Chapter 4
File 4.0 - What Is Morphology?
Morphology: The study of word making.
File 4.1 - Words and Word Formation: The Nature of the Lexicon
Lexical category: Sometimes called parts of speech, examples include: noun, adjective, verb, etc.
When examining words and debating their relationship to each other, we must consider both their
phonological form and their meaning.
If two words belong to different parts of speech, it is pretty clear that they are different words - for
example, cat and catty
Root: The basis of another word, such as cat being the root for catty
Derivation: Taking the phonological form of one word and performing an "operation" on it, creating a
new word or form of a word
Stem: Another term for root.
Affixes: Additional pieces added to a stem.
Inflection: The creation of different grammatical forms of words - these are not new words, just
different forms of the original word
Inflectional affixes of English:
Function
Affix(es) Attaches to
Example
Third person singular
present
-s
Verbs
She waits there at noon.
Past tense
-ed
Verbs
She waited there yesterday
Progressive aspect
-ing
Verbs
She is waiting there now
Past participate
-en, -ed Verbs
Jack has eaten the cookies. Jack has tasted the
cookies.
Plural
-s
Nouns
The chairs are in the room.
Possessive
-'s, -s'
Nouns
The chair's leg is broken. The chairs' legs are
broken.
Comparative
-er
Adjectives,
adverbs
Jill is taller than Joe. Joe runs faster than Jill.
Superlative
-est
Adjectives,
adverbs
Ted is the smallest in his class. Michael runs
fastest of all.
Morphemes: The parts that words are made of.
- A root may only contain one morpheme, but a stem may contain more than one morpheme
- An affix is a single morpheme - a suffix follows the stem, a prefix precedes a stem
- Affixes that sound alike but have different meanings or functions are homophonous
Free morphemes: Morphemes that can be used separately as words themselves.
Bound morphemes: Morphemes that cannot be used separately as words, and can only appear as
affixes.
There are some roots that do not have stand-alone forms, and only appear with one or more affixes
attached - these are called bound roots, and while they seem to have some basic meaning, they are
unable to stand alone
Content morphemes: Morphemes that carry semantic content (car, house, etc.). Morphemes that
produce a word that belongs to a different part of speech are also included.
Function morphemes: The opposites of content morphemes, these simply add grammatical content -
LING 1001 Page 1
inflectional affixes are included, as are prepositions (at, for), articles (a, the), and conjunctions (and, but)
Kinds of morphemes
Content morphemes Function morphemes
Free morphemes
Content words:
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
Bound morphemes Bound roots
Derivational affixes
Function words:
- Determiners
- Prepositions
- Pronouns
- Conjunctions
Inflectional affixes
Formation refers to the systematic relationship between roots and the words derived from them and
between a word and its various inflected (grammatical) forms.
Productive rules: Rules that allow speakers to form novel words.
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File 4.2 - Morphological Processes
Word formation process: A rule for forming new words or forms of words. Examples include affixation,
reduplication, or compounding.
Affixation: Adding an affix to a stem - in English, only prefixes and suffixes are used, but other languages
use infixes - inserted within the root morpheme
Signed language also has affixes - for example, the REVERSAL-OF-ORIENTATION suffix.
If a signed affix occurs at the same time as the stem, it is considered simultaneous, and is usually
inflectional - two examples are verb inflection (to mark the subject and object of the verb) and
adverbial inflection of adjectives (from HOT, to VERY HOT)
Compounding: Forming new words using two or more independent words, rather than affixes. An
example would be girlfriend, textbook, air-conditioner, etc.
The difference between compound words and syntactic phrases is that they have different stress
patterns - compounds have primary stress only on the first word, while individual words have their
own primary stress
Reduplication: Forming new words by doubling an entire free morpheme (total reduplication) or part of
it (partial reduplication)
ASL also uses reduplication in some of its plural formations
Alternations: Internal modifications of a morpheme. For example, man to men, goose to geese, strife to
strive.
