Morphology

Morphology

 Lexicon or Vocabulary

The list of the words of any language is called its lexicon (vocabulary). It is however impossible to prepare an exhaustive (complete) list of the lexicon of any language. The lexicons of all languages keep expanding as new words continue to enter them from time to time.

Phonology

Phonology is a subfield of linguistics which studies the structure and syntactic patterning of the phonemes of a language. It tries to determine the phonemes of a language, how they are articulated and according to what rules they combine with one another to form larger units like syllables and words.

Morphology

Morphology is the subfield of linguistics which studies the internal structure of words and the relationships among them. It is the study of the morphemes, the minimal units of a language having grammatical significance and meaning. It tries to determine and classify the morphemes, to study their meanings and the rules they follow while combining with one another.

Syntax

Syntax is the branch of linguistics which studies the internal structure of sentences, clauses and phrases and the relationships among their constituent parts. It studies the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships among words in phrases and the phrases and clauses in sentences.

Semantics

Semantics is the branch of linguistics which studies the nature of the meaning of words, phrases, clauses and sentences. It studies the relationships among these units from the point of view of meaning and tries to discover where in the sentence they should be placed to convey a certain type of meaning.

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the sub-field of linguistics which studies the words, phrases and sentences in the actual context of discourse. As we know, the meaning of any word, phrase or sentence is determined by the context in which it occurs. They cannot be isolated and interpreted independently of the context in which they are used. The same unit may have different meanings in different contexts.

Morpheme

The morpheme is the minimal grammatical and meaningful unit of a language. It may be a simple word or a part of a complex word. The word 'read' is a simple word as well as a morpheme. But the compound word reader consists of two morphemes – read and -er. Invariably, every complex word contains one morpheme which can occur as a word also. This morpheme is known as the root or base form of the complex word. The root is a free morpheme and the morphemes that are affixed to it to derive larger words are bound morphemes.

Free and Bound Morphemes

A free morpheme is a morpheme that can occur as a unit of the next higher level and as an utterance. In other words, a morpheme which can be used as a word by itself is called a free morpheme.

A bound morpheme is a morpheme which cannot occur as a unit of the next higher level i.e. word and has to be attached to a free morpheme to derive a new word or a different inflected form of the same part of speech.

   

The word friendly consists of two morphemes, friend and -ly. Friend can be used as a word also. So it is a free morpheme. But the other morpheme -ly cannot stand as a word independently. It has to be attached to a free morpheme to derive a different word. Therefore it is a bound morpheme.

Free morphemes always have a meaning as well as a form because they can occur as words and words invariably have a form and a meaning. Bound morphemes have a meaning and normally a form also. But they may sometimes have no form. For example, when we change the singular noun deer to make it plural, we add the plural morpheme to the original form, the root. But the plural morpheme that we add in this case has no form. 

Some linguists also cite examples to prove that in some rare cases, a bound morpheme may not have a meaning. Such cases, if at all they are there, are extremely rare. Their contention does not hold much water as most of the cases they cite do not qualify for the status of a morpheme. They are just parts of a world. An example given by them is that of the word under in which, they say, the bound morpheme un- does not have any meaning. But we can refute their claim by pointing out that un- is not a morpheme here at all because what we have after detaching un- from the word is not a free morpheme (a word). It is just a part of a word without any grammatical or semantic significance.  

Root, Affix, Base and Stem

Root or Base

The root or base is the free morpheme to which the first bound morpheme (a prefix, suffix or infix) is attached to derive a new word or a new inflected form of the same word. The root or base cannot further be analysed to get smaller meaningful grammatical units. It is the starting point of the process of word formation through the process of affixation. The number of roots is potentially unlimited as new words continue to be coined through different types of processes or borrowed from other languages.

Affix

Affixes are bound morphemes which are attached to roots (bases) or stems in order to derive new words or new inflected forms. Affixes are recurrent in nature. An affix can be attached to a large number of roots (bases) or stems to derive a new word belonging to a different class or to inflect a word. Affixes generally carry a meaning but in some rare cases, they may have no meaning. There are three major types of affixes – Prefixes which are attached to the beginning of roots (bases) or stems, Suffixes which are attached to the end of roots (bases) or stems, and infixes which are inserted in the middle of roots (bases) or stems.

All affixes are bond morphemes.

