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WHAT IS MORPHOLOGY?
Morphology is the study of word structure ; how the
word is created. It deals with the internal structure of
complex words and the information of new words.

MORPHEMESMORPHEMES
ROOTAFFIX
PREFIX INFIX SUFFIX
pre -
un -
con-
STEM

Inflectional Morphology (1)
 Noun Inflectional suffixes
 Plural maker –s
 Girl-girls
 Possessive maker ‘s
 Mary´s car
 Verbs Inflectional Suffixes
 3rd. Person present singular marker
 bake-bakes
 Past tense marker:-ed
 Wait-waited

Inflectional Morphology (2)
 Progressive marker –ing
 Sing-singing
 Past Participle markers –en or ed
 Eat-eaten
 Adjective inflectional suffixes
 Comparative maker –er
 Fast-faster
 Superlative make-est
 Fast-fastest

Derivational affixes can mark
category change
 The derivational suffix –able derives an adjective
from a verb, implying an ability with a passive
relation with its stem:
Eatable means able to be eaten
(commestibile), not able to eat.
 Suffix –erderives a noun from a verb, indicating
a human agent or an inanimate instrument:
Speaker(parlante o amplificatore); Baker
(fornaio);

 The suffixes –ful and –less derives an
adjective from a noun.
 -ful indicates addiction, abundance;
 -less indicates subtraction, reduction:
careful = full of care
careless = with no care

Root
A root is a word or word
part from which other
words grow, usually
through the addition of
prefixes and suffixes. It
usually appear as
independent words.

Stem
 A stem is that part of a word to which grammatical
affixes are added. It may consist -amongst others
 a) solely of a single root morpheme (i.e. a simple stem
as in do g )
 b) two root morphemes (i.e. a compound stem, as in
blackbird)
 c) root morpheme plus a derivational affix (i.e. a
complex stem, as in unscre w)
 a):cats: single root morpheme: cat+ inflectional suffix – s
 b):cro wbars: two root morphemes (cro w + bar) +
inflectional suffix – s
 c):inve ntio ns : root morpheme inve nt+ lexical suffix -io n

Semantic classification of
morphemes
1. Root-morphemes (radicals) - the lexical nucleus of
words, which has an individual lexical meaning shared
by no other morpheme of the language:
re write , ho pe ful, diso rde r
write hope- -order
The root-morpheme is isolated as the morpheme common
to a set of words making up a word-cluster:
work- in to work, worker, workingor
theor- intheory, theorist, theoretical, etc.
2. Non-root morphemes include inflectional morphemes
(inflections) and affixational morphemes (affixes).
Inflections carry only grammatical meaning.
Lexicology is concerned only with affixational
morphemes.

2. Word formation
Processes In English
A.A. AffixationAffixation
B.B. CompoundingCompounding
C.C. SymbolismSymbolism
D.D. SuppletionSuppletion
E.E. AcronymyAcronymy
F.F. ClippingClipping
G.G. BlendingBlending
H.H. BorrowingBorrowing
I.I. BackBack--formationformation
J.J. WordWord CoinageCoinage
K.K. Functional ShiftFunctional Shift

A. AffixationA. Affixation
Affixation consists of adding derivational affixes
(prefixes, infixes, and suffixes) to roots and
stems to form new words.
Exam ple :
• Hope-ful
• Defend-er
• Dis-continue

B. CompoundingB. Compounding
Compounding consists in the combination
of two or more 9usually free) roots to form a
new word.
Exam ple :
 Sunrise (n + n)
 Call-girl (v + n)
 Airsick (n + adj)

C. SymbolismC. Symbolism
Symbolism (or morpheme internal change)
consists in altering the internal phonemic
structure of a morpheme to indicate
grammatical functions (cf. Pei, 1966).
Exam ple :
 Goose Geese
 Tooth Teeth
 Sing sang sung

D. SuppletionD. Suppletion
Suppletion consists in a complete in the
form of a root (a word) or in the
replacement of root by another
morphologically unrelated root with the
same component of meaning in different
grammatical contents (cf. Richards et al.,
1985; Byrne, 1978; Pei, 1966).
Exam ple :
• Good better
• Well best
 Bad worse
 Badly worst

E.E. AcronymsAcronyms
Acronym is the process whereby a new word is
form the intital letters of the constituent words of
a phrase or sentence.
According to Quirk et al. (1985), there are two
main types of acronyms, namely:
1. Acronym which are pronounced as a word
Ex: NASA, radar, laser, etc.
2. Acronym which are pronunced as sequences of letters (also called
‘alphabetism)
Ex: C.O.D., FBI, VIP, TV, etc.

F.F. ClippingClipping
Clipping is the processes whereby new
word are formed by shortening other words;
by eliminating the intial part, the last part, or
both parts, of those words.
Exam ple :
 Phone from (tele) phone
 Exam from exam(ination)
 Flu from (in) flu (enza)

G.G. BlendingBlending
Blending is the processes whereby new
words are formed by combining parts of two
words, usually the beginning of one word
and the end of another (ef Godby et al,.
1982)
Exam ple :
 Motel (motorMotel (motor ++ hotelhotel))
 Telecast (televisionTelecast (television ++ broadcast)broadcast)
 Smog (smoke + fog)Smog (smoke + fog)

H.H. BorrowingBorrowing
Borrowing is the processes whereby new
words are formed by adopting words from
other languages together with the concepts
or ideas they stand for (cf. Brun, 1983; Pei
1966).
Exam pleExam ple ::
 Boss (Dutch)Boss (Dutch)
 Fiance & very (adapted from old FrenchFiance & very (adapted from old French
verai)verai)
 Yoghurt (Turkish)Yoghurt (Turkish)
 Robot (Czech)Robot (Czech)

I.I. BackBack--formationformation
Back-formation is the processes by which
new words are formed by the deletion of a
supposed affix an already existing word (cf.
Qurik et al., 1985; Fromkin & Rodman, 1983;
Richards et al. 1985).
Exam ple :
 Donation (n) -donate (v)
 Option (n) -Opt (v)
 Babysitter (n) -Babysit (v)
Hypocorisms: the reduction of a long word to a
single syllable and the –y and –ie are added to
the end.
Television-telly Barbecue-barbie Breakfast
-breakie

J. WordJ. Word CoinageCoinage
Word coinage (or invention) is the
processes whereby new words are created
outright, either deliberately or accidentally, to
fit some purpose.
Exam ple :
 KleenexKleenex
 NylonNylon
 ZipperZipper
 KodakKodak
 XeroxXerox

K. Functional ShiftK. Functional Shift
Functional Shift (conversion or zero derivation) is
the processes by which new words are created by
using a word in nwe functions (by shifting,
changing or converting its original grammatical
class to another class), without any change in its
form (cf. Godby et al., 1982; Byrne, 1978; Pei,
1966).
Exam ple :
 WaterWater: Give me some water, please. Children water: Give me some water, please. Children water
the flowersthe flowers
 Print out (a printout)Print out (a printout)
 Want to be (wannabe)Want to be (wannabe)

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Morphology

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