Materia Primer Parcial Morphology

Vicerrectorado de Docencia
Unidad de Apoyo a la Formación Académica
Morphology
Topic n.°1
Introduction to Morphology
Index
Page.
1.1. Origins of morphology 3
1.2 What is morphology? 4
1.3 The role of morphology in language acquisition 4
1.4 The place of morphology in early generative grammar 6
1.5 The morphology and phonology interaction 6
1.6 The morphology and syntax interaction 7
Complementary resources 8
References 8
Self evaluation 9
Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 2

1.1. Origins of morphology.

Origins of Morphology date back to the early studies of ancient Greek, Indian
and Arab grammarians. Over the years, many linguists have claimed that
morphology has played an important role in the reconstruction of Indo- European
languages.
As cited in Katamba, Franz Bopp published the result of a study supporting
the claim, originally made by Sir. William Jones in 1786, “that Sanskrit, Latin, Persian
and the Germanic languages were descended from a common ancestor. Bopp’s
evidence was based on a comparison of the grammatical endings of words in these
languages” (1993, page 3)
Another important linguist called Jacob Grimm published his work pointing out
that the Germanic languages are branch of Indo-European due to their structure and
phonology. Many of their common features are presumed innovations that took place
in Proto-Germanic, the source of all the Germanic languages.
In the traditional view of language, words are put together to form sentences.
The words differ from each other in both sound and meaning: clock and gong, for
example, denote different sorts of object and are distinguished by different
consonants at the beginning and end. Hence the sentences too will differ in sound
and meaning, The clock has been sold being distinguished from Th e gong has been
sold as a function of the words clock and gong. However, not only the words but also
the construction and the 'forms of words' will vary from one individual sentence to
another. (Matthews, P, 2012. Page 1)
Indeed, all these conceptions have been abandoned during this century
where morphology is regarded as a discipline concentrated on the study of word
structure.
The most important understanding that one can gain is that any history has to
start somewhere that is why it would be difficult to reach an agreement where all
began.

1.2 What is morphology?
Several researches have shared a number of concepts trying to give the best
definition to Morphology.
See these two more examples:
“Morphology, therefore is simply a term from that Branch of linguistics which is
concerned with the forms of words in different uses and constructions”
(Matthews, P. H. 2012, page 3)
“In this century morphology has been regarded as an essentially synchronic
discipline, that is to say, a discipline focusing on the study of word-structure at
one stage in the life of a language rather than on the evolution of words”.
(Katamba, F., & Stonham, J. 1993, page 3)
Inevitably, the notion of morphology has been particularly discussed where
many linguists conclude that it is the branch of linguistics that deals with the
structure and forms of a language.
*For further instruction it is recommended to watch this video

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv7t6Q0uebY&ab_channel=EvanAshworth
It is advisable to see the whole video to have a big picture of the study of
morphology
1.3 The role of morphology in language acquisition.

The history and evolution of the study of morphology is connected to different
steps in learning a language as it is noted here:
The lexical component is a very important part of the grammar of a language.
The morphological rules, which are a part of it, provide the speaker with the means

to form new lexical units, and to accept or discard the newly formed words he comes
across as well or wrongly formed.
As for the productivity of the word formation rules, it is said that these
regulations have recursive devices like the syntactic ones, which allow the speaker
to generate an infinite number of derived and compound words. But like syntactic
rules, morphological rules need be specified by conditions and constraints in order to
avoid overgeneration.
In morphology the bases, but also the affixes and units resulting from the
operation of the rules, must be specified with the corresponding category and the
syntactic semantic sectional features. Meaning is a basic point to consider in word
formation, but it is necessary more principle systematic descriptions in order to use
it explanatorily.
Learning morphology is similar to the learning of the other grammatical
components. First, lexical entries must be internalized later the contact with
language makes the learner understand that some words have transparent internal
structure generated by the rules of the language, which allow the speakers to coin
their own derived and compound words.
As for the learning of the added language, the rules of the native and added
languages which are similar cause the learner to apply the rules of his native
language to produce and interpret morphological structures in the added language.
(Domínguez, J. 1991.The Role of Morphology in the Process of Language
Acquisition and Learning Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses (4) 37-47)
Thus, in all sense morphology plays an important role in language learning. It

enables students to comprehend the word structure. It is important to develop the
morphological awareness of the learners to increase the learners’ vocabulary and to
recognize the meaning easily when affixes are attached in words. Also, when
students master good vocabulary, they increase their reading and writing abilities.

For further instruction about how children acquire language, it is

recommended to read this article
https://iread-project.eu/2021/07/27/researching-morphological-awareness-
how-children-attend-to-shapes-of-words/
1.4 The place of morphology in early generative grammar

Without doubt, among the most purposed studies of morphology has been the
place of morphology in generative grammar. As this extract refers:
Until quite recently morphology did not receive its proper place in the
generative description of language. There was no question of a separate
morphological level and no attempt was made at the incorporation of morphological
analysis into the frame-work of generative transformational grammar… the
comparative neglect of morphology in generative grammar may lie in the fact that
English, on which the first works primarily concentrated, is not a language with
a particularly rich morphology. Generative grammarians working with English
were not faced with too many morphological problems. (Kiefer,f The Formal
Analysis of Natural Languages: Morphology In Generative Grammar:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110885248-017 page 1)
So, Generative grammar has been perceived as a class of theories of
grammar. In other words what a person has in his /her head consists of an instinct of
some kind that helps to create a sentence in that speaker’s language.
Similarly, “Morphology” studies how the words in a sentence are formed. For
example, the plural form in English differs from other languages. Other languages
use a different process to pluralize. Morphology analyzes these kinds of processes.
1.5 The morphology and phonology interaction

Morphology and phonology interaction is clearly seen in some cases. Let’s
take the three different realizations of the plural morpheme -s in English. The three
variants, /s/, /z/, and /ɪz/ are determined by their environment. Likewise, Katamba
has written:

As regards the interaction of morphology with phonology, the selection of the

form that manifests a given morpheme may be influenced by the sounds that realize
neighboring morphemes. Take the indefinite article in English. It has two
manifestations. It is a before a word that begins with a con sonant (e.g., a pear) and
an before a word that begins with a vowel (e.g., an orange). The same alternation
occurs with the prefix a/an that occurs in forms such as a-sexual and an-aerobic. We
cannot describe the phonological shape of the indefinite article without referring to
the sound at the beginning of the word that follows it. (Katamba, F., & Stonham, J.
1993, page 12-13)
Although this might be difficult to process, Morphological level and
phonological level are together in the formation of new lexical items in spoken
production.
1.6 The morphology and syntax interaction

Going deeper in the study of interaction of morphology with different levels of
linguistics, some authors claim that it expands its interaction to the syntactic level as
it is cited here:
As regards the interaction with syntax, the form of a word may be affected by
the syntactic construction in which the word is used. For instance, the verb walk has
a number of forms including walk, walks and walked. The selection of a particular
form of this verb on a given occasion is dependent on the syntactic construction in
which it appears. Thus, in the present tense. the choice between the forms walks
and walk depends on whether the subject of the verb is third-person singular (in
which case walks is selected as in he/she it walks) or not (in which case walk is
selected as in I/you/we/they walk). In the past tense, walk is realized as walked in all
cases Katamba, F., & Stonham, J. 1993, page 13)
In this way, it would not be difficult to see that the interaction is found in the
use of inflectional forms of the verb. For example, the use of play and plays depends
on the subject or better said on the syntactic context.

Complementary resources
• Famala Eka Sanhadi Rahayu, 2018;Introduction to English morphology

https://repository.unmul.ac.id/bitstream/handle/123456789/19755/An%20Intro
duction%20to%20English%20Morphology-Famala.pdf?sequence=1
• Read pages 1-5 on this document.
References (according to APA style last edition)
• Kiefer,f: the formal analysis of natural languages: morphology in generative

grammar: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110885248-017
• Domínguez, J. (1991.The Role of Morphology in the Process of Language

Acquisition and Learning Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 4
• Katamba F; Stonham J, 1993. Morphology St.Martin's Press
• Matthews P, 2012, Morphology - Cambridge University Press

Self-evaluation
1. Morphology is the study of…
words and their parts.

sentences and their parts.
The shape of sentences.
2. History of morphological analysis dates back to…
Early studies of ancient Greek, Indian and Arab grammarians.

