Morphology and

Syntax
Week: I
Lecture: 1 & 2
Date:
 Topic to be Covered
 Branches Of Linguistics
 • Micro And Macro Linguistics
 Introduction to Morphology
 • Definition and scope of morphology and syntax
 • Importance of studying word and sentence structures
 • The relationship between morphology, syntax, and semantics
 • Words as meaningful building-blocks of language
 • Words as types and words as tokens
 • Words with predictable meanings
 • Non-words with unpredictable meanings
 • Words versus lexical items
 Branches of Linguistics
 Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure. It is
broadly categorized into two main branches: Micro-linguistics and
Macro-linguistics.
 Micro-linguistics
• Focuses on language structure and internal linguistic rules.
• Focuses on the core components of language and its structure.
 Key Subfields:
• Phonetics: Study of speech sounds.
 Example:
• English: */p/ in pat.
• Arabic: ‫ ( ق‬qaf) in ‫ ( قلب‬qalb, heart).
• Urdu: ‫ ( ٹ‬ṭ) in ‫ ( ٹماٹر‬tamatar, tomato).
 Key Subfields of Micro Linguistics:
• Phonology: Study of how sounds function within a language.
• Example: The difference between ship and sheep in English (short vs. long vowels).
• Morphology: Study of word formation and structure.
• Example:
• English: unhappy → un- (prefix) + happy (root).
• Arabic: ‫ ( مكتوب‬maktub, written) → ‫ب‬-‫ت‬-‫ ك‬root (K-T-B, "writing").
• Urdu: ‫ ( کھلونا‬khilona, toy) → derived from ‫ ( کھیلنا‬khelna, to play).
• Syntax: Study of sentence structure.
• Example:
• English: She is reading a book (SVO order).
• Arabic: ‫ ( يقرأ الطالب الكتاب‬yaqra' al-talib al-kitab, VSO order: reads the student the
book).
• Urdu: ‫ ( وہ کتاب پڑھ رہا ہے‬woh kitaab parh raha hai, SOV order: He book reading is).
• Semantics: Study of meaning in language.
• Example:
• English: Run has multiple meanings (move quickly, operate a machine).
• Arabic: ‫( عين‬ʿ ayn) means "eye" but also "spring" or "spy".
• Urdu: ‫ ( چاندنی‬chaandni) means "moonlight" but can also mean "silver".
  Macro-linguistics
• Studies language in context and its interaction with society.
• Examines language in broader contexts, including its social, cultural, and historical aspects.
 Key Subfields: Sociolinguistics:
o Language variation in social contexts.
o Relationship between language and society.
Example: Code-switching in bilingual communities. English dialects (color vs. color).
 Psycholinguistics:
o How language is processed in the brain.
o The mental processes involved in language use.
Example: How children acquire language.
• Historical Linguistics: Evolution of languages over time.
• Example: Arabic influence on Urdu (kitab, maktab).
• How Latin evolved into Romance languages.
• Applied Linguistics: Practical applications of linguistics in fields like language
teaching or translation.
• Language teaching, translation, and AI-driven language processing.
 Introduction to Morphology
Definition and Scope of Morphology and Syntax
•Morphology: The study of the internal structure of words and how they are
formed.
•Syntax: The study of how words are arranged into sentences.
•The study of how words combine to form phrases and sentences.
Example:
•Morphology:
• English: unhappiness (un- + happy + -ness).
• Arabic: ‫( مدرسة‬madrasa, school) → derived from ‫( درس‬dars, lesson).
•Syntax:
• English: She is playing football. (SVO).
• Arabic: ‫يلعب محمد كرة القدم‬. ( yalʿab Muhammad kurat al-qadam, VSO).
Further Explanation:
• Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the
structure, formation, and classification of words.
• It deals with morphemes, the smallest units of meaning or
grammatical function in a language.
• The branch of linguistics that studies the internal structure of
words and how words are formed.
• Focuses on morphemes: the smallest units of meaning or
grammatical function.
• Example: unhappiness → un- (prefix), happy (root), -ness
(suffix).
  Scope Of Morphology And Syntax
• Helps identify roots, affixes, and patterns in word formation.
• Supports understanding of language acquisition and language
evolution.
• Example: The past tense -ed in English (talked, walked).
• Examines how morphemes (smallest meaning units) combine to create
words.
• Investigates word formation processes (e.g., compounding, derivation).
• Studies morphological typology (e.g., agglutinative, fusional
languages).
• Focuses on grammatical rules that dictate word order.
• Explores the relationship between sentence elements (e.g., subjects,
verbs, objects).
 Importance of Studying Word and Sentence
Structures
• Helps in language learning and translation.
• Aids in understanding grammar.
• Enhances computational linguistics (e.g., speech
recognition).
•Morphology:
• Helps understand word formation processes.
• Provides insights into language learning and
evolution.
• Example: Walked → walk (root) + -ed (past tense).
•Syntax:
• Aids in constructing meaningful and grammatically
 Relationship Between Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics

