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Chapter 7: English : Structure Meaning in

CHAPTER 7 ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY : Structure meaning in words

orphology is the study of how words are structured and how they are put together from smaller parts. To convey meaning, sounds are combined into words. But in fact, words are not the smallest unit of meaning. Many words are made of smaller units of meaning, and these units are combined in particular ways, forming words.

Morpheme A , designated with braces, { }, is smallest meaning- bearing unit of . For example, { re-} is not a , but it does carry meaning. A morpheme ordinarily consists of a sequence of one or more phonemes. Yule (2002) states that a morpheme is the minimal linguistic unit which has a meaning or grammatical function.

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Units of grammatical function include forms used to indicate past tense or . In the sentence The police reopened the investigation, the word reopened consists of three , a minimal unit is {open}, a minimal unit of meaning is {re-} (meaning ‘again’), and a minimal unit of grammatical function is {-ed} (indicating past-tense’). A single word may be composed of one or more morphemes:

One morpheme : {boy} {desire} Two morphemes : {boy} + { -ish} {desire} +{- able} Three morphemes : {boy} +{- ish} + {-ness} {desire} + {-able} + {-ity} Four Morphemes : {gentle} + {man} + {li} + {-ness} {un} + {desire} + {-able} + {-ity} More than four : {un-} + {gentle} + {man} + {li} + {- ness} Morphemes {anti-} +{ dis-} + {establish} +{-ment} + {ari} + {-an} + {-ism}

In short, a morpheme is defined as the minimal linguistic sign, a grammatical unit that is an arbitrary union of sound and a meaning and that cannot be further analyzed.

Types of Morphemes Free vs. Bound Morphemes Many words are themselves morphemes, such as {boy} and {desire}; they cannot be broken down into smaller units and they carry meaning. But many other words consist of more than one morpheme. For example, desirable consists of two morphemes, {desire} and {- able}; desirability consists of three morphemes, {desire}, {-able} and {-ity}. Most words, such as sandbox , are created by joining together two morphemes, in this case {sand} and {box}, each of which can be recognized as a word that carries a meaning by itself. All

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morphemes named thus far are free morpheme ; that is they can exist as independent words.

Another type of morpheme is the bound morpheme , which occurs only when attached to another morpheme. This type includes and of all kinds, such as {pre-}, {-ness}, {-ly}, {-ed}, and many others. The word reprinted , for instance, consists of three morphemes: the free morpheme {print} and the two bound morphemes {re-} and {-ed}. Each of the three morphemes bears meaning and contributes to the overall meaning of reprinted : {print} carries the meaning of making an impression, {re-} signifies repetition, and {-ed} designates the past tense.

In general, the analysis of a word into its component morpheme requires that each morpheme occur elsewhere in the language; that is, it must occur with the same meaning either as a free morpheme or as bound morpheme in other combinations. For example, the morphemes {re-} and {-ed} in the word reprinted also occur in many other words and have the same meanings in those words. For example, in replayed, regained, and retyped , {re-} again signifies repetition and {-ed} again indicates the past tense.

Content (Lexical) vs. Function (grammatical) Morphemes There is one more distinction between types of morphemes which it can be useful to make. Most morphemes have semantic content , that is, they either have some kind of independent, identifiable meaning or indicate a change in meaning when added to a word. Others serve only to provide information about grammatical function by relating certain words in a sentence to each other. The former are called content/lexical morphemes , the latter are called function/functional morphemes . In English, all roots and derivational affixes are content morphemes, while inflectional affixes and such “function words” as preposition, e.g. {at}, {of}, articles, {a} or {an}, pronouns, {her}, and conjunctions, {but}, {or}, etc. are functional/grammatical morphemes.

