Morphology

The term morphology was coined by the German poet and writer J.W. von
Goethe in 1796 to designate the study of form and structure of living
organisms. The term morphology was later taken up by linguistics in the
nineteenth century: it was first used for linguistic purposes in 1859 by the
German linguist August Schleicher, to refer to the study of the form of words.

In present-day linguistics, the term morphology refers to the study of the

internal structure of words. The basic concepts of morphology in recent
linguistics were developed in the framework of structuralism.

Types and Tokens

How many words are there in the following sentence?

Some bakers have always known that a bakers dozen is thirteen, while some
others dont know that.

Your answer will depend on the criteria of wordhood you use.

When you count each occurrence of a word in a text, what you are counting are
(word) tokens.

When only different words count, you are counting (word) types.
Lexical density (or type/token ratio) is a measure of the difficulty of a passage
or text. It is calculated by dividing the number of word types by the total
number of word tokens and multiplying by 100. The result is given as a
percentage. The assumption is that increasing the number of word types (i.e. a
higher lexical density) increases textual difficulty.

The lexical density may be used to assess the students vocabulary. It

is also an indicator of progress in writing ability when used to compare

writing samples over time.

3) The count is 16 if we consider the following:

The type some is represented by two tokens and both of these are

identical (i.e. same pronunciation, same meaning, same word-class).

So some is counted only once.

The type that is represented by two tokens (that6 and that16). But

that6 is different from that16:

That6: is a conjunction and is pronounced /t/.

That17: is a pronoun and is pronounced /t/.

So that is counted as two different words.

Some1 bakers2 have3 always4 known5 that6 a7 bakers8 dozen9

is10 thirteen11, while12 some others13 dont14 know15 that16.

4) The count is 14 if we say that the words bakers / bakers and

known / know and are the same words.

Some1 bakers2 have3 always4 known5 that6 a7 bakers dozen8

is9 thirteen10, while11 some others12 dont13 know that14

We may say that bakers and bakers or known and know are different

words if we consider them two distinct word forms.

When you are counting (different) word forms but consider

the same abstract word only, you are counting lexemes (or

lexical items).

Typical examples of multi-word lexemes

Multi-word verbs: (with idiomatic or non-idiomatic meanings)

Phrasal verbs: go out; put sth on, bring sth up

Prepositional verbs: look into sth, dwell on sth

Phrasal-prepositional verbs: look in on sby, look down at sby, zoom in on sth

Compounds (only nominal type): red brick, apple core, computer mouse

Idioms: see the light, not see the wood for the trees, put two and two together

Lexis is a term used in linguistics to refer to the vocabulary of a language. A

unit of vocabulary is generally referred to as a lexical item (or lexeme). A
complete inventory of the lexical items of a language constitutes that
languages dictionary (or lexicon). Items are listed in the lexicon as a set of
lexical entries. The way lexical items are organized in a language is the lexical
structure (or lexical system). A group of items used to identify the network of
contrasts is a termed a lexical field (e.g. cooking, colour). The mental lexicon
refers to all the lexemes that one individual knows (the personal dictionary).

Lexicology is the overall study of a languages vocabulary (including its

history). It is distinguished from lexicography, which is the art and science of
dictionary-making.
Orthographic level Orthographic word A word which has a space on either
side of it. This definition applies only to the written medium.

Phonological level Phonological word Something pronounced as a single unit.

Grammatical level Grammatical word

Any one of the several forms (word forms) which a lexical item (lexeme) may
assume for grammatical purposes.

Lexical level Lexical item or lexeme

Abstract unit that can occur in many different forms in actual spoken or written
sentences. It links a meaning with a set of grammatical words. Being abstract,
a lexeme is not strictly speaking something that can be uttered or pronounced;
only the word forms that belong to it can be.
Morphemes have a meaning that is expressed in the physical form of sound
waves (in speech) or by marks on paper which we call letters (in writing). A
morpheme is conceived of as a unit of form and meaning. For example, the
morpheme un- (as in unhappy) is an entity that consists of the content or
meaning on the one hand, and the sounds or letters which express this
meaning on the other hand.
The definition of a morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning or
grammatical function.

The word tourists also contains three morphemes. There is one minimal unit of
meaning tour, another minimal unit of meaning -ist (marking person who does
something), and a minimal unit of grammatical function -s (indicating plural).
Morphemes may have more than one form. These variant forms are called
allomorphs (or alternants) and can be explained in terms of their phonetic or
lexical environment.

Phonetically determined (or conditioned)

allomorphs

Lexically determined (or conditioned)

allomorphs

Morphologically determined (or conditioned)

Allomorphs
Monomorphemic and Polymorphemic Words

Some words are said to be monomorphemic if they consist of just one

morpheme; they are polymorphemic if they consist of more than one
morpheme. Polymorphemic words are determinate with respect to
segmentation

Free morphemes: Those which can stand alone as single word, e.g. open
and tour.

Bound morphemes: Those which cannot stand alone, but which are
attached to another form or stem (which is a free morpheme), e.g., re-, -ist,
-ed, and -s.

Lexical morphemes: content words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, such as man,

woman, house, tiger; brown, sad, sincere, long; open, look, follow, break).
These are considered as an open class of words.

Functional morphemes: functional words (pronouns, prepositions,

conjunctions, articles, such as you, me, he, it; in, on, near, above; and, but,
because; a, an, the). These are described as a closed class of words. No new
words are ever added to these.

Derivational morphemes: Affixes

Inflectional morphemes: Inflections

There are a number of English words in which the element
treated as the stem is not, in fact, a free morpheme. In words such as receive, reduce
and
repeat, we can identify the bound morpheme re- at the beginning, but the elements
-ceive, -duce and -peat are not separate word forms and hence cannot be free
morphemes.
These types of forms are sometimes described as bound stems to keep them
distinct from free stems such as dress and care.

