Morphology

The Study of the Internal Structure of Words

What Is Morphology?

Many words can be broken down into smaller units

Morphology is the study of word formationMorphologists identify different classes of

morphemes, and study the patterns that occur in the combination of morphemesE.G. : {re-} only comes before verbs

The Smallest Meaningful Unit

What does it mean to be the smallest meaningful unit in a language?

Divide the following sentence into the smallest meaningful units:

I have two dogs.

I / have / two / dogs.

I / have / two / dog / -s.

Morphemes

Meaningful units

“I have two cats”

“She wants to leave soon”

“He walked across the room”

“Her behavior was unbelievable”

Morphemes

FreeCan stand alone{eye, think, run, apple}

BoundCan not stand aloneHas to be attached to a free morpheme{-able, un-, -s, -tion, -ly}

Morpheme Types

RootThe morpheme that is the semantic core

“unthinkable” “realization” “distrust”

AffixesBound morpheme that attaches to roots

{-s, un-, de-, -en, -able, -ize, -hood}

Base/StemAnything to which an affix is attached

root

{un.think.able}

base

Affixes

The most common way to build new wordsPrefixSuffixInfix

Affix

Prefixes

PrefixAn affix that attaches to the front of a root{un-, dis-, de-, mis-}

Example: {in-} indecent

Prefixes

Karok “Shoot!” “I shoot” “She/he shoots”

{} “shoot {-} “1st person singular” {-} “3rd person singular”

(Karok is a Hokan language of California. The language has been in decline, but some young people are working to keep their ancestral language alive.)

Suffixes

SuffixAn affix that attaches to the end of a root{-able, -ing, -ed, -s}Most common affix

Example: {-ful} careful

Suffixes

Mende “house” “the house” “glass” “the glass”

{-} “the”

(Mende, Bandi, and Loko belong to the southwestern group of Mende and are spoken in Sierra Leone/Liberia, northeastern Liberia, and north-central Sierra Leone, respectively.)

Infix

InfixAn affix that attaches within the rootNo ‘standard’ English example, though

examples exist in slang:

‘abso-darn-lutely’ ‘un-freaking-likely’

Infix

Bontoc “strong” “she is becoming strong” “enemy” “she is becoming an enemy”

{-um-} “becoming”

(Bontoc is the name given by linguists to the language spoken in the municipality of Bontoc, Mountain Province in the northern Philippines.)

Affix

AffixGeneral term to cover all the previous

termsAffixes can attach to other affixes

boy . ish . nessdis . en . tangle