Component Definition Example

Unhappiness → un- (negation) + happy
Morphology Word structure
(root) + -ness (noun-forming)
The boy reads a book (SVO order in
Syntax Sentence structure
English)
Semantics Meaning interpretation Bank (a place for money or a riverbank?)

Example in Arabic and Urdu:

•Arabic: ‫( طالب العلم يكتب كتاًبا‬Talib al-ilm yaktub kitaban).
•Morphology: ‫( طالب‬talib, student) from ‫( طلب‬talaba, to seek).
•Syntax: Subject-Verb-Object.
•Semantics: ‫( كتب‬kitab, book) vs. ‫( كتب‬kataba, he wrote).
•Urdu: ‫( لڑکا کتاب پڑھ رہا ہے‬Ladka kitaab parh raha hai).
 The Relationship Between Morphology, Syntax,
and Semantics
• Morphology and Syntax:
• Morphology provides the building blocks (words)
that syntax arranges into sentences.
• Example: Inflection (-s in cats) affects sentence
structure (plural subject).
• Morphology and Semantics:
• Morphology influences meaning through word
formation.
• Example: Happy → Unhappy (un- changes the
meaning).
• Syntax and Semantics:
 Introduction to Morphology
• Definition: Morphology is the study of the structure of
words and how they are formed.
• “the study of forms,” was originally used in biology
• Since the middle of the nineteenth century has also been
used to describe the type of investigation that analyzes all
those basic “elements” used in a language.
• Focus:
• Analyzing the smallest units of meaning, known as
morphemes.
• Understanding word formation processes.
 Morphemes
• Definition: The definition of a morpheme
• “The smallest units of meaning in a language”.
• “A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical
function.”
• English word forms such as talks, talker, talked
and talking must consist of one element talk, and
the other four elements -s, -er, -ed and -ing.
• All these elements are described as morphemes
 Types:
 Free Morphemes: Can stand alone as words.
• Morphemes that can stand by themselves as single words
• Examples: cat, book, new, tour, run.
 Bound Morphemes: Cannot stand alone and must attach to
other morphemes.
• Those forms that cannot normally stand alone and are
typically attached to another form, exemplified as re-, -ist, -ed,
-s.
• We can say that all affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in English
are bound morphemes.
• Examples: -s (plural), un- (prefix).
 Points To Remember
 The free morphemes can generally be identified as the set of
separate English word forms such as basic nouns, adjectives
and verbs.
 the basic word forms are technically known as stems.
 For example:

