MORPHOLOGY
LESSON 1
DEFINTIONS
O Morphology - studies of
how words are formed and
varied.
Example: Jumps
Unhappy
Cats
O Morphemes - smallest
meaningful unit of a word.
EXAMPLES
impurity (im+pure+ity)
unmanly (un+man+ly)
encouragement (en+courage+ment)
disillusionment (dis+illusion+ment)
Anti-terrorism (Anti+terror+ism)
Morphemes versus Word
Word Morphemes
*created through a *are part or every
single root morpheme word
or combinations of
morphemes
Ex. : reconstruct Ex. : re-construct
O Morph – is the phonetic
realization of a morpheme or
the way a morpheme is formed.
Example:
Courageous- Cou-ra-geous
O Allomorph - is a morph that has
unique set of lexical features.
[-s] with morphs ending in /p,
t, k, n etc. /
/p/-raps
/t/ -cats
/k/ -thanks
/n/ -cleans
[-z] with morphs ending in /d,
g, m, v etc. /
/d/-dogs (dogz)
/g/ -hugs (hugz)
/m/ -rims (rimz)
/v/ -loves (lovez)
[-iz] with morphs ending in /z,
s, x, etc. /
/s/-buses (busiz)
/x/ -boxes (boxiz)
O Root - Is a irreducible core
of a word.
• prefix and suffix can be
attached to root.
WORD ROOT AFFIXES
impossible possible “im”
unstoppable stop “un” and “able”
armchair “arm” and
“chair”
O Stem – is concerned with
inflectional morphology.
- affixes can be attached.
Example:
cat+s boy+s
clean+s jump+s
sing+s
O Base - is any unit whatsoever
to which derivation and
inflection can be attached.
-All roots are base.
Example:
Cycle- motorcycle, cyclist,
bicycle
O Lexemes -Unit of language that
represent a single, distinct
meaning.
EXAMPLES
O Walk - walks, walked,
walking
O Run - run, ran, running
O Play - plays, played, playing
CLASSIFICATION OF
MORPHEMES
Free vs. Bound Morphemes
O Free Morphemes - Can stand
alone.
Examples: Run Book
Pen Write
Effective Load
O Bound Morphemes - Cannot
stand alone and need to be
attached to a free Morphemes.
Examples: run(s) book(s)
pen(s) (re)write
effective(ly) load(ed)
Inflection vs. Derivational
O Inflectional - Inserted
within the root to create new
word but do not change its
meaning.
EXAMPLES
ask(ed) - past Play(ing) - present David's (' s) - possessive
tense participle
Play(ed) - past Son(s) - plural High(est) - superlative
tense
Happi(er) - (en+courage+ment Tall(est) - superlative
comparative )
Merri(er) - Book(s) - plural
comparative
Writ(ing ) - Tom's('s) -
present participle possessive
O Derivational - Change their
functional meaning.
Examples: Care(ful)
Bad(ly)
(in)complete
(un) fortunate
Lexical vs. Grammatical Morpheme
O Lexical -Contain meaning.
Examples: house sincere
look follow
O Functional Morphemes -
modify the meanings.
Examples: but to
from the
MORPHOLOGICAL
PROCESS
LESSON 2
MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESS
In linguistics, morphological
process involves changing of
stems to adjust their meaning and
fit the syntactic context.
O Affixation
an affix is a morpheme that is
attached to a word stem to form a new
word or word form.
It could either be inflectional or
derivational.
They are categorized according to the
part of the word where it is inserted or
attached.
O Prefixes –
are affixes that precede the
roots or are placed before a
stem.
They could mean negative or
indicate relations of time,
place, and manner.
Prefixes include: EXAMPLES
anti - against, anti-racist, anti-war
opposed
auto-self autobiography, automobile
co-- together collaborate cooperate
de-- opposite, decompose deject, demote
negative, removal,
separation
dis--opposite, disapprove, dismissed
negative
Prefixes include: EXAMPLES
down - reduce, lower downgrade downhearted
en--cause to be enforce enable
co-- together collaborate cooperate
ex-- former, previous, Expose, extract, ex-
remove marine
extra - outside, extraterrestria extraordinary
beyond l
Prefixes include: EXAMPLES
Hyper - extreme hypertension hyperactive,
im - opposite Ex: improbable impossible,
in- - negative, not inbred inapt
O Suffixes - are morphemes
added at the end of root
words or stem to form a
derivative word
An inflectional suffix is
sometimes called
"desinence.
