MORPHOLOGY I

Morphology

Morphology is the study of words. How are they formed? What is their relationship to other
words in the same language? It analyses the structure of words and parts of words, such as stems, root
words, prefixes, and suffixes. Morphology is essentially the grammar of words and deals with the forms
of words e.g., the relation between take and took, dog and dogs. Words can be related to other words by
rules, for example, English speakers recognize that the words dog, dogs, and dogcatcher are closely
related.

Lexemes and Word Forms

The distinction between these two senses of ‘word’ is arguably the most important one in
morphology. The first sense of ‘word,’ the one in which dog and dogs are ‘the same word,’ is called
lexeme. The second sense is called word form. We thus say that dog and dogs are different forms of the
same lexeme. Dog and dog catcher, on the other hand, are different lexemes; for example, they refer to
two different kinds of entities. The form of a word that is chosen conventionally to represent the
canonical form of a word is called a lemma, or citation form. Informally, word formation rules form ‘new
words’ (that is, new lexemes).

While inflection rules yield variant forms of the ‘same’ word (lexeme). Joining two words to
make a new word is process of compounding or compound form such as dogcatcher. Derivation involves
affixing bound (non-independent) forms to existing lexemes, whereby the addition of the affix derives a
new lexeme. The word independent is derived from the word dependent by prefixing it with the
derivational prefix in-, while dependent itself is derived from the verb depend.

In many languages, what appear to be single forms actually turn out to contain a large number of
‘word-like’ elements. For example, in Swahili (spoken throughout East Africa), the form nitakupenda
conveys what, in English, would have to be represented as something like I will love you. Now, is the
Swahili from a single word? If it is a ‘word,’ then it seems to consist of a number of elements which, in
English, turn up as separate ‘words.’ A rough correspondence can be presented in the following way:
 ni- ta- ku- penda
 ‘I will you love’

Perhaps a better way of looking at linguistic forms in different languages would be to use this
notion of ‘elements’ in the message, rather than depend on identifying only ‘words.’ The type of exercise
we have just performed is an example of investigating basic forms in language, generally known as
morphology. This term, which literally means ‘the study of forms,’ was originally used in Biology, but
since the middle of the nineteenth century, has also been used to describe the type of investigation that
analyses all those basic ‘elements’ used in a language. What we have been describing as ‘elements’ in the
form of a linguistic message, are technically known as ‘morphemes.’
Morpheme

A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language. In other words, it is the smallest
meaningful unit of a language. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference
between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word, by definition, is
freestanding. When a morpheme stands by itself, it is considered a root because it has a meaning of its
own (e.g., the morpheme dog) and when it depends on another morpheme to express an idea, it is an affix
because it has a grammatical function (e.g., the –s in dogs to indicate that it is plural). Every word
comprises one or more morphemes.
Talks, talker, talked, talking
The root is talk where -s, -er, -ed and –ing are affixes.
Word forms’ may consist of a number of elements. All these elements are described as morphemes.

Therefore, a morpheme is ‘a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function. Units of

grammatical function include forms used to indicate past tense or plural, etc. In the sentence ‘the police
reopened the investigation’ contains three morphemes that is, re-, open and -ed.

A morpheme meets three criteria: it is a word or part of word that has a meaning. It cannot be
divided into smaller meaningful parts without violation of meaningless remainder. It recurs in differing
verbal environments with a relatively stable meaning.
 Unlikely un +like + ly
 Unkindly un +kind + ly
The following words are single morphemes as if divided would lose the meaning they have as in the
present words.
 Carpet
 Garbage

Free Morphemes

The morpheme that can stand alone as a single word by itself is called free morpheme. The free
morphemes can generally be identified as the set of separate English word forms such as basic nouns,
adjectives, verbs, etc. When they are used with bound morphemes, the basic word forms are technically
known as stems.

Free Morphemes:
Reopened: open
Tourists: tour

The following are bound morphemes:

 re-
 -ed
 -ist
 -s
Unexplainable
Explain (stem)
un- (bound)
-able (bound)

The description is a partial simplification of the morphological facts of English.

receive, reduce and repeat,
-ceive, -duce and -peat
These are ‘bound stems’ as they cannot stand alone as words.

A free morpheme can occur in isolation and cannot be divided into smaller meaning units. 'House'
or 'dog' are ‘free stems’ such as dress and care. The stem that cannot be further split up is also called root.

