Introduction to

Morphology
Instructor: Ta Le Minh Phuoc
 What is Morphology?

PHILOSOPHY

philo- sophia
“loving” “wisdom”
Greek origins
 What is Morphology?

• Words are constructed of smaller components à

morphemes.

• Morphemes à minimal units of meaning or

grammatical function.

• Morphology à study the architecture of words or

how to form words in a language.

 Free vs. Bound morphemes

• Meaningful grammatical units that can stand alone

à free morphemes.

• Meaningful grammatical units that cannot stand

alone à bound morphemes.

Example: dogs à dog: free morpheme

-s: bound morpheme.

 Lexical vs. Function words

• Free morphemes.

• Lexical/content words: open class of words à

including: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs.

• Function/grammatical words: closed class of words

à including: prepositions , determiners, pronouns,

auxiliary/modal verbs.
 Exercise 1: Identify whether the following words are
lexical words (L) or function words (F).

1/ He will place the bag on the table.

2/ John can swim very well.

3/ The boy in black must walk to school.

 ROOTS

Predict
Dogs
Pre- - dict
Dog -s In Latin, dicere:
“Before” “to say”
Root (free)
Root (bound)
A root is the most basic element of a word that
contributes the most to the meaning of a word
(could be either free or bound).
 AFFIXES

• An affix is the element that adds extra information

to a word.
• Grammatical information à inflectional affixes.
• New word forming à derivational affixes.
• In English, there are 2 common types of affixes:
prefixes and suffixes. Circumfixes are very rare
(enlighten, enliven, embolden, etc.)
• All affixes are bound.
 AFFIXES

Dogs Unhappy

Dog (n) -s Un- happy

Suffix Prefix
(inflectional) (derivational)
+ Inflectional affixes: do not change the word
class of the original word.
+ Derivational affixes: either change or do not
change the class of the original word.
Ex: happy (a) + -ness à happiness
 INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES IN ENGLISH

English has 8 inflectional affixes. They are all suffixes:

1/ -s: the plural marker. Ex: The books are on the table.
2/ -’s: the possessive. Ex: This is John’s house.
3/ -s: the third person, present singular. Ex: He comes late.
4/ -er: the comparative. Ex: The weather is hotter here.
5/ -est: the superlative. Ex: She is the coolest.
6/ -ing: the progressive. Ex: I am watching TV.
7/ -ed: the past tense. Ex: She arrived late.
8/ -en: the past participle. Ex: I have written the report.
 DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES IN ENGLISH

+ In English, derivational affixes can be prefixes or suffixes.

+ Derivational affixes may or may not change the word class
(part of speech) of the original word.
For examples:
1/ happy + -ness à happiness.

2/ un- + happy à unhappy.

 ROOTS VS. STEMS

+ A stem is a form to which affixes can be attached.

+ A stem can be a root or a root plus affixes.
For examples:
1/ dog + -s à dogs
Stem: dog (a root).
2/ friendly + -ness à friendliness
Stem: friendly (a root + an affix).
 SUMMARY: MORPHEMES IN ENGLISH

Morphemes

Free morphemes Bound morphemes

Free roots Bound roots Affixes

Lexical Function Inflectional affixes Derivational affixes

words words (only suffixes) (prefixes + suffixes)
 ALLOMORPHS

+ Different variants of the same morpheme in different contexts.

+ No functional change.

+ No meaning change.

Examples: The plural –s

Cats à /s/
Allomorphs of
Dogs à /z/ the plural -s
Mice à There is no –s in the form
 MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURES

+ Illustrate the morphological process.

+ Understand how a word is formed.

+ Can be drawn top-down or bottom-up.

For example: Dogs (Infl: inflectional affixes).

N N

N Infl N Infl

dog -s dog -s
 MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURES

+ Morphological structures contain the root and affixes attached

to it.

+ Irregularities are not represented in morphological structures.

mice better
N A

N Infl A Infl

mouse -s good -er

Exercise 2: Diagram the morphological structure for
each of the following words.

1/ men 8/ more important

2/ written (past 9/ chances
participle) 10/ most modern
3/ worse
4/ arrived (past
tense)
5/ smarter
6/ eating
(progressive)
7/ largest
 MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURES

+ Bound roots are also represented in morphological structures.

conceive transmit
V V
Pref Root Pref Root

con- -ceive Trans- -mit

“together” “to take”
“across” “to send”
 MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURES

+ Inflectional affixes always attach after all derivational affixes.

+ Morphological structures must illustrate which element is

attached first and which is attached later.

teachers
N

N Infl

V Suff N -s

teach -er
 Challenge: Unhappiness???

Which order is correct? Why? Diagram the morphological

structure of the word ‘unhappiness’.

+ Order 1: happy à happiness à unhappiness.

+ Order 2: happy à unhappy à unhappiness.

Exercise 3: Diagram the morphological structure for
each of the following words.

1/ piglets 11/ tastier

2/ reddish 12/ arrivals
3/ minibuses 13/ most unhappy
4/ redness 14/ mistreatment
5/ painter 15/ unsystematically
6/ untie
Reference: “English Syntax
7/ unusual and Universal Grammar”,
Héctor Campos.
8/ unuseful
9/ beautification
10/ organizers
 COMPOUNDS

+ Compounds are formed when combining two or more words

together. They can be of the same categories or different categories.

boyfriend handwash
N V

N N N V

boy friend hand wash

 COMPOUNDS

+ If the head of the compound is inside the compound, it is

endocentric.

+ If the head of the compound is not inside the compound, it is

exocentric.
blackboard pickpocket
N The head of the
N
Not the head of the
compound à compound à the
A N convey main V N meaning of the
meaning à compound is not
“the board that about a ‘pocket’.
black board is black”. pick pocket
 Exercise 4: Diagram the morphological structure for
each of the following words.

1/ bathroom 7/ laser printer ink 14/ commuter train

2/ bathroom towel cartridges station coffee house
3/ bathroom towel 8/ dry-cleaner owner
collection 9/ sing-along (n)
Reference: “English Syntax and
4/ bathroom towel 10/ train station Universal Grammar”, Héctor
Campos.
collection set 11/ train station coffee
5/ cotton bathroom 12/ train station coffee
towel collection sets house
6/ printer ink 13/ train station coffee
house owner
 Why should we study Morphology?

Understand the history of

words.
à Etymology: the study of the
origin and the development of
words.
 Why should we study Morphology?

Memorize words better

EPIDEMIC PANDEMIC

EPI- DEMOS PAN- DEMOS

“ON/UPON” “PEOPLE “ALL” PEOPLE

 Why should we study Morphology?

BESIDES

TOWARDS
Understand the development
of words in the history. ALWAYS
AS FOLLOWS
SOMETIMES
Why should we study Morphology?

Understand the development

of words in the history.
Why should we study Morphology?

Coin words
VINGLISH
TRUMPISM

SMOG