A brief definition about morphology

a. Definition
Morphology is the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words.
‘Morphemes’ are the minimal meaningful units that may constitute words or parts of
word. In addition, based on the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current
English, AS, Hornby, morphology is “study of the morphemes of a language and of how
they are combined to make word.”

b. Types of Morpheme
To allow the meanings of some complex words to be predictable, morphemes must:
1. be identifiable from one word to another
2. Contribute in some way to the meaning of the whole word.
A morpheme is categorized depending on how it combines with other morphemes in
order to create a word.
1) Free morphemes
Morphemes that can stand alone meaningfully (posses meaning in themselves or
when isolated) