Types of morphemes

Lecture 5(2008).

MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS. AFFIXATION

MORPHEME AND ITS TYPES.

MORPHEMIC AND WORD -FORMATION ANALYSIS.

COMPARATIVE (ENGLISH-

RUSSIAN) MORPHOLOGY.

Word Formation:

The Branch of Lexicology which

studies the Derivative Structure and the Patterns on which the Language builds new words

R.S. Ginzburg:

Is the System of derivative types of words and the process of creating new words after certain structural and semantic formulas and patterns

E.M. Mednicova:

The process of forming words by combining root and affixal morphemes according to certain patterns specific for the language

A.I. Smirnitsky:

The System of derivative types of words and the process of creating new words from material available from the language

Морфология:

Система механизмов языка,

Обеспечивающая построение и понимание его словоформ

Раздел грамматики,

Изучающий закономерности функционирования и развития

Этой системы

Морфемика:

Морфемный строй языка, раздел языкознания, изучающий типы и структуру морфем

Laurie Bauer

Morphology:

Is the study of Word – Formation and internal organization of words

Lyons 1968

Deals with the internal structure of word forms

Matthews 1974

Lexeme formation

Morpheme

I.V. Arnold:

An association of a given meaning

With a given sound pattern.

But unlike words not autonomous, independent.

The smallest meaningful unit of

Form.

R.S. Ginsburg:

Is the smallest indivisible two-facet language unit

A.S.Barhudarov:

Is a set of morphs, which have the same meaning and are characterized by complementary distribution

Morph:

The smallest set of phonemes

) meaningful

) indivisible

) regularly reproduced in utterances

)is a physical form

Allomorphs (positional variants of the same morpheme) – realize the same morpheme: -ion/-sion/ -tion/-ation (complementary distribution): liberation, corruption.

Im-, ir-, In, Il-:(impossible,irregular, indirect,illegal) are allomorphs of the morpheme –in.

Ex: the plural morpheme

BranchÆ – branches

Datum – data

Analysis – analyses

Piano - pianos

Please

Pleasure

Pleasant

Pleasing

Different morphemes are characterized by contrastive distribution: -able (measurable “capable of being –ed”):-ed (measured “ marked by due proportion”)

Suffixation.

The word is not the smallest unit of the language. It consists of morphemes. The morpheme may be defined as the smallest meaningful unit which has a sound form and meaning and which occurs in speech only as a part of a word.

The main function of suffixes in Modern English is

To form one part of speech from another,

To change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech.

(e.g. «educate» v., «educatee» n.,

«music» n., «musicdom» n.).

There are different classifications of suffixes:

Part-of-speech classification.

a) noun-forming suffixes:

- er (criticizer), - dom (officialdom),

- ism (ageism),

b) adjective-forming suffixes:

- able (breathable), - less (symptomless), - ous (prestigious),

c) verb-forming suffixes:

- ize (computerize), - ify (micrify),

d ) adverb-forming suffixes:

-ly (singly), - ward (tableward),

e) numeral-forming suffixes:

- teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy).

2.Semantic classification:

Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of the stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes can denote:

a ) the agent of the action:

e.g. -er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent (student),

b) nationality:

-ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), -ish (English),

c) collectivity:

-dom (moviedom), -ry (peasantry,

-ship (readership), -ati (literati),

d) diminutiveness:

-ie (horsie), -let (booklet),

-ling (gooseling), -ette (kitchenette),

e) quality:

-ness (copelessness),

-ity (answerability).

3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem.

Suffixes which can be added to certain groups of stems are subdivided into:

a) suffixes added to verbal stems:

-er (commuter), -ing (suffering), - able (flyable), -ment (involvement), -ation (computerization),

b) suffixes added to noun stems:

-less (smogless), ful (roomful), -ism (adventurism), -ster (pollster), -nik (filmnik), -ish (childish),

c) suffixes added to adjective stems:

-en (weaken), -ly (pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).

Origin of suffixes.

a ) native (Germanic):

-er,-ful, -less, -ly.

b) Romanic:

-tion, -ment, -able, -eer.

c) Greek:

-ist, -ism, -ize.

d) Russian:

-nik.

Productivity.

a) productive:

-er, -ize, --ly, -ness.

b) semi-productive:

-eer, -ette, -ward.

c) non-productive:

-ard (drunkard), -th (length).

Suffixes: polysemantic:

-er: agent,

· doer of the action expressed by the stem (speaker),

· profession,

· occupation (teacher),

· a device,

A tool (transmitter).

compound suffixes: added to the stem at the same time:

-ably,

-ibly, (terribly, reasonably),

-ation (adaptation from adapt).

