Introduction to Linguistics
--- ---
CHAPTER 6
Morphology
Instructor: Lam Hoang Phuc
6.1. Morphemes
Morphology: the study of the basic elements of word
forms in a language; these elements are called
morphemes.
A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical
function.
6.1. Morphemes
Free and bound morphemes
Free morphemes: can stand alone as single words. These
morphemes can be identified as the set of separate word
forms such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
E.g. open, tour.
Bound morphemes: cannot stand alone and have to be
attached to another form. These morphemes are known as
affixes.
E.g. re-, -ist.
6.1. Morphemes
Free and bound morphemes
The base form of a word to which bound morphemes can
be attached is called a stem.
Free stems: can stand alone as separate word forms.
E.g. carelessness
care -less -ness
stem (free) suffix (bound) suffix (bound)
Bound stems: cannot stand alone as separate word forms.
E.g. receive
re- -ceive
prefix (bound) stem (bound)
It was very late; yet the little mermaid could
not take her eyes from the ship, or from the
beautiful prince.
Identify:
• Lexical morpheme(s)
• Functional morpheme(s)
• Derivational morpheme(s)
• Inflectional morpheme(s)
6.1. Morphemes
Lexical and functional morphemes
Free morphemes can be divided into:
o Lexical morphemes: words that carry the content of the
messages we convey (N, V, Adj, Adv).
E.g. man, open, long, well.
can be added to the language easily open class.
o Functional morphemes: words that perform
grammatical functions (determiners, pronouns,
prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, etc.)
E.g. the, him, on.
we almost never add new functional morphemes to the
language closed class.
6.1. Morphemes
Derivational and inflectional morphemes
Bound morphemes can be divided into:
o Derivational morphemes: used to make new words or
words of a different grammatical category.
E.g. -ness (suffix), pre- (prefix)
o Inflectional morphemes: used to indicate aspects of the
grammatical function of a word.
English has only 8 inflectional morphemes (all suffixes):
-’s (possessive) -s (3rd person singular)
-s (plural) -ing (present participle)
-ed (past tense) -en (past participle)
-er (comparative) -est (superlative)
6.1. Morphemes
Derivational and inflectional morphemes
An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical
category of a word, whereas a derivational morpheme can.
E.g. old (adj) + -er (inflectional) = older (adj)
work (v) + -er (derivational) = worker (n)
Derivational suffixes always come before inflectional
suffixes.
E.g. teachers
teach -er -s
lexical derivational inflectional
6.1. Morphemes
Summary of morphemes:
6.2. Morphs and allomorphs
Morphs are the actual forms that are used to realise
morphemes. All of the morphs of a morpheme are called
allomorphs.
E.g. the inflectional morpheme -s (plural) can be realised
by different allomorphs:
o + /s/: cat cats
o + /z/: dog dogs
o + /əz/ or /ɪz/: bus buses
o + //: sheep sheep
o /æ/ /e/: man men
…
REFERENCES
Yule, G. (2010). The study of language (4th ed.).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.