MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
STEMS AND WORDS
It is common to distinguish between
 words: the individual elements found in sentences, and
 stems: the individual elements found in the lexicon that may be put together to
form sentences
We can say that
 derivational morphology describes the processes that form stems (the items in
the lexicon)
stem formation
 inflectional morphology describes the processes that form words per se (the
final form of lexical items in sentences):
word formation
English
 very little inflectional morphology
 limited to the final suffix of words
 the highest stem of any English word can be recovered by removing the
inflectional suffix
word = stem + (inflectional suffix)
lights = light + (-s)
 many English words have no inflectional suffix, and
 are identical to their stems
light (word) = light (stem)
 insofar as a stem is derived, its root can be recovered by removing its
derivational affix:
stem = root + (derivational affix)
receive = re- + -ceiveroot
 many English stems have no inflectional suffix
 identical to their roots
light (stem) = lightroot
 insofar as stems are formed from other stems, the following formula is true as
well:
stem = stem + derivational affix
stem fiendish = stem fiend + derivational suffix -ish
 as a practical matter, in analyzing stems, after removing a derivational element,
ask if what is left can be used in a sentence:
a. YES  stem (i.e., stems are lexical items and lexical items are things used in
sentences), and continue analysis
b. NO  root, and the analysis is complete.
EXAMPLES
Conventions
1. We label the part of speech of the word (W) to be analyzed
2. We label each smaller constituent as:




stem (S)
inflectional suffix (IA)
derivational affix (DA)
root
3. We label the part of speech of each stem.
4. We label each inflection suffix for its meaning.
5. We label each derivational affix as to the part of speech of the stem it creates.
Example 1: N arm
 the simplest type of English word
 derivational or inflectional affixes
 it is identical to its stem and root
W-N( S-N( Root(
arm ) ) )
Example 2: N arms
W-N( S-N( Root(
arm ) ) IA-pl( -s ) )
Example 3: N armies
W-N( S-N( S-N( Root(
arm ) DA-N( -y ) ) IA-pl( -s ) )
 N army - the "highest" stem of N armies (the lexical item of which it is the
plural form)
 N army contains the N stem arm, from which it has been derived
 armies, army, arms, and arm share the same root arm.
Hence:
 A stem can be regarded as the common denominator of a group of
inflectionally related forms.
 A root can be regarded as the common denominator of a group of
derivationally related stems.