The Internal Structure of Words
& Processes of Word Formation in
English
1
What is a morpheme? What is a
morph? Give examples for each.
• A morpheme = the smallest
meaningful unit in a language
• A morph = the concrete realization of
a morpheme
2
How many types of morphemes are
there? What are they?
3
How many types of morphemes are
there? What are they?
• Lexical morphemes express lexical, or
dictionary, meaning. They can be categorized
into the major lexical categories or word
classes: noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.
They are generally independent words (free
roots) or parts of words (derivational affixes
and bound roots).
• Grammatical morphemes express relations
within the sentence. They may be parts of
words (inflectional affixes) or function words.
4
Examples of inflectional morphemes
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6
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How many types of morphs are there?
What are they? Give examples
8
Free morph
• may stand alone;
• is always a root;
• carries the principle lexical or
grammatical meaning;
• there is greatest potential for
substitution
• may attach to other free or bound
morphenes
9
Bound morph
• must always be attached to another
morph
10
Bound roots
• are often foreign borrowings that
were free in the source language, but
not free in English
Eg: -vert
-mit
-ceive
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Affix
• does not carry the core meaning
• is always bound to a root
• a particular affix will attach to only
certain roots
• 2 kinds: prefixes and suffixes
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Derivational affix
• Is either a prefix or a suffix
• Has one of the 2 functions
– To convert one part of speech to another
class changing
– To change the meaning of a root class
maintaining
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Inflectional affix
• Is always a suffix
• Function: to indicate grammatical
meaning
14
Enclitic
• = a kind of contraction
• = a bound form which derives from an
independent word and must be
attached to the preceding auxilary
15
16
Define the different types of
morphemes and morphs.
17
What are the differences between free
and bound morphs
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Derivation
• = the addition of a derivational affix
• Changes include:
– A phonological change
– An orthographic change
– A semantic change
– A change in word class
19
What are some processes of word
formation?
• Derivation
• Reduplication
• Conversion or functional shift
• Compounding
• Blends
• Back formations
• Shortening
20
Reduplication
• = a process similar to derivation, in which
the initial syllable or the enrire word is
doubled
• 3 types of reduplication
– Exact reduplication: papa, mama ..
– Ablaut reduplication in which the vowel
alternates while the consonants are identicle:
criss-cross, zig-zag …
– Rhyme reduplication in which the consonants
change while the vowel remains the same:
helter-sketter, hodge-pogge … 21
Conversion or functional shift
• A functional shift is the conversion of
one part of speech to another without
the addition of a suffix
22
Compounding
• = combining 2 or more roots (plus
associate affixes
23
Blends
• = compounding + clipping
24
Back Formation
• = derive a morphologically simple
word from a form analyzed on the
basis of derivational and inflectional
patterns existing in English, as a
morphologically complex word
25
Shortening
• = deletion of sound segments without
respect to morphological bounderies
– Clipping
– Acronyms
– Initialism
26
To what extent does the knowledge of
morphology contribute to students’
process of learning English?
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