Chapter 3A word and its parts: roots, affixes and their

shapes

Prepared by Ellen & Rocel

In this chapter we will focus on the smaller

part of the words generally called

morphemes.

Morphemes• smallest meaningful unit or form

in a language• also the smallest units of

grammatical structure• it may be in affix or inflectional

formExamples:

undo (un-do)doing (do-ing)

Morphology• the area of grammar

concerned with the structure of words and

with relationships between words involving the

morphemes that compose them

example:un-Clintonishdioeciously

Morphemes help listable or unlistable words in

systematic way to be easily determined.

Characteristics of Morphemes

To allow the meanings of some complex words to be predictable, morphemes must:a. be identifiable from one

word to another andb. contribute in some way to

the meaning of the whole word.

Example:Readable

Morpheme is clearly related to the normal

meanings or functions of read and -able

Characteristics of Morphemes

• they do not have to be of any particular length

example:ocatamaran (boat with 2 parallel hulls)oTenths (10 equal parts of something)

Characteristics of Morphemes

• The structures of words are largely independent of

their phonological structure

(their division into sounds, syllables and rhythmic units)

Characteristics of Morphemes

Duality of PatterningOnly human speech is

analyzable in 2 parallel ways:• into units that contribute

to meaning (morphemes, words, phrases, etc.)• and units that are

individually meaningless (sounds, syllables, etc.)

Kinds of Morphemes1. Free (root word)- it can stand

alonee.g. style, good, call

2. Bound (usually suffixes)- it cannot stand alone

e.g. stylish, goodness, caller3. Isolated – 2 to 3 words standing along and create a new meaninge.g. dog-catcher, happy-go-lucky

Cranberry Morpheme• A cranberry morpheme can

be thought of as a bound root that occurs in only one word.

e.g. cranberryhuckleberrystrawberry

Morphemes and their

AllomorphsMany morphemes have two

or more different pronunciations called

allomorphs.e.g. re- [rә] [ri] anti- [antē] [antῙ]

Rules of Allomorphsin Pluralizing

1. When the preceding sound is sibilant (hissing or hushing), the [IZ] allomorphs occurs

e.g.horse, rose, bush, church and judge

Rules of Allomorphsin Pluralizing

2. When the preceding sound is voiceless (no vibration), the [S] allomorphs occurs e.g. cat, rock, cup, cliff

Rules of Allomorphsin Pluralizing

1. When the preceding sound is voiced consonant, the [Z] allomorphs occurs

e.g. dog & day

Allomorphs as Morphological

Matter• It’s not only phonology that may influence the choice of allomorphs of a morpheme, there were instances where grammar and vocabulary play a part.

e.g. lies [z] (untruth) if replaced [z] with [s] we get ‘lice’

Allomorphs as Morphological

Matter• Morpheme’s peculiar allomorphy can be crucial in establishing its existence.

e.g. cliff – cliff[s]wife - wife[s]? – wi[ves](voiced allomorphs]

Allomorphs as Morphological

Mattere.g. wife - wi[ves]my wife’s job (possessive phrase)*if it indicates possession, the allomorphy is determined both lexically (restricted to certain nouns only) and grammatically (it occurs before the plural suffix –s but not before other morphemes).

Identifying MorphemesIndependently of

Meaninge.g. Re-

re + turn = return“McArthur did return in the

Philippines.”(come back, ‘again’)

Identifying MorphemesIndependently of

Meaninge.g. Re-

re + turn = return“I turned the steaks a minute ago, I’ll re-turn them soon.”

(backward movement)

Identifying MorphemesIndependently of

Meaninge.g. Re-

re + store = restore• “Rick’s job is to restore old,

rusty things.”(bring back to former condition)

Identifying MorphemesIndependently of

Meaninge.g. Re-

re + store = restore• “Anne re-store the canned

goods in the box.”(stock again)

Identifying MorphemesIndependently of

Meaning• prefix-root structure(the root being usually bound)e.g. (-duce) reduce, induce(-duct-) reduction, induction

Thank you!