Classification of Affixes

Affixes, Prefixes, Suffixes and Infixes

An affix is a bound morpheme that is attached to a root (base) or stem to derive a new word or an inflected form of the same word. Broadly speaking, there are three classes of affixes – prefixes, suffixes and infixes. But there are affix types like zero affix and replacive too. There are even some other odd ones which are hard to name and have a rare occurrence.

Affixes can be classified as follows:

1. Prefixes           2. Suffixes           3. Infixes              4. Replacives or Supplants           

5. Zero           6. Others

Prefixes

Prefixes are bound morphemes which are attached to the beginning of a root(base) or stem. They can be divided into different classes like verb forming prefixes, negative prefixes etc. depending on the class of words which is formed after adding them.  Be- in Befriend, un- in unfaithful, in- in insincere, de- in delimit, re- in regain are some examples of prefixes.

Suffixes

Suffixes are bound morphemes which are attached at the end of roots(bases) to derive a new word or inflect an existing word. The number of suffixes in English is much larger than that of prefixes.

There are two kinds of suffixes – derivational suffixes and inflectional suffixes.

Derivation

Derivation is the process of deriving new words from the existing ones by adding affixes. The resulting new word is different from the word from which it has been derived but it may sometimes belong to the same grammatical category or part of speech. Depending on whether the addition of an affix changes the class of the word or not, affixes are classified as class maintaining and class changing affixes.

Derivational Suffixes

Derivation is the process of deriving new words from the existing words by adding some affix. Suffixes are bound morphemes which are attached at the end of roots(bases) to form new words.

Unlike inflectional suffixes, they allow other suffixes to follow them to derive still more words. For example, we can derive an adjective by adding -ly to the noun friend. Then we can add -ness to friendly to get the noun friendliness.

They even allow prefixes to be added to the words derived by adding them. We can add the prefix un- to friendliness which already contains two suffixes to negativise its meaning. Similarly, we can add un- to comfortable which already has a suffix to make it negative in meaning.

Suffixes normally carry a meaning. Depending on the class of words they create when attached, they can be divided into different categories like noun forming suffixes like -ion in creation, verb forming suffixes like -ise in categorise and rationalise, adjective forming suffixes like –able in comfortable and adverb forming suffixes like -ly in quickly.

Most of them have quite a wide distribution. The same suffix can be attached to many roots (bases) or stems to get new words from different classes of words.

Suffixes may be class maintaining or class changing.

When a class maintaining suffix is added to an existing word, the new word so created belongs to the same class as the word to which it has been added. Boy and boyhood, child and childhood, kin and kinship, principal and principalship are all nouns. -Hood and –ship are typically class maintaining suffixes.

When a class changing suffix is added to another word, the resulting word belongs to a different class from the word to which it has been added. Happy is an adjective but happiness is a noun; cheer is a verb but cheerful is an adjective; wise is an adjective but wisdom is a noun; class is a noun but classify is a verb.

Infixes

Infixes are affixes which are inserted in the middle of a word to get a new word. Their number in English is very small although some other languages have quite a good number of them. The –s- inserted in the middle of words like cupful, mother-in-law etc. to make them plural (cupsful, mothers-law) is an example of an infix in English. Some linguists consider the change of vowel in the middle of a word as in man – men, mouse – mice, write – wrote as an infix but others are of the view that these are replacives or supplants or simuflixes. Another type of infix is inserted between two words to derive a new word. For example, by inserting –o- between speed and meter, we can derive the word speedometer.  Some linguists prefer to call it an intrafix rather than an infix.

Zero Suffix

Sometimes a morpheme added to a root(base) or stem does not have any visible form. It changes the meaning of that word but we cannot see it. Such a morpheme is called a zero morpheme. For example, when we inflect the word deer to form its plural, we do not attach or insert any visible form anywhere in the singular form. We can say that we have added zero morpheme to make the word plural. 

Replacives (also called supplants or simuflixes)

Replacives are also known as supplants or simuflixes. In some cases, we replace a sound (a vowel) or a group of sounds (a vowel plus a consonant) to derive a new form. For example the plural of some nouns is obtained in this manner (man - men, addendum - addenda, corrigendum – corrigenda, syllabus – syllabi, alumnus – alumni, datum – data.) The plural form in these cases has been obtained by making a change in a part of the word instead of adding something. The affix we have used here is called a replacive or supplant.

