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WHAT WE WILL LEARN TODAY

Speech sound Letter Phoneme Syllable Morpheme Lexical Morpheme-Functional Morpheme DerivationalInflectional Morphemes Definition of Word Mono-morphemic words Lexical -Functional Words Open Class-Closed Class Words Conversion
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Language?
A language can be regarded as a CODE SYSTEM for conveying a great variety of information.

The smallest unit in human language? Speech sound. Speech sound? A sound produced by definite movements of the speech organs [ lips, teeth, tongue, vocal cords and lungs, etc.]
If those movements are exactly repeated, the result will always be the same.

A SPEECH SOUND is different from a LETTER Letters are WRITTEN, sounds are SPOKEN Speech sounds are represented between two slashes such as

An individual speech sound as it occurs in speech is called phone.

When we refer to letters, we name them (letters), but the speech sounds they represent may be different
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The letter a in fall is not

Written letters remind us of corresponding speech sounds

/@/,

but

/N/

Sound of the letter a in cat is The letter a in case is

/z/

/b/ /d/ /n/

is the speech sound that stands for the letter b in stands for d in

beer

dear stands for n in near

/e/

The same letter corresponds to different speech sounds in different words.

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An individual speech sound may stand for more than one letters.

The speech sound /M/ stands for the both letters n and g in wrong The speech sound /C/ stands for the three letters t, h and e in bathe

Consider the underlined letters in the following words:

knight, doubt, align, would, psychology, honest and who

In this case, there is no corresponding speech sound for the underlined letters
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Written letters may remind us of corresponding speech sounds n corresponds to /n/ in near The same letter corresponds to different speech sounds in different words a corresponds to /N/ in fall, but /e/ in case There may be silent letters as seen in knight

As a rule, sounds themselves are meaningless But within the structure of a language, either alone or in combination with others, sounds can carry meaning.
CERTAIN SOUNDS CAUSE CHANGES IN THE MEANING OF A WORD

Letter

Speech Sound
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The smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words, that is, a sound which is able to make change in the meaning of a word is called phoneme.
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sink /shMk/ and zinc /zhMk/ differ only in their initial sounds /s/ and /z/. ban /bzn/ and bin /bn/ differ only in their middle sounds /z/ and //. cab /kzb/ and cat
final sounds /b/ and /t/ Therefore, sounds that can make words distinctive are PHONEMES of English
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A speech sound in which the airstream from the lungs is not blocked in any way in the mouth or throat, and which is usually pronounced with vibration of the vocal cords is called VOWEL. / @/ as in arm /@m/ /@T/ as in now /n@T/ CONSONANT is the speech sound where the airstream from the lungs is either completely blocked, partially blocked or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction. /p/ as in pen /pen/ /tR/ as in chin /tRn/ Which group of sounds, vowels or consonants, contribute much to the description and understanding of the words?

/kzt/ differ only in their

Vowels?

Consonants?

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Phonemes themselves generally have no meaning, [ I /@/ ] _ou_ _ _ou _e_ _ _e _o_e _o_e_ _ _ea_e Their very function is to combine together to form higher-level meaningful units, that is, words.

C_ _ld

y_ _

l_nd

m_

s_m_ m_n_y p l_ _s_

Could

you

lend

me

some money

please

However, between phonemes and words, we have to recognize an intermediate level of organization related to speech, which is the syllable.

In comparison with vowels, consonants make words more understandable.

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There is close connection between syllables and the way we produce speech sounds The syllable is often related to the chest pulses that usually result in producing a single vowel or group of speech sounds (that are consonants) accompanying with a vowel.

The smallest structural unit (as a building block of word) that has either a MEANING or a FUNCTION is called MORPHEME.
It is important to avoid confusing MORPHEMES with SYLLABLES. Syllables are groupings of sounds for the purpose of articulation, while morphemes are the smallest units of meaning or grammatical function.
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Syllable can be defined as various

speech sound sequences gathered around vowels

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incorrectness in-correct-ness

Sometimes, the boundaries between morphemes in a word might not be clear. The following are adjectives formed simply by adding the (functional) morpheme -al to nouns. Due to the phonological restrictions, either part of a morpheme might be left out medicinal medicin-al [medicin(e) + al] tribal trib-al [trib(e) + al] either part of a morpheme might be changed sensual sens-(u)-al [sens (e)(u) + al] colonial colon-(i)-al [colon(y) (i) + al] new word-building element might be added factual fact-(u)-al [fact +(u)+ al] agential agent-(i)-al [agent+(i)+al]
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in does not have

function which following item.

any meaning but has a grammatical negates (gives negative meaning to) the

correct

the constituent is an adjective which has a meaning (proper, accurate, free from error) a grammatical function which is adjective.