Century XVII.
Early studies of 20th century.
3. The role of morphology in learning a language is seen mainly in….
The capacity of learners to discard new words.

The capacity of learners to increase vocabulary.
How students connect sentences.
4. Morphology deals with linguistic phenomena, while “generative grammar”

refers to…
The way a person creates a sentence.

The way a person speaks that language
The way a person creates a Word.
5. Morphology and phonology interact in the…
formation of new lexical items

formation of consonants
production of sound
6. Morphology interacts with the syntactic level in….
The use of inflectional forms of the verb.

The use of lexemes
the use of present tense
7. It is the study of structure of a Word.

Morphology.
Syntax.
Phonology.
8. Morphology plays an important role in….:
Learning a language.
Writing messages.
Studying the sentences.
9. The interaction of morphology with _____________, may be influenced by

the sounds that realize neighboring:
syntax.
lexicography.
phonology.
10. The form of a word may be affected by ____________in which the word is
used:
the syntactic construction

the accent
vocabulary.

Morphology
Topic n.°7
Paradigms and morphosyntax

Index
Page.
7.1 Paradigms 3
7.2 Morphosyntax 5
7.3 Allomorphy 7
References 9
Self-evaluation 10
Tema n.°5 : Lexical Morphology 12

7.1 Paradigms
Linguists who enhance their readiness for managing strategies to apply
correctly morphological analysis increase their effectiveness by organizing the study
of a language using paradigms. The word paradigm has been separated to a simple
distinctly use to improve the comprehension of word-formation.
The first use of paradigm was given within the scientific study of languages.
The incorporation of this kind of organization highlighted the existence of a class of
elements in a language. Thus, a linguistic paradigm is any kind of rational tabulation
of linguistic forms, such as phrases, words, or phonemes, intended to illustrate
contrasts and systematic variation (Bird, 1999)
The word paradigm has become important because it is another strategy
adopted to do morphological analysis. It refers to the complete set of related word
forms associated with a determined lexeme. The most common example of
paradigms is the conjugation of verbs.
A traditional definition of paradigm is that it is a set of related forms. As it is
seen in the following chart:

graphic 3
In All you need to know about Morphology (linguistics) Marco S., Vitor F., Francisco S., Marcos( 2017)
Successful implementation of paradigms wouldn’t be complete unless it is clear
how to make a morphological paradigm. In essence, when creating a paradigm, the
set of forms must be selected based on the common root or stem that is working
according to the grammatical environment in which they are used.
For example, in the Spanish language we have this group organized because of the
phonological environment.
The adjectives ending in -ido acido, avido, candido
They form their noun with the ending -ez acidez avidez candidez
Now a new paradigm is ready . Sustantivos españoles ending in -ez

7.2 Morpho-syntax
Of the critical aspects of studying Linguistics, perhaps morphosyntax is the
most fundamental as noted here:
The study of grammar can be separated into two categories: morphology and
syntax. The study of words and the laws that govern their development is known as
morphology. Syntax, on the other hand, is the study of sentences and the rules that
govern their creation. In essence, morphology and syntax are both studies of the
same thing - the rules that govern the formation of a language – but at different
"levels." Kiran S, Farooq A. (2021)
Morphosyntactic analysis
In implementing an appropriate analysis of words or sentences aligning with
a defined method is a must . Morphosyntactic analysis offers the opportunity to face
a profound encounter with the proposed phrase. Consequently, the strategy used fall
under the umbrella of two perspectives: the syntactic or morphological point of view.
Syntactic analysis: It has to be clear that point out the syntactic functions of the
words forming a sentence is necessary.
Morphological analysis: In particular, the morphological analysis directs its
work to the class, form or category of the words that are part of a sentence.
Ultimately, morphosyntactic analysis is concerned with the combination of the
two previous forms and the result obviously is more complete. Using this analysis will
allow us to get deeper into the quality of the analyzed phrase.

How to do a morphosyntactic analysis?
This model, as previously noted, requires the integration of both levels of
analysis morphological and syntactical so, it is necessary to work at these two levels.
Morphological level analysis
In the first place we will have to carry out a morphological analysis, to
understand and point out the types and classes of words that appear in the
sentence. Let’s take the following example:
Carlos sent a letter to his brother.
The first thing to do is to classify each of the words under the type they
belong to:
Carlos: Proper noun, masculine singular
He sent: Verb explain, past tense.
to: Preposition
his: Possessive determinant.
brother: Common name, singular masculine.
Syntactic level analysis is determining the logical meaning of sentences and
functions that each of the words within a sentence have.
Subject: is the person, animal or thing that performs the action of the verb.

Predicate: it shows us what the subject is doing. It is formed by a verb phrase
in which the nucleus will always be the verb.
Within the predicate there are also other words that also have a function
within the sentence: “letter” which is the Direct Complement and “his brother” which
is the Indirect Complement.
Effective analysis suggests that when asked to perform a morphosyntactic
analysis the obligation to mark the functions that appear in both and combine them
have to be done. In the morphosyntactic analysis all the parts in a sentence are
related and it is necessary to see the way they behave within it.
7.3. Allomorphy
Among other analysis arising in morphology is allomorphy. Allomorphy has a
central role in the study of Linguistics because the conditions that produce
allomorphy are originated in many different natures, consequently, it has valid
assumptions for our language.
What is allomorphy?

It has been common in the study of morphology to stress the importance of
allomorphy. Calling allomorphy to just a way to give a lexical representation to a
word. However, the analysis goes further.
The first and most basic characteristic is the condition that must hold for a
phenomenon to be called allomorphy. Many researchers adopt the view that
allomorphy must involve more than one lexical representation, as it is explained
here:
Allomorphy is the phenomenon that a single morpheme has different
realizations, i.e. alternative forms depending on the phonological or
morphological context in which it appears. In another type of allomorphy, the
realization of a morpheme is conditioned by the presence of another
morpheme. (Spencer, A. 1991)
Examples
In English, the plural suffix has three pronunciations:
(a) /s/ after nouns ending in a voiceless consonant (cats /kats/),
(b) /z/ after nouns ending in a voiced consonant (dogs /dogz/), and
(c) /ɪz/ after nouns ending in a coronal sibilant (horses /horsɪz/).

For further instruction visit this web page to see allomorphy in more details
Watch the video from minute 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyDsU_wqk5g
References
• Spencer, A. (1991) Syntactic Argumentation and the Structure of
English, University of California Press: Berkely, Los Angeles, London
• Bird E. (2016); Coastal Cliffs: Morphology and Management: Springer.
• Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic: The Social
Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London Edward Arnold.
• Kiran S, Farooq A. (2021) Morphosyntactic Analysis: A Study of English and
Urdu Determinatives
• Marco S., Vitor F., Francisco S., Marcos H. (2017) Morphology (linguistics);
All you need to know about Morphology (linguistics) in
http://morphology123.blogspot.com/2017/01/paradigms-and-
morphosyntax.html

Self - evaluation
11. ________________ is any kind of rational tabulation of linguistic forms,

such as phrases, words, or phonemes, intended to illustrate contrasts and
systematic variation.
A linguistic paradigm.
Word formation
A group of phonemes
12. When you create a paradigm, the set of forms must be selected based on
….
Common root.
Common sound
Common rule
13. The conjugation of verbs is an example of…

morphemes
paradigm.
allomorphy
14. ______________deals with the functions of the words forming a

sentence.
Syntactic analysis.
Morphological analysis
Word structure
15. ________________directs its work to the class, form or category of the

words that are part of a sentence
Morphological analysis
Syntactic analysis
Paradigm
16. _____________________all the parts in a sentence are related and we have

to see the way they behave within it.
In the morphosyntactic analysis.

