INTRODUCTION

Morphology – The Study of Word Structure

The term morph is generally attributed to the German poet, novelist, playwright
and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goeth (1749-1832), who coined it early in the
nineteenth century in a biological context. Its etymology is Greek: morph- means
“shape, form” and morphology is the study of form or forms. In biology, morphology
refers to the study of the form and structure iof organisms, and in geology, it refers to
the study of the configuration and evolution and land forms. In linguistics,
morphology refers to the mental system involved in word formation or to the branch
of linguistics that deals with words, their internal structure, and how they are formed.
Consider the words below, which are all related in both sound and meaning.
They all include the same phonological form with a meaning identical to that of the
first word, phone.
phone phonic
phonetic phoneme
phonetician phonemic
phonetics allophone
phonology telephone
phonologist telephonic
phonological euphonious
Phone is a minimal form that can not be divided into more elemental structures. ph
does not mean any thing, and pho /fou/ has no relation in meaning to the word foe,
and -one /oun/ is not related to the sound unit /oun/ meaning „own‟ or to the spelled

word one and pronounced /wʌn/; but all the words on the list contain the word phone
as part of their structure. The phonological rules of English „tell us‟ that in phonetic,
phonetics, phonology, phonologist, phonemic the pronunciation is /fən/ instead of
/foun/, but the same element phone /foun/ is present, with its identical meaning,
„pertaining to sound‟, in all these words.
Notice further that in the following pairs of words the meanings of all the words
in column B consist of the meanings of the words in column A plus the meaning
„not‟:

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 A B
desirable undesirable
likely unlikely
inspired uninspired
happy unhappy
developed undeveloped
sophisticated unsophisticated
The Macquarie dictionary lists about 1800 adjectives beginning with un-, the
meaning of which the speakers of English would know if they know the word without
the un-.
If the most elemental units of meaning, the basic linguistic signs, are assumed to
be the words of a language, it would be a coincidence that un- has the same meaning
in all the column B words above, or that phone has the same meaning in all the words
in the preceding list. Obviously, it is no coincidence. The words undesirable,
unlikely, uninspired, unhappy, and the others in column B consist of at least two
meaningful units: un + desirable, un + likely, and so on.
It is also a fact about words that their internal structure is subject to rules.
Uneaten, unadmired, and ungrammatical are words in English, but eatenun,
admiredun, grammaticalun (to mean „not eaten‟, „not admire‟, „not grammatical‟) are
not, because we from a negative meaning of a word not by suffixing un (adding it to
the end of the word), but by prefixing it (adding it to the beginning).
The study of the internal structure of words and of the rules by which words are
formed is called morphology.

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 CHAPTER 1: MORPHEMES
1. Definitions of Morphemes:
What is a morpheme?
 „A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language.‟
[Richard, Platt & Weber, 1987: 183]
 Fromkin (1984) defines a morpheme as the meaningful linguistic sign, a
grammatical unit in which there is an arbitrary union of a sound and
meaning and that can not be further analyzed.
For example, /streindʒ/ as in strange is a morpheme because as a whole it has
meaning, but if it is divided we obtain fragments such as /str/ and /eindʒ /, which have
no meaning. However, /streindʒnis/ as in strangeness is not a single morpheme,
though it does have meaning. It may be divided into /streindʒ/ and /nis/; each of these
pieces does have meaning, and the meaning of the combination is related to the
meaning of the two pieces. Therefore, /streindʒnis/ has two morphemes.
 „A morpheme is a short segment of language that meets three criteria:
1. It is a word or part of a word that has meaning.
2. It can not be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violation of
its meaning or without meaningless remainders.
3. It recurs in different environments with a relatively stable meaning.‟
[Stageberg, 1965:85]
2. Characteristics of Morphemes
Any morpheme is meaningful, recurrent and inseparable.
2.1 Meaningful:
Not only words but morphemes also have meaning. However, the meaning of
morphemes is not quite the same as that of words; meaning of morphemes can be
lexical or grammatical. A morpheme may have both lexical and grammatical
meaning, but some morphemes may have only one grammatical meaning
The grammatical meaning is defined as an expression in speech of the
relationship between words based on contrastive features of arrangements in which
they occur, whereas, the lexical meaning denotes a physical object, the meaning of a
word considered in isolation from the sentence containing it, and regardless of its
grammatical context, e.g. of love in or as represented by loves, loved, loving, etc..

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 Example:
I teach English. – “teach” has its lexical meaning denoting an action, and its
grammatical meaning denoting the simple present tense (or simple form).
I want to go. – “to” has no lexical meaning but its grammatical meaning is an
infinitive marker.
Similarly, the suffix –es in goes carries the function of grammar which
indicates the verb in the third singular present tense without any lexical meaning.
2.2 Recurrent:
It is very important to take very seriously the idea that the grammatical
function of a morpheme, which may include its meaning, but must be constant.
Consider the words „lovely and quickly‟. They both end with the suffix „-ly‟. But is it
the same in both words? No – when we add „-ly‟ to the adjective „quick‟, we create
an adverb. What on the surface appears to be a single morpheme turns out to be two –
one attaches to adjectives and creates adverbs; the other attaches to nouns and creates
adjectives. Therefore, a morpheme must recur in various words with approximately
the same meaning.
Example:
- „re-‟ means “again; back” as in “rebuild; redo; regain,..”
- „mis-‟ means “bad; wrong; not‟ in “misunderstand; misdirect; misinform,…”
- „-s‟ means “plural” in “boys; books; dogs; balls; houses, ...”
2.3 Inseparable:
Consider the word „display‟ which has only one morpheme, even though it
seems to have two: „dis-‟ and „play‟. „dis-‟ has the form of an affix with the negative
meaning, and „play‟ is a verb denoting an action. If we divide the word into „dis-‟ and
„play‟, the meaning of the word will be changed. Therefore, a morpheme can not be
broken into smaller elements without changing its meaning.
3. Classification of Morphemes
Morphemes can be grouped into certain classes, each with a characteristic
distribution. There are two basic classes of morphemes: free morphemes and bound
morphemes.

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3.1 Free Morphemes vs. Bound Morphemes

3.1.1 Free Morphemes

 "A free morpheme can be used on its own".
[Richard, Platt & Weber, 1987: 31]
 Free morphemes "may stand alone as words in their own right as well
as enter into the structure of other words"
[Jackson, 1980: 53]
Ex.: Love is a free morpheme since it can be used as a word on its own, and it is
considered as a free base in lovable, unlovable...
3.1.2 Bound Morphemes
A bound morpheme "is never used alone but must be used with another
morpheme".
[ Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 31]
 Bound morphemes "may occur only if they combine with another
morpheme".
Ex.: The morpheme -er, as in „learner‟, is bound since cannot stand on its own,
but must be attached to other elements such as „teach, sing, work, etc...‟
Affixes are almost always bound, whereas bases can be either free or base.
3.2 Bases (or roots) vs. Affixes
3.2.1 A base (a root) is "that morpheme in a word that has the principal meaning"
[Stageberg, 1965: 87]. There are two kinds of bases: a free base and a bound base.
- A free base is a base "which may be a word on its own right once the other
morphemes have been stripped away" [Jackson, 1980: 53]
e.g.: deal in dealings, nation in national…
- A bound base is a base which can never occur on its own but can only be
joined to other bound morphemes.
e.g.: The bound base of oration, oracle, oratory, orator... is ora-; that of suicide,
patricide, matricide, infanticide...is - cide.
3.2.2 An affix: is a morpheme (usually a bound morpheme) that occurs before or
behind a base" [Stageberg, 1965: 87].

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3.2.2.1 Classified according to their positions, affixes are classified into two main
subclasses.
Prefixes „ occur before a base‟ [Stageberg, 1965: 87] as in unkind, reconsider,
import, understate, etc.
Suffixes „ occur after a base‟ [Stageberg, 1965: 87] as in shrinkage, noisy, quickly,
learner, ect.
It is obvious that most prefixes do not change the grammatical meaning of the
words or morphemes that combine with, whereas most suffixes do.
3.2.2.2 Classified according to their function in words, affixes have two main
subclasses:
 Inflectional affixes: "which are always suffixes in English, perform a
grammatical function, they are representatives of grammatical categories".
[Jackson, 1980: 53]. They are also called GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES.
They carry the grammatical meaning only and are, therefore, purely
grammatical markers, representing such concepts as “tense”, “number”,
“comparisons” and “case”. When 'house' becomes 'houses,' it is still a noun even
though you have added the plural morpheme 's.' . . .
Inflectional morphemes never change the syntactic category of the word(s) or
morpheme(s) to which they are attached. They are always attached to complete
words. Inflectional morphemes are used to create different forms of the same word.
Consider the forms of the verbs in the following sentences:
Example:
a. I learn English.
b. He learns English.
c. John learned1 English.
d. John has learned2 English.
e. John is learning English.
In sentence (b) the „-s‟ at the end of the verb is an “agreement” marker; it
signifies that the subject of the verb is “third-person”, “singular”, and that the verb is
in “present tense”. It doesn‟t add any “lexical meaning”. The „-ed‟ and „-ing‟ endings
are morphemes required by the syntactic rules of the language to signal “tense” or
“aspect”.

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 The only eight inflectional suffixes in English are:
1. The plural morpheme {- s1} : books, boxes...
2. The possessive morpheme {- s2}: girl's, students‟.
3. The third person singular present tense morpheme {- s3}: learns, walks,
mixes…
4. The verb present participle morpheme: {-ing1}: learning, walking,
mixing....
5. The verb past simple morpheme {-ed1}: learned, walked, mixed, ...
6. The verb past participle morpheme {-ed2}: learned, walked, mixed,...
7. The adjective or adverb comparative morphemes {-er1}: smaller, safer,
thinner…
8. The adjective or adverb superlative morpheme {-est}: smallest, safest,
thinnest...
 Derivational affixes: may be prefixes or suffixes in English. They create new
words out of existing words or morphemes by their addition. [Jackson, 1980: 53].
These affixes (morphemes) carry both lexical and grammatical meaning .
They can be called lexico-grammatical morphemes, i.e.: pre-, un-, re-, -ness, -full, -
ly…
Derivational morphemes are used to create new words. The new words may
be in a different grammatical class from the underived word. Thus, when a verb is
conjoined with the suffix –able, the result is an adjective, as in “desirable, adorable”.
There are two kinds of derivational affixes according to their functions in
word formation:
 Class-changing derivational affixes change the word class of the word
to which they are attached.
e.g.: work ( v) + er -- > worker (n).
 Class-maintaining derivational affixes do not change the word class of
the word to which they are attached.
e.g.: re + build ( v) -- > rebuild (v).

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Summary
Morphemes

free (base) bound

affix base

prefix suffix

fog re- -ness derm (skin)

ride un- -ize cide (killing)
Figure 1. Diagram of types of morphemes

4. How to distinguish Morphemes from Phonemes, Syllables, Words?

4.1 Morphemes vs. Phonemes
A morpheme differs from a phoneme in that the former has meaning whereas
the later does not.
A morpheme may consist of only a single phoneme like /z/ in boys, but in this
word, the phoneme /z/ is by no means identical. This phoneme /z/ is used an
indefinite number of times where it has nothing to do with this plural morpheme „-s‟.
For instance, zoo /zu:/ and rose /rouz/ both contain /z/ but the /z/ here has nothing to
do with the morpheme that is realized as /z/ in boys.
The number of morphemes that consist of a single phoneme as above is
limited, whereas morphemes consisting more than one phoneme are numerous.
Therefore, morphemes are generally short sequence of phonemes.
4.2 Morphemes vs. Syllables
In English, a morpheme is not identical with a syllable. Syllable is a unit in
speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word. The
syllable is a phonological unit, whereas the morpheme is the basic unit in
morphology.

