Morphology

1. Morphology The study of the structure of words

2. Words: Background concepts • Words are an integral part of language • Vocabulary is a dynamic system • How many words do we know? • Infinite sentences with finite vocabulary • Children who enter school: about 13,000 • High school graduate: 60,000 • Literate adult: approx. 120,000 • List of words: Lexicon • Word: Lexeme

3. Where does a word start and end? • In reading (except some languages like Thai) words are separated by spaces. • In spoken language spaces rarely exist. • Word boundaries through listening skills are an illusion • People who master a language recognize word boundaries not by speech pauses but by ‘elements’ of the words. thecatsatonthesofa

4. Where does a word start and end? • Phonetic/phonological information • Every word has its pronunciation • Example: tree • Lexical structure information • Example: tree vs. trees • Trees is made up of two parts: tree + (-s)

5. Some fundamental questions in Morphology • What are words? • What are the basic building blocks in the formation of complex words? • How are more complex words built up from simpler words? • How is the meaning of a complex word related to the meaning of its parts?

6. What are the building blocks in the formation of complex words? • Morphemes • The most elemental unit of a word • Morphology • Study of the internal structure; rules of word formation

7. Prefixes & Suffixes • Prefixes are added to the beginning • Suffixes are added to the end • One morpheme act • Two morphemes act + ive • Three morphemes act + ive+ate • Four morphemes de + act+ ive+ate • More than four: Anti+dis+establish+ment+ari+an+ism

8. Mini exercise For each of the words below, determine the number of morphemes it has. Then answer the question below. Friend friends friend’s lucky silly Unlucky the cigar carefully Does the number of morphemes always equal the number of syllables?

9. Classification of Morphemes • Affixes represent a wide range of meanings • Free morphemes vs. bound morphemes • Free morphemes can be used alone • Bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes • Quick exercise For each morphemes below, determine whether it’s free or bound. Act de ive y worth with un ness re jected ate

10. Classification of Morphemes • Lexical morphemes vs. grammatical morphemes • Lexical morpheme • Have a ‘real world’ meaning • Also called content morpheme • Grammatical morpheme • Change the form of a word but don’t have ‘real word’ meaning • Test: find a synonym for the morpheme • If you can find one, it’s a lexical morpheme

11. Lexical morphemes vs. grammatical morphemes • Quick exercise For each morphemes below, determine whether it’s lexical or grammatical. Act de ive y worth with un ness re jected ate • Conclusion: free morphemes are (almost always) lexical bound morphemes are (almost always) grammatical

12. Root morphemes vs. Affix morphemes • Root morphemes similar to the roots of a tree • Root morphemes are the core of a tree • Affixes are similar to the branches of a tree • They are added to the stem/root to create multi/poly-morphemic words • Note: -roots tend to be free and lexical -affixes tend to be bound and grammatical • Exception: “rejected”

13. Exceptions Quick exercise • Analyze the word: “rejected” • How many morphemes does it have? • Which morpheme is the root? Which ones are affixes? • Is the root free and lexical? Conclusion: ‘ject’ is a bound root morpheme

14. Bound root morphemes Quick exercise • In each of the words below, determine which morpheme is the root morpheme and decide whether that root is free or bound. If the root is bound, provide two additional words with the same bound root. Reduce unhappily Prediction proactively Mindful reverted

15. Inflectional Affixes vs. Derivational Affixes • Inflectional affixes • Do not create new words when they attach to existing words • They change the form of that word to indicate grammatical meaning • Example: the past tense suffix ‘–ed’ attaches to verbs to change the tense but doesn’t create a new word • Number of inflectional affixes is very limited.

16. Inflectional Affixes vs. Derivational Affixes • Plural –s, -es(noun) • Possessive –’s, s’ (noun) • Comparative –er (adj.) • Superlative –est (adj.) • 3rd person singular –s (verb) • Past tense –ed (verb) • Past participle –ed, -en • Present participle -ing • Pim likes to eat peach-es • Pim’s grades are great • Pim is smart-er than Boss • Pim is the quick-est of all • Pim like-s to study • Pimstudi-ed hard for the quiz • Pim hasn’t fail-ed a test yet. • Pim has been study-ingfor 3 hours Inflectional morpheme Example

17. Inflectional Affixes vs. Derivational Affixes • Derivational Affixes • Create new (or derive) new words in two ways • Some derivational morphemes change the content meaning but not grammatical meaning • Others don’t significantly change the meaning but the grammatical meaning. • Unlike inflectional affixes, derivational affixes can be both, prefixes or suffixes in English.

18. Derivational affixes The number of derivational affixes in English is far greater than inflectional affixes

19. Derivational affixes Quick exercise • Each of the words below contains two morphemes, a root and a derivational affix. Decide if the derivational affix changes the meaning or class of the root. rewrite hopeless unclear creation unhappy helpful What is the general trend with regard to the behavior of derivational prefixes vs. suffixes? That is, how does each kind of affix derive new words?

20. Overview of all discussed distinctions Morphemes bound free lexical -bound roots grammatical lexical inflectional -eight suffixes derivational prefixes ex:-un suffixes ex: -ness