POLYTHECNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Binan Campus

AY. 2022 - 2023

First Semester

MORPHOLOGY

A Written Report
Presented to Ms. Lennette Bersamin
Instructor, Introduction to Linguistics

Prepared by:
Marcellana, Roland
Bautista, Benjamin Karl
Arroyo, Mel Rose
San Juan, Princess Jodi

Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English 1-1

January 2023
Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1:
● General Meeting and Division of Topics ………………………………. 3-4

Chapter 2:
● Objectives ………………………………………………………………... 5
● List of Contents …………………………………………………………. 5-6
● Report Content
⮚ Introduction of Morphology (August Schleicher) ………………... 6
⮚ Definition of Word ………………………………………………….. 6-7
⮚ 6 Ways to form new Words ……………………………………….. 7
⮚ Introduction to Morphology………………………………………… 7-8
⮚ Affixes ……………………………………………………………….. 8-9
⮚ Roots and Base …………………………………………………….. 9
● Branches of Morphology
⮚ Derivational Morphology …………………………………………… 10
⮚ Types of Derivational Morphology ………………………………… 10-11
⮚ Inflectional Morphology …………………………………………….. 11
⮚ 8 Inflectional Morphemes …………………………………………... 11
⮚ Main features of Inflectional Morphology …………………………. 12
⮚ Lexical Morph …………………………………………………………12
⮚ Second Language phonology …………………………………….. 12
 References ………………………………………………………………….13
Introduction

The main objective of this written report is to present the general

preparation process of the group, where the presenters created a skeletal
structure about the assigned topic which is Morphology.

This report aims to provide a general overview about the preparation,

construction, and rehearsal have been made by the group. The content and
the informations gathered to create the presentation came from various
sources cited at the end of this report.

Chapter 1
General Meeting and Division of Topics

The group conducted a meeting via google meet to share their ideas about
the given topic. Each member are responsible for gathering information about
the topic and sub-topic given to them. The following table shows the
distribution among the members:
Topics Assigned Member
● August Schleicher
● Definition of Word Bautista, Benjamin Karl
⮚ 6 ways to form new word
● Definition of Morphology
⮚ Morpheme
⮚ Two types of morphemes
⮚ Affixes Marcellana, Roland
⮚ Prefix
⮚ Suffix
● Root and Base
● Branche of Morphology
● Derivational Morphology
⮚ Derivational Prefix Arroyo, Mel Rose
⮚ Derivational Suffix
⮚ Noun-forming Suffix
⮚ Suffix-ER
● Branche of Morphology
● Inflectional Morphology
⮚ 8 Inflectional Morpheme
● Main features of Inflectional San Juan, Princess Jodi
Morphemes
● Lexical Morph
● Second language morpheme
Chapter 2

Presentation Proper

Objectives
After the presentation, students are expected to:

● familiarize the internal structure of words

● Distinguish derivational to inflectional morphemes
● knows the importance of affixes on every sentences
● develop their language and;
● compare and contrast the systematic difference in morphology

Presentation Structure
Activity Member
Introduction Greetings
Morphology
(Auguste Schleicher)
Bautista
Engagement What is word?
Discussion 6 Ways to form new
word
Morphology
Morpheme
Marcellana
Engagement Exercise
Discussion Affixes
Root and Base
Derivational
Morphology
San Juan
Derivational Prefix
Derivational Suffix
Noun-forming Suffix
Suffix-ER
Inflectional Morphology
 8 Inflectional
Morphemes
Main Features of
Arroyo
Inflectional Morphemes
Lexical Morph
Second Language
Morpheme
Conclusion/ Recap/summarization Bautista
Assessment of the discussion

Introduction

August Schleicher
August Schleicher (German: [aʊɡʊst ˈʃlaɪçɐ]; February 19, 1821 –
December 6, 1868) was a German linguist. A Compendium of the
Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages, his magnum opus,
attempted to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language. August
Schleicher is the 13th most popular linguist (down from the 12th in 2019), the
606th most popular German biography (down from the 572nd in 2019), and
the third most popular German Linguist. August Schleicher is best known for
his contributions to comparative linguistics, particularly Indo-European
linguistics. He is best known for his contributions to the understanding of Indo-
European languages and his work in comparative linguistics.

What is Word?
Words are thus both independent in the sense that they can be
separated from other words and moved around in sentences, and the smallest
units of language in the sense that they are the only units of language that
can do so. When we talk about words, we divide them into two categories:
lexical (or content) words and function (or grammatical) words. Open class
words are lexical words that include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
New words can be added to this group on a regular basis. Conjunctions,
prepositions, articles, and pronouns are examples of function words, and new
words cannot (or are only rarely) added to this class.

SIMPLE WORDS: Don ‘t have internal structure (only consist of one

morpheme) e.g., work, build, run. They can ‘t be split into smaller parts which
carry meaning or function. 
 COMPLEX WORDS: Have internal structure (consist of two or more
morphemes) e.g., worker: affix -er added to the root work to form a noun. 

