English Morphology

ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

by; Anshor Hasym Ashrowi

Morphemes

Morphemes is a short segment of language or a part of word that has meaning. Morphemes have three criteria;

1.      It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning

2.      It cannot be divided into a smaller meaningful parts without violation or its meaning or without meaningless remainders

3.      It recurs differing verbal environments with relatively stable meaning

Examples;

(play, big, smile); that is morphemes because it is word which cannot be divided and also stable meaning

(inter-, dis-, re- ) : that is not morphemes because it is not word and unstable meaning

Free and Bound Morphemes

            Morphemes divided to two kinds, free and bound. A free morpheme is one that can be uttered alone or word with meaning. Example: take, book, read, happy, farm, and others. A bound morpheme is unlike the free, cannot be uttered alone with the meaning. Examples: dis-, inter-, -er, -ed, -ly, and others. Here are more examples; disconnect, international, bigger, played, beautifully

Bases

            A base morpheme is the part of a word that has the principal meaning. Bases are very numerous, and most of them in English are free morphemes. A base is a linguistic form that meets one or more of these requirements;

1.      It can occur as an immediate constituent of a word whose only other immediate constituent is a prefix or suffix. Example

2.      It is an allomorph of a morpheme which has another allomorph that is a free form

3.      It is a borrowing from another; language in which it is a free form or a base

Examples; un-happy, happy, re-write, write, un-happy, happy, keep-er, keep

Affixes

            An affix is a bound morpheme that occurs before or within or after a base. There are kinds, prefixes, infixes, and suffixes, two of which you have already met passing. Prefixes are those bound morphemes that occur before a base, example; dis-, inter-, un-, re-,pre- (dislike, unhappy, review). Suffixes are those bound morphemes that occur after a base, example; -er, est, -ed, -ly (fisher, longest, lovely). And infixes are bound morphemes that have been inserted within a word, example; (internationally, redoes, replays, responsibilities)

Inflectional Suffixes

The inflectional affixes can be schematized as follows;

Inflectional

Noun plural (-s pl.) examples; dogs, boxes, books, cars

Noun singular possessive (-s sg ps) examples; boy’s, pet’s, house’s

Noun plural possessive (-s pl ps) examples; boys’, pets’, men’s

Present third-person singular (-s 3d) pledges, vacates, locks

Present participle (-ING vb) discussing, playing, meaning, reading

Past tense (-D pt) played, waited, studied, chewed

Past participle (-D pp) chewed, taken, gone, done, eaten

Comparative (-ER cp) longer, bigger, better, smaller, taller

Superlative (-EST sp) longest, biggest, best, smallest, tallest

Derivational Suffixes        

Derivational suffixes is a type of suffix that creates a new word; the new word is derived from the base word, e.g adding –er to the word teach creates a new word teacher

There are three criteria of the derivational suffixes:

1.      The words with which derivational suffixes combine is an arbitrary matter.

Examples:  Adorn    -    ment  ( no others suffix will do )

                      v              n

2.      In many cases, but not all a derivational suffix changes the part of speech of the word to which it is added

3.      Derivational suffixes usually do not close off a words that is after a derivational suffix one can sometimes add another derivational suffix and can frequently add an inflectional suffix

Examples:  friend-ship, happy-ness, girl-y, active-ity, compose-ation

Suffixal Homophones

Suffixal homophones divided four the verbal inflection and derivational, there  are  The inflectional morpheme (-ER cp), The verbal inflectional suffix (-ING vb), The verbal inflectional  (-D pp), and The adverbial derivational suffix (-LY av)

a.        the inflectional morpheme (-ER cp)  has two homophones. The first is the derivational suffix (-ER n), which is attached to verbs to form nouns. The second derivational –ER morpheme appears at the end (-ER rp)

Examples:        1. ( -ER cp ) inflectional suffix, as in bigger, taller, smaller, longer

                         2. ( -ER n  ) derivational suffix, as in singer, farmer, seller, teacher, keeper

                         3. ( -ER rp ) derivational suffix, as in flutter, mutter, glitter, patter

b.      The verbal inflectional suffix ( -ING vb ) has two homophones. The first is the nominal derivational suffix ( -ING nm ). The second homophone of (-ING vb ) is the adjectival ( -ING aj ). There are two tests by which the verbal ( -ING vb ) can be distinguished from the adjectival ( -ING aj ).

