morphology definition, function, etc

MORPHOLOGY

(Word Formation)

What is a morphology?

Morphology is another level of studying or analyzing the expressions system of a language, which is concerned with the identification of morphemes and the way in which they are distributed or combined into longer utterances .Morphology focusses the study on words and how words are arranged to form meanings.

The term ‘morphology’ is used in its broad sense, when it refers to  the arrangement of morphemes into larger utterances in general, for which some linguistic use term grammar. In the letter sense there is a distinction between the arrangement of morphemes into word

u  Examples:

Singular:                                                      Plural:

* Book                                                         Books

A.    Morphemes and phonemes

Morphemes is smallest meaningful of unit in a language, a morpheme may be composed of one phoneme or more than one phoneme.

Phoneme is the number of sound. Phoneme has 2 type

1.      Monomorphemic = if a morpheme just have 1

2.      Polimorphemic = if morpheme have more than 1

For examples :

Word	Number of morpheme	Type of word (mono or poli)
Students	2 {student} + {-s}	Polimorphemic
Enlarge	2 {en-} + {large}	Polimorphemic
Impolite	2 {im-} + {polite}	Polimorphemic
Book	1 {book}	Monomorphemic
Enlargement	3 {in-} + {large} + {-ment}	Polimorphemic

·         Type of morpheme

There are two kinds of morpheme:

1.      Free morpheme

A free morpheme is one that can be uttered alone with meaning

Examples:

·         Book, table, bag

2.      Bound morpheme

A bound morpheme can’t be uttered alone with meaning. It always added to one or more morphemes to form a word

Examples:

·         (re)                          in                                replay

·         (ly)                           in                                cheaply

B.     Allomorph

“An allomorph is one of two or more complementary morphs (the phonetic realization of morpheme), which manifest a morpheme in its different phonological or morphological environment).

Type of allomorph:

u  Additive Allomorphs

The past tense form of most english verb formed by adding the suffix {-ed} which can be prounced as either /-t/,/-d/, /-id/, or /-s/. The example: listened, lecturers

u  Replacive Allomorphs

Replacive Allomorphs is found only in quite few irreguler verb, a sound is used to replaced another sound in the word. The example: Drink-Drank-Drunk

u  Suppeletive Allomorphs

There is a cmplete change in the shape of a word. Example: good-best

u  Zero Allomorph

There is no change in the shape of word though some difference in meaning is identified. The example:  cut-cut-cut

Kind of Bound Morpheme :

1.      Derivational Morphemes

u  The basic concept of derivational morphemes is that they new words. In the following, derivational morphemes added to produce new words which are derived from ‘ parent word’ (root).

1.      Happy      --   happiness

(adj)                (noun)

2.      Examine   --    examination

(verb)              (noun)

3.      Danger     --     dangerous

(noun)               (adj)  

2.      Inflectional Morphemes

Inflection ( the proccess by which inflectional morphemes are attached to words), allows speakers to morphologically encode grammatical information. The following, is the productive inflections of modern English :

Noun:

Plural number                          {-s}

Verb:

Present tense                           {-s}

Past tense                                {-ed}

Past participle                          {-ed}

Present participle                     {-ing}

Adjetive:

Comparative degree                {-er}

Suppelative degree                  {-est}

• Examples of morphological encoding of other grammatical categories that can be considered as the inflecional markers are:

•      Past tense (regular verb –ed)

* walk – walked

•      Progressive (-ing form)

* walk – walking

•      Person (the addition of “s” for 3rd person singular)

* walk – walks

•      Plurality ( the “s” in plural form)

* car - cars

C.    Word Formation Processes

a.      Acronyms, Abbreviations formed by taking theinitial sounds (letters) of the words
of a phrase anduniting them to form a pronouncable word.

•      Laser: light amplication by simulated emissionof radiation

•      Scuba: self-contained underwater breathingapparatus

•      Radar: radio detecting and ranging

•      AIDS: Acquired Immune Deciency Syndrome

b.      Blending, process of creating a new word bycombining the parts of two different words, usuallythe beginning of one word and the end of another.

•      breakfast + lunch   àbrunch

•      smoke + fog          àsmog

•      motor + hotel         àmotel

c.      Back Formation, word formation process thatnew base form is created from an apparently similarform by using proportional analogy.

•      Revise                   : revision;

•      Televise                 : television

•      Actor                     : act;

•      Editor                    : edit

•      Create                    : creation;

•      Donate      : donation

d.     Clipping, process of creating new words byshortening parts of longer words.

•      Doctor (doc), professional (pro) laboratory (lab) ,advertisement (ad) , examination (exam)

•      bicycle (bike)

•      refrigerator  (fridge)

e.      Compound

Compound is word formation process by which new words are formed by combining two or more independent words.

The example:

•      Cheese burger

•      Green hause

•      Flashdisk