EMP211S WEEK 2

DEFINING MORPHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS AND DISTINGUISSHING

THEM FROM ONE ANOTHER

EMP211S WEEK 2

DEFINING MORPHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS AND DISTINGUISSHING

THEM FROM ONE ANOTHER

WHAT IS A MORPHEME? A MORPHEME CAN SIMPLY BE DEFINED AS THE SMALLEST

MEANINGFUL UNIT OF A LANGUAGE IT IS THE MOST ELEMENTAL UNIT OF GRAMMATICAL

FORMS AND MAINLY MADE UP OF SHORT SEQUENCES OF PHONEMES

GLEASON 1955, P, 52 DEFINES IT AS “THE SMALLEST UNIT WHICH IS GRAMMATICALLY PERTINENT”

LINGUISTS WILL DEFINE MORPHEME AS THE SMALLEST FORM WHICH IS PAIRED WITH A PARTICULAR MEANING. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FORM AND MEANING IS WHAT MAKES LANGUAGE WORKS.

EXAMPLES

CAN YOU IDENTIFY THE MORPHEMES IN THE FOLLOWING WORDS?

MangoesBeeMismanagementBendingCatwalkPneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Characteristics of morphemes

1. They are indivisible meaning that they cannot be subdivided

2. They add meaning to words3. They are recursive- meaning that they can

appear repeatedly in many different words4. They can have any number of syllables

1 Indivisible

As the smallest meaningful units of language, a morpheme cannot be subdivided and still retains the same meaning.

Try dividing the morpheme “mother” and see what you get.

That a morpheme cannot be divisible and still have the same meaning is proof that individual sound of language do not mean by itself. Meaning is only ascribed to them by combining them to other sounds.

Not only are sounds put together to be meaningful, they have to be put together in the right order.

Example of the indivisible nature of the morpheme

Consider the morpheme manage. This can be broken down into the different sounds /m/ᴂ/n/i/ʤ/ but none of the sound is meaningful on its own except when put together to convey the meaning “to be in charge of” or “make decision in a business or an organization.”

Consider rearranging the sounds in some other ways to convey other meanings. Do the meanings you get from this rearrangement the same as the meaning of the morpheme “manage”?

2. Adding meaning to a word

Each morpheme that is identifiable in a word contributes to the overall meaning of the word in varying degrees.

For instance the contribution of the morpheme /s/ in boys to meaning is not as radically different as when we combine the morpheme boy with another morpheme head to form head boy.

3. Recursive

This has to do with the fact that some morphemes occur over and over again in many different words.

This is why it is important to learn the meaning of different morphemes so that when you see them occurring in words, you can deduce the meaning.

For instance, the Latin morpheme “duc” meaning “lead, draw, pull” appears in several words.

Examples of the Recursive Nature of Morphemes

Reduce ‘to pull back’Conduct ‘to lead together’Produce ‘to pull forward’Seduce ‘to lead apart’Deduce ‘to draw away

from’Induce ‘to lead into’

Recursive Examples Ped is another morpheme from Latin from which we can examine

its recursive nature. This means ‘foot’ as seen in the words:Pedestrian one who uses his/her feet for transportation Pedal pertaining to the footBiped A creature with two feetPedometer An instrument for measuring distance traveled by footPedigree foot of a caneExpedite to free the feet as in speed up progressImpede to have something in the way of one’s foot- to be

slowed down

Common examples of recursiveness

Other common examples of the recursive nature of the morpheme can be found in the morphemes that function as grammatical markers for different concepts such as tense-ed, en, ing; number – s, es,; possessive –’s; er, and est for the comparative and superlative respectively and also morphemes that are used to derive one word from another with or without change in the grammatical category of the word. For example-er as in teacher, player, trader, ment in management, development, or in actor etc.

4. Morpheme can have any number of syllable

It is important in morphological study not to confuse a morpheme with a syllable for the purpose of word analysis.

A syllable is a unit of sound while a morpheme is a unit of meaning. In other words, a syllable is the smallest pronounceable unit of a word.

For instance a morpheme may be made up of several syllables for example “examine” is a single morpheme with three syllables ig/zᴂ/m.

Morpheme / Syllable

In other instances, a morpheme may contain less than one syllable. For example, in boys there are two units of meaning boy + s but only one syllable. The same applies for the word cats. In the possessive form, boys’- boy + s + possessive has three units of meaning but still one syllable. Here, the possessive that is reflected in writing is not shown in pronunciation.

In the analysis of words, syllables may separate a morpheme. It is therefore better to ignore syllables when analysing a word.

Example of how syllables can divide a morpheme in word analysis

In the word pregnant, there are two syllables-Preg + nant but there are three morphemes-Pre (before) gn (birth) and –ant (one who). In

this example, the morpheme /gn/ is split in two by the syllable structure of the word.

