MORPHOLOGY
LI 2013
NATHALIE F. MARTIN
Table of Content
At the end of this chapter you will know:
Morphemes
II. Affixation: prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix
III. Compound Words
IV. Lexical Categories
V. Derivation
VI. Inflection
VII. Morphological Typology of Languages
VIII. Word Formation
IX. Other morphological phenomenon
I.
Reference: O’Grady & al. (2009); Rowe & al. (2012)
I. Morphemes
1. MORPHOLOGY
2. SIMPLE VS. COMPLEX WORDS
3. FREE VS. BOUND MORPHEMES
Morphology
 Morphology:
The
analysis of word __________.
The system of categories and rules
involved in _______________ and
__________________.
Word and Morpheme
 Word: the smallest
_________
(an element that doesn’t have
to occur in a fixed position)
 Word  simple vs.
complex

Ex.
 Morpheme: the
smallest _________
_________
 Morpheme  free vs.
bound

Ex.
Question #1, p.139 O’Grady,2009
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
Fly
Desks
Untie
Tree
Dislike
Reuse
Triumphed
Delight
Justly
O’Grady, 2009
II. Affixation
1. ROOT, AFFIX
2. BASE
3. AFFIX:
1.
prefix, suffix, infixes & circumfixes
Roots & affixes
 Root: Serves as a building block for other words
(usually, but not always a free morpheme)
 Affix: Bound morphemes added to the root.
Affixation
 Prefix: An affix that is attached to
the _________of a base,
 Ex.
re-play.
 Suffix: An affix that is attached to
the _________of a base.
 Ex.
kind-ness.
Affixation
 Infix: An affix that occur _________a base

Ex: Tagalog: write = sulat / written = sinulat.
 The infix -in- changes the verb from present to past
tense.
 Circumfixes: Where you _________
___________(sometimes surrounding the root).
Ex: Arabic: Book = kitab / Wrote = kataba / has been
written= kutib
 Ex: Hebrew

Hebrew and Affixes
The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible By Jeff A. Benner
Hebrew and Affixes
‫(הִ ְמ ִטיר‬hee-teer)
 This is the verb ‫( מטר‬M.Th.R) meaning to "rain." The
structure of the verb also identifies the verb tense as
perfect – he rained. The prefix ‫( ה‬hee) along with the
‫(י‬ee) infix, identifies the verb as a hiphil (causative)
verb – he made rain, or he caused to rain. But, the
preceding word ‫ לא‬negates this verb – he did not
cause it to rain.
www.ancient-hebrew.org/emagazine/046.doc
Examples of English Affixes
 -able
 Anti-
 -ing
 Ex-
 -ish
 -ize
 Re-
 In-
Analyzing Word Structure
Underline the root.
Circle the affix.
Draw a structure diagram.
Payment
k. Spiteful
l.
Suite
m. Fastest
n. Deform
o. Disobey
j.
p.
q.
r.
s.
t.
Preplan
Optionality
Prettier
Mistreat
Premature
III. Compound Words
CLOSED-FORM COMPOUND
HYPHENATED COMPOUND
OPEN-FORM COMPOUND
Compound Words
 Closed-form compound:
 Hyphenated compound:
 Open-form compound:
What kind of Compound Word is this
 Brain waves
 Turnstile
What kind of Compound Word is this?
 Hair plugs
 Fast food
IV. Lexical Categories
A SMALL OVERVIEW
Syntactic Categories (1)
 Noun (N)
 moisture, policy
 Verb (V)
 melt, remain
 Adjective (A)
 good, intelligent
 Preposition (P)
 to, near
 Adverb (Adv)
 slowly, now
Syntactic Categories (2)
 Determiner
(Det)
 Auxiliary (Aux)
 Conjunction (Con)
 Interjection
 the,
this, my
 will, can
 and, or
 Oh, goodness
sake, whatever
Exercise: Word class
Determine the word class of each of the following words.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
betterment
the
him
elegant
inconvenience
eloquently
comply
inasmuch as
over
V. Derivation
1. ENGLISH DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES
2. COMPLEX DERIVATION
3. CONSTRAINTS IN DERIVATION
4. TWO CLASSES OF DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES
Derivation
 An affixational process that forms a word with a
_____________ and/or ___________
_________from that of it’s base.
 Ex:




