MORPHOLOGY

LINGUISTIC

GROUP 4
Lesson 1: Understanding the Concept

MORPHOLOG - is defined by linguists in several

ways. In greek, "morph" means form or shape, and
"ology" means study. In linguistics, morphology is
referred to as the study of patterns of word formations.

MORPHEME - is the smallest unit of language

meaning. It is not further dividable or separable into
smaller forms. When a morpheme carries its meaning it
is called a root. If we separate the parts of a
morpheme, it loses its identity and it becomes
meaningless.

Examples:

Impurity (Im+pure+ity)
Unmanly (Un+man+ly)
Impossibility (Im+possible+ity)

MORPHEME VERSUS WORD

A word is created through a single "root"

morpheme or combination of morphemes. Morphemes
are part of every single word. A word is a unit of a
constituent that necessary to create phrases and
sentences.

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MORPH

If phonology has "phone", morphology has

"morph". A morph is the phonetic realization of a
morpheme or the way a morpheme is formed. Morph
is the smallest unit that carries meaning both in writing
and sound.

ALLOMORPH

An allomorph is a morph that has a unique set of

lexical features. Allomorphs are the distinct variant of
the same morpheme. They differ in shape and
pronounciation according to ther conditions and
functions.

LEXEMES

Lexemes are units of lexical meaning which are

related with inflections. An example is the lexemes
"write" with different word-forms such as "writes",
wrote, written, writing."

CLASSIFICATIONS OF MORHEMES

Morphemes are classified as free or bound,

inflectional or derivational, and lexical or grammatical.

Free versus Bound Morpheme

capital + ism = capitalism

elect + ion = election

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 in + numerate + able = innumerable

Morphemes are categorized into free and bound.

Free morphemes are those that can stand on their
own.

Example:

blackboard = black (free), board (free)

transformative = trans (bound), formative (free)
abduction = abduct (free), tion (bound)

Bound morphemes are categorized as inflectional

and derivational.

Inflectional versus Derivational

An inflectional morpheme is a kind of bound

morpheme inserted within the root or stem to create
new words do not necessarily change its meaning.
Inflectional morphemes are concerned with the
grammatical function, such as the difference in the
plurality of a word, possessions, tense, etc.

Examples:

girl ⇨ girls (s) ⇨ plurality

talked ⇨ talked (ed) ⇨ past tense
write ⇨written (en) ⇨ past participle
give ⇨ giving (ing) ⇨ present particple/progressive
wise ⇨ wiser (er) ⇨ comparative
ana ⇨ ana's ('s) ⇨ possesive
happy ⇨ happiest (est) ⇨ superlative

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 Derivational morphemes are affixes attached to a
free morpheme, which change their functional
meaning.

Example:

girl : girly (ly)

happy : happiness (un) happily (ly)
kind : unkind (un) kindly (ly)
play : playful (ful) playfulness (ness)

Lexical versus Grammatical Morphemes

Lexical morphemes are identified as words that

contain meaning of the messages and are often
referred to as the content words. When these words
are deleted in the sentence, the sentence would not
make sense. These include nouns, verbs, and modifiers.
Examples of lexical morphemes are talk, make, cat,
strange pick, and beautiful, etc.

LESSON 2: MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESS

In linguistics, a morphological process involves

changing of stems to adjust their meaning and fit
syntactic context. These Include affixation, modification
and reduplication.

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Affixation

An affix is a kind of a bound morpheme that is

fused to a word stem to form a new word. It could
either be inflectional or derivational. They are
categorized according to the part of the word where it
is inserted or attached. The world teachable is
something that has a positive connotation by adding
‘‘able.’' This could also mean the opposite by adding
‘‘un’’ thus, it becomes ‘‘unteachable.’’ These added
morphemes are prefix and suffix.

Prefix are affixes that precede the roots or are

placed before stem. They could mean negative or
indicate relations of time, place, and manner

Prefixes include:

anti- against, opposed.

