Course Code: EM 3

Description: Structures of English

Schedule: MWF 5:00-6:00pm
Online Session: Every Wednesday 5:00-6:00pm
Instructor: Ms. Flornel T. Balmes

Module 2 Morphology and Word Formation

Week 2 August 30 – September 03, 2021

Instruction: After reading the content, answer the assessment at the end of this lesson.
You can send me your answer/output via Google Classroom (Classwork) prior or until the
date of submission. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact
me during the scheduled time. Thank you!

Objective: At the end of this topic the student will be able to:

1. Introduce to Morphology.
2. acquaint students with morphemes and characteristics of being a
morpheme.
3. recognize the major and minor types of morphemes in English language.
4. distinguish between the functions of related terms: root, stem, base.
5. recognize the features and functions of derivational and inflectional affixes.
Morphology

Morphology is the study of the construction of words out of morphemes

Morpheme

The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language. (lexical and grammatical meaning) A
morpheme must have a meaning, and it is the smallest unit of meaning (the smallest sound-meaning union
which cannot be further analyzed into smaller units).

The word lady can be divided into two syllables (la.dy), but it consists of just one morpheme, because
a syllable has nothing to do with meaning.

The word un forgettable can be divided three morphemes (dis+agree+able).

The word books contain only one syllable, but it consists of two morphemes (book+s) (Notice: the morpheme
–s has a grammatical meaning [Plural])

The internal structure of words

Words can have an internal structure, i.e. they are decomposable into smaller meaningful (lexical or
grammatical) parts. These smallest meaningful units we call morphemes.

read+erre+read en+abledark+en

Mary+’s print+ed cat+s go+es

Classification of Morphemes

1. According to their position in the word:

read re+read read+ing rereading

root prefix + root root + suffix prefix + root + suffix

2. Types of affixes:
 Derivational
Derivational affixes (create new meaning) make new words by adding concrete meanings to old words: 

-er, -ess -hood, -ive, -ness, re-, un- etc

Examples of Derivational Affixes

 Prefix Grammatical category of Grammatical category of Example
base output

in- Adj Adj inaccurate

un- Adj Adj unkind

un- V V untie

dis- V V dis-like

dis- Adj Adj dishonest

re- V V rewrite

ex- N N ex-wife

en- N V encourage

Suffix Grammatical category of Grammatical category of Example

base output

-hood N N child-hood

-ship N N leader-ship

-fy N V beauti-fy

-ic N Adj poet-ic

-less N Adj power-less

-ful N Adj care-ful

-al V N refus-al

-er V N read-er

V-N : (to) print  printer

V - Adj : print  printable

V-V : print  re-print

N-V : flea  de-flea

N – Ad : milk  milky

N-N : mother  motherhood

Adj - N : happy  happiness

Adj - V : thick  thicken

Adj - Adj : happy  unhappy

Derivation typically adds a new lexical meaning component:

(7) printable: ‘such that can be printed’

motherhood: ‘property of being a mother’

thicken: ‘become or cause to become thicker’

 Inflectional
Affixes can be divided into inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes. This reflects two
major morphological (word building) processes:

Inflectional Morphemes

 Inflectional morphemes do not change grammatical category of the base to which they are attached.
They do not change the meaning of the base. They only carry relevant grammatical information, e.g. plural.
Thus, book and books are both nouns referring to the same kind of entity.

 The number of inflectional affixes is small and fixed. NO new ones have been added since 1500.

Suffix Stem Function Example

-s N Plural book-s

-s V 3rd singular sleep-s

present tense

-ed V past tense walk-ed

-ing V Progressive walk-ing

-er Adj Comparative tall-er

-est Adj Superlative tall-est

Inflectional affixes make different grammatical forms of the same word.  English has only 8 productive
inflections:

3 for verbs: -ed, -s, -ing  work+ed, work+s, work+ing

 3 for nouns: -s, -'s -'s  boys, boy's, boys'

2 for adjectives:  -er, -est  smart+er, smart+est

There are several unproductive inflections too, like the plural -en in oxen, and the participial -en in given.

