Morphological Processes

Compiled by:Bening AnggaditaDidit KurniadiLuqman HakimAndi RizkiKhairi

Introduction• "The term 'morphology' has been taken over from biology where it

is used to denote the study of the forms of plants and animals. . . . It was first used for linguistic purposes in 1859 by the German linguist August Schleicher (Salmon 2000), to refer to the study of the form of words. In present-day linguistics, the term 'morphology' refers to the study of the internal structure of words, and of the systematic form-meaning correspondences between words. . . ."The notion 'systematic' in the definition of morphology given above is important. For instance, we might observe a form difference and a corresponding meaning difference between the English noun ear and the verb hear. However, this pattern is not systematic: there are no similar word pairs, and we cannot form new English verbs by adding h- to a noun."

Word classes• We began by grouping words more or less on the basis of our

instincts about English. We somehow "feel" that brother and car belong to the same class, and that brother and drives belong to different classes. However, in order to conduct an informed study of grammar, we need a much more reliable and more systematic method than this for distinguishing between word classes.

• We use a combination of three criteria for determining the word class of a word:

• 1. The meaning of the word 2. The form or `shape' of the word 3. The position or `environment' of the word in a sentence

Lexical word

• The branch of linguisics that studies the stock of words (the lexicon) in a given language.

• Some word classes are open, that is, new words can be added to the class as the need arises. The class of nouns, for instance, is potentially infinite, since it is continually being expanded as new scientific discoveries are made, new products are developed, and new ideas are explored Lexicology and Syntax

• The open classes in English are nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, and adverbs

Function word

• A word that expresses a grammatical relationship. Also known as a grammatical word.

• Function words include determiners, conjunctions, and prepositions. Contrast with content word.

• Function words are like thumbtacks. We don't notice thumbtacks; we look at the calendar or the poster they are holding up. If we were to take the tacks away, the calendar and the poster would fall down. Likewise, if we took the function words out of speech, it would be hard to figure out what was going on

Inflection

• Inflection is word formation process that changes the morphological form of a word to fit a syntactic context.

• Example:- walk vs. walked- cat vs. cats

There are some characteristics of inflection:• inflection does not change the grammatical

category of the base;• inflection does not affect the meaning of the word;• inflectional processes take place after derivational

ones;Example- neighborhoods vs. *neighborshood

• inflectional affixes have few exceptions (they are almost fully productive), while derivational affixes usually attach to a limited class of words;

• English inflectional affixes are all suffixes.Example

- plural -s: cat - cats- possessive/genitive ’s: John’s- 3rd person sg. non-past -s: sing-sings- progressive -ing: sing-singing- past tense -ed: talk-talked- past participle -en/-ed: eat-eaten/study-studied- comparative -er: happy-happier- superlative -est: happy-happiest

DERIVATION

• Derivational affixes are affixes which change the meaning of the base in some important ways, or change it into a different word class. They turn nouns into adjectives, adjectives into verbs, nouns of one type into nouns to the other type, and so on. They add new meanings to the base. They are readily followed by inflectional suffixes, and in many cases more than one derivational suffix can be found in the some word.

For instance, let us start with the verb Establish in its rather specialized meaning of ‘grant special state privileges to a church’. We can derive the verb disestablish, meaning ‘take away special privileges’. Then we can form the noun disestablishment meaning ‘the act of taking away privileges’, then the noun disestablishmentarian meaning ‘one who advocates disestablishment’, then the noun disestablishmentarianism meaning ‘the doctrine of disestablishment’, and finally antidisestablishmentarianism, meaning ‘opposite to the disestablishing the church. The latter word is often cited as ‘the longest word in English Language’ Brockman (1971: 8)

Some derivational affixes of English

AFFIX

Class(es) of word to which affix applies

Nature of change in meaning

Examples

Prefix 'non-' Noun, adjective Negation/opposite

Noun: non-starter 

Adj.: non-partisan

Suffix '-ity' Adjective Changes to noun

electric/electricity  obese/obesity

Prefix 'un-'Verb  

Adjective

Reverses action  opposite quality

tie/untie,fasten/unfasten  clear/unclear,safe/unsafe

Suffix '-ous' Noun Changes to adjective

fame/famous,glamor/

glamorous

Prefix 're-' Verb Repeat action tie/retie,write/rewrite

Suffix '-able' Verb

Changes to adjective;  means 'can undergo action of verb'

print/printable,drink/drinkable

Inflectional categories and affixes of English

Word class to which inflection applies

Inflectional category Regular affix used to express category

Nouns Number -s, -es: book/books, bush/bushes

. Possessive -'s, -':  the cat's tail,Charles' toe

Verbs 3rd person singular present

-s, -es: it rains, Karen writes,the water sloshes

. past tense -ed: paint/painted

. perfect aspect-ed: paint/painted ('has

painted) (past participle)

. progressive or continunous aspect

-ing: fall/falling, write/writing (present participle)

