5
TOPIC 5: MORPHOLOGY
The following points are recommended for discussion:
- Inflexion and derivation.
- Word formation.
- Tree diagrams and bracketing. Constituents, branching, nodes, labels.
EXERCISE 5.1 Morphological analysis
(a) Cut these words up into morphemes: unkindnesses, distasteful,
activate, membership, downloading, piglet, arrangement,
teachers, outnumbered, desirability, hospitalization
(b) draw a tree diagram for each word, as shown in the examples:
unkindnesses
distasteful
N
N
Adj
Aff
Adj
Aff
Aff
Adj
un
kind
Aff
Adj
N
ness
es
dis
taste
Aff
ful
Discuss: the equivalence of trees and bracketing: [ [ [ un [kind] ] ness ] es ]
– nodes, branching, sister nodes, constituents, labels
– why do we choose the analysis [[unkind]ness] rather than [un[kindness]] ?
– compare the alternants desire ~ desir- and -able ~ -abil-.
– the rightmost affix in unkindnesses is different from the other elements in this
word. What is this difference, and does the diagram show this in any way?
EXERCISE 5.2 Allomorphy: the plural suffix of nouns
Observe these plural nouns. Group the allomorphs of the {PLURAL} morpheme in some
logical fashion. (In English, the allomorphs are often „invisible”, not shown by the spelling. It
is advisable to use phonetic symbols, especially in the words marked „!”.)
two books
two plays
two places
two potatoes (!)
two boxes
two bridges
two cliffs
two phenomena
two oxen
two analyses (!)
two sheep
two ballets (!)
Discuss:
– which allomorphs are phonologically conditioned?
– which forms of the {PLURAL} morpheme may be regarded regular and why?
– which words show a deviation in spelling only, but not in pronunciation?
EXERCISE 5.3 Derivational morphology
The words below are all derived with the help of some affix (pre- or suffix). Decide whether
the word class changes or remains the same in the derived form. Fill in the table. Show the
derivational affix with a hyphen, and underline it.
boyhood, motorize, gentlemanlike, swimmer, darken, dramatic, violinist, happiness, re-write,
modernism, mountaineer, solidify, yellowish, debatable, actress, insurance, unbutton, signify,
accessible, de-ice, possibility, Turkish, unkind, original, sublet, agreement, prepay, finalize,
choosy
Base word
Noun
boy-hood
Noun
Derived word
Verb
motor-ize
Adjective
gentleman-like
Verb
Adjective
Discuss: which is the more frequent affix type in English: prefixes or suffixes?
EXERCISE 5.4
HOME ASSIGNMENT
Morphological analysis
Analyse the following words in the same way as in Exercise 5.1. When you feel that something is doubtful or
ambiguous, write down your doubts and point out the ambiguity. Mark also interesting allomorphs.
1. reelection
6. princely
2. opponents
7. discouragingly
3. opposing
8. nervosity
4. beggar
9. unbuttoned (= ’with its buttons open’)
5. unmarried
10. unbuttoned (= ’having no buttons’)