Chapter 3 Morphology.docx
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Chapter 3 Morphology.docx
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Chapter3Morphology
Chapter3Morphology:
TheWordStructureofLanguage
3.1Introduction
Morphology,whichliterallymeans“thestudyofforms”,isaboutthestructureofwords.Morespecifically,itreferstothestudyoftheinternalstructureofwords,andtherulesbywhichwordsareformed.Morphologyistheareaofgrammarthatattemptstoanswerthefollowingquestions:
Howisawordstructured?
Whatisthebasiccomponentpartofaword?
Howarethecomponentpartsputtogethertoformwords?
Whataretheword-formationprocessesinalanguage?
Howistheformofawordaffectedwhenitisusedwithotherwordsorinasentence?
3.2Thewordsoflanguage
Itisdifficulttodefinetheterm“word”.Forsomepeople,wordsarephysicallydefinableunits,whoseboundariesareusuallyrecognizedbyspacesinwritingorslightpausesinspeech.Forothers,awordisaunitofmeaningandaunitofsound.Therearestillotherswhoregardwordsasgrammaticalunitsthatcanfunctioninasentence.Stockwell&Minkova(2001:
56)characterizeawordasthesmallestunitthatonethinksofasbeingbasictosayinganything.Itisthesmallestunitofsentencecompositionandthesmallestunitthatweareawareofwhenweconsciouslytrytocreatesentences.Toputthingstogether,wecandefineawordasthesmallestofthelinguisticunitswhichcanoccuronitsowninspeechandwriting(Richardsetal.,1985:
311).Forexample,care,carelessandcarefularesmallestlinguisticunitsinspeechandwriting,sotheyareallwords.Somepeoplemayarguethatcarelessandcarefularenotsmallest,becausecarelessismadeupofcareand-less,andcarefulismadeupofcareand-ful.However,inspeechandwritingwedonotusecareand-less,orcareand-fulseparately.Somepeoplemayalsoarguethatmanywordslikethe,so,ofcanhardlyoccurontheirown,becausetheyarealmostalwaysusedwithotherwordsinspeechandwriting.Thisistrue,butinthisdefinition,“standonitsown”meansthatdistinctfromunitslike-lessand-ful,awordisanindividualunitofmeaningthatisnotboundtoanyotherunits.Thisdefinitionmaynotbeperfect,butitcapturesthebasiccharacteristicsofaword.Thatis,awordisasound-meaningunitandafundamentalunitofspeechandwriting.
Indiscussingwords,thefollowingtermsarealsofrequentlyused,andsometimesdistinctionsaremadeasfollows:
●Lexis:
thevocabularyofalanguage,incontrasttoitsgrammarorsyntax.
●Lexicon:
thesetofallthewordsandidiomsofanylanguage,oftenusedinterchangeablywithvocabulary.
●Lexeme:
thesmallestunitinthemeaningsystemofalanguage,anabstractunitthatremainsconstant.Forexample,giveisthelexemeofitsvariantsgave,given,giving.
●Vocabulary:
Acompleteinventoryofthewordsinalanguage.
Wordscanbeclassifiedintocontentwordsandfunctionwords.Contentwordsarewordswhichrefertoathing,quality,state,oractionandwhichhavestablelexicalmeaningorsemanticcontent.Theymainlyincludenouns,verbs,adjectives,andadverbs.Contentwordsarealsocalledlexicalwordsorfullwords.Contentwordsarealso“open-class”words,becausenewwordscanbeaddedtothesesclasses.
Functionwordsarewordswhoseroleisprimarilytoexpressgrammaticalrelationshipsandsuchwordshavelittlemeaningontheirownexcepttheirgrammaticalmeaning.Theymainlyincludeconjunctions,prepositions,auxiliariesandarticles.Functionwordsarealsocalledformwords,emptywords,grammaticalwords,structuralwordsorstructurewords.Functionwordsare“closed-class”wordsbecausenewwordsarenotusuallyaddedtotheseclasses.
3.3Thestructureofwords
Althoughwordsarethesmallestofthelinguisticunitsinspeechandwriting,theyhaveaninternalstructure.Thatis,theyaresaidtobemadeupofmeaningfulunitsoftheirown,asexemplifiedinthefollowing:
carefulcare+ful
sadnesssad+ness
realizereal+ize
disobeydis+obey
unthinkableun+think+able
Theseexamplesshowthatawordcanbeanalyzedintominimalunitsofmeaning.Indisobey,therearetwominimalunitsofmeaning,onebeingdis-(meaning“not”),theotherbeingobey.
Whenwordsareusedinsentences,theword-formssuchasworks,worked,workingcanalsobeanalyzedintominimalunitsofmeaning.Inthiscase,theword-formsconsistofoneelementwork,andanumberofotherelementssuchas-s,-ed,-ing,whichindicatevariousgrammaticalmeanings.
Thus,awordcanbeanalyzedintothemostelementalunitsofmeaning.Somewordsarecomposedofoneunitofmeaning,likehelp,the,happy,apple.Somewordsconsistoftwoormorethantwounitsofmeaning.Forexample,happilycontainstwominimalunitsofmeaning,andungentlemanlinesscontainsfiveminimalunitsofmeaning.Theminimalunitofmeaningistraditionallycalledmorpheme.Thus,itcanbesaidthatawordiscomposedofatleastonemorphemeanditmaybecomposedofmorethanone.Wordsthatareformedbyonemorphemeonlyandcannotbeanalyzedintopartsarecalledopaquewords.Wordsthatconsistofmorethanonemorphemeandcanbesegmentedintopartsarecalledtransparentwords.