ROOT/ BASE

Root and base are used interchangeably in morphological analysis.

the root or base of a word is the core part of a word. In other words, it is the morpheme that most of the time also qualifies as a word and on which affixes or other words can be added in order to derive other words or to realise different forms of the same word.

Root/base are longer than affixes, They are many when compared to affixes They are realised by one free morpheme

STEM

This is another slightly different concept from base/root in morphological analysis.

A stem is related to the notion of root and base but in a slightly different way

A stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an affix can be added.

For instance, the word friends has two morphemes, the base or root morpheme is friend and in this instance also the stem to which the affix ‘s’ has been added. However, the word friendships with three morphemes consist of an affix [z], a stem friendship and a root or base friend.

WEEK 3 TYPES OF MORPHEMES

There are two types of morphemes in English1) Free and 2) Bound morphemes. Free morphemes are also referred to as lexical

morphemes. They are morphemes that can be used meaningfully and independently on their own. For example, book, chair, table, clap, mirror, run, jump etc

Bound Morphemes

These are morphemes which derive their meaning by being joined or attached to other free morphemes. This means that in isolation, a bound morpheme is meaningless as can be seen in the plural morpheme –s, the possessive morpheme-’s, the comparative morpheme –er and the past tense morpheme –ed.

Bound morphemes can also be referred to as grammatical morphemes.

Bound morphemes perform two basic functions in the English language

Function of Bound Morphemes

1. They signal relationship between words2. They signal certain meanings that are important in

communication, such that they have to be expressed over and over again.

Example of the first function can be seen in the word “than”, which even though is a bound morpheme is a word. What this morpheme (word) does is simply relates the term of comparison as in a sentence like :

Mike is taller than Joseph.

Second Function of Bound Morphemes

This is exemplified in the morphemes underlined in the following words:

TeachersGoesKickedOrganistFastestBound morphemes are less clearly articulated as they are

inconspicuous by their very nature. They are relatively more stable in meaning than lexical morphemes.

HOW TO IDENTIFY MORPHEMES IN WORDS

There are TWO RULES that are important to follow when identifying the morpheme (s) in a word.

The first is that a morpheme must be identifiable in various words

The second is that a morpheme must contribute to the meaning of the whole word

Both of these rules must apply in identifying a morpheme.

Example of the rules in action In these words, clear, clearer, clearest, clearing and clearance,

the word clear is identifiable and also add meaning to the different words and it is therefore a morpheme.

In the following words however, we cannot make the same claim as we have made for clear:

Conceive, receive, perceive, because the “ceive” is identifiable in all three words but does not contribute to the meaning, neither is the sequence of sounds that make up conceive meaningful in itself as it is a bound morpheme that cannot mean independently.

Problems with Morphemes

There is not always a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning in language

As a result of this disparity, it is sometimes difficult to identify the morpheme in some words

What is important to keep in mind in identifying a morpheme in a word is that a morpheme is a FORM + MEANING and that both parts of the unit must be taking into consideration in making sense of morphemes in words.

Some of the problems associated with morpheme identification are identified as follows:

One form, two or more meanings

This problem arises when the same sound sequence expresses two or more meanings that are unrelated. When this occurs, two different morphemes are identified even though with the same form. For instance, the morpheme in- in words like “incapable and inseparable and the same form in in into, within as in invade and include.

Another Example

The morpheme ‘gon’ meaning birth, type, or origin as in gonorrhea and the same form ‘gon’ meaning ‘knee, angle, as in diagonal, are not related in meaning.

The similarity between these forms is an accidental one and in most of the time, the two morphemes are typically unrelated in their origins.

Two (or more) forms, one meaning

In this case, you have two different forms but the same meaning for the two forms even though they are different.

This situation can result into two different conclusion. First, the two forms could be different morphemes or two, they might be a single morpheme.

The First SituationThis is the two forms, one meaning scenario which results in

two morphemes. There are two situations in which this scenario can take place. In the first case, the forms are normally different from one

another as in: Andr-meaning man, male as in android and Vir meaning also man, male as in virile. As we can see, both morphemes have the same meaning but

they are realised in different forms. They also have different origins and so they are regarded as two different morphemes

The second situation

Here the forms may be the same or quite similar, but originated from different sources into English as for example:

In-into, within as prefix originating from Latin and in- into, within, as a native English preposition.

The histories of the two morphemes would probably reveal that they come from a single morpheme which existed in both Latin and English and therefore ultimately from the same source.

The second situation

that may explain their similarity in form but both forms came into English from very different historical paths thus one is part of the native vocabulary and the other is borrowed.

As a result of their antecedent, they are considered as two separate morphemes.

Two or more forms, one meaning=one morpheme

Here we have a situation where there are two or more forms with one meaning and both forms are considered as one morpheme. For instance

a- and an both are different forms of Greek meaning “not” “without” as with

Pan- and pant- which are also different forms of a Greek morpheme meaning “all, overall”.