The addition of a suffix (suffixation) often, but not always, changes the part of
speech of a word:

Sometimes suffixation will only change the meaning of a word, but not the
class:
The addition of a prefix (prefixation) only changes the meaning of a word,
never the class:

Inflections: These are ending which indicate the grammatical function of words.
In English they are eight:

Word-Formation Processes

Coinage
 Compounding

Borrowing

Blending

Clipping

Backformation

Conversion

Derivation

Coinage

It is the creation of totally new words (neologisms) which do not have

any connection with pre-existing words in the language. For example:

invented names for products: aspirin, nylon, zipper, kleenex, xerox.

These terms may become general terms (without initial capital letter).

The most salient contemporary example of coinage is the word google. Originally a
misspelling for the word googol (= the number 1 followed by 100 zeros), in the creation
of the word Googleplex, which later became the name of a company (Google), the term
google (without a capital letter) has become a widely used expression meaning to use
the internet to find information. New products and concepts (ebay) and new activities
(Have you tried ebaying it?) are the usual sources of coinage.
New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. When we
talked about a hoover (or even a spangler), we were using an eponym. Other common
eponyms are sandwich (from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first
insisted on having his bread and meat together while gambling) and jeans (from the
Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made).

Compounding (or composition)

It is the process of joining two separate words to produce a single word

(compound). For example: bookcase, fingerprint, sunburn, wallpaper,

doorknob, textbook, waterbed.

Borrowing

It is the taking over of words from other languages (loan-words). For

example, in English we use the following words:

pretzel, rucksack, kindergarten (borrowed from German)

piano, cantata, opera, concerto (borrowed from Italian)

shampoo, cot, juggernaut (borrowed from Indian)

rodeo, patio, siesta (borrowed from Spanish)

croissant (borrowed from French)

alcohol (borrowed from Arabic)

lilac (borrowed from Persian)

boss (borrowed from Dutch)

robot (borrowed from Czech)

tycoon (borrowed from Japanese)

yogurt (borrowed from Turkish)

zebra (borrowed from Bantu)

A special type of borrowing is described as loan-translation or calque (/klk/).

In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the
borrowing language. Interesting examples are the French term gratte-ciel,
which

literally translates as scrape-sky, the Dutch wolkenkrabber (cloud

scratcher) or

the German Wolkenkratzer (cloud scraper), all of which were calques for the

English skyscraper.

Blending

Blending is an abbreviatory device. Blends are compounds formed

from bits of two words:

Blends made up of initial letters are known as acronyms. Acronyms are

then coined by combining the initial letters of compounds or phrases into

a pronounceable new word. For example:

NATO (for North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

NASA (for National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

UNESCO (for United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization)

radar (for radio detecting and ranging).

PIN (for personal identification number)

ANZAC (for Australian and New Zeland Army Corps)

RAM (for random access memory)

AIDS (for acquired immune deficiency syndrome)

If the conventional way of reading the string is by pronouncing the name

of each letter in turn, as with USA and RP (standing for the Received

Pronunciation of British English), then it is not an acronym but an

abbreviation. Examples of abbreviations:

CD (compact disk)

VCR (video cassette recorder)

ATM (automatic teller machine)

Apart from words composed of initial letters, one can also find

abbreviations that incorporate non-initial letters:

Cristian E. Ramirez 30

BSc (Bachelor of Science)

Inc. (Incorporated)

Ont. (Ontario)

kHz (kilohertz)

Clipping

It is the shortening of a word by the omission of one or more syllables.

What is left may be the beginning of a word (exam from examination),

less frequently the end (phone from telephone), and infrequently the

middle (flu from influenza):

gasoline gas

advertisement ad

condominium condo

facsimile fax

telephone phone

Cristian E. Ramirez 31

Other examples: math(s) (from mathematics), lab (from laboratory),

gym (from gymnasium), Fred (from Frederick), Tom (from Thomas),

Trish (from Patricia), Liz (from Elizabeth), etc.

Sometimes the processes of clipping and affixation are combined,

as with formations expressing intimacy or smallness, so-called

diminutives:

Mandy (from Amanda)

Andy (from Andrew)

Charlie (from Charles)

Patty (from Patricia)

Robbie (from Roberta)

Aussie (from Australian)

telly (from television)

bookie (from bookmaker)

brekky (from breakfast)

hankie (from handkerchief)

A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English,

produces

forms technically known as hypocorisms. In this process, a longer word is

reduced

to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end. This is the process that
results

in movie (moving pictures) and telly (television). It has also produced

Aussie

(Australian), barbie (barbecue), bookie (bookmaker), brekky (breakfast)

and hankie (handkerchief). You can probably guess what Chrissy pressies
are.

Backformation

It is a reduction process, a process whereby words are derived by

dropping what is thought to be a suffix or (occasionally) a prefix. It

applies chiefly to the coining of verbs from nouns:

televise (from television)

donate (from donation)

opt (from option)

babysit (from babysitter)

Cristian E. Ramirez 33

The backformed verbs work, edit, sculpt, burgle, peddle, swindle are

derived from the corresponding nouns worker, editor, sculptor, burglar,

peddler, swindler by removing the agentive morpheme -er.

Conversion

It is the process of shifting a word to a different word class without

adding an affix (functional shift or category change):

1. N to V:

paper papering

butter buttered

bottle bottled

vacation vacationing

salt salted

milk milked

3. V to Adj:

see through see-through material

stand up stand-up comedian

4. Adj to V:

dirty dirtied

empty emptied

total totalling

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2. V to N:

guess a guess

spy a spy

run a run

printout a printout

5. Adj to N:

crazy a crazy
nasty a nasty