MORPHOLOGY : THE STRUCTURE OF
WORDS
MORPHOLOGY
• Morphology deals with the syntax of complex
words and parts of words, also called morphemes,
as well as with the semantics of their lexical
meanings.
Free and Bound Morpheme
• Analysis at a morphological level is concerned
with structural elements of meaning called
morphemes. Morphemes are classified into two
types:
• Free Morphemes: girl, boy, mother, etc. These
are words with a complete meaning, so they can
stand alone as an independent word in a sentence
Bound Morphemes: These are lexical items
incorporated into a word as a dependent part. They
cannot stand alone, but must be connected to
another morpheme.
Bound morphemes operates in the connection
processes by means of derivation, inflection, and
compounding.
DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
Derivation is concerned with the way
morphemes are connected to existing lexical
forms as affixes.
• We distinguish affixes in two principal types:
•1. Prefixes - attached at the beginning of a
lexical item or base morpheme – ex: un-, pre-,
post-, dis, im-, etc.
• 2. Suffixes – attached at the end of a lexical
item ex: -age, -ing, -ful, - able, -ness, -hood, -ly,
etc
Derivational affixes can cause semantic change:
Prefix pre- means before; post- means after; un-
means not, re means again. Prefix = fixed before;
Unhappy = not happy = sad; Retell = tell again.
Prefix de- added to a verb conveys a sense of
subtraction; disand un- have a sense of negativity.
To decompose; to defame; to uncover; to discover.
INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY
• Inflection is a morphological process that
adapts existing words so that they function
effectively in sentences without changing the
category of the base morpheme. English has the
following inflectional suffixes:
Two Broad Classes of Morphology
• Inflectional Morphology
- Combination of stem and morpheme resulting in
word of same class
- Usually fills a syntactic feature such as
agreement
• Derivational Morphology
-Combination of stem and morpheme usually
results in a word of a different class
-Meaning of the new word may be hard to predict
Regular and Irregular Verbs
• Regulars…
-Walk, walks, walking, walked, walked
• Irregulars
- Eat, eats, eating, ate, eaten • Catch, catches,
catching, caught, caught • Cut, cuts, cutting, cut,
cut
Derivational Morphology
• Derivational morphology is the messy stuff that
no one ever taught you.
• Quasi-systematicity
• Irregular meaning change
• Changes of word class
Clauses: have a subject and a verb
•There are two types of clauses:
-Independent clause
- Dependent (subordinate) clause
Independent clauses EX: Speeches are fun, but completing worksheets
is not fun.
An independent clause has a subject and a verb.
It can stand by itself as a complete sentence. Complex sentences

- We wanted to get home before the rainstorm. - I • Contain 1 independent clause and 1 dependent
earned an A on my research paper. clause

Dependent clauses • They are typically joined with a comma or

• A dependent clause has a subject and a verb,
but it cannot stand by itself as a complete
sentence.
• Dependent clauses often have transitional
adverbs which clue the reader into it being a
dependent clause:
without punctuation:
• EX: I ate breakfast because I was hungry.
Compound- complex sentences
• Contain 2 or more independent clauses and 1
dependent clause.

• Which • Because • Even though • When • EX: Students always turn their work in on time,
and their parents are happy because they work so
• Which is why we left early. hard.

• Because I worked on my citations every night. SIMPLE TENSES

Sentence types • 1. PRESENT TENSE

• There are four different sentence types: • 2. PAST TENSE

-Simple • 3. FUTURE TENSE

-Compound PRESENT TENSE

-Complex * Present tense—action of the verb is happening

now.
-Compound-complex
Ex: She talks now. Ex: They speak well
Simple Sentences
Past Tense
• Contain one independent clause (one subject
and verb combination) • Action of the verb has already happened.

• They stand by themselves as complete sentences. • To make a verb past tense, add –ed if it is a
regular verb.
• EX: My dog ate the pizza.
• Ex: She talked yesterday.
Compound Sentence
Irregular verb—use past from the chart
-Contain 2 independent clauses.
Ex: They spoke well.
• The clauses are joined in one of two ways:
FUTURE TENSE
1) A comma and a conjunction
• The action of the verb has not happened yet,
2) A semicolon but it will.
EX: My dog ate the pizza, and my cat drank all the • To make a verb future tense, add will or shall to
Gatorade. the front of the verb.
• Ex: She will talk tomorrow. • Ex: They will
speak well
PROGESSIVE TENSES
• Made up of a verb phrase
• Main verb uses—ing at the end of ALL
progressive tenses.
PRESENT PROGRESSIVE TENSE
• This tense is used to describe an action that is
occurring right now (at this moment, today, this
year, etc.).
The action has begun and is still in progress.
• Uses the helping verbs am, is, and are
• Ex: I am talking to you. • Is will be used if your
subject is singular. • Ex: She is talking to you.
• Ex: They are talking to you
PAST PROGRESSIVE TENSE
• The past progressive is used to talk about an
activity that was in progress at a specific point of
time in the past. The emphasis is on the duration of
the activity in the past.
• Uses the helping verbs was and were • Use was if
your subject is singular.
• Ex: He was talking to you.
• Use were if your subject is plural. • Ex: They
were talking to you
PERFECT TENSES
• Is made up of a verb phrase
• Add –ed to the end of the main verb if the action
verb is a regular verb. • Use perfect tense chart if
verb is irregular.
• Uses helping verbs have, has, or had BEFORE
the main verb.
PRESENT PERFECT TENSE
• The present perfect is used to talk about an
event that began in the past and continues up to
the present.
• Use has if your subject is singular. • Ex: She has
talked to you already. • Use have if your subject is
plural.
• Ex: They have talked to you already. • Ex with
irregular verb: She has known you for a while.
PAST PERFECT TENSE
• This tense describes completed events that took
place in the past before another past event.
• Uses the helping verb had plus the main verb
with – ed on the end if it is a regular verb.
• Example: She had talked to you before you
ordered the gift.
• Example (irregular verb) They had known about
the play.
FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
This tense is used to describe an event or action
that will be completed before another event or
time in the future.
Uses will have with the main verb ending in –ed if
it is a regular verb.
Irregular verb also uses will have +the main verb
from column labeled perfect tense.
Ex: I will have studied for the test before the
circus comes to town.
Ex: (irregular verb) I will have gone to the store
before you get home