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 To form a morpheme, some phonemes are usually combined together without
any regard to their status as syllables. In some cases, a morpheme may be identical to
one syllable, part of a syllable, or a sequence of syllables. Take morpheme strange as
an example which consists of only one syllable, morpheme stranger two syllables,
etc…
Strange: one syllable one morpheme
Stranger: two syllables two morphemes
Lion: two syllables one morpheme
Exercise: three syllables one morpheme
Kilometer: four syllables one morpheme
Laboratory five syllables one morpheme
4.3 Morphemes vs. Words
Words are made of morphemes, and a word may consist of one or more
morphemes, for example:
- One morpheme : boy, desire,
- Two morphemes : boy-ish, teach-er, en-able,
- There morphemes : boy-ish-ness, comfort-ab-ly,
- Four morphemes : gentle-man-li-ness
- Five morphemes : un-gentle-man-li-ness
- More than five morphemes : anti-dis-establish-ment-ari-an-ism
5. Morphs and Allomorphs
5.1 Morphs
We have described morphemes as minimal units of grammatical analysis – the
units of „lowest‟ rank out of which words are composed of. For example, farmers is
composed of three morphemes farm, -er, and -s, each of which has a particular
distribution and also a particular phonological (and orthographical) form or shape.
We must introduce another notion: Morph.
It is clear that most words can be segmented into parts. When a word can be
segmented into parts, these segments are referred to as Morphs. Thus the word
bigger is analyzable into two morphs, which can be written orthographically as big,
er and in a phonological transcription as /big/ and /ə/. Each morph represents a
particular morpheme.

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 Morphemes are the abstract entities, whereas morphs, the physical entities.
The analysis of words into morphemes begins with the isolation of morphs. A morph
is a physical form representing some morpheme in a language.
As we have seen, morphemes may be represented directly by phonological (or
orthographical) segments with a particular „shape‟ (that is by morphs), but they may
also be represented in the substance of the language in other ways. In order to refer to
morphemes, it is customary to use one of the morphs which represents the morpheme
in question and to put it between brackets. Thus, {big} is a morpheme which is
represented in phonological substances by /big/ and in orthographic substance by
{big}; and went (phonologically /went/), which can not be segmented into morphs,
represents the combination of two morphemes {go} and {ed}.
The relationship between sound and meaning in language is arbitrary, i.e. there
is no good reason why a particular sound or string of words has a particular meaning.
For example, in the following sentences, the sound /z/ has different meaning in
different sentences:
(a) It feels good.
(b) John‟s books are not here.
(c) Cars are not cheap at all.
These morphs {s} are quite different morphemes.
5.2 Allomorphs ( allo = other; morph = form)
5.2.1 Definition
 Allomorphs are the various phonemic shapes that present the same
morphemes.
 An allomorph is "any of the different forms of a morpheme"
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987]
E. g. In English, the inflectional noun plural morpheme is often shown in writing by
adding -(e)s to the end of a singular noun. Compare these nouns – cats, dogs, and
boxes with cat, dog, and watch – the answer is: “by adding „-s‟”. This morpheme is
pronounced /-s/ ( in cats), /-z/ (in dogs), and /-iz/ (in watches). It is believed that /-s/,
/-z/, /-iz/ are three allomorphs of the inflectional noun plural morpheme because:
- They are in complementary distribution.
 /-s/ occurs only after the voiceless consonants;

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  /-iz/ occurs only after sibilant consonants;
 /-z/ occurs after voiced sounds, including all vowels and voiced consonants.
- They have the same meaning, either lexical or grammatical
/-s/, /-z/, /-iz/ all refer to "plurality" and all mean "more than one".
5.2.2 Selection of allomorphs
As we mention above, the three allomorphs of the inflectional noun plural
morpheme „-s‟ are /-z/, /-s/, /-iz/. It is phonology that may influence the choice of
allomorphs of a morpheme. Therefore, we can say that /-s/, /-z/, and /-iz/ are three
phonologically conditioned allomorphs of the inflectional noun plural morpheme „-
s‟.
In other cases, the selection may be determined by other factors. For example,
there are various ways of marking plurality in English. There is - en in oxen, -ren in
children, and a few other ways as well. The choice of these various ways does not
depend on the phonetic environment, but on the word involved. It is believed that /-
ən/ is a morphologically conditioned allomorph of the inflectional noun plural
morpheme.
5.2.3 Types of allomorphs
 Additive allomorphs
To signify some differences in meaning, something is added to a word. For
example, the past tense form of most English verbs is formed by adding the suffix -ed
which can be pronounced as either /-t/, or /-d/ or /-id/.

wash / wɔ∫/ --> washed /wɔ∫t/

pull /pul/ --> pulled /puld/
need / ni:d/ --> needed /ni:did/
Thus, /-t/, /-d/, /-id/ are three additive allomorphs of the inflectional verb past simple
morpheme „-ed‟.
 Replacive allomorphs
To signify some differences in meaning, a sound is used to replace another sound
in a word. For example, to signal the simple past, /i/ is replaced by /æ/ in „drink‟ and
„drank‟ respectively. Therefore, /i --> æ/ is a replacive allomorph of the inflectional
verb past simple morpheme.

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  Suppletive allomorphs
To signify some differences in meaning, there is a complete change in the shape
of a word.
For example: go + the suppletive allomorph of {-D1} = went
be + the suppletive allomorph of {-S3} = is
bad + the suppletive allomorph of {-er1} = worse
good + the suppletive allomorph of {-est1} = best.
 Zero allomorphs
Although there are some differences in meaning, there is no change in the shape of a
word.
For example: The past tense forms of the following words are unchanged
put + zero allomorph = put
hit + zero allomorph = hit
hurt + zero allomorph = hurt

EXERCISES
1. After each word write a number showing how many morphemes it contains.
a. stiffen k. automobile
b. autobiography l. biology
c. honest m. unable
d. antedate n. submarine
e. hygiene o. rainy
f. illegal p. modernize
g. readability q. underhand
h. enlargement r. cheaper
i. transportation s. mahogany
j. internet t. industrialization
2. Underline the bound morphemes. It is possible word to consist entirely of
bound morphemes.
a. speaker f. delivery
b. kingdom g. intervene
c. phonemic h. revise

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 d. idolize i. dreamed
e. selective j. undone
3. Underline the roots in these words.
a. womanly i. befriend
b. endear j. Bostonian
c. failure k. unlikely
d. famous l. prewar
e. infamous m. subway
f. lighten n. falsely
g. enlighten o. unenlivement
h. friendship
4. Identify the following suffixes whether they are DS (derivational suffixes), IS
(inflectional suffixes) or Amb (Ambiguous).
a. prince k. quickly
b. princess l. rectify
c. findings m. brotherly
d. friendlier n. respectable
e. shows o. younger
f. weaver p. cleanly
g. learner q. glimmer
h. satirize r. grievance
i. sputter s. droppings
j. brighten t. sunny
5. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes.
Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.
a. The farmer‟s cows escaped.
b. It was raining.
c. Those socks are inexpensive.
d. This house needs repainting.
e. The strongest rower won.
f. The pit-bull has bitten the cyclist.
g. She quickly closed the book.

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 h. The alphabetization went well.
6. How many morphemes are there in the following humorous sentence?
Classify them.
“I asked my boyfriend if he was unmarried and he said he‟d been unmarried
even twice.”
7. Give as many words with the same bound base as you can, using the given
prefixes and bound bases.
Prefixes Bound bases
ad - (ac-, at-): to, toward 1. -tain hold
com - (con-): with, together, jointly, in 2.-ceive
de-: from, down, away -cept take
dis-(dif-): Apart -ceit
ex-: from, out, out of 3. -fer carry, bear
in - (im-): in, into, within, toward, on 4. -clude shut, close
pre-: before, in advance 5.-port carry
inter-: Between
pro-: forward, before, forth, for
re-: back, again
sub-(sup-): Under
across, beyond, through

8. Identify all the possible the suffixes each of the given words. Complete the
table given below
1 Organists
2 Personalities
3 Flirtatiously 3 suffixes -ation, - ous, - ly
4 Atomizers
5 Contradictorily
6 Trusteeship
7 Greasier
9. Identify the meaning of the prefix in each of the given words, and then give as
many words with the same prefix as you can. Complete the table given below.
1 antidote anti = 'against' anti-aircraft, antibody,

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 antipersonnel, antihero.
2 circumvent circum - = circum - navigate, circumference,
'around' circumlocution, circumspect
3 co-pilot co -, col -, co-curriculum, co-operate, co- ordinate
collapse collide, collision, collect
compact com -, con - comply
4 contradict
5 devitalized de - = deactivate, decentralize,
'do the opposite' dehumanize, deform,
denationalize.
6 delouse de - = 'remove' dehorn, defrost, deice, deflower,
deforest.
7 devalue de - = 'reduce': degrade, debase, decline, decrease.
8 disunion
9 disagreeable
10 insecure
imperfect
illegible
11 intervene
12 intramural
13 obstruct ob-, op- = obstruction, obstructive, obstrude,
'against' or obstrusion, obstrusive(ly), obstinate
oppose obstrusiveness, obstacle, object (ion),
'opposite' opposition, opposed, opponent,
oppress, oppressed, oppression,
oppressive (ly).
14 pre - war
15 post-war
16 proceed
17 retroactive
18 semi-
professional
19 subway
20 superabundant

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10. Each group contains a base and a few suffixes. Make each into a word.
Complete the table given below.
1 -ed, live, -en livened
2 -ing, -ate, termin-
3 -er, -s, mor, -al, -ize
4 province, -s, -ism, -al
5 -ly, -some, grue
6 -ity, work, -able
7 in, work, -able
8 in, -most, -er
9 marry, -age, -ity, -able
10 -dom, -ster, gang
11. Add an inflectional suffix to each of these words, which already end in a
derivational suffix. Complete the table given below.
1 Kindness + es = kindnesses (n., pl.) meaning 'kind acts'.
2 beautify +
3 quarterly +
4 popularize +
5 depth +
6 Pressure +
7 Extinguish +
8 Orientate +
9 Friendly +
10 Noisy +
12. The left-hand column contains ten words. The right -hand column contains
thirteen derivational suffixes used to make nouns and having the general
meaning of 'state, condition, quality, or act of'. By combining these suffixes with
the words listed, make as many nouns as you can. Fill in the given blanks.
Words Derived Words Noun-forming
derivational suffixes
1. happy 1. –hood
2. friend 2.- acy
3. girl 3. ism

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4. compose composure, composition 4. – ness
5. shrink 5. – age
6. discover 6. – ity
7. supreme 13. - ship
8. true truth, truism 7. - ation/ ition
9. pagan 8. ance / - ence
10. active 9. – th
10. - ure
11. - ment
12. - y
13. Determine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to
one another by processes of inflection or derivation.
a. go, goes, going, gone.
b. discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverability.
c. lovely, lovelier, loveliest.
d. inventor, inventor‟s, inventors, inventors‟.
e. democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize.
14. Explain why „a‟ and „an‟ are two allomorphs of the same morpheme.
15. Identify the allomorphs of the inflectional verb past simple morpheme in the
verb „be‟. How are they conditioned?

