Morphology Part 1

What is morphology? The study of morpheme, the unit that constitute words. The study of internal structure of words and of the rules by which words are formed. We study morphology to know about the meaning of words, hence we can construct and understand a language. We also learn about content words and function words.

Content words A kind of words that denotes concepts such as subjects, objects, actions, attributes, and ideas. It consists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Sometimes, content words are called open-class words, because the kind of word can be added, improved, or vanished.

Function words A kind of words which do not have clear meaning or concept. It consists of pronoun, conjunction, preposition, and articles. It is also called as closed-class words because we cannot easily add or improve any of them.

Morpheme The minimal units of meaning. There are 2 kinds of morpheme in every language, those are free morpheme and bound morpheme. If a word consists only one morpheme, it is called monomorphemic word. The decomposition of words into morphemes is called discreteness.

Free and Bound Morpheme Free morphemes may constitute words by themselves. Ex: boy, sing, fast, gentle, man Bound morphemes cannot constitute words by themselves, they must be attached to another morpheme or to free morpheme. Ex: -ish, -ment, un-, -im, -ous, etc. Bound morpheme is also called as affixes.

Affixes Kinds of affixes include Prefixes: affixes located before other morphemes, ex: un- (undo), ir- (irregular), etc. Suffixes: affixes following other morphemes, ex: -ment (derpartment), -ous (famous), etc. Infixes: affixes inserted in other morphemes, ex: -el- (lelaki), -em- (temurun), -er- (rerata), etc. Circumfixes: affixes located before and after other morphemes, ex: re-able (removable), in-ous (infamous), etc.

Affixes and their class word Noun Verb Adverb Adjective -ship, -ity, -dom, -ite, -age, -ine, -n, -arian, mono-, dis-, ex-, auto- -ize, -ate, -en -ish, -ous, -an, -esque, -ate, -ful, -ic -al, -ance, -ation, -er, -ist, -ion Un-, re-, dis-, auto- -able, -ive, -ory, -y -ness, -ity, -ism, -dom -ly -ish, -like, a-, il-, in-, un-, semi-, dis-, sub-

Exercise Zapotec language in Mexico Turkish

Exercise Bontoc language in Philiphines Karuk language in Pacific Northwest

Root, Stem, Base A morphologically complex word consists of root, stem, and base. A root is a morpheme of when it is not attached by any affixes. When a root has been attached by an affix, it is called stem. Any root and any stem to which an affix is attached is called base.

Example Inaccessibilities Root  access Stem  accessible Stem  accessibility / inaccessible Stem  inaccessibility Word  inaccessibilities Base

Root A root may or may not stand alone as a word So, there is free root and bound root. Example of free root: access  inaccessibility Bound root does not have any meaning until it is attached to a morpheme. Example of bound root –ceive in “perceive”, “receive”, “conceive”, “deceive”

Exercise Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Logical Changeable Formations Impossible Humanitarians Departments Healers Humorlessness Antisocial Illogicalness Interchangabilities Informational Incredibleness Unemotional Abnormalities Irregularities Imperfections Combinations