Derivational vs. Inflectional Morphemes This distinction applies only to the class of bound morphemes. The more familiar terms for bound grammatical morphemes is affix . Affixes in turn can be subdivided into and suffixes depending upon whether they are attached to the beginning of a lexical

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morpheme, as depress (where {de-} is a prefix), or to the end of a lexical morpheme, as in helpful (where {-ful} is a .. A derivational morpheme is one that is added to a (that is a word) to form a new word that differs, usually, in its part-of-speech classification. For example, when the suffix –ness is added to happy, the happiness is formed. Similarly, the adjective quick becomes the adverb quickly when –ly is added. We may also classify such bound morphemes as un- and pre- as derivational morphemes, although these differ from –ness and –ly in two basic ways: (1) un- and pre- do not change the part-of-speech classification; for example, unambitious and predetermined remains , (2) the addition of un- and pre- changes the meaning of the word in a significant way, whereas the addition of –ness and –ly has little effect on the basic meaning of the word. In English, prefixes are usually derivational morphemes that change the meaning but not the part-of-speech classification, whereas suffixes are usually derivational morphemes that change the part-of-speech classification but not the meaning. Exceptions include joy/enjoy and dear/endear .

An inflectional morpheme indicates certain grammatical properties associated with and verbs, such as gender, number, case, and tense. Unlike highly inflected like , English has very few inflectional morphemes. In English, the inflectional morphemes are all suffixes. The suffix –s, which indicates either possession or plurality in nouns, is an inflectional morpheme; the past tense suffix – ed , which added to verbs, is another.

Inflectional morphemes are used to show if a word is plural or singular, if it is past tense or not, and if it is a comparative or possessive form. English has eight inflectional morphemes, illustrated in the following sentences. - Jim’ s two sister s are really different . - One like s to have fun and is always laugh ing. - The other lik ed to read as a child and has always tak en thing seriously. - One is the loud est person in the house and the other is quiet er than a mouse .

From these examples, we can see that two of the , -s (possessive) and –s (plural), are attached to nouns. There are four inflections attached to verbs, -s (3 rd person singular), -ing (present

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participle), -ed (past tense) and –en (past participle). There are two inflections attached to adjective: -est (superlative) and –er (comparative). In English, all the inflectional morphemes are suffixes, as in the following table.

Table 5 English Inflectional Affixes

Nouns

Plural –s The book s Possessive –‘s John’ s book

Verbs

3rd person sing, nonpast -s John read s well Progressive –ing He is work ing Past Tense –ed He work ed Past Participle –en/-ed He has eat en/ finish ed

Adjectives

Comparative –er The small er one Superlative -est The small est one

There is some variation in the form of these inflectional morphemes. For example, the possessive sometimes appears as –s (those boys’ s bags ) and the past participle as –ed (they have finish ed ).

Below are listed four characteristics which separate inflectional and derivational affixes;

Inflectional morpheme Derivational morpheme

• Do not change meaning part • Change meaning or part of of speech, e.g. big and bigger speech, e.g. –ment forms are both adjectives nouns, such as judgment , from verbs, such as judge

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Inflectional morpheme Derivational morpheme

• Typically indicate syntactic or • Typically indicate semantic relations between semantic relations within different words in a sentence, the word, e.g. the e.g. the present tense morpheme –ful in painful morpheme –s in waits shows has no particular with the subject of connection with any other the verb (both are third person morpheme beyond the singular) word painful .

• Typically occur with all • Typically occur with only members of some large class some members of a class of morpheme, e.g., the plural of morpheme, e.g., the morpheme –s occurs with suffix –hood occurs with most nouns just a few nouns such as brother, neighbor, and knight , but not with most others, e.g., friend, daughter, candle , etc

• Typically occurs at the • Typically occur before margins of words, e.g., the inflectional suffixes, e.g., plural morphemes –s always in chilier , the derivational come last in a word, as in suffix –y comes before the baby -sitter or rationalizat ion . inflectional –er .