6 Ways to form new Words

There are six ways to form new words;
 Compounds are a combination of words.
 Acronyms are derived from the initials of words.
 Back-formations are created from removing what is mistakenly
considered to be an affix.
 Abbreviations or clippings are shortening longer words.
 Eponyms are created from proper nouns (names).
 Blending is combining parts of words into one.

Discussion Proper

Definition of Morphology
Morphology
Morphology is derived from the Greek words morph- meaning ‘shape,
form,' and -ology, which means ‘study of something'. It is a word's internal
structure. It is the study of the internal structure of words and is now an
important part of linguistic research. It is the study of word structure; the
formation of words and how their formation interacts with other aspects of
grammar such as phonology and syntax.

Morpheme
The study of words is known as morphology. Morphemes are the
smallest units of meaning in words that cannot be further subdivided. There
are two kinds: bound and free. Free morphemes can occur alone, whereas
bound morphemes must occur in conjunction with another morpheme. A free
morpheme is "book," and a bound morpheme is "s." It is bound because,
while it has meaning, it cannot stand alone. It must be combined with another
morpheme to form a word.
Free Morpheme: able
Bound Morpheme: un-
Word: unable

Exercise

Let’s try this!

Determine the Free and Bound Morpheme among the following words.
1. Undo
Answer: Free: {do} Bound: {un}
2. Rearrange
Answer: Free: {arrange} Bound: {re}
3. Friendly
Answer: Free: {friend} Bound: {ly}
4. Brighten
Answer: Free: {bright} Bound: {en}
5. Cheaper
Answer: Free: {cheap} Bound: {er}

Affixes
Affixes are frequently used as the bound morpheme. Prefixes,
suffixes, infixes, and circumfixes are all members of this group. Prefixes are
letters that are added to the beginning of another morpheme, suffixes are
letters that are added to the end, infixes are letters that are inserted into other
morphemes, and circumfixes are letters that are attached to another
morpheme at both the beginning and end . Following are examples of each of
these: 
Prefix: pre- added to fix produces prefix 

Suffix: -er added to build produces builder 

Infix: -s- added to passerby produces passersby

Circumfix: en- and -ment to courage produces encouragement  

En-, for example, is an English prefix that changes the part of speech.
which converts bases to verbs, en-which converts nouns to verbs, and a-
which converts nouns to adverbs. Un-, in-, dis-, re-, mis-, pre-, and a- are the
other prefixes that do not change the part of speech. Noun-forming suffixes
such as -er, -ment, -ness, and -ion; adjective-forming suffixes such as -full
and -less; verb-forming suffixes such as -en, -ify, and -ize; and adverb-
forming suffixes such as -ly are examples of English suffixes that change part
of speech.

Root and Base

Stem (Base)
In English grammar and morphology, a stem is the form of a word
before any inflectional affixes are added. In English, most stems also qualify
as words. The term base is commonly used by linguists to refer to any stem
(or root) to which an affix is attached.

Example:
“Activity” = {active} + {ity}
Stem = {active}

“Active” = {act} + {ive}

Stem = {act}

Roots
A root word is the primary form of a word while a base word is a word
that can stand on its own. A root word may or may not have a meaning while
a base word has a meaning on its own. A root word is the basic linguistic unit,
and it is the original form of a word while a base word is a word in its simplest
form.

Example: root: {act} can be acts, active, activity, activism, react, reenact, and
etc.

So be guided that all roots are bases because they are the smallest chunk

that stays the same despite additions. Not all bases are roots though,
because sometimes the root + inflection or root + derivation goes on to take
additional changes. (Walker is a base, but the root is still walk). Stems are just
bases when you are talking about inflectional changes (-ed, -ing, -s, etc.).
Branches of Morphology

Derivational Morphology
A derivational morpheme is one that creates a new lexeme from a base
(Bauer, 1988: 12). According to Sari (1988: 82), derivational morphemes are
bound morphemes that derive (create) new words by changing the meaning,
the part of speech, or both. The bound morpheme -ness in the word
happiness creates a new word by changing both the meaning and the part of
speech. Happiness is an adjective, but the derived word is a noun. Some
derivational morphemes generate new meaning while remaining in the same
syntactic category or part of speech. For example, the word unhappy is made
up of the base happy and the derivational morpheme (prefix) un-. Unhappy is
also an adjective, as is the derived word happy. Derivational morphemes in
English can be prefixes or suffixes. In English, all prefixes are derived. In
English, all prefixes change the meaning but do not change the syntactic
category.

In other words, as previously described, some derivational morphemes

change the part of speech while others do not. Derivational morphemes in
English can be both prefixes and suffixes. Based on the facts stated above,
there are two types of English derivational morphemes: derivational prefixes
and derivational suffixes.

