4 Morphology 2015_NEW

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Grammar I Graciela Palacio

LV/JVG 2015

LESSON 4MORPHOLOGY

Morphologydeals with the internal structure of words. Words are made up of morphemes ut

the! are not simple se"uences of morphemes. #he! ha$e internal structure and their internal

structure is rule%&o$erned and hierarchical.

Derivational morphemesselect the root that the! can attach to. 'or e(ample) %ableis a ound

deri$ational morpheme which &ets attached to $ers. *o when +able selects the $er readwe &et

readable) whose structure can e represented ! means of the followin& tree diagram,

#he prefi( un% with a ne&ati$e meanin& &ets attached to ad-ecti$es

happy/unhappy. *o if un% selects readable) an ad-ecti$e) we &et

unreadable) another ad-ecti$e) whose structure can e represented in the followin& wa!,

#he word unsystematic is composed of three morphemes, un%) system) and +atic. #he root is

system) a noun. ow systemcomines first with +atic) formin& the ad-ecti$e systematic. #he

ne&ati$e prefi( un% comines with the ad-ecti$e systematic to form another ad-ecti$e with a

ne&ati$e meanin&.

#he root system is closer to +atic than it is to un%) and un% is connected to the ad-ecti$e

systematic) and not directl! to system. unsystem is not a word ecause there is no rule of

n&lish that allows un% to e added to nouns. #he tree dia&ram for unsystematicis as follows,

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#here is in n&lish another prefi( un% which means to re$erse action6. While ne&ati$e un%

attaches to ad-ecti$es) re$ersati$e un% attaches to $ers as in,

load/ unload the truck; button/ unbutton a shirt; zip /unzip a dress.

#he tree in this case would e as follows,

#he hierarchical or&ani7ation of words is more clearl! seen in the case of structurall! ami&uouswords) i.e. words that ha$e more than one meanin& ! $irtue of ha$in& more than one structure.

8onsider) for e(ample) the word unlockable. Ima&ine !ou are inside a room and !ou want some

pri$ac!. 9ou would e unhapp! to find that the door is unlockable+ not ale to e loc:ed.6

-ablecomines with lock, to form the ad-ecti$e lockableale to e loc:ed6. #hen the prefi(

un%) meanin& not)6 comines with the deri$ed ad-ecti$e to form a new ad-ecti$e unlockable

not ale to e loc:ed6. #his meanin& of the word unlockable would correspond to the

followin& tree dia&ram,

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ow ima&ine !ou are inside a loc:ed room tr!in& to &et out. 9ou

would e $er! relie$ed to find that the door is unlockable+ ale to e unloc:ed.6 + from the

inside. In this case) the prefi( un% comines with the $er lockto form a deri$ed $er unlock.

#hen) the deri$ed $er comines with the suffi( +ableto form unlockable) ale to e unloc:ed.6

#his meanin& corresponds to the followin& structure,

;ther words that follow this pattern would e unbuttonableand unzippable) amon& others.

Struture is important to determine meaning!#he different meanin&s arise ecause of thedifferent structures. Hierarhial struture is an essential property o" human language!

#n"letional vs Derivational Morphemes

? ma:es us notice that) as the! determine the cate&or! of a word) deri$ational

morphemes tend to appear efore inflectional morphemes@ 'or e(ample) from the $erpaintwe

can deri$e the a&enti$e nounpainter) whose plural will epaint-er-sand not paint-s-er.

Morphemes vs Sylla$les

Jac:endoff 1==A notes that while in morphologywe wor: with the notion of morpheme) in

phonologywe wor: with the notion of s!llale. *!llales and morphemes are not in a one to one

correspondence. 'or e(ample) from a morpholo&ical perspecti$e the word organization isderi$ed from the word organ1a free morpheme throu&h the addition of two ound morphemes

+iz(e)and +ation,

B B Bor&an@ i7@ ation@

1 organ: a fully dierentiated structural and functional unit

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Dowe$er) from a phonolo&ical point of $iew) the word is made up of se&ments) fi$e s!llales or

E &a E ni E 7a E tion and two feet B orE &a E ni@ B%aE tion@) a foot ein& a &roup of two or more

s!llales in which one s!llale has the ma-or stress.

*!llales are not morphemes. While morphemes are le&ial or syntati entities' se&ments'

s!llales and feet are phonologial entitieswhich cut across morpheme oundar!.

SYN()*

Synta&deals with the wa! elements comine to form more comple( structures. In the same wa!

as words are not simple se"uences of morphemes) sentences are not strin&s of words. Sentenes

are also hierarhially strutured!8arnie 2011, > clearl! e(plains the difference etween

simple addition and s!nta(. De claims that if !ou add up the $alues of a series of numers) it

doesnFt matter what order the! are added in,

A E ? E 15 E 2 2 E 15 E ? E A ? E A E 2 E 15

Hut if !ou comine the followin& words yellow, singing, the, a, elephant, mouse, sniffed in

different wa!s !ou &et different sentences which do not mean the same e.&. A singing elephant

sniffed the yellow mouse) he yellow elephant sniffed a singing mouse) etc.. #he structure of

sentences can e represented in different wa!s, ! means of tree structures) ! means of

rac:etin& or ! means of o(es.

Lesson 4 )tivity +, -to e handed in as)ssignment 4.raw the tree for the followin& words,

1. emplo!ers

2. emplo!eesC. unhappiness

3. careful

5. uncon$entional

Re"erenes,'rom:in) V.)