                                    stem + ending (inflectional suffix)

reprints ‘ Present Tense RE[PRINT]] = ‘print again’’

prefix root suffix

re print s

3. Classification according to whether morpheme = word

FREE BOUND

most roots in English most prefixes and suffixes (Derivational and inflectional)

4. Classifying words according to morpheme structure

 Simple words is a single morpheme:  house, I, the, off, salamander

 Complex words is root + at least 1 affix:  worker, reread, retelling

anti + dis + establish +ment + ari + an +ism

Compound words can be distinguished into three forms; they are solid, hyphenated and open

No. SOLID HYPENATED OPEN

1. Motorway Double-decker Deep freeze
2. Handbook Box-office Bank account
3. Hardware Hard-cover Credit card
4. Timewarm Snow-white etc.
5. Outside In-law
6. Feedback Check-in
7. brainwork Frog-eating-bird

Word-formation processes

Major
  Affixation: process of forming words by adding affxes to morphemes.
{ V + -able ! A: predict+ -able

{ V + -er ! N: sing+er

{ un + A ! A: un-productive

{ A + en ! V: deep+ -en, thick+ -en

 Compounding: word formation process by which new words are formed by combining two or more
independent words.
{ A + A ! A: bittersweet

{ N + N ! N: rainbow

{ V + V ! V: sleepwalk

{ P + P ! P: without

{ V + N ! N: pickpocket

{ N + V ! V: spoonfeed

{ P + V ! V: overdo

 Reduplication: process of forming new words either by doubling an entire word (total reduplictation)
or part of a word (partial reduplication).
{ English: humpty-dumpty, higgledy-piggeldy

(partial reduplication)

{ Creole: blak \black", blakblak \very black" (total reduplication)

 Morpheme-internal Changes: a type of word formation process wherein a word changes internally
to indicate grammatical information.
{ : sing, sang, sung; swim, swam, swum

{ other changes: man, men; mouse, mice, goose,geese

 Suppletion: a relationship between forms of a word wherein on form cannot be phonologically or

morphologically derived from the other, this process is rare.
{ am - was; go -went

{ good - better; bad - worse

MINOR

 ACRONYMS:
extreme form of reduction; -are formed from the initial letters of a set of other words
2 kind of them: “alphabetisisms”->CD, DNA-pronunciation consist of the set of letters; -second are
pronounced as a single word-> NATO, NASA, UNESCO, PIN

some acronyms lose their capitals to become everyday terms -> laser

 BACKFORMATION:
a word of one type(usu a noun) is reduced to form another word of a different type(usu a verb); -worker-
>work, donation->donate…hypocorisms-a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then –y or –ie is added
to the end: movie, telly->television

Synchronic perspective on language-together; at the same point of time

Diachronic perspective on language-not together; in different points of time; showing changes, how the
language evolve in time.

 BLENDING:
taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word; clipped and then
compounded word eg. smog (smoke +fog), motel, bit, brunch, telecast, Chunnel.

 BORROWING:
very common word –formation process; it’s social phenomenon means, the taking over of words from other
languages; -it takes place when a speaker of one culture come to contact with another one; -the borrowing
will be taken from the most influential culture

Loan-words – words adapted from other languages

Loan-translation (calque) – it’s a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language.

There’s always change in phonological structure.

 CLIPPING:
clip=to cut; -making words shorter, reducing them; a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter
form; -esp in casual speech; -gas, bus, bra

 COINAGE:
The invention of totally new terms

Proper names or trade names for one company’s product become general terms for any version of that
product.(eg. kleenex, Guy Fox->guy(any human being); -meaning of the words is broaden and broaden.

 CONVERSION:
a change in the function of a word(eg. when the noun comes to be used as a verb without any
reduction)other names are: “category change” I “functional shift”; very productive in English, do not exist in
Polish eg. cut,paper, butter, bottle, vecation, spy.

some converted forms shift in meaning when they change the category.

 PSEUDO ACRONYM
Reduce sentence into some letters e.g. I C Q : I Seek You, C U : See you, SQR : secure, etc.
  ONOMOTOPEOIA
Words created from sound

e.g. Meauw > Cat, etc.