Title MORPHOLOGY - REVISION ✅

1 FINAL EXAMINATION REVISION TOPIC: MORPHOLOGY - Morphology: the study of word-structure and word-formation A. MORPHEMES: the smallest units of meaning 1. General information: - Morphemes (Eugene Nida): the minimal meaningful units which may constitute words or parts of words. E.g. “run”, “light”, “rain”, “change”, “intro”, “re”, “under”, “tion”, “ment”,… + Most of morphemes are clear in meaning E.g. {-ness}: happiness,..; {de-}: defer, detest,…; {over-}: overdo, overrun, overcome,… + Some morphemes may be restricted to relatively few words (“cranberry” morphemes) E.g. {-berry}: cranberry,…; {luke-}: lukewarm;… + Morphemes can have lexical meaning or grammatical meaning. E.g. “go”, “banana”, “table”,… (lexical meaning); {-s2}, {-ed1},… (grammatical meaning) → It depends on the word in which it appears (meaning, structure,…) 2. Difference between “Morphemes”, “Words”, “Syllables”: - Morphemes: the smallest meaningful units of words - Syllables: a unit in speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word. - Words: a particular physical realisation of lexemes in speech or writing. Question 1: Decide the number of words, morphemes and syllables in the following words Word Morpheme Syllable Invention 1 3 3 Uncivilized Performance Dog Returned Undergoes
2 3. Problems with the definitions of “morphemes”: Question 2: How many morphemes do these following words have? List them out! Morphemes Prevention Preference Occurrence Consisting → Some morphemes have limited distribution and need not to be strictly meaningful compared with words. 4. “Morphs” & “Allomorphs”: 4.1. Morph: a physical form representing a morpheme (how to interpret a morpheme) → Morphemes are realized by morphs E.g. morpheme {do} → morph /du:/ 4.2. Allomorphs: different morphs represent the same morpheme that are in CD (complemetary distribution) 4.3. Complementary distribution: + Firstly, they represent the same morpheme, the same meaning, the same grammatical meaning. + Secondly, they cannot occur in identical contexts Morph 1 /ɪz/ → Morpheme {plural} Morph 2 /z/ Morph 3 /s/ Morph 1 /ɪd/ → Morpheme {past tense} Morph 2 /d/ Morph 3 /t/ Morph 1 [a] /ə/ → Morpheme {a} Morph 2 [an] /ən/
3 4.4. The conditions of allomorphs: + Phonologically-conditioned: its occurrence depends on the surrounding sounds Morph 1 [a] /ə/ → Morpheme {a} Precedes a consonant a car /ə ca:/ Morph 2 [an] /ən/ Precedes a vowel an apple /ən æpl/ + Grammatically-conditioned: the presence of a particular grammatical elements weep – wept shake – shook + Lexically-conditioned: obligatory if a certain word is present ox - oxen child - children + Suppletion: the type of irregularity in which there is a complete change in the shape of word in its various inflected forms. (Richard, J C, 1992: 367) go – went – gone good – better – best 4.5. Types of allomorphs: Additive allomorph Asked /a:skt/ = /a:sk/ + /t/ Replacive allomorph Drank /dræŋk/ = /drɪŋk/ + /ɪ → æ/ Suppletive allomorph Went /gəʊ/ → /went/ Zero allomorph Cut /kʌt/ = /kʌt/ + {Ø} B. TYPES OF MORPHEMES: 1. “Free morphemes” & “Bound morphemes”: Free morpheme Bound morpheme This morpheme can stand alone with meaning This morpheme cannot stand alone, so it must combine with other morphemes to form a word. E.g. Readers {read} {-er}, {-s}
4 2. “Roots” & “Affixes” (the role of morphemes): Roots Affixes - This morpheme contribute to the principal meaning or the cores of all words. - Can be free morpheme (mostly) or bound morpheme (in some cases) - This morpheme occurs before of behind a root and somewhat modifies the basic meaning of the root - Can be bound morphemes (always) - Including: prefixes, suffixes, superfixes, infixes (rarely). E.g. Interpretation {pret} {inter-}, {-ation} 3. Differentiating between “Prefixes” & “Suffixes”: Prefixes Suffixes Types of morphemes Bound morphemes Bound morphemes Position Precedes the root Follows the root Word-class changeability Cannot change the word-class (commonly) Be able to change the word- class (derivational) or not (inflectional) Number 1 (mostly) [Exception: the negative prefix {-un} before another prefix] 3 or 4 Function Modify the meaning E.g. uncivilizational {un-} {-ize}, {-ation}, {-al} 4. Differentiating between “Inflectional morphemes” & “Derivational morphemes”: Inflectional Suffixes (I.S) Derivational Suffixes (D.S) Types of morphemes Bound morphemes Bound morphemes Position Follow the root Precede or follow the root Number in a word 1 > 1 Number (generally) Few (8) Many Influence on root Cannot change the word-class and the meaning. Can change the word-class (commonly) and modify the meaning (commonly) Productivity Much more productive Less productive Function Grammatical function Lexical function E.g. workers {-s3} {-er}