2nd Level SPET Morphology - Part 1 PDF

## 2nd Level SPET Morphology - Part 1 ### Mr. Muhammad Abdelrazek **Introduction** - Morphology is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure, form, and formation of words. - The course will focus on the structure and formation of words in the English language. - General linguistics is t...

## 2nd Level SPET Morphology - Part 1 ### Mr. Muhammad Abdelrazek **Introduction** - Morphology is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure, form, and formation of words. - The course will focus on the structure and formation of words in the English language. - General linguistics is the foundation of all other linguistics disciplines, and understanding it is crucial for studying other branches. **Linguistics** - Linguistics is a science that studies language using a scientific approach. - It encompasses various branches, including: - Dialectology: The study of regional language variation. - Lexicography: The study of dictionaries and vocabulary. - Sociolinguistics: The study of the relationship between language and society. - Contrastive linguistics: The study of the differences between languages. - General linguistics: The core branch that encompasses all other fields. - Historic linguistics: The study of language change and evolution. - Psycholinguistics: The study of the cognitive processes related to language. - Applied Linguistics: The application of linguistic principles to practical problems. - Computational Linguistics: The use of computers to process and analyze language. - Mathematical Linguistics: The use of mathematical models to study language. **Understanding Morphology** - Morphology is derived from two Greek words: "morph" (shape or form) and "-ology" (study of). - It refers to the science that investigates word formation. - Morphology aims to understand the structure and formation of words, including: - How words are built from smaller units. - The rules that govern word formation. - The relationship between word form and meaning. **Key Concepts** - **Word:** A single unit of language that carries meaning and can be written or spoken. A word consists of one or more morphemes. * **Simple words:** Consists of one morpheme (e.g., *boy*, *girl*, *eat*). * **Complex words:** Consists of more than one morpheme (e.g., *boys*, *girls*, *gamer*). - **Morpheme:** The smallest meaningful part of a word that holds either lexical or grammatical meaning. * **Bound morpheme:** A morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word and must be attached to another morpheme. * **Bound roots:** Words that need prefixes or suffixes to carry meaning (e.g., *ceive* in *receive*, *able* in *capable*) * **Affixes:** Prefixes or suffixes added to words to change their meaning or grammatical function. * **Free morpheme:** A morpheme that can stand alone as a word and possesses meaning. * **Lexical (open class):** These carry meaning and form new words (e.g., *open*, *hunter*, *class*). * **Functional (closed class):** These do not have inherent meaning but serve grammatical roles (e.g., *un*, *er*, *close*). - **Allomorph:** A variant phonetic form of a morpheme that has the same meaning but with different sounds depending on phonetic rules. **Types of Morphemes** - **Derivational morphemes:** Change the meaning and/or grammatical function of a word. They create new words by adding suffixes or prefixes (e.g., *hunter*, *boy, boys*). - **Inflectional morphemes:** Alter the grammatical function of words for grammatical purposes. They do not change the core meaning of the word but add information such as tense, number, or case.