A summary of the divisions of morphemes is presented schematically in the following figure

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Figure 6 Division of Morpheme into Various Types

Morpheme

Lexical Grammatical

Free Bound Free Bound

Affix Nouns Preposition Inflect Deriva Verbs Article ional tional Adj Conjunction

Morph and Allomorphs The morpheme is an abstract unit. In actual speech, one morpheme may have several pronunciations or several phonological forms. For example, -ed is pronounced differently in rented, employed , and faked . Just as phonemes are abstract units realized through allophones, morphemes are realized through allomorphs. Allomorphs are any of variant forms of a morpheme. The plural morpheme in English, {Pl.}, is realized through many allomorphs. Consider, for example, the words hats, dogs, and buses . Phonemically, these words are written as [hæts], [d ]gz], and [b sχz], from which it is apparent that the plural endings are [-s], [z], and [-χz]. These three allomorphs do not occur randomly; which allomorph occurs depends on the phonetic environment. Noun that end in one of the sibilants [s, z, Σ, ∞, ±, ϕ] take the [-χz] plural allomorphs, as in mazes, judges, and wishes . Nouns that end in a voiceless consonant (other than a sibilant) form their with the voiceless allomorphs {-s], as in caps, chiefs, and wicks . All other regular nouns end in a voiced sound and take the voiced allomorph [-z], as in joys, burns, and liquids . Some irregular allomorph of the plural morpheme are [ χn] as in oxen , [-rχn] as in

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children , and Ø as in deer . These allomorphs help to account for the difference in pronunciation of the various plural endings.

Morphs is the actual forms used to realize morphemes. For example, the form of cars consist of two morphs, car + -s, realizing a lexical morpheme and an inflectional morpheme (‘plural’). The form buses also consists of two morphs ( bus + es ), realizing a lexical morpheme and inflectional morpheme (‘plural’). Just as we noted that there were ‘allophones’ of a particular phoneme, so we can recognize the existence of allomorphs of a particular morpheme. That is, when we find a group of different morphs, all versions of one morpheme, we can use the prefix ’allo-‘ (= one of a closely related set) and describe them as allomorphs of that morpheme.

English Word Formations There are many processes to form a word or new words in English. Some of them are derivation, compounding, acronym, back formation, blending, clipping, etc. In the following discussion, we are going to introduce you these processes one by one.

Derivation Derivation is the most common word-formation process to be found in the production of new English words. Derivation forms a word with a meaning and/or category distinct from that of its base through the addition of an affix. English has a number of derivational morphemes which we use to derive words. There are prefixes (added to the beginning of a stem) or suffixes (added to the end of a stem). Some common prefixes in English are re-, dis-, anti, in-, pre-, post, and sub . And common suffixes; -ly, -ness, -er, -ity, -ation, -ful, -able , and –al .

The table below lists some English derivational affixes, along with information about the category of their base (ignoring bound roots) and of the resulting new word. The seventh entry states that the affix – able applies to a verb base and converts it into an adjective. Thus, if we add the affix -able to verb fix , we can get an adjective (with the meaning ‘able to be fixed’).

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Affix Change Examples Suffixes: -ant V N claim -ant, defend -ant -(at)ion V N realiz-ation, assert-ion, protect-ion -er V N teach-er, work-er -ment V N treat -ment, amaze -ment

-ing 1 V N the shoot -ing, the danc -ing -ing 2 V A the sleep-ing giant, a blaz-ing fire -able V A fix-able, do-able, understand-able -ive V A assert -ive, impress -ive -ful N A faith -ful, hope -ful, dread -ful -(i)al N A president-ial, nation-al -(i)an N A Arab-ian, Einstein-ian -ic N A optimist -ic, cub -ic -less N A brain -less, penni -less -ous N A poison-ous, lecher-ous -ize N V hospital-ize, crystal-ize, computer-ize -ate A V active -ate, captive -ate -en A V black -en, hard -en -ize A V modern-ize, national-ize -ity A N prior-ity, stupid-ity -ness A N happi -ness, sad -ness -ly A Adv Slow -ly, careful -ly