Bound Morphemes

Segments or forms that cannot normally stand alone and are typically attached to another form are
called Bound Morphemes. Bound morphemes are also called affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in English.
Reopened: re- -ed
Environmentalist: -ist
Schools: -s

Words Prefix Base/stem Words Base/stem Affix

unhappy un- Happy friendship friend -ship
immobile im- Mobile Boyhood boy -hood
enable en- Able Boys boy -s
Illegal il- Legal Nicely nice -ly

Affixes can be both inflectional and derivational morphemes.

Lexical Morphemes

Free morphemes fall into two categories.

 Lexical morphemes
 Functional morphemes

Lexical morphemes are absolutely necessary to convey an idea to someone else. They can be
understood fully in and of itself—boy, for example, as well as run, green, quick, paper, large, throw, and
now.
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are typical kinds of lexical morphemes. Lexical
morphemes are longer and, with the exception of ‘ox’ and American English's ‘ax’, are spelt with a
minimum of three graphemes. Lexical morphemes carry stress as a word as well as in a sentence.
Functional morphemes will only be stressed if prominence on them is contextually warranted e.g., It is
HER book.
Functional Morphemes

Free morphemes fall into two categories:

 Lexical morpheme
 Functional morpheme

Some examples of functional morphemes are and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the,
that, it, and them. Functional morphemes function to specify the relationship between one lexical
morpheme and another. The functional morphemes in the language fall in the word classes as
 Conjunctions
 Prepositions
 Articles
 Pronouns
 Auxiliary verbs
 Modals
 Quantifiers

A functional morpheme simply modifies the meaning of the word, rather than supplying the root
meaning of the word. It encodes grammatical meaning e.g., the girls entered the classroom. In this
sentence, ‘the’ is functional morpheme, which is specifying girl and classroom.
Functional morphemes belong to the ‘closed’ class of words. Normally, new functional morphemes
cannot be coined.
 MORPHOLOGY II

Derivational Morphemes

The set of affixes that make up the category of bound morphemes can also be divided into two types.
 Derivational Morpheme
 Inflectional Morpheme
Derivational morphemes change the grammatical categories of words.

Word Part of speech Affix New word Changed class

bake verb -er Baker noun
quick adjective -ly Quickly adverb
Happy Adjective -ness happiness noun

Derivational morphemes can be added to free morphemes or to other derivational morphemes.

For example, the concept can be explained in the word ‘Transform’ (v) as follows:

Form (root word)

Prefix trans-, a derivational morpheme
Suffix -ation making it ‘transformation’ (n)
-al to transformation will change it to ‘transformational’ (adj.)

Semantic Content

Content words add meaning but they are not words. In English, all prefixes are derivational. This
contrasts with English suffixes, which may be either derivational or inflectional. The set of derivational
affixes is open-ended; that is, there are a potentially infinite number of them.

Inflectional Morphemes

An inflectional morpheme is a suffix that is added to a word to assign a particular grammatical

property to that word. For example,
Play +ing = playing

They serve as grammatical markers that indicate tense, number, possession, or comparison.
Inflectional morphemes do not change the essential meaning or the grammatical category of a word.

Noun plural ( -s) -s -es Book+s/ glass+es Books /glasses

Possessive noun -‘s Captain+‘s Captain‘s
Verb present tense -s start+s Starts
Verb past tense -ed play+ed Played
Verb present participle -ing Playing Playing
Verb past participle -en Eat+en Eaten
Adjective comparative -er larg+er Larger
Adjective superlative -est large+st Largest

Only lexical words take inflectional affixes. The inflectional affixes are few; there number is only
eight in English. Closed classes of words take no inflectional affixes in English. Inflectional affixes
always follow derivational affixes. An inflectional morpheme does not have the capacity to change the
meaning or the syntactic class of the words it is bound to and will have a predictable meaning for all such
words.

Derivational vs. Inflectional Morphemes

Inflectional morphemes never change the grammatical category e.g.,

 Tall (adj.)
 Taller (adj.)

 Workers
 Work -er (derivational suffix) -s (inflectional suffix)

Derivational morphemes often change the part of speech.

 read (verb) becomes reader (noun)
Some derivational morphemes do not change the grammatical category of a word.
prefixes as un- re-
 happy and unhappy
 fill and refill are verbs
-hood and -dom in neighbourhood and kingdom
 Derivational morphemes show the ‘inner’ layer of words.
 Inflectional suffixes mark the ‘outer’ layer of words.
Derivational morphemes are of a large number while inflectional are a few in number.

