Morphology:

The analysis of word structure

 Main Divisions of Word Classes
(Parts of Speech):
•NOUN
 Content Words •VERB
•ADJECTIVE
•ADVERB

 Function •ARTICLE
Words •CONJUCTION
•PREPOSITION
•PRONOUN
Exercise: Determine the word class of
each of the following words
1. Beautifully
2. beauty
3. beautiful
4. reply
5. replay
6. disgust
7. disgusted
8. discussion
9. discuss
10. inspire
11. Inspiration
12. ordinary
Exercise: Determine the word class of
each of the following words
13. Product
14. Productive
15. Productivity
16. Warm
17. Warmth
18. Speak
19. Speaker
20. A
21. An
22. But
23. His
24. lovable
Exercise: Determine the word class of
each of the following words
25. In
26. On
27. To
28. Agreement
29. Agree
30. I
Word and Morpheme

 Word: the smallest free form

 Morpheme: the smallest meaningful
unit
 Word  simple and complex
 E.g. hunt and hunter
 Morpheme  free and bound
 E.g. hunt and –er
Derivation vs. Inflection (1)

 It changes the  It does not change

category and/or the either the
type of meaning of grammatical
the word, so it is category or the type
said to create a new of meaning found in
word. the word.
e.g. suffix –ment in e.g. suffix –s in
government books
Some examples of English Derivational
Morpheme

 -ic : Noun  Adj ; alcohol  alcoholic

 -ly : Adj  Adv ; exact  exactly
 -ate : Noun  Verb ; vaccin  vaccinate
 -ity : Adj  Noun ; active  activity
 -ship : Noun  Noun ; friend  friendship
 re- : Verb  Verb ; cover  recover
English Inflectional Morphemes

Nouns
–s plural
–’s possessive
Verbs
–s third person singular present
–ed past tense
–en past participle
–ingprogressive
Adjectives
–er comparative
–est superlative
Describe the italic affixes:

1) disagree
2) warmth
3) louder
4) speaker
5) lovable
6) productivity
7) standing
Describe the italic affixes:

8) speaks
9) disgusting
10) agreement
11) productive
12) decompose
13) reevaluate
14) darken
Exercise
Underline all of the derivational affixes
and circle the inflectional affixes!

1. The farmer’s cows escaped.

2. Those socks are inexpensive.
3. Fido has a broken leg.
4. She quickly closed the book.
 Affixation

 Prefix: An affix that is attached to the front of a

base, e.g. re-play.
 Suffix: An affix that is attached to the end of a
base, e.g. kind-ness.
 Infix: An affix that occur within a base, e.g. (in
Indonesian) s-in-ambung.
 Confix (Circumfix/Ambifix): An affix that is
attached to the front and to the end of a base
simultaneously, e.g. (in Indonesian) ke-lapar-an.
 Interfix, simulfix, superfix, and transfix.
Affixation

 To be continued next two

weeks

Agita Risma N., S.Hum

IKIP PGRI Madiun
Exercise: Determine the word class of
each of the following words
a. betterment a. Noun
b. the b. Article
c. him c. Pronoun
d. elegant d. Adjective
e. inconvenience e. Noun
f. eloquently f. Adverb
g. comply g. Verb
h. inasmuch as h. Conjunction
i. over i. Preposition
 Derivation vs. Inflection (2)
ORDER
 A derivational affix must combine with the base
before an inflectional affix.
e.g. neighbour (base) + hood (DA) + s (IA)
= neighbourhoods
The following combination is unacceptable:
neighbour (base) + s (IA) + hood (DA)
= *neighbourshood
 Derivation vs. Inflection (3)
PRODUCTIVITY
 An inflectional affix is more productive than a
derivational affix.
e.g. the inflectional suffix –s can combine with
virtually any noun to form a plural noun.
On the other hand,
the derivational suffix –ant can combine only
with Latinate bases.