Undressed Carelessness
Un - dress -ed care -less -ness
prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix
(bound) (free) (bound) (free) (bound) (bound)
• There are a number of English words in
which the element treated as the stem is
not a free morpheme.
• In words such as receive, reduce and
repeat,
• The elements -ceive, -duce and -peat are
not separate word forms and hence cannot
be free morphemes.
 Categories of Morphemes
 Free morphemes fall into two categories.
 Lexical and Functional Morphemes
1. Lexical Morphemes: Words with a clear, concrete meaning (content words).
• This category is that set of ordinary nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
• The words that carry the “content” of the messages we convey.
• Examples: girl, man, house, tiger, sad, long, yellow, sincere, open, look,
follow, break.
2. Functional Morphemes: Words that serve grammatical purposes.
• This set consists largely of the functional words in the language such as
conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns
• Examples: and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, that, it, them.
 Bound morphemes can also be divided into two types
 Derivational morphemes and In flectional morphemes
 Derivational Morphemes
• Definition: Create new words by adding prefixes or suffixes, changing the
word’s meaning or part of speech.
• To make words of a different grammatical category from the stem.
• The addition of the derivational morpheme -ness changes the adjective good
to the noun goodness.
• Examples: happy → happiness (adjective to noun), teach → teacher (verb to
noun).
• Derivational morphemes include suffixes, such as the -ish in foolish, the -ly
in quickly, and the -ment in payment, and prefixes, such as re-, pre-, ex-,
mis-, co-, un-.
 Inflectional Morphemes
• Definition: Modify words to indicate tense, number, possession, or
comparison without changing the word’s class.
• These are not used to produce new words in the language, but rather to
indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word.
• Inflectional morphemes are used to show if a word is plural or singular, past
tense or not, and comparative or possessive form.
• Examples: walk → walked (tense), cat → cats (plural).
• An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical category of a
word. For example, both old and older are adjectives.
• Key Note: English has only 8 inflectional morphemes
• Noun + -’s, -s
• Verb + -s, -ing, -ed, -en
• Adjective + -er, -es
 Morphs and Allomorphs
• Morphs: Actual forms that represent a morpheme in
spoken or written language.
• Example: cats → cat (morpheme) + -s (morph).
• Allomorphs: Variants of a morpheme that appear in
different contexts.
• Example: The plural morpheme -s has three
allomorphs:
• /s/: cats.
• /z/: dogs.
• /ɪz/: buses.
 In morphology, allomorphs are variations of a morpheme
that differ in pronunciation or form but retain the same
meaning.
 The selection of appropriate allomorphs depends on certain
conditioning effects, which are rules or factors that
determine which allomorph is used in a specific linguistic
context.
 These conditioning effects include
• Lexical conditioning,
• Morphological conditioning
• Phonological conditioning:
 Lexical Conditioning
• Definition: The selection of an allomorph is determined by specific
words in the lexicon rather than general rules.
• Characteristics:
• It is irregular and applies to only a subset of words.
• The choice of the allomorph depends on the word itself rather
than its phonological or morphological environment.
• Example:
• The plural form of some irregular nouns in English:
• child → children (instead of childs).
• ox → oxen (instead of oxes).
• These forms are lexically conditioned because the irregular
plural forms are tied to the specific words.
 Morphological Conditioning
• Definition: The selection of an allomorph is influenced by the
morphological structure of the word, such as its derivational or
inflectional affixes.
• Characteristics:
• Certain affixes trigger the use of a specific allomorph.
• The relationship between morphemes within a word determines the
allomorph.
• Example:
• The past tense allomorph -en in words like broken or driven (instead
of the regular -ed) is morphologically conditioned because it occurs
only in certain irregular verbs.
• Other forms of the same morpheme use -ed, as in walked or jumped.
 Phonological Conditioning
• Definition: The selection of an allomorph is determined by the
phonological environment, such as the sounds that precede or
follow the morpheme.
• Characteristics:
• Rules depend on the phonetic properties of neighboring sounds.
• Commonly applies to regular morphological patterns.
• Example:
• The plural morpheme -s in English has three phonologically
conditioned allomorphs:
• /s/: Used after voiceless sounds (cats).
• /z/: Used after voiced sounds (dogs).
• /ɪz/: Used after sibilant sounds (buses).
 Comparison
Conditioning Type Basis of Selection Examples
Specific words in the Child → children,
Lexical Conditioning
lexicon ox → oxen

