语言学Chapter 5 Morphology

Chapter 5

Morphology

Aims:

To get a general idea of morphology and morphemes.

To understand morphological description.

5.1 Morphology

Morphology studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.

For example, if we look at the following words: simplify, falsify, justify, diversify, identify, and

beautify, we feel that they bear some similarity in their internal structure, i.e., they all end with

–

ify. A further look will reveal that these words are all verbs that are formed by adding

–

ify to

either an adjective or a noun. This is a morphological rule that may function to account for the

existence,

or

the

formation,

of

a

set

of

verbs

ended

with

–

ify.

And

these

constitutive

parts

in

each of these verbs are morphemes. Thus, to be exact, morphology is the study of morphemes and

their different forms (allomorphs), and the way they combine in word formation.

5.2 Morpheme

We can recognize that English word-forms such as talk, talker, talked and talking must consist

of one element talk, and a number of other elements such as

–

s, -er, -ed, -ing. All these elements

are described as morphemes. The definition of the morpheme is “a minimal unit of meaning or

grammatical

function”.

Let’s

clarify

this

definition

wit

h

some

examples.

The

word

reopened

consists

of

three

morphemes.

One

minimal

unit

of

meaning

is

open,

another

minimal

unit

of

meaning is

–en(meaning “again”), and a minimal unit of grammatical function is –

ed(indicating

past tense). Can you identify the morphemes of word tourists?

5.3 Types of Morphemes

5.3.1 Free and Bound Morphemes

From above two examples, we can make a broad distinction between two types of morphemes.

There are free morphemes, that is, morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be

used freely all by themselves, e.g. open and tour. There are also bound morphemes, that is, those

which cannot normally stand alone, but which are typically attached to another form, e.g. re-, -ist,

-ed, -s. You can find that this last set as a group of what we have already described in Chapter 4 as

affix. So all affixes in English are bound morphemes.

Free

morphemes

include

two

categories:

lexical

morphemes

and

functional

morphemes.

The

former category is that set of ordinary nouns, adjective and verbs(e.g. book, run, yellow, quickly,

look ,tiger) which carry the “content” of message we convey. The latter one consists largely of the

functional words in language such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns (e.g. and,

about, when, on, near, the, that, it).

Affixes

as

bound

morphemes

can

be

divided

into

two

types:

derivational

morphemes

and

inflectional morphemes. The first is used to make new words in the language and is often used to

make

words

of

a

different

grammatical

category

from

the

stem.

They

often

change

the

lexical

meaning. They may or may not change the word class. For example, good (adj.) + ness =goodness

(n.). The noun care(n.) + less = careless(adj. The suffix “less” changes its meaning). Inflectional

morphemes

are

not

used

to

produce

new

words

in

the

English

language,

but

rather

to

indicate

aspects of the grammatical function of a word. We can find that they don’t change the word class.

They

are

used

to

show

if

a

word

is

plural

or

singular,

if

it

is

past

tense

or

not,

and

if

it

is

a

comparative or possessive form. For example:

Jim’s two sisters;

He likes to have fun and is always laughing;

One is the loudest person and the other is quieter than a mouse;

Tom liked to study and has always taken things seriously.

5.3.2 Root and Stem

Root is a morpheme which is the basic part of a word and which may, in many languages, occur

on

its

own

(e.g.

English

man,

hold,

cold).

It

can

not

be

further

analyzed

without

total

loss

of

identity. That is to say, it is that part of the word left when all the affixes are removed. In the word

internationalism, after the removal of inter-, -al and

–

ism, what is left is the root nation. Roots may

be

joined

to

other

roots(e.g.

house

+

hold

household)

and

/or

take

affixes(e.g.

manly,

coldness).

Stem

is

any

morpheme

or

combination

of

morphemes

to

which

an

inflectional

affix

can

be

added. Friend in friends, and friendship in friendships are both stems. The former shows that a

stem can be equivalent to a root, whereas the latter shows that a stem may contain a root and a

derivational affix. The stem of a word may be:

a.

a simple stem consisting of only one morpheme(root), e.g. work;

b.

a root plus derivational affix, e.g. work + er = worker;

c.

Two or more roots, e.g. work + shop = workshop.

5.4 Derivation vs. Inflection

The

difference

between

inflectional

morphology

and

derivational

morphology

is

worth

emphasizing.

In

section

5.3.1

of

this

chapter,

we

have

discussed

them.

Let’s

draw

a

distinction

between

the

elements

–

en

and

–

ed

in

the

word

blackened.

The

morpheme

–

en

created

a

new

lexeme,

a

label

for

the

action

of

making

something

black,

while

the

element

–

ed

restricted

functionally the lexeme blacken. The first case is an example of derivation, the second an example

of inflection. Derivation, being

concerned

with

the

creation

of

new

words,

draws

morphology

towards

lexis,

while

inflection,

being concerned with function, draws morphology towards syntax.

In

addition,

an

inflectional

morpheme

never

changes

the

grammatical

category

of

a

word.

For

example, both old and older are adjectives. The

–

er inflection simply creates a different version of

the adjectives. However, a derivational morpheme can change the grammatical category of a word.

The verb teach becomes the noun teacher if we add derivational morpheme-er. So the suffix form

–

er

can

be

an

inflectional

morpheme

as

part

of

an

adjective

and

also

a

distinct

derivational

morpheme as part of a noun.

Whenever there is a derivational suffix and an inflectional suffix attached to the same word, they

always appear in that order. First the derivational

–

er attaches to teacher, then the inflectional

–

s is

added to yield teachers.

The distinctions between derivation and inflection

Derivation

Inflection

Syntactically unmarked, does not bring about changes to a sentence structure

Syntactically marked in some ways

e.g. number, person, tense, case etc.

Affix may produce a related lexeme of a different word class

Does not alter word class.

Suffix are less predictable in writing, affixes are also less predictable semantically

Affix are greatly predictable so affixes are more productive