UGC MHRD ePG Pathshala Subject: English Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad Paper 13: Introduction to Linguistics and Phonetics Paper Coordinator: Dr. Neeru Tandon, VSSD College, CSJMU Kanpur Module No 13: Morphological Structures of English Words Content Writer: Dr. Muralikrishnan T. R., MES Asmabi College, Thrissur Content Reviewer: Dr. Neeru Tandon, VSSD College, CSJMU Kanpur Language Editor: Dr. Neeru Tandon, VSSD College, CSJMU Kanpur 13.0 Learning outcome: This module deals with the concept of Morphological structures of English words. Morphology is the systematic study of morphemes, the smallest unit of grammar. Two types of morphological operations in English are inflection and derivation. English words can be grouped into two morphological classes: Base words and derived words. The two common word building processes are two viz. suffixes, prefixes. Other means are modifying the base/stem/root, no change of form, Compounding, Conversion, Back formation, Clipping, Blending, Acronyms, Reduplication. The advanced concepts related to this are further taken up for discussion. Morphological structures of English words This chapter includes: The concept of morphology Basic concepts such as morph, morpheme, lexeme, stem, base, allomorph etc Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic relations Six Principles of Nida for the identification of morphemes Inflection and derivation English derivational morphology Inflectional forms in English Morphophonemics Word building processes Morphological typology Morphological formation 1.0 Concept of Morphology Just as etymology (the study of the origin of words) and phonology (the study of the sounds of a language) are relevant in the description of language in terms of words, morphology, the systematic study of morphemes (the smallest unit of grammar), is significant. Morphemes are taken into consideration based on two essential factors. 1. They cannot be split into smaller morphemes. 2. It is a word or a part of word that has meaning. Hence, in the word unhappiness: there are three parts; un-happy-ness (3), unlikely: there are three parts; un-like-ly (3), pitiful: there are two parts; pity-ful (2), unjustifiable: there are three parts; un-justify-able (3) antidisestablishmentarianism: there are six parts; anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism (6) Before we pass on to the discussion of this particular section, let us have a quick recap of certain concepts and terms which you have already been introduced: 1. Morpheme: The word morpheme (consisting of two morphemes) is derived from the Greek word ‘morph’ meaning form/shape. 2. Allomorphs: Just as phonemes have allophones, morphemes have allomorphs. For example /-z/ /-s/ /-iz/ are phonologically conditioned allomorphs of the English plural morphemes, as in dogs, cats, horses. When we can explain in phonological terms why one particular allomorph of a morpheme occurs rather than another, we call it ‘regular’. But when we specify the actual morphemes to which the allomorph to which the allomorph attaches and indicate the special form of that allomorph, then we have ‘irregular’ morphological conditioning. For example the plural forms of English words such as man (men), goose (geese), child (children) 3. Base: A base is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which one can attach either an inflectional suffix or derivational suffix. E.g. hot: hotter; boy-boys; boy- boyhood. 4. Class changing: It means effecting a change of word class when the affix is added to a stem. E.g. Clever-cleverness (adjective to noun) 5. Class maintaining: It means, when added to a stem, the afix does not change the word class of the stem. E.g. Undo-do (both are verbs). 6. Lexeme: In linguistics, lexeme is the fundamental unit of the lexicon (word stock) of a language. In Corpus linguistics, lexemes are referred to as “lemmas”. Laugh, laughed, laughing are all forms of the lexeme “laugh” 7. Inflectional marking: This occurs among the various words that compose a lexeme. E.g. dog, dogs, dog’s, dogs’ 8. Derivational marking: This creates one lexeme form another. E.g. kind-unkind; good- goodness. 9. Stem: A stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional suffix may be attached. ‘Cat’ is a stem of ‘cats’ 10. Free morpheme: It can occur as a word by itself. E.g. boy, run, happy 11. Bound morpheme: It can never occur by itself. E.g. –s in cats; -ish in boyish 12. Prefix: A prefix precedes a free morpheme. E.g. kind-unkind; like-dislike 13. Suffix: A suffix follows a free morpheme. Kind-kindness; derive-derivation 14. Null morpheme:In morpheme-based morphology, a null morpheme is a morpheme that is realizedby a phonologically null affix (an empty string of phonological segments). In simplerterms, a null morpheme is an "invisible" affix. It's also called zero morpheme. The null morpheme is represented as either the figure zero (0), the empty setsymbol Ø. 15. Clitics: These "words"are like separate words in terms of how they combine with other words.English makes