A MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF INFLECTIONAL VERB IN “THE

CAPITAL OF THE WORLD” - A SHORT STORY WRITTEN BY ERNEST

HEMINGWAY

THESIS PROPOSAL

Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for Bachelor Degree

(S.Pd) in English Education Program Faculty of Teacher Training and Education

By:

LALU MUH. KHAIRUL WARISI (E1D117051)

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MATARAM

2021
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presented the discussion on the background of the study,

research questions, objectives of the study, scope of the study, significance of the
study, and definition of key terms.

1.1 Background of Study

Morphology is a subfield of linguistics and the study of the internal
structure of words. It refers to a sub-discipline linguistically (Haspelmath,
2002). It is often used in a closely related sense, to denote a part of the
language system. The term morphology shares this ambiguity with other terms
such as syntax, phonology and grammar, which may also refer either to a part
of the language or to the study of that part of the language. Phonemes,
morphemes, lexemes, syntax, and context are the five major parts of language.
A morpheme is any item in our mental dictionary; it can be a word or a
portion of a word, such as a prefix (added to the beginning of a word) or a
suffix (added to the end of a word) (Fasold, 2006). “Words are classified into
two types of lexical classes: open classes and closed classes” (Booij 2005).
Open classes consist of Noun, Verb, and Adjective. While, closed classes
consist of Adverb, Determiner, Pronoun, conjunction and so on.
Affixation is a process of attaching an affix to the root either to the left
side or right side of the root. When an affix is attached to the end of the root or
to the right side of the root, it is called a suffix. For example, utter + {- ance}
= utterance. When an affix is attached to the front of the root or the left side of
the root, it is called a prefix. For example, {in-}+ direct = indirect. Prefixes
and suffixes are affixes attached to the bases or to various combinations of the
morphemes (Wardhaugh, 1987). Wardhaugh further states that English does
not use infixes, the nearest equivalent being the kind of situation that occurs in
the plural of man is men. In general, suffix changes the category of the word,
except those of inflectional morphemes. Whereas hardly any prefix changes
the category of the word.
 Inflectional morphology is the study of processes,
including affixation and vowel change, that distinguish word forms in
certain grammatical categories. Inflectional morphology differs from
derivational morphology or word-formation in that inflection deals with
changes made to existing words and derivation deals with the creation of new
words (Nordquist, 2020). Both inflection and derivation involve attaching
affixes to words, but inflection changes a word's form, maintaining the same
word, and derivation changes a word's category, creating a new word
(Aikhenvald 2007). We define inflection as those categories of morphology
that are regularly responsive to the grammatical environment in which they are
expressed. Inflection differs from derivation in that derivation is
a lexical matter in which choices are independent of the grammatical
environment," (Balthasar and Nichols 2007).

Inflection is the process of altering word form to show some

characteristics as number, gender, tense, etc. Verbs are inflected by taking
different forms depending on the grammatical function they fulfil. Put
otherwise, verb inflection is basically contextual not inherent. Tense, aspect,
person, number, gender, mood, voice, case and agreement are the usual
categories for which verbs inflect in many languages. Changes can touch the
internal structure of the stem or may be introduced by a prefix, an infix or a
suffix. Syncretism is also a phenomenon that is sometimes concomitant with
inflection: it entails that one morpheme serves as a marker of a considerable
number of categories (Rima 2022). English verbs are inflected for number
only with the third person singular using the morpheme {-s}; for example,
he/she/it leaves. Tense and aspect are combined; they cannot be discussed
separately.
Obviously, tense is the inflection on a verb with reference to the time
of the utterance (Quirk, 2010). Two tenses exist in English: the past and the
present. Since the expression of the future time does not involve any inflection
of the verb, no reference is made to the future tense. To start with, the simple
past form takes on two forms: the regular form which ends with the suffix -ed
and the irregular one which takes different unpredictable forms. As far as the
present simple is concerned, only the third person singular is marked for tense
using the suffix –s (as in he/she/it/ meets). We turn now to aspect. It is a term
used to describe the state of the verb action as beginning, in progress, or
completed (Al-jarf, 1994). Regarding the English language, it has the
progressive and the perfective aspects. The progressive, or the continuing
aspect, is indicated by the use of a form of the auxiliary.
The examples of inflectional verb found in the short story The Capital of The
World are:
1) “…splintered-tipped horns that lowered as he went in to kill…”
- Lowered

Lower (base or root) + ed (inflection which does not alter the word
class, but as a tense marker) = inflectional verb

Lower-ed consists of two morphemes. The first is “lower” as a basic

form, and “ed” as a tense marker. Morpheme “lower” is a verb, and “ed” is a
suffix (tense marker). A suffix is a bound morpheme which follows the root in
the form containing it (Trask in Hanafi, 2014). After, lowered is marked by the
Suffix “ed” it does not change the word-class from verb to others.