In the phonological analysis.
In the systematic variation

17. Allomorphy is the phenomenon that a single morpheme has different …
realizations.
conjugations
morphs
18. In English, the plural suffix has ______________ pronunciations:
Two
Three
Four
19. In the following sentence: Peter sent a letter to his brother.

Peter is:
Proper noun, masculine singular

Proper noun, masculine plural
Common noun, masculine singular
20. In the following sentence: Mary played soccer with her brother.
Mary is:
The predicate
The verb
The subject

Morphology
Topic n.°5
Lexical Morphology

Index
Page.
5.1 Definition 3
5.2 Morphology and its relation to lexicon 3
5.3 Structure, process and development of Lexical Morphology 5
5.4 Lexicon, lexeme and lexicography 8
References 10
Self- evaluation 11
Tema n.°6 : Models of morphological analysis 23

5. Definition
Of crucial importance in our class is the study of lexical morphology which has
played an important role in recent development of morphological analysis.
There is a consensus among scholars that derivational morphology is
considered a lexical process. As it is explained here:
“the possibility that lexical prosody and syllabic characteristics are relevant to
lexical representation and affix separability, and we propose that derivational
morphemes can emerge to different degrees in a system that is sensitive to both
sound and meaning” (Jarmulowicz L; Taran V. 2013)
Based on this, lexical morphology is concerned with the formation and structure
of lexemes and it uses derivational morphology to complement their study.
Teachers often struggle with the definition of lexical morphology, that is why
discovering the structure of words through lexemes requires to stablish certain
relationship among some critical concepts within this area.
5.1 Morphology and lexicon
The relationship between morphology and lexicon emphasizes the aspects of
formation of new words that inflection does not consider. Conclusions similar to this
read as follows:
As with any two entities that share a task, morphology and the lexicon do
not always do so happily; they are rivals. This rivalry is not empty, but plays a
central role in the larger system of the language. In order to understand its

nature, we must consider a single speaker/hearer. When we speak of the
lexicon from this perspective, we speak of the individual’s mental lexicon, the list of
irregular items that the speaker/hearer carries around in his or her head.
We may then define the difference between existing words and potential words
in terms of this mental lexicon. We will say that any word that is stored in a single
speaker/hearer’s mental lexicon or list of irregular items is an existing word, and
that nothing else is. In particular, a word that meets all the criteria for being a word
of the language but that is not in an individual’s mental lexicon does not exist for
that person, though it may exist for another speaker/ hearer. The unlisted word is a
potential word, and we will say th at morphologically well-formed complex potential
words are provided by the morphology, not by the lexicon. Thus, the conventional
idea that the existing words of a language – English, for example – comprise all the
words in the Oxford English Dictionary or some other comprehensive dictionary
does not apply in this model of the lexicon and the morphology. The difference
between which words exist and which are potential is defined solely in terms of the
individual’s lexicon and morphology. (Aronoff M; Anshen F. 2017)
The interdependence between morphology and lexicon has been debated for a
long time. Many authors claim that morphology is in the lexicon (Jensen and Stong-
Jensen 1984). In choosing an appropriate point of view let’s say that both
morphology and lexicon are suppliers of words. Therefore, morphological
competence constitutes a specific aspect of lexical competence, in the ordinary
sense of this term, as an understanding of the meaning of words in their context.

At this point, it is essential to address some basic terms in order to have a
better idea of this topic
5.2 Structure, Process and Development of lexical morphology
Effective researchers have found that morpheme theories are not sufficient to
cover all the phenomena regarding word formation processes. Lexical morphology
appears as a solution to this problem.
Reviewing this section leads to say that morphology interact with syntax,
semantic and phonology therefore lexical morphology should be examined as a key
factor to expand our vocabulary in a wider manner different from the classic
grammar we have been exposed traditionally.
5.2.1 Structure in lexical morphology
Lexical morphology studies the structure of words and the guidelines that allow
them to be built or derived from others. How is Lexical morphology constructed?
Linguists, based on extensive research, have focused their work on identifying
rules to word analysis, however it is impossible to obtain a general rule. On the
contrary, many theories have appeared, each one making a number which is
difficult to handle.
These theories have helped to discover that derivational morphology is a kind
of lexical morphology since it is a type of word formation. It is impossible to
conclude the same with inflectional morphology since it is related to grammatical
aspects.

In simple words lexical morphology is based on derivational processes that
could be expressed in lexical representations models from a psycholinguistics
perspective. As such, it concerns itself primarily with word formation: derivation and
compounding.
At a more interactive level is lexical phonology which at first sight does not have
anything to do with morphology. Despite this belief, lexical phonology has very
similarities with derivational morphology. Thus, derived words do not constitute
variants of the original words but, they are new words in themselves.
5.2.2 Process in lexical morphology
In addition to the study of the structure of words, Lexical morphology deals with
the study of the procedures for creating new words. These procedures determine
that new words are formed by the union of two or more words.
One of the key factors to understand how lexical morphology is processed are
the psycholinguistics models. There are three terms which have to be accurately
interpreted:
How words are stored in long-term memory.
How derived words are processed.
What factors affect processing.
Successful lexical representation must transfer some types of information
stored in long-term memory: conceptual, semantic, syntactic, phonological, and
eventually orthographic information. This can be explained with this example:
Let us take the word cake

Semantically one can associate this word with chocolate, ice cream, cookie
but phonologically it is linked with make, take.
5.2.3 Development in lexical morphology
The way vocabulary develops vary through stages in life. Adult research
focuses their investigation in mature models. However, the development in children
is different. Thus, at one point there is an overlap where some factors may
influence the way adults and children represent their lexicon.
These factors are frequency and transparency.
Frequency effects in language development are present in work that
emphasizes input driven systems. For example, Marchman and Bates (1994)
contended that the emergence of morphosyntax is the result of children acquiring a
critical mass of verb knowledge from which they extract the inflectional patterns
Transparency
A significant amount of developmental work has focused on transparency
issues; however, it remains challenging to isolate the semantic, phonological, and
orthographic factors. Semantic, phonological, and orthographic transparency
appears to affect acquisition of derivational morphology at different times in
development (Carlisle, 1988; Carlisle & Stone, 2005). In oral language, earl y-
acquired suffixes are generally semantically and phonologically consistent ones.
Semantic transparency affects how easily a base word can be recognized within a
derived form (Clark, 1993; Derwing, Smith, & Wiebe, 1995). In addition, children
spell words with semantically transparent relationships more accurately than those
with less apparent semantic relationships, even when controlled for phonological
transparency (Deacon & Bryant, 2005)
As a conclusion it is determined that lexical morphology analysis is based on
compounding and derivational processes.
5.3 Lexicon, Lexeme and lexicography
The objective of studying lexical morphology can be seen in the way scientists
create dictionaries. In order to achieve this, lexicography establishes relationships
between words both semantically and structurally. So, it is concerned with the
processes of compilation. The integration of these processes is linked to
understand the following terms:
5.3.1 Lexicon
Lexicon is the collection of words that a speaker has or the inventory of words a
language has.
5.3.2 Lexeme
Typically, the definition of a lexeme is grounded as the basic lexical unit of a
language.
5.3.3 Lexicography

Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separated but
equally important academic disciplines:
Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing
dictionaries.
Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly study of semantic,
orthographic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic features of lexemes of the lexicon
(vocabulary) of a language, developing theories of dictionary components and
structures linking the data in dictionaries, the needs for information by users in
specific types of situations, and how users may best access the data
incorporated in printed and electronic dictionaries. Dzharasova, T. T. (2020)
Summary and examples
At this point it is important to point out that to do a morphological analysis
based on the lexicon, identifying the lexemes is vital in order to create new words
using all kind of affixes or compounding processes.
Look at the sentence below:
I love playing soccer and I am the best player on my team.
As you can see play is the lexeme.
You form two more words adding affixes
Playing and player
Words are normally formed by adding AFFIXES to the lexemes.