Morphological Description

The difference between derivational and inflectional morphemes is as follows.

Old and older are adjectives -er inflection (from Old English -ra) simply creates a different version of the
adjective.

The verb teach becomes the noun teacher if we add the derivational morpheme -er (from Old
English -ere). The suffix -er in Modern English is as an inflectional morpheme as part of an adjective, as a
distinct derivational morpheme as part of a noun.
Here is the morphological description of the sentence ‘The child’s simplicity impressed the teacher’.
 Child
Free Lexical impress
teach
Morpheme simple
Functional The
Bound Derivational -er, city
Inflectional -‘s , -ed

Order of Morpheme
Derivational morpheme come first teacher + s and inflectional morpheme comes after teacher + s.

Problems in Morphological Description

Apparent description of morphological analysis is simple as it can be seen in the following example:
Cat + -s = cats
But what is the plural of these words: Sheep + ? Man + ?
If institution +-al = institutional and –al is an adjective suffix, but in legal –al is not used to make leg
adjective as leg alone has no meaning of the word legal in it.

Other Problematic Cases

The relationship between law and legal is also of the same problem. At best we can say that law
(Old English (lagu) from a Scandinavian source) and legal (Latin form legalis (‘of the law’) have come
into English from different languages and different periods. We do not find any derivational relationship
between the following:
 noun adjective
 law legal
 mouth oral

Morphs and Allomorphs

As phone is actual realization of the phonemes, morphs are actual forms to realize morphemes.
 Cats cat+s(plural)
 Buses bus +es( plural)
At least, there are two different morphs (-s,-es) /s/ and /ɪz/ to realize the inflectional morpheme ‘plural’.

Allomorph

A group of different morphs, version of one morpheme, is called ‘allomorphs’.

Plural morpheme Allomorphs
/ɪz/ in the case of words ending in /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/

e.g., buses /bʌsɪz/, vases /vɑː zɪz/, bushes /b

{e(s)} ʊ ʃ ɪz/, rouges /ruː ʒɪz/, churches /tʃɜː tʃɪz/, judges /dʒʌdʒɪz/
/s/ in the case of words ending in a voiceless consonant (other than /ʃ, s, tʃ/):
cats /kæts/, caps /kæps/

/z/ in the case of words ending in voiced sounds (other than (/z, ʒ, dʒ/): boys
/bɔɪz/, bags /bæɡz/

Similarly, the present tense morpheme {-e(s)} has three allomorphs /s/, /z/ and /ɪz/.
 Packs /pæks/
 Digs /dɪɡz/
 Washes /wɒʃɪz/

The past tense morpheme of English, {-e(d)} has also three different (phonologically conditioned)
allomorphs /t/, /d/ and /ɪd/.

Past morpheme Example

{e(d)} /t/ after morphs ending in voiceless sounds (except /t/) booked /bʊkt/, pushed
/pʊʃt/
/d/ after morphs ending in voiced sounds (except /d/) loved /lʌvd/, bagged
/bæɡd/
/ɪd/ after morphs ending in /t/ and /d/ wanted /ˈwɒntɪd/, wedded /wedɪd/
Another plural morph is ‘zero morph’
Plural form of sheep is:
Sheep +ø
Man + Plural (vowel change) irregular plural form
Other morphological processes at work in languages:
Go + past tense went
 MORPHOLOGY III

Coinage

Coinage is the word formation process in which a new word is created either deliberately or
accidentally without using the other word formation processes, and often from seemingly nothing. As
neologism or coinage, we identify the word formation process of inventing entirely new words. This is
constant evolution of new words and new uses. It is a sign of vitality and creativeness in the way a
language is shaped by the needs of its users. These words are invented as trade names for commercial
products, and soon they become general terms.

Older examples are aspirin, nylon, vaseline and zipper; recent examples are granola, kleenex,
teflon, and Xerox. They have become everyday words in the language; for example, the word Google
from the word Googleplex, which later became the name of a company (Google).
Similarly, for searching something online the word ‘ebay’ is used.
Have you tried ebaying it?

