We have known Phonology as the study of speech sounds and their patterns. In
Phonology, we have discussed about the smallest units of speech, called “phonemes”.
Now it is time for us to pay attention to the other branch
of Linguistics, Morphology, which is the study of the internal structure
of words.
Before we can examine the structure of words, we must
recognize the entity known as “morpheme”.
What is morpheme?
Morpheme can be defined as the smallest meaningful
morphological unit of a language that cannot be further divided or analyzed. In
other words, morpheme can be described as the minimal units of meaning.
Note:
In Linguistics, morphemes are indicated by ‘brace marks’
({ }).
As we know that in English, the case of plurality is
indicated by adding “s” to the singular nouns.
Singular: Plural:
book books
(consists of morpheme {book} and morpheme {s})
table tables
(consists of morpheme {table} and morpheme {s})
bag bags
(consists of morpheme {bag} and morpheme {s})
Thus, in the examples, each word has two morphemes.
In one of the patterns of
tense marker in English grammar is indicated by adding “ed”
to the past tense regular verbs:
Present: Past:
deliver delivered
(consists of morpheme {deliver} and morpheme {ed})
learn learned
(consists of morpheme {learn} and morpheme {ed})
pick picked
(consists of morpheme {pick} and morpheme {ed})
In these examples, each word also has two morphemes.
Kinds of
Morphemes:
There are two kinds of morphemes:
Free morpheme
Bound morpheme
FREE MORPHEMES:
A free morpheme is one that can be uttered alone with
meaning, such as the words that we saw earlier:
{book}
{table}
{bag}
{deliver}
{learn}
{pick}
All of these morphemes are free morphemes.
BOUND MORPHEMES:
A bound morpheme cannot be uttered alone with
meaning. It always added to one or more morphemes to form a word. The following
morphemes are taken from the previous examples:
{s} in
plays
{re} in replay
{ly} in
cheaply
{er} in
cheaper
{un} in unable
{en} in brighten
All of these underlined morphemes are bound morphemes.
Whereas “free morphemes” constitute words by
themselves,
“bound morphemes” are never words but always
parts of words.
Bound morphemes mostly refer to morphemes that can
occur as affixes. The affixes which precede free morphemes
(words) are called prefixes, and those which follow free
morphemes (words) are called suffixes.
Some Examples:
dis- -ly
un- -ness
pre- prefixes -ish suffixes
trans- -ity
bi- -er
Bound morphemes come in two varieties, “derivational”
and “inflectional”.
The core difference between the two being that the addition of the derivational morphemes
creates new words or mostly changes the word classes; while the addition of
inflectional morphemes merely changes word form.
DERIVATIONAL
MORPHEMES:
The basic concept of derivational morphemes is that they
derive new words. In the following examples, derivational morphemes are added
to produce new words which are derived from the ‘parent word’ (root).
happy – happiness
(adjective) (noun)
examine – examination
(verb) (noun)
beauty – beautiful – beautifully
(noun) (adjective) (adverb)
danger – dangerous
(noun) (adjective)
In all cases, the derived word means something different
than the root, and the word class may change with each derivation.
However, in some cases, derivation does not always cause the
change of word class; but in such a case, the meaning of word will usually be
significantly different from the root.
Examples:
visible – invisible
(adjective) (adjective)
create – recreate
(verb) (verb)
market – supermarket
(noun) (noun)
terminate – determinate
(verb) (verb)
INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES:
Inflection (the process by which inflectional morphemes are
attached to words), allows speakers to morphologically encode grammatical
information. See the following example:
The word “girls” consists of two morphemes:
The free morpheme “girl” that describes a young
female human being; and
The bound morpheme “s” that denotes plural number.
Note that both “girl” (as singular) and “girls”
(as plural) are in the same word class, that is NOUN.
Examples of morphological encoding of other grammatical
categories that can be considered as the inflectional markers are:
Past Tense (regular verb –ed):
walk - walked
(verb) (verb)
Progressive (-ing form)
walk – walking
(verb) (verb)
Person (the addition of “s” for 3rd
person singular)
walk – walks
(verb) (verb)
Plurality (the “s” in plural form)
car – cars
(noun)(noun)
Whether or not word class changes and how significantly
meaning is affected, “derivation” always creates new words
existing ones; while “inflection” is merely limited to change word form.
ALLOMORPHS:
Definition:
“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 environments”. (Source: Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) International)
This is How Morph & Morpheme deal with Allomorph:
A morpheme is indicated as one or more morphs
(surface forms) in different environments. These morphs are called allomorphs.
Compare with:
A phoneme is indicated as one or more phones (phonetic
sounds) in different environments. These phones are called allophones.
The allomorphs of a morpheme are derived from
phonological rules and any morphophonemic rules that may apply to that
morpheme.
Examples:
1. The plural morphemes in English, usually written as {s},
have at least three allomorphs:
[s] as in ‘hats’
[‘hæts]
[z] as in ‘dogs’ [‘dɒgz]
[ɪz] as in ‘boxes’
[‘bɒksɪz]
2. The past form morpheme {ed} usually has also three
allomorphs:
[d] as in ‘slammed’
[‘slæmd]
[t] as in ‘slipped’
[‘slɪpt]
[ɪd] as in ‘stilted’ [‘stɪltɪd]
3. The negative morpheme changes “n” the prefix {in}
to the consonant of the word it prefixes:
[ɪl] as in ‘illegal’ [ɪ’li:gl]
[ɪm] as in ‘impatient’ [ɪm’ peɪʃnt]
[ɪr] as in ‘irregular’ [ɪ’regjələ(r)]
[ɪn] as in ‘inconsiderate’ [ɪnkən’sɪdərət]
PREFIX:
A prefix is a letter or a group of letters attached
to the beginning of word that partly indicates its meaning.
For example, the word prefix itself begins
with a prefix –pre, which generally means “before”.
Understanding the meanings of the common prefixes can help
us in deciding the meanings of new words that we encounter.
SUFFIX:
A suffix is a letter or a group of letters attached
to the end of a word to form a new word or to alter the grammatical function of
the original word.
For example, the verb “read” can be
made into the noun “reader” by adding the suffix –er.