The other process to create words that lexical morphology considers is
compounding which is combining two lexemes two form a new word.
Foot + ball = football
For further instruction on this topic click on this link:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzwVQ_WjdqU
Watch the whole video.
References
• Jarmulowicz L; Taran V;Lexical Morphology: Structure,Process, and
Development, 2013:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270218377_Lexical_Morphology_Str
ucture_Process_and_Development
• Aronoff M; Anshen F; The Handbook of Morphology; 2017:
DOI:10.1002/9781405166348.ch11
• Deacon & Bryant, 2005 What young children do and do not know about the
spelling of inflections and derivations:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-
7687.2005.00449.x
• Carlisle & Stone, 2005 Exploring the Role of Morphemes in Word Reading;
DOI:10.1598/RRQ.40.4.3
• Derwing, Smith, & Wiebe, 1995 The foundations of accent and intelligibility in
pronunciation research: DOI:10.1017/S0261444811000103

Self- evaluation
21. What does Lexical Morphology study?

The formation and structure of lexemes
Morphemes and their parts.
Sentences and their parts.
22. The relationship between ______________emphasizes the aspects of

formation of new words that inflection does not consider.
morphology and lexicon

syntaxis and lexicon
phonology and lexemes
23. _______________________ is a kind of lexical morphology.
Derivational morphology
Inflectional morphology
Lexicography
24. The key factors to understand how lexical morphology is processed are…..
psycholinguistics models
paralinguistic models
linguistics models
25. According to the development of lexical morphology there are two types of
representation of a word. They are….
The lexeme and morpheme.

The use of lexemes
The use of morphemes
26. ___________ is the collection of words that a speaker has.
Lexicon
Lexis
Lexeme

27. The basic lexical unit of a language is_______________.

Lexicon
Lexis
Lexeme
28. ___________________is the study of lexicons.
Lexicography
Morphology.
Syntax.
29. _____________is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing

dictionaries.
Practical lexicography
Pre-lexicography
Theoretical lexicography
30. ________________________is the scholarly study of semantic,

orthographic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic features of lexemes of the
lexicon (vocabulary) of a language.
Practical lexicography
Pre-lexicography
Theoretical lexicography

Morphology
Topic n.°6
Models of morphological analysis

Index
Page.
6. Models of morphological analysis 3
6.1 Morpheme-based morphology 3
6.2 Lexeme-based morphology 5
6.3 Word-based morphology 7
References 8
Self evaluation 9
Tema n.°4 : Word formation 35

6. Models of morphological analysis
Models of morphological analysis, as components of the discipline of
linguistics, is another approach used by linguists to break down words into
meaningful parts. However, some words do not show characteristics of divisibility,
many words are composed of more than one meaningful unit.
There are three models that are going to be seen in detail in this section:
6.1 Morpheme-based morphology
For the purpose of illustrating what Morpheme-based morphology is, this
section highlights the principal characteristic of this strategy to word formation
analysis.
Morpheme based morphology studies how the rules of word formation
operates over morphemes. Morphemes are the smallest unit of language that
have meaning. Consequently, morpheme-based morphology studies the way
in which morphemes behave. As this explanation claims:
A morpheme is like and atom in chemistry: it’s the smallest meaningful
word. In English “a” would be a morpheme since it’s the smallest unit of
language (1 letter) meaning something (it means: one of something which is
not specified). studies the ways in which morphemes behave. Also in
comparative linguistics, i.e. linguistics that study the relationship between two
languages, whereby similar morphemes or the use of morphemes denoting
the same meaning are compared. “A” in English is “un/une” in French but is “ “
in languages as Welsh and Estonian where there is no word to express “a”
(Nebeker T. in Quora 2020)

Furthermore, some properties of morphemes must be considered when
analyzing the structure of a word using this model.
A morpheme belongs to a closed class.
It refers only to grammatical categories
It may be phonemically expressed.
Knowing this will help to understand that morphemes and lexemes are two
different phenomena in linguistics.
Example
The behavior of morphemes can be seen in the word:
independently
Here the identification of morphemes will show the following:
the morphemes are in-, de-, pend, -ent, and -ly;
pend is considered the root.
The other morphemes are, in this case, derivational affixes.
Remember: Derivational affixes change the meaning of the words.
In words such as cats, cat is the root and the -s is an inflectional morpheme.
Remember: Inflectional morphemes do not change the meaning of the words,
they only signal grammatical information.

6.2 Lexeme-based morphology
Perhaps the lexeme-based morphology greatly differs from morpheme-based
morphology because it is the result of applying rules that modify the word form. From
that point, a new word is generated. Lexemes are derived from the same basic word.
As this example illustrates:
runs- ran- running belong to the lexeme run
This example demonstrates that the lexeme is a basic abstract unit of
meaning, and the other are forms of the lexeme run.
Similarly, in the analysis of words using this model, it is necessary to take into
consideration these aspects of lexemes.
Lexemes belong to an open class.
They have real world references.
They must be phonemically expressed.
Although these models can be used separately, there is a trend suggesting to
use the model call: Lexeme-morpheme base morphology which is a theory of
morphology that claims that lexical morphemes, called lexemes, and grammatical
morphemes, Morphemes, are radically different linguistic phenomena.
The definitions of the two categories are simple: Lexemes are noun,
verb, and adjective stems. These items in all languages are manifested
without exception as sound-meaning pairings that refer to something in the
real world. Any other meaningful linguistic phenomenon is a Morpheme and
hence must refer to a grammatical category; it cannot be used in reference to
anything in the extra-linguistic world. Morphemes refer exclusively to
universally available closed-classgrammatical categories like Tense, Aspect,

and Number and may consist of independent phonemic strings (usually
unaccented), affixes, infixes, changes in accent or tone, or even predictable
omissions (zero morphemes) (Beard R; 1995)
In this sense, it is acceptable that the morphological analysis has to
differentiate these components in a word.
The three basic hypotheses of lexeme-morpheme base morphology are:
The Separation Hypothesis claims that lexical and inflectional derivation are
processes distinct from phonological realization (affixation, etc.).
In other words, grammatical morpheme is the result of phonological
operations
Example:
The word worked
work is the lexeme. The segment with meaning
ed /t/ is the morpheme (it does not add any meaning)
So, lexemes are the object kept in the lexicon.
The Unitary Grammatical Function Hypothesis claims that there are
44 universally available grammatical functions used for both inflectional and
lexical derivations; Since morphemes are often the result of reducing a
lexeme, lexemes in transition, serving both as lexemes and morphemes, are
not uncommon. In US English, for example, have is a lexeme since it does
not behave like a morphemic auxiliary. In Britain, however, this verb behaves
more like an auxiliary, which LMBM treats as a morpheme: it may be
contracted (I've a new book) and it may be raised in questions (Have you a
new book). (BEARD, R. page 190)
According to this theory the lexemes and the grammatical morphemes can be
classified in 44 grammatical categories
Let’s take the example of baker
Bake is the lexeme. It is the verb
Baker is the lexical derivation (someone who bakes) so, it is another lexeme.
Morphemes can not go under any other derivation.
Base Rule Hypothesis claims that the universal categories of word and
clause structure must originate in a base component. Consequently, a word is the
result of accepted rules.
6.3 Word-based morphology
Having focused our study in these three models, it is time to see what Word-
based morphology is. This hypothesis proposed in Aronoff (1976) respond to regular
word-formation processes that are word-based. A new word is formed by applying a
regular rule to a single already existing word. Both the new word and the existing
one are members of major lexical categories.
This also can be reflected in the following text:
Word based morphology studies the behavior and structure of single
words in conjunction with other words. This too can be done in comparative
linguistics and is, together with sentence morphology the largest and up to
now the most complicated field of morphology. e.g. people say: “He speaks
fast” (and not “fastly”) but at the same time others say: “He speaks fluently”
(and not “fluent”). This study can lead to etymology and prescriptive or
explanatory grammar. (Spencer, A. 1991)
Under this theory, words are the meaningful units. All new words come from
rules previously determined.
For example, fluent
Fluent is an adjective but we add (ly) = fluently
After adding the suffix, we have formed an adverb consequently we have a
new word.
For further instruction it is recommended to see this presentation:
https://all-about-linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/morphology/how-
is-morphology-studied/
Read the whole article.
References
• Spencer, A. (1991) Syntactic Argumentation and the Structure of
English, University of California Press: Berkely, Los Angeles, Londo
Spencer, A; (1991). Morphological theory: an introduction to word structure in
generative grammar. Oxford & Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.