2) “Madrid is where one learns to understand. Madrid kills Spain.”

- Learns

Learn (root) + s (inflection which does not alter the word class, but as a
tense marker) = inflectional verb

Learn-s consists of two morphemes. The first is “learn” as a basic

form, and “s” as a tense marker. Morpheme “learn” is a verb, and “s” is an
inflectional suffix (tense marker). The suffix is a bound morpheme which
follows the root in the form containing it (Trask in Hanafi, 2014). After, learn
is marked by the Suffix “s” it does not change the word-class from verb to
others.
 The researcher chose the title by assuming that all of works of art
especially, short stories consist of affixation more precisely inflectional
affixes. He believes that explaining the inflectional verb in a Short Story is
very interesting, because if anyone understands the inflectional verb in a short
story, they are more interested in knowing structure of word in a story. Based
on the occurrences described above, the author considers for conducting a
research study entitled A Morphological Analysis of Inflectional Verb in
“The Capital of The World” - A Short Story Written by Ernest Hemingway.

1.2 Research Question

From the explanation above the research questions are formulated as

follows:

1. What are the types of verbal inflectional suffixes found in the short story
The Capital of The World by Ernest Hemingway?

2. What class of words is the most dominant in forming verbal inflectional

suffixes found in the short story The Capital of The World by Ernest
Hemingway?

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this study are:

1. To identify the types of verbal inflectional suffixes found in the short

story The Capital of The World by Ernest Hemingway.
2. To explain the class of words is the most dominant in forming the verbal
inflectional suffixes in the short story The Capital of The World by Ernest
Hemingway.
1.4 Scope of Study

This research focuses on discussing the verbal inflectional suffix; one

of the processes of word formation in English language, used in the short story
The Capital of The World by Ernest Hemingway.
1.5 Significances of Study

1.5.1 Theoretical Significance

The result of this study contributes to morphological analysis,
particularly the theory of verbal inflectional suffixes.

1.5.2 Practical Significance

The results of this study used to guide other researchers who
were interested in verbal inflectional suffixes. The study's findings help
readers to improve their knowledge of morphology, particularly verbal
inflectional suffixes.
1.6 Definition of key Terms

In order to avoid misunderstanding for the reader, it was important to

define the meaning of some key terms dealing with this research.

1.6.1 Inflection

We define inflection as those categories of morphology that

are regularly responsive to the grammatical environment in which they
are expressed (Balthasar and Nichols 2007). Inflected words go through
an affixation process, whereby a letter, or a number of letters, is added to
the base word to show the grammatical change.

1.6.2 Suffix

A suffix is a bound morpheme that follows the root in the form

containing it (Trask in Hanafi, 2006). The suffix adds to the verb, noun,
and adjective bases in English. A large number of English suffixes serve
as noun markers, while a few others serve as adjective markers. -ed, -s, -
es, –er, -or, -al, -an, -ate-, -cide, -ary, -dom, -ee, -eer, -ess, - fold, and –ic
are some of the English suffixes.
 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher explained the previous study, definition of
morphology, inflection, and affixation.
2.1 Previous Studies
There were some research conducted on this topic of derivational
affixes. The following are some of them:
Table 1. Previous Study
Researchers & Similarities Differences Results
Titles
a. Inflectional a. Using short a. The most founding
1. Adea as the subject story as an categories inflectional
Anggun of the object. suffixes were Verb
Novita Sari research General and and Noun. Verb with
(An b. Short Story not specific 68,6% and noun with
Analysis of as the object in 27,4%
Inflectional of the Discussion. b. Founding three types
Affixes in research. The b. The research of inflectional
Short Story research used does not affixation, they were
“Rumpelstilt Descriptive focused in noun, verb, and
skin” By Qualitative verbal adjective forming
The Brothers Method. inflectional suffix.
Grimm) suffixes.
(2022).
a. Inflectional a. Using the 1. Compared to
2. Siyaswati as the subject different derivational affixes,
(The English of the object of the inflectional affixes
Inflectional research. research. are less common.
Suffixes and b. Focusing the However, any
Derivational research in specific inflectional
Affixes in discussing suffix will be utilized
ELT) inflectional considerably more
(2019). suffixes. frequently than any
 specific derivational
affix. In comparison
to the derivational
morpheme -ness, the
inflectional
morpheme "plural"
occurs far more
frequently.

