Morpheme

SUMMARY

THE MORPHOLOGY OF ENGLISH

FOR FIFTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

BY: AMALIA RIZKIYANTI SATITI (2114040)

LECTURER: MARIA RAMASARI, M. PD

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

INSTITUTE OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

TEACHERS ASSOCIATION OF REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

STKIP PGRI LUBUKLINGGAU

2016

MORPHOLOGY

What is Morphology?

   1.      Morphology (Greek): study of shape

   2.      Morphology is study of how words are put together (Lieber: 2009)

   3.      Morphology is the internal structure of words

MORPHEMES

    a.      Definition of Morpheme

A morpheme is a short segment of language that meets three criteria, there are:

1.      It is word or part of word that has meaning

2.      It cannot devided ino smaller meaningful parts without violation of meaning

3.      It recures in differing verbal environments with a relatively stable meaning

Example:

    b.      Free and bound morphemes

Morpheme are two kinds, free and bound. A free morpheme is on that can be uttered alone with meaning. For example, “Where are you go?” and you answer “market”. Market is a free morpheme. A bound morphemes, unlike the free, it cannot be uttered alone with meaning such as –able, re-, -er and un.

   

    c.       Bases

A base morpheme is the part of word that has the principal meaning. A base is a linguistic form that meets one or more of these requirements:

Ø  It can occur as an immediate constituent of a word whose only other immediate constituent is prefix or suffix. Examples: React, fertilize, unkindly, active

Ø  It is an allomorph of a morpheme which has another allomorph that is a free form Examples: Depth (deep), wolves (wolf), Leaves (left)                                       

Ø  It is a borrowing from another language in which it is a free form or a base. Examples: Biometrics, microcosm, phraseology

The examples of bases:

—  Naturally

—  Nationalism

—  Disagreement

—  Directory

—  Instruction – instructor – reinstruct

—  Preview – review – interview

    d.      Difficulties in Morphemic Analysis

In morphemic analysis there are has three difficulties. The first dificulties is based on individual stock morphemes and own vocabulary. The second is the degree they aware of its presence in various words. The last is addictive meaning in it self.

    e.       An affixes

An affixes is a morpheme that is attached before, after or within to a word stem to form a new word. Affix is a grammatical part that is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to create copied and modified forms. Most English words are made up of the base word known as root which contains the heart of the meaning of the word. The affix added at the beginning of the root is known as prefix while that at the end of a word is suffix. The process of attaching these affixes is referred to as affixation.

Affixes are divided into several categories prefixes, infixes, circumfix and suffixes.

1.      Prefix 
An affix that comes at the beginning of a word is called a prefix. In the English language, there are about 50 different common prefixes. Each of these prefixes gives the reader a clue about the word's meaning. 
·         an-, meaning to be without  
·         anti-, meaning against 
·         bi-, meaning two 
·         contra-, meaning against
·         dis-, meaning not 
·         ex-, meaning without or not including  
·         homo-, meaning the same 
·         inter-, meaning between  
·         micro-, meaning small 
·         pre-, meaning before  
·         tetra-, meaning four 
·         tri-, meaning three  
·         un-, meaning not 
·         uni-, meaning one

2.      Suffix 
Unlike a prefix, a suffix is a series of letters added at the end of a word. 
Example
 

Noun Suffixes
Suffix	Meaning	Example
-acy	state or quality	privacy, delicacy
-al	act or process of	refusal, recital,
-ance, -ence	state or quality of	maintenance, eminence, assurance
-dom	place or state of being	freedom, kingdom, boredom
-er, -or	one who	trainer, protector, narrator
-ism	doctrine, belief	communism, narcissism, scepticism
-ist	one who	chemist, narcissist, plagiarism
-ity, -ty	quality of	inactivity, veracity, parity, serenity
-ment	condition of	endorsement, punishment
-ness	state of being	heaviness, sadness, rudeness, testiness
-ship	position held	fellowship, ownership, kinship, internship
-sion, -tion	state of being	conccesion, transition, abbreviation
Verb Suffixes
-ate	Become	regulate, eradicate, enunciate, repudiate
-en	Become	enlighten, awaken, strengthen
-ify, -fy	make or become	terrify, satisfy, rectify, exemplify
-ize, -ise*	Become	civilize, humanize, socialize, valorize
Adjective Suffixes
-able, -ible	capable of being	edible, presentable, abominable, credible
-al	pertaining to	regional, grammatical, emotional, coastal
-esque	reminiscent of	picturesque, statuesque, burlesque
-ful	notable for	fanciful, resentful, woeful, doubtful
-ic, -ical	pertaining to	musical, mythic, domestic
-ious, -ous	characterized by	nutritious, portentous, studious
-ish	having the quality of	fiendish, childish, snobbish
-ive	having the nature of	creative, punitive, divisive, decisive
-less	Without	endless, ageless, lawless, effortless
-y	characterized by	sleazy, hasty, greasy, nerdy, smelly

3.      Infix 
An infix is placed within a word; these are rare in English, though cupful can be made plural as cupsful by inserting the plural s as an infix; infixes sometimes occur in facetious creations like absobloodylutely (which some grammarians would rather describe as tmesis).

4.      Circumfix - occurs in two parts on both outer edges of a root.

Prefix	Root Word	Suffix	Circumfix
Im- Dis- Un- Un-	measure advantage forgive help	able ous able ful	immeasurable   disadvantageous unforgivable unhelpful

f.   f.  Inflectional Suffixes

Suffixes are bound morphemes that occur after a base to make a new word. Inflectional Suffix is adding suffix in a word where is the basic of the word does not change the meaning.