• Beard. R (1995) Lexeme-Morpheme Base Morphology: A General Theory of
Inflection and Word Formation; SUNY Press
• Travis Nebeker (2020) In Quorahttps://www.quora.com/What-does-smallest-
meaningful-unit-mean-in-terms-of-morphemes

Self-evaluation
31. What are the models discussed in this section?
Morpheme-based morphology, Lexeme-based morphology

Word-based morphology
Root -base - morpheme
Derivational- inflectional
32. ___________________studies how the rules of word formation operate over

morphemes.
Morpheme based morphology

Word based morphology
Lexeme based morphology
33. According to morpheme-based morphology: a morpheme belongs to a…
Closed class.
Open class
Mix class
34. According to lexeme-based morphology: a lexeme belongs to a…
Closed class.
Open class
Mix class
35. Lexeme-based morphology greatly differs from morpheme-based

morphology because it is the result of
Applying rules that modify the word form.

Modifying lexemes
Analyzing the behavior of morphemes
36. The three basic hypotheses of lexeme-morpheme base morphology are:
The Separation Hypothesis ,Base Rule Hypothesis, The Unitary Grammatical

Function Hypothesis

Base, root, affixes
Affix ,Prefix, infix
37. The Separation Hypothesis claims that lexical and inflectional derivation
are processes distinct from ___________________.
Phonological realization
Morphological realization
Semantical realization
38. ______________________________claims that there are 44 universally

available grammatical functions
The Unitary Grammatical Function Hypothesis.

The separation Hypothesis
The base rule Hypothesis
39. __________________ claims that all regular word-formation processes are

word-based
Word based morphology

Morphological realization
Semantical realization
40. ________________________claims that the universal categories of word and

clause structure must originate in a base
The Unitary Grammatical Function Hypothesis.
The Separation Hypothesis
The Base Rule Hypothesis

Morphology
Topic n.°4
Word formation

Index
Page.
4. Word formation 3
4.1Types of word formation 3
4.2. Other types of word formation 7
4.3 Some uncommon morphological phenomena 9
References 10
Self - evaluation 11
Tema n.°3 : Morphemes 46

4. Definition
Given that any human being has the capacity to produce new words thanks
to their creativity, word formation could be defined as the process in which new
words are formed by combining words or morphemes from any languages. However:
Nowadays, the term ‘word formation’ does not have a clear cut, universally
accepted usage. It is sometimes referred to all processes connected with
changing the form of the word by, for example, affixation, which is a matter of
morphology. In its wider sense word formation denotes the processes of
creation of new lexical units. Although it seems that the difference between
morphological change of a word and creation of a new term is quite easy to
perceive, there is sometimes a dispute as to whether blending is still a
morphological change or making a new word. There are, of course, numerous
word formation processes that do not arouse any controversies and are very
similar in the majority of languages. ( Sadeghi Ghadi; 2009)
Ultimately, people who have conducted research about this topic conclude that
word-formation processes are very similar in the majority of languages.
4.1 Types of word formation
The main kinds of word formation are:
4.1.1 Compounding
It produces new words by combining complete word forms with a single
compound form.

the meaning of the compound may differ to a greater or lesser
degree from that of the corresponding phrase. A blackbird is a species
of bird, regardless of its color; a black bird is a bird which is black,
regardless of its species. A trotting-horse is a kind of horse, regardless
of its current activity; a trotting horse must be a horse that is currently
trotting. So, because the meanings of compounds are not always
predictable from the meanings of their constituents, dictionaries often
provide individual entries for them.
They do not do this for phrases, unless the meaning of the phrase is
idiomatic and therefore not derivable from the meanings of its parts and
how they are put together, e.g., raining cats and dogs. Generally, the
meaning of a phrase is predictable from the meanings of its
constituents, and so phrases need not be listed individually. (Indeed,
because the number of possible phrases in a language is infinite, it is in
principle impossible to list them all.) in many compounds, the order of
the constituent words is different from that in the corresponding phrase:
Compound phrase
FOOT BALL
NOTE BOOK
sawmill = mill for sawing
sawing horse = horse for sawing

sawdust = dust from sawing
(Gerald P. Delahunty, James J. Garvey 2009, page 132)
4.1.2 Derivation.
As this explanation demonstrates:
It is the process of creating separate but morphologically related
words. Typically, but not always, it involves one or more changes in
form. It can involve prefixing, as in resaw, and suffixing, as in sawing,
sawer, sawable. Another type of derivation, wh ile not visible, is at
least audible. It involves a change in the position of the primary stress
in a word. Compare:
PROGRAM PROGRAM
permit (noun) per’mit (verb)
contact (noun) con’tact (verb)
perfect (adj.) per’fect (verb)
convert (noun) con’vert (verb)
So, what derivation shows is that the addition of an affix creates a new
lexeme.
Examples:

Black + bird = blackbird
Dis + connect= disconnect
HOPEFUL
UN HAPPY
4.1.3. Affixation
Affixation is the most common way of making new words in English.
Affixation involves the addition of a morpheme to a word to create a new one.
The addition of an affix requires a change in the stress pattern, with
consequential changes in the pronunciations of the vowels. In most
cases an unstressed vowel is pronounced as schwa:
Telegraph - te’legraphy
Regal - re’galia
Tutor - tu’torial
The most relevant forms of affixation are prefixation, the addition of a
prefix, and suffixation, the addition of a suffix.
Example:
Con form ing

Con is the prefix.
Ing is the suffix.
UNDO
4.1.4 Conversion
“Change of part of speech without any corresponding formal change is
called conversion (also functional shift or zero derivation)”. (Gerald P.
Delahunty, James J. Garvey 2009, page 130).
In other words, conversion generates a different word class from an
existing word.
Example:
WORK I HAVE WORK TO DO
CUT I HAVE A CUT ON MY FINGER
The noun access can be used as a verb to access.
4.2. Other types of word formation
4.2.1 Coinage
The most simple way to define coinage is the creation of a new word. A
word that did not exist before:
For example, Teflon, spandex.

4.2.2 Borrowing
Words are adopted in other languages for different reasons. In linguistics,
borrowing is the process by which a word from one language is adapted for use
in another. Another common name for this phenomenon is a loanword.
Examples:
The word Garage comes from French.
4.2.3 Blending
Currently the word brunch serves as an example of blending. It is the result
of joining the beginning of breakfast with the ending of lunch. So, blending can
be defined as the link of two or more words.
Example:
motel (motor + hotel)
4.2.4 Clipping
Shortening words is another process of word formation. It consists of
dropping out some parts of a word to create a synonym.
Clipped Word Original word
phone telephone
bike motorbike

4.2.5 Backformation
It is also called back derivation as it follows the pattern of creating a new
word after removing a real or an imaginary affix.
Examples:
acculturate from acculturation
babysit from babysitter
EDITOR EDIT
TELEVISION TELEVISE
4.2.6 Acronyms
Nowadays, an acronym is a popular way to form new words. They are
created with the initial letters of another.
Examples:
AIDS - Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
ASAP - As Soon As Possible.
4.3 Some uncommon morphological phenomena
There is a group of phenomena that is hard to find. However, it does not mean
they do not exist. That is why the following text will help to enlighten the
differences.

