Morphology 16/23.11.

2021
The Analysys of Word Structure

Morphology chapter.pdf 10 MB

WORD - the smallest miningful unit of language that can occur on their own - a free
form, consists of morphemes (bricks kinda) - simple words (only one morpheme),
more than one morpheme - complex word
Free morphemes - words
Bound morphemes - must be attached to sth else (e.g. un-, -s etc)
Allomorphs - a contextual variant of a certain morpheme
1. AFFIX
prefixes-
-infixes-
-suffixes
hunt   |  er  | s
root    |        |                (once a root, always a root)
base   |        |
      base      |
2. DERIVATION
uses an affix to build a word with a meaning and/or category different in the
beginning

un + adjective
adjective + ness
[[un[happy]Adj]Adj ness]N

3.COMPOUNDING
the category of a compound is determined by the last word of the compound
(the head of the compound)
december 7th - midsemester test

Compounding
compounds two roots/basis
the most to the right is the head of the compound
the head determines the categoty of the entire word
Endocentric - predictable meaning
Exocentric - their meaning is unpreductable

Derivation (Formation)
processes by which words are created in languages

Inflection
a way of changing grammatical context of a word
does not change the meaning nor the category of a word

Differences between derivation and inflection

 change of meaning and/or category - derivation
order - if there is derivation AND inflection, derivation always happens first
productivity - inflection happens more often in English

Types of inflection
nominal inflection - nouns
number
noun class
case
verbal inflection - verbs
person and number agreement
tense
aspect - -ing
(passive) voice - -ed
adjectivle inflection
-er and -est

Morphological processes
1. affixation - a process of adding pre, in or suffixes
2. cliticization - a process of attaching clitics - John's, I'm, isn't, They've

Internal change - nonmorphemic part a letter, for example, changes inside of the
world
sing -> sang                          
tooth -> teeth
mouse -> mice
drive -> drove

Supletion - grammaticaly related, morphologicaly - completely not

one - first
be - was/were

Conversion - (zero derivation, with or without stress shift)

nothing changes in the word bu the category changes (most often verb-noun)

Clipping (shortening of a polysyllabic word)

sci-fi (clipping compund, same as FedEx)
burger
 bye
Sue

Blending (words created from non-morphemic parts of two already existing items)
motel
modem
brunch

Backformation (deaffixation, a new word is created by removing affix(es) from

existing words)
editor -> edit
donation -> donate

Acronyms
NATO
NASA
SCUBA
Initialisms
UK
BBC
CD

Onomatopoeia (words imitating sounds)

woof - woof

Coinages (neologisms)
kodak
watt
cleanex
xerox

Affixation (inflection but with -ed endings)

try/tried