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FURTHER READINGS ON INFLECTION AND DERIVATION

1. Inflection
1.1 Definition
Inflection is „The process of adding an affix to a word or changing it in some
other ways according to the rules of the grammar of a language‟.
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 77]
1.2 Characteristics
- Inflectional Affixes do not change referential or cognitive meaning.
e.g. student ( n. of person ) → students ( n. of person ), ( in plural)
- Inflectional Affixes do not alter the word-class of the base to which they are
attached
e.g. book → books are both nouns referring to the same kind of entity.
- Inflectional Affixes come last in the word.
e.g. shortened, educators
- Inflectional Affixes go with all stems of a given word-class.
e.g. brightest, loudest, tallest
- Inflectional Affixes do not pile up; only one ends a word.
e.g. educationalists, eating
- Inflectional Affixes go with words but not with grammatical structures; that is,
words groups like phrases and clauses do not take inflectional endings. It would be
non- English, for example, to say “ Joe is in the darker than his roommate about the
math problem” [Stageberg, 1965: 112]
2. Derivation
2.1 Definition
Derivation is "the formation of new words by adding affixes to other words or
morphemes. [Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 77]
e.g. The noun insanity is derived from the adjective sane by the addition of the
negative prefix {in-} and the noun-forming suffix {- ity}.
2.2 Characteristics
- An affix added to a word cannot be substituted by any other suffixes. To make a
noun from the verb educate, we must add -ion, and no other suffix will do.
- Derivational affixes may pile up in a word.
e.g. agreeableness, educationalist
- A derivational affix possibly change the class of the word to which it is added.

18
 e.g. kind ( Adj) →kindly ( Adv)
write ( V ) → rewrite ( V ) ( not change )

2.2 List of English Derivational Affixes

Affixes Changes Semantic effects Examples
Prefixes
a(b)- Adj Without or under amoral, abnormal
Adj In the state or process of awake, asleep
V Adj On, in abed, aboard, ashore,
N Adj Lacking of athermobiosis
N  N
ante- V  N Before antedate
N  N In front of ante-room
ant(i)- N  N Against anti-war
V  N Reduce anti-knock
Adj Opposed anti-social
Adj In the direction opposite to anti-clockwise
AdvAd
v
be- V  N All around, all over besmear, bedeck
N  V Make or treat as befriend, belittle
bi- N  N Two bicycle, bisection,
bicameralism
cooperative, co-
co- N, V, Adj Together, jointly
belligerence
taking something away, the
de- N  V decentralize, dehydrate,
opposite
deci- N  N one tenth deciliter
apart, separation, reverse, dissent, discovery,
dis- V  V
opposite disambiguation
Adj  V to make ~ (transitive verb) enrage, enlarge
en-
N  V to put in endanger, encage

19
ex- N  N Former ex-wife, ex-president
Adj extra-thin, extra-special
extra- Adj outside, beyond, additional extraordinary,
extraterrestrial,
fore- V  V before, in advance forestay, foreshadow
in/on
V  V imprint (V/N)
in- V  N intake
put into a certain state or
N  V inflame, imperil
condition
Adj infallibility, illiteracy,
in-1 not
Adj immoral, irrelevant
N  N
internet
Adj between, mutual
inter- international
Adj
intercommunicate
V  V
kilo- N  N thousand kilogram, kilowatt
macrobiology,
macro- N  N Large
macroscopic
mal- N  N Bad malpractice, malnutrition
mega(l) megabyte, megaphone,
N  N million, very large
- megalopolis
microgram,
micro- N  N one millionth, very small microorganism,
micronation, microscope
mid-term elections, Mid-
Mid- N  N in the middle of
Autumn Festival
milli- N  N thousandth milligram, milliliter
mini- N  N Small miniskirt, miniseries
N  N miscarriage, misanthropy,
Mis- bad, wrong
V  V misogyny, mistake
monolith, monorail,
mon(o)- N  N one, single
monotony, monocle

20
 multiculturalism,
multi- N  N Many
multilingualism
nonsense, non-denial
Non- N  N not
denial
out- more, to a greater degree outdo, outrun
over- N  N overpopulation, over-
more than normal, too much
(noun) consumption, overlord
over- to do too much, to (verb) overlook, overspend,
V  V
(verb) over oversee
postpartum depression,
post- N  N After
postmodernism
V  V preview
pre- Before
N  N prehistory
re- V  V again, repeatedly redo, rebuild
V  V
retroact, retrograde
N  N
retro- Back or backwards retrorocket
Adj
retrolingual
Adj
Adj semi-automatic, semi-
semi- half, partial
Adj detached
subset, subsonic, subway,
sub- N  N below, less than, under,2
subtitles
superhuman, Superego,
super- N  N extremely, more than,2
supersonic
telecommunications,
tel(e)- N  N distance, distant
television, telephoto lens,
tri- N  N three triangle, tricolor, triptych
extremely, beyond certain
ultra- N  N ultramontanism, ultraviolet
limit
Adj
not, opposite, take
un1- Adj unconstitutional, undelete
something away
V  V

21
 underestimate, underage,
under- V  V below, incompletely
undercook
Uni- N  N one, single uniform
up- N  V Higher update, upgrade, upheld
Suffixes
-age V  N The result or action of package
-ance/ V  N The action or state of assistance, dependence
ence
-ancy V  N The quality or state of expectancy
-ant V  N The person who does/ a Accountant/
chemical that causes some
certain affects
-al V  N The result or action of refusal
-ation V  N The result or action of realization
-dom N  N The condition or state of freedom, kingdom
-er/or V  N The person that does worker
-ee V  N The person affected by an employee
action of
-ess V  N Indicate the female actress
-eer N  N The person concerned with engineer
-ese N  N The language/The person Chinese
from to the country
-ful N  N Amount that fills houseful
-graphy N  N A type of art or science, or a geography,
method of producing radiography
-hood N  N The state or quality of childhood, falsehood
-ian N  N The person/thing from the Canadian
country
-iana N  N A collection of things Victoriana
connected with a person,
place, period

22
-ics N  N The science, art or activity physics/dramatics
of
-ide N  N chloride
-ing V  N The result or action of realizing
-ion V  N The result or action of action
-ist N  N The person whose belief or scientist,
behavior based on the N idealist
-ite V  Having property Definite
Adj Having a tendency to or the favorite
N  quality of
Adj
-ive V  Person or thing having a Active
Adj tendency to or the quality of Explosive (atomic -)
N 
Adj
-ity V  N The quality or state of activity
-let N  N Small booklet
-logy N  N A subject or study of psychology, morphology
-logue N  N Talk or discussion of travelogue
-ment V  N The result or action of movement
-phile N  N The person who likes Anglophile, Francophile
something or some place
very much.
-phobe N  N The person who dislikes Anglophobe
something or some place
very much.
-phobia N  N In the nouns indicating fear Agoraphobia, homophobia
or dread
-scape N  N A view or scene of landscape, moonscape
-ster N  N A person connected with or Youngster, gangster
having the quality of

23
-th V  N Action or process of growth
-ure V  N The result or action of pressure
-y V  N The result or action of Delivery
N  Having property/ being in sunny
Adj the state of
-acy Adj  accuracy
N
-ate Adj  Group of people with status doctorate, electorate
N or function
-ish N  N Language or people of the Danish, Turkish, Irish
specified nationality
-ism N  N The result, action or quality Buddhism, criticism
Adj  of modernism
N
-ness Adj  The quality or state of happiness
N
-th Adj  Having the properties of depth, width
N
-ify N  V Make or become classify
Adj  V purify
-en N/Adj Make or become lengthen, shorten
V
-ize/ise N  V Become or make like, place Organize, hospitalize
Adj  V in modernize
Act or treat with the
qualities of
-ate N  V Give the specified thing or hyphenate
Adj  V quality activate

-ate N  Full of or showing a passionate, affectionate,

Adj specified quality
-able/ V  able to be V‟ed fixable, changeable

24
ible Adj reasonable,
N  Adj
-al N  Pertaining to national
Adj
-ary N  Concerned with planetary, reactionary
Adj
-en N  Having the properties of Golden,
Adj
-esque N  Having similar style to that Beethovenesque,
Adj of a painter or a composer Chaplinesque
-ful N  Having the qualities of beautiful, plentiful
Adj
-ic N  Concerned with phonemic, phonetic
Adj
-ial N  Pertaining to presidential, editorial
Adj
-ian N  Pertaining to Canadian, Italian
Adj
-ish N  Having the nature of, childish, bookish
Adj Approximately reddish, twentyish
Adj
Adj
-less N  Without homeless, jobless
Adj
-like N  Similar to childlike
Adj
-ly N  Having the properties of manly
Adj
-oid N  Having properties or shape humanoid, cuboids,
Adj of someone or something in spheroid, fungoid
some ways
-ous N  Having the properties of poisonous

25
 Adj
-some N  Producing or likely to, fearsome, quarrelsome
Adj Group of the specified threesome
number
-ed N  Having characteristics of, talented, diseased
Adj Affected with
-ly AdjAd In the specified manner quickly, happily
v
- N Adv In the direction of Southward(s)
ward(s)
-wise N Adv In the manner or direction of Clockwise

26
 CHAPTER 2: MORPHOPHONEMICS
1. Definition
Morphophonemics, a branch of morphology, deal with the variant of the
phonemic structures of allomorphs which accompany their grouping into words.
To put it more simply, when morphemes are combined to give words, changes
in their forms and pronunciation are expected.
2. Types of Morphophonemic Changes
Followings are the common types of morphophonemic changes in English.
2.1 Loss of Phonemes
When two morphemes are combined to create a word, some letters as well as
sounds are omitted, which we consider as loss of phoneme. This phenomenon is
popular in formation of words in English, and some can create a rule such as:
+ The phoneme /n/ of the negative prefix „in-‟ is lost before the morphemes
beginning with /m/, /r/, /l/ and usually /n/.

Example: immoral /i‟mɔrəl/, illegal /i‟li:gəl/, irreligious /,iri‟lidʒəs/, innocuous

/i‟nɔkjuəs/ (exception : inert, incorrect; invisible, ingratitude, insecure, intemperate)

+ The phoneme /t/ is lost when a noun derived from an adjective.
Example: secret (adj) secrecy (n)
democrat (adj) democracy (n)
Others: to solve (v) solution (n)
soft (adj) to soften (v)

2.2 Addition of Phonemes

In contrast, when two morphemes are combined to create a word, a new sound
is added to the pronunciation. This kind of changed is called addition of phoneme,
for example:

The phoneme /n/ is added when combining „solemn‟ /‟sɔləm/ and „ize‟ /aiz/ to

form [„sɔləmnaiz].

The phoneme /g/ is also added when „long‟ /lɔη/ combines with „er‟/ ə/ or „est‟

/ ist/ to build „longer‟ /lɔηgə/, and longest /lɔηgist/.

