Morphology
Morphology: The study of the composition and structure of words
Morpheme: A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function
antidisestablishmentarianism
anti
- dis - establish - ment - ari - an – ism
Minimal
unit of meaning:
·
cat
·
un-
·
establish
Minimal
unit of grammatical function:
·
-s
(as in look-s)
·
-ed
(as in look-ed)
Ways of Classifying
Morphemes
Bound vs. Free
·
Free
Morpheme: car, spider, race
·
Bound
Morpheme: un-, -ed, -s
Affix
Type
·
Prefix:
re-
·
Suffix:
-ed
·
infix:
(rare in English) –freaking-
Function
of Bound Morphemes
·
Derivational: change meaning or part of speech
o Changes meaning: un-
(un-happy)
o Changes part of speech:
-ness (happy-ness)
·
Inflectional: refine or give extra grammatical info
|
–s
(3 sg pres) |
–ed
(past) |
|
–ing
(progressive) |
–en
(past participle) |
|
–s
(plural) |
–’s
(possessive) |
|
–er
(comparative) |
–est
(superlative) |
Types of Free Morphemes
·
Lexical: have semantic content (they “mean” something) and can be added to in
the lexicon (open class)
·
Functional: provide info about grammatical function (e.g. prepositions, articles,
pronouns, conjunctions) and cannot be added to in the lexicon (closed class)
Morphemes and Allomorphs
Past
tense:
called [d], talked [t], glided [«d]
Morpheme: /d/
Allomorphs: [d] [t] [«d]
Plural
formation: cars [z], desks [s], buses [«z]
Morpheme: /z/
Allomorphs: [z] [s] [«z]
-in: impossible [Im], illegal [Il], incomplete [IN], irrevocable [Ir], insane [In]
Morpheme: /in/
Allomorphs: [Im] [Il] [IN] [Ir] [In]
What about irregular plurals (mouse/mice, man/men, deer/deer) past tense (go/went, sleep/slept, is/was)?
·
They seem to use
separate lexical forms instead of derivational morphemes (suffixes)
Word
Formation Processes
Affixation
·
Prefixation
·
Suffixation
·
Infixation
Tagalog –um-
|
[sulat] ‘write’ |
[sumulat] ‘Write!’ |
|
[bili] ‘buy’ |
[bumili] ‘Buy!’ |
|
[kuha] ‘take, get’ |
[kumuha] ‘Get!’ |
Compounding: 2 words that
can stand alone
·
2 free morphemes:
girlfriend,
blackbird, text book
·
Derived words:
air
conditioner, looking glass, watch maker
·
Compounds:
lifeguard
chair, aircraft carrier, life insurance salesman
Reduplication
·
English (partial
reduplication—meaning?)
o higglety-pigglety, hoity-toity, hocus-pocus,
helter-skelter
o book-schmook, teacher-schmeacher, study-schmudy
·
Indonesian (total
reduplication—plural)
|
[ruhmah+ruhmah] |
houses |
|
[ibu+ibu] |
mothers |
|
[lalat+lalat] |
flies |
·
Tagalog (partial
reduplication—future)
|
[bi+bili] |
will buy |
|
[ka+kain] |
will eat |
|
[pa+pasok] |
will enter |
For each word decide:
1.
How many morphemes
2.
Whether the morphemes
are bound or free
3.
Whether the bound
morphemes are inflectional or derivational
4.
Whether the free
morphemes are lexical or functional
|
books |
digest |
hippopotamus |
enter |
|
undo |
at |
milder |
tricycle |
|
blackboard |
relives |
needy |
beautiful |
|
reliable |
untried |
between |
writings |
|
Eugene |
multilateral |
loveless |
tallest |