ness this constituent does not have any meaning, but has

forming a noun from an

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Lexical Functional Morphemes

Therefore, a morpheme that has meaning can be defined as LEXICAL MORPHEME They are considered roots of the words. greatest unforgettable A morpheme that has a grammatical function is defined as FUNCTIONAL MORPHEME (enlarge) marking nouns as plural (She has two horses) indicating genitive (Johns brother), 3rd person singular present tense indicative (She lives in London) past tense indicative (She cleaned the room) perfective aspect indicative (She has eaten her dinner) progressive aspect indicative (She is reading a book)
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DerivationalInflectional Morphemes
Functional morphemes that are able to produce new words can be defined as DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES. New words can be formed by

A) Changing the meaning of the word (either negative meaning ) abilityin-ability sensenon-sense happyun-happy or (opposite meaning) nuclearanti-nuclear, actcounter-act agree dis-agree B) Changing the word class that a base belongs to danger en-danger (n z) sleep a-sleep (v adj) short short-en (adj v) complex complex-ity (adj n) friend friend-ly (n adj) year year-ly (n adv) class class-ify (n v)
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DerivationalInflectional Morphemes
Functional morphemes that are NOT able to produce new words can be defined as INFLECTIONAL
MORPHEME FUNCTION

Free - Bound Morphemes

Morpheme which can stand alone as a complete word is called FREE MORPHEME

MORPHEMES
EXAMPLE

book , tree , in , by can

1.-s 2.-s 3.-ed 4.-ing 5.-en 6.-s 7.-er 8.est 3rd person singular present plural past tense progressive aspect perfective aspect possessive comparative superlative Mary goes to school by bus. Jeremy has many books John completed his work. Betty is reading the letter now Olga has eaten the cheese. The cats tail is not short. Dogs run slower than lions. Leopards run fastest of all
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morpheme that cannot stand alone as a complete word is called BOUND MORPHEME

unable employee

heavier

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antidisestablishmentarianism

MONOMORPHEMI MONOMORPHEMIC words

If a word cannot be divided into its morphemes , it means that it consists of only one morpheme. It is a form which is both a morpheme and a word. Such words are called monomorphemic monomorphemic words.
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anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism
BASE

anti-dis-establish-ment-arian
BASE

anti-dis-establish-ment-arian
BASE ROOT basic part, remaining part when all affixes are removed BASE (or STEM) any unit to which affixes of any kind can be added

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A word (form) can be defined as

a single morpheme (e.g., a, boy) or group of morphemes (e.g.,govern-ment-al-ist-s) having an identifiable meaning (e.g., book, sharp-en ) or grammatical function (e.g., the, but) and a fairly consistent shape (e.g., see) possibly exhibiting certain amount of inflectional variation according to its grammatical environment (e.g., see, saw, seen, seeing)
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the indefinite article a preposition in modal verb may even the noun
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

are all considered as words.

The word can be broken down into

pneumonolung, ultraextremely, microsmall, scopicto see, silicoflint, quartz; volcanomineral substances of a volcano, conidust (derivative of the Greek word konis which means dust) osisaffected with, diseased condition.
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Open ClassClosed Class Words

Words that have meaning on their own are defined as LEXICAL words come, book, easy, Words that have no meaning on their own, but show grammatical relationships in and between phrases or sentences are FUNCTIONAL words
(prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, articles, modal and auxiliary verbs)
Words that allow change in their word classes are termed Open Class words, since their word class memberships are not strictly restricted. In English, nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs constitute Open Class Words and their word class memberships can be changed as seen below:

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Words that do not allow change in their word classes are termed Closed Class Words. In English, pronouns (he, this), articles (a/an, the), prepositions (on, with), conjunctions (and, or), numerals (three, fourth), quantifiers (some, much), interjections (aha, wow) constitute Closed Class Words.
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In English, it is sometimes possible to change the word class of a word

WITHOUT AFFIXATION
This procedure is called conversion Conversion can be observed both among open class words and between open class and closed class words.
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CONVERSIONS AMONG OPEN CLASS WORDS

Did you search the attic for the old album? [search (verb) ] After a lengthy search we found it [search (noun)] She drank a glass of milk She will milk the cow. [milk (noun) ] [milk (verb)]

CONVERSION FROM CLOSED CLASS WORDS INTO OPEN CLASS WORDS

I would buy that car if I had money, There are too many ifs in his agreement. You must read the directions. Getting enough sleep is a must for a baby A raincoat is must clothing in this area. [if (conj.)] [if (noun)] [must (mod.aux)] [must (noun)] [must (adjective)]

The jury hadnt reached to a final decision [final (adjective)] They are running in the final [final (noun) ] Scrape your dirty shoes on the doormat Please do not dirty the floor [dirty (adjective)] [dirty (verb)]
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