[MORPHOLOGY & SYNTAX]-MORPHEME

[MORPHOLOGY & SYNTAX]-MORPHEME

1. Definition of Morphology

• Morphology is a branch of linguistics that studies the form of words.
• The unit of Morphology is Morpheme.

2. Morpheme

• Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a language.

Word & Morpheme	Similarity	Having sounds and meaning.
	Difference	Word can stand alone and form a sentence by itself.Morpheme cannot stand alone and must be linked to other morphemes.

• The symbol of a morpheme is { }.
• Characteristics of a morpheme

+ Morpheme can’t be divided into smaller parts.

+ Morpheme can be either a word or part of a word that has the meaning.

Ex: {teach}

teacher {teach} + {er}

+ Morpheme can reoccur in different environment without any change in meaning.

Ex: {un-}: unhappy, unimportance,…

3. Classification/ Types of morphemes

• Morpheme can be classified according to 4 categories

3.1.Form:

• 2 types of morpheme:

+ Free morpheme (FM) is the morpheme that can stand alone with meaning (a monomorphemic word).

+ Bound morpheme (BM) is the morpheme that is always annexed to other morphemes

+ Example:                  dis/honest                             aware/ness
                                     BM     FM                                  FM        BM

3.2.Meaning:

• 2 types of morpheme:

+ Root/ base: part of a word that has the main meaning or its lexical meaning.
Ex: work/er  -> work
FM   BM        R/B
Most bases in English are free morphemes, but some are bound morphemes.
Base in English can be:

• Freebase # free morpheme
• Bound base # bound morpheme

Stem: an existing word before affixes are added or a root in which an affix is added.

Ex: boy         ->             boyish         ->            boyishness
stem                         stem                             stem

+ Affixes:

•  Bound morphemes that can be added to a stem.
• Affixes can be added before, within, or after a stem.

3.3.Position:

• 3 kinds

+ Prefixes: bound morphemes that are added before a free base/ stem.
Ex: not/ no {un-; in-; im-; il-; dis-;…}

+ Infixes: bound morphemes that are insulted within a word.
Ex: tooth -> teeth

+ Suffixes: bound morphemes that are added after a free base/ stem.
Ex: adjective suffixes {-ful; -able; -cal; -ic; -ous; -eous; -iar; -less; -ly}

3.4.Function

• Morpheme can be:

+ Inflectional morphemes
Bound morphemes are added to stem to make new grammatical forms.
Ex: go – went – gone – going

Characteristics of inflectional morphemes

• Do not make a change in part of speech.
• In words, inflectional morphemes always come last.
• Inflectional morphemes do not connect.
• Inflectional morphemes can come up with all stems of the given part of speech.

+ Derivational morphemes
Bound morphemes are prefixes, suffixes to form a new word.
Ex: work (v) -> worker (n)

Characteristics of derivational morphemes

• Change parts of speech of words.
• Some suffixes do not make a change in part of speech.
  Ex: king (n) -> kingdom (n)
• Do not close off the word. Inflectional morphemes can be added after derivational morpheme.
  Ex: person (n) -> personal (a) -> personality (n) -> personalities (n)

    4. Allomorphs

• Allomorphs are the different form of the same morpheme.
• An allomorph is the one that is similar to meaning but different from sound(s).
  Ex: {-er}: [-er] -> teacher

[-ist] -> pianist

[-ant] -> participant

• Types of allomorph

– Phonologically conditioned allomorphs

When the distribution is determined by the preceding sounds, the selection of allomorphs is phonologically conditioned.
Ex: ‘hats’ -> the morpheme {s} is pronounced /s/ because it is preceded by a voiceless consonant.

• The phonologically conditioned allomorphs are from the morpheme {-s} & {-ed}.
• Morphologically conditioned allomorphs.

-Morphologically conditioned allomorph is determined by a special morpheme (for irregular plural nouns or verbs).

4 types

+ Zero allomorph
There is no change in the form of the word(s) although the meaning maybe a little bit different.
Ex: fish -> fish                        put -> put

+ Addictive allomorph: adding suffixes to an existing word.
Ex: ox -> oxen                        child -> children

+ By replacing sound
Ex: mouse -> mice                woman -> women

+ Suppletive allomorph: making a change in the form of the word => change in meaning.
Ex: be -> was/ were -> been                    bad -> worse

5. Immediate constituents (IC)

• Only 2 constituents at each cut.
• The recommendations on IC divisions
  + If a word has an inflectional suffix, the first cut is between that suffix and the word.
  + One of the IC should be a free form -> means a form that can stand alone with its meaning.
  + The cut is related to the meaning of word.