Disputable cases:

(a suffix or a root morpheme in the structure of a word) or semi-suffixes, and words with such suffixes can be classified either as derived words or as compound words:

-gate (Irangate),

-burger (cheeseburger),

-aholic (workaholic) etc.

Word formation is the creation of new words from elements already existing in the language. Every language has its own structural patterns of word formation.

Morphemes are subdivided into root - morphemes and affixational morphemes.

The root morpheme is the lexical center of the word. It is the semantic nucleus of a word with which no grammatical properties of the word are connected.

Affixational morphemes include inflections and derivational affixes.

Inflection is an affixal morpheme which carries only grammatical meaning thus relevant only for the formation of word-forms (books, opened, strong-er).

Derivational morpheme is an affixal morpheme which modifies the lexical meaning of the root and forms a new word. In many cases it adds the part-of-speech meaning to the root (manage-ment, en-courage, fruit-ful)

Morphemes which may occur in isolation and function as independent words are called free morphemes (pay, sum, form).

Morphemes which are not found in isolation are called bound morphemes (-er, un-, -less)

Morphemic analysis.

The segmentation of words is generally carried out according to the method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents. This method is based upon the binary principle, i.e. each stage of procedure involves two components the word immediately breaks into. At each stage these two components are referred to as the Immediate Constituents (IC). Each IC at the next stage of analysis is in turn broken into smaller meaningful elements. The analysis is completed when we arrive at constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes. These are referred to as Ultimate Constituents (UC). The analysis of word-structure on the morphemic level must naturally proceed to the stage of UC-s.

Allomorphes are the phonemic variants of the given morpheme e.g. il-, im-, ir-, are the allomorphes of the prefix in- (illiterate, important, irregular, inconstant).

Monomorphic are root-words consisting of only one root-morpheme i.e. simple words (dry, grow, boss, sell).

Polymorphic are words consisting of at least one root-morpheme and a number of derivational affixes, i.e. derivatives, compounds (customer, payee, body-building, shipping).

Derived words are those composed of one root-morpheme and one more derivational morphemes (consignment, outgoing, publicity).

Compound words contain at least two root-morphemes (warehouse, camera-man),

Productivity is the ability to form new words after existing patterns which are readily understood by the speakers of a language. Synchronically the most important and the most productive ways of word-formation are affixation, conversion, word-composition and abbreviation (contraction). In the course of time the productivity of this or that way of word-formation may change. Sound interchange or gradation (blood - to bleed, to abide -abode, to strike - stroke) was a productive way of word building in old English and is important for a diachronic study of the English language. It has lost its productivity in Modern English and no new word can be coined by means of sound gradation. Affixation on the contrary was productive in Old English and is still one of the most productive ways of word building in Modern English.

Affixation is the formation of new words with the help of derivational affixes. Suffixation is more productive than prefixation. In Modern English suffixation is characteristic of noun and adjective formation, while prefixation is typical of verb formation (incoming, trainee, principal, promotion).

Affixes are usually divided into living and dead affixes. Living affixes are easily separated from the stem (care-ful). Dead affixes have become fully merged with the stem and can be singled out by a diachronic analysis of the development of the word (admit - L.- ad + mittere). Living affixes are in their turn divided into productive and non-productive affixes. In many cases the choice of the affixes is a means of differentiating meaning:

uninterested - disinterested distrust - mistrust

Prefixation

Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are more independent than suffixes.

Prefixes can be classified according to the nature of words in which they are used:

prefixes used in notional words and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixes used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in the language as words, e.g. over- (overhead) (cf over the table).

The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that about twenty-five prefixes in Modern English form one part of speech from another (bebutton, interfamily, postcollege etc).

Prefixes can be classified according to different principles:

1. Semantic classification:

a) prefixes of negative meaning:

in- (invaluable), non- (nonformals), un- (unfree) etc,

b) denoting repetition or reversal actions:

de- (decolonize), re- (revegetation), dis- (disconnect),

c) denoting time, space, degree relations:

inter- (interplanetary), hyper- (hypertension), ex- (ex-student), pre- (pre-election), over- (overdrugging) etc.

2. Origin of prefixes:

a) native (Germanic: un-, over-, under- etc.

b) Romanic: in-, de-, ex-, re- etc.

c) Greek: sym-, hyper - etc.

Disputable:

adverb, accompany:

the root of the word (verb, company),

ad-, ac- prefixes though they were never used as prefixes to form new words in English and were borrowed from Romanic languages together with words. In such cases we can treat them as derived words. But some scientists treat them as simple words. Another group of words with a disputable structure:

contain, retain, detain and conceive, receive, deceive;

re-, de-, con- act as prefixes

- tain, -ceive as roots. These combinations of sounds have no lexical meaning and are called pseudo-morphemes.

e.g. after -: afternoon.

TYPES OF MORPHEMES

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