LANE 321:

Chapter 6:
Introduction to Linguistics
Morphology

Copyright © 2014 Haifa Alroqi Content adapted from Yule (2010)

 What is Morphology?

• What is a ‘word’?
• Items marked in black separated by spaces!
• In Swahili :::: nitakupenda

• In Arabic ::::: ‫ﻳﺟﺑﺭﻫﺎ‬

• I will love you (ni= I/ ta= will/ ku= you/ penda= love)

• He forces her/ he is forcing her

• The concept ‘word’ turns out to be a complex fuzzy category.

• consider ‘elements’ rather than ‘words’

Morphology is the field of linguistics that studies the internal

structure of words
 Morphemes

• Talk, talks, talker, talked, talking

• consist of (one element ‘talk’ + other elements ‘ -s, -er, -ed, -ing’)

• All these elements are described as morphemes

A morpheme: A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

Can’t be broken down any further

 Morphemes

The police reopened the investigation.

reopened

re- open -ed

Minimal unit of Minimal unit Minimal unit of

meaning of meaning grammatical function
 Morphemes

The tourists were so happy.

tourists

tour -ist -s

Minimal unit of Minimal unit Minimal unit of

meaning of meaning grammatical function
 Free & bound morphemes

morphemes

Free morphemes Bound morphemes

Morphemes that can stand by Morphemes that cannot normally stand alone
themselves as single words and are typically attached to another form

e.g. e.g.
open, tour re-, -ed, -ist, -s
 Free & bound morphemes

• All affixes (prefixes & suffixes) in English are bound morphemes.

• Free morphemes = separate English word forms (basic nouns,

adjectives, verbs, etc.)

• When free morphemes are used with bound morphemes, the

basic word forms are known as stems

undressed carelessness
un- dress -ed care -less -ness

prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix

(bound) (free) (bound) (free) (bound) (bound)

 Free morphemes: Lexical & Functional
Lexical morphemes:
• ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs
• carry the ‘content’ of the messages we convey
• e.g. girl, man, house, tiger, sad, long, yellow, open, look, break
• New lexical morphemes can easily be added to the language, so they are treated
as an open class of words

Functional morphemes:
• Functional words (conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns)
• e.g. and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, it, them
• Because we almost never add new functional morphemes to the language, they
are described as a closed class of words.
Bound morphemes: Derivational & Inflectional

Derivational morphemes:
• We use them to make new words or words of a different grammatical category from the stem.
• They include suffixes & prefixes
• e.g. good (adj.) >> goodness (n.)
care (n.) >> careful or careless (adj.)
write (v.) >> rewrite (v.)
judge (v.) >> prejudge (v.)

More examples:
• -ic Noun >> Adj alcohol >> alcoholic
• -ly Adj >> Adv quick >> quickly
• -ate Noun >> Verb vaccine >> vaccinate
• -ity Adj >> Noun active >> activity
• -ship Noun >> Noun friend >> friendship
• -ish Adj >> Noun fool >> foolish
• -ment Verb >> Noun pay >> payment
Bound morphemes: Derivational & Inflectional
Inflectional morphemes:
• Not used to produce new words in the language.
• Used to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. (plural, singular, past tense,
comparative, possessive)
• In English, all the inflectional morphemes are suffixes.
• English has only 8 inflectional morphemes
• Noun
• -s plural e.g. books
• -’s possessive e.g. The girl’s book
• Verb
• -s 3rd person singular simple present e.g. walks
• -ing present progressive e.g. walking
• -ed past tense e.g. walked
• -en past participle e.g. written
• Adjective
• -er comparative e.g. taller
• -est superlative e.g. the tallest
 Morphological description

• An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical

category of a word.

e.g. old, older, oldest are all adjectives

• A derivational morpheme can change the grammatical category

of a word.

e.g. teach (v.) >> teacher (n.)

• Bound morphemes always appear in order, first derivational then

inflectional. (e.g. teachers)
 Morphological description

• The child’s wildness shocked the teachers

• There are 11 morphemes

child, wild,
lexical
shock, teach
free

functional
The , the
morphemes


derivational -ness, -er
bound

inflectional -’s, -ed, -s
 Morphs and allomorphs

cars (car + -s) = (lexical + inflectional ‘plural’)

buses (bus + -es) = (lexical + inflectional ‘plural’)

• 2 morphs (-s & -es) used to realize the inflectional morpheme ‘plural’.

• -s & -es are allomorphs of the morpheme ‘plural’

• Cat + plural = cats = (cat + -s)

• Bus + plural = buses = (bus + -es)
• Sheep + plural. = sheep = (sheep + ∅ )
• Man + plural = men = (æ ɛ)
 Morphs and allomorphs

• Morphs are the actual forms used to realize morphemes.

• When we find a group of different morphs, all versions of

one morpheme, we can use the prefix ‘allo-” and describe

them as allomorphs of that morpheme
Analyse the following words into morphemes

im- is a derivational bound morpheme

impossible
possible is a lexical free morpheme
terror is a lexical free morpheme
terrorized -ize is a derivational bound morpheme
-ed is an inflectional bound morpheme
him to is a functional free morpheme
desk is a lexical free morpheme
desks
-s is an inflectional bound morpheme
dis- is a derivational bound morpheme
dislike
like is a lexical free morpheme
human is a lexical free morpheme
humanity
-ity is a derivational bound morpheme
to to is a functional free morpheme
Analyse the following words into morphemes

fast is a lexical free morpheme

fastest
-est is an inflectional bound morpheme
pre- is a derivational bound morpheme
premature
mature is a lexical free morpheme
and and is a functional free morpheme
un- is a derivational bound morpheme
untie
tie is a lexical free morpheme
dark is a lexical free morpheme
darken
-en is a derivational bound morpheme
fall is a lexical free morpheme
fallen
-en is an inflectional bound morpheme
fast is a lexical free morpheme
faster
-er is an inflectional bound morpheme
lecture is a lexical free morpheme
lecturer
-er is a derivational bound morpheme
Analyse the following words into morphemes

grow is a lexical free morpheme

growing
-ing is an inflectional bound morpheme

because because is a functional free morpheme

follow is a lexical free morpheme

followers -er is a derviational bound morpheme
-s is an inflectional bound morpheme

she she is a functional free morpheme

the the is a functional free morpheme

Identify the different types of morphemes

• The young boy played with his friends.

The A functional free morpheme
Young A lexical free morpheme
Boy A lexical free morpheme
Play A lexical free morpheme
-ed An inflectional bound morpheme
With A functional free morpheme
His A functional free morpheme
Friend A lexical free morpheme
-s An inflectional bound morpheme
 Remember

less -less

e.g. less than e.g. careless

functional free derivational bound

 Remember

or -or

e.g. red or blue e.g.editor

functional free derivational bound

 Remember

Doer Superlative
One who does adjective
the action
-er -er

e.g.teacher e.g. longer

derivational bound inflectional bound

 Remember

Pas participle short (Adj) / shorten (V)

write - wrote - written shorten - shortened - shortened

-en -en

e.g. written e.g. shorten

inflectional bound derivational bound

References

Yule, G. (2010). The study of language. (4th ed.) Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.
Homework: Questions: 1, 2, 3, & 4

Thank you