27
 Similarly, the phoneme /s/ is added, for example, „hunt – huntsman‟, sword –
swordsman, craft – craftsman.
Very often the phoneme /r/ is added when the word ends in “-er” combining
with another morpheme beginning with a vowel such as

discover /dis'kʌvə/ + “-y”  discovery /dis'kʌvəri/

recover /ri:'kʌvə/ + “-y”  recovery /ri:'kʌvə ri/

2.3 Simple Consonant Change or sound interchange
When building words, some sounds are changed to form a new word. The
change does not only take place when two morphemes are combined but even when
words are changed in function.
In many cases we have consonant interchange, such as:

bath /bɑ:θ/  to bathe /bei:ð/

life /laif/  to live /liv/
breath /breθ/  to breathe /bri: ð/
This is also true to the following cases of pluralizing: the consonant /θ/ of „path‟ is
changed to /ð/ when „path‟ is pluralized

path /pɑ:θ/ + -s /z/  paths /pɑ:ðz/

and the consonant /f/ of „wife‟ is changed to /v/ when „wife‟ is pluralized
wife /waif/ + -s /z/  wives /waivz/
All above examples are similar since the voiceless sounds changed into voiced
sounds, which can be considered as the process of voicing.
However, pluralization is not always voicing but voicelessing, such as:

book /b k/ + -s /z/  books /b ks/

plate /pleit/ + -s /z/  plates /pleits/

Obviously, the voiced consonant /z/ of the plural morpheme is changed into voiceless
consonant /s/.
2.4 Assimilation
Assimilation is the process of replacing a sound by another sound under the
influence of a third sound which is near to it in the word. Assimilation is the common
explanation of consonant change in English.

28
 The change of the voiceless consonant /θ/ to the voiced consonant /ð/ under
the influence of the noun plural voiced phoneme /z/ in the word „paths‟,

path /pɑ:θ/ + -s /z/  paths /pɑ:ðz/

or the voiceless consonant /f/ to the voiced consonant /v/ under the influence of the
noun plural plural voiced phoneme /z/ in the word „wives‟
wife /waif/ + -s /z/  wives /waivz/
The case of the allomorph /t/ of the past tense morpheme /d/ can also be
considered as that of assimilation according to the process of voicelessing.

laugh /lɑ:f/ + -ed /d/  laughed /lɑ:ft/

Another change due to assimilation is that the phoneme /n/ of the negative
prefix „in-‟ converted into /m/ before a morpheme beginning with /b, p,/
Example:
Prefix „in-‟ has the allomorph {im-} – /im/ before /p, b/: impossible,
imbalance.
Prefix „en-‟ has the allomorph {em-} – /im/: empower, embitter.
2.5 Dissimilation
Dissimilation is the opposite of assimilation. It takes place when the
combination of two morphemes brings together two identical phonemes resulting in
the change of one of them to a phoneme less like its neighbor.
Example: the prefix „in-‟ has the allomorph /-ig/ in ignoble (adj), ignore (v),
ignominy (n), ignominious (adj)
2.6 Synthesis
This is the fusion of two consonants brought together by morpheme
combination into a single new phoneme
Example: moist + -ure  moisture

/mɔist/ /juə/  /‟mɔist∫ə/

/ t/ + / j/  /t∫/
The phoneme /t/ and /j/ are combined to form the phoneme /t∫/. This kind of
change is sometimes called palatalization because /∫/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /t∫/, are palato- alveolar
consonants.

29
 Example: press + -ure  pressure
/pres/ + /juə/  /‟pre∫ə/
/s/ + /j/  /∫/
act + -ion  action
/‟ækt/ + /jən/  /‟æk∫n/
/ t/ + /j/  /∫/
2.7 Change of Syllabic Vowel or Diphthong
This is the substitution of another syllabic vowel or diphthong for the one
which appears in the normal allomorph.
Example:
clear /kliə/  clarity /‟klæriti/
/iə/  /æ/
please /pli:z/  pleasant /‟pleznt/
/iə/  /e/
This kind of change is commonly typical to irregularity of plural forms and past
forms
Example:
man /mæn /  men /men/
/æ /  /e /
take /teik/  took /tuk/
/ei/  /u/

come /kʌm/  came /keim/

/ʌ/  / ei/
2.8 Stress Shift
In many cases the addition of an affix to a word is accompanied by a shift in
stress (it doesn‟t accompany a vowel change) which is called stress shift. In other
way, stress shift is the change in stress of a word without changing the vowel when
adding an affix to it.
Example: s‟yntax  synt‟actic
/‟sintæks/  /sin‟tæktiks/
l‟inguist  ling‟uistic
/‟liηgwist/  /liη‟gwistik/
30
 „impulse  imp‟ulsive

/‟impʌls/  /im‟pʌlsiv/
„import  imp‟ortant

/‟impɔ:t/  /im‟pɔ:tənt/
d‟emocrat  dem‟ocratic
/‟deməkræt/  /,demə‟krætik/
2.9 Gradation
The process of derivation including stress shift involves vowel change. This
kind of change is called gradation. To simplify it, gradation can be defined as the
change in stress of a word including the change in vowel when adding an affix to the
word.
Example: s‟ymbol  symb‟olic

/‟simbəl/  /sim‟bɔlik/
telepath  telepathy
/‟telipæθ/  /ti‟lepəθi/
coincide  coincidence
/,kouin'said]  /,kou'insidəns]
In many other cases, this kind of change also occurs to words whose functions
are changed without adding any elements.
Example: present (noun)  present (verb)
/‟preznt/  /pri‟zent/
contest (verb)  contest (noun)

/kən‟test/  /‟kɔntest/
contrast (noun)  contrast (verb)

/‟kɔntræst/  /kən‟trɑ:st/
2.10 Suppletion
Suppletion is a type of irregularity in which there is a complete change in the
shape of a word in its various inflected forms. For example, English good – better –
best does not follow the normal pattern as in tall – taller – tallest but uses different
forms for the comparative and the superlative of the adjective good. Thus, this type of

31
morphophonemic change is the occurrence of an allomorph completely different in
each phonemic structure from the normal form.
What is essential here is semantic similarity and complementary distribution.
Different allomorphs are suppletive forms.
Example:
The verb: {be} = {am} = {is} = {are} = {was} = {were}
{go} = {went}
The adjective: {good} = {better} = (best}
{bad} = {worse} = {worst}
The adverb: {well} = {better} = (best}
{badly} = {worse} = {worst}

EXERCISES
1. Describe the loss of phonemes in the following words.
1. fast – fasten 6. enemy – enmity
2. terror – terrify 7. legal – illegal
3. democrat – democracy 8. noble – ennoble
4. solve – solution 9. mature – immature
5. create - creature 10. remember – remembrance
2. Describe the addition of phonemes in the following words.
1. solemn – solemnize 6. actor – actress
2. fair – fairer 7. young – youngest
3. sign – signal 8. sale – salesman
4. craft – craftsman 9. law – lawyer
5. bear – bearable 10.state – statesman
3. Explain the consonant changes in the following words.
1. house – houses 6. path – paths
2. decide – decision 7. mouth – mouths
3. permit – permissible 8. defend – defensible
4. wife – wives 9. deride – derisive
5. thorax – thoratic 10. extinct – extinguish

32
4. Explain the vowel or diphthong change in the following words.
1. hear – heard 6. please – pleasant
2. woman – women 7. precise – precision
3. see – saw 8. clear – clarify
4. ride – rode 9. long – length
5. come – came 10. deep – depth
5. Identify the synthesis phenomenon in the following pairs of words.
1. proceed– procedure 6. fix – fixture
2. press – pressure 7. supervise– supervision
3. depart – departure 8. promote – promotion
4. act – action 9. donate – donation
5. seize – seizure 10. compose – composure
6. Describe the stress shift in the following words.
1. create – creature 6. cognition – cognitive
2. universe – universal 7. cooperate – cooperation
3. music – musician 8. temporal – temporality
4. interview – interviewee 9. regulate – regulation
5. export – exportation 10.habitat – habitation
7. Describe the gradation in the following words.
1. telepathy – telepathic 6. origin – original
2. telephone – telephonic 7. able – ability
3. refer – reference 8. curious – curiosity
4. coincide – coincidence 9. real – reality
5. produce – product 10. repeat – repetition
8. Describe any morphophonemic change in the following words.
1. book – books 6. soft – soften
2. house – housing 7. meditate – meditation
3. record (v) – record (noun) 8. negotiate – negotiation
4. nation – national 9. economy – economical
5. enter – entry 10. determine – determination

33
 CHAPTER 3: IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS IN MORPHOLOGY
Like phrases and sentences, words are also composed of different layers of
structure. In chapter 1, we have mentioned that there are two kinds of morphemes of
which words are composed. Now we shall consider how these morphemes are
combined in words.
1. Definition
“Immediate Constituents are any of the two meaningful parts forming a larger
linguistic unit” [ Arnod, 1986:83].
e.g. control: V
controllable: Adj
uncontrollable: Adj
uncontrollably: Adv
Take this word as an example - Control (v) – this verb has only one morpheme,
so there is no morpheme combination in it. However, controllable (Adj) is different
as it consists of two morphemes with the division between them. Words with more
than two morphemes as incontrollable are, especially different since they are built
with a hierarchy or twosomes. Each twosome is the layer of the structure by which a
word is composed. We can make successive division into two parts, each of which is
called immediate constituent. This division is called IC division.
Immediate Constituent Division is the way to describe the layers of a word, a
phrase or a clause to identify how many parts each consists of.
2. How to divide the constituents of a word
- The first division is between an inflectional morpheme (suffix) and the rest of the
word:
teacher/s malformation/s
learn/ing stop/ped
- At each division, one of the IC‟s should be a free form:
unhappy/ness not un/happiness
in/dependent not independ/ent
- The division must ensure the meaning of the word as the whole
teach/er not tea/cher

34
 sing/er not sin/ger
The IC division of formation of words can be illustrated either through layer
structures or tree structures.
2.1 Layer structures
The number of layers which indicates the IC Division of a word depends on the
number of morphemes which the word contains. If the word contains a grammatical
morpheme, it goes without saying that the grammatical morpheme should be firstly
separated from the word, then the following steps should be carried out according to
the rules by which the word is formed. The disadvantage of this kind of IC Devision
is that each element of the word is not functionally recognized; in other words, we
may not identify the exact IC.

gentle man
meet ing 3
2 li
s 2
1 ness
1

3 form ation

mal
pre conceive 2
2 s
ed
1 1

2 depend ent
en large
2 in
ment
1 1

Layer structures of IC Division

2.2 Tree structures

Matters get more complex when we consider that a lexeme might be subject to
a number of morphological processes within the language. Take the word “worker”
as an example, there is a combination of the two parts: the root „work‟ and the suffix
„-er‟ in which the root is the base for the suffix „-er‟, but „work‟ in the language
functions as both a verb and a noun, so which is the root of the word „worker‟, the
noun or the verb? To determine this we have to track the morphological history of the

35
word. Originally, the verb is converted from the noun by the process of conversion
and has the meaning of doing something that involves physical or mental effort,
especially as part of a job; so we can say that the noun „worker‟ is derived from the
verb with the meaning a person who works, or who does a special kind of work.
Therefore, the formation of the word as follow:
work (noun)  work (verb) + -er  worker (noun)
We can use a tree diagram like the following to represent the internal structure of
a word. This diagram also shows what lexical category an affix has attached to, and
what category it has created by attaching.

