Morphology

• is the study of internal structure of words, the rules that govern it

  and the ways of creating new words

  Morphology
• · morphology deals with the analysis of words into meaningful units

  ↳ Morphemes: meaningful units of a word

  ↳ a series of letters only meaningful when a certain meaning can be prescribed to the resulting
• a word that can't be devided into any smaller subunits of morphological structure


  smallest meaningful unit
• monomorphemic/simplex words: Words that only contain one morphene

  ↳ if a prefix/suffix occurs in multiple words& can be substituted by paraphrasing (shyness the state of being shy)

  ↳ If a prefix/suffix occurs in only one word, but the word-stem in multiple and it can be substituted

  by paraphrasing (e. g. cranberry -berry which is red a sour, blueberry-berry which is blue

  -> it is a meaningful unit
• unique morphemes: only occur in one word of a language (eg. cran in cranberry)

  morphology is not etymology -> sustain and contain look similar (Latin tenere -to hold) BUT in contemporary

  English there is no traceable meaning in-tain -> sustain& contain are simplex words
• morph -> form of a morpheme

  vowel alternation/change changing the vowel of a morpheme (leads to it being viewed as two morphemes

  -> the expression of an inflectional or a derivational category through the change of the root vowel

  zero morphs/forms: forms that are not marked overtly (e. g. sheep)
• free morphemes can occur on their own without other morphemes attached

  bound morphemes only occur attached to other morphemes
• bases -> morphemes that serve as basis for attaching other morphemes, simplex of complex

  stem -> bases, on which morphemes with grammatical meanings attach

  derivative word formed from a root or base by process of derivation

  ↳ base: cheer, derivative: cheerful, derivative of derivative: cheerfulness

  roots: simplex bases, core elements of words
• affixes: morphemes that are always attached to bases

  prefixes: affix in front of the base

  suffixes: affix after the base

  infixes: affixes inserted into base
• allomorphs -> the same morpheme realised through multiple different morphs

  phonological conditioning: distribution of allomorphs governed by sound structure

  -> e. g. [a] when followed by consonant, [an] when followed by vowel, [a/ei] if article is stressed
• regular nouns pluralised by adding {plural s}

  Sibilant -> alveolar, palato-alveolar, fricatives, affricates that are characterised by hissing sound

  
• Lexical conditioning: each morpheme-form of a word/wordgroup (eg. irregular nouns)needs to be learned separately

  irregular sounds: pluralised differently

  
• morphemes are one and the same (even if they lookdifferently)when they hold the same meaning

  morphological conditioning: a morphone is responsible for the alternation of another morpheme

  
• Lexeme: word as an abstract unit in the vocabulary of a language (indicated by small capitals

  word-forms/grammatical words: grammatically specified forms of a given Lexeme

  inflectional affixes: affixes that encode grammatical information& create different word-forms of the same morpheme (e. g. -s in bakes)
• inflection: morphological expression of grammatical information& categories

  · inflectional affixes always suffixes

  · function of one suffix always the same (eg nouns +-s = plural)

  · can be attached to most words of given word-class

  · Can't change word-class of the base it's attached to
• derivational affixes: affixes that serve to create new Lexemes (eg. -er in baker)

  derivation: creation of new Lexemes by affixation

  · derivational affixes can be suffix or prefix

  · function of affix alters slightly

  (e. g. hospitalise -> put into X vs. modernise ->make x)

  · can't be attached to all words of a word-class

  · can change word-class of base
• Word Formation

  -new concepts can be denoted by just putting several words together into one

  Affixation:

  difference between prefixation& suffixation

  · each suffix creates derivatives of a certain word-class

  ↳ nominal, verbal, adjectival & adverbial suffixes (e. g. -al is adjectival suffix -> creates adjectives )

  ↳ Some suffixes attach primarily to bases of a certain word-class
• Agentive Suffix: used to create words denoting persons (e. g. preachER)

  Instrumental suffix: used to create words denoting instruments (e. g. mixER)

  Diminutive suffix: used to create words expressing intimacy/smallness (eg kitchenETTE)

  Gender-marking suffix: used to create words denoting male/female beings (eg actrESS)
• · some prefixes change word-class of the base

  Negative prefixes: negate meaning of base (e. g. non-scientific)

  Augmentative prefixes: extremize meaning of base (eg. ultra-conservative)
• Productivity of affixes: their ability to form new words (e. g. -er used often (gambler)), but -the used very little (strength)

  Blocking -> if there is an already existing word for a concept, no new word is created by affixation leg thief ->* stealer)

  ↳ Limits productivity

  · some suffixes are sensitive to the morphological structure of the base to which they attach
• Compounding

  ... combining two or more words to form a new one (eg. high-speed, overcoat => two free morphemes)

  · compounds spelled as one word, separately (eg. education minister)or with a hyphen (fast-food)

  ↳ sometimes one compound can occur in all three forms
• · nominal compounds -stressed in beginning (e. g. 'blackboard instead of black'board) if spelled as one word

  · usually contain two constituents -> left-hand a right-hand constituent (but either may be a complex word itself)
• Head of the compound: right-hand element, more important in giving structure to compound

  ↳ to describe meaning of a given compound (e. g. plant house)

  the left-hand constituent can be paraphrased as "a kind of "

  ↳ right-hand element contributes main information

  ↳ if a compound is inflected, the inflectional suffix is attached to right-hand element

  ↳ right-hand element determines word-class of compound (e. g. colour-blind (N-A)-> is an adjective
• Modifier of the compound: left-hand element, provides additional information about head

  distinction between nominal, adjectival& verbal compounds (but certain word-classes for modifiers are attached

  · noun-noun compounds most productive

  · verb-verb compounds rare
• Conversion

  concatenative process: compounding and affixation

  ↳ adding morphological material

  non-concatenative process: deleting Linguistic material or changing form (e. g. miserable -> the miserable

  = zero-derivation /zero-affixation

  N->V, V->A, A->N, A->V (eg. cage vs to cage)
• Truncation: deleting part of the base (e. g. Patricia -Trish), mainly occurs with names

  Clippings: deleting part of the base (explicitly Nornames)(eg. Laboratory -> Lab)

  ↳ mostly monosyllabic or disyllabic words

  ↳)usually, only first part of word is kept
• • Blends: combining two words by deleting parts of bases (eg. smoke+fog -> smog

  three types: 1. beginning of base 1 + ending of base 2 eg. education + entertainment = edutainment

  2. beginning of base 1+ beginning of base I eg. stration + comedy = sitcom

  3. one base is shortened + other base enters blend without deletion eg paratroops

  • Abbreviations: don't follow phonological structure, but pure orthography, radical deletion (United Kingdom ->UK)

  ↳> Initialisms letters are pronounced (e. g. DVD)

  ↳ Acronyms abbreviations read as words (eg. NATO)