Derivational Prefixes

All prefixes in English are derivational, which means that they all
create new meaning or words. The formation of new meaning can be
accompanied or not by a change in part of speech. The majority of prefixes
have no effect on the part of speech. The prefix en-, for example, is a prefix
that changes the part of speech. The prefix en- transforms bases into verbs.
For example, the word enlarge is made up of the prefix en- and the base
large. With the prefix en-, the adjective large is transformed into the new verb
enlarge. The prefix en-in the word endanger converts it from a noun to a
verb. With the prefix a- in aside, the noun side becomes the adverb aside.
Example:

Visible – {in} + {visible} = invisible

Create – {re} + {create} = recreate

Terminate – {de} = {terminate} = determinate

Derivational Suffixes

The majority of English derivational suffixes change the part of

speech. There are fewer derivational suffixes that do not change the part of
speech than there are derivational prefixes. -ist in artist and dentist; ian in
musician and librarian; and -hood in childhood, neighborhood, brotherhood,
and motherhood are derivational suffixes that do not change the part of
speech. The following is a list of derivational affixes that alter the part of
speech.
Noun-forming Suffix

Noun-forming suffixes are the derivational suffixes which change the

words or morphemes to nouns. The following is the explanation of
derivational suffixes which form nouns
Example: cutter, assignment, happiness

Where {happy} is an adjective plus {ness} = Happiness which is a noun.

Suffix ER

The suffix –er attached to a verb is a derivational morpheme which

change   verbs to a noun. The suffix creates a new meaning, which is a
person who performs an action ‘.

Inflectional Morphology
Inflection in grammar is defined as "a change in or addition to the form
of a word that shows a change in the way it is used in sentences" by the
Cambridge dictionary. English's inflectional morphemes system is regarded
as quite poor because it has very little inflectional morphology in comparison
to other languages (Denham & Lobeck 158) Thus, there are only 8
inflectional morphemes that indicate at the form and the tense of a word. 
The list of inflectional morphemes includes:

s – is an indicator of a plural form of nouns

s ‘– marks the possessive form of nouns

s – is attached to verbs in the third person

singular

ed – is an indicator of the past tense of verbs

ing – indicates the present participle

en – marks past participle

er – is attached to adjectives to show a

comparative form 

est – is an indicator of the superlative form of adjectives

Main Features
It is important to note that inflectional morphemes do not generate new
words. They only alter the form of a word to indicate its grammatical function
(Denham & Lobeck 69). As a result, certain inflectional affixes serve to create
specific forms of the word. That is their main distinction from another type of
morpheme, derivational morphemes, which are used to create new words in
English. Because of the quirks of English morphology, morphemes indicating
plural form and past tense form can have different pronunciations. As a
result, some inflectional morphemes may have multiple allomorphs. In
English morphology, for example, the choice of allomorph may be influenced
by phonetic or grammatical factors (Brinton & Brinton 91). Phonetically
determined allomorphs in inflectional morphemes indicate plural forms and
present tense forms [s], [z], [iz], as well as signs of the past tense form [t] and
[d].

Morphological Composition
It is also necessary to distinguish the concept of morphs from the
concept of inflectional morphemes. A lexical morph, according to Brinton and
Brinton, is the concrete realization of a morpheme, i.e., how the word is
actually pronounced (Brinton & Brinton 83). For example, words like fish and
sheep do not have a distinct plural form; they are written and pronounced in
the same way as singular words. The word, however, is used in the plural
form (due to context). Words in English morphology have zero morphs, which
have no phonetic or written realization.

Second Language Phonology

One of the first important factors influencing affixation in English is
phonology (Brinton & Brinton 11). It is the study of English sounds. According
to legend, people can produce a wide range of sounds. People do not use
every sound they can make in their native language; the range of sounds in
each language is quite limited.

As a result, sounds that are not used in other languages appear in

different languages. For example, sounds like [Δ] can be quite perplexing for
learners of English as a second language, especially if such a sound does
not exist in their native language. [d] is frequently used to replace the sound
[Δ]. The parallel distribution of these sounds explains this.
Thus, at the upper teeth, [Δ] is produced, and at the upper gum, [d] is
produced. This could explain why these sounds frequently substitute each
other. This phenomenon can be illustrated by the following words: that [dat],
dog [dag], head [hεd], leather [lεΔə], and leader [liΔə].

Other examples of commonly substituted sounds include [s] and [ʃ].

This set of sounds is also distinguished by parallel distribution; both sounds
are produced in roughly the same location, at the upper gum. These sounds
confusion may be exemplified by the following sets: sing [ʃɪŋ], sat [sat], loss
[lɑs], fish [fɪʃ], miss [mɪʃ], push [pus]. 
References:

 Cariño, T., Instructional Materials for Introduction to

Linguistics
INSTRUCTIONAL-MATERIAL-FOR-iNTRO-TO-
LINGUISTICS.docx - Google Docs
 Aze Linguistics. Affix, Root, Stem, Base. [YouTube]
(428) Affix, Root, Stem, Base - YouTube
 Andriyani, E., (2013). Morphology (Morpheme & Allomorph).
6. morphology (morpheme & allomorph) (slideshare.net)
 Pantheon. August Schleicher.
https://pantheon.world/profile/person/August_Schleicher/