Unit 3 Morphology PDF

Unit 3: Morphology 1. Morphemes: By definition, a morpheme is the smallest unit which carries meaning. Consider the following example: uncontrollable This is a word; yet, native speakers know intuitively it consists of, and therefore, may be divided in...

Unit 3: Morphology 1. Morphemes: By definition, a morpheme is the smallest unit which carries meaning. Consider the following example: uncontrollable This is a word; yet, native speakers know intuitively it consists of, and therefore, may be divided into a number of discrete elements as shown below: un + control + able This word then includes three elements, each of which has a specific meaning. In the example above, the element control means “command, govern, restrain” etc. The element -able refers to the possibility of doing something whereas un- means “not”. The combination of these three elements together gives us a word meaning “not possible to control”. 2. Morphology: Morphology comes from a Greek word meaning ‘shape’ or ‘form’ and is used in linguistics to denote the study of words, both with regard to their internal structure and their combination or formation to form new or larger units. Morphology not only deals with the analysis of existing words into their constituent pieces. The language user is able to make new words or forms of words, and it is this form of creativity that is the focus of morphology. 1 Our knowledge of morphological rules allows us: - To understand words we have never encountered before. - To judge that words are impossible. - To create new words (one of the means of language change). Practice: Identify the component morpheme(s) of each word. How many morphemes does each word contain? deforms island stupidity unreliable classroom unfair excellent disinfectant inversion sleeping magazine ugly paper trial unemployed 3. The typology of morphemes: Morphemes are generally divided into two major types: free and bound. 3.1. Free morphemes: A free morpheme is one that can stand on its own, that is in isolation, and still have a meaning, such as boy, love, girl, etc. Broadly speaking, free morphemes are divided into two major categories: open and closed. The former includes the major parts of speech namely, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These are considered as “open” because they are open for innovation as we can constantly create new nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. The class of closed categories includes the minor parts of speech, namely articles, conjunctions, coordinators, demonstratives, auxiliaries, modals, and prepositions. These are classified as closed categories because they are not open for innovation. Indeed, it is not common for languages to create words of these types. 2 3.2. Bound morphemes: A bound morpheme, on the other hand, is one that has to be attached, hence bound, to another – normally free – morpheme in order to acquire meaning. Thus morphemes like un-, -ness, -dom etc. are all bound. The class of bound morphemes, also called affixes, is subdivided into two categories: 1. Prefixes: these are bound morphemes which have to precede, hence prefix, the free morpheme like dis-, un-, and re- in discontinue, unaware, and reoccur, respectively. 2. Suffixes: these are bound morphemes which have to follow the free morpheme like -ful, -ness, and -ly in bashful, fitness, and widely, respectively. 4. Roots: The root is the lexical centre of the word, which means the morpheme that carries the lexical meaning. The root is that element which is left to the word after the removal of all affixes. For example, faith is the root in the word faithfulness. Notice that the majority of roots are free morphemes. Consider the following sets of words: -vert: convert, revert, subvert, introvert, pervert -mit: transmit, commit, remit, admit, omit, submit -ceive: conceive, perceive, receive, deceive In these sets of words, we would all intuitively identify the root -vert, -mit, or -ceive (in part because it occurs in a number of words, as do the prefixes). However, -vert, -mit, or - ceive cannot stand alone as independent words, and we would also find it very difficult to state the meaning of any of these roots, unless we know Latin, from which these words derive: -vert is from Latin vertere meaning ‘to turn’, -mit is from Latin mittere meaning ‘to send’, while -ceive is from Latin capere meaning ‘to seize’. These are called bound roots. 3 Bound roots are often foreign borrowings that were free in the source language, but not free in English. 5. Derivational vs. inflectional morphemes: How many morphemes are there in ‘reopened’? Right, three morphemes: re-, open, and -ed. ‘open’ is the root morpheme. ‘re-‘ and ‘-ed’ are affixes. Let’s examine those affixes (bound morphemes). Notice that while ‘re-‘ has a meaning, ‘-ed’ has the grammatical function of signalling past tense. To distinguish between these morphemes, we say that ‘re-‘ is a derivational morpheme; and ‘-ed’ is an inflectional morpheme. 5.1. Derivational morphemes: Derivation is an affixation process whereby a word with a new meaning and typically a new category is formed. The affixes involved in derivation are called derivational morphemes. Derivational morphemes are not necessary to grammar; i.e. their presence is not required purely to satisfy grammatical principles. As such, a native speaker could leave out these affixes entirely and use a different way to convey the same information. The grammar of English does not require us to use affixes like the noun-forming -er suffix, verb-forming -ize, etc. A native speaker has the option of expressing the information conveyed by these affixes in a different way. a) Bob is a builder. b) Bod builds for a living. Derivational affixes also affect the core meaning of the stem they attach to. This is often, but not always, reflected by a category change in the stem after the affix has attached to it. 4 The derivational prefix -un is a good example of something that changes the core meaning of the stem. When -un attaches to a stem, the meaning of the stem is negated; i.e. an opposite meaning is created: happy → unhappy interested → uninterested We also see that, just like with other derivational affixes, the use of -un is optional; it can always be replaced by not, with no change in meaning, or by a different word entirely: happy not happy / sad interested not interested / bored 5.2. Inflectional morphemes: Inflectional morphemes are bound grammatical morphemes that are added to complete words according to rules of syntax. They have a purely grammatical effect on the stems they attach to. Specifically, they merely inflect the stems while leaving the essential meaning unchanged. As such, no native speaker would leave out these affixes in the relevant contexts because doing so would mean producing ungrammatical sentences. Affixes like past tense -ed, present progressive -ing, plural -s, or 3rd person agreement -s are essential to the grammar of English. Consider the following sentences: a) I eat an apple everyday. b) * I eat two apple everyday. In (b), the plural -s is omitted on apple, leading to ungrammaticality. This shows that the grammar requires the presence of the plural -s to satisfy the grammar principle of plural- making – regardless of what noun is present. But the semantic meaning of the sentence 5 above is still clear. This is because the plural -s does not affect the core meaning of the stem it attaches to. Notice that all inflectional affixes in English are suffixes. 6