Examples of English Derivational Affixes
 See pages 117 or O’Grady.
O’Grady, 2009
Derivation
 Illustrated through trees:
N
V
V
Af
A
Af
treat
ment
modern
ize
Let’s Practice
Underline the root.
Circle the base.
Draw a structure diagram.
Payment
k. Spiteful
l.
Suite
m. Fastest
n. Deform
o. Disobey
j.
p.
q.
r.
s.
t.
Preplan
Optionality
Prettier
Mistreat
Premature
Some examples of English Derivational
Morpheme
 -ic
: Noun  Adj
 -ly
: Adj  Adv
 -ate : Noun  Verb
 -ity : Adj  Noun
 -ship : Noun  Noun
 alcohol  alcoholic
 re-
 cover  recover
: Verb  Verb
 exact  exactly
 vaccin  vaccinate
 active  activity
 friend  friendship
Complexe Derivation
Words with several layers of structure
 Activation:
N
V
A
V
Af
Af
Af
Act
ive
ate
ion
Constraints on Derivation
 The suffix –ant
Contest  contestant
Defend  defendant
Hunt 
*Huntant  Hunter
WHY?
The suffix –ant can combine only with
____________________.
Constraints on Derivation
 The suffix –en
white  whiten
dark  darken
green  *greenen
WHY?
The suffix –en can combine only a __________
base that ends in an obstruent.
How about large ?  largen ?
The suffix –en can combine only a __________
_______base that ends in an ________ (Kwary, 2004).
VI. Inflection
1. INFLECTION
2. INFLECTIONS IN ENGLISH
Inflection
 The modification of a word’s form to
__________the ____________
________to which it belongs
 Ex:
THE 9 ENGLISH
INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES
Nouns
–s
plural
–’s
possessive
Verbs
–s
third person singular present
–ed past tense
–en past participle
–ing progressive
Adjectives
–er comparative
–est superlative
-en past participle
Inflection vs. derivation
Derivation vs. Inflection (1)
 It changes the
__________and
/or the
__________of
meaning of the
word, so it is said
to create
__________.
Ex:
 It does not change
either the ______
__________or
the ________
__________foun
d in the word.
Ex:
Derivation vs. Inflection (2)
 A derivational affix must combine with the base
__________an inflectional affix.
e.g. neighbour (base) + hood (DA) + s (IA)
= neighbourhoods
The following combination is unacceptable:
neighbour (base) + s (IA) + hood (DA)
= *neighbourshood
Derivation vs. Inflection (3)
 An inflectional affix in more __________than a
derivational affix.
EX: the inflectional suffix –s can combine with
virtually any noun to form a plural noun.
On the other hand,
the derivational suffix –ant can combine only
with Latinate bases.
Describe the italic affixes:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
impossible
terrorized
terrorize
desks
dislike
humanity
fastest
Describe the italic affixes:
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
premature
untie
darken
fallen
oxen
faster
lecturer
The suffix -er
 Ex: sin - sinner
VII. Morphological Typology of
Languages
I. ANALYTIC (OR ISOLATING) LANGUAGES
II. SYNTHETIC LANGUAGES:
1.
2.
3.
Fusional (or inflectional) languages
Agglitinating Languages
Polysynthetic languages
Morphological Typology of Languages
I. Analytic (or isolating) languages
II. Synthetic languages:
1.
Fusional (or inflectional) languages
2.
Agglitinating Languages
3.
Polysynthetic languages
VIII. Word
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Formation
COMPOUNDING
CONVERSION
CLIPPING
BLENDING
BACK-FORMATION
ACRONYMS
ONOMATOPOEIA
EPONYMS & TRADE NAMES
DERIVATION
OTHER WORD FORMATION
PROCESSES
1. Compounding
 Definition: Two or more words _______
_____________to form a new word.
 Examples:


Properties of compounds
1. Properties of compounds
1.
Lexical category
2.
Stress
3.
Plural
Endocentric vs Exocentric Compounds
Note: The meaning of a compound is not
always _____________________________.
Coconut oil  oil made from coconuts.
 Olive oil
 oil made from olives.

foroil
babies
Baby oil
 oil
NOT
made from babies
 blue-movies 
 blue-chip


2. Conversion
 Definition: Assigning an already existing word to a
new ____________________.
 Examples:



Conversion
Taking Nouns and Adjectives and using them as verbs
(and conjugating them).
3. Clipping
Definition: Shortening a ______________
by ______________________________
 Examples:





Facsimile 
Hamburger 
Gasoline 
Advertisement 
4. Blends
Definition: Similar to compounds, but ______
______________ are deleted.
 Examples:




Is this a blend?
Case Study: Blends or Compounds

‘Wild-haired revolutionaries like Che Guevara have been
replaced by clean-cut metrosexual icons like soccer
star David Beckham and musician Ricky Martin.’
(cbsnews.com, 25th November 2003).

‘No botox for the Retrosexual. No $1,000 haircuts. The
retrosexual man eats red meat heartily and at times
kills it himself.’ (The Washington Dispatch, 2nd May
2004).

Another recent coinage borne out of the current
preoccupation with male stereotyping is the noun and
adjective technosexual. (Macmillan Online, January
2005).
5. Back-formations
Definition: a process that creates a new word
by __________a _________________
from another word in the language.
 Examples:



6. Acronyms
Definition: Words derived from the _________of
several words
 Examples:



7. Onomatopoeia

Definition: Words created to __________
the thing that they name.
English
Japanese
Tagalog
Indonesian
Cock-a-doo Kokekokko Kuk-kakauk Kukuruyuk
Meow
Nya
Niyaw
Meong
8. Eponyms
 Definition: Words derived from _____
__ ___ __________.
 Examples:



9. Derivation
 Derivation is the process of forming
a new word by adding a _______
_____________to a ________.
 Ex:


9. Other Word Formation Process
 Foreign word Borrowing
Let’s invent words!
 Invent words that don’t already exist in English, and
then define the process that was used to creat this
word.
Intialism or Acronym?
 Initialism: An abbreviation created by ________
__ __________ (e.g. PEI or USA) as letters rather
than a word.
 Acronym: A word that is forms by ________
____________of some or all the words in a phrase
or title and __________ __________ (e.g. NATO
for North Atlantic Treaty Organization)



IX. Other Morphological
Phenomena
Other Morphological Phenomena
related to inflection
Internal change
 Process
that substitutes one non-morphemic
segment for another to mark grammatical
contrast.
Different
than infixing …
Examples:




Other Morphological Phenomena
related to inflection
Suppletion
 Replaces
a morpheme with an entirely different
morpheme in order to indicate a grammatical
contrast.
 Ex:




Morphophonemics
Morphophonemics
 “Pronunciation can be sensitive to
__________factors”
 Example: English Plural
 Allomorphs pronounced: /-s/, /-z/, /-əz/
 The pronunciation of the suffix « –s » depends on the phonetic
context.
 Ex:



www.pearsoned.ca/ogrady
Allomorphs
 p. 95-96 (Rowe & Levine, 2012)
Examples:
 An
&a
 -s
 The
& the
Rowe & Levine, 2012