Adjectives comparative (comparing two items) -er: tall/taller

. superlative (comparing +2 items) -est: tall/tallest

Derivational Suffixes

Abstract noun makers

Concrete noun makers

Nouns from verbs

Nouns from adjectives

-age = frontage -eer = engineer -age = wastage -ity = falsity

-dom = kingdom -er = teenager -al = refusal -ness = kindness

-ery = slavery -ess = waitress -ant = informant Adjective-noun makers

-ful = spoonful -let = booklet -ation = education

-ese = Chinese

-hood = brotherhood

-ling = duckling -ee = commitee -an = republican

-ing = farming -ster = gangster -er = writer -ist= socialist

-ism = idealism -ing = clothing -ite = Luddite

-ocracy = aristocracy

-ment = equipment

-ship = friendship -or = actor

Adverb-makers Verb makers Adjectives from nouns

Adjectives from verbs

-ly=quickly -ate= orchestrate

-ed= pointed -able= drinkable

-ward(s)= onwards

-en= ripen -esque= burlesque

-ive= attractive

-wise= clockwise -ify= certify -ful= successful

-ize/ise= advertise

-(i)al= accidental

-ic= atomic

-ish= foolish

-less= careless

-ly= friendly

-ous= ambitious

-y= hairy

Noun Suffixes

ROOT SUFFIX WORDEMPLOYAGREE

-ment EMPLOY-MENTAGREE- MENT

DISCUSSPRODUCEPERMIT

-ion, tion, sion DISCUSS-IONPRODUC-TIONPERMI-S-SION

INVITEOPPOSE

- ation, - ition INVIT – ATIONOPPOS – ITION

PREFERDISTANT

-ence, - ance PREFER- ENCEDISTAN- CE

CERTAINSECURE

- ty, - ity CERTAIN-TYSECUR- ITY

SADILL

-ness SAD-NESSILL-NESS

BUILDUNDERSTAND

- ing BUILD-INGUNDERSTAND-ING

Nouns for People

SUFFIX ROOT WORD- er, -or, - ress Drive

EditWait

DRIV-EREDIT-ORWAIT-RESS

-ist TourScience

TOUR-ISTSCIENT-IST

- ant , - ent AssistStudy

ASSIST-ANTSTUD-ENT

-an, - ian RepublicElectric

REPUBLIC-ANELECTRIC-IAN

- ee EmployExamineAddress

EMPLOY-EEEXAMIN-EEADDRESS-EE

Fo rm in g A d je cti ve s

-y added to the names of common substances, objects and things that are experienced

Rock = ROCKY (full of rocks, like rocks)

Noise = NOISY( producing noise)

-ly Added to time words and to certain family/personal words

Day = DAILY Week= WEEKLYMan = MANLY

-ful Added when it indicates in a positive way the presence of a quality or ability

Use = USEFULSkill = SKILFUL

-less Negatively suggests the absence of a quality or ability

Use = USELESSMeaning = MEANINGLESS

- al Added to certain nouns of Latin origin ending in – ion, -ic(s) and -ure

Addition = ADDITIONALMusic = MUSICALEthics = ETHICAL

Nature = NATURAL

TO SUM UP…Words can often be divided into morphemes. Words can have prefixes, infixes, suffixes, show inflectional or derivational morphology, and much more...

'Morphology is the study of the rules governing the formation of words.'

Other Types of Word Formation

• CompoundingA compound word contains at least two bases

which are both words ,or at any rate , root morphemes.

examples n+n))(Tea) +( pot ) => teapotHair) + (dress) + er => hairdresser(n+v) Blue) + (bird) => bluebird (a+n)Over) + (lord) => overlord (pre+n) )-

Conversion

Conversion is a process that assigns an already existing word to a new syntactic category.

=>V derived from n e.g button (the shirt)=>N derived from v (a long) walk =>V derived from AOpen (a door)

clipping

Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more syllables.It is especially popular among students.

e.g Prof => for professorPoli – sci => for political science Zoo for => zoological garden

blends

Blends are words that created from non-morhpemic parts of two already existing items

A blend is usually formed from the first part of one word and the the final part of the second one.

e.g brunch =>from breakfast and lunchSmog => from smoke and fog.Spam => from spiced and ham.

Internal change

• Internal change is a process that substitutes' one non-morphemic segment for another .

• E.g sing(present) =>sang(past)• Sink(present) =>sank(past)• Foot (singular) => feet(plural)• Goose(singular) => geese(plural)

suppletion

Suppletion is a morphological process whereby a root morpheme is replaced by a phonologically unrelated form in order to indicate a grammatical contrast.

have => hadGo => went good=> better

Coinage

• The invention of totally new terms.• Often a brand name becomes the name for

the item or process associated with the brand name

• Examples:– hoover– Kleenex– Xerox – Kodak

Borrowing

• Taking over words from other languages.

• Examples from Italian– pasta– piano

Back formation• A word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced

to a word of a different type (usually a verb) through widespread use.– to donate from donation– to opt from option– Other examples: pronunciate (< pronunciation), resurrect (<

resurrection), enthuse (< enthusiasm), • Hypocorism: from a longer word we form a

single syllable word and add –y or –ie. (e.g. television=telly, vegetable= veggie, moving picture=movie)

Acronyms

• They are formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.

• They are usually pronounced as single words (e.g. NATO, PIN, etc.)

• Or as a set of letters (e.g. CD, VIP, etc.)

Thank You