Prefixes anti N N anti -pollution ex - N N ex -president, ex -wife de- V V de-activate, de-mystify dis- V V dis-continue, dis-obey mis - V V mis -identify, mis -place

un-1 V V un-tie, un-lock, un-do re- V V re-think, re-state in- A A in-competent, in-complete un-2 A A un-happy, un-intelligent

To determine the category of the base to which an affix is added, we should consider the following example. In the case of worker , for instance, the base ( work ) is sometimes used as verb (as in they work hard ) and sometimes as a noun (as in the work is time-consuming ). Which category serves as base for the suffix –er in the word worker ? The solution to this problem is to consider the use of –er (in the sense of ‘one who x’s’) with bases whose category can be unequivocally

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determined. In the words teacher and writer , for instance, we see this affix used with bases that are unequivocally verb (teach and write ). Moreover, we know that –er can combine with the verb sell (seller ) but not the noun sale (* saler ). These facts allow us to conclude that the base with which –er combines in the word worker must be a verb rather than a noun.

Derivation at work

The information above allows us to build word structures such as the following examples: a. N V b.

V Af Adj Af

treat ment modern ize

Adj Adj c. d.

N Af Af Adj

season al un kind

In each of these structures, an affix combines with a base of a particular type to give a new word. In the case of treatment , for instance, the affix –ment combines with the V treat to give the N treatment .

These examples illustrate an important property of English complex words: the rightmost morpheme is generally the one that determines the category of the entire word. Thus, the word unkind is an adjective because kind (the rightmost morpheme) is an adjective. In contrast, the word treatment is a noun since the rightmost element is the affix – ment , which combines with a V to give an N

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Complex Derivation

Since derivation can apply more than once, it is possible to create multiple levels of word structure, as in the following example.

N

V

Adj

V Af Af Af

Act ive ate ion

The word activation contain several layers, each of which reflects the attachment of an affix to a base of the appropriate type. In the first layer, the affix –ive combines with the V base act to give an Adj. The suffix –ive is the types of affix that converts it into an Adj. In the next layer, the affix –ate combines with this Adj and converts it into a V (activate ). At this point, the affix –ion is added, converting the V into an N and giving the word activation .

In some cases, the internal structure of a complex word is not so obvious. The unhappiness , for instance, could apparently be analyzed in either of the ways indicated in the following diagrams:

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a. N b. N

Adj N

Af Adj Af Af Adj Af

un happy ness un happy ness

By considering the properties of the affixes un- and –ness , however, it is possible to find an argument that favors diagram a over diagram b. The key observation is that the prefix un- combines quite freely with adjective, but not with nouns.

un - + Adj un - + N unable *unknowledge unkind *unhealthy unhurt *uninjury

This suggest that un- must combine with the adjective happy before it is converted into a noun by the suffix –ness , exactly in diagram a.

By contrast, in a word such as unhealthy , the prefix un- can be attached only after the suffix –y has been added to the root. Otherwise, there would be no adjective category to which it could attach.

N

N

Af N Af

un health y

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Compounding Another common way to build words in English involves compounding, the combination of lexical categories (nouns adjectives, verbs, or prepositions). In other words, compound is two or more existing words are put together to create a new word such as blackboard, expressway, and air-conditioner. The resulting of compound word is a noun, a verb, or an adjective. Compound preposition includes into and onto . Most of compound words, the final component determines the category of the entire word. Thus, greenhouse is a N because its right-most component is an N, spoonfeed is a V because feed also belongs to this category, and nationwide is an A just as wide is. The morpheme that determines the category of the entire word is called the head .

Can you think of other examples of ? Recent compound include moonshot, waterbed, upfront, color-code, computerlike, bookcase, fingerprint, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket, waterbed . All these examples are nouns, but we can also create compound adjectives { good-looking, low-paid } and compound of adjective ( fast ) plus noun ( food ) as in a fast-food restaurant or a full- time job .

English orthography is not consistent in representing compounds since they are sometimes with an intervening , and sometimes written as separate words. In terms of pronunciation, however, there is an important generalization to be made. In particular, A-N compounds are characterized by a more prominent stress on the first component. In non-compounds consisting of an adjective and a noun, in contrast, the second element is generally stressed.

