Morphology

in Linguistics
Discussion
MORPHOLOGY, MORPHEMES,
DERIVATIONAL PROCESSES,
MORPHOPHONEMIC PROCESS,
ALLOMORPHS
So What is Morphology?

• the term morphology is came from a Greek and is a

makeup of morph- meaning ‘shape, form’, and -ology
which means ‘the study of formation’.

• Morphology /mɔrˈfɒlɵdʒi/ is the identification,

analysis and description of the structure of a given
language's morphemes and other linguistic units,
such as root words, affixes, parts of speech,
intonations and stresses, or implied context.
A. What is a Morpheme?
• The building blocks of
morphology Peace Peaceful Peace
• The smallest unit of 1 morpheme 2 morphemes 3 morphemes
language that carries
meaning (maybe a word or
not a word)
• A sound-meaning unit
• A minimal unit of meaning
or grammatical function
• The level of language at
which sound and meaning
combine
FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION
FLOCCI + NAUCINI + NIHILI+ PILI + FICATION
5 MORPHEMES
1. Free Morphemes
• Free Morphemes can occur by itself, it’s a simple word consisting
of one morpheme and is not necessarily attached to other
morphemes.
Ex. Girl, teach, book, class, the, of, house, work, high etc.

There are two kinds of Free Morphemes:

a. Lexical Morpheme (open class)
-has lexical meaning; new examples can be freely added
Ex. Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs (Content words)
b. Functional Morphemes (closed class)
-new examples are rarely added (but not impossible to add)
Ex. Prepositions, conjunctions, articles, and pronouns
 2. Bound Morphemes
-cannot stand on its own. It must be attached to another morpheme
to receive meaning.
There are two types of Bound Morphemes:
a. Derivational Morphemes
-may change syntactic class to form new words.
Ex. –able, un-, re, -tion, etc.
b. Inflectional Morphemes
-are used to make different forms of the same words but doesn’t change syntactic class.
Ex. -’s, -s (plural nouns), -ing, -ed/-en, -est, -er, -s (S-V agreement)
 Morphemes

Free Bound
Morphemes Morphemes

Content Function
Affixes Roots
words words

Inflectional
Derivational

Prefixes Suffixes Suffixes

B. Allomorphs
• A variant form of a morpheme that can refer to affixes,
word endings, or adjacent word choices, and can
change the sound of the word although the changes do
not change the meaning of the word. It can include
creating a plural, tenses, choice of article, and more.
 1. Additive Allomorph
This type of morphophonemic change is the occurrence of the
allomorph completely different in phonemic structure from the
normal form. Those are some common change of morphophonemic
in English. If we can predict the rule behind the different kind of
pronunciation or monomorphemic that happened, it will make it
easier for us to learn English.
a. Plural Morpheme
• Usually written as “s” and has at least 3 allophones
e.g.
/s/ /z/ /∂z/

Books Frogs Houses

Cats Wolves Fizzes

Desks Cars Buses

b. Past Form Morpheme
• “ed” and usually has at least 3 allomorphos
e.g. /d/ /∂d/ /t/
Called Parted Talked
Played Glided Laughed
Begged Needed Watched
Seemed Passed
 2. Replacive Allomorphs
It has an infix or internal change of word. The example can be
found at irregular verb or plural noun.
e.g.
Irregular verb Plural
Drink-Drank-Drunk Tooth-Teeth
Sing-Sang-Sung Foot-Feet
Begin-Began-Begun Man-Men
Sink-Sank-Sunk Goose-Geese
 3. Supplemative Allomorphs
It is a word that has same meaning but the word is changed
totally.
e.g.
Irregular verb Plural

Eat-Ate-Eaten Mouse-Mice

Bid-Bade-Bidden Ox-Oxen

Break-Broke-Broken Louse-Lice

Go-Went-Gone Person-People
 4. Zero Allomorphs
A word that has not changed. Its morphemes might change but
it is not noticeable in orthographic form.

