph is a physical form representing some morpheme in a language. It is a recurrent
distinctive sound (phoneme) or sequence of sounds (phonemes) .
Example:
Morphs are:
Morphs Recurs in
a)
/ai/ = I I visited Jazan University.
b)
/ð/ = the I park the car.
Morphemes are to morphs what lexemes are to word-forms. Morphemes and
lexemes are the abstract entities found in the lexicon while morphs and word-
forms are the physical entities found in speech or writing.
19
Practice Exercise (1)
PART ONE
1.
State the number of morphemes in each of the following words:
a)
aspirin ... b) keeper..............c) cheaply..............
d) unable... e) winter............f) rainy..............
g) peaceful... h) aircraft............i) Japanese........
2.
Write the meaning of the italicized and underlined morphemes:
a.
Antedate...
b.
Maltreat...
c.
Denationalize ...
d.
Undo...
e.
Pan European...
f.
Superstructure...
g.
Intramuscular ...
h.
International ...
i.
Zoology...
j.
Misconduct...
k.
Pseudo-scientific...
l.
Supermarket...
m.
Thermometer ...
n.
Pneumonia ...
o.
Photophobia ...
p.
Ultra-modern...
q.
Dermatology...
3.
Underline the bound morphemes. It is possible for a word to consist
entirely of bound morphemes and then use the intended words in sentences.
a)
Misbehave...
b)
Subsoil...
20
c)
Selective ...
d)
Undergrowth ...
e)
Superimpose...
f)
Malnutrition ...
g)
Blameworthy...
h)
Snobbish...
iv.
Underline the bases in these words:
1.
Adjustment ...
2.
Driver ...
3.
International...
4.
Reconstruction ...
5.
Failure...
6.
Unlikely...
7.
Hospitalize ...
8.
Crystallize ...
9.
Antipollution...
10.
Misidentify ...
v.
Analyze the following as lexical and or grammatical and as free or bound:
a)
The morpheme{er} , as in managers.
b)
The morpheme {cur} as in recur, incur, and occur.
vi.
Consider the morpheme (-Physi(o) and (-Psych(o):
a)
Analyze these morphemes as lexical or grammatical and as free or
bound...
b)
List at least three words containing each of these morphemes.
...
c)
What is the meaning of each of these morphemes?
...
21
Details
- Pages
- Type of Edition
- Erstausgabe
- Publication Year
- 2014
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9783954893409
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9783954898954
- File size
- 1.2 MB
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2015 (March)
- Keywords
- morphology linguistics class lectures English literature Syntax English language Guidebook
