MORPHOLOGY

Morphology is a part of linguistics that studies the intricacies of words, including their formation and
change, which includes words and parts of words or morphemes. Scope of the study is lexical morphology
(word formation), and inflectional morphology (grammar,conjugation/declination). To get simplified the
definition, try to examine the following patterns:
a. Book Books
Computer or: Computers

b. Wash Washed
Cook Cooked

In (a) plurality is indicated by adding –s to the singular nouns this :

However, in (b) where the –ed morpheme indicates the past tense for
some English verbs.

1. Morpheme

A morpheme consists of a word (e.g. head), or a meaningful piece of a word (e.g. look-ed). There are
two categories of morphemes: free or bound morphemes. Free morpheme can occur freely on their own.
Another one, bound morpheme (or affixes) that are divided into two types: those like ‘dis-‘ and ‘un-‘ which
precede words and which are called prefixes, (like ‘-ly’, ‘-able’, ‘-ity’ and ‘-ness’) which follow free
morphemes and which are called suffixes. Take a look at the following words:

Unconsciously Un-conscious-ly
Can be split up into
Unbelievable Un-believe-able

In both these examples, the words are composed of three morphemes. Here is the interpretation.
 Unconsciously :
Un : (Prefix) Definition: It carries a negative meaning.
Conscious : (Adj.) Definition: Awake, thinking and knowing what is happening around you.
-ly : (Suffix) Definition: (in the stated way)

 Unbelieveables :
Un- : (Prefix) Def: It carries a negative meaning.
Believe : (v.) Def: To think that something is true the stated verb
-able : (Suffix) Def: It expresses receive the action of

2. Allomorphs

Morphemes has alternative forms (e.g. ‘il-‘, ‘im-‘, ‘in-‘ and ‘ir-‘) are known as allomorphs. Some
English adjectives form their opposites by prefixing the bound morpheme ‘in-‘ (or sometimes ‘un‘),
consider the following example:

Accessible Inaccessible Active

Mobile Immobile
Legal Illegal
Formal Informal

Inflectional & Derivational Morphology

Morphology can be divided into inflectional (concerned with endings put on words) and
derivational (involves the formation of new words).

a. Inflectional Morphology

As it defined, inflectional morphology occurs with nouns, pronouns, and verbs. To examine it, just
look at the endings (or suffixes) that put on words. In nouns, inflection marks plurality in regular nouns:
- Paper Papers
- Stair Stairs
And the possessive of all nouns:
Pebri Pebri’s paper/papers
The woman The woman’s paper/papers
The builders The builders’ stair/stairs

From the examples, we can conclude that there is no difference in sound between a regular noun’s
plural form and its possessive. Irregular nouns often form their plurals by a vowel change:
Tooth Teeth Woman Women Mouse Mice

Inflectional suffixes are used to indicate present tense agreement:

For regular verbs the past tense and past participle are formed by suffix ‘-ed’ as in I looked, I have
looked. Whereas, the past tense and past participle with irregular verbs are signalled by a vowel change or a
vowel change + a suffix:
Sing Sang Sung
Draw Drew Drawn

b. Derivational Morphology
Morphology has two main functions in English. Morphemes can be used to form new words, such as:

Health + y > Healthy

or to inflect nouns and verbs, such as:

Morphological derivation involves prefixation, suffixation and affixation. Look at these examples:
Prefixation : Re + consider > Reconsider
Un + true > Untrue
Suffixation : Health + y > Healthy
Man + ly > Manly
Affixation : In + complete + ion > Incompletion
Sub + conscious + ly > Subconsciously
 Prefixes alter meaning but do not always change the function of the word, examine these example:
Prefix Free morpheme (class) Result (Class)
Be witch (n.) Bewitch (v.)
De limit (v.) Delimit (v.)
En rich (adj.) Enrich (v.)
Ex terminate (v.) Exterminate (v.)
Hyper market (n.) Hypermarket (n.)

Usually occuring suffixes always change the word class to which they are attached:
Beauty (n.) + ful > Beautiful (adj.)
Determine (v.) + ation > Determination (n.)

Words ending in the morphemes ‘-acy’, ‘-ation’, ‘-er/-or’, ‘-ess’, ‘-ity’, ‘-ment’, ‘-ness’, and ‘-ship’
tend to be nouns:
Democracy Mistress Weakness Painter Actor Solemnity
Words ending in ‘-ise/-ize’ tend to be verbs:
Modernize Hospitalise
Words ending in ‘-able’, ‘-ed’, ‘-ful’, ‘-ical’, ‘-ive’, ‘-less’, ‘-like’, ‘-ous’, and ‘-y’ tend to be
adjectives:
A healthy lifestyle A playful place
An endless love An enjoyable classmate
And words which end in ‘-ly’ tend to be adverbs:
She taught English clearly. He run home quickly.
The above suffixes tend to be associated with particular word classes. Thus, the word ‘lovely’ and
‘friendly’ which end in ‘-ly’ functions as adjectives, not as adverbs.