4.3.1 Onomatopoeia:
They are words formed when the meaning is perceived as imitating the sound:
buzz, hiss, crack.
4.3.2 Cognates
They are words that have developed from a common ancestor:
beam (English) is cognate with Baum (German);
corresponding word into another language: grattacielo from skyscraper.
4.3.3 Eponym
It’s a word that comes from the proper name of a person or place. Eponyms
words can be based on both real and fictional people and places.
An example of this is the word Obamacare
4.3.4 Toponym
It is a word derived from a place.
Example: Rocky Mountains.
Once this section is comprehended , visit the following web page:
https://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/word-formation/word-formation-
index.htm

Here some different exercises are shown on line to sharpen the abilities in
recognizing word formation processes.
• Watch the whole video about word formation processes.
Evan Ashworth; Word Formation Processes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya7rLeGhY1M
• References
Delahunty, P; Garvey,j (2010). The English Language From Sound to
Sense - Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
• Alireza Sadeghi Ghadi, Word formation process;
https://www.translationdirectory.com/article37.htm Fars Science and
Research University

Self-evaluation
41. What is word formation?

Word formation is the process by which new words are formed by combining
words or morphemes from other languages
Word formation is the process by which new words are deleted by combining
Word formation is the process by which new words are formed by translating
42. The main kinds of word formation are:
Compounding, affixation, derivation and conversion

Compounding, coinage, derivation and conversion
Compounding, borrowing, derivation and conversion
43. ___________________ is a process of word formation that involves

combining complete word forms into a single compound form.
Coinage
Compounding
Borrowing.
44. What are the two primary kinds of affixation?

prefixation y suffixation
prefixation and addition
inflection y suffixation
45. Coinage refers to the creation of a formation of ….
nonexistent words or terms in a language

previously existent words or terms in a language

nonexistent sentences or terms in a language
46. _____________ is a type of word formation in which two or more words are
merged into one
Blending .
Coinage
Clipping
47. _________________ is the process of forming a new word (a neologism) by
removing actual or supposed affixes from another word
Back-formation.
Sintax.
Clipping
48. What is an acronym?
It is a word formed from the initial letters of a name

It is a sentence formed from a name
It is a word formed from the final letters of a name
49. ___________________is the most common way of making new words
Derivation
Lexicography.
Affixation.
50. ______________________words formed when the meaning is perceived as

imitating the sound.
Cognates
Onomatopoeia
Vocabulary.
Morphology
Topic n.°3
Morphemes

Index
Page
3.1. Definition 3
3.2. Morphemes Morph Allomorph 4
3.3. Nature of morphemes 6
3.4. Types of morphemes 7
3.4.1. Roots Affixes Stems Base 7
3.4.2. Inflectional and Derivational morphemes 12
References 14
Self - evaluation 15
Tema n.°2 : Word 59

3.1 Definition
As we have seen previously, Morphology is the study of word structure.
Inevitably, discussions about the structure of a word may appear since many
people claim a word is indivisible. It is taken for granted that words have a simple
structure. For example, cat, dog, eat, see, cannot be taken apart. As it is reflected
here:
Morphemes are the smallest forms (i.e., spoken and/or written units) in a
language that have meanings or grammatical functions. (Note: they are not the
smallest units of meaning.) Cat is a word consisting of one morpheme, cat. Cats
consists of two morphemes, cat and -s. Inactive contains three (Delahunty, A.
James, J, 2009 page 76)
Although these variations, each one tends to share a common ground.
However, paying attention to these three terms will help to reach an agreement on
a correct definition of a morpheme.
3.2 Morphemes, morphs and allomorphs
The principle of contrast can be implemented to identify morphemes.
Scientists have been working hard to develop a set of procedu res to give a correct
morphological analysis. Although, there are no effective mechanical procedures to
discover the structure of a word, many techniques have been evolved by linguists
to give reasonable answer to the way words are formed.
The technique use to contrast the differences of words by taking into
consideration the phonological shape, the meaning and the grammatical function is

advisable for example: In the words: boy and girl, the difference is given by the
sounds and at the same time by the meaning. Furthermore, these two sentences
will show the difference in more details:
• The girl stays and the boy stayed
Boy and girl not only differ in the meaning but also in the grammatical function
of stays (present simple) and stayed (past tense). So, based on this, there is a
difference in meaning when one says the boy stays and the boy stayed. Once
performed this analysis the definition of morpheme would be clear as the text
shows:
Morphemes are the smallest forms (i.e., spoken and/or written units) in
a language that have meanings or grammatical functions. (Note: they are not
the smallest units of meaning.) Cat is a word consisting of one morpheme,
cat. Cats consists of two morphemes, cat and -s. Inactive contains three
(Delahunty, A. James, J, 2009 page 76)
Likewise, going deeper in the analysi this interesting conclusion:comes out
“When we wish to refer to a minimal grammatical form merely as a form, we
will use the term morph”. (Delahunty, A. James, J, 2009 page 125)
The morph is a word segment that represents one morpheme (the smallest
unit of language that has meaning) in an oral or written form. Let us see another
example:

Boy is a morph because it has the two characteristics. On one side, it is the
physical form of a morpheme (boy) and on the other it is the phonetic shape of a
morpheme /bɔɪ/
Allomorph
“If different morphs represent the Same morpheme they are called allomorph.
Allomorph is a variant phonological representation of a morpheme” (Delahunty, A.
James, J, 2009 page 141)
Allomorphy is the phenomenon that a single morpheme has different
realizations, i.e. alternative forms depending on the phonological or morphological
context in which it appears. In another type of allomorphy, the realization of a
morpheme is conditioned by the presence of another morpheme. (Spencer, A.
1991)
An allomorph is a different phonological version of a morpheme. Examples
Plural: cat /s/ bag /z/
Past tense: /id/ /d/ /t/
The relationship between a morpheme and its morphs and allomorphs is
parallel to the relationship between a phoneme and its phones and allophones. A
morpheme is manifested as one or more morphs (surface forms) in different
environments. These morphs are called allomorphs.

Graphic 1
(Delahunty, A. James, J, 2009 page 76)
3.3 Nature of morphemes
One commonly shared misconception about a morpheme is confusing them
with syllables. While syllables are used to articulate sound into words, morphemes
are units of meaning or grammatical function. Necessarily, this believe must be
considered when you divide words. Note this explanation:
Words can be divided into segments of sound. Thus, the word book can
be divided into the segments /b, u, k/. Indeed, the division of words into
phonemes forms the basis of alphabetic writing systems like that of English.
But it is also possible, and natural to divide words into syllables. For instance,
Japanese uses fifty distinct symbols to represent the fifty syllable types found
in the language. (Francis Katamba, John Stonham, 2018 page 34)
Of particular importance in the study of word structure is to be aware of this
explanation. Therefore, when one breaks down a word, understanding this, might
actually help to be effective in morphological analysis.
This word provides a good example of the nature of morphemes:

Sofa contains two syllables but it only has one morpheme
3.4 Types of morphemes
At the heart of the study of the structure of a word is the composition of them.
Some authors assert that they also have their subdivisions. Throughout this section
they are going to be developed carefully:
3.4.1 Roots Affixes Stems Base
Roots
In order to give a general idea of what a morpheme is, it is a good idea to
reinforce some previous knowledge. Consider this:
The root morpheme of a word is the morpheme left over when all
derivational and inflectional morphemes have been removed. Thus, seem is
what remains when we remove the derivational morphemes {-ing} and {-ly}
from seemingly, and must therefore be its root. (Delahunty, A. James, J, 2009
page 141)
In other words, it is not possible to reduce a root into more meaningful parts.
Example: run – running we dropped out ing.
What is left? The root run
Free morpheme
Essential to the successful comprehension of morphemes is the idea that it
can stand alone as a single word. In other words: Free morpheme is a morpheme

that need not be attached to another morpheme, but can constitute a word on its
own. (Delahunty, A. James, J, 2009 page 141)
Examples of free morphemes are:
1. creating 2. unhealthy
create (F) un (B)
ing (B) health (F)
y (B)
Categories of Free Morphemes
There are two categories. These are Lexical morphemes and Functional
morphemes.
Lexical Morphemes
It is easy to identify a lexical morpheme as it carries the meaning or content
of a word. Nouns, adjectives verbs and adverbs are examples of them.
Boy, man: nouns
Happy, tall: adjs.
Go, drive: verbs.