Ex: anti-racist, anti-war
auto- self
Ex: autobiography, automobile
co- together
Ex: collaborate, cooperate

Suffixes are morphemes added at the end of root

words or stem to form a derivative word. These are
usually case endings to signify cases of nouns,
adjectives, and verbs. An inflectional suffix is
sometimes called ‘‘desinence.’’

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Suffixes include:

-age- amount of time, period, place

Ex: baggage, village
-able- sense of being
Ex: arrival, deferral

-ology- study, science

Ex: morphology, phonology

Infixes are free morphemes that are inserted

within the root or the stem to create a new word.

Examples:

spoonful -> spoonsful

passersby -> passersby

Infixes are also found in English slangs such as:

saxophone -> saxo-ma-phone

absolutely -> abso-schmucking-lutely

In Tagalog language, infixes include:

-um- added to the word ‘‘bili’’ (buy) to

make it ‘‘bumili’’ or brought

In Indonesian:

-cerlang ‘luminious’, cemerlang ‘brilliant’

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 Circumfixes are affixes attached in two parts to
the stem or roots. Circumfix consists of two parts- a
prefix and a suffix. The prefix and the suffix are not
considered as separate.

Example:

enlighten - en, en
embolden - em, en
immobility - im, ty

Modification

A modification process involves alteration within a

root or stem. This is also similar to a simulfix where
there is a modification or change of vowels or
consonants.

Examples:

calf - calves
knife - knives

Consonant modification involves changing of the

consonant to change categorical meaning.

Examples:

advice - advise
offend - offense
belief - believe

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 Vowel modification involves changing of the vowel
to change its categorical meaning.

Examples:

begin - began
speak - spoke
foot - feet

Reduplication is special word formation where all

or a part of the base is repeated as a prefix or suffix.

(a) repetition: This is done by repeating the word.

Examples:

bye- bye
knock- knock

(b) rhyming: This is done by rhyming the two halves of

the new word.

Examples:

abra-cadabra
nitty- gritty

(c) ablaut: This is done by shifting the vowel which

changes the word.

Examples:

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 pitter- patter
ding-dong
zig-zag

Lesson 3: Word Formation process

Word Formation Process

One of the branches of lexicology, which explores the

construction of words. It refers to the means of creating
new words which observe certain structural formulas
and semantic configurations.

Derivation

Word derivation is the process of forming words by

adding derivational affixes to the base or root word to
form a new words.

Example: Adding suffixes such as

-hood (status)
Ex: brotherhood, motherhood etc.

-ship (state or condition)

Ex: friendship, ownership etc.

-ness (quality, state or condition)

Ex: wildness, carelessness

-ity (state or condition)

Ex: curiosity, toxicity

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Derivation produces new words having similar
grammatical form, such as noun to noun, or of
different grammatical forms, such as verb to noun.

verb to verb appear disappear

noun to noun friend friendship
adjective to practical impractical
adjective
verb to noun preserve preservation
verb to adjective bore boring
noun to verb code codify
noun to adjective nature natural
adjective to noun ugly ugliness
adjective to verb sweet sweeten
adjective to adverb quick quickly

Example:

Back Formation

Opposite of word derivation. New lexemes are

created by removing affixes and shortening some
words.

Example of back formation includes:

Original words Back formation

babysitter babysit
donation donate
gambler gamble
hazy haze
moonlighter moonlight

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Clipping

Is a process of word formation in which an existing

word is reduced or shortened usually to a single
syllable without changing the meaning of the word.
Clipping is distinguished from back-formation in a way
that the meaning of the original word is kept.

Example:

Alligator – gator
Gasoline – gas
Influenza – flu
Mathematics – math
Professor – prof
Omnibus – bus

Coinage

Is a word-formation process where a certain word

is created through brand names of the items that
people usually use until it becomes a generic name.

Example:

Aspirin
Factoid
Kleenex
Nylon

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Blending

Blending is a blend of two or more words to

generate a new one. In blending, parts of two or more
words combined together to build a new words
meaning of which is often a combination of the original
words.

There are other techniques in creating word blends.

These include taking both the beginning of the words
such as"cyborg" from the words cybernetic and
organism.Another is taking the whole word and
combining it with a part of another just like the
blended word "guestimate" from the word guest and
estimate.

