Morphology

Overview
We all have an internal mental dictionary
called a lexicon
Morphology is the study of words (the
study of our lexicon)
To look at morphology, we must consider
both form and meaning
Affixes
Affixes are parts of words that affixed to
other parts of words
We have prefixes, suffixes, and infixes
Prefix goes at the beginning (pre-)
Suffix goes at the end (-ing)
Infix goes in the middle (-en-)

Derivation vs. Inflection
Inflection is the creation of different grammatical
forms of all words.
cat -> cats
In English, inflectional affixes are always suffixes
P. 151 gives a chart of inflectional affixes
Derivation is the process of creating words out
of other words.
cat -> catty
Cat is the root on which catty is built.
The form of the root is the stem.
The added pieces are affixes.

Morphemes
The parts that words are made of are called
morphemes.
A stem may contain more than one morpheme
Cattiness
Root= cat
Stem = catty (contains two morphemes= root and
one affix)
Second affix = ness



Free morpheme-- can be used as words by
themselves
Bound morpheme-- morphemes that cannot
stand alone (such as affixes)
Bound root-- root word that cannot stand alone
(transfer, infer, confer, defer, prefer, etc.)
Content morpheme-- morpheme with
identifiable meaning or something that indicates
a change in meaning
Function morpheme-- serve a function in the
sentence but not necessarily with an identifiable
meaning

Practice
P. 176 #2
Recap: Derivational vs.
Inflectional

Morphological Processes
(Ways to Make Words)
Affixation (making new words by adding affixes
to stems)
Compounding (making new words from two or
more independent words)
Reduplication (making new words by doubling
an entire free morpheme or part of it)
Alternations (making new words by morpheme-
internal modifications)
Suppletion (making new words that are
phonetically unrelated to the shape of the root)

Affixation
making new words by adding affixes
(prefix, suffix, infix) to stems

Tagalog example of an infix
Verb stem Infinitive
sulat write sumulat to write
bili buy bumili to buy
kuha take kumuha to take
Compounding
making new words from two or more
independent words
English: girlfriend, blackboard, air-
conditioner, life-insurance salesman
German: Wunderkind child prodigy,
muttersprache native language

Reduplication
making new words by doubling an entire free
morpheme or part of it
English: Do you like him as a friend or do you
like-like him?
Indonesian: rumah house vs.
rumahrumah houses
Tagalog: bili buy vs.
bibili will buy


Alternation
making new words by morpheme-internal
modifications
English: ring, rang, rung,
man vs. men
strife vs. strive
Suppletion
Making new words that are phonetically
unrelated to the shape of the root
We often think of these as being irregular

English:
is vs. was
go vs. went




Morphological Types of
Languages
Analytic
Made up of
sequences of free
morphemes
Each word consists
of a single morpheme
with no affixation
Example: Mandarin
Chinese (p. 163)
Synthetic
Made up of bound
morphemes attached to
other morphemes
Involves affixation
Example: Hungarian (p.
164)
Three types of synthetic
languages: agglutinating,
fusional, and
polysynthetic

Agglutinating Languages

Fusional Languages

Polysynthetic Languages