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Morphology
The Study of the Internal Structure of Words
What Is Morphology?
Many words can be broken down into smaller units
Morphology is the study of word formationMorphologists identify different classes of
morphemes, and study the patterns that occur in the combination of morphemesE.G. : {re-} only comes before verbs
The Smallest Meaningful Unit
What does it mean to be the smallest meaningful unit in a language?
Divide the following sentence into the smallest meaningful units:
I have two dogs.
I / have / two / dogs.
I / have / two / dog / -s.
Morphemes
Meaningful units
“I have two cats”
“She wants to leave soon”
“He walked across the room”
“Her behavior was unbelievable”
Morphemes
FreeCan stand alone{eye, think, run, apple}
BoundCan not stand aloneHas to be attached to a free morpheme{-able, un-, -s, -tion, -ly}
Morpheme Types
RootThe morpheme that is the semantic core
“unthinkable” “realization” “distrust”
AffixesBound morpheme that attaches to roots
{-s, un-, de-, -en, -able, -ize, -hood}
Base/StemAnything to which an affix is attached
root
{un.think.able}
base
Affixes
The most common way to build new wordsPrefixSuffixInfix
Affix
Prefixes
PrefixAn affix that attaches to the front of a root{un-, dis-, de-, mis-}
Example: {in-} indecent
Prefixes
Karok “Shoot!” “I shoot” “She/he shoots”
{} “shoot {-} “1st person singular” {-} “3rd person singular”
(Karok is a Hokan language of California. The language has been in decline, but some young people are working to keep their ancestral language alive.)
Suffixes
SuffixAn affix that attaches to the end of a root{-able, -ing, -ed, -s}Most common affix
Example: {-ful} careful
Suffixes
Mende “house” “the house” “glass” “the glass”
{-} “the”
(Mende, Bandi, and Loko belong to the southwestern group of Mende and are spoken in Sierra Leone/Liberia, northeastern Liberia, and north-central Sierra Leone, respectively.)
Infix
InfixAn affix that attaches within the rootNo ‘standard’ English example, though
examples exist in slang:
‘abso-darn-lutely’ ‘un-freaking-likely’
Infix
Bontoc “strong” “she is becoming strong” “enemy” “she is becoming an enemy”
{-um-} “becoming”
(Bontoc is the name given by linguists to the language spoken in the municipality of Bontoc, Mountain Province in the northern Philippines.)
Affix
AffixGeneral term to cover all the previous
termsAffixes can attach to other affixes
boy . ish . nessdis . en . tangle