MORPHOLOGY:
Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes
and Infixes
by Don L. F. Nilsen
and Alleen Pace Nilsen
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Michael Smith
and Jeffrey Wilhelm
•
Smith and Wilhelm have three rules to determine
what terms (metalanguage) to teach in a grammar
class:
1.
The term is so commonly used that teachers, texts,
and tests presume that students know it.
The term is essential to being able to explain an
important issue of style or correctness.
The term becomes essential to the work of a class
(such as ENG 506).
(Smith & Wilhelm 13-14)
2.
3.
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Parts of Speech:
Traditional Definitions
A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing.
A verb expresses action or state of being.
An adjective describes or modifies a noun.
An adverb modifies verbs, adjectives, and
other adverbs.
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• A pronoun takes the place of a noun.
• A preposition shows the relationship of a
noun or pronoun to some other word in the
sentence.
• A conjunction joins words or groups of
words.
• An interjection shows excitement or emotion.
• (Smith & Wilhelm 11)
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Smith & Wilhelm’s
Parts of Speech to Teach
Content Classes:
Nouns
Content or
Grammatical? You
Decide
Grammatical
Classes:
Prepositions
Verbs
Pronouns
Conjunctions
Adjectives
Interjections
Adverbs
(Smith & Wilhelm 15)
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Word Choice
Smith & Wilhelm find these Common
Confusions in Student Papers
Aggravate-annoy
Amount-number
Can-may
Collective-collected
Enumerate-remunerate
Etc. (not ect.): et cetera
Fewer-less
Good-well
ConscienceI-me-myself
conscientious-conscious Illegible-ineligible
Criterion-*criterionsImply-infer
criteria
In-into
Definitely-defiantly
Incredible-incredulous
DisinterestedLay-lie
uninterested
Media-medium
Eligible-legible
Past-passed
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Raise-rise
Set-sit
That-which
Use-utilize
Woman-women
Your-you’re
BAD WORD-BREAKING:
A lot-a lot
Any body-anybody
Every day-everyday
(Smith & Wilhelm 150-169)
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Semantic vs. Structural
Definitions of Parts of Speech
• T’was brillig, and the slithy toves
• Did gire and gimble in the wabe.
• All mimsy were the borogroves,
• And the mome wraths outgrabe.
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CONTENT WORDS VS.
FUNCTION WORDS
• You may have been told that there are eight
Parts of Speech in English.
• You may have been told that their names are:
Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs,
Pronouns, Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and
Expletives.
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• What your teachers told you is not a lie,
but it is very much an
oversimplification.
• These Part-of-Speech Categories need
to be divided into two very different
types of Parts of Speech.
• The Content Words carry real-world
meaning.
• The Function words carry only
grammatical meaning.
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• The Content Words are Nouns,
Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs.
• The Function Words are Articles,
Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives.
• The Pronouns belong to neither of
these categories. Pronouns can
stand in the place of Nouns, Verbs,
Adverbs, Prepositional Phrases, or
even Sentences.
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• Since Content Words carry real-world
meaning:
• Content words can be stressed.
• Content words cannot be easily figured out if
they are deleted.
• Content words can be inflected.
• Content words more readily enter into
compounds.
• Content words are an open set; new ones
enter our language daily.
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• Pronouns meet some of these criteria
but not others. They carry some realworld meaning, but not as much as the
words they replace.
•
•
•
•
•
They can sometimes be stressed.
They can be figured out if deleted.
They can be inflected.
They don’t enter into compounding.
They are a closed set.
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CATEGORIES VS. FUNCTIONS
• “Noun” is a category. “Subject” is a function.
• A Noun or a Pronoun can function as a Subject, a
Subject Complement, a Direct Object, an Indirect
Object, an Object Complement or an Object of a
Preposition.
• Pronouns functioning as S or SC are in subject form;
those functioning as DO, IO, OC, or OP are in object
form.
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• A Verb functions as a Predicate.
• An Adjective or an Adverb functions as
a Modifier.
• An Adjective answers “which,” “what
kind of,” or “how many” and modifies a
Noun.
• An Adverb answers “how,” “when,”
“where” or “how much” and modifies a
Verb, an Adjective, an Adverb or a
Sentence.
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• Function Words have only grammatical
meaning.
• Prepositions relate Nouns to other Nouns
(fourth of July).
• Conjunctions relate Sentences to other
Sentences.
• Articles mark Nouns.
• Auxiliaries mark Verbs.
• Expletives mark the place of the Subject so
that the Subject can be postponed.
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OLD AND NEW INFORMATION
• The Subject of a sentence gives Old
Information. It provides the “subject”
for the people to talk about.
• The Predicate of a sentence gives New
Information. It provides new and
insightful information about the
Subject.
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• Subject and Predicate are important not
only to Linguists, but also to
Rhetoricians, Psychologists, Logicians,
etc., but different names are used in
different fields:
•
•
•
•
•
Subject vs. Predicate
Topic vs. Comment
Old Information vs. New Information
Theme vs. Rheme
Presupposition vs. Assertion
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Contrast the following
• Bound vs. Free Morphemes
• Stem vs. Affix
• Prefix vs. Suffix vs. Infix
• Derivational vs. Inflectional
• Content vs. Functional Morphemes
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Analyze the following word
• antidisestablishmentarianism
–STEM: stable or establish
–Suffixes: -ment, -arian, -ism
–Prefixes: dis-, anti-
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NOUNS
• PLURAL: cats, dogs, horses, deer, data,
mice, alumni
• POSSESSIVE: dog’s, its
• PLURAL POSSESSIVE: dogs’
• NOTE: English used to have four cases:
Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative
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VERBS
• THIRD PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT INDICATIVE:
goes
• PAST TENSE: buzzed, walked, heated, sang
• PAST PARTICIPLE: driven, hit, liked
• PRESENT PARTICIPLE: driving
• NOTE: English used to have two more forms:
driveth, drivest
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SUPPLETIVE VERBS
• A suppletive form is one which comes from
two different paradigms. These must be
high-frequency words, or they will become
regularized through common use.
