English LexicologyMorphological Structure of English Words

Week 4Instructor: Liu Hongyong

Review

Language (Period)Major Historical EventsCeltic5000BC-449The Roman army came to govern and to trade. When the Romans left, the Germanic tribes poured in withthe Celtic language being replaced by the West Germanic dialects (Old English). Old English449-1066the Anglo-Saxon periodVikings invaded large parts of England (9c.-11c.)Middle English1066-1500the Norman Conquest (1066)Geoffrey Chaucer (1387-1400). Early Modern English 1500-1800William Caxton set up his press in Westminster (1476)Renaissance (early 14th C-1650)William Shakespeare (1564-1616) (Recitation: Sonnet 18)(Late) Modern English1800-presentIndustrial Revolution (late 18th and early 19th centuries) Contemporary English=Present-day English=Late Modern English= Modern English

Morpheme (The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language. (lexical and grammatical meaning) A morpheme must have a meaning, and it is the smallest unit of meaning (the smallest sound-meaning union which cannot be further analyzed into smaller units)

MorphemeThe word lady can be divided into two syllables (la.dy), but it consists of just one morpheme, because a syllable has nothing to do with meaning. The word disagreeable can be divided into five syllables (dis.a.gree.a.ble), but it consists of only three morphemes (dis+agree+able). The word books contains only one syllable, but it consists of two morphemes (book+s) (Notice: the morpheme s has a grammatical meaning [Plural])

The internal structure of wordsWords can have an internal structure, i.e. they are decomposable into smaller meaningful parts. These smallest meaningful units we call morphemes.

read+erre+read en+abledark+en

Mary+sprint+edcat+sgo+es

Lexical or GrammaticalGenitive casePast tensePlural marker3rd singular Present-tensegrammatical/inflectional morpheme

books /-s/pigs/-z/boxes/-iz/

A morph is a physical form representing a certain morpheme in a language.

Sometimes different morphs may represent the same morpheme; i.e., a morpheme may take different forms. If so, they are called allomorphs of that morpheme.

Morpheme, Morph, Allomorphtwo different spelling forms and three different phonological forms, but these different forms represent the same grammatical meaning [Plural])

Complementary DistributionAllomorphs are morphs in complementary distribution; i.e. they are never found in identical contexts.The choice of allomorph used in a given context is normally based on the properties of the neighboring sounds.Example: The third person singular verb suffix and the plural nominal suffix s in English

[s] [z]

[iz]

morphememorphmorphmorphallomorphsPLURAL

An analogy: Chameleon

ChameleonThe skin color is determined by the color of the nearby environment. Two different skin colors cannot occur in the same environment. Although a chameleons skin color may change, the essence remains unchanged. It is not grass when its skin color is green.

Complementary Distribution morpheme negative morpheme in-

morph1: im morph2: in morph3: in

impossible indecent incomplete [imp---] [ind---] [ik---]

bilabialstopvelarnasalalveolarstopallomorphsbilabialnasalalveolarnasalvelarstop

Classification of MorphemesMorphemes can be classified in various ways. freeor boundrootoraffixinflectionalor derivational

Free and Bound MorphemesWe can divide reader into read and er. However, we cannot split read into smaller morphemes. This means that the word read is itself a single morpheme. A morpheme which can stand alone as a word is called a free morpheme. By contrast, -er has to combine with other morphemes. So it is a bound morpheme.

Root, stem & affixnaturenaturalnaturalistnaturalisticnaturalism unnaturalStem: a root plus affixes Affixes: bound morphemes which attach to roots or stems. Root: the basic morpheme which provides the central meaning in a word simple wordComplex Wordnature + al = naturalun + nature + al = unnatural

BaseLinguists sometimes use the word Base to mean any root or stem to which an affix is attached. In this example, nature, natural, and unnaturally would all be considered bases. nature + al = naturalun + nature + al = unnatural un + nature + al + ly = unnaturally

Root/baseaffixStem/basecomplex wordStem/baseaffix....nature-al-istaffix

bound root morphemes-ceive: receive; perceive; conceive; deceive

-mit: permit; commit; transmit; admit; remit; submitAll mophemes are bound or free. Affixes are bound morphemes. Root morphemes, can be bound or free. ceive was once a word in Latin to take, but in Modern English, it is no longer a word, so it is not a free morpheme.

FreeBoundRootdog, cat, run, school (per)ceive, (re)mit, (homo)geneous,Affix(friend)ship, re(do), (sad)ly

Example of bound rootrevivevitaminvitalvivaciousvivid

viv-id: having the quality of life re-vive: to live again, to bring back to lifevit-amin: life medicineLatin root viv-/vit- meaning life or to live.vit-al: full of lifeviv-acious: full of life

Inflectional and Derivational MorphemesAffixes can be divided into inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes.

DerivationInflectionHelps to make new lexical words Helps to wrap lexical words for various grammatical functions

Inflectional MorphemesInflectional morphemes do not change grammatical category of the base to which they are attached. They do not change the meaning of the base. They only carry relevant grammatical information, e.g. plural. Thus, book and books are both nouns referring to the same kind of entity. The number of inflectional affixes is small and fixed. NO new ones have been added since 1500.

Examples of Inflectional Affixes

SuffixStemFunctionExample-sNpluralbook-s-sV3rd singularpresent tensesleep-s-edVpast tensewalk-ed-ingVprogressivewalk-ing-erAdjcomparativetall-er-estAdjsuperlativetall-est

Derivational MorphemesDerivational morphemes form new words either by changing the meaning of the base to which they are attached kind ~ unkind; obey ~ disobey accurate ~ inaccurate;act ~ react cigar ~ cigarette;book ~ bookletor by changing the grammatical category (part of speech) of the base kind ~ kindly; act ~ active ~ activity able ~ enable; damp ~ dampen care ~ careful; dark ~ darkness

Examples of Derivational Affixes

PrefixGrammatical category of baseGrammatical category of outputExamplein-AdjAdjinaccurateun-AdjAdjunkindun-VVuntiedis-VVdis-likedis-AdjAdjdishonestre-VVrewriteex-NNex-wifeen-NVencourage

SuffixGrammatical category of baseGrammatical category of outputExample-hoodNNchild-hood-shipNNleader-ship-fyNVbeauti-fy-icNAdjpoet-ic-lessNAdjpower-less-fulNAdjcare-ful-alVNrefus-al-erVNread-er

Sum: Inflection and DerivationDerivational morphemes are used to create new lexical items (lexemes).Inflectional morphemes only contribute to the inflectional paradigm of the lexemes, which lists all the word-forms of the lexeme.

morphemeFree()free root ()Bound()bound root ()

inflectional affixes ()derivational affixes ()affixes

ConclusionWords are composed of morphemes.A morpheme is the minimal meaningful unit, possessing both sound and meaning.An allomorph is any of the variant forms of a morpheme. Morphemes can be classified into free morphemes and bound morphemes, roots and affixes, inflectional and derivational. The concept of morpheme is important in explaining word-formation processes. In English the most central and productive word-formation processes are compounding and affixation. Compounding refers to the word-formation process of combining two free morphemes, and affixation refers to the word-formation process of adding affixes to roots.

***