Suffixes include: EXAMPLES
age- amount of, time, village baggage,
period, place
al-having Ex: deferral arrival
able - sense of being capable Adaptable
punishable
ance/ence defiance deference
dom-state, condition freedom boredom,
Suffixes include: EXAMPLES
ee- receiver, performer trainee employee
hood- particular brotherhood livelihood
condition, nature
er-agent manager : teacher
ful-characterized by beautiful respectful,
fy-causes, makes, becomes clarify specify
Suffixes include: EXAMPLES
ism-state or condition, a nationalism patriotism
practice or action
less- the lack of clueless, careless
ly--the manner of doing carefully, generously
things
ment-state of being or amazement, parliament
doing
ry-qualities, practice trickery robbery
Prefixes include: EXAMPLES
-ology - study, science morphology phonology
ship - condition, character, relationship companionship
skill
y-characterized by, ubiquity ufology
inclination, condition
O Infixes are free morphemes that
are inserted within the root or
the stem to create a new word.
Examples:
O Spoonful >spoonsful
O Passersby >passersby
O Mother-in-law >mothers-in-law
O Runner-up >runners-up
O Infixes are also found in
English slang such as:
Saxophone > saxo-ma-phone
Absolutely > abso-
schmucking-lutely
Fantastic > fun-bloody-tastic
O In tagalog language, Infixes
include: -um- added to the word
"bili”(buy) to make it "bumili” or
bought
O Bahasa Indonesia: - "panas" (hot)
can become "kepanasan"
(becoming too hot) - "tulis" (write)
can become "menulis" (writing)
O Circumfixes
are affixes attached in two
parts to the stem or roots.
consists of two parts- a prefix
and a suffix that together
create a new word.
Examples
enlighten - en, en
embolden - em,en
inadvisably -in,ably
indifferently - in,ly
illegality - il,ty
immobility - im,ty
immaturity - im, ty
O Modification
process involves alteration
within a root or stem to adjust
to grammatical requirement of
the word in a sentence.
OExamples:
calf – calves
leaf – leaves
knife – knives
loaf - loaves
thief - thieves
wolf - wolves
O Consonant modification
involves changing of the
consonant to change its
categorical meaning.
O Examples:
advice - advise belief -believe
grief - grieve proof- prove
device - devise bend - bent
offend - offense descend -
ascend - ascent descent
O Vowel modification involves,
changing of the vowel to change its
categorical meaning.
Example: begin - began
speak - spoke bind - bound
foot - feet ring – rang
steal - stole find - found
tooth - teeth
O Reduplication is a special
word formation where all or a
part of the base is repeated
as a prefix or suffix.
Reduplication could be
done in three ways:
O (a)Repetition: This is done by
repeating the word
Examples:
so-so bling-bling
bye-bye knock-knock
goody-goody night-night
O (b) Rhyming: This is done by
rhyming the two halves of the
new word.
Examples:
nitty-gritty hanky-
panky
abra-cadabra willy-nilly
hodge-podge chick-flick
hocus-pocus lovey-dovey
O (c) Ablaut: This is done by shifting the
vowel which changes the word. These
reduplications show a "to and fro"
motion or a shifting state from one
form to another.
• Example: riff-raff pitter-patter
okey- dokey ding-dong
ping-pong zig- zag
WORD FORMATION
PROCESS
Lesson 3
Word Formation Process
O A branch of lexicology,
which explores the
construction of words.
O Derivation – is the process
of forming words by adding
derivational affixes to the
base or root word.
O Adding suffixes:
-hood (status)
Ex. brotherhood, motherhood
-ship (state or condition)
Ex. friendship, ownership
-ness (quality, state or condition)
Ex. wilderness, carelessness,
-ment (result or product of doing the
action)
Ex. government, achievement
-al (act of something)
Ex. refusal, perusal
-er (agentive)
Ex. teacher, walker
Example
Verb to appear - disappear
verb :
Noun to noun friend friendship
Adjective to practical impractical
adjective
Verb to noun preserve preservation
verb to adjective bore boring
noun to verb code codify
noun to adjective nature natural
adjective to noun ugly ugliness
examples
adjective to sweet sweetness
verb
adjective to quick quickly
adverb
O Back Formation – New
lexemes are created by
removing and shortening
some words.
Examples
Original Words Back formation
babysitter babysit
donation donate
gambler gamble
hazy haze
moonlighter moonlight
obsessive obsess
sassy sass
OClipping – existing words
is reduced usually to a
single syllable without
changing the meaning of
the word.