Morphological Morphological Break → broken,

Conditioning structure of the word drive → driven

Cats (/s/),
Phonological
Phonetic environment dogs (/z/),
Conditioning
buses (/ɪz/)
 Morphological Description
• Definition: Analyzing the structure of words and how
morphemes combine.
• Steps:
• Identify roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
• Determine whether morphemes are free or bound.
• Example:
• Word: unhappiness.
• Root: happy (free lexical morpheme).
• Prefix: un- (bound derivational morpheme).
• Suffix: -ness (bound derivational morpheme).
 Words as Meaningful Building Blocks of Language
•Definition:
• Words are the fundamental units of meaning in language.
• A word is the smallest free form in a language, capable of standing alone.
 Types of Words:
Simple Words: Consist of a single morpheme.
Example: Book.
Complex Words: Contain multiple morphemes.
Example: Books → book + -s.
Compound Words: Combine two or more roots.
Example: Toothbrush → tooth + brush.
•Examples:
• English: Play, book, run.
• Arabic: ‫ ( كتب‬kataba, he wrote).
• Urdu: ‫ ( دوڑنا‬dorna, to run).
 Words as Meaningful Building-Blocks of Language
• Definition:
• Words are the smallest independent units of language that carry
meaning.
• They are used to construct sentences and convey thoughts and ideas.
• Characteristics:
• Autonomy: Words can stand alone.
• Example: Book is meaningful by itself, unlike prefixes like un- or -
ness.
• Building Blocks: Words combine to form phrases and sentences.
• Example: The book is on the table.
• Examples:
• Simple word: run.
• Complex word: unhappiness (un- + happy + -ness).
• Compound word: toothbrush (tooth + brush).
 Lexemes, Words as Types, and Tokens
• Lexemes: Abstract units of meaning that encompass all
forms of a word.
• Example: Run (lexeme) → run, runs, running, ran (word
forms).
• Words as Types: The unique form of a word, ignoring
repetition.
• Example: In The cat chased the cat, cat as a type appears
once.
• Words as Tokens: Every occurrence of a word in a text.
• Example: In The cat chased the cat, cat as a token appears twice
 Words as Types and Words as Tokens
• Definition:
• Types: Refers to the unique form of a word, disregarding
repetition.
• Tokens: Refers to each occurrence of a word in a text or
speech.
• Examples:
• Sentence: The cat chased the cat.
• Word types: the, cat, chased (3 unique words).
• Word tokens: The, cat, chased, the, cat (5 total occurrences).
• Importance:
• Helps linguists and lexicographers distinguish between
vocabulary variety (types) and word frequency (tokens).
 Words as Types and Words as Tokens
• Word Type: The unique form of a word (ignoring repetition).
• Word Token: The actual occurrence of a word in a sentence.
• Example:
• Sentence: The cat sat on the mat. The cat was happy.
• Word Types: the, cat, sat, on, mat, was, happy (7 types).
• Word Tokens: the, cat, sat, on, the, mat, the, cat, was, happy (10
tokens).
• Arabic Example:
• ‫ ( الولد كتب كتاًبا والكتاب مهم‬Al-walad kataba kitaban wal-kitab
muhim).
• Type: ‫ ( كتاب‬kitab, book) appears once.
• Token: ‫ كتاب‬appears twice.
 Words with Predictable Meanings
• Definition:
• Words whose meanings are directly deducible from their
structure or context.
• Applies to morphemically transparent words where each
morpheme contributes meaning.
• Examples:
• Derivational Words:
• Happiness → happy (root) + -ness (noun suffix).
• Unbelievable → un- (negation) + believe (root) + -able
(adjective-forming suffix).
• Compound Words:
• Sunflower: Meaning derived from sun + flower.