V Af

work er

Figure 3. Tree structures of IC Division

EXERCISES
1. Give a diagram to each of the following words to indicate their layer
structures. Identify all the possible morphemes in the words.
a. discussed f. unchangeably
b. nonflexible g. imbalances
c. irresponsibility h. independently
d. unacceptably i. unreasonably
e. indefinitely j. inefficiently
2. Give a tree diagram to each of the above words to indicate their internal
structures and the processes of word formation:
a. unforgettable f. uncomfortably
b. unexpectedly g. inaccessible
c. unbelievably h. impossibility
d. irregularity i. illogically
e. disability j. non-productive

36
 CHAPTER 4 : WORDS
1. Definition
„The word may be described as the basic unit of language. Uniting meaning
and form, it is composed of one or more morphemes; each consists of one or more
spoken sounds or their written representatives.‟ [Arnold, 1986: 27].
As mentioned before, words are made of morphemes, and a word may consist
of one or more morphemes, for example:
- One morpheme : boy, desire,…
- Two morphemes : boy-ish, teach-er, en-able,…
- There morphemes : boy-ish-ness, comfort-ab-ly, …
- Four morphemes : gentle-man-li-ness
- Five morphemes : un-gentle-man-li-ness
- More than five morphemes : anti-dis-establish-ment-ari-an-ism
2. Characteristics
Provisionally, we may say that words are characterized by some degree of
internal stability and external independence. Insertions can only be made between
words, not within words:
This (new) washing- machine (here) is (very) efficient.
Not : ... wash(-clothes-)ing-(handy-)machine...
The independence of words is shown phonologically by the fact that they may
be preceded and followed by pauses; orthographically by their separation by means of
spaces or punctuation marks; syntactically by the fact that they may be used alone as
a single utterance; and semantically by the possibility of assigning to them one or
more dictionary meanings.
[Douglas Biber,1999: 51]
And according to Lyons [1969: 203], „one of the characteristics of the word is
that it tends to be internally stable (in term of the order of the component
morphemes), but positionally mobile (permutable with other words in the same
sentence)‟. Consider the following sentence into morphemes to illustrate his
statement:
the – boy – s – walk – ed – slow – ly – up – the – hill

37
 The sentence may be regarded as a sequence of ten morphemes, which occur
in a particular order relative to one another. There are several possible changes in this
order which yield an acceptance English sentence:
slow – ly – the – boy – s – walk – ed – up – the – hill
up – the – hill – slow – ly – walk – ed the – boy – s
But under all the permutations certain groups of morphemes behaves as
„blocks‟ – they occur always together, and in the same order relative to one another.
There is no possibility of the sequence s – the – boy -, ly – slow or ed – walk because
boys, slowly, walked are the three two-morpheme words in which the suffixes –s, -ly
and –ed must follow the base. To illustrate this point, let consider the following
sentences:
The boy walked up the hill slowly.
The boy slowly walked up the hill.
The boy walked slowly up the hill.
Slowly, the boy walked up the hill.
Unlike small linguistic unit such as phonemes and morphemes, words have
some freedom to move within a sentence without destroying their meaning.
Therefore, a word can be regarded as a minimum linguistic unit which is freely
movable with a meaning.
3. Classification
3.1 Structure-based classification
English words may be classified on the basis of the kinds and combinations of
morphemes of which they are composed.
- Simple words are those which consist of a single root, without a derivational
morpheme, and with or without an inflectional morpheme.
Example: book(s), girl(s), decid(ed), work(ed, etc.
- Derived words are those which consist of a single root, with at least one
derivational morpheme, and with or without an inflectional morpheme.
Example: teacher(s), derivational, organization(s), etc.
- Compound words are those which consist of at least two roots without a
derivational morpheme, and with or without an inflectional morpheme.
Example: classroom(s), blackboard(s), mother-in-law, etc.

38
- Compound - Complex words are those which consist of at least two roots with at
least one derivational morpheme, and with or without an inflectional morpheme.
Example: livingroom(s), blockheadism, washingmachine(s), etc.
3.2 Closed systems and Open classes
According to the internal structure of words, English words can be divided
into two broad types of categories: closed systems and open classes.
A closed system contains a limited number of members, and new members
can not easily be added. The principal closed systems in English are the groups of
function words, such as auxiliaries, conjunctions, pronouns, determiners, and
prepositions. Newly coined and borrowed words can not be easily added to these
systems. That‟s why they are closed.
However, the membership of open classes is indefinite and unlimited. In
morphology we are mainly concerned with the behaviour of words which belong to
open classes, namely nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. These nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs form open classes and easily admit new members. For
example, we can easily form new nouns from verbs or adjectives with numerous of
suffixes „-er, -ee, -ing, -ment, -ion, -ation, -ness, -ity, -ly, etc.‟; or new verbs from
nouns and adjectives with the following affixes „-ize, -ate, - ify, -en, en-„; and new
adjectives from verbs and nouns with „-ive, -able, -ed, -ing, -less, -al, -ful, -ly, etc.‟
Examples: Trainer, trainee, actor, employer, employee, interpreter, etc.
3.3 Lexical words, function words, and inserts.
Words can also be grouped into three classes according to their main functions
and their grammatical behavior: lexical words, function words, and inserts.
Words that have meaning by themselves: boy, food, door are called Lexical
words. Lexical words are the main carriers of meaning in a text. In speech, they are
characteristically the words that remain in the information-dense language of
telegrams, lecture notes, headlines, etc.:
Arriving tomorrow (telegram)
Family killed in fire (newspaper headline)
Lexical words are numerous and are members of open classes. They often
have a complex internal structure, and they can be the heads of phrases. There are
four main classes of lexical words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

39
 While lexical words are the main building blocks of texts, function words
provide the mortar which binds the text together. Function words often have a wide
range of meanings and serve two major roles: indicating relationships between lexical
words or larger units, or indicating the way in which a lexical word or a larger unit is
to be interpreted.
Function words are members of closed systems. They are characteristically
short and lack internal structure. In speech they are generally unstressed. They are
frequent and tend to occur in any text, whereas the occurrence of individual nouns,
verbs, adjectives, and adverbs varies greatly in frequency and is bound to the topic of
the text. However, there is also a great deal of variation in the frequency of function
words depending on the type of text. We can see the important differences between
function words and lexical words in the following table.
Differences between Lexical words and Function words
Features Lexical words Function words
frequency low high
head of phrases yes no
length long short
lexical meaning yes no
morphology variable invariable
openness open closed
number large small
stress strong weak
Inserts are a relatively newly recognized category of word. They do not form
an integral part of a syntactic structure, but are inserted rather freely in the text. They
are often marked off by intonation, pauses, or by punctuation marks in writing. They
characteristically carry emotional and interaction meanings and are especially
frequent in spoken texts. Some examples are:
Hm hm, very good.
Yeah, I will. Bye.
Cheers man.
Inserts are generally simple in form, though they often have a deviant
phonological structure (e.g. hm, uhhuh, ugh, yeah).
Inserts are more marginal than lexical words and function words. It can indeed
be debated whether some of the forms in our conversation passage should be

40
recognized as words at all. However, there is no doubt that they play an important
role in communication. If we are to describe spoken language adequately, we need to
pay more attention to them than has traditionally been done.
Traditionally, interjections are the only type of insert that has been described
in most grammars. Inspection of the examples in our conversation texts shows that
there is a variety of forms and that the traditional term „interjection‟ (a phrase, a
word, or set of sounds used as a sudden remark expressing feeling) is inappropriate,
except perhaps in the etymological sense of „something thrown in between‟. Hence,
the new term „insert‟ appears.
As with function words, inserts are generally invariable. They may consist of a
single morpheme (yes, no, please, yeah, well, etc.) or of an invariable lexicalized
sequence (you know, I mean, excuse me, you know, etc.)

EXERCISES
1. Classify the following words on the basis of the kinds and combinations of
morphemes of which they are composed.
Indirect, comforts, drawback, intentionally, updated, uncomfortably, mother-in-law.
2. Indicate whether each italicized expression in the following sentences is a
word compound (C) or a grammatical structure (GS).
1. Jim‟s new car is a hardtop.
2. This jar has a rather hard top.
3. It was a jack-in-the-box.
4. There was a plant in the box.
5. A hot dog is not a hot dog.
6. He has a dog in the manager attitude.
7. She has a strong hold on him.
8. She has a strong hold in the women‟s Club.
9. George found his father-in-law.
10. George found his father in trouble.
11. They bought it on the black market.
12. The electricity went off, and we were caught in a black, completely
lightless, market.
13. His spending money was a source of annoyance to his father

41
 CHAPTER 5: WORD-FORMATION
Besides studying word structure and word class, morphology deals with WORD
FORMATION, i.e., morphological devices by which the words of a paradigm are
differentiated from another and new words have entered the English language.
The subject of word formation is, of course, not simple words but the ones that
are analyzable structurally and semantically. Thus, word-formation looks at such
words as learner, mouthy, baby-sister, but not learn(s), mouth(s), or sit(s), etc.
The following are the various principal ways of word formation in English:
1. Derivation
In linguistics, derivation is the process of creating new words from other
words by adding a derivational affix. ( See Chapter 1 for more explanations).
The derivational affix {-er}, for instance, combines with a verb to create a noun
with the meaning „one who does ‟.
Verb Derived Noun
help help-er
walk walk-er
teach teach-er
drive drive-er
jump jump-er
2. Compounding
The other way to form a new word is by combining two or more already
existing words in a compound. Blackbird, doghouse, seaworthy, and blue-green are
examples of compounds.
Compounding is highly productive in English and it is also widespread
throughout the languages of the world. In English, compounds can be found in all the
major lexical categories: nouns (doorstop), adjectives (winedark), and verbs
(stagemanage)
Semantically, compounds can be classified into non-idiomatic compounds and
idiomatic compounds. Non-idiomatic compounds are those whose meanings are
easily deduced from the meanings of the components: goal-keeper, schoolboy,
manmade, mother-in-law,… Idiomatic compounds are those whose meanings can not
be deduced from the meanings of the components since there is no relationship
between the meanings of the components: greenhouse, lady-killer, lip-service, teach-
in,…

42
 Structurally, two features of compounds stand out. One is the fact that the
constituent members of a compound are not equal.
The second structural peculiarity of compounds, which is true of all languages
of the world, is that a compound never has more than two constituents. This is not to
say that a compound may never contain more than two words. Three-word (dog food
box), four-word (stone age cave dweller), and longer compounds (trade union
delegate assembly leader) are easy to find. But in each case, the entire compound
always consists of two components, each of which may itself be a compound, as
show in Figure 5. The basic compound operation is therefore always binary, although
repetition of the basic operation may result in more complex individual forms.