Examples: ( -ING av ) I saw a burning house     ( -ING av ) it is a very comforting thought

                                 I saw a house burning                         this is a more exciting movie

c.       The verbal inflectional ( -D pp ) has a homophone in the adjectival derivational  ( -D aj ), or has same like voice but different a functional. The adjectival (-D aj ) is characterized by its capacity for modification by qualifier and the verbal ( -D pp ), on the other hand, does not accept such modifiers.

Examples:  1 Merle was a neglected child ( -D aj )

                  2 His chosen bride had lived in india ( -D pp )

                  3 A celebrated painter visited the campus ( -D aj )

                  4 we had reserved seat ( -D pp )

d.      The adverbial derivational suffix ( -LY av ) is added to most adjectives to form adverbs of manner, the adverbial has as a homophone derivational suffix ( -LY aj ), an adjectival morpheme that is distributed

1.      It is added to monosyllabic nouns to form adjectives that are inflected with –er, -est

2.      Its added to nouns to form adjectives that are not inflected with –er, -est. examples : king, kingly, mother, motherly

3.      It is added to a few adjectives, giving alternate adjectival form that are also inflected with –er, -est. examples : dead, deadly, live, lively, kind, kindly

4.      It is added to a short list of “time” nouns to form adjectives. Example : day, daily, hour, houry, month, monthly

Examples: she spoke quietly to her grandson ( -LY av )

                It was a cowardly act ( -LY aj )

                He tiptoes softly into the room ( -LY av )

                What a mannerly child! ( -LY aj )

Noun Feminine Forms

            A small clutch of nouns with feminine derivational suffixes, its have been added to amasculine or to a base morpheme. Here is a list of most of them, with examples of the feminine nouns

               Suffix                       Feminine                      Masculine

1.      –ix                   aviatrix                                    aviator

2.      –stress              seamstress                   seamster

3.      –ster                 spinster                       spinner

4.      –ine                 heroine                                    hero

5.      –ina                 Georgina                      George

6.      –euse               masseuse                     masseur

7.      –ette                 Farmerette                   farmer

8.      –etta                 Henriette                     Henry

9.      –ess                 princess                       prince

10.  –enne               comedienne                 comedian

Noun Diminutive Forms

 These are morphemes which convey a meaning of smallness or endearment or both.

Examples;

1.      –ie, -I, -y                      as in auntie, Betty, sweetie, willy

2.      –ette                             as in dinette, toweletter

3.      –kin, -ikin, -kins          as in lambkin, manikin

4.      –ling,                           as in duckling, darling

5.      –et                               as in circlet

6.      –let                              as in booklet, starlet

In addition to these six diminutives, many others have come into English as a part of borrowed words, here is a handful of them.

1.      Mosquito, bambino, armadillo peccadillo, stiletto

2.      Panel, morsel, darasel, quartel

3.      Venezuela, flotilla, priscalla

4.      Cookie, particle, muscle,

5.      Bulletin, violin, Maureen, loehan

Allomorphs

            In linguistics, an allmorph is a variant form of a morpheme that is when a unit of meaning varies in sound without changing meaning. The term allomorph explains the comprehension of phonological variations for specific morphemes

            In phonology, an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. Long and leng(th), for example, are allomorphs of a single morpheme, adjective; allomorphic. Depending on the context, allomorphs can  vary in shape and pronunciation without changing meaning. The formal relation between phonological allomorph is called an alternation.

Examples; long, length, strong, strength, chaste, chastity, wife, wives, wide, width, wolf, wolves

Replacive Allomorphs

            Most of the allomorphs we have been dealing with have been additive; that is words by adding prefixes and suffixes to bases. An allomorphs of different kind, the replacive, which can be illustrated by going back to the past tense (-D pt), since it is parallel formation with regular past-tense forms;

Yesterday we parted

Yesterday we laughed

Yesterday we played

Yesterday we sang

Examples; see, saw, begin, began, give, gave, bite, bit, grow, grew, take, took, speak, spoke

Homophones

             You are acquainted with many pairs, trios, and even foursomes of words in English which sound like but different meaning; hair, air, pare, pair, pear. Such words are called homophones. In morphology that would like these are different morphemes. These three homophonous /-z/s are three different morphemes