Compounds words Non -compound expression gréenhouse‘anindoorgarden’ greenhóuse‘ahousepaintedgreen’ bĺackboard‘achalkboard’ black boárd‘aboardwhichisblack’ wétsuit‘adriver’scostume’ wetsúit‘asuitthatiswet’

There are two types of compound words. They are endocentric and exocentric . In most cases of endocentric compound, it denotes a subtype of the concept denoted by its head (the rightmost component). Thus, dog food is a type of food, a cave man is a type of man, sky-blue is a type of blue, and so on. But if the meaning of compound does not follow from the meaning of its parts is called exocentric compound.

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Thus, redhead is not a type of head ; rather, it is a person with the red hair. Similarly, a redneck is a person and not a type of neck .

Types of Compounds

1. Compound Nouns Compound nouns are formed from left-handed elements as in the following table:

VERB - NOUN : ⇔swearword, ⇔⇔playtime NOUN - NOUN : ⇔fireengine, , ⇔jumpsuit ADJ - NOUN : ⇔blackboard, ⇔greenhouse PREP - NOUN : in -group, in -law

The main stress is given on the left element to distinguish compound nouns from noun phrases (NP).

2. Compound Verbs Verbs formed by compounding are much less usual than verbs derived by affixation. Nevertheless, a variety of types exist which may be distinguished according to their structure:

VERB - VERB : drop-kick, freeze-dry NOUN – VERB : spoon - feed, hand -wash ADJ – VERB : dry-clean, white-wash PREP - VERB : underestimate, overcook

All these compounds have verb as the rightmost element, with most of them, the activity denoted by the compound. This type of compound is called right-handed —the rightmost element being the head.

3. Compound Adjectives On the analogy of compound verbs above, ere are some examples of right-headed compound adjectives: NOUN – ADJ : sky -high, coal -black ADJ – ADJ : red-hot, deep-blue PREP - ADJ : over -ripe, in -grown

The head compound adjective is the adjective itself.

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Acronym Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words. In other words, acronyms are formed by taking the initial sounds (or letters) of the words of a phrase and uniting them into a combination which is itself pronounceable as a separate word. More typically, acronyms are pronounced as new single words, such as

NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organization NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration UNICEF = United Nations International Children Emergency Fund AIDS = Acquired immune deficiency syndrome MAAD = mothers against drunk living WAR = women against rape ATM = automatic teller machine PIN = personal identification number laser = light amplification through the simulated emission of radiation, zip = zone improvement plan radar = radio detecting and changing. scuba = self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

Back Formation Back formation is a process that creates a new word by removing a real or supposed affix from another word in the language. Resurrect was originally formed in this way from resurrection . Other backformations in English include enthuse from enthusiasm , donate from donation , orient or orientate from orientation , and self-destruct from self-destruction . Sometimes, backformation involves an incorrect assumption about a word’s form; for example, the word pea was derived from the singular noun pease , whose final /z/ was incorrectly interpreted as the plural suffix.

A major source of backformations in English has been words that end in –or or –er and have meanings involving the notion the notion of an agent, such as editor, peddler, swindler and stoker . Because hundreds of words like these are the result of affixation, it was assumed that these words too had been formed by adding –or or –er to a erb. By the

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process of back formation, the erb edit, peddle, swindle, and stoke were formed.