N N

N N N N

N N N N N N

dog food box stone age cave dweller

N N

N N

N N N N

trade union delegate assembly leader

Tree structures of compounds

A compound consists of a head, i.e. the categorical part that contains the basic
meaning of the whole compound, and modifiers, which restrict this meaning. For
example, the English compound doghouse, where house is the head and dog is the
modifier, is understood as a house intended for a dog. Endocentric compounds tend to
be of the same part of speech (word class) as their head, as in the case of doghouse.
Exocentric compounds do not have a head, and their meaning often cannot be
transparently guessed from its constituent parts. For example, the English compound

43
white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing. In an exocentric compound,
the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents. For
example, a must-have or forget-me-not are not verbs but nouns.
Compounding and derivation may also feed each other. The members of a
compound are often themselves derivationally complex, and sometimes, though not
often, a compound may serve as the base of a derivational affix. An example of each
of these situations is given in the following tree structures:

N N

N N N Af

V Af N N

load ing dock block head ism

Figure 8 Figure 9
English orthography is not consistent in representing compounds since they are
sometimes written as single words (e.g., greenhouse, classroom, girlfriend, haircut),
sometimes with an intervening hyphen, (e.g., baby-sitter, mother-in-law,) especially
true to adjective compounds before a noun (e.g., a well-known actress, a good-
looking boy), and sometimes as separate words (e.g., table tennis, credit card).
Unfortunately, there is no rule for this, so you may need to check in a dictionary.
Frequently used compounds often become one word over time.
Compounds versus Non-compounds
Compound word Non-compound expressions
greenhouse an indoor garden green house a house painted green
blackboard a chalkboard used in black board a board that is black
classrooms
wet suit a diver‟s costume wet suit a suit that is wet
However, it is usually possible to recognize noun compounds by their stress
pattern since the first component is pronounced more prominently than the second,
though sometimes the stress may falls on both parts, (e.g., mother tongue, first aid,
personal computer). In non-compounds, conversely, the second element is stressed.

44
 Stress of Compounds versus Non-compounds
Compounds Non-compounds
bláckboard back boárd
(board for writing on) (board that is black)
sílk worm silk wórm
(caterpillar that spins silk) (worm made of silk)
háirnet hair nét
(net for covering hair) (net made of hair)

English compounds may be classified in several ways, such as the word

classes or the semantic relationship of their components.
Compound nouns
Most English compound nouns are noun phrases (= nominal phrases) that
include a noun modified by adjectives or attributive nouns. Due to the English
tendency towards conversion, the two classes are not always easily distinguished.
Most English compound nouns that consist of more than two words can be
constructed recursively by combining two words at a time. The compound science
fiction writer, for example, can be constructed by combining science and fiction, and
then combining the resulting compound with writer. Some compounds, such as salt
and pepper or mother-of-pearl, can not be constructed in this way, however.
• There are many ways to form compound nouns:
- N+N : classroom
- Adj. + N : greenhouse
- N+V : haircut
- V+N : pickpocket
- V-ing + N : living-room
- N + V-ing : human-eating
- V + Prep. : drawback
- Prep. + N : outlaw, in-laws
- Prep. + V : income, on-drive
- Others : mother-in-law, forget-me-not
Compound adjectives
English compound adjectives are constructed in a very similar way to the
compound noun. Blackboard jungle, leftover ingredients, gunmetal sheen, and green
monkey disease are only a few examples. A compound adjective is a modifier of a
noun. It consists of two or more morphemes of which the left-hand component limits

45
or changes the modification of the right-hand one, as in "the dark-green dress": dark
limits the green that modifies dress.
There are some well-established permanent compound adjectives that have
become solid over a longer period, especially in American usage: earsplitting,
eyecatching, and downtown.
However, in British usage, these, apart from downtown, are more likely
written with a hyphen: ear-splitting, eye-catching.
Other solid compound adjectives are for example:
 Numbers that are spelled out and have the suffix -fold added: "fifteenfold",
"sixfold".
 Points of the compass: northwest, northwester, northwesterly, northwestwards,
but not North-West Frontier.
• These are the ways to form compound adjectives:
- Adj. + Adj. : red-hot, light-blue,
- N + Adj. : snow-white, sea-sick,
- Adj. + V-ing : good-looking, easy-going,
- Adj. + V-ed : open-ended, black-capped,
- Adv.+ V-ed : well-cooked, fully-fledged,
- Adj. + N + ed : kind-hearted, left-handed,
- N + N + ed : lion-hearted, pigeon-hearted
- N + V-ed : manmade, homemade, handmade,
- Prep. + N : in-service, outdoor, indoor
- Prep. + Adj/V-ed: off-black, inborn
- Others : out-of-order/work/date, up-to-date,
Compound verbs
• A compound verb is usually composed of a preposition and a verb, although
other combinations also exist.
- V+V : freeze-dry
- N+V : manhandle, hand-wash
- Adj. + V : whitewash
- Prep. + V :undergo, in-migrate, offload
- Adv. + V : downside, update
Compound verbs composed of a noun and verb are comparatively rare, and the
noun is generally not the direct object of the verb. In English, compounds such as
*bread-bake or *car-drive do not exist. Yet we find literal action words, such as

46
breastfeed, tape-record and washing instructions on clothing as for example hand
wash
Compound adverbs
- Adv + N : upstairs, uphill, upwind, offstage,
- Prep. + N + s : indoors, outdoors,
- Prep. + Adj. : overall, uppermost,
- Others : long long ago, once upon a time, up to now, from now on,
3. Conversion
Conversion ( zero derivation ) is the formation of a new word in a different part
of speech without adding any element.
Example: lecture → to lecture;
hand → to hand;
to drop out → a drop out
to go → a go;
up → to up.
The differences between the words in each pair is morphological, syntactic and
semantic:
- Morphological: the verb “to hand”, for example, has a new paradigm (the
system of forms): hand – handed – handing.
- Syntactic: the function of “to hand” is new. It is predicate: “he handed me a
watch.”
- Semantic: the verb “to hand” has a completely new meaning: to give, to pass
something to… but “hand” is part of the body.
Conversion may be said to be most productive in forming verbs: arm → to
arm; elbow → to elbow; foot → to foot; skin → to skin; bottle → to bottle;
honeymoon → to honeymoon.
The reason for such a wide-spread development of conversion in English is that
there are not enough affixes, especially verbs-forming affixes.
Traditional conversion means the type of conversion commonly and
traditionally used by the public. The words built by traditional conversion are
recorded in dictionaries. The examples mentioned above are all cases of traditional
conversion.
Occasional conversion refers to the individual use of conversion in special
situations, occasions, to express one‟s idea vividly, humorously, etc. The words built
by occasional conversion are individually coinage and of course not present in
dictionaries: for instance, when a person keeps saying: “Hello – dear everybody.” We
can also make it a noun: “ I am tired of his “hello – dear.”

47
 Partial conversion is the building of some nouns from verbs or adjectives.
These nouns usually go with verbs like “have, take, make” to form verbal phrases.
They are not used quite independently:
Example: Have a look / talk / smoke etc.
Give a ring / kick / blow etc.
Some other nouns are used only in idiomatic phrases:
Example: To be in the know; in the long run; of Australian make.
Partial conversion also mention to the building of some nouns from adjectives.
These adjectives usually go with „the‟ and are not inflected for the plural and in
general can not be used in the possessive case. They do not undergo morphological
changes.
4. Clipping
Clipping is a process whereby a new word is created by extracting a piece from
a polysyllabic word or phrase.
In all cases, a clipped form has the same meaning as the longer form from
which it is obtained. In contemporary English, we are inordinately fond of clipped
forms. We have gym from gymnasium, porn from pornography, flu from influenza,
etc...As these examples show, any convenient part of a longer word may be clipped.
Even discontinuous pieces can be clipped, such as sci-fi for science fiction, sitcom for
situation comedy, biopic for biographical picture, and British maths for mathematics
(American: math). This process, which seems especially popular among students, has
yielded forms such as prof for professor, ad for advertisement. A number of such
clipped forms have been accepted in general usage: doc, auto, lab, bike, burger, flu,
and fridge. The most common clipped forms occur in names such as Liz, Ron, Kathy,
and Lyn.
Clipping can be classified according to the ways by which words are shortened:
- Initial clipping: omnibus, aeroplane, periwig, ElizaBeth,
- Final clipping: laboratory, examination, advertisement, Ronaldo, Phillips,
- Initio-final clipping: refrigerator, influenza, detective, ELizabeth,
- Medial clipping: mathematics, spectacles, Valentine-day,
- Elliptico-conversional clipping (phrasal clipping): this is a special case in which
there is a combination of ellipsis, conversion and clipping: popular music, public
house, permanent wave, preliminary examination
A clipped form is not abbreviation. It is genuine lexical item, just like any
other lexical items, and it is unusual in no way apart fro its origin.
A clipped form accepts the grammatical inflections which are typical of its
word class. For example, nouns obtained by clipping can be pluralized: gyms, fridges,
phones, buses.

48
 A clipped form can enter into compounds like any other lexical item: gym
shoes, porn star, fridge magnet, phone book. In other cases, the longer form would
be abnormal or impossible in the same position: gymnasium shoes or pornography
star.
Clipped forms are entered in dictionaries like other lexical items, and they are
legal in Scrabble.
Sometimes a clipped form displaces its original longer form. For example, the
clipped forms piano and bus have completely supplanted their sources, pianoforte
and omnibus.
Note the following pair of examples. As observed above, English has an
abbreviation Prof for Professor, as in the written form Prof. Chomsky. We also have
a lexical item prof, obtained from professor by clipping, as in The Physics
Department plans to hire two new profs. The abbreviation Prof. and the lexical item
prof are not the same item at all, and they should not be confused.
Clipped forms usually occur first in slang, argot, and then make their way into
standard English. Therefore, they tend to be used particularly in informal style.
Here is the list of clipped words:
Clipped Long Form Clipped Long Form
Word Word
pants pantaloons auto automobile
movie moving picture burger hamburger
prom promenade zoo zoological garden
chemist alchemist ad advertisement
gym gymnasium bike bicycle
limo limousine cab cabriolet
math mathematics clerk cleric
coed coeducational student varsity university
dorm dormitory lab laboratory
fan fanatic lunch luncheon
fridge refrigerator memo memorandum
exam examination mum chrysanthemum
flu influenza typo typographical error
gator alligator phone telephone
porn pornography vet Veteran/veterinarian
prof professor tec detective
bra brassiere vegan vegetarian