Example;

1.      /mit/     ; meet, meat,    4.    /per/;pare, pear, pair

2.      /mayt/  ;maid, made     5.    /its/            ;eat, its

3.      /yu/      ;you,u              6.    /tu/            ;two, to, too

Phonesthemes

            Phonesthemes are speech sounds that in themselves express, or suggest meaning. Two of the most common, phonesthemes in English are the pair of high front vowels. /i/ and /I/, suggesting smallness. these appear in many words that have smallness as a part of their meaning, examples; peep, squeak, seep, bit, clink, tipple, giggle, dwindle, whimper, chink. They are also two of the three diminutive vowels in English, as exemplified in birdie and manikin. At the beginning of words, a number of consonant clusters appear in have phonosthematic value.

Examples;

1.      /gl-/ = light                   ;glow, glare, gleam, glisten

2.      /fl-/ = moving light       ;flame, flash, flare, flambean

3.      /sp-/= point                  ;spire, spark, spot, spout, spade

4.      /sl-/= movement           ;slide, slink, slosh, slither, slouch, slump

Words

            That the word is combined of latter who that have the meaning. The word is also a genuine linguistic unit is scarcely questioned, and everyone seen to know what it is. Example; go, take, table, long, beautiful, big, take

Simple and Complex Words

            English words may be classified on the basis of the kinds and combinations of morphemes of which they are composed. Adopt a classification of three main classes; complex, and compound words. Simple words consist of a single free morpheme, examples; slay, flea, long, spirit. Complex words contain, as their immediate constituents, either two bound forms or a bound forms, example; tele-phone, tele-visi, matri-cide, eras-er, cosmo-nout.

Compound Words

            The third class of words is compound words. These have free form, usually two, as their immediate constituents

Examples; green | house, under | go, out | side, no | show, over | ripe

1.      Compound words cannot be divided by the insertion of intervening material between the two parts, but grammatical structures can be so divided. Examples;

She has a sweeter heart than  her sister

She has a sweet, kind heart

She has a sweet, sweet heart

2.      A member of a compound word cannot participate in a grammatical structure. Compare hard ball and baseball. Hard ball is a grammatical structure of modifier plus noun, example; it was a very hard ball. As baseball is a compound word, ambiguous cases can occur in sentences like; it was a very baseball (but one cannot say), but he is fond of sparkling water

3.      Some compound nouns, you may recall, have the stress pattern, as in bluebird, that distinguishes them from a modifier plus noun, as in blue bird, which structure carried the stress pattern. For examples, the compound noun high chair ( a chair for children) and the modifier plus noun high chair (a chair that is high)

Echoism

            Echoism is the formation of words whose sound suggest their meaning, like hiss and peewee. The meaning is usually a sound, either natural like roar of waterfall or artificial like the clang of the bell. But the meaning may also be the creature that produces the sound, like bobwhite. Examples; moan, click, murmur, quack, bang, whisper, lips, and bobolink

Clipping

            Clipping means cutting off the beginning or the end of the word, or both, leaving a part to stand for the whole. The resultant from is called a clipped word. Clipping results in new free forms in the language and sometimes in the creation of new morphemes, like prof and mike. Examples; porno= pornography, memo= memory, prof= professor, disco= discotheque, lab= laboratory

Acronymy

            Acronymy is the process whereby a word is formed from the initials or beginning, segments of a succession from the initials a pronounced, as in all ( military police, or member of parliament ). For examples, NATTO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization ) is pronounced as /neto/ and RADAR ( Radio Detecting and Ranging )/redar/, UNESCO ( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ).

Blending

            Blending is the fusion of two words into one, usually the first part of one word with the last part of another, as in gasohol, from gasoline and alcohol. Many blends are nonce words, here today and gone tomorrow, and relatively few become part of the standard lexicon. For examples; escalator= escalade + elevator, transistor= transfer + resistor, squawk= squall + squeak, blurt= blower + spurt, autobus= automobile + omnibus

Reduplication

            Reduplication is the process of farming a new word by doubling a morpheme, usually with a change of vowel or initial consonant, as in pooh-pooh, tiptop, and hanky-panky. The basic, originating morpheme is most frequently the second half, like dilly-dully but it may be the first half, like tick-tock, or both halves, like sing-song, or neither half, like boogie-woogie