The past tense of some verbs also involves a similar change as in the case of write – wrote, Bear – bore etc.

Others

There are some other kinds of changes which are made to derive new words or to inflect existing words which defy any classification. For example, the plural of ox is oxen which does not fall into any of the categories mentioned above. We may call it a suffix. But if so, it is unique as it is not added to many nouns to make them plural. These cases can be dealt with individually since they are one of a kind.

Inflection

Inflection is the process of obtaining grammatically significant forms of words which do not belong to a different part of speech. Even after inflection, the inflected word continues to belong to the same part of speech as it did before. A noun continues to be a noun, a verb a verb, an adjective an adjective and an adverb an adverb.

Inflectional Suffixes

Inflectional affixes are, for the most part, suffixes. Few affixes of other types are used for inflection.

Inflectional suffixes are mutually exclusive. If one of them is attached to a word, it is not possible to affix another.

Inflectional suffixes have a very wide distribution. It means that the words that they are affixed to are very large in number.

For the most part, their distribution is regular. To inflect a certain category of words, generally, the same suffixes are used.

For example, to form the plural of nouns, we use s/es; For forming the feminine gender, the suffix -ess is used and for forming the past or past participle of verbs, d/ed is added to the base form.

Inflectional suffixes are word final.

Four classes of words are generally inflected for different purposes.

A. Nouns

1. Nouns are inflected for number and gender. Their plural forms are obtained generally by adding s or es. This plural forming suffix is phonetically realised as /s/, /z/ or /iz/ depending on the environment in which it occurs.

i. If the singular noun to which it is attached ends in an affricate /tʃ or dʒ / or a sibilant, /s, z, ʃ or ʒ/, it is realised as /iz/ as in bench - benches.

ii. If the noun to which it is attached ends in any other voiceless consonant than the sibilants or affricates, it is realised as /s/ as in flat - flats.

iii. If the word ends in any other voiced consonant than the sibilants or affricates, or in a vowel, it is realised as /z/, as in bag - bags.

2. Nouns are also inflected for gender. The feminine form of a noun is generally obtained by affixing  –ess to the masculine form. The suffix is phonetically realised as /əs or is/.

3. Nouns are also inflected for possession. For this purpose, apostrophe s is added to a noun. The phonetic realisations of this affix follow the same rules as the plural morpheme s or es.

B. Verbs

1. Verbs are inflected for number and person in the present simple tense. If the subject is a third person singular noun or pronoun, s or es is added to them. The phonetic realisation of this suffix is the same as that of the plural forming suffix s or es.

2. Verbs of English are also inflected for past tense and past participle. The past and past participle forms of regular verbs are obtained by adding d or ed to the base form. The suffix so added is then realised as follows:

i. If the verb ends in /t or d/, it is realised as /id/ as in wait - waited.

ii. If the verb ends in any other voiceless consonant than /t/, it is realised as /t/ as in press - pressed.

iii. If the verb ends in any other voiced consonant than /d/ or in a vowel, it is realised as /d/ as in bag - bagged and allow - allowed.

Adjectives

Adjectives are inflected for degree. The comparative degree of regular adjectives is formed by adding –er to the positive degree (realised phonetically as /ə / and the superlative degree is formed by adding –est (realised as /əst/).

Adverbs

Adverbs are also inflected for degree like adjectives. The comparative and superlative degrees of regular adverbs are also formed in the same way as those of the adjectives i.e. by adding –er and –est to the positive degree and their realisation is also the same.    

Stem

The stem is the immediate form to which a bound morpheme is attached in order to derive a new word or to get a new inflected form. The stem may consist of two or more morphemes one of which is the root/base and the other/s an affix or affixes.

Word                      Base/Root           Stem                      Affix

Friendly                   Friend                  -----                     ly (suffix)

Friendliness             Friend               Friendly                 ness (suffix)

Unfriendliness         Friend              Friendliness             un (prefix)

Prefixes

Prefixes are bound morphemes which are attached to the left of the root (base). In the word ‘befriend’ ‘friend is the root (base) and ‘be’ is the prefix.

Suffixes

Suffixes are bound morphemes that are attached at the end (to the right) of the root (base). In the word ‘happiness’, ‘happy’ is the root (base) and ‘ness’ is the suffix.