49
5. Acronymy
In contemporary English, we have become very fond of coining new words in
the following way: we begin with a phrase consisting of several words; we extract the
initial letters of the most important words in that phrase; and we put the resulting
sequence of letters together to form our new word – which almost always has the
same meaning as the original phrase.
Here are a few examples:
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
UNO United Nations Organization
WHO World Health Organization
UNICEF United Nations Children‟s Fund
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
We may distinguish two kinds of outcome here, and there exist national
differences in terminology. Sometimes the resulting form can only be pronounced by
spelling it out letter by letter, such as BBC, FBI and UNO. In the British tradition, a
formation of this kind is an initialism. In other cases the resulting form can be
pronounced like an ordinary word as with WHO, UNICEF and NATO. In the British
tradition, a formation of this kind is an acronym.
However, in the American tradition, the label “acronyms” is applied to all such
formations without distinction, and the term “initialism” is not used.
There is a further trans-Atlantic difference. In all varieties of English, initialism
like BBC and FBI are written entirely in capital letters. The Americans also write
most acronyms entirely in capitals, and so they write NATO and AIDS. But the
British commonly write these things with only an initial capital, and the usual British
forms are Nato and Aids.
But not all acronyms are written with capitals. Some acronyms have become
perfectly ordinary lexical items, and they behave accordingly. For example, the
phrases self contained underwater breathing apparatus and light amplification by the
stimulated emission of radiation have given rise to the acronyms scuba and laser.
Both of these are ordinary English lexical items, entirely unremarkable apart from
their origins.
The formation of laser illustrates the canonical pattern of information, in which
small grammatical words are ignored in constructing the acronym. However, many
acronyms are deliberately constructed in a non-canonical manner, in order to obtain a
result which can be easily pronounced. A good example is radar, from radio
detection and ranging.
An initialism or an acronym is a lexical item. An acronym does not differ from
any other lexical item, except perhaps in its unusual written form. An initialism has
50
both unusual written form and an unusual pronunciation, but otherwise it is an
ordinary lexical item.
Initialisms are sometimes confused with abbreviations, but they are not
abbreviations. First, an initialism always has its own pronunciation, distinct from the
pronunciation of the longer form which it presents. Abbreviations do not usually have
their own pronunciations. Second, an initialism, being a lexical item, can appear in a
structural position in a sentence in which a lexical item is appropriate. For example,
we can say or write the BBC‟s decision, in which the initialism BBC bears the
possessive suffix -„s, but no abbreviation can behave like this. We may occasionally
encounter a written form such as the sgt‟s weapon, but this is not ordinary English
orthography: it is an example of shorthand.
In short, acronymy is the process of creating a word by shortening a string of
words, using the initial sounds or letters. The words formed by this way are called
acronyms. New acronyms are freely built, especially the name of an organization or a
scientific expression. Some examples of acronyms include AIDS for acquired
immune deficiency syndrome, NASA for National Aeronautics and Space
administration, radar for radio detecting and ranging, and snafu for situation normal
all fouled up. Where the combined initial letters follow the pronunciation patterns of
English, the string can be pronounced as a word, such as NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization). However, if it happens to be unpronounceable, then each letter
is sounded out separately (RFI for run batted in, UNH for University of New
Hampshire, NFL for National Football League). In other cases, even if the combined
initials can be pronounced, it may be customary to sound out each letter, as in NIV for
New International Version (of the Bible) or UCLA for the University of California at
Los Angeles.
Some acronyms are slang or are at least relatively Informal (PhysEd, for physical
education, for example), but many, such as sonar, the Delmarva peninsula, and
OPEC, are now Standard English. The CAT in CAT scan stands for computerized
axial tomography and is a convenient abbreviation of a long, low-frequency
technological term. These days we seldom establish a new organization without
creating for it a phrasal name that yields an easily recognizable and perhaps
additionally instructive acronym: for example, MADD for Mothers against Drunk
Driving or NOW for the National Organization for Women. One problem: those who
use an acronym may forget what its letters stand for. Probably few of us recall the
exact phrase that gave us radar ( radio detecting and ranging.); laser ( light
amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

51
 LIST OF ACRONYMYMS
I. COMMON WORLD ORGANIZATIONS
UNITED NATIONS SYSTEMS
UN/UNO United nations/ United nations organization
GA General Assembly
SC Security Council
ECOSOC Economic and Social Council
TC Trusteeship Council
IC International Court of Justice
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS OF UNITED NATIONS
UNEP United Nations Environment Program
UNDP United Nations Development Program
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner Refugees
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNFPA United Nations Fund for Population Activities
UNICEF United Nations Children‟s Fund
UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development
UNITAR United Nations Institute for Training and Research
WFC World Food Council
WFP World Food Program
IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
UPU Universal Postal Union
ITU International Telecommunication Union
WB World Bank
IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
ILO International Labor Organization
IDA International Development Association
IFC International Finance Corporation
IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development
IMF International Monetary Fund
UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
FAO Food and Agricultural Organization
ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization
WMO World Meteorological Organization

52
IMCO Intergovernmental Maritime Cunsultative Organization
WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization
WHO World Health Organization
REGIONAL SOCIAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS
ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific
ECWA Economic Commission for Western Asia
ECA Economic Commission for Africa/ Economic Commission for Latin
America
ECE Economic Commission for Europe
OAS Organization of American States
ORGANIZATIONS AND PROGRAMS
FOR ASIA & THE PACIFIC
ADB Asian Development Bank
RCTT Regional Centre for Transfer of Technology
APDC Asian and Pacific Development Centre
CIRDAP Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific
TC Typhoon Committee
CCOP Committee for Coordination for Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore
Areas
AIT Asian Institute of Technology
AIBD Asian Pacific Institute for broadcasting Development

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF DEMOCRATICS

WFTU World Federation of Trade Union
WPC World Peace Council
WIDF Women's International Democratic Youth
WFDY World Federation of Democratic Youth
IUS International Union of Students
IADL International Association of Democratic Lawyers
OIJ Organizational of International Journalists
AAPSO Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization
AAWA Afro-Asian Writer's Association
OSPAALA Organization Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America

53
OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND COUNTRIES
AL Arab League
ASEAN Association of South-East Asian Nations
ANZUS Australia New Zealand US Pact
CENTO Central Treaty Organization
AFLCIO American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization
W.C.C World Council of Churches
OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
EEC European Economic Community
EU European Union
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
OAU Organization of African Unity
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
SWAPO South West Africa People's Organization
PLO Palestinian Liberation Organization
II. OTHER ACRONYMS
AA Automobile Association GCSE General Certificate of
AAA American Automobile Secondary Education
Association GDP Gross Domestic Product
ABC American Broadcasting GMT Greenwich Mean Time
Company Gross National Product
AD GNP
Anno Domini Human Immunodeficiency
HIV
Asymmetric digital Virus
ADSL
subscriber line Information & communication
am ICT
Ante meridiem technology
ATM
Automated teller machine International English Language
BA IELTS Testing System
Bachelor of Arts
BBC IQ Intelligent quotient
British Broadcasting
Cooperation IT Information Technology
BC Before Christ MA Master of Arts
BSc Bachelor of Science MBA Master of Business
CAE Certificate in Advanced Administration
English MC Master of Ceremonies
CD Compact disc MP Member of Parliament
CD-I Compact disc interactive MSc Master of Science

54
CD-R Compact disc recordable PC Personal Computer
CD- Compact disc read-only- PET Preliminary English Test
ROM memory PhD Doctor of Philosophy
CD- Compact disc rewritable PIN Personal Identification Number
RW
PM Prime Minister
CELTA Certificate in English pm post meridiem
Language Teaching to
REM Rapid eye movement
Adults
SARS Severe acute respiratory
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
syndrome
CID Criminal Investigation
TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign
Department
language
Cable News Network
CNN
Certificate of Proficiency in TESL
CPE Teaching English as a second
English
language
Diploma in English
DELTA Language Teaching English to Speakers
TESOL of other languages
DIY Do-it-yourself TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign
DJ Disc jockey language
D.O.B Date of Birth TOEIC Test of English for
DVD Digital video disc International Communication
EAP English for Academic UEFA Union of European Football
ELT Purpose Association
UV
ESL English Language Teaching Ultraviolet
VAT
ESOL English as a second Value added tax
VCR
Language Video Cassette Recorder
VHF
English for Speakers of Very high frequency
other languages VHS
Video Home System
English for specific VIP
ESP Very Important Person
purposes VP
ETA Vice-President
Estimated time of arrival VSO
ETD Voluntary Service Overseas
Estimated time of departure WC
FA Water closet
Football Association WTO
FC World Trade Organization
Football Club WWW
FCE World wide web
First Certificate in English
FIFA
Federation International de
Football Association

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6. Blending
Blending is the fusion of words into one. These words are called blends that are
created from parts of two already existing lexical items. Well-known examples of
blends include motel from motorist hotel, brunch for breakfast and lunch, selectric
from select and electric, telethon from telephone and marathon, dancercise from
dance and exercise, and chortle, coined by Lewis Carroll as a blend of chuckle and
snort. Usually, the first part of one word and the last part of the second one are
combined to form a blend. Sometimes, though, only the first word is clipped, as in
perma-press for „permanent-press‟.
"Smirting happens when two people, smoking outside, fall to flirting, and
discover that they have more in common than simply nicotine. In Ireland, where the
term originated after the ban in 2004, there is even evidence of non-smokers joining
the smoky throng outside because the atmosphere there is more flirtatious.
Recently many magazines and television programs such as US Weekly, People
Magazine, Entertainment Tonight, and Access Hollywood use portmanteaux of the
names of celebrity couples. The original was "Bennifer" (originally for Ben Affleck
and Jennifer Lopez, later revived as "Bennifer 2" or "Bennifer Jr." for Affleck and
Jennifer Garner, who are now married); other widely used names include Tomkat (for
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), Brangelina (for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), and
Vaughniston (for Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston). In politics, "Billary" was used
during the early years of President Bill Clinton's administration regarding the active
role played by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Many TV shows' fans tend to do this with the names of their favorite couples
like "Luby" for Abby Lockhart and Luka Kovac from ER, "Clois" for Lois Lane and
Clark Kent from Smallville, "Spuffy" for Buffy and Spike from Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, or in The Office "Ram" for Pam and Roy, "R. Kelly" for Ryan and Kelly,
"Jam" for Jim and Pam and "Dwangela" for Dwight and Angela. This also happens in
other fandoms, such as the Harry Potter fandom with "Harmony" for Harry and
Hermione or "Heron" for Hermione and Ron. Wikipedia is a blend made from wiki
and encyclopedia, and Wiktionary, one of Wikipedia's sister projects, is a blend of
wiki and dictionary. Elsewhere, Nabisco is a blend of the initial syllables of National
Biscuit Company.
Most blends are formed by one of the following methods:
1. The beginning of one word is added to the end of the other. For example,
brunch is a blend of breakfast and lunch. This is the most common method of
blending.
2. The beginnings of two words are combined. For example, cyborg is a blend of
cybernetic and organism.
3. One complete word is combined with part of another word. For example,
Wikipedia is a blend of wiki and encyclopedia.