Functional Morphemes
Much debate has surrounded the definition of a functional morpheme. They
only perform a function in grammar. Examples are conjunctions (and),
prepositions(of), pronouns(he) and articles (the). They are also considered
functional words because they do not have dictionary meaning.
Bound Morphemes
Equally influential on appropriate breaking down of morphemes in a word is to
understand what a bound morpheme is. Simply said, they are the opposites of free
morphemes. They need to be linked to another morpheme. Examples include: -ish,
-ness, -ation, -tion, -ism, -al, -er, -s, -en, -ed, etc. When you look at the following
words, they are combinations of both free and bound morphemes: foolishness,
bookish, naturalization, farmer, does, bags, taken, expected, etc. Bound
Morphemes are called Affixes in English.
After reflecting on the difference of free morphemes and bound morphemes
the conclusion obtained is that bound morphemes are called Affixes in English.
Affixes are also Bound Morphemes. Take a moment to review these definitions
Types of Affixes in English
Many devoted linguists have tried to classify the affixes in English to make
instruction more comprehensible. They say that there are two types of affixes.
Prefixes and suffixes however some scholars claim that there is a third one in
discordance which is an infix.

Suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a word.
Prefix is a group of letters added to the beginning of a word to change its
meaning.
These definitions will help to understand these concepts better:
Prefix
They are attached at the onset always. In other words, a prefix is an affix that
is attached before a root or base or stem, such as re-, un-, in- etc. (Aligarh Muslim
university; types of morpheme)
Suffix
A suffix is an affix that is attached after a root or base or stem, such as –ly, -
er, -ist, -s, -ed, etc (Aligarh Muslim university; types of morpheme)
Infix
An infix is an affix inserted into the root itself or better saidt infixes are placed
within the root. (Aligarh Muslim university; types of morpheme)
Stems and base
As it is observed here:
The stem is that part of a word that is in existence before any
inflectional affixes (i.e., those affixes whose presence is required by the
syntax such as markers of singular and plural number in nouns, tense in
verbs, etc.) have been added.

In the word-form cats, the plural inflectional suffix -s is attached to the
simple stem cat, which is a bare root, that is, the irreducible core of the word.
In workers, the same inflectional -s suffix comes after a slightly more complex
stem consisting of the root work plus the suffix -er, which is used to form
agentive nouns from verbs (with the meaning 'someone who does the action
designated by the verb. e.g.. singer, fighter, dancer). Here work is the root,
but worker is the stem to which -s is attached.
Finally, a base is any unit whatsoever to which affixes of any kind can
be added. The affixes attached to a base may be inflectional affixes selected
for syntactic reasons or derivational affixes which alter the meaning or
grammatical category of the base. An unadorned root like boy can be a base
since it can have attached to it inflectional affixes likes to form the plural boys
or derivational affixes like -ish to turn the noun boy into the adjective hoyish.
In other words, all roots are bases. Bases are called stems only in the context
of inflectional morphology (Francis Katamba, John Stonham, 2018 page 46-
47)
For academic linguistic content a stem is the basic meaning of a word and it
deals with inflectional morphology. In the word disappearance the stem is appear
because after you remove the inflectional suffixes, there the stem is.
Pref stem suffix
Dis appear ance
Do it yourself:
Reconstruction
Unrecognizable
3.4.2 Inflectional and derivational morphemes
The study of inflectional and derivational morphology deals with the ways
words are modified to fit into different grammatical contexts. Check these concepts:
Derivational morphemes are added to forms to create separate words: {-er}
is a derivational suffix whose addition turns a verb into a noun, usually meaning the
person or thing that performs the action denoted by the verb. For example,
{paint}+{-er} creates painter, one of whose meanings is “someone who paints.”
Inflectional morphemes do not create separate words. They merely modify
the word in which they occur in order to indicate grammatical properties such as
plurality, as the {-s} of magazines does, or past tense, as the {ed} of babecued
does. (Delahunty, A. James, J, 2009 page 181)
Thus, the principal difference is that inflectional morphemes never change the
grammatical category of a word, derivational morphemes often change the part of
speech of a word.
This graph will summarize this topic:

Graphic 2
(English fn (2021) morphology and it’s types diagram)
In order to sharpen your skills on these topic s you can do the activities on
these web pages:
• https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5a80a740b1fb72002268462c/derivational-and-
inflectional-morphemes

References
• Katamba, F; Stonham, J (1993). Morphology-St. Martin's Press
• Delahunty, P; Garvey,j (2010). The English Language From Sound to Sense -
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
• Spencer, A; (1991). Morphological theory: an introduction to word structure i n
generative grammar. Oxford & Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
• English fn (2021). morphology and it’s types diagram in:
https://www.englishfn.com/morphology-definition-types-function-of-morpheme/

Self- evaluation
51. They create new words…
Derivational morpheme.
Inflectional morph.
lexeme.
52. Morphemes are the_____________ forms in a language.
smallest.
biggest.
same.
53. ________ is a word segment that represents one morpheme ….
Morpheme.
Morph.
Allomorph.
54. ________ is the phenomenon that a single morpheme has different

realizations.
Morpheme.
Morph.
Allomorphy.
55. The word sofa contains _____ syllable(s) but ______ morpheme(s)
1 - 2
2 - 1
1- 1
56. _______________of a word is the morpheme left over when all derivational
and inflectional morphemes have been removed.
The root morpheme

Lexeme
Allomorph

57. ___________ is a morpheme that need not be attached to another

morpheme
Free morpheme .
Bound morpheme
Allomorph
58. _______________ is a segment of a word that cannot stand alone
Free morpheme
Bound morpheme
Morph
59. ____________________is that part of a word that is in existence before any

inflectional affixes.
Lexicon
The stem.
Affix
60. _____________never change the grammatical category of a word.
Inflectional morphemes
Derivational morpheme
Infixation

Morphology
Topic n.°2
Word

Index
Page.
2.1. What is a Word? 3

2.2. Lexemes, Word forms and Grammatical words 3
2.2.1. The lexeme 3
2.2.2. Word forms 5
2.2.3. The grammatical word 5
2.3 Prosodic Word vs Morphological word 6
References 7
Self-evaluation 8

2. Introduction to word structure

Word structure is the way in which words are formed. We can receive a lot of
help by understanding how a word is built up. Definitely, the study of word structure
will help to improve our spelling and expand vocabulary. In addition to that
understanding word elements can help learners to process more words quickly to
acquire a language more effectively.
2.1 What is a word?

There are differences of opinion regarding the concepts of a word. However,
taking a closer look to the nature of a word, we can deduce that it is the smallest
sequence of phonemes that can be pronounced in isolation with practical meaning.
Additional research indicates that “words are units composed of one or more
morphemes: they are also the units of which phrases are composed”. (Delahunty, G
and Garvey, J. 2010 page 126)
Also “we tend to regard as a word any expression that has no spaces within it
and is separated by spaces from other expressions”. (Delahunty, G and Garvey, J.
2010 page 126)
However, pointing out these concepts with more details, the controversy
arises about what a word is. English speakers for example might find it easy to
recognize a word by simply hearing or seeing it.
Here comes the dilemma where educators have to give an answer and define
what a word is. In order to explore the possible solution, it is necessary to
understand and differentiate the components of a word. To do so, it will be helpful to
consider some fundamental concepts.
Let’s start by studying the definitions of lexeme, word form, and grammatical
word.
2.2 Lexemes, Word form and Grammatical word

2.2.1 The lexeme
Given that the meaning of a word seems to be a hard nut to crack, it is

difficult to understand what it is meant by “word”. As this example illustrates
“The forms pockling, pockle, pockles and pockled are different realizations of
the lexeme POCKLE (lexemes will be written in capital letters). They all share
a core meaning although they are spelled and pronounced differently.
(Katamba, F., & Stonham, J. 1993, page 18)
Why is that? Simply because you consider that these words might be related
somehow. Thus, the term lexeme might be studied as the root of a word.
The forms see- sees- seeing- saw- seen are manifestations of the lexeme see
because they have the same core meaning even though they are pronounced in a
different way.
Having said this, the following definition will guide our thoughts “Lexemes are
the vocabulary items that are listed in the dictionary” (cf. Di Sciullo and Williams,
1987).
Here you can see more example
Examples
MAN
RAIN
CAT
DOG
Exercise
What are the set of forms taken by the lexemes:
FIND
RUN
DRINK
WOMAN
BOY

For further instruction it is recommended to watch this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fww1u6eNwxc
2.2.2 Word forms
As previously discussed separating word forms from lexemes is simple. The

term word refers to a particular realization of a lexeme in a sentence. Observe this
explanation
Refer to see, sees, seeing, saw and seen as five different words. In this
sense, three different occurrences of any one of these word-forms would
count as three words. We can also say that the word-form see has three
letters and the word-form seeing has six. And, if we were counting the number
of words in a passage, we would gladly count see, sees, seeing, saw, and
seen as five different word forms (belonging to the same lexeme) . (Katamba,
F., & Stonham, J. 1993, page 18)
These following bullets will also explain what a word form is:
• A concrete vocabulary.
• A physical form of the concept or meaning in speech or writing.
• A concrete unit or morphological analysis in linguistics.
Among all the definitions found the one that says word form refers to ways the
form of a word in English conveys different meanings.

