03. Morphology
Objectives for this lesson
- Understand that words have an internal structure (studied in the branch of linguistics known as morphology)
- Apply morphological concepts like root and affix in analysis of word structure
- Understand the difference between derivational and inflectional word formation
Warm-up question
What’s the difference between these?
- word
- morpheme
- syllable
👆 Click me for answer
word: the smallest unit of language that can stand on its ownmorpheme: the smallest meaningful unit in a word
syllable: a word or part of a word that contains a single vowel sound
What makes this poem English sounding?
Morphological structure in English
We call word parts morphemes. Morphemes are the smallest meaningful part of language, but unlike words, they don’t have to be able to stand on their own.
Bound and Free morphemes
- Many morphemes cannot stand alone as words; they are bound to other morphemes.
- Free morphemes are able to stand on their own as words.
- A free morpheme is a word; a bound morpheme is not.
Free morphemes
A free morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in language that can stand alone.
health giraffe week side boomerang sun up
Compounds
In English we can combine two free morphemes to create compounds that have a new meaning together.
weekend week + end sunlight sun + light playground play + ground upend up + end downside down + side moonlight moon + light
Bound morphemes
A compound must have two free morphemes. The following are not compounds because the morphemes are not all free:
nonsense unkind kindness removes
Practice
Think of words with morphemes that fit the following formula: (e.g. free + bound = birds; bound + free = rerun)
- free + bound
- bound + free
- free + bound + bound
- bound + free + bound
- free + free
- bound + free + bound + bound
- bound + bound
- bound + bound + bound
Roots and affixes
- root: the base of a word, the morpheme that gives the word its primary lexical meaning
- affix: a morpheme which can come before (prefix) or after (suffix) a root
Example: unhelpful
- un: affix (prefix)
- help: root
- ful: affix (suffix)
Roots
Affixes
Prefixes vs. Suffixes
Practice
- What are the roots of the following words?
a) domestication
b) mistrustful
c) joyfulness
👆 Click me for answer
a) domesticb) trust
c) joy
Identifying roots
Find the common root for the following sets of words. What does the root mean?
nova auditor endure conceive renovation audience duration capable innovate inaudible durable susceptible novice auditorium during capture novelist audio endurance intercept
👆 Click me for answer
nova: classical Latin nova, feminine singular of novus, meaning new.audi: classical Latin audīre, meaning to hear.
dure: Latin dūrus, meaning hard.
capt: classical Latin capere, meaning to take.
Tip: We as ISU students have access to Oxford English Dictionary, where you can find detailed etymology for words.
Affix: Derivational vs. Inflectional
What’s the difference?
- Derivational morphemes form new words.
- Inflectional morphemes do not create new words.
Derivational morphemes
Derivational morphemes form new words. They do this by altering either the lexical meaning of a root (e.g., nonsense) or by changing the grammatical category of the word (e.g., kindness).
Some derivational morphemes
- -able
- -age
- -ese
- -ward(s)
- -esque
- -ify
- -less
- -ness
- -wise
The problem with derivational morphemes
Derivational morphemes are not systematic; they are arbitrary and there are no rules:
sweet: sweetness
happy: happiness
kind: kindness
but not sunny: sunniness
difficult: difficultness
warm: warmness
Inflectional morphemes
- Inflectional suffixes change words but do not make new words.
- All inflectional morphemes are suffixes.
- There are now only eight inflectional morphemes.
Practice
Identify the inflections in the bolded words.
- Example: He wishes he could come.
- -es is the 3rd person singular s
The August 2020 derecho windstorm was bigger than most people remember. The straight-line wind gusts measured up to 110 mph in Iowa. Trees were broken off by the wind. Nevertheless, ISU’s campus remains the prettiest campus in the world.
Homework
Here are some quizzes to help you test your learning. If you find it difficult to answer them, go back to our reading to review the concepts: Morphology Overview.