Morphological Structure of English Words

Morphological structure
of English words
(WORDS)
Lecture # 3
Grigoryeva M.
Language Units
 Morphemes
 Words
 Word groups
 Phraseological units
MORPHEME
 morphe – “form”
 - eme “the smallest unit”
Morphemes- are the smallest meaningful unit of form

 cannot be segmented into smaller units
 can occur in speech only as constituent parts of
words
 are divided into lexical morphemes and grammatical
morphemes
Non-root morphemes (Derivational)
 Inflectional morphemes (inflections)
endings
 Affixational morpheme (affixes)
prefixes suffixes
functional derivational
STRUCTURAL TYPES OF WORDS
(Дубенец Э.М.)
According to the number of morphemes

words may be
monomorphic polymorphic
simple affixed (derived) compound compound-affixed

Monomorphic (root) words
 Consist of one-root morpheme
EX small, dog, make
SIMPLE
one root morpheme + (functional affix)

EX asked, seldom, cat, longer
POLYMORPHIC WORDS

Affixed ( derivatives) = one root morpheme + one or
more derivational affixes or functional affix (inflexion)
EX. acceptable, outdo, dislikes, discouragement
 Compound words = two or more root morphemes +

functional affix (inflexion)
EX. eye+balls, wait- and- see
 Compound-affixed words = two or more root

morphemes + one or more derivational affixes +
functional affix (inflexion)
EX. job – hoppers, autotimer
STRUCTURAL TYPES OF WORDS
(Зыкова И.В.)
According to the number of morphemes
words may be
monomorphic polymorphic
monoradical polyradical
MONORADICAL words
 Radical-suffixal (one root morpheme + one or more suffixal
morphemes)
Ex acceptable, acceptability
 Radical-prefixal (one root morpheme + a prefixal mopheme

Ex unbutton
 Prefixo-radical-suffixal (one root morpheme + prefixal and

suffixal morphemes)
Ex disagreeable
POLYRADICAL words
Two or more roots without affixational

morphemes
Ex book- stand, lamp-shade
 Two roots or more + one or more affixational

morphemes
Ex safety-pins, pen-holder
Morphemic analyses
Segmenting words into the constituent

morphemes -
the method of Immediate and

Ultimate Constituents
Procedure of morphemic analyses
 Based on a binary principle when each
stage of the procedure involves two components the word
immediately breaks into- The Immediate Constituents (ICs)
 Each IC at the next stage in its turn is broken into the

smallest meaningful elements incapable of further division –
The Ultimate Constituents (UCs)
Ex friendliness
1) Friendly- IC + - ness UC
2) Friend- UC + - ly UC
The word consists of 3 UCs
Derivatonal structure
is the nature, type and arrangement of the
immediate constituents (ICs) of the word.
Derivational base
Is the part of the word that determines its
individual lexical meaning
Derivational affixes
Are immediate constituents (ICs) of derived words
Derivational patterns (DP)
Is a regular meaningful arrangement, a structure that
imposes rules on the order and the nature of the derivational
bases and affixes that may be brought together.
DPs represent the derivational structure at different levels:

a) structural types. Patters of this level are structural
formulaswhich specify the class membership of Immediate
Constituents and the directions of motivation
V N
A + -sf N
According to structural formulas all words
may be classified into:
 Suffixal derivatives blackness

 Prefixal derivatives rewrite
 Conversions a cut
 Compound words music-lover
b) structural patterns specify the base
classes and individual affixes which refer derivatives
to specific parts of speech
EX The DP n + -ish A signals a set of

adjectives with the lexical meaning of resemblance
EX The DP a + -ish A signals a set of

adjectives meaning a small degree of quality
c) Structural –semantic patterns specify
semantic peculiarities of bases and individual
meanings of affixes
EX n + -ess N (a female animate being) - lioness
EX n+ -y A (resemblence) - birdy
Morphemes and Words
WORD MORPHEME
 particular meaning  particular meaning
 particular sound form  particular sound form
 capable of a particular  not autonomous
grammatical  constituent part of a
employment word
 able to form a sentence  not divisible into smaller
 autonomous meaningful units

Morphological Structure of English Words

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Morphological Structure of English Words

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Morphological structure

Morphemes- are the smallest meaningful unit of form

 Inflectional morphemes (inflections)

According to the number of morphemes

simple affixed (derived) compound compound-affixed

one root morpheme + (functional affix)

 Compound words = two or more root morphemes +

 Compound-affixed words = two or more root

 Radical-prefixal (one root morpheme + a prefixal mopheme

 Prefixo-radical-suffixal (one root morpheme + prefixal and

Two or more roots without affixational

 Two roots or more + one or more affixational

Segmenting words into the constituent

the method of Immediate and

 Each IC at the next stage in its turn is broken into the

DPs represent the derivational structure at different levels:

 Suffixal derivatives blackness

EX The DP n + -ish A signals a set of

EX The DP a + -ish A signals a set of

EX n + -ess N (a female animate being) - lioness

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