Suppletion: An irregular inflected form phonetically unrelated to the root - for example, is turning into
was, and go turning into went
File 4.3 - Morphological Types of Languages
There are two morphological types of languages: analytic and synthetic
Analytic languages: Use sequences of free morphemes - each word is a single morpheme, used only by
itself
A purely analytic language is called an isolating language - they don't use affixes, at all
A purely analytic language won't use any other morphological processes - instead, meaning is
derived from things like location in the sentence
Synthetic languages: Bound morphemes are attached to other morphemes, allowing words made up of
multiple elements
Agglutinating languages: Morphemes are joined together loosely, and it's easy to determine
where the boundaries between morphemes are - each bound morpheme usually carries a single
meaning
Fusional languages: Affixes are harder to separate from them stems, and usually fused with the
stem - a single affix frequently carries several meanings at the same time
Polysynthetic languages: Words are formed by combining multiple stems and affixes, usually
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Polysynthetic languages: Words are formed by combining multiple stems and affixes, usually
turning nouns into verbs - long, complex words are formed with modified versions of nouns (hand,
knife, tiger) turned into verbs
File 4.4 - The Hierarchical Structure of Derived Words
The stems with which an affix may combine normally belong to the same part of speech
The words that are formed when an affix is added to a stem is usually belongs to the same part of
speech
This means that you can trace the derivation of a word to find the stem and the affixes in the correct
order - if a word has two affixes, one of which is used with verbs to create new verbs, and the other of
which attaches to verbs to create adjectives, a specific order is required
Hierarchal words are words created through this kind of "sequential" affixation
Some words are ambiguous, and because they have multiple meanings, there are different processes of
formation for them
Un- can be used with adjectives to form new adjectives, but it can also be used with verbs to form
new verbs - these are entirely different morphemes
Some affixes have a wider range of combination possibilities, but they will typically follow their own
rules - an imaginary affix could combine with verbs to form verbs, and attach to nouns to create
adjectives, but never to form an adjective out of a verb
File 4.5 - Morphological Analysis
Comparison is the best way to do morphological analysis - particular forms are compared and
contrasted to find differences
Both form and meaning similarities are necessary, to make sure they aren't different morphemes - for
example, with -er or un-, which are completely different depending on the stem
Derivational affixes usually involve similarities in meaning, and inflectional affixes usually involve a
similarity in function
Sometimes, the same meaning is conveyed by different forms, such as imbalance and inability, in which
case they would be allomorphs of the same morpheme - like an allophone to a phoneme
Given a set of data, morphological analysis is possible to identify each morpheme, its meaning, and its
type
1. Isolate and compare forms that are partially similar
2. If a single phonetic form has tow distinct meanings, it must be analyzed as two different
morphemes
3. If the same function and meaning are associated with different phonetic forms, they must be
represented by the same morpheme (allomorphs) and the form may be predictable on the basis of
the phonetic environment
Textbook Exercises
p. 176
4. In each group of words that follow, two words have the same morphological structure, one has a
different suffix from those two, and one has no suffix at all. Your task is to tell which two words have the
same suffix, which one has a different suffix, and which has no suffix at all. Having done this, tell the
meaning of each suffix. (You may find that they become more difficult as you go along.)
Example:
Rider
Colder
Silver
Smoker
-er is a derivational suffix meaning 'one who…'
-er is an inflectional suffix marking the comparative.
There is no suffix.
this is the same -er as in rider.
a.
Nicer
-er as an inflectional suffix, marking the comparative.
Painter -er as a derivational suffix, meaning 'one who…'
Runner -er as a derivational suffix, meaning 'one who…'
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Feather There is no suffix.
b.
Clocks
-s as an inflectional suffix, for plural.
Nick's
-s as an inflectional affix, for possession.
Hearts
-s as an inflectional suffix, for plural.
Glass
There is no suffix.
c.
Friendly -ly as a derivational suffix, turning a noun into an adjective.
Sadly
-ly as a derivational suffix, turning an adjective into an adverb.
