Topic 1.

MORPHOLOGY AND ITS NOTIONS

1. Language and speech. Language levels and their units. The language is
a system of signs, of means of communication, and the rules of the usage in the
speech. Here belong sounds, phonemes, morphemes, words (lexemes), word
combinations or phrases (phrasemes).
The speech is the manifestation of the system of language in the process of
intercourse (communication). Communication may be oral or written. The speech
includes the act of producing utterances (the act of writing) + the utterances
themselves (the texts).
Units of the language form a hierarchy of levels:

Levels Units Meaning and function

6 supra-proposemic texteme (text) forming a textual unity
5 proposemic proposeme predication
4 phrasemic phraseme nominative (polynominative)
3 lexemic lexeme nominative meaning and function
2 morphemic morpheme abstract meaning, significative
function
1 phonemic phoneme –, differentiating function

The units of the immediate lower level serve as building material for the
units of immediate higher level.

2. The phoneme. The morpheme, definition and classifications.

Allomorphs. Phoneme is the basic unit of the lowest phonological level. It is the
smallest differential unit of language, which has no meaning of its own and serves
only to distinguish between words. In speech phonemes are represented by
allophones.
Morpheme is a sort of abstract general notion, and it belongs to the system
of the language, and in the speech it’s represented by allomorphs or a set of
morphs having the same grammatical meaning and standing in relations of
complimentary distribution. The relation of complimentary distribution means that
the morphs though having the same grammatical meaning are used in different
environments, each environment specific for its morph. They cannot be used
interchangeably.
Morphs (allomorphs) are the smallest meaningful successions of phonemes
into which words are broken up. Morpheme belongs to paradigmatics whereas the
morphs are speech realizations of the morphemes, they occur regularly in different
utterances and they belong to syntagmatics.
The morphemes of the present day English may be classified in accordance
with the two main principles:
1) in accordance with the mode of their functioning morphemes may be classified
into free and bound.
Free morphemes are also called “word morphemes”, they are free because
they may function in the sentence as free (separate) words. E.g. root words,
auxiliary and modal verbs, link verbs and the so-called adverbial postpositives (up,
off, etc. in the phrasal verbs).
Bound morphemes are represented by different affixes (prefixes, suffixes
and inflections).
Prefixes usually add some new meaning to the words and don’t transfer
words belonging to the one parts of speech to other parts of speech.
e.g. like – dislike
understand – misunderstand
print – imprint
Group of prefixes capable of transferring one part of speech into another:
en- large – enlarge, circle – encircle;
sometimes in- sure – ensure – insure;
im- prison – imprison;
be- little – belittle, head – behead.
The function of the suffixes is to build the new parts of speech. Among
suffixes there are grammatical homonyms:
-al central, proposal (may be adjective and noun);
-ly lovely (may be adjective and adverb);
-ate (verbs, adjectives, nouns) separate (verb, adjective), delegate (noun,
verb, adjective).
The function of the inflections is to produce different grammatical forms of
words.
2) according to the meaning morphemes may be subdivided into lexical (roots) and
grammatical (affixes).
Roots are of obligatory character, i.e. every notional word is supposed to
have a root.
Affixes are further subdivided into derivational and inflectional.
Derivational (lexico-grammatical) are word-building morphemes and markers of
words belonging to different word classes (parts of speech). They have optional
character.
Inflectional morphemes (grammatical (pure or proper)) help to build up
word forms. They derive grammatical forms of the same word.
 Types of morphs (allomorphs):
1) Replacive (sound interchange)
e.g. man – men
stand – stood
foot – feet
goose – geese
2) Phonemically conditioned morphs
Depending on the preceding sound:
plays [z]
asks [s]
changes [iz]
depends on the following sound:
illegal
immortal
irregular
innumerous
3) Morphemically conditioned
child – children
ox – oxen
brother – brethren (archaic)
4) Zero morphs (in nouns, verbs)
sheep – sheep
fish – fish
trout – trout
cut – cut
put – put
5) Amalgamated (something mixed)
boys’ (expresses 2 grammatical meanings: plural and possessive)

According to the criterion of distribution there are 2 types of morphs:

phonemically conditioned and morphemically conditioned, divided into 3 types of
distribution:
non-contrastive: e.g. learned (Am.) – learnt (Br.) – the meaning and the
function is the same, but grammatically and lexically different;
contrastive: ´export – ex´port – the stress serves as a contrastive morph,
different meaning and function;
complimentary: different environments require the use of different morphs,
having the same lexico-grammatical or grammatical meaning.

3. The notion of a word form. Lexeme is a set of word forms, which have
the same stem but differ from one another by inflections.
Word forms found in the English language: on the basis of linear
characteristics continuous (linear) and discontinuous morphemes are distinguished
in the present day English. Continuous morphemes are expressed uninterruptedly
and in the speech are represented by one word, e.g. speaks (s represents a
continuous morpheme and is expressed by one word). E.g. is speaking
(discontinuous morpheme).
Form class is a group of word forms, which differ from one another in the
stems but have the same grammatical morpheme or inflection as to its meaning.
They represent grammatical categories.

4. Grammatical meaning and its types:

1 type – generalized 2 type – particular

Word class Word form
is found in form classes and is usually is expressed explicitly by some formal
expressed implicitly. marker or sometimes by combination
of markers
generalized meaning of nouns –
thingness
generalized meaning of adjectives –
quality
generalized meaning of verbs – action
or state
generalized meaning of numerals –
quantity or order

5. Grammatical category. If a grammatical meaning is regularly expressed

by a grammatical means or a number of means then we can speak about a
grammatical category. The notion of a grammatical category may be defined as a
unity of grammatical form and grammatical meaning. Grammatical category is an
organized set of grammatical forms (grammemes). Grammatical category is the set
of self-exclusive form classes of the same lexemes including different in meaning
inflectional morphemes.
Every grammatical category must be based on an opposition of at least 2
grammatical forms. Grammatical oppositions are pairs of grammatical forms
opposed to each other in some way. The members of an opposition are referred to
as opposemes.
Binary (privative) opposition:

Present Indefinite Past Indefinite

ask asked
ring rang
go went
cut cut
learn learnt
ask – weak, unmarked member
asked – strong, marked

Ternary (gradual) opposition:

good – better – the best

Quaternary (equipollent) opposition (represents the category of Subjunctive

Mood in English):
do – should do – did – would do

Discussion Points:
1. What do the notions of language and speech denote?
2. What are the levels of the language? What units are they represented by? What
meanings they denote and what functions they perform?
3. What is a phoneme, a morpheme, a lexeme? What are the types of morphs?
4. What are the main types of grammatical meaning in the English language?
5. What is a grammatical category?