Examples:

slithy (lithe+slimy)
chortle (chuckle+snort)
webinar (web+seminar)

Compounding

Compounding is a word-formation using a

combination of two or more lexemes. Compound
words may be written as two words joined by a hypen
or one word. Usually, the meaning of the new words is
taken from the combined meaning of the two parts.

Examples:

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 Notebook (note+book) noun+noun
Workroom (work+room) verb+noun

However there are also instances that a new formed

word has a specific meaning that is different from the
base words.

Examples:

Blueberry (blue+berry) adjective+noun

Highlight (high+light) adjective+verb

Comounding could be:

Synthetic when the head lexeme is derived from a verb
but the compound result is a noun.
such as:
hand-washing
User-driven
Home-made

Attributive compound when the non-head work as a

modifier.
such as:
snail-mail
windmill

Edocentric when the compound takes the meaning of its

head in original form such as the word:

Blackbird
Pumpboat

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Exocentric compounding when the head does not
convey the meaning such as:

Pickpocket
Quarterback

Conversion

In some languages. It is possible to form a new

lexeme merely by shifting the word category without
adding any affixes.

Examples:

My friend bottled (v) the soda and canned (v) the

sardines.

Billy filled the soda in a bottle (n) and the sardines in a

can (n).

My mother eyed (v) my swollen eye (n).

Conversion from noun to verb includes:

Bottle - to bottle
Closet - to closet
Email - to email

Other Conversion

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 Conversion also occurs to and from other
gramatical forms. Although the frequency is very less.

Examples:

Green to Green (adjective to verb)

ex: we need to green our environment.

Up and down (Preposition to noun)

ex: Everybody experience the ups and downs of life.

Acronyms

It is a phenomenon during 20th century which is a

practices that continue up to present. Acronyms are
words formed from the initial of certain names.

Examples:

COVID19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019)

VIP (Very Important Person)
PIN (Personal Identification Number)

Recently, due to social media communication, Acronyns

have evolved to Pseudonyms. These word consist of a
sequences of refresentative characters such as:

CQ (seek-you)
IOU (I owe You)
Du30 (Duterte)

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There are also a few reverse which starts with words
that refresent all the letters.

Examples:

Health Opportunity for People Everywhere(HOPE)

People United To Serve Humanity (PUSH)
Skilled Teacher And Resources (STAR)

Eponyms

Are words created from the names of real or

fictitious characters. These are from proper nouns
which involve some degree of change in the meaning of
the word.

Refers to a person or thing after which something

else is named.

When the name of an invention, discovery, or

place is named after a person or thought to be named,
it is an eponym.

Examples:

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE - ALOIS ALZHEIMER IN

1907

EIFFEL TOWER - ALEXANDRE GUSTAVE EIFFEL

ADAM’S APPLE - ADAM

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SANDWICH - JOHN MONTAGU, 4TH EARL OF
SANDWICH

BORROWING

In linguistics, borrowing (also known as lexical

borrowing) is the process by which a word from one
language is adopted for use in another.

The word that is borrowed is called a borrowing, a

borrowed word, or a loan word.

Examples:

Balcony, opera, violin, spaghetti, macaroni

(Italian)

Ketchup, dimsum, laisee

(Chinese)

Leak, stove, cruise, boss, coleslaw

(Dutch)

CALQUING

A word or phrase in a language formed by word-

for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a
word in another language.
Also called loan translation

Examples:
SUPERMAN - (UBERMENSCH) GERMAN
WISDOM TOOTH - (DENSSAPIENTIAE) LATIN

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NONCE WORD

Nonce word (also referred to as an occasionalism),

is when a person invents a new word to describe a
particular occasion or situation for which a word
doesn’t already exist.

Examples:

JABBERWOCK - (THE NAME OF

THE FABULOUS MONSTER IN LEWIS CAROLL’S POEM
JABBERWOCKY. IT MEANS INVENTED LANGUAGE,
MEANINGLESS)

RINGROUNDABOUT - (TO COMPLETELY

SURROUND SOMETHING)

GROK - (STRANGER IN A
STRANGE LAND

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