In other words, back formation makes use of a process called analogy to derive new words, but in a rather backwards manner. For example, we have words like revision and revise and supervision and supervise . Revision is form by regular derivation from revise and –ion . When television was invented the verb televise was back-formed on the basis of analogy with revision and revise, that is:

revision : revise : : television : X

To cite another example, the verb donate was formed on the basis of pairs like creation – create . The word donate was borrowed from French: creation : create : : donation : X

Blending Blends are created from nonmorphemic parts of two already existing items. As in the following examples, a blend is a combination of the parts of two words, usually the beginning of one word and the end of the second one.

smog  smo ke and fo g brunch  br eakfast and lunch spam  sp icy and ham telethon  tele phone and mara thon telecast  tele vision and broad cast aerobicise  aerobi cs and exer cise chunnel  ch annel and tunne l infomercial  info rmation and com mercial infotainment  info rmation and enter tainment simulcast  simul taneous and broad cast

Some blends have become so integrated into the standard vocabulary of English that speakers are unaware of their status. For example, relatively few people know that blending has produced, such as,

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motel  mo tor and ho tel bit  bi nary and digi t modem  mo dulator and dem odulator telex  tel eprinter and ex change

Clipping Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more syllables. Clipping is especially popular in the speech of students, where it has yielded forms like: prof for professor ; burger for hamburger , zoo for zoological , fax for facsimile , etc.

Frequently we shorten words without paying attention to the derivational morphology of the words (or related words). exam from examination , dorm from dormitory , taxi or cab from taxi cab (itself a clipping from taximeter cabriolet )

Conversion Conversion is a process that assigns an already existing word to a new syntactic category. A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction) is called conversion . Other labels for this very common process are ‘category change’ and ‘functional shift’. Even though it does not add an affix, conversion is often considered to be a type of derivation because of the change in category and meaning that it brings about.

A number of nouns such as bottle , butter, chair and vacation have come to be used, through conversion, as verbs: (1) We bottled the home-brew last night; (2) Have you buttered the toast?; (3) Someone has to chair the meeting; (4) They are vacationing in Florida .

The conversion process is particularly productive in modern English, with new uses occurring frequently. The conversion can involve verbs becoming nouns, with guess, must and spy as the sources of a guess, a must and a spy . Phrasal verbs ( to print out, to take over ) also become nouns ( a printout, a takeover ). One complex verb combination ( want

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to be ) has become a new noun as in He isn’t in the group, he’s just a wannabe .

Verbs ( see through, stand up ) also become adjectives, as in see- through material or a stand-up comedian . Or adjectives, as in a dirty floor, an empty room, some crazy ideas and those nasty people , can become the verbs to dirty, and to empty ; or the nouns a crazy and the nasty .

Some compound nouns have assumed adjectival or verbal functions, exemplified by the ball park appearing in a ball-park figure or asking someone to ball-park an estimate of the cost . Other nouns of this type are carpool, mastermind, microwave and quarterback which are all regularly used as verbs. Other forms, such as up and down can also become verbs, as in They’re going to up the price of oil or we downed a few beers at the chimes .

Onomatopoeia All languages have words that have been created to sound like the thing that they name. Examples of such onomatopoeic words in English include: buzz hiss sizzle cuckoo cock-a-doodle-doo meow chirp bow-wow

Other Sources In still other cases, a word may be created from scratch. It is called manufacture or coinage . This phenomenon is especially common in cases where industry requires a new and attractive name for product. Kodak, Dacron, Orlon, and Teflon are examples of product names that are result of word manufacture.

Finally, it is sometimes possible to create new words from names. For example, brand names sometimes become so widely used that they are accepted as generic terms ( Kleenex for ‘facial tissue’ or Xerox for ‘photocopy’). A related practice is exemplified by the words watt,

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curie, Fahrenheit, and boycott , all of which were derived from the names of individuals (usually the inventors or discoverers) associated with the things to which they refer.

Inflection

Virtually all languages have contrasts such as singular versus plural, and past versus present. These contrasts are often marked with the help of , morphology used to indicate the grammatical subclass to which it belongs. (The base to which an inflectional affix is added is sometimes called a stem .). In the case of most English nouns, for instance, inflection marks the plural subclass by adding the affix –s. In the case of verbs, inflection can mark a distinction between the past and nonpast subclasses—usually by adding the suffix –ed to indicate the past tense.

Number Tense Singular Plural Non -past Past apple apple-s work work-ed car car -s jump jump -ed dog dog -s hunt hunt -ed

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