Eponyms

New words are also made based on the name of a person or a place.
 Hoover (after the person who marketed it )
 Spangle (after the person who invented it)
 Sandwich (after an Earl who would have two pieces of bread with meat while gambling)
 Jeans (after a city of Italy Genoa)

Some eponyms are technical terms, based on the names of those who first discovered or invented things
such as:

 Fahrenheit (from the German, Gabriel Fahrenheit)

 Volt (from the Italian, Alessandro Volta)
 Watt (from the Scottish inventor, James Watt

Borrowing

In linguistics, borrowing (also known as lexical borrowing) is the process by which a word from
one language is adapted for use in another. The word that is borrowed is called a borrowing, a borrowed
word, or a loanword. A borrowed word is never given back as the word indicates. It is the most common
source of new words in English. Some common borrowed words and the languages that have been
borrowed are mentioned below.
 Croissant (French) Dope (Dutch)
 Lilac (Persian)
 Piano (Italian)
  Pretzel (German),
 Sofa (Arabic),
 Tattoo (Tahitian)
 Tycoon (Japanese)
 Yogurt (Turkish)
 Zebra (Bantu)

Loan Translation or Calque

Sometimes words in another language are translated. This process is called loan translation or a
direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. The English word skyscraper is
thus translated as the following and all of these are calques for the English word skyscraper.
 French gratte-ciel, (literally translates as ‘scrape-sky,’)
 Dutch wolkenkrabber (‘cloud scratcher’)
 German Wolkenkratzer(‘cloud scraper’),
The English expression ‘moment of truth’ is a Spanish phrase el momento de la verdad. Nowadays, some
Spanish speakers eat perros calientes (dogs hot) or hot dogs.

Compounding / Blending

Joining of two separate words to produce a single form is a very common word formation process in
languages.
Examples of compounding using all nouns:
bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket and waterbed
Using adjectives:
good-looking, low-paid
Compounds of adjective:
Fast plus noun food=fast-food restaurant, a full-time job.
It is a very common process in other languages too.

Blending

The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term:

Smoke +fog = smog
Smoke + haze= smaze
Smoke + murk=smurk
 Bit()
 Brunch (breakfast + lunch )
 Motel (hotel + motor)
 Telecast ()
 Infotainment ( information + entertainment)
 Simulcast ()
Mixing of languages
 Franglais ( French + English)
 Spanglish (Spanish + English)
Information technology
Telex ()

Clipping

The element of reduction that is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the process
described as clipping for example:
Fax from facsimile
This process occurs with a word of more than one syllable and usually the beginning is clipped. It is used
in casual speech.
gas (gasoline), ad (advertisement), cab (cabriolet), condo (condominium), fan (fanatic), flu
(Influenza)
English speakers also like to clip each other’s names.
Ed, Liz, Mike, Ron, Sam, Sue, Tom
In educational field
chem, exam, gym, lab, math, policy, prof and typo

Hypocorisms

A particular type of reduction, favoured in Australian and British English, produces forms technically
known as hypocorisms. In this process a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is
added to the end.
Movie (‘moving pictures’), telly (‘television’), Aussie (‘Australian’), barbie (‘barbecue’), brekky
(‘breakfast’), hankie (‘handkerchief’)

Acronyms

An acronym is a word or name formed as an abbreviation from the initial components in a phrase
or a word, usually individual letters, and sometimes syllables (as in Benelux). There are no universal
standards of the multiple names for such abbreviations and of their orthographic styling. Words formed
from the initial letters of a set of other words.

CD (‘compact disk’), VCR (‘video cassette recorder’)

The initials are pronounced as new single words.
NATO, NASA, UNESCO

There are many every day terms such as: laser (‘light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation’),
radar (‘radio detecting and ranging’), scuba (‘self-contained underwater breathing apparatus’) are
examples of this process.
Names for organizations are often designed to have their acronym represent an appropriate term.
Some New Acronyms

 ATM (‘automatic teller machine’), PIN (‘personal identification number’)

 I sometimes forget my PIN number when I go to the ATM machine.

Topic- 110: Derivation (Prefixes, Suffixes, Infixes)

A derivational affix is an affix by means of which one word is formed (derived) from another.
The derived word is often of a different word class from the original. In contrast to an inflectional affix, a
derivational affix:
 is not part of an obligatory set of affixes
 generally occurs closer to the root
 generally is more meaningful, and
 is more likely to result in a form that has a somewhat idiosyncratic meaning.

Prefixes are the kind of affixes which are added to the beginning of the word: un-, mis- . Affixes added to
the end of the word -less, -ish are suffixes.

All English words formed by this derivational process have either prefixes or suffixes, or both.
 Mislead
 Disrespectful
 Foolishness

Infix
A third type of affix not normally used in English is found in some other languages of the world.
However, there are few example of infixes in English such as: Absogoddamlutely!, Fandamntastic.