Analytical Components of Morphology in Linguistics: July 2015
Analytical Components of Morphology in Linguistics: July 2015
Analytical Components of Morphology in Linguistics: July 2015
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Abstract
Sounds are combined into words to convey meaning. But words are not the smallest unit
of meaning. Many words are made of smaller units of meaning, and these units are
meaning-bearing units and the rules governing them, the study of the structure of words. In
the study of morphology, linguists try to account for the changes in suffixes, facts with
Introduction
The term ‗morphology‘ takes its origin from ‗morph‘ (means form, shape etc.) and ‗-ology‘
sub-discipline of linguistics in 1859 for the first time. Year after year it has evolved as one
of the major part of linguistics. It is the study of internal structure of words which are the
Morphology deals with the structure of words. Look at the words: knowing, knowingly,
unknowingly. The last two words can be subdivided as knowing and –ly, and unknowing
and –ly. Here un-, knowing, and –ly are called morphemes. A morpheme can be defined
as the minimal meaningful unit that cannot be further subdivided. The study of
language that did bear meaning; so they proposed the concept of a morpheme. As
example, re- is not a word, but it does carry meaning. A morpheme consists of a
sequence of one or more phonemes. The word ‗morpheme‘ itself is composed of two
morphemes i.e. ‗morph‘ which comes from the Greek word meaning ‗form‘ and ‗–eme‘
which is also found in ‗phoneme‘, ‗lexeme‘ etc. The exact meaning of ‗-eme‘ is difficult to
Types of Morphemes
When we analyze the words, we understand that many words are themselves morphemes,
such as {strong} and {food}; they cannot be broken into smaller units that in themselves
carry meaning. Most of the compound words such as ‗mailbox‘ are created by joining two
morphemes together. Here ‗mail‘ and ‗box‘ can be recognized as a word that carries a
meaning by itself. Such morphemes are known as ‗free morphemes‘ as they can exist as
independent words. Therefore, a free morpheme is one that can be spoken with meaning
in normal speech. They exist as words of English and can stand alone. They can be used
There is another type of morpheme which occurs only when attached to another
morpheme. This type of morpheme includes all prefixes and suffixes, like {pre-}, {re-},
{-ness}, {-ly} etc. It means that they have no independent existence of its own. Such
morphemes are called ‗bound morphemes‘. Among the examples that were mentioned
above, ‗knowing‘ is a free morpheme whereas ‗un-‗ and ‗-ly‘ are bound morphemes. They
occur only as a proper sub-part of a word. They cannot exit alone as they are not proper
words of English. The analysis of a word into its component morphemes requires that
each morpheme occur elsewhere in the language. It must occur with the same meaning
Analyzing morphemes should be done with utmost care as it may lead to the tendency to
overanalyze a word – to subdivide it into elements that do not contribute to the meaning of
the word. Let us take the words ‗replayed‘ and ‗regained‘. The bound morpheme {re-}
gives the same meaning in both the words. What about the word ‗regarded‘? It may be
divided into two morphemes such as {regard} and {-ed}; but if we continue dividing it into
{re-} and {gard}, we commit a big mistake as ‗re-‗ in ‗regard‘ does not carry the meaning of
The bound morphemes which are added to the free morphemes are known as ‗affixes‘.
They include prefixes, suffixes and infixes. This leads to the formation of complex and
compound words. ‗knowingly‘ and ‗unknowingly‘ are examples of complex words as they
contain one or more bound forms; but ‗mailbox‘ and ‗sandstone‘ are compound words
which are made up wholly of smaller words (free morphemes). The way in which
Construction.‘ We call it a ‗stem‘ to which an affix is added. It can also be the root. In a
word like ‗socialized‘ , the root is ‗social‘. It is also a stem because we add the suffix –ize to
form ‗socialize‘. Again the unit ‗socialize‘ is also a stem as the suffix ‗–ed‘ is added to it.
Therefore:
derivation and inflection. Derivational and inflectional morphemes come from bound
morphemes. A derivational morpheme is one that is added to a root to form a new word
that differs in its part-of-speech classification. For instance, when the suffix –ness is
added to the adjective ‗happy‘, the formation of a noun occurs i.e. ‗happiness‘. In a similar
way, an adjective turns into an adverb by adding –ly. Here change of part-of-speech
classification occurs. There‘s a different case of adding the prefixes ‗un-‘ and ‗pre-‗ :
but the part-of-speech remains the same. In English, prefixes are usually derivational
morphemes that change the meaning but not the part-of-speech, whereas suffixes are
usually derivational morphemes that change the part-of-speech classification but not the
change the base into a different word class. They change adjectives into nouns
formed with the addition of derivational suffixes are called derived words and the
indicates certain grammatical properties associated with nouns and verbs, such as gender,
number, case and tense. In English, the inflectional morphemes are all suffixes. The suffix
suffix –ed, which is used to add to the verbs for the formation of past tense is another one.
Inflectional affixes modify a word‘s form and change the grammatical subclass of the word.
The examples are boys and played i.e. adding –s to form plurality and –ed for the past
tense respectively. It may also be remembered that an inflectional suffix comes at the
end of the word and no other suffix can be added to the word further. It does not change
Morphological processes
publication in 1970 (Joaquin A. 1991). It is with a well established theory of word formation
that a complete theory of a language is formed. Lexis undergoes a lot of processes before
it gives birth to new ones. Morphological processes are the methods in which new words
are formed. They are various processes by which words can be built in any language.
1. Suffixes
2. Prefixes
3. Infixes
4. Reduplication
5. Compounding
6. Internal change
7. Backformation
8. Shortening of bases
9. Suppletion
independent component. Being the study of the structure of words, Morphology works as
grammar had not much to say about morphology. They could not draw clear dividing line
between the different aspects of morphology and the theories of phonology and syntax.
was considered as a productive morphological process in which new words were formed
using –ize attachment. For example, the adjective ‗social‘ can be turned into a verb by
adding ‗-ize‘, and thus forming a new word ‗socialize‘. This rules states that an operation
is added to the base which should be one of the major components of grammar such as
noun, adjective, verb or adverb. Another type of rule called Adjustment rule says that it
may change the shape of certain morphemes. For example, ‗society‘ is formed by adding
‗-ety‘ to the word ‗social‘. There are many examples that can be shown supporting this
rule.
Conclusion
Knowledge of morphology is very useful for the one who wants to learn more about a
language. Linguists and teachers are interested in the study of this branch because they
know that it is the only way to find out more about the strategies to increase the lexical
capacity of the speaker. Linguistics is the scientific study of a language; and, therefore,
morphology is one of the dominant components of linguistics. This helps one to enlarge
his vocabulary with the use of affixes and facilitates the understanding of meanings of
words. The creation of new words and the modification of existing words are always
References
Press.
Joaquin, A. (1991). The Role of Morphology in the Process of Language Acquisition and
Kolanchery, George (2014). Lexis & Vocabulary : Innovative Strategies & Approaches
(p.18-22), The Journal for ESL Teachers and Learners (online), India.