Two or more forms, one meaning=one morpheme

We have here two similar forms only differentiated by one consonant or vowel and originating from the same source but through adaptation of its beginning or ending sounds to the sounds in other morphemes they combine with, they have resulted in slightly different forms. So the Greek “not” for example takes the form a- before roots beginning with consonants, and an-before roots beginning with vowels as with the English indefinite article a and an.

The alternate forms of a single morpheme is known as allomorphs.

Other problem cases Some morpheme have no intrinsic meaning of their own

because like bound morphemes they only acquire meaning by virtue of their connection with other morphemes in words.

There are also morphemes that occur in many words combining with different morphemes but with no constant meaning. Examples of such morphemes are –ceive in receive, perceive, conceive; -mit in permit, submit, or commit.

Yet in other words, the stem morphemes are not meaningful on their own. For example, in-cest, in-ept, in –ane. Such words always have at least a prefix and a stem.

Other Problem Cases

In some other words like strawberry for example, there is no connection between the morpheme straw in this case and the lexical morpheme straw and the same goes for gooseberry in which the morpheme goose has nothing in common with the animal-goose. The same goes for blackberry which could be blue, red or even pink.

Cranberry Morphemes

The morphemes that we have referred to under the heading “Other Problem Cases” are referred to as Cranberry Morphemes because of two reasons:

First, they occur only as bound rootsSecondly, they have no constant meaning

attached to them

Morpheme /Word

There is an intrinsic relationship between a morpheme and a word.

This is because free morphemes are basically words and like words they can be subdivided as either content or functional morphemes.

So what is a word and what are words and what are their characteristics?

WORDS

The word is an essential and basic element of any verbal language.

Universally, every language has a small finite number or list of sounds, alphabets and symbols or letters which are combined in various ways to form word units.

The word as a linguistic unit projects meaning, and facilitate the transmission of messages in an infinite manner by virtue of the ways it systematically pattern with other words.

SPOKEN / WRITTEN WORDS

A word that is spoken is a speech-streamPhonologically therefore, speech units are defined

as words. According to Tomori, 1997, p. 16) The word in

English is a segment of speech which can be isolated for independence utterance in its own right and in such a way that it can carry at least a primary stress, and in such a form that it can enter into syntagmatic relationships with other such units within the syntactic framework of the language.

Written Words

Written words are group of marks or symbols made on a surface and is mostly common on paper

Graphologically therefore, a word in English is a letter or group of letters of the alphabet written between two mandatory spaces on a paper.

Other Definitions of Word

Bolinger, (1968) defines a word as the least element between which other elements can be inserted with relative freedom.

Afolayan & Newsum, (1983) refer to a word as the smallest independent form in the English language which represents a thought, an idea, a concept or feeling

Fromkin & Rodman (1974) see the word as a linguistic sign in which sound and meaning are fused.

Mono/polymorphic words-Defining words in terms of morphemes

It is logically possible to say that words are composed of morphemes. Defining words in terms of morphemes allow us the opportunity to describe words as either simple or complex depending on whether they are made up of one or more morphemes.

For example, the word boy is made up of one morpheme, while the word school boy and boyishness are made up of more than one morpheme.

Words that are made up of one morpheme are called monomorphic words and those made up of more than one morpheme- two or more, are called polymorphic words.

Types of Words

Words can be divided into two types: 1. Lexical or Content or

2. Functional or Grammatical

Content/ Lexical Words

These are words that we can described as Free Morphemes.

They are words with dictionary meaningThey possess synonyms or near synonymsThey are described in terms borrowed from

traditional grammar and are classified into four very large groups of Nouns, verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs.

Content/ Lexical Words Continue

They are arranged in OPEN-CLASSES. That is their constituent members are indefinitely large and limitless. In other words new words can be added to them all of the time. For exmples: facebook, blog, twit and new words that have come into the vocabulary from technological development and new experiences.

Functional/ Grammatical Words

Functional or grammatical Words are almost generally empty of lexical meaning.

The best way of defining them is by illustrating their function or usage in sentences

They function or are used to give grammaticality or notion of grammaticalness to sentences

Examples of functional or grammatical words are: coordinators, conjunctions, determiners, particles, pronouns, prepositions, “the verb to be”, the relatives, intensifiers, the conjunctive adverbs and other auxiliary verbs.

Functional/ Grammatical Words

They are used more frequently than lexical words to point to elements or the roles of speakers and hearers and less often to point to things or events in the real world

For example, in the sentence-”the book is on the table”; the preposition on shows the exact place that the book is

Functional words unlike content ones are arranged in close classes. This means that they are fewer in number and can therefore be listed with relative ease

Functional/ Grammatical Words

They perform syntactic function by serving as main carriers of meaning when they combine or occur with lexical words

Inflectional morphemes which are bound morphemes in English are grammatical or functional words. They are used to mark plural, possessive, present and past tenses, present and past participles, the adjective comparative and the superlative.