Morphology &Syntax
Dep. Code No. Eng. 4860
My website
https://faculty.sau.edu. •
sa/f.zein
f.zein@sau.edu.com •
Morphology
Morphemes •
Define •
The smallest grammatical •
unit.
A short segment of •
language.
Examples
morphemes
cheep/er •
bright/en: •
im/possible •
Morpheme criteria
It is a word that has meaning.
It canot be divided into smaller
parts
.
It recurs in differing verbal
environment with stable meaning
Activity 1
How many morphemes each
word contain?
play........replay.....
mini-kirt.....rainy.......cover...
Exercise 1 write the
number of morphemes
Weak •
Man •
able •
Cheep •
Cheeper •
Cheeply •
Unable •
weaken •
Exercise 2 write the meaning
of underlined morphemes
Antedate •
Repay •
Manly •
Keeper •
unable •
Inactive •
Impossible •
Mal-fuction •
Classification of morphemes
a.Bound morphemes
b.Free morphemes
Bound morphemes •
can not be uttered in
alone with meaning.
They are connected
to more morphemes
to words. E.g the
morpheme: er in
keeper
Free morphemes •
can be uttered
alone with meaning
Free
open •
come •
red •
Bound
dom •
ive •
re •
un •
Give examples of (Task 1)
Free morphemes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bound morphemes
a.Base morphemes b.Affix morpheme
A part of a •
word that has
the principal
meaning.
A bound •
morpheme
that occur
before, within,
or after abase.
Base
affix
denial •
loyable •
reread •
al •
able •
re •
affixes
An affix is a bound •
morpheme that occurs:
1.before abase (prefix) •
2.after abase- (suffix) •
3.within abase-- (infix) •
Examples of affixes
prefixes: import-prefix-reconsider
English prefixes are a small class of morphemes(75) •
Activity: Give 10 examples of prefixes. •
Infixes are rare in English::
In plural nouns e.g geese pl of goose.in the past tense and past
participle of verbs like o of chose and chosen.
Suffixes: normalizers, friendship, reposibilities.
Give the meaning of the prefixes
irrelevant
semiprofessional
postwar
prewar
proceed
deemphasize
Underline the infixes
Mouse, mice
foot, feet
Take,took, taken
Ride, rode, ridden
Grow, grew, grown
Tear, tore, torn
Spin, span, spun
find, found,found
Ring , rang, rung
Shake, shook,shaken,
Write the number of suffixes
greater
organizes
personalities
agreeable
increasingly
responsibilities
Each group of words contain a base
and suffixes. Make each into a word
ed-live-en
Ly-ion-ate-affect
Er-s-mor- al-ize
ing-at-terminity- work-able
Provinc-s-ism-ial
Inflectional affixes
Derivational affixes
Immediate constituents