MORPHOLOGY

TYPES OF MORPHEME

Morphology is the study of word formation; it deals with

the internal structure of words.
It studies the patterns of forming words by combining
sounds into minimal distinctive units of meaning called
morphemes.
It deals with the rules of attaching suffixes or prefixes to
single morphemes to form words.
It also studies the changes that take place in the structure
of words, e.g. the morpheme ‘go’ changes to ‘went’ and
‘gone’ to signify changes in tense and aspect.
 FREE MORPHEMES
 Free morphemes are those that can stand on their
own as independent words, e.g.{happy} in unhappily,
{like} in dislike, {boy} in boyhood. They can also occur
in isolation; e.g. {happy}, {like}.
 BOUND MORPHEMES
 Bound morphemes are those that cannot stand on
their own as independent words. They are always
attached to a free morpheme or a free form, e.g. {un-
}, {-ly}, {dis-} {-hood}. Such morphemes are also called
affixes. Bound morphemes operates in the connection
processes by means of derivation, inflection, and
compounding.
INFLECTIONAL MORPHEME
Inflection refers to the process of affixation and internal
change. It also pertains to a morphological process
that adds affixes to words. Affixes that:
1.) function to provide grammatical information;
2. never change the lexical category of a word; and
3. occur at the outer edges of a word.
Inflectional morphemes are those that never change
the form class of the words or morphemes to which they
are attached. They are always attached to complete
words. They cap the word; they are a closed-ended set
of morphemes - English has only 8 inflectional
morphemes.
 INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES

-s third person sing. pres. She cook-s at home.

-ed past tense She cook-ed at home.

-ing progressive She is cook-ing at home

-en past participle She has eat-en at home.

-s plural She wrote letter-s.

-‘s possessive Ann’s book is new.

-er comparative This route is short-er than that.

-est superlative This is the short-est route.

DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME

Derivational morphemes are those that are
added to root morphemes or stems to derive
new words. They usually change the form class
of the words to which they are attached; they
are open-ended, that is, there are potentially
infinite number of them; e.g. actual + {-ize}
actualize; help + {-ful} - helpful; {un-} + lucky -
unlucky.
 SUFFIX
-able V -adj Able to be X ‘ ed affordable
-ant V- N One who X’s Participant
-ation V-N The result of X’ing Organization
-er V-N One who X’s Employer
-ing V-N The act of X’ing The singing
V- Adj The process of X’ing The crying
baby
-ion V-N The result or act of X’ing Reflection
-ous N-Adj The property of having Humurous
or being X
-ate Adj – V Make X Validate
-en Adj – V Make X Fatten
-ity Adj- N The result of being X Morality
-y N-Adj Being like X Gravelly
-ness Adj- N The state of being X Kindness
WORD FORMATION PROCESSESS
Derivation. This involves the addition of a
derivational affix, changing the syntactic category
of the item to which it is attached.
Ex. discern (v) – discernment (n)
 woman (n) – womanly (adj)
Category Extension. This involves the extension of a
morpheme from one syntactic category to another.
Ex. House (n) – house (v);
fast (adj) – fast (adv)
Compounding. This involves creating a new
word by combining two free morphemes.
[Link] (the big ball of fire) + set (to cause to
assume a position or direction) = sunset (the
time when the sun goes down the horizon
every evening)
Root creation. It is a brand new word based
on no pre-existing morpheme.
Ex. Colgate, Xerox
Clipped form. It is a shortened form of a pre-existing
form.
[Link] from gymnasium, mic from microphone, and
TV from television
Blend. It is a combination of two pre-existing forms.
Ex. Smoke + fog = smog
Acronym. It is a word formed from the first letters of
the word or phrase.
[Link] – National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
SARS – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Proper Name. This process forms a new word
from a proper name.
Ex. hamburger (from Hamburg Germany)
sandwich (from Earl of Sandwich)
Back formation. This process forms a word by
removing what is mistaken for an affix.
Ex. Edit (from editor) ; beg (from beggar)
Clitization. Are short unstressed words that must
be pronounced with another word . It cannot
be pronounced as a stand-alone word.
Example:
Ex. ‘re from are as in they’re
Internal Change. Provides grammatical
information by changing a portion of the
morpheme.
[Link] – ran
Reduplication. Copies all ( full) or a portion (
partial ) of the base to mark a semantic or
grammatical contrast.
[Link] – [ iji] ‘well’ – [ iji] [ iji ] ‘very well’
Tagalog – [ lakad] ‘ walk’ – [lalakad] ‘ will walk
Stress Replacement . A change in the stress
placement that causes a change in the lexical
category of a word.
Ex. recŏrd( verb) - rȇcord ( noun)
Suppletion. Provides grammatical information
by changing the entire morpheme.
[Link]– went
Tone Replacement. Difference in tone can be
used to create different word, or to mark a
change in tense or number.
Ex. Lead- Lead
Onomatopoeia. Words that have been
created to sound like the thing they
name.
Ex. buzz, hiss, sizzle
Coinage. A process that creates a totally
new word.
Ex. teflon, netizen, selfie
 MORPHOPHONEMIC PROCESSES
Assimilation - is a process that results from a sound
becoming more like another nearby sound in terms of
one or more of its phonetic characteristics; a process
in which segments take on the characteristics of
neighboring sounds.
Ex. possible - impossible
potent –impotent
tolerable -intolerable
tangible – intangible
Dissimilation - is a process that results in two
sounds becoming less alike in articulatory or
acoustic terms; a process in which units which
occur in some contexts are 'lost' in others.
Ex. 'lirary" instead of "library," govenor for
'governor
Deletion - is a process that removes a
segment from certain phonetic contexts. It
occurs in everyday rapid speech.
Ex. [blain mæn] 'blind man'
Epenthesis - is a process that inserts a
syllable or a nonsyllabic segment within an
existing string of segment.
Ex.[maindid] 'minded'
Metathesis – is a process that reorders or
reverses a sequence of segments; it occurs
when two segments in a series switch places
Ex. Ask – aks, Ruler – lurer,
Violet – viloyet