e.g. Irregular verb Plural

Hurt-Hurt-Hurt Sheep + ({-s}=Ø) = sheep

Hit-Hit-Hit Deer + ({-s}=Ø) = Deer

Let-Let-Let Pike-Pike

Set-Set-Set Swine-Swine
C. Derivational Processes: methods to get new words
In morphology, derivation is the process of creating a
new word out of an old word.
1. Derivation (or Derivational affixation, Affixation): adding an
affix to a root
2. Compounding: combine two or more morphemes to form
new words.
3. Reduplication: full or partial repetition of a morpheme
4. Blending: parts of the words that are combined are deleted.
5. Clipping: part of a word has been clipped off
6. Acronyms: abbreviate a longer term by taking the initial
letters.
7. Backformation: A word (usually a noun) is reduced to form
another word of a different type (usually a verb)
8. Extension of word formation rules: part of a word is treated as
a morpheme even though it is not.
9. Functional shift (Conversion): a change in the part of speech
10.Proper names to common words
11.Coining: creating a completely new free morpheme
12.Onomatopoeia: words imitate sounds in nature
13.Borrowing: taking over of words from other language
 1. Derivation: (or Derivational affixation, Affixation)
• Affixation – is the addition of prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and circumfixes to a root morpheme.
• Ex.
prefix de-( to reverse or remove) deport
infix Awfully(extremely bad) beawfullyware
suffix -ion (state or condition of) submission
circumfix
Ad en- -en enlighten
Adv
Different rules:
Adj V + affix = N
Adj N + affix = V
Adj + affix = V
Af N Af Af N + affix = Adj

• Inter- nation -al- -ly

Examples of Infixes
A L IS T O F SO ME O F T HE WO R D S T HAT
WE R E F O UND B Y J A ME S MCMI LLA N
awfully: beawfullyware
bally: absoballylutely
bleeding: absobleedinglutely
bleep: fivebleepmile
blessed: absoblessedlutely
bloody: railbloodyway, whatsobloodyever,
kangabloodyroo
blooming: absobloominglutely
damn: abdamnsurd, Piccadamnlilly
jolly: theojollylogical
posi: absoposilutely
OBSER VAT IONS BY R ICHAR D NOR DQUIST
"Abso-Bleedin'-Lutely"
(Quincy Jones, song in the film Walk, Don't
Run, 1966)
"Well, I can guaran-damn-tee ya. Dannie's
not playin'."
(Rick Reilly, Shanks for Nothing. Doubleday,
2006)
'fan-flaming-tastic.'"
(Roya Nikkhah, "Prince William's Nanny
Says Engagement Is 'Fan-Flaming-
Tastic.'" The Telegraph [UK], Nov. 21, 2010)
 2. Compounding
• is the combining of two or more free morphemes (and associated affixes) to make a new
word. Compounds may be written in one or two words, hyphenated or not. Two products of
this process is the compound and the phrase; one shouldn’t be mistaken with by the other.

Ex.
N N N
N.
Adj. + Ν. = N. N N Adj N V N
V. steam engine yellow paper jump suit
Prep. sand paper red light hover trax
brief case ultra-violet ray skate board
sand paper row boat
work book cross fire
2. Compounding
Adj Adj Adj

N Adj. Adj. Adj. Prep. Adj.

N. Headstrong Hardheaded Forthcoming
Adj. + Adj. = Adj. Foolproof Bittersweet Overgrown
Prep. Lifelong Red-hot Overhyped
Seasick
Forthcoming
Hardheaded
Cold-blooded
V. V. V.
N.
Adj. + V. = V. N V. Adj. V. V. V.
V. Skydive Double-book Blow-dry
Prep. Housekeep Fine-tune Sleep-walk
Proofread Free-fall Overrate
Carbon-date Bad-mouth
 3. Reduplication

• Reduplication: full or partial repetition of a free morpheme; though sometimes it can

have variations.

Exact Reduplication Ablaut Reduplication Rhyme Reduplication

So-so Zigzag Brain drain

Bye-bye Flip-flop Hocus pocus

Fifty-fifty Riff-raff Hunky-dory

xiăo-xiăo (tiny; very small) Criss-cross Super-duper

4.Clipping
• Clipping(clipped forms): reduction of a word into one of its
component parts while retaining meaning and class. Apart
from objects and titles, it also occurs in names.
• Ex.

Burger from hamburger Ron from Ronald App from application

Phone from telephone Liz from Elizabeth Lab from laboratory
Cello from violoncello Lyn from Sherlyn Doc from doctor
Flu from influenza Luke from Lucas Prof from professor
Tom from Thomas Ad from
advertisement
5.Portmanteau
• AKA Blending: it is a process that combines two processes,
compounding and clipping. In most cases, parts of the free morphemes
involved are lost.
• Ex.
Mockumentary= mock + (d)ocumentary
simulcast=simul(taneous)+ (broad)cast
smog= smo(ke( + (f)og
brunch= br(eakfast) + (l)unch
motel = mo(tor) + (h)otel
permafrost = perma(nent) + frost
6.Acronym
• Acronym: abbreviate a long word by taking the initial letters.
• Ex. ENIAC- Electronic Number Integrator And Calculator
SCUBA- Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
RADAR- Radio Detection And Ranging
LASER- Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
AIDS – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
NASA- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
ATM – Automatic Teller Machine
IQ – Intelligence Quotient
Note: IF the acronym is unpronounceable, it is given that each letter is sounded out
separately.
7.Backformation
• Backformation: A word (usually a noun) is reduced to form
another word of a different type (usually a verb).
• Ex.
Accepted/Conventional Marginal/Colloquial
Edit : editor Exagge: exaggerate
Donate : donation Emote: emotion
Burgle : burglar Joyride: joyriding
Zip : zipper Paramedic: paramedical
Babysit : babysitter Reborn : rebirth
8.Extension of word formation rules