use of clitics separately, but uses the special "apostrophe" separator for some clitics, such as the reduced forms of is, have and would ('s 've 'd), and possessive 's. Illustration of constituent structures Industrialization industrialize -ation (Affix) industrial -ize (Affix) industry -al (Affix) 2.0 Paradigmatic relations and syntagmatic relations A paradigm is a series of changes in the shape of linguistic forms, which matches a series of changes in position. For example, the following words constitute paradigms of verbal forms: See-seeing-saw-seen Write-writing-wrote-written Cook-cooking-cooked-cooked The following words contribute paradigms of noun forms: Man-man’s-men Child-child’s-children Car-car’s-cars If a number of linguistic units are joined in a structural bond according to the rules of utterance formation in that language, such units are in syntagmatic relationship. The three sounds in ‘tell’ are in syntagmatic relationship-three phonemes /t/, /e/ and /l/. The phonological rules of English do not allow the formation of a word with the sounds /t/, /w/, /g/ and /k/ in that order. There can also be a syntagmatic relationship at the morphological level. The word structurally is made up of the morphemes /s t r Λ k t ə /+ /ə1/ + /li/. They are joined together in a structural bond. 3.0 Some basic analytic principles used in morphology. (Eugene Nida’s (1949; revised edition 1965) textbook Morphology) As it has been stated earlier, a morpheme can be defined as the smallest unit of speech that has grammatical or semantic meaning. According to Nida (1946) to identify morphemes, we must have certain partially similar forms in which we can recognize recurring partials. In ‘paint’, ‘paints’, ‘painted’, the paradigm exhibiting certain partially similar forms include certain recognizable recurring partials. They are /s/ in paints, /iη/ in painting /id/ in painted. The recurring partials are morphemes in all these cases. The words in the paradigm contain other morpheme, for example ‘paint’. In immoral, immovable, imperfect, immortal, we can recognize here a recurring partial im- meaning something like ‘not’. There are six principles according to Nida which we many apply in isolating and identifying morphemes. 3.1 Principle I Forms which have common semantic distinctiveness and an identical phonemic form in all their occurrences contribute a single morpheme. The /ə/ element in walker, dancer, trader, farmer, singer is the same morpheme. It has the same semantic meaning and an identical phonemic form in all the words. The element /ə/ does not have the meaning of the doer of something in all contexts. A ‘dancer’ is one who dances. A ‘worker’ is one who works, but one cannot say the something about the word ‘sister’. The element /ə/ in English has other meanings: in the words broader, wider, longer, the /ə/ sound has the semantic meaning of being more-than. The sounds of /ə/ in wider and in teacher are not the same morphemes, though they have identified phonemic form. 3.2 Principle II Forms which have a common semantic distinctiveness but which differ in phonemic form (i.e. the phonemes or order of the phonemes), may contribute a morpheme provided the distribution of formal differences is phonologically definable. This means that the morphemes have semantic distinctiveness but they exist in different phonemic forms which can be accounted for the law of phonological conditioning. In the following words, inaudible, impossible, illogical, irrelevant, there are some factors in common, when they are broken down into units of meaning. Each word has the semantic meaning of not in it, inaudible means not audible and so on. The semantic distinctiveness is in the element that means not, but it is quite clear that these elements have different phonemic forms in the four words. The occurrence of the different in-im-il-ir- can be explained by the law of phonological conditioning. It appears that in– is used before vowels as in the word inaudible cited above, and before alveolar consonants as in intangible, insincere and indirect; exceptions to this generalization include unalloyed, unsure, undefined and so on. Im- is used before bi- labial sounds, for example, /p/ or /b/; that is why the form is im- in impossible and imbalance. 3.3 Principle III Forms which have semantic distinctiveness but which differ in phonemic form in such a way that their distribution cannot be phonologically defined contribute a single morpheme if the forms are in complementary distribution in accordance with the following restrictions: a) Occurrence in the same structural series has precedence over occurrence in different structural series in the determination of morphemic status. b) Complementary distribution in different structural series contributes a basis for combining possible allomorph into one morpheme only if there also occurs in these different structural series a morpheme which belongs to the distribution class as the allomorphic series in question and which itself has only one allomorph or phonologically defined allomorphs.