The first study was conducted in 2022 by Adea Anggun Novita Sari
(An Analysis of Inflectional Affixes in Short Story “Rumpelstiltskin” By The
Brothers Grimm). The study aims to determine the inflectional affixes and the
function of the inflectional affixes in the selected short story "Rumpelstiltskin"
by The Brothers Grimm. In analyzing the data, this study employed a
qualitative method. Based on the data, this study shows 102 inflectional
affixes found in this short story. The inflectional affixes that occur in nouns
show 28 words (27.4%), inflectional affixes that occur in verbs show 70 words
(68.6%) and inflectional affixes that occur in adjective show 4 words (4%).
Inflectional morphemes do not change the grammatical categories and do not
change meanings of the words attached to them. In detail, inflectional affixes
found in this short story consisted of the suffix "-s, -'s/-'s, -est, -s, -ed, -ing, -er,
and –en”. The suffix {–s} means plural. The suffix {–‘s or –s’} means
possessive. The suffix {–est} means superlative. The suffix {–er} means
comparative. The suffix {-ed} means past. The suffix {–ing} means present
participle or continuous. The suffix {–en} means the past participle. The most
common inflectional affixes found in the short story are the suffix {–ed} with
the number of 55 words. It indicates that the most dominant words used in this
short story are in simple past form.
The second was done by Siyaswati (2019), The English Inflectional
Suffixes and Derivational Affixes in ELT. The purpose of this paper is to explore
the meaning of inflectional suffixes and derivational affixes. When we talk
about inflection and derivation, it’s also talks about suffixes and prefixes. This
topic is important to be discussed because we often find the learners of
English make a mistake when they make sentences buy using verbs form or
 plural forms. Besides they also often make mistakes when they want to form a
new word from nouns to adjectives, adjectives to nouns, adjectives to verbs,
adjectives to adverbs, etc. Adding a suffix in to a word is not easy because one
has to know the rules. The rule of adding the suffix or affix has the grammar
of a language. The result of the study is the number of inflectional as not so
many that of derivational affixes. Yet any particular inflectional suffixes will
be used much more frequently than any particular derivational affixes.
Inflectional morpheme ‘plural’ occurs far more often than does the
derivational morpheme -ness. It can be concluded that in English all the
inflectional affixes are suffixes, but the set of the derivational affixes includes
both prefixes and suffixes.
The previous reviews are important to this research in general and can
be used as references because the studies above address the same subject,
namely, analysis inflectional morpheme. Furthermore, a similar theory is used
in this study. The data source, specific part of affixation, and use of scale
distinguish this study from previous studies. The short story The Capital of the
World serve as the study's data base, and it discusses the specific part of
affixation known as "Verb-Forming Suffix" in the context of forming word.
Table 2. Current Study
Title Differences Similarities
A Morphological Discuss the specific part The subject of the
Analysis of Inflectional of inflectional affix that is research is about
Verb in “The Capital of Verb-Forming Suffix Inflection.
The World” - A Short
Story Written by Ernest
Hemingway.