Infixes

An infix is a bound morpheme which is inserted in the middle of the root (base) or stem to derive a new word or inflected form of the same word. There are not many infixes in English. In the word cupsful, cupful is the base and  ‘s’  is the plural morpheme that has been inserted to get the new form.

Morphs

According to Hockett, “Any phonemic shape or representation of a morpheme is a morph.”  John Lyons defines a morph as follows, “When the word can be segmented into parts, these segments are referred to as morphs.” Thus the word ‘shorter’ can be analysed into two morphs – short (ʃɔːt ) and er (ə).    

Each morph represents a particular morpheme but each morpheme does not have a corresponding morph. For example, the plural noun sheep has only one morph but it contains two morphemes – sheep + the plural morpheme. But there is no morph to represent the plural morpheme. Similarly, the word went contains two morphemes, go and the past tense morpheme. But it has only one morph. There is no morph representing the past tense  morpheme.

Allomorphs

Allomorphs are the phonologically conditioned variants of a morpheme. Quite frequently, a morpheme is represented by different morphs in different environments. In other words, its realisation in terms of sound is influenced by the morphemes preceding or succeeding it. The alternative phonological manifestations or representations of a morpheme are called its allomorphs. 

An allomorph thus is a non-distinctive variant of a morpheme. 

Morphemes are groups of allomorphs characterised by three properties:

i. They are phonemically different. They have different realisations.

ii. They are semantically identical. They have the same meaning.

iii. They are non-distinctive. If one of them is substituted for the other, it does change the word into a different word.

For example, the plural morpheme has five realisations exemplified by the following words:

a. - iz as in bench – benches           

b.- z as in dog - dogs              

c.- s as in guest – guests                

d.- Zero realisation as in sheep – sheep                               

e - Replacive or supplant as in mouse – mice.

All the five are the allomorphs of the same plural morpheme.

Phonological and Morphological Conditioning

Regular morphemes are phonologically conditioned but irregular morphemes are morphologically conditioned.

Phonological Conditioning

Phonological conditioning means that their realisation is determined by the last sound of the word to which they are attached.

There are several phonemes in English which are phonologically conditioned .They fall into two groups.

1. a. The plural morpheme spelled as s or es

    b. The possessive morpheme (apostrophe s)

    c. The present tense third person singular morpheme spelled as s or es 

    d. The contracted form of is and the contracted form of has both of which are represented by apostrophe s

    These morphemes form one group and are subject to the same kind of conditioning.

2. The past tense and the past participle morpheme spelled -d or -ed in regular verbs.

Rules for phonological Conditioning

A. Rules governing the realisation of plural forming suffix s/es, the present tense third person singular s/es, and apostrophe s:

i. If the word to which they are attached ends in an affricate /tʃ or dʒ / or a sibilant, /s, z, ʃ or ʒ/, they are realised as /iz/

ii. If the word to which they are attached ends in any other voiceless consonant than the sibilants or affricates, they are realised as /s/

iii. If the word ends in any other voiced consonant than the sibilants or affricates, or in a vowel, they are realised as /z/.

B. Rules governing the phonological conditioning of past and participle suffix d/ed 

i. If the verb ends in /t or d/, it is realised as /id/.

ii. If the verb ends in any other voiceless consonant than /t/, it is realised as /t/.

If the verb ends in any other voiced consonant than /d/ or in a vowel, it is realised as /d/.

Morphological Conditioning

There are some nouns which do not form their plurals in the regular way by the addition of s or es. Similarly, there are some verbs which do not form their past tense and past participle regularly by the addition of d or ed. The change observed in them cannot be explained in terms of the phonological environment. We can just say that there is something in the nature of these morphemes that is responsible for the way they are inflected for forming plurals or for tense. Such conditioning is called phonological conditioning.

The plurals of some nouns have no plural marker: sheep – sheep, fish – fish, deer – deer etc. The plural morpheme is present in the second (plural) form of these nouns but it cannot be seen. It is said that the plural morpheme in these nouns is realised by zero morpheme.

There are other nouns like mouse – mice, man – men, alumnus – alumni, criterion – criteria, stratum – strata, datum - data which have irregular plurals. There are also verbs like write – wrote – written, drink – drank – drunk, bring – brought – brought etc. which form their past tense and past participle in the same way. Here also, we do not find any morph that has been added at any place. There is only a change of vowel or some other kind of change which is hard to explain. All that we can say is that there is something in the morpheme itself which is responsible for the kind of change that occurs.