• “Go-went” is a suppletive verb, as is “is-be.”
“Go” comes from the “go” paradigm, while
“went” comes from the “wend” paradigm.
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ADJECTIVES
• COMPARATIVE: higher, more beautiful, more
friendly
• SUPERLATIVE: highest, most beautiful, most
friendly
• NOTE: Old English Adjectives used to have
four cases (Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc), agreed with
nouns, and came after nouns
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ADVERBS
• COMPARATIVE: faster, more imaginatively
• SUPERLATIVE: fastest, most imaginatively
• (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 98-101)
• Adverbs usually end in –ly, however there
are
– FLAT ADVERBS: fast, first
– AND –LY ADJECTIVES: friendly
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PERSONAL PRONOUNS
• Sing
Nom
Obj
Pos Substantive
Reflexive
• 1st
• 2nd
• 3rd
•
•
I
you
he
she
it
me
you
him
her
it
my
your
his
her
its
myself
yourself
himself
herself
itself
•
•
•
•
Plural
1st
we
2nd
you
3rd
they
us
you
them
mine
yours
his
hers
its
our ours
your yours
their theirs
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ourselves
yourselves
themselves
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RELATIVE AND
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
RELATIVE:
when
where
why
how
which
what
that
INTERROGATIVE
when
where
why
how
which
what
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DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
singular:
plural:
• close:
this
these
• far:
that
those
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Contrast these sentences
• When did she arrive? (Int Pro)
• I know when she arrived. (Rel Pro)
• This is the pen that you borrowed. (Rel
Pro)
• Please give me that pen. (Dem Pro)
• I know that you wanted to do well. (SC)
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INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
(GO WITH A SINGULAR VERB)
THING:
PLACE:
TIME:
BODY
ANY
anything
anywhere
ever
anybody
NO
nothing
nowhere
never
nobody
SOME-
something
somewhere
sometimes
somebody
EVERY-
everything
everywhere
always
everybody
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ARCHAIC FORMS:
SHAKESPEARE & THE BIBLE
NOMINATIVE:
POSSESSIVE:
SINGULARS:
thou (Nom),
thy, thine (Gen),
PLURALS:
you,
ACCUSATIVE:
thee (Acc)
ye
DUALS:
wit, uncer, unc, git, incer, inc (NOTE: In Old English, but
not in Middle English nor in Modern English
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!MORPHOLOGICAL
HUMOR
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UGLIFICATION
• “I never heard of ‘Uglification,’ Alice ventured
to say. ‘What is it?’ The Gryphon lifted up
both its paws in surprise. “never heard of
uglifying!” it exclaimed. “You know what to
beautify is, I suppose?’ ‘Yes,’ said Alice
doubtfully: ‘it means—to make—anythingprettier.’ ‘Well, then,’ the Gryphon went on, ‘if
you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a
simpleton.’”
• (Carroll 128-129)
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• The term “uglification” is part of a longer quote in which
Alice is being told about the education system in
Wonderland. Students in Wonderland study “Reeling,
Writhing, Uglification and Derision.”
• They call their teacher “Tortoise” because he “taught
us.”
• Lessons get shorter each day. That’s why they’re called
“lessens.”
• In Wonderland, “Latin and Greek” becomes “Laughing
and Grief,” and “drawing, sketching and painting in
oils” becomes “Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in
Coils.”
• (Carroll 128-129)
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CLICK AND CLACK
THE TAPPET BROTHERS
• On National Public Radio’s “Cartalk,” Click
and Clack are playing with Morphology in
their list of credits:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Copyeditor: Adeline Moore
Accounts Payable: Ineeda Czech
Pollution Control: Maury Missions
Purchasing: Lois Bidder
Statistician: Marge Innovera
Russian Chauffeur: Picov Andropov
Legal Firm: Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe.
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams 72)
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!BILINGUAL MORPHOLOGICAL WORD PLAY
• “Un petit d’un petit
• S’étonne aux Halles”
• This makes no sense in French, but it makes
perfect sense in English:
• “Humpty Dumpty
• Sat on a wall”
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams 72)
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!!WATERGATE
• The Watergate Hotel is where the break-in of the National
Democratic headquarters occurred.
• Today’s dictionaries give more room to the metonymous
meaning of Watergate than to the literal meaning of “a gate
controlling the flow of water.”
• “Gate” has now become a suffix meaning “scandal” as in
Irangate, Contragate, Iraqgate, Pearlygate, Rubbergate,
Murphygate, Gennifergate, Nannygate, Monicagate, ad
infinitum.
(Nilsen & Nilsen 180)
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!!!NEW DEFINITIONS
• Artery: The study of painting
• Bacteria: The back door of a cafeteria
• Barium: What doctors do when patients
die.
Nilsen & Nilsen 177)
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References:
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York, NY:
Random House, 1960.
Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa. Language: Readings
in Language and Culture, 6th Edition. New York, NY: St. Martin’s
Press, 1998.
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. “Morphology:
The Words of Language.” An Introduction to Language, 8th
Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, 71-114.
Gleason, H. A. Jr. “The Identification of Morphemes” (Clark, 144153).
Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th
Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.
Smith, Michael W., and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Getting It Right: Fresh
Approaches to Teaching Grammar, Usage and Correctness. New
York, NY: Scholastic, 2007.
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