INTRODUCTION TO MORPHOLOGY

MAEMUNA MUHAYYANG, 2021

 MORPHOLOGY

The students are able to:

1. know what Morphology is about
2. know the historical background of Morphology emergence
3. know the interaction between Morphology and other the
linguistic aspects
 THE EMERGENCE OF MORPHOLOGY

Time History Linguists

Early in Morphology played a pivotal role in reconstruction of Indo- Franz Bopp &
18 European (Sanskrit, Latin, Persian, & Germanic Languages) Sir William
century Jones
1819 & Analytical comparison of sound systems and word-formation Jacob Grimm
1837 patterns as the result of grammatical Germanic Languages (Deutsche
evolution and the relationship of Germanic to other Indo- Grammatik)
European languages
1988 The influence of Darwinian theory of evolution positively Max Muller
affected the study of words evolution that would illuminate the
language evolution as well as in biology morphology referring to
the study of organisim forms. Max claimed that the study of the
400-500 basic roots of the Indo-European ancestor in which the
languages of Europe and Asia was the key to understanding the
origin of human language
Current Morphology has been regarded as an syncronic discipline that is
century a discipline focusing on the study of word structure at one stage
in the life of a language rather than on the evolution of words.
 THE PLACE OF MORPHOLOGY

1. Morphology in American Structural Linguistics

The word as the basic unit of grammatical theory & the American structuralists
showed that words are analysable in terms of morphemes referring to the smallest
unit of meaning and grammatical function.
They introduced morphology as a separate sub-branch of linguistics.

2. Morphology in Generative/Universal Grammar

Morphology and the lexicon looks like a bridge linking the other modules of the
grammar. In other words, Morphology can be studied by considering the
phonological, syntactic and semantic dimensions of words.
 THE INTERACTION OF MORPHOLOGY AND PHONOLOGY

The selection of the form manifesting a given morpheme may be influenced by the
sounds that realise neighbouring morphemes

a. The manifested sound of indefinite article a; it is a before a word that begins

with a consonant (a book) and an before a word that begins with a vowel (an
hour).
b. The manifested sound of ed-ending in English verbs
-d (Voiced sounds)
-t (voiceless sounds)
- əd (words ended with /t & d/)
 THE INTERACTION OF MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

The selection of a word may be affected by the syntactic construction in which the
word is used

a. The verb talk has a number of forms talk, talks, and talked. In the present
tense, the use of talk and talks is determined by the subject of the verb. In the
past tense, talked is employed with no subject concord
b. In relation to meaning of words and morphemes, the lexicon must store other
kinds of information relevant to the application of syntactic and phonological
rules and syntax needs to access to Morphosyntactic Properties that are
exemplified as follows:
1. the use of countable and uncountable nouns:
CN : book (this book & these books)
UnCN : furniture (this furniture not these furnitures)
2. Phonological Rules revealing the difference between noun and verb
‘reject (noun) re’ject (verb)
 DEFINITION OF MORPHOLOGY

Morphology is etymologically derived from the word of Greek’ : morph-

means ‘shape , form’. It is the study of form or forms
Morphology linguistically refers to the mental system involved in word
formation or deals with words, their internal structure, and how they are
formed (Aronoff & Fudeman, 2011)

Morphology is the study of morphemes and their different forms

(allomorphs) and the way they combine in word formation. For example, the
word unfriendly is formed from friend, the adjective forming suffix –ly and
the negative prefix un- (Richards, et al , 1987)

Morphology is the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming

words (Nida, 1970)