2.2 Definition of Morphology

“Morphology as a branch of linguistics deals with the internal structure
of word-form” (Bauer, 1983:13). Inflectional morphology and word-formation
morphology are the two major divisions of morphology. Word-formation deals
with the formation of new lexemes from defined bases, while inflectional
morphology deals with the different forms of lexemes. Derivation and
compounding are two types of word formation (or composition). The
development of new lexemes from two or more possible stems is referred to as
derivation. Derivation is often divided into two types: class-maintaining and
class-changing derivation. Class-maintaining derivation creates new lexemes
of the same type as the basis from which they were created, while
classchanging derivation creates lexemes with different classes from their
classes and bases. Morphology is the analysis of the internal structure of
words and the rules by which they are created. The word morph + ology is
made up of two morphemes. The suffix-ology stands for "science of" or
"branch of intelligence about." Thus, morphology is described as "the science
of (word) types." Fromkin et al. defined morphology as "a part of our
grammatical awareness of a language" (1996). Morphology is the analysis of
shapes (Arronorff and Fundeman, 2011). The mental system involved in word
formation, or the branch of linguistics that deals with words, their internal
structure, and how they are shaped, is referred to as morphology in linguistics.
Meanwhile, morphology research is not distinguished from morpheme
research. Morphology is the study of morphemes (Hanafi, 2006). It's the
smallest meaningful utterance unit.
2.2.1 Morpheme
Morphology is a sub-discipline of linguistics that deals with the
internal structure of words. Morphemes are the fundamental units of
study in morphology. 15 Linguists have a variety of meanings for
morphemes. Katamba in his book Modern Linguistic Morphology
describes morpheme as the smallest difference in word form that
corresponds with the smallest difference in word or sentence sense or
grammatical structure (1993:24). Crystal (2000), claims that they were
once thought of as the smallest functional unit in the composition of
terms. Free forms (morphemes that can occur as separate words) and
bound forms (morphemes that cannot occur as separate words—
primarily affixes: A free morpheme may be a variant of a noun,
adjective, adverb, verb, or other words. A root foundation or stem is the
 most basic word type. The three components of morpheme in various
meanings (O'grady, 1997). The root is the most important part of the
word since it has the majority of its meaning. The entity to which an
affix is applied corresponds to the root of the term. Inflection affixes are
applied to the steam as a base. According to the description above, the
root is the irreducible center of the term, with nothing else attached to it.
Any unit can be used as a basis on which affixes can be applied. To put it
another way, all roots are bases. The foundation of inflection is
commonly called the stem. As a result, bases are only referred to as
stems in the sense of inflectional morphology. Thus, unselfish is made
up of three morphemes: self, un-, and ish, where the self is a free form
and un- and ish are bound forms. A “word” is a word made up of just
one free morpheme; the reverse is “polymorphemic”.
2.3 Inflection
We define inflection as those categories of morphology that
are regularly responsive to the grammatical environment in which they are
expressed (Balthasar and Nichols 2007). Inflected words go through an
affixation process, whereby a letter, or a number of letters, is added to the base
word to show the grammatical change. Syncretism is also a phenomenon that
is sometimes concomitant with inflection: it entails that one morpheme serves
as a marker of a considerable number of categories (Rima 2022). English
verbs are inflected for number only with the third person singular using the
morpheme {-s}; for example, he/she/it leaves. Tense and aspect are combined;
they cannot be discussed separately.

2.3.1 Suffix
A suffix is a bound morpheme that follows the root in the form
containing it (Trask in Hanafi, 2006). The suffix adds to the verb, noun,
and adjective bases in English. A large number of English suffixes serve
as noun markers, while a few others serve as adjective markers. –er, -or,
-al, -an, -ate-, -cide, -ary, -dom, -ee, -eer, -ess, - fold, and –ic are some of
the English suffixes. Suffixes are affixes that are attached to the end of a
 letter. Even though many languages accept prefixes and suffixes as part
of the usual morphological mechanism, English only recognizes two
forms of affixes: prefixes and suffixes.
a) The suffix -able denotes "ability to perform, (comfortable) ability to
be finished.".
b) The suffix -al denotes "having the property of, performing an act of"
(facial, agricultural, structural, and traditional).
c) The suffix -ance denotes a state, action, or reality (assistance,
emergence, -and inheritance).
d) The suffix -ation denotes the condition of being X-ed (information).
e) The suffix -er denotes a "agent" (worker, baker, teacher, supplier,
player).
f) The suffix -ist denotes "one associated with, (artist) often agent.".
g) The suffix -ness denotes the state, quality, or condition of something
(innateness).
h) The suffix -ship denotes the state or condition of (friendship)
2.4 Affixation
Affixation is the process of adding morpheme to the stem or root. An
affix is a bound morpheme that can only occur if attached to a word or stem.
In terms of the morphological process, affixes might be of two types:
inflection and derivation. Meanwhile, an inflectional affix is one that creates a
new word form of a lexeme from a base; a derivational affix is one that creates
a new lexeme from a base. Actually, comprehending inflection is more
difficult without comparing it to derivational because both are the product of
the affixation process (Syarifaturrahman, Hanafi, and Nuriadi 2017:157).
Affixes are classified into three categories. They are prefix, infix, and suffix.
However, infix is not prior to discussion in English.
2.4.1 The concept of affixation
A morphological process that involves adding grammatical or
lexical details to a stem. An affix is the collective term for the different
forms of formatives that can only be used when combined with another
 morpheme (Crystal, 2000). A bound morpheme is one that can only
appear and bind to a word or stem. Affixes are the type of ‘bound'
morpheme that is restricted in number in a language and are divided into
three groups based on their role in relation to the word's root or stem:
those that come before the root/stem (prefixes), e.g. unhappy; those that
come after the root/stem (suffixes); happiness, and circumfix, for a
combination of prefix and suffix; and circumfix, for a combination of
prefix and suffix; and circumfix, for a combination of prefix and suffix;
and circumfix (as in en-light-en).