Example
alligator gator
gasoline gas
influenza flu
mathematics math
laboratory lab
information info
gymnasium gym
O Coinage – a certain word is
created through brand names
- “generic name”
Examples:
O Aspirin O Nylon
O Escalator O Quark
O Heroin O Xerox
O Band-aid O Kerosene
O Google O Zipper
OBlending – is a blend of
two or more words to
generate a new one.
Examples
slithy (lithe + slimy)
galumph (gallop + triumph)
hazmat (hazardous + material)
advertainment (advertise +
entertainment)
biopic (biographic + picture)
electrocute (electricity + execute)
flare (flame + glare)
emoticon (emote + icon)
O Compounding – using a
combination of two or more
lexemes.
- joined by a hyphen
or one word.
Examples
O notebook - (note + book) - noun + noun
O workroom - (work + room) - verb + noun
O breastfeed - (breast + feed) - noun + verb
O bittersweet (bitter + sweet) – adj. + adj.
O stir-fry (stir + fry) verb + verb
Examples
O blueberry - (blue + berry) - adj. + noun
O highlight - (high + light) – adj. + noun
O breakup -(break + up)-verb + preposition
O outrun - (out + run) – preposition + prep.
O Synthetic – when the head
lexeme is derived from a verb but
the compound result is a noun.
Example:
hand-washing
user-driven
home-made
O Attributive – a non-head works
as a modifier.
Example
snail-mail
windmill
blue cheese
sword-fish
O Endocentric – takes the
meaning of its head in the
original form.
Example:
blackbird
pump-boat
grass-green
stir-fry
O Exocentric – when the lead
does not convey the meaning.
Example:
pickpocket
quarterback
scarecrow
redhead
O Conversion - Shifting category
without adding any affixes.
Examples:
My friend bottled (v) the soda and
canned (v) the sardines.
My sister baked (v) a delicious cake
and frosted (v) it with chocolate icing.
My mother eyed (v) my swollen eye
O Conversion from nouns to verbs includes:
Noun Verb
closet - to closet
email - to email
eye - to eye
access - to access
knife - to knife
touch - to touch
O Other conversion -Conversion also
occurs to and from other
grammatical forms
Examples: green to green (adjective to
verb) Ex: We need to green our
environment.
up and down (preposition to noun)
Ex: Everybody experiences the ups
and downs of life.
O If,and but (conjunction to
noun)
Example: Just do it, no ifs
and buts
O Acronyms - Words formed
from the initials of certain
names.
Example
COVID19 (Corona Virus Disease
2019)
VIP (Very Important Person)
AIDS (Acquired Immune )
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization)
ATM (Automated Teller
Machine
Example
CQ (seek-you)
DU30 (Duterte)
Qt (Cute)
IMU (I miss you)
W8 (wait)
Reverse acronyms example
Health Opportunity (HOPE)
for People
Everywhere
People United to (PUSH)
Serve Humanity
Skilled Teacher and (STAR)
Resources
O Eponyms- words created
from the names of real
fictitious characters.
Examples
boycott -- Charles C. Boycott
jacuzzi -- Candido Jacuzzi
sadistic -- Marquis de Sade
salmonella -- Daniel Elmer
Salmon
cereal -- Ceres
nicotine -- Jane Nicot
volcano -- Vulcan
O Borrowing- Loan words
Examples:
O balcony, opera, violin,
spaghetti,macaroni-(Italian)
O ketchup, dimsum, laisee - (Chinese)
O iceberg, kindergarten, hamburger,
pretzel - (German)
O sushi, karaoke, tycoon, karate, soy,
tsunami-(Japanese)
O croissant, macaroni, resume,
mayonnaise, coup d'etat-(French)
O yogurt, shampoo, hulaballoo,
bandana,avatar-(Indian)
O leak, stove, cruise, boss, coleslaw -
(Dutch)
O sofa, coffee, candy, mattress,
magazine, cotton - (Arabic)
O estafa, sari-sari, kakanin ,
carnap, halo-halo, buko
Juice - (Filipino)
O Calquing- loan translation
Example
blue -blood - (sangre azul) Spanish
free verse - - (vers libre) French
pineapple - - (pijnapple) Dutch
scapegoat - - (ez ozel) Hebrew
Beer Garden - (Biergarten) German
common place (locus Latin
- commūni)
O Nonce words- new words created
for the nonce or single occasion.
Examples:
cotton-wool nonsencical
touch-me-not-ishness
twi- thought
witch -craftical