The inflectional suffixes differ from the derivational suffixes in the following ways, to which there are few exceptions.

     1.      They do not change the part of speech.

Examples: sled, sleds (both nouns)

cough, coughed (both verbs)

cold, colder (both adjectives)

     2.      They come last in a word.

Examples: shortened, villainies, industrializine.

     3.      They go with all stems of a given part of speech.

Examples: He eats, drinks, dreams, entertains, motivates.

     4.      They do not pile up; only one ends a word.

Examples: flakes, working, higher, written.

Few example of inflectional suffix

Suffix	Grammatical change	Original words	Suffixed word
-s	Noun plural	Cat	Cats
-‘s	Noun singular possessive	Book	Book’s
-s’	Noun plural possessive	Pencil	Pencils’
-ed	Past tense	Walk	Walked
-s	Present 3rd person singular	Sleep	Sleeps
-ing	Present participle	Speak	Speaking
-en	Past participle	Swim	Swam
-er	Comparative	Tall	Taller
-est	Superlative	Tall	Tallest

    g.      Derivational Suffixes

You can modify the meaning of any root by adding a derivational suffix. The new root+suffix compound then act as if it were  a root itself, and can be modified further by adding more derivational suffixes.

Characteristic of derivational suffixes:

   1.      The words with which derivational suffixes combine is an arbitrary matter. It means that no other choice to combine with other words.

Example: Adorn + ment          Adornment

Fail + ure                 Failure

   2.      In many case, but not all, a derivational suffix change the part of speech of the word to which it is added.

Example: Act        Active         Activate

Sweet                        Sweetly

   3.      Derivational suffixes usually do not close of a word: that is, after a derivational suffix one can sometimes add another derivational suffixe and can frequently add an inflectional suffixe.

Example: Formal        Formality         Formalities

Pure             Purify              Purifier

   h.      Suffixal Homophones 

       Some suffixes, both inflectional and derivational, have homophonous forms (identical in pronunciation). Homophone: a word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same or not.

       Inflectional morpheme (-ER cp) has two homophones, there are the derivational suffix (ER n) and derivational er- morpheme.

Example:

-ER cp	-ER n
Better	Singer

      

-ER cp	-ER rp
Bigger	Glitter

       The verbal inflectional suffix (-ING vb) has two homophones, there are nominal derivational suffix (-ING nm) and adjectival morpheme (-ING aj).

Example:

-ING vb	-ING nm
Sitting	Meeting

-ING vb	-ING adj
Climbing	Charming

   i.   Noun Feminine Forms

       English has a small group (clutch) of nouns with feminine derivational suffixes.  Most of these feminizing suffixes are of foreign origin. They were added to a masculine to a base morpheme. In below there are suffixes feminine forms:

No.	Suffix	Masculine	Feminine
1.	-e	fiancé	fiancée
2.	-enne	comedian	comedienne
3.	-ess	patron	patroness
4.	-etta	Henry	Henrietta
5.	-ette	farmer	farmerette
6.	-euse	masseur	masseuse
7.	-ina	George	Georgina
8.	-ine	hero	heroine
9.	-ster	spinner	spinster
10.	-stress	seamster	seamstress(= -ster+-ess)
11.	-ix	avaiator	aviatrix

      

       The status of feminine derivational suffixes

Status	Suffix
-ess	The most common and productive
-stress	Completely dead
-enne and –euse	In words borrowed from French
-e	French and is merely orthographic
-ster	No longer in feminizing suffix

       Suffix –ess widely used and productive one among the suffixes, the ending -ess is added to many words without changing the ending of the masculine as in:

•   host—hostess 

•   count—countess

•   lion—lioness

The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine -ess is added as in:

•   adulterer — adulteress 

•   murderer—murderess

The feminine form may drop a vowel which appears in the masculine as in:

•   waiter—waitress

•   actor—actress

•   master—mistress

       English also has about fifty pairs of words with separate forms for the masculine and feminine, e.g. bull, cow; aunt, uncle; gander, goose. But these are matter of lexicography rather than morphology.

j.  

       j.   Noun Diminutive Nouns

       Noun Diminutive forms is a group of letter which is added to the end of a word to show something smaller than things of what type usually is. There are six diminutive suffixes can be found:

-ie, -i, -y	As in auntie, Betty, sweetie, Willy
-ette	As in dinette, towelette
-kin, -ikin, -kins	As in lambkin, manikin
-ling	As in duckling, darling
-et	As in circlet
-let	As in Booklet, starlet

    

There are some diminutive suffixes have homophones:

   a.  -y, an adjective-forming suffix added to a noun, as in cloudy.

   b. -ie, a noun-forming suffix added to an adjective, as in smartie, tonghie.

   c.  -ette, a feminine suffix, as in majorette.

   d. -ling, a noun suffix denoting animals, as in weanling. 

These were diminutive suffixes of borrowed words:

mosquito	panel	Venezuela
bambino	morsel	quartet
armadillo	damsel	bulletin (two successive diminutives here)
peccadillo	scalpel	falsetto
flotilla	satchel	stiletto
Prieseilla	muscle	Maureen
cookie	particle	lochan
colonel	pupil	formula
citadel	violin	capsule
	violoncello
novel (noun)	puppet	calculus