Aubrey Rose Belita

BA Linguistics

The Descriptive Analysis of Words

Chapter 3: Morphology
3.1 Internal Composition of Morphemes
May be treated in terms of (1) types of phonemes which compose
morphemes (2) the different phonemic shapes and sizes of morphemes (3) the
formal relationships of the parts of morphemes to each other
3.11 Types of Phonemes Which Compose Morphemes
1. segmental phonemes
2. suprasegmental phonemes
3. combinations of segmental and suprasegmental phonemes
3.11.2 Morphemes Consisting of Suprasegmental Phonemes
- composed of unit the morphemic units of intonational patterns
- morphemes structurally significant to the morphology of a language and
which consist wholly of suprasegmental phonemes are relatively rare
1. Cuicatec indicator of first person was a suffix consisting solely of a high
tone
2. Totonac glottalization of the vowel could constitute a type of morpheme
3. Ngbaka 4 forms of verb ( low tone/tones on the root, mid tone/tones on
the root, low-high glide on monosyllabic roots and a low tone followed by a high
tone on disyllabic roots, and high tone or tones of the root
3.11.3 Morphemes Consisting of Segmental and Suprasegmental Phonemes
- in some language which exhibit distinctive stress this this suprasegmental
feature serves primarily to distinguish morphological unit
Ex: Kekchi the stress always occurs at the end of the word, Congo Swahili
stress is always next to the last syllable

3.12 Different Shapes and Sizes of Morphemes

- theoretically there is no restriction in the shape and size of morphemes
- there are three major types of morphemes in English: C, CV and CVC
- the diversity of the size and shapes of English morphemes is due to the fact
that English borrowed a lot of words from other languages
Mayan languages roots are CVC affixes are shorter and consist of all sorts of
consonant and vowel combinations
Bantu root structure is CVCV, affixes are almost always shorter (CV)
-

Various types of morphemes may be referred to as canonical form

In all languages there are diff classes of such forms and principal
distinction is in roots and affixes

3.2 Formal relationships of Morphemes to Each Other

- the formal relationships of morphemes to each other are structural and
positional
3.21 Structural Relationships of Morphemes to Each Other
- has three Morphemic Types (1) Additive, (2) Replacive, and (3) Subtractive
3.21.1 Additive Morphemes
- include roots, prefixes, suffixes, infixes, suprafixes, and reduplicatives
1. Roots - constitute basic core of words
2. Prefixes bound elements which precede the root
3. Suffixes bound elements which follow the root
4. Infixes occur within the root
5. Suprafixes morphemes which consist wholly of suprasegmental
phonemes which are added to the root of stem
6. Reduplicatives reduplication (partial or full)
3.21.2 Replacive Morphemes
- replace parts of stems
- may be vowels, consonants, tones, nasalization, or combination of
segmental and suprasegmental features

3.21.3 Subtractive Morphemes

- phonemes may also be subtracted from stems
- usually result from historical process of sound change which became
morphologically meaningful
3.22 Positional Relationships of Morphemes to Each Other
1. Successive constitutes most morphemes
2. Included either partial or complete
3. Simultaneous suprasegmental morphemes always have simultaneous
occurrence with some segmental units. May be partial or complete