Softly
-ly as a derivational suffix, turning an adjective into an adverb.
Silly
There is no suffix.
d.
Sons
-s as an inflectional suffix, for plural.
Lens
There is no suffix.
Vans
-s as an inflectional suffix, for plural.
Runs
-is as an inflectional suffix, for the third person singular verb tense.
e.
Youngster -er as a derivational suffix, marking membership in a group.
Faster
-er as an inflectional suffix, marking the comparative.
Monster
There is no suffix.
Gangster
-er as a derivational suffix, marking membership in a group.
f.
Wrestling -ling as a derivational suffix, turning a verb into a noun.
Handling
-ling as a derivational suffix, turning a verb into a noun.
Fling
There is no suffix.
Duckling
-ling as a derivational suffix, meaning 'small version of…'
g.
Nifty
There is no suffix.
Ducky
-y as a derivational suffix, meaning 'small version of...'
Thrifty
-y as a derivational suffix, making a noun into an adjective.
Lucky
-y as a derivational suffix, making a noun into an adjective.
h.
Given
-en as an inflectional suffix, marking the past participle.
Maven
There is no suffix.
Wooden -en as an derivational suffix, meaning "made of wood."
Taken
-en as an inflectional suffix, marking the past participle.
p. 178
8. Consider the follow data from Bontoc. These data show an example of derivational morphology in
which an adjectival root is turned into a verb. What type of affix is used to form the verb? Describe its
placement in the word.
[fikas]
'strong'
[fumikas] 'he is becoming strong'
[kilad]
'red'
[kumilad]
[bato]
'stone'
[bumiato] 'he is becoming stone'
[fusul]
'enemy'
[fumiusul] 'he is becoming an enemy'
'he is becoming red'
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An infix is being used, inserting [umi] after the initial consonant. This is replaced by [um] when an [i] is
already present after the first consonant.
p. 182
24. Draw tree diagrams for each of the following words:
a. disappearance: dis + appear = disappear (verb) + ance = disappearance (noun)
b. unaffordable: afford + able = affordable (adjective) + un = unaffordable (adjective)
c. un-American: America + n = American (adjective) + un- = un-American (adjective)
d. manliness: man + ly = manly (adjective) + ness = manliness (noun)
e. impersonal: person + al = personal (adjective) + im = impersonal (adjective)
f. irreplaceability: place + re = replace (verb) + able = replaceable (adjective) + ir = irreplaceable
(adjective) + ability = irreplaceability (adjective)
g. oversimplification: simple + fy = simplify (verb) + cation = simplification (noun) + over =
oversimplification (noun)
h. unhappiness: happy + ness = happiness (noun) + un = unhappiness (noun)
i. decommission: commission + de = decommission (verb)
p. 183
29. Isthmus Zapotec. Examine the following data from Isthmus Zapotec, a language spoken in Mexico.
Answer the questions that follow.
a. [palu]
'stick'
g. [spalube]
'his stick'
m. [spalulu] 'your stick'
b. [kuːba] 'dough'
h. [skuːbabe] 'his dough'
n. [skuːbalu] 'your dough'
c. [tapa]
'four'
i. [stapabe]
'his four'
o. [stapalu]
'your four'
d. [geta]
'tortilla'
j. [sketabe]
'his tortilla'
p. [sketalu]
'your tortilla'
e. [bere]
'chicken' k. [sperebe]
'his chicken' q. [sperelu]
'your chicken'
f. [doʔo]
'rope'
'his rope'
'your rope'
l. [stoʔobe]
r. [stoʔolu]
i. Isolate the morphemes that correspond to the following English translations:
[s]
possesion (genitive)
[be]
third person singular
[lu]
second person plural
ii. List the allomorphs for the following translations:
'tortilla': [geta], [sketa]
'rope': [doʔo], [stoʔo]
'chicken': [bere], [spere]
iii. What phonological environment triggers the alternation between these allomorphs?
Possession.
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