Introduction to Morphology

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 Structure of Spoken Language (from Crystal 1997)

Structure Pragmatics Use

Medium of
Transmission Grammar Meaning (semantics)

Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Lexicon Discourse

 Morphology
 The study of the structure of words

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 CLASSIFYING
MORPHOLOGY

M O R P H O LO G Y

IN F L E C TIO N W O R D F O R M A TIO N

D E R IV A TIO N C O M P O U N D IN G
THE OVERALL PICTURE

GRAMMAR

MORPHOLOGY SYNTAX

Inflection Word formation

Derivation Composition
 Morphology
 The part of the grammar that is concerned with words and word formation
 Lexicon - your mental dictionary - the filing cabinet drawer for how words
are put together and what the meanings of these different parts are
 Word - the smallest free form found in language (it does not have to occur
in fixed position with respect to other forms)
 2

Morphology
 Morpheme - the smallest unit of language that carries information about
meaning or function (builder has 2 morphemes: build and -er)
 Simple words - contain only 1 morpheme
 Complex words - contain more than 1 morpheme
 Free morpheme - a morpheme that can be a word by itself
 Bound morpheme - a morpheme that must be attached to another element
 Morphemes
 minimal unit of meaning or grammatical
function

 distinction between free morphemes and

bound morphemes
 Free morphemes
 can stand by themselves as a single word
e.g. grace

 Can be lexical (e.g. boy,elephant)

or functional (e.g. and, but)
 Bound morphemes
 Cannot stand alone but need to be “bound” to
another morpheme, e.g. re-, -ful

 Prefixes and suffixes are bound morphemes

 Divided into derivational and inflectional

 BASE FORMS
boy, yes, elephant

 No CONSTITUENT PARTS

 also called ROOTS or STEMS

 PREFIXES
e.g. un-, de-, super-
 meaningful elements

 come BEFORE base form

 lexicalrole – allow for the construction

of a large number of new words
 SUFFIXES
e.g. –ness, -ed, -er

 meaningful elements

2 types:
DERIVATIONAL

INFLECTIONAL
 DEFINING SUFFIXES

SUFFIXES
DERIVATIONAL INFLECTIONAL
e.g. -ness, -ship, -able e.g. -s, -ed, -er
change meaning of base form no lexical meaning
lexical role grammatical role only
 INFLECTION OF PLURAL

PLURALS
inflection

REGULAR FORM IRREGULAR FORM SINGULAR MEANING

-s, -es, -ies es. children es. scissors, binoculars
 INFLECTION OF VERBS

TYPES OF INFLECTION

BASE FORM -S FORM -ING FORM -ED FORM

3rd pers. sin g. gerund past tense, past part.

 green house vs. greenhouse
green house greenhouse
 two words  one word
 house which is  a particular type of
green building (serra)
 meaning is  meaning not
predictable predictable
 classified as a  classified as a
PHRASE (NP) COMPOUND
 black bird vs. blackbird
(like green house vs. greenhouse)
 BLACK BIRD  BLACKBIRD

 meaning is  meaning not

predictable predictable

 classified
as a  classified
as a
PHRASE (NP) COMPOUND
white house vs. White House

 white house  White House

 casa bianca  Casa Bianca

 meaning is predictable  meaning not predictable

 classified as a  classified as a
PHRASE (NP) COMPOUND
 Compounds can be single
words
 e.g. blackbird

or combinations of words
 e.g. White House
 COMPOUNDS
 COMPOUND VERBS

 COMPOUND ADJECTIVES

 COMPOUND NOUNS
 COMPOUND VERBS
 VERB-VERB stir-fry

 NOUN-VERB air-condition

 ADJECTIVE VERB dry-clean

 PREPOSITION VERB underestimate

 COMPOUND ADJECTIVES
 NOUN-ADJECTIVE sky-high

 ADJECTIVE-ADJECTIVE red-hot

 PREPOSITION-ADJECTIVE hyper-active
 COMPOUND NOUNS
 VERB-NOUN swearword

 NOUN-NOUN hairnet

 ADJECTIVE NOUN blackboard

 PREPOSITION-NOUN overcoat