56
 4. Two words are blended around a common sequence of sounds. For example,
the word Californication, from a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is a blend
of California and fornication.
5. Multiple sounds from two component words are blended, while mostly
preserving the sounds' order. Poet Lewis Carroll was well known for these
kinds of blends. An example of this is the word slithy, a blend of lithe and
slimy. This method is difficult to achieve and is considered a sign of Carroll's
verbal wit.
When two words are combined in their entirety, the result is considered a
compound word rather than a blend. For example, bagpipe is a compound, not a
blend, of bag and pipe.
Here is the list of some blends.
 agitprop (agitation + propaganda)
 alcopop (alcohol + pop)
 bash (bat + mash)
 biopic (biography + picture)
 Breathalyzer (breath + analyzer)
 camcorder (camera + recorder)
 chexting (cheating + texting)
 clash (clap + crash)
 cosmeceutical (cosmetic + pharmaceutical)
 docudrama (documentary + drama)
 electrocute (electricity + execute)
 emoticon (emote + icon)
 faction (fact + fiction)
 fanzine (fan + magazine)
 flare (flame + glare)
 flirtationship (flirting + relationship)
 glimmer (gleam + shimmer)
 Globish (global + English)
 guitarthritis (guitar + arthritis)
 infotainment (information + entertainment)
 palimony (pal + alimony)
 pornacopia (pornography + cornucopia)
 pulsar (pulse + quasar)
 sexcapade (sex + escapade)
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 sexploitation (sex + exploitation)
 sitcom (situation + comedy)
 slanguage (slang + language)
 smash (smack + mash)
 sportscast (sports + broadcast)
 stagflation (stagnation + inflation)
 staycation (stay home + vacation)
 telegenic (television + photogenic)
 textpectation (text message + expectation)
 workaholic (work + alcoholic)
7.Back-formation
Back-formation is a process whereby a word whose form is similar to that of a
derived form undergoes a process of deaffixation. Resurrect was original form in this
way from resurrection. Other back-formations in English include enthuse from
enthusiasm, donate form donation, and orient or orientate from orientation. A major
source of back-formations in English has been words that end with –en or –er and
have meanings involving the notion of an agent such as editor, peddler, swindler, and
stoker. Because hundreds of words ending in these affixes are the result of affixation,
it was assumed that these words too had been formed by adding –er or –or to a verb.
By the process of back-formation, this led to the conclusion that edit, peddle, swindle,
and stoke exist as simple verbs.
Back-formation continues to produce new words in modern English. Two
relatively recent products of this process are the verbs liaise from liaison and self-
destruct from self-destruction. The even more striking back-formation attrit, from
attrition, was often used by military officials during the recent Gulf War to refer to
the decimation of Iraqi troops (as in The enemy is 50 percent attritted). It is not
difficult to imagine a new instance of back-formation in English yielding forms such
as cush (from cushy), cessant (from incessant), sipid (from insipid), hairdress (from
hairdresser), burgle (from burglar), and so on. Indeed the verb tuit, a back-formation
from intuition, was recently heard on the radio!
Most compound verbs with the formation of a noun and a verb are formed by
backformation:
house-keeper  to housekeep
gate-keeper  to gatekeep
goal-keeper  to goalkeep
typewriter  to typewrite
babysitter  to babysit

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8.Sound imitation (onomatopoeic words)
Sound imitation is the way to form words by imitating sounds produced by
actions, things and so on.
There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation:
 Sounds produced by human beings, such as: to whisper, to giggle, to
mumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc.
 Sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz, to
bark, to moo, to twitter etc.
 Sounds produced by nature and objects, such as: to splash, to rustle, to
clatter, to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.
All languages have words that have been created to sound like the thing to
which they refer. Examples of such onomatopoeic words in English include buzz,
hiss.
In rhetoric, linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia is a figure of speech that
employs a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, that imitates, echoes, or
suggests the object it is describing, such as "bang" or "click", or animal noises such
as "moo", "quack" or "meow".
Sometimes onomatopoeic words have a very tenuous relationship with the
object they describe. The sound a dog makes is bow-wow (or woof-woof) in English,
gaf-gaf in Russian, ouah ouah in French, and wang-wang in Chinese.
Some animals are named after the sounds they make, especially birds such as
the cuckoo and chickadee. This practice is especially common in certain languages
such as Māori and therefore in names for birds borrowed from these languages.
Everyday sounds
List of Onomatopoeias
Some other very common English-language examples include:
 Bam  Boom  Cuckoo  Ding-Dong
 Bang  Burp  Hiccup  Mumble
 Beep  Boosh  Hiss  Murmur
 Boing  Buzz  Hush  Ping pong
 Bonk  Clang  Ka-boom  Pop
 Zap
Human sounds
Giggle, chuckle, hiccup, cough, mumble, murmur, scratch, scream
Machine sounds
Aside from the above, machines are usually described with:

59
  Automobile - "honk" or "beep-beep" for the horn, "vroom" for the engine,
"screech" for the tires
 Train - "clickety-clack" crossing rail splices (when tracks were individual
sections, not welded), "choo-choo" for the steam pistons, "woo-woo" for the
whistle.
 Cash register - "ka-ching"/"ca-ching"/"cha-ching"/"che-ching"
 Jet - "whoosh"
 Electric Guitar Power Chord - "kerrang"
Animal sounds
For animal sounds, these words are typically used in English:
 Bird - "chirp", "tweet"
o Chicken - "cluck", "cackle", "bawk", "bwak", "buck", "puckuck"
o Crow - "caw"
o Dove - "coo", "roo-coo"
o Duck - "quack"
o Owl - "whoo", "hoo" or "hoot"
o Rooster - "cock-a-doodle-doo", "tiktilaok" (PH)
o Turkey - "gobble"
 Insects - "buzz"
o Bee - "buzz", "bzzz"
 Mammals
o Lion - "roar", "rawr"
o Cow - "moo"
o Dog - "woof", "ruff", "arf", "grrr", "bow-wow" (see bark)
o Dolphin - "click"
o Donkey - "hee-haw"
o Horse - "neigh", "whinny", "snort"
o Human - "prattle", "blab", "blah blah", "murmur", "brouhaha", "bar
bar", "yadda yadda", "ra ra ra", "squee", "sarumph"
o Mouse/Rat - "squeak"
o Pig - "oink", "wee-wee-wee", "squeal", "soo-wee"
o Sheep - "baa"
o Wolf - "howl", "aroo"
 Reptiles
o Snake - "hiss", "sss"

60
  Amphibians
o Frog - "ribbit", "croak" (Note: many species of frog make different
calls.)
o Toad - "tibbur"/"tibbir"
Some of these words are used both as nouns and as verbs.
9. Words from names
The creativity of word formation is sometimes possible from proper names of
individuals or places. Scientific terms such as newton, ohm, ampe(re), watt, curie,
talet, Pythagorean proposition, and fahrenheit provide examples of words derived
from the names of individuals associated with the things to which they refer. Brand
names sometimes become so widely used that they are accepted as generic terms
(kleenex for „facial tissue‟ or xerox for „photocopy‟).
Some typical examples of new words from proper names are:
sandwich: name of the Earl of Sandwich, an English man who liked playing
cards, asking for some roast meat between two pieces of bread to eat while playing
cards.
hamburger: food originated from a city in German

EXERCISES
1. Which means of word – building did the waiter use to make the word
“shave” in the following joke.
A custom sat down at a table in a smart restaurant and tied a snap-kin around
his neck. The annoyed manager called a waiter and instructed him, “Try to make him
understand, as tactfully as possible, that that‟s not done here”.
Said the thoughtful waiter to the custom: “Pardon me, sir. Shave or haircut sir?”
2. Explain the following joke: “Mum! Is it correct to say you water a horse
when he is thirsty?” - “Yes, quite correct.” - “Then,” (picking up a saucer) “I‟ll milk
the cat now.”
3. Pick out all the ways of word-formation in this story.
“ An elderly lady was seated next to a young couple who were discussing the merits
of their motor cars they‟d just bought after seeing an ad on T.V:
“What colour is your body?” asked the young man, meaning of course the body of
her motor car.”
“Oh, mine is pink. What is yours?”
“Mine”, replied the man, “is brown”.
This was too much for the old lady. Rising form her table, she exclaimed:

61
“when young people come to asking each other the colour of their bodies at dinner-
party, it is the time I left the room”.
4. Which is the proper derivation of unknowledgeable? Explain.

a) b) c)

5. Consider the following words in term of compounding.

a) Holiday trip b) Holiday car trip c) Holiday car sightseeing trip
i. Identify the stress of the above words
ii. Draw a tree structure for each of the above words:
6. The words in column A have been created from the corresponding words in
column B. Indicate the word formation process responsible for the creation of
each word in column A.
Column A Column B
(a) stagflation stagnation + inflation
(b) nostril nosu + thyrl 'hole' (in Old English)
(c) bookie bookmaker
(d) van caravan
(e) Amerindian American Indian
(f) CD compact disc
(g) RAM random access memory
(h) televise television
(i) xerox xeroxography
(j) telathon television + marathon
(k) sci-fi science fiction
(l) elect election
(m) deli delicatessen

62
(n) scuba self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
(o) scavenge scavenger
(p) hazmat hazardous material

7. The words in column 2 have been created from the corresponding word in
column 1. Indicate the word formation process responsible for the creation of
each one in column 2.
Column 1 Column2
a) Automation automate
b) Humid humidifier
c) Love, seat loveseat
d) Envelope envelop
e) Typographical error typo
f) Aerobics, marathon aerobathon
g) Act deactivate
h) Curve, ball curve ball
i) Perambulator pram
j) (a) comb comb (your hair)
k) beef, buffalo beefalo
l) random access memory RAM
m) megabyte meg
n) teleprinter, exchange telex
o) influenza flu

8. Here are five instances in which a new word is needed. Create a word
for each of these definitions using the word formation process suggested. Fill in
the blanks with your new words.
a. Use an acronym…..for your uncle‟s second oldest brother.
“We visited my ................. at Christmas.
b. Use onomatopoeia…..for the sound of a coffee percolator at work.
“I can‟t concentrate because my perk is ................. ing.”

63
c. Use conversion…..for wrapping something breakable in bubbles.
“You‟d better.................that ornament or else it might break.”
d. Use a compound…..........for the annoying string of cheese stretching from a slice
of hot pizza to one‟s mouth.”
“As the.................hung precariously from my lips, our eyes met!”
e. Use backformation…..for the action of backformation.
“We had to.................words in Linguistics today.”
9. Create new words for each of the following situations.
a. Use a product name……for the act of scrubbing with Ajax.
“I.................ed the tub after giving Fido a bath.”
b. Use a proper name….......for the act of breaking dishes, which Jonathan does
regularly.
“He‟s going to.................all of my best dishes.”
c. Use clipping….. for a course in ovinology (the study of sheep)
“Have you done your.................assignment yet ?”
d. Use derivation…......for being able to be contacted.
“The counselor is not very..................”
e. Use a blend….....for a hot drink made with milk and nutmeg.
“I‟ll have a.................and two peanut butter cookies, please.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Aronoff, M. & Fudeman, K. (2005). What is Morphology? 2nd edn. Willey
Blackwell.
2. Arnold, I.V (1986). The English Word. Moscow.
3. Bloomfield, L. (1935). Language. London.
4. Fromkin, V. and Rodman, R. (1993). An Introduction to Language. 5th edn.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich college Publishers.
5. Greenbaum, S. (1996). The Oxford English Grammar. Oxford University Press.
6. Jackson, H. (1980). Analyzing English. Pergamon Institute of English .
7. Lyons, J. (1969). Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge University
Press.
8. Matthews, P.H. (1991), Morphology, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
9. Quirk, R.et al (1973). A University Grammar of English. Longman Group Ltd.

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10. Richards, J.; Platt, J. and Weber, H. (1987). Longman Dictionary of Applied
Linguistics Longman.
11. Sapir, E. (1925). Language – An Introduction to the Study of Speech. London.
12. Stageberg, N.C (1965). An Introductory English Grammar. Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, Inc.
13. Ho ng T t Tr ng (1993). asic English Lexicology.
14. L V n S (2003). C m nang g m-T v ng-C ph p Ti ng nh. B n
h a th ng tin.

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 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

TẬP BÀI GIẢNG

MORPHOLOGY

Bình Định, 2020

66
 CONTENT
Page

Introduction to Morphology 1

Chapter 1: Morphemes 3

Chapter 2: Morphophonemics 27

Chapter 3: Immediate Constituents in Morphology 34

Chapter 4: Words 37

Chapter 5: Word Formation 42

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68