3.4Morpheme,morphandallomorph
Amorphemeisthesmallestmeaningfullinguisticunitthatcannotbefurthersegmented.Forexample,thewordmorphemeitselfcontainstwomorphemes,morph-,meaning“form”,and-eme,meaning“unit”.Wesometimescanpredictthemeaningsofawordbyidentifyingitsmorphemes.
Amorphemeisanabstractconcept.Theconcreteformofamorphemeiscalledmorph.Thatistosay,morphsaretheactualformsusedtorealizemorphemes.Amorphememaytakedifferentshapesorforms,whicharecalledallomorphs.Thus,anallomorphisanyofthevariantformsofamorpheme.
Whyisthereanabstract-concretedistinctionhere?
Onepossibleansweristhatsuchadistinctionisnecessitatedbymorphologicaldescription.Forexample,thefollowinggroupofwordshaveonegrammaticalmeaningincommon:
dogs,buses,sheep,men,geese,children,phenomena.Theyareallpluralformsexpressingthegrammaticalmeaningof“morethanone…”Thepluralmeaningisexpressedby-sindogs,butby-esinbuses.Thingsbecomemorecomplicatedwhenwelookattheotherwords:
whatmakessheepthepluralofsheep,orgeesethepluralofgoose?
Canwesaythatthepluralmeaninginallthesewordsisexpressedbydifferentmorphemes?
Certainlynot.Thereisonlyonemorphemeinvolvedhere,andwemaycallitthemorpheme“plural”.Itcanbeattachedtoanumberoflexicalmorphemestoproducestructureslike“dog+plural”,“sheep+plural”,“goose+plural”,andsoon.Themorpheme“plural”takesdifferentformsinactualrealization,calledmorphs,andtheyareallallomorphsoftheonemorpheme.Wecansaythat“dog+plural”,“sheep+plural”,“goose+plural”areabstractanalysesatthemorpheme-level,andarerealizedasdogs,sheep,geeseatthemorph-level(Yule,2000:
79).Thistwo-levelanalysismakesmorphologicaldescriptionmucheasier,butveryoftentheterm“morpheme”isusedforconveniencewhenweactuallyrefertoamorph.Somanypeoplerefertoformslike-sand-ed,whicharemorphs,asmorphemes.
3.5Classificationofmorpheme
3.5.1Freemorphemesandboundmorphemes
Afreemorphemeisamorphemewhichcanstandbyitselfasanindependentword,e.g.water,child,attack,andberry.Aboundmorphemeisamorphemewhichcannotstandonitsownasaword,butwhichistypicallyattachedtoanotherform,e.g.-dominfreedom,-hoodinchildhood,-shipinfriendshipandun-inundo.Onethemorphemiclevel,wordscanbeclassifiedintosimplewords,compoundwordsandcomplexwordsaccordingtothenumberandtypeofmorphemeswordscontain:
●Asimplewordconsistsofasinglemorpheme(whichiscertainlyafreemorpheme),e.g.hill,walk,great,element.
●Acompoundwordiscomposedoftwoormorefreemorphemes,e.g.blackboard,sunset,headstrong,forget-me-not.
●Acomplexwordconsistseitherofafreemorphemetogetherwithoneormorethanoneboundmorpheme,oroftwoboundmorphemes,e.g.cats,careful,unfriendly,contain,conceive,prelude.
3.5.2Rootsandaffixes
Arootisthebasicunchangeablepartofaword,anditconveysthemainlexicalmeaningoftheword.Itisthepartofawordremainingwhenallaffixeshavebeenremoved.Arootcanbeafreemorpheme,e.g.workinworker,thinkinunthinkable,oraboundmorpheme,e.g.ceiveinperceive,taininretain,vitinvital.
Anaffixisaboundmorphemethatisusedonlywhenaddedtoanotherwordormorpheme.Itisusedtomarkthegrammaticalfunctionofawordorcreateanewword.Affixescanbefurtherclassifiedintoinflectionalmorphemesandderivationalmorphemes.
3.5.3Inflectionalmorphemesandderivationalmorphemes
Whenawordappearsinavarietyofformsdependingonitsgrammaticalroleinthesentencewesaythatitinflectsorundergoesinflection(Radfordetal.,2000:
154).Thus,aninflectionalmorphemeisanaffixthatindicatesaspectsofthegrammaticalfunctionofaword,suchas-sforpluralityofcountablenouns,-edforpasttenseofverbs,-erand-estforthecomparativeandsuperlativedegreesofadjectivesoradverbs.Aninflectionalmorphemedoesnotformanewwordwhenitisaddedtoanotherword,nordoesitchangethepartofspeechofthewordtowhichitisaffixed(withafewexceptionslike-ingand-ed,asinthelearningofalanguage,andthegolden-hairedwoman).Thepartofawordtowhichaninflectionalaffixisaddediscalledastem,e.g.talkintalked,farmerinfarmers,classmateinclassmates.
Aderivationalmorphemeisonethatisusedtoformanewword.Forexample,-mentisaddedtomoveandthenewwordmovementisderived.Englishisalanguagerichin
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