• Extension of word formation rules : Part of a word is treated as

a morpheme though it’s not.
• Ex.
burger (mar)athon (alco)holic
hamburger telethon workaholic
cheese burger danceathon shopaholic
buffalo burger walkathon chocoholic
fish burger dramathon
vegieburger
tofu burger
9.Functional shift (Conversion)

• Functional shift (or conversion, category change) : A change in

the part of speech. Its noticeable feature is a difference in stress
between the former and the latter syntactic class.

• Once a word has changed classes, inflectional affixes can be added

to it. Also, depending on which word class serves as original the
• Ex.
V N : a guess, a must, a spy, a printout,
walk, run, laugh, touch
N V : position, process, contact, notice,
party, fax, butter, bottle
10. Antonomasia
• There are cases where proper names turn into common words .Some words are used
so much, that their original meaning is replaced with another meaning in context with
a certain era.
Ex.
A. People: Jack into Jack-in-the-box, Jack of all trade, lumberjack
Tom into tomcat, tomboy, Peeping Tom
Smith into blacksmith, goldsmith, etc.
B. Real People : Earl of Sandwich, Teddy Bear
C. Places: Hamburger, Marathon, Champagne, Shanghai, Cologne
D. Mythology: Tantalus into tantalize, Eros into erotic, Narcissus into narcissistic,
Mars into martial, Psyche, Echo
E. Brand Names: Band-Aid, Zip-loc, Xerox, Coke, Scotch tape, Ajax
 11. Coining
Coining (Coinage): Creating a completely new free morpheme,
which is unrelated to any existing morphemes; a rare thing.
• Bling (n): Expensive, ostentatious clothing • Infomania (n): The compulsive desire to
and jewelry. check or accumulate news and
information, typically via mobile phone or
• Bromance (n): A close but non-sexual computer.
relationship between two men.
• Locavore (n): A person whose diet
• Droolworthy (adj): Extremely attractive consists only or principally of locally grown
or desirable. or produced food.
• Frankenfood (n): Genetically modified • Unfriend (v): Remove (someone) from a
food. list of friends or contacts on a social
• Illiterati (n): People who are not well networking site.
educated or well informed about a • Twitterati (n): Keen or frequent users of
particular subject or sphere of activity. the social networking site Twitter.
12. Onomatopoeia
• Onomatopoeia: words imitate sounds in nature (or in technology).
• Ex.
A dog: bow wow or woof-woof
A clock: tick-tock
A rooster: cock-a-doodle-doo
A camera: click
A duck: quack
A cat: meow
Ring of a bell: ding-dong
A cow: moo
A bee: buzz
A snake: hiss
 13. Borrowing
• Borrowing (Borrowed words) : The taking over of words from
other languages.
• Ex.
Malay Filipino Sanskrit Filipino
siasat siyasat (investigate) Devata Diwata (fairy, goddess, nymph)
Aku Ako (I) Agama Agham (science)
Lelaki Lalaki (male) Tara Tala (star)
Takut Takot (fear, afraid) Guru Guro (teacher)
D. Morphophonemic Processes
• is a branch of morphology
• It deals with the variation in the forms of
morphemes because of phonetic factor
• each word has different process of
Morphophonemic
Different kinds of morphophonemic change
1. Loss of phoneme
2. Addition of phonemes
3. Simple change of phonemes
4. Assimilation – Dissimilation
5. Synthesis
6. Stress shift, gradation
7. Suppletion
 1. Loss of Phoneme
• For example in the lost of phoneme /t/ when changing word class
(adjective to a noun)
• Ex.
different difference democrat democracy

2. Addition of Phonemes
• For example in the addition of “s” in the change of:
• Ex.
sword swordsman sale salesgirl
craft craftsman
 3. Simple Change of Phonemes
• The change from singular to plural
• Ex.
dog dogs

4. Assimilation – Dissimilation
• 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
or sentence.
 5. Synthesis
• There is the fusion of the two phonemes brought together by
morpheme combination into a single new phoneme.

6. Stress Shift Gradation

• In many cases the addition of an affix to a word is accompanied by
a shift in stress called stress shift
 7. Suppletion
• This type of morphophonemic change is the occurrence of the
allomorph completely different in phonemic structure from the
normal form. Those are some common change of
morphophonemic in English. If we can predict the rule behind the
different kind of pronunciation or monomorphemic that happened,
it will make it easier for us to learn English