What’s morphology?

Morphology is the study of the

structure of words.

It deals with the internal

structure of words.

Matthews, P.H. (1991). Morphology, Cambridge textbook in linguistics. Cambridge;

Cambridge University Press.

However, the concept of word itself

defies simple definition. In English

words tend to be smaller than the

sentence, and we combine words to

form sentences.

One tricky thing, however, is that

in many languages, a single word

can have “sentence” meaning.

Here’s an example from

Spanish: hazmelo.

One word, one sentence

This “word” is actually a

command that is best translated

as “do it for me” [do (haz) it (lo)

for me (me)].

Into smaller units

If we take English as an example,

we have a clear sense that

sentences can be broken down

into smaller units (words), each

of which generally contributes

to the meaning of the whole.

For example: Pigs like mud

is a sentence containing three

words

(pigs, like, mud).

Morphology is the study of word

structure and word formation.

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful part of

a word is called a morpheme.

Note

Not all words have more than one

morpheme.

Monomorphemic word

Words that have only one

morpheme are also called

monomorphemic words (e.g. pig).

Polymorphemic word

Words with more than one

morpheme are called

polymorphemic words, as in

foolishness (fool + ish + ness).

How many morphemes does the world have?

It is comprised of three morphemes:

1.-

Govern

2.-

-ment

3.-

-s

Governments

Note that govern is the kind of

morpheme that can also stand on its

own, as in the sentence,

“Some people think it is a good idea to

govern with an iron fist”.

Free Morpheme

Morphemes that can stand on

their own are called

free morphemes.

Cannot stand on their own

The other two morphemes,

[-ment] and [-s], cannot stand on

their own. Rather, they have to be

attached, i.e. they have to make

up part of a large word.

Bound Morpheme

Morphemes that cannot stand on

their own are called

bound morphemes.

Free morphemes

can stand alone,

while

Bound morphemes cannot

There’s even more exciting news on the

morpheme front. Let’s focus more closely

on the two bound morphemes

[-ment] and [-s]

in the word [govern-ment-s].

More important distintions

They do not have the same

function

While [-ment] is added to the verb

“govern” to give us a new word, the

noun “government”,

[-s] simply makes the noun plural.

The diference is that [-ment] is a

derivational suffix,

while plural [-s] is an inflectional

suffix.

Derivational and inflectional

Affixation: a way of building up words

by adding prefixes, suffixes, infixes, or

a combination of these. Example:

[cat-s] is formed by affixation. In

particular, by the suffixation of the

plural morpheme [-s].

Word formation processes

Derivation: a way of building up

words by adding prefixes or

suffixes.

Derivational

Coinage: a way of building up words new

form.

Kleenex, nylon, Xerox, aspirin, etc.

Coinage

Borrowing: words taken from other

languages.

Alcohol (Arabic), boss (Dutch),

croissant (French), piano (Italian),

pretzel (German),

pyjamas/pajamas (Hindi),

chocolate (Azteca), etc.

Borrowing

Compounding: a way of building up

words by combining two words.

Blackbird, air conditioner, bookcase,

timetable, drugstore, bathroom,

suitcase, schoolbooks, backyard,

wallpaper, whiteboard, sunglasses,

toothpaste, newspaper, etc.

Compounding

Blending: blending is like

compounding in that it involves

combining words. But, a part of

each word gets lost along the way.

Motel (motor + hotel), smog (smoke

+ fog), telecast (television + cast),

etc.

Blending

Clipping: words that are reduced.

Ad (advertisement), lab (laboratory), math (mathematics), fans (fanatics), doc (doctor), paper (newspaper), plane (airplane), etc.

Clipping

Conversion: a change of a function

of a word. It can be a noun used as

a verb.

Hammer, butter, water, book, etc.

Conversion

Acronyms: the initials of an expression.

ELT English Language Teaching.

ESL English as a Secound Language.

EFL English as a Foreign Language.

EAP English for Academic purpose.

Acronyms

Multiple processes: words that can have

different uses.

Deli (delicatessen) --- clipping and

borrowing

Snowball --- the problems snowballed ---

conversion and compounding.

Multiple processes

Bibliography

Matthews, P.H. (1991). Morphology, Cambridge textbook in

linguistics. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.

Katamba, F. (1993). Morphology. New York; St. Martin’s Press.

Stockwell, R. & Minkova, D. (2003). English Words: History and

Structure. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.