MORPHOLOGY

Pre-discussion
Activity.

Give the root words of the following:

1.
3.
5.
7.
9.

derivational
indistinctively
judgmental
sensitivity
treatments

2. imperfections
4. unbreakable
6. disappearance
8. independently
10. misplacement

Post-discussion
Activity.

Identify the morphemes of the following:

1.
3.
5.
7.
9.

derivational
indistinctively
judgmental
sensitivity
treatments

2. imperfections
4. unbreakable
6. disappearance
8. independently
10. misplacement

WHAT IS A WORD?

Swahili
nitakupenda Tagalog
tumatawag -

I will love you

is calling

English
establishment
**Are these words?

MORPHEMES

A. BOUND
FREE
Affix
Root Open
Deriv
Inflec
Pref Suf
Suf

Closed

Morpheme

Is the smallest
individually meaningful
elements in the
utterances of a
language

Kinds of Morphemes

FREE MORPHEMES
--may occur alone
--in English, these can be
categorized as the diferent lexical
categories (Content and
Function Words)
--these are also the root
morphemes that are free form


BOUND MORPHEMES
--do not occur alone
--in English, these are the
inflectional and derivational affixes
attached to free morphemes
--in other languages, these may
indicate other meanings.

ROOTS

ROOTS are single morphemes which carry the

basic meaning of the words
- are the core of words
- may be BOUND forms or FREE forms
- in English: un-true dis-respect-ful cat-s
- in other languages:
Sierra Popoluca:
i-kama his cornfield
i-kama your
cornfield
i-koya his rabbit
i-koya your rabbit


Bound Roots
--in English:
re-ceive con-ceive per-ceive
re-mit
per-mit sub-mit
trans-mit ad-mit
-ceive capere (to seize) Latin verb
-mit - mittere (to send) Latin verb

AFFIXES

--are bound morphemes which

occur with roots and, in
general, modify the basic
meaning of the root in some
way.

Kinds of Affixes

Prefixes occur preceding roots

Ex: in- dis- un- re Suffixes occur following roots
Ex: -ful -ish -ize -ly
Infixes occur inside the root
Tagalog Ex: -um- -inKamhmu Ex: change verb to noun
see to drill srnee a drill
toh to chisel trnoh a chisel


Suprafixes suprasegmental phonemes (tone
or stress) can indicate the meaning
Chatino Ex:
k you eat ta you give
ku I eat
ta I give
ku he eats ta he gives
-are also pronounced simultaneously with the
root


Circumfixes occur initially and finally
--also called discontinuous morphemes
Chickasaw Ex: (Muskogean lang. in Oklahoma)
chokma he is good ik-chokm-o he isnt good
lakna it is yellow ik-lakn-o it isnt yellow
palli it is hot ik-pall-o it isnt hot
German Ex: (past part. of regular verbs
lieb love ge-lieb-t loved (beloved)

Meanings of Morphemes

NUMBER
-singular number vs. plural number
English: indicates plurality (-s/-es) even with quantity
word
Ex: a dog two dog-s
Isthmus Zapotec: uses plural morpheme but is not
used when a quantity word accompanies the noun
Ex. biku
dog
ka-biku dogs
cupa biku two dogs


Bisaya plurality is not attached to the root
Ex:
balay house
mga balay houses
duha ka balay two houses
Pame (Mexico) singular prefix, dual and plural circumfixes
Ex:
nado dog
nadoi two dogs
ladot
three or more dogs
nana heron nanai two herons
lanat three or
more herons


PERSON person indicators may be free forms in
English, but may be bound forms in other languages
Tetelcingo Aztec: subject and object are prefixes
attached to the verbs
Ex: n-k-makak I hit him
t-k-makak you hit him
t-niec-makak you hit me
Engl. Syntax NPdoer Vt Npgoal
Aztec Syntax NPdoer+Npgoal+Verb = one sentence is
equal to one word


GENDER CLASSES masculine and feminine
used to indicate gender classes
Spanish modifiers agree with the nouns and
their substitutes
Ex: la casa the house
el techo alto the high roof


TENSE past-present-future tense distinction
ASPECT action at a point in time or over a
period of time; complete or incomplete; one
time or repeated; begun or finished

Types of Morphology
Systems

ISOLATING TYPE also called analytic

-contains only words that consist of a single (root)

morpheme
-no affixes in this language
Ex: Mandarin Chinese
Ta chi le
fan.
he eat past meal
He ate the meal.
Ta chi fan le.
he eat meal
past
He ate the meal.

 POLYSYNTHETIC TYPE single words can

consist of long string of roots and affixes that
often express their meaning in other languages
Ex: Inuktitut
Qasuiirsarvigssarsingitluinarnarpuq
Qasu-iir -sar
-vig
-ssar
tired not cause-to-be place-for suitable
-si
-ngit -luinar
-nar
-puq
find not
completely someone 3/sg
Somebody did not find a completely suitable
resting place.
**native languages of North America (Inuktitut,
Cree, Sarcee)


AGGLUTINATING TYPE- has words which can
contain several morphemes but the words are
easily divided into their component parts
Turkish : kj
village
kj-ler
villages
kj-ler-in of the villages


FUSIONAL TYPE words can consist of several
morphemes
- English, Filipino language are examples