By observing this example, one can understand that in a better way.
The physical word forms: sits, sitting, sat are realizations of sit.
• He sits on the bench

• He is sitting on the bench
• He sat on the bench yesterday
2.2.3 The grammatical word
In many ways the picture would not be complete if understanding what a

grammatical word is has failed. Let’s take a look at this:
“The nature of the grammatical word is important in the discussion of the

relationship between words and sentences and the boundary between morphology
and syntax”. (Katamba, F., & Stonham, J. 1993, page 19)
Furthermore, nouns, adjectives, verb, tense, gender, number, etc. are

regarded as grammatical word since they present some morpho syntactic properties.
We shall use the term grammatical word to refer to the 'word' in this sense.
The vital point here is to make it clear that grammatical word deals with the
formation of sentences.
As these examples demonstrate the word cut represent two distinct

grammatical words.
• Usually I cut the chicken in half.

• Yesterday I cut the chicken in the sink.
In the first sentence the tense is simple present whereas in the second the
tense is past. But on top of that there is another case
• I have a cut on my finger

Here the word cut is working as a noun which guides us to say that the lexeme
cut (noun) is different from the lexeme cut (verb) because they are different word
class.
2.3 Prosodic Word vs Morphological word

Among all possible variables of fundamental concepts it is necessary to
understand the difference between phonological word and morphological word.

"The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology," defines a phonological

word as "the domain within which certain phonological or prosodic rules apply, for
example, rules of syllabification or stress placement. Phonological words may be
smaller or larger than grammatical or orthographic words.” (Bauer, Laurie, Rochelle
Lieber, and Ingo Plag. 2013)
"The phonological word represents the interaction between phonology and

morphology in that a phonological word either corresponds to a morphological word
or is constructed on the basis of information on the internal structure of
morphological words. By 'morphological word' is meant a (possible compound) stem
plus all affixes associated with it," says Marit Julien in "Syntactic Heads and Word
Formation (2002)."
There are some important aspects to clarify about these concepts. First of all,
in spoken production, the combination of morphemes serves as the input to
phonological processes which leads to see that the constituent sounds must also be
combined in such a way that the resulting phonological representation is suitable for
driving spoken production. For example, when one pluralizes cat it is inevitable
using the suffix /s/
The second reason that morphological and phonological processing are linked
is because the phonological environment created by combining morphemes must be
modified by the phonology in order to satisfy a language's phonological constraints.
For example, (find + ing = [faɪn.ɪŋ]). Here the morphological word is finding but
the phonological word is [faɪn.ɪŋ]). The difference is when you pronounce the word it
is different from the way it is written.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEDhPBpMaw4
You can watch this video to understand word forms, lexemes and
grammatical words. Watch the whole video.
References
• Bauer, Laurie, Rochelle Lieber, and Ingo Plag. (2013) The Oxford Reference
Guide to English Morphology. Oxford University Press.

• Julien, Marit. (2002.) Syntactic Heads and Word Formation. Oxford University
Press,
• Katamba, F; Stonham, J (1993). Morphology-St. Martin's Press
• Delahunty, P; Garvey,j (2010). The English Language From Sound to Sense -

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Self-evaluation
61. What is word structure?
It is the way in which words are formed

It is the study of sentence structure
It is the study of allomorphs
62. What is a Word?
It is the smallest sequence of phonemes that can be pronounced in isolation with

practical meaning.
It is the smallest sequence of units that can be pronounced in isolation with
practical meaning.
It is the smallest sequence of phonemes that can be pronounced in isolation
without practical meaning.
63. What are Lexemes?
They are the vocabulary items that are listed in the dictionary
They are the words are listed in the encyclopedia
They are not the vocabulary items that are listed in the dictionary

64. The ___________________ of see are seen ,seeing, saw.
The manifestations .
morphemes.
phonemes.
65. ________________refers to ways the form of a word in English conveys

different meanings.
word form
lexeme
morpheme
66. Nouns, adjectives, verb, tense, gender, number, etc. are regarded as
grammatical word
phonological Word
lexeme
67. _______________ is the domain within which certain phonological or

prosodic rules apply.
Grammatical word
Phonological Word
Lexeme
68. The study of __________ will help to improve our spelling and expand
vocabulary.
Word structure
Writing process.
Studying phrases.
69. The term word refers to a particular __________ of a lexeme in a sentence.
realization
lexico.
phoneme

70. Why is it important to study the grammatical word?
It is important in the discussion of the boundary between morphology and

syntax.
It is important in the discussion of the boundary between morphology and

semantics
It is important in the discussion of the construction of poems

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1.1. Origins of morphology 3

1.2 What is morphology? 4

1.3 The role of morphology in language acquisition 4

1.4 The place of morphology in early generative grammar 6

1.5 The morphology and phonology interaction 6

1.6 The morphology and syntax interaction 7

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 2

1.1. Origins of morphology.

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 3

1.2 What is morphology?

*For further instruction it is recommended to watch this video

1.3 The role of morphology in language acquisition.

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 4

Thus, in all sense morphology plays an important role in language learning. It

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 5

For further instruction about how children acquire language, it is

1.4 The place of morphology in early generative grammar

1.5 The morphology and phonology interaction

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 6

As regards the interaction of morphology with phonology, the selection of the

1.6 The morphology and syntax interaction

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 7

• Famala Eka Sanhadi Rahayu, 2018;Introduction to English morphology

References (according to APA style last edition)

• Kiefer,f: the formal analysis of natural languages: morphology in generative

• Domínguez, J. (1991.The Role of Morphology in the Process of Language

• Katamba F; Stonham J, 1993. Morphology St.Martin's Press

• Matthews P, 2012, Morphology - Cambridge University Press

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 8

1. Morphology is the study of…

words and their parts.

2. History of morphological analysis dates back to…

Early studies of ancient Greek, Indian and Arab grammarians.

3. The role of morphology in learning a language is seen mainly in….

The capacity of learners to discard new words.

4. Morphology deals with linguistic phenomena, while “generative grammar”

The way a person creates a sentence.

5. Morphology and phonology interact in the…

formation of new lexical items

6. Morphology interacts with the syntactic level in….

The use of inflectional forms of the verb.

7. It is the study of structure of a Word.

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 9

8. Morphology plays an important role in….:

9. The interaction of morphology with _____________, may be influenced by

the syntactic construction

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 10

Paradigms and morphosyntax

Tema n.°7 : Paradigms and morphosyntax 11

Tema n.°5 : Lexical Morphology 12

Linguists who enhance their readiness for managing strategies to apply

correctly morphological analysis increase their effectiveness by organizing the study

distinctly use to improve the comprehension of word-formation.

The incorporation of this kind of organization highlighted the existence of a class of

elements in a language. Thus, a linguistic paradigm is any kind of rational tabulation

of linguistic forms, such as phrases, words, or phonemes, intended to illustrate

contrasts and systematic variation (Bird, 1999)