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODS
The researcher presents the methods in this chapter. The following topics
were discussed: Research Design, Data Source, Method of Data Collection, and
Method of Data Analysis Technique.
An effective technique for conducting research is critical in this regard; it
refers to a set of procedures for doing or researching something. Method refers to
how a researcher collects data (Arikunto, 2006: 160). The study is a series of
measures used to gather and evaluate data in order to achieve a particular goal and
advantage (Sugiyono, 2009:2).
3.1 Research Design
The researcher used descriptive qualitative analysis in this study as.
The nature of qualitative research is more descriptive (Sugiyono, 2013:13).
Data are collected in the form of words or pictures, so that the pact numbers
are not overemphasized. To draw the inference, the primary data and
secondary data are collected and analyzed in as much detail as possible. The
technique of data collection is the most strategic step in research, as data
collection is the main purpose of research (Sugiyono 2013:224). Documents in
the form of works, such as works of art, which can be pictures, sculptures,
films, and so on. One of the characteristics of qualitative research is the use of
research as a primary tool. Since the data were gathered from words, this study
 was classified as qualitative. In the form of words, the data from Ernest
Hemingway's short story. And it shows the percentage of the data.
3.2 Source of The Study
Data are the result of observations consisting of things that research
analysis (Arikunto, 2006: 172). The information and material are the data that
used in some research and taken as a source of the data.
There were two kinds of the data sources in this research:
3.2.1 Primary Source of Data
Primary data meant that the process of collecting data done by
the researcher himself. In this research, the source of the data only from
the short story itself and the data collected from all pages from the short
story from page 1-8. It meant the short story becomes the main resource
of the data.
3.2.2 Secondary Source of Data
Secondary data were the data that already exists. The kinds of
this data not only, from the short story itself, but also from another
references such as Dictionary, Morphology, Syntax, Grammar, books
etc.
3.3 Method of Data Collection
The technique of data collection is the most strategic step in research,
as data collection is the main purpose of research (Sugiyono, 2013:224).
Documents in the form of works, such as works of art, which can be pictures,
sculptures, films, and so on. The use of document study in qualitative research
is complementary to the use of observation and interview methods (Sugiyono,
2013:240).
The following steps were done to collect the data, they were:
1. Browsing in the internet about the short story The Capital of the World by
Ernest Hemingway.
2. Downloading the short story The Capital of the World by Ernest
Hemingway in google.
3. Reading the short story The Capital of the World by Ernest Hemingway.
 4. Highlighting words contain affixes in the short story The Capital of the
World by Ernest Hemingway.
3.4 Method of Data Analysis
Data analysis is the method of identifying and systematically arranging
data gathered from interviews, field notes, and documents, by categorizing the
data, breaking it down into units, synthesizing, arranging into patterns,
deciding which is relevant and which will be analyzed, and drawing
conclusions that are easily understood by themselves and others (Sugiyono,
2013:224)
In data analysis procedure, the researcher made some steps as follows:
1. Collecting the mainly theory and definition which related to the
inflectional suffix process of English verb, such as morphology as a branch
of linguistics, morphological process, inflection process, and inflection
process of English verb as the subject to be analyzed.
2. Identifying the word-classes of inflectional verb forming suffix.
3. Classifying the data based on the number of word-classes which is the
most dominant of the verb forming suffix.
4. Showing the number of percentages of the most dominant forming verbal
inflectional suffixes found.
Number of verbal suffix
Percentage (%) = ÷ X100
Number of dominant verbal suffix
5. Analyzing the most dominant inflectional verb-forming suffix.
6. Explaining the most dominant inflectional verb-forming suffix.
7. Drawing conclusions based on the result of the research.