Download - English morphology–lecture2
Distinguishing between morphemes:
• Bound and free morphemes: • Free morphemes can occur on their own:
– happy, change, select, green, house, …• Bound morphemes can occur only if they are attached to
other morphemes:– Affixes (un-, -ness, -able, de-, -ive, -er, …)– Binding forms liber-, oper-, circul-, legitim-, materi-, …
• Eg. liber-ation, oper-ate, circul-ar, legitim-(a)cy, materi-al
Bound morphemes as core elements: words derived from LatinCircul- Circular Liber- Liberty
Circulation Liberation
Circulator Liberalize
Circulatory Libertine
Problem case: Verbs of Latin origin
receive deceive conceive perceive
revert convert pervert
relate collate translate
reduce deduce conduce
Should these be considered to be composed of a single morpheme? Or prefix + bound morpheme?
General tendency
• The core vocabulary of English is generally composed of words of Anglo-Saxon origin
• There is a general tendency for core elements to be free morphemes
• E.g. Hand
• Hand-y, hand-le, hand-ful, mis-hand-le,
What is the difference between these two sets of complex words
Fast-erSing-ingOpen-edCar-sWrite-sBigg-est
Treat-mentRude-nessUn-kindFam-ousUse-lessHelp-fulIr-regularRed-dish
Fast-er, Sing-ing, Open-ed,
Car-s, Write-s, Big-gest
• These affixes do not change the word class (verb, noun etc.), but rather contribute to meeting grammatical constraints. These are called:
Inflectional morphemes
Treat-ment Rude-ness Un-kind Red-dishFam-ous Use-less Help-ful Ir-regular
These affixes do not necessarily change the class of the word, but this is normally the case, e.g. fame (n.)> famous (adj.)
• Since these words derive from others these morphemes are called:
Derivational morphemes
• He go to the park every day
• She speaks to me yesterday
• He is a very fame actor
• He gave me very good treat
Inflectional morphemes: Plurals #1
• Cat > cats; dog > dogs; case > cases
• N.b. these are pronounced /s/, /z/, / z/ɪ• These different realizations are called
allomorphs of the inflectional morpheme for plurals
Inflectional morphemes: Plurals #2
• Irregular plurals are also considered to be allomorphs e.g.
• Foot > feet; man > men; child > children
• Sheep > Sheep; Fish > fish etc.
Inflectional morphemes: Verbs #1
• English is particularly low on inflectional morphemes for verbs cfr. Italian (amare 1st person> amo, amavo, amai, amerò, ami (subjunctive), amassi, amerei x 6)
• English: love, loves, loved (past simple and p.part.), loving
• BE has the largest number of realizations:
• Be, am, are, is, was, were, been, being
Inflectional morphemes: Verbs #2
• Verbs in the past and p. participle form can be:
• 1 Regular: kissed; changed; wanted• Note that the –ed suffix has three,
phonologically determined, realizations (i.e. three allomorphs): /t/, /d/, / d/ɪ
• The following lines rhyme:You were the first one I kissed
Because you were at the top of my list
Inflectional morphemes: Verbs #3
• Verbs in the past and p. participle form can be:• 2 Irregular• Involving no change> hit-hit-hit• Involving vowel change> drink-drank-drunk• Involving consonant change > make-made-
made• Involving vowel and consonant change> leave-
left-left• Suppletion (i.e. with no phonological relation)>
BE> was-were; GO> went
Inflectional morphemes: Adjectives
• Comparatives
• HOT> hott-er – hott-est
• IMPORTANT > more important – most important
• Note suppletion in
• GOOD > better – best
• BAD > worse – worst
Derivational morphemes
• Far more numerous than inflectional morphemes
• Allow productivity (involved in the coining of new words)
• Can be prefixes, or suffixes, not circumfixes
• Suffixes usually, but not always, change word class
• Prefixes, usually don’t
Derivational morphemes: some examples
• Verbs > Nouns: work-er, act-or, treat-ment, elect-ion
• Nouns > Adjectives: colour-ful, friend-less, fac-ial, fam-ous
• Verbs > Adjectives: bor-ing, interest-ed honour-able, access-ible
-ful/less Only -ful Only -less
Age, Bag, Care, Cease, Cheer, Child, Colour, Cup, Defence, Delight, Effort, End, Fate, Friend, Help, Hope, Penny, Play, Spoon, Tact , Taste , Use,
Derivation with –ful and –less
• Which words can be derived by adding the following suffixes
-ful/less Only -ful Only -less
CareUseCheerColourHelpTaste HopeTact
FateSpoonDelightBagPlayCup
FriendAgeCeaseChildDefenceEndEffortPenny
Draw tree diagrams for the following words
• Unwholesome
• Rulership
• Underdeveloped
• Overachiever
• Operational
• Indispensable
Productivity – the creation of new words
• There a six main ways of creating new words• By combining two or more core elements: this process is called
‘compounding’– truck driver, mother-in-law, download;
• By adding parts to a core element: this process is called ‘affixation’– clockwise, credible, coarsely, kingdom;
• By changing the word class of a given word: this process is called ‘conversion’
– Bottle > to bottle; to call > a call;• By clipping a longer word: this process is called ‘truncation’
– Veterinary Surgeon > vet; Zoological gardens > Zoo;• By amalgamating parts of different words: this process is called ‘blending’
– Smoke + fog > smog; Motor + Hotel > Motel; Camera + Recorder > Camcorder• Acronyms• - North Atlantic Treaty Organization > NATO; Absent without leave > AWOL;
Personal Identification Number > PIN
• We can also find multiple processes e.g.
• Camera > web camera (Compounding) > webcam (Truncation)
• Ball > snowball (Compounding) > to snowball (Conversion)