 Words with Predictable Meanings
• Definition: Words that retain meanings based on
structure.
• Examples:
• English: Worker = work + -er (person who
works).
• Arabic: ‫ـب‬- + ‫( كاتب = كتب‬writer, from "to
write").
• Urdu: ‫ونا‬- + ‫( کھلونا = کھیل‬toy, from "to play").
 Non-Words with Unpredictable Meanings
• Definition:
• Words or multi-word expressions whose meanings cannot be deduced
from their structure or components.
• Often includes idioms, fixed expressions, and lexicalized compounds.
• Examples:
• Idioms:
• Kick the bucket → Meaning: "to die" (not related to kick or bucket).
• Phrasal Verbs:
• Look up → Meaning: "to search for information" (not directly
related to look or up).
• Lexicalized Compounds:
• Blackboard → Meaning: "a teaching tool" (not just "a black
board").
 Non-Words with Unpredictable Meanings
• Definition: Words whose meanings are
idiomatic or context-dependent.
• Examples:
• English: Kick the bucket (die).
• Arabic: ‫ ( أكلت الجو‬akalt al-jaw, meaning
"stole the spotlight").
 Lexical Items
• Lexical Items: The vocabulary units of
a language, including words, phrases,
and idioms.
• Examples:
• Single words: dog, run.
• Multi-word units: kick the bucket
(idiomatic expression).
 Words vs. Lexical Items
• Words:
• Single, independent units of meaning.
• Example: book, run, cat.
• Lexical Items:
• Broader category including words, idiomatic expressions, and fixed
phrases that function as single units of meaning.
• Example:
• Single-word lexical item: happiness.
• Multi-word lexical item: by and large (idiom meaning "on the
whole").
• Phrasal verb: give up (meaning "to quit").
• Key Distinction:
• Words are smaller components, while lexical items encompass
idiomatic and fixed expressions crucial for understanding language.
 Words vs. Lexical Items
• Words: Standalone units.
• Example: book, eat, run.
• Lexical Items: Includes idioms, multi-word phrases, and
collocations.
• Example:
• English: By and large (meaning "mostly").
• Arabic: ‫ “( ضرب عصفورين بحجر واحد‬kill two birds with
one stone").
• Urdu: ‫ “( ہوا میں محل بنانا‬building castles in the air").
 Conclusion
 Words are fundamental in all languages.
 Types vs. Tokens help in language analysis.
 Morphology, syntax, and semantics are
interconnected.
 Lexical items go beyond single words,
forming idioms and expressions essential for
communication.
 Examples and Exercises
[Link] Identification:
[Link] unbelievable:
[Link]- (prefix), believe (root), -able
(suffix).
[Link] and Meaning:
[Link]:
[Link] eats lunch.
[Link] eats he. (grammatically
incorrect).
[Link] and Tokens:
[Link]: The boy runs and the girl
runs.
[Link]: run.
 Practice Exercises
[Link] vs. Tokens:
[Link] the sentence: The dog chased the cat, and the cat
ran away, and Identify word types and tokens.
[Link] the sentence: The girl reads the book, and the
book is interesting, and Identify the types and tokens of
the, book, girl.
3. Identify Predictable and Unpredictable Words:
Categorize the following:
Sunflower, happiness, kick the bucket, blackboard,
Unhappiness.
 Practice Exercises
 Find idioms in English, Arabic, and Urdu and analyze their
literal vs. figurative meanings.
 Identify lexical items in the sentence:
 He looked up the word in the dictionary and gave up trying
to memorize it.
 In the sentence He gave up the idea of running for office,
identify all lexical items.
References:
•McCarthy, A.C. (2002). An Introduction to
English Morphology: Words and Their
Structure. Ch 2
•Yule, G. (2020). The Study of Language. Ch 5