English Phonology and

Morphology
Bachelor of Arts in English Language Studies

Start!

Ms. Vanessa T. Alberto

 Objectives

o Differentiate the types of morphemes

o Discuss the types of morphological operations.
o Explain the properties and patterns word formation.
o Demonstrate the utilization of morphological
operations in analyzing word structure.
 Contents

1. Morphology
a. Lexeme vs Word-Form
b. Inflection and Derivation
c. Doing Basic Morphological Analysis
- Position Classes and Blocking
d. The Nature of the Lexicon

2. Morphemes: The Smallest Units of Meaning

a. Analyzing Words
b. Morphemes/Morphs/Allomorphs
 Contents

c. Types of Morphemes
- Roots/Stems/Bases/Affixes
-Inflectional/Derivational Morphemes
-Paradigms and Zero Allomorphs
-Superfixes
d. Types of Morphological Operations
- Concatenative
- Non-Concatenative
- Suppletive
e. Problems with the morpheme
- Unit-Based (item-and-process) Approaches
 Morphology
o Morphology comes from the word morphe meaning form. It is
the study of the structure or form of words in a particular
language, and of their classification.

o This study considers principles of

word formation in a language.
o How sounds combine into
meaningful units such as prefixes,
suffixes, and roots, and what
processes of word formation a
language characteristically uses.
 Lexeme
o A lexeme is the smallest or
minimal unit of lexicon in a
language that bears some
“meaning”
o One lexeme can take up more
than one inflection to form a
set of many words known as
inflected variants.
o The same word form may in
fact represent different
lexemes
 Lexeme
o Homonym A single orthographic and phonological word
standing for two lexemes, as bear is either the verb or the
noun

The bat only flies at night.

You have to hit a ball with a bat.

This is the palm of my hand.

Look at the beautiful palm here.
 Word Form
o Homograph is a single orthographic word (but separate
phonological words) standing for two lexemes, as lead is either the
noun /lεd/ or the verb /li:d/

My son is five years old.

The sun shines brightly during the
day.

Mary and Jen ate all the food.

She left me with eight pieces of puzzle to complete.
 Word Form
o Homophones is a single phonological word (but separate
orthographical words) standing for two lexemes, as /mi:t/ is either
the noun meat or the verb meet.

Karlo meets his friend I feel bored listening to the

Melson at the parking discussion.
lot.

Mother bought ten

pounds of meat for
dinner tonight. The teacher uses the board to
discuss the formula of the
lesson.
 Word Form
o The different morphosyntactic words are represented by different word
forms. Many words exist as nouns, verbs and adjective but due to
inflection and derivation, a lexeme may change its function and
meaning.
Content Words Function Words
o Open class consists of Nouns, o Closed class
verbs, adjectives, and adverbs o Auxiliary verbs, prepositions,
o A word whose primary function is articles, conjunctions, and
to describe entities, ideas, pronouns
qualities, and states of being in o Words whose primary role is to
the world mark grammatical relationships
o Have meaning in that they refer between content words or
to concrete objects and abstract structures such as phrases and
concepts clauses
 Word Form

Content/Form Structure/Function
o Provide meaning, content o Provide structure for open-class
parts of speech
o Add prefixes or suffixes to change o Do not change form or meaning
meaning or use (exception – personal pronouns)
o Identifiable through signal words o Are often signal words
in sentences themselves
o Additions and deletions as o No additions or deletion
language changes
 Activity
The Importance of Leisure
Leisure is very important for a healthy life. We must
rest for a few hours every day. We must enjoy a
complete holiday every week. We must enjoy a good
number of holidays every year. Our energy gets wasted
while doing work. This energy is restored only if we
have proportionate leisure. Leisure is all the more
important these days because man has become very
busy. The poor have to keep himself engaged in making
both ends meet. The rich are busy making more and
more money. It is with the progress in a civilization that
life has become so busy. Leisure is, therefore, very
essential. But we must make the right use of leisure.
We must attend co-curricular activities.
 Doing Basic Morphological Analysis
o Words are analyzed into morphs following formal divisions
o The importance of the distinction between morph and morpheme is
that there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between
morph and morpheme, and morphemes can combine or be realized
in a number of different ways
o We can thus analyze words in two different ways: in morphological
analysis, words are analyzed into morphs following formal divisions,
while in morphemic analysis, words are analyzed into morphemes,
recognizing the abstract units of meaning present
 Morphological and Morphemic
Analysis
Words Morphological Morphemic Analysis
Analysis
writers 3 morphs writ/er/s 3 morphemes {write} + {-er} + {pl}

authors 2 morph author/s 2 morphemes {author} + {pl}

mice 1 morph mice 2 morphemes {mouse} + {pl}

fish 1 morph fish 2 morphemes {fish} + {pl}

children 2 morphs child/ren 2 morphemes {child} + {pl}

teeth 1 morph teeth 2 morphemes {tooth} + {pl}

man’s 2 morphs man/s 2 morphemes {man} + {poss}

men’s 2 morphs men/s 3 morphemes {man} + {pl} + {poss}

 Morphological and Morphemic
Analysis
Words Morphological Morphemic Analysis
Analysis
smaller 2 morphs small/er 2 morphemes {small} + {compr}

smallest 2 morphs small/est 2 morphemes {small} + {supl}

Better 1 morph better 2 morphemes {good} + {compr}

Best morph best 2 morphemes {good} + {supl}

wrote 1 morph wrote 2 morphemes {write} + {pstprt}

Written 1 morph written 2 morphemes {write} + {pstprt}

Working 2 morphs work/ing 2 morphemes {work} + {prsprt}

3 morphemes {work} + {gerund} +
{sg}
 Morphological and Morphemic
Analysis
Words Morphological Morphemic Analysis
Analysis
put 1 morph put 2 morphemes {put} + {past}
2 morphemes {put} + {prsprt}
we 1 morph we 3 morphemes {1st p} + {pl} + {nomn}

him 1 morph him 3 morphemes {3rd p} + {sg} + {obj}

Its 2 morph it/s 3 morphemes {3rd p} + {sg} + {poss}

o Each morph represents a morpheme.

o Each morpheme is not a morph, but each morph is a
morpheme.
Note
 Morphemes: The Smallest Units of
Meaning
o A morpheme refers to the Types of
Morphemes
smallest meaningful unit in
a language. It is the smallest
contrastive unit of grammar,
and it is not necessarily
equivalent to a word, but may
be a smaller unit.
o In addition, morphemes are
internally indivisible and are
externally transportable.
 Types of Morph
‘bound roots’
-vert, -mit, or -ceive

Overgrown
Disheartened
Reclassify
Unavoidably
Types of Morph
Derivational Morphology: The relationship between
lexemes of a word family. Derivational patterns commonly
change the word-class of the base lexeme.
Types of Morph
Inflectional Morphology: Inflectional morphemes represent
relationships between different parts of a sentence.
Types of Morph
Enclitics. A kind of contraction, a bound form which derives
from an independent word and must be attached to the
preceding word. The two kinds of enclitics are auxiliaries and
negative n’t.
 Types of Morphemes
o Base is a root from a base and from a stem.
o Stem is a root plus associated derivational affixes to which
inflectional affixes are added.
o A simple word has one free root (e.g. hand)
o A complex word has a free root and one or more
bound morphs, or two or more bound morphs
en-gage-ment-s
(e.g. unhand, handy, handful)
o A compound word has two free roots (e.g.
root
handbook, handrail, handgun)
base o A compound-complex word has two free roots
and associated bound morphs (e.g. handwriting,
stem handicraft)
 Types of Morphological Operations
o Morphological process is a mean of changing a stem to adjust its meaning to
fit its syntactic and communicational context.

o Two Ways of Morphological Process: (1) Concatenative – putting morphemes

together (2) Non-concatenative – modifying internal structure of morphemes
 Types of Morphological Operations -
Concatenative

o COMPOUNDING. English shares with Compound

many languages the ability to create Words
new words by combining old words.
Compounding can be analyzed through Open Closed Hyphenate
its constituents.

Open Compounds Compounds written as a end zone, high school

separate words
Closed Compounds Compounds written as newspaper, goldfish,
single words highway
Hyphenated Compounds that are mother-in-law, second-
Compounds hyphenated rate
 Types of Morphological Operations
o AFFIXATION. (1) Prefixes are letters that are added to the
beginning of the word. A prefix changes the meaning of a word. (2)
Suffixes are letters added to the end of a word. A suffix also
changes the meaning and word class of a word.

Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs

-ance -ize -able -ly

-ence -ate -ible

-or -fy -less

-er -en -ice

-ist -ify -ical

 Types of Morphological Operations – Non
Concatenative
o REDUPLICATION is a process that can be classified according to the
amount of form that is duplicated, weather complete or partial, and
it duplicates the letter according to exactly which part.

Types of Reduplication Examples

Rhyming Reduplication hokey-pokey, razzle-dazzle, super-duper, boogie-

woogie, teenie-weenie, walkie-talkie
Exact Reduplications bye-bye, choo-choo, night-night, no-no, pee-pee,
(baby-talk-like) poo-poo
Ablaut Reduplications bric-brac, chit-chat, criss-cross, kitty-cat, knick-
knack, pitter-patter, splish-splash, zig-zag
 Types of Morphological Operations – Non
Concatenative
o INTERNAL MODIFICATION . (a) Vowel Modification, (b)
Consonant Modification, (c) Mixed Modification, (d) Stress
Modification, and (e) Suppletion

A. Vowel Modification Examples

(I) – [oe] begin-began, ring-rang, sing-sang

(i:] – [ou] speak-spoke, steal-stole

[ai] – [au] bind – bound, find – found

 Types of Morphological Operations – Non
Concatenative
B. Consonant Examples
Modification
[f] – [v] belief-believe, grief-grieve, proof-prove

[s] – [z] Advice-advise, device-device, use-use

[t] – [d] Bent-bend, ascent-ascend, descent-descend

C. Mixed Modification Examples

Present-Past catch-caught, seek-sought, teach-taught

Verb-Noun live-life
 Types of Morphological Operations – Non
Concatenative

D. Stress Modification Examples

Noun (First Syllable) – Verb récord – recórd

(Second Syllable) cóntrast – contrást
súbject – subjéct

E. Suppletion (Total Examples

Modification)
Basic Form Suppletive Form

I Me

Be Were

Good well
 Types of Morphological Operations – Non
Concatenative
o Conversion is a process by which a word belonging to one word class
without any change of form but the function of word is change.

Types of Conversion Examples

Verb - Noun To attack – attack

To print out – a printout
Noun – Verb Comb – to comb
Chair – to chair
Name – Verb Harpo – to Harpo
Houndini – to Houndini
Adjective - Verb Dirty – to dirty
Slow – to slow
Preposition – Verb Out – to out
 Types of Morphological Operations – Non
Concatenative
o Back Formation is a process in which a word changes its forms and
functions. Typically, a word of one type, which is usually a noun, is reduced
to form a word of another type, usually a verb.

Examples

Noun – Verb television – televise

Noun – verb donation – donate

English Phonology and
Morphology
Bachelor of Arts in English Language Studies

Start!

Ms. Vanessa T. Alberto