-
Chapter 3
Morphology
形态学
Nothing is more important
to language than words.
Words can carry meaning.
Words are the fundamental building
blocks of a language.
So, is word the
most basic or the minimal unit of meaning?
If not, then what is?
How
words are formed?---morphology
3.1 what
is morphology?
Morphology refers to the
study of the internal structure of words and the
rules by which words are
formed.
3.2 Open class and closed
class (
开放词类和封闭词类
)
Open class words----content words of a
language to which we can regularly add new words,
such
as nouns, adjectives, verbs and
adverbs.
Closed class words----
grammatical or functional words, such as
conjunction, articles, preposition
and
pronouns.
New
words
can
be
added
to
open
class
words
regularly
with
the
development
of
human
civilization.
However, the
number of closed class words is small and stable
since few new words are added.
3.3Morphemes--the minimal units of mean
ing
（词素，最小的意义单
位）
Word is the smallest free from found in
language.
Word can be
further divided into smaller meaningful units---
morphemes.
So, morpheme is---
the smallest unit of language that
carries information about meaning or function.
Words are composed of morphemes. Words
may consist of one morpheme or more morphemes,
e.g.
1-morpheme
boy
, desire
2-morpheme
boyish, desirable
3-morpheme
boyishness, desirability
4-morpheme
gentlemanliness,
undesir(e)abl(e)ity
5-morpheme
ungentlemanliness
6-morpheme
anti+dis+establish+ment+ari
+an+ism
Free morpheme &
bound morpheme
Free morpheme----is one
that may constitute a word (free form) by itself,
such as bed, tree, sing,
dance, etc.
Bound morpheme----is one that may
appear with at least one other morpheme. They can
not stand
by themselves, such as
―
-
s‖ in ―dogs‖, ―al‖ in
―national‖, ―dis
-
‖ in
―disclose‖, ―ed‖ in ―recorded‖,
Allomorph
Some
morphemes have a single form in all contexts, such
as ―dog, bark, cat‖,etc.
In
other instances, there may be some variation, that
is, a morpheme may have alternate shapes or
phonetic forms. They are said to be the
allomorphs of the morpheme.
the plural
morpheme may be represented by:
map----
maps
[s]
dog----
dogs
[z]
watch
----watches
[iz]
mouse----mice
[ai]
ox----oxen
[n]
tooth----teeth
sheep----sheep
Each of the underlined part is called
an allomorph of plural morpheme.
3.4 Analyzing word structures
Identify each of the major component
morphemes.
Classify these morphemes in terms of
their contribution to the meaning and function of
the larger
word.
Generally
speaking, a complex word often consists of a root
and one or more affixes.
Root:
constitutes the core of the word and carries the
major component of its meaning.
Roots typically belong to lexical
categories such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and
prepositions.
Affix: is always a bound
morpheme, and does not belong to a lexical
category.
Tree diagram (teach-er)
N
V
Af
teach
er
3.5
Derivational morpheme &
inflectional morpheme
派生词素和
屈折词素
Derivational
morphemes----
the
morphemes which change
the
category
,
or
grammatical class
of
words, e.g. modern---modernize,
length---lengthen, fool---
foolish, etc.
when
derivational
morphemes
are
conjoined
to
other
morphemes,
a
new
word
is
derived
or
formed
--- may change
grammatical class
eg. light
–
lighten; nasal
–
nasalize;
eat
—
edible;
grave--engrave
--- may not change grammatical class
eg. net---
internet; happy
—
unhappy;
nat
ional
—
multinational; terror-
terrorist
Many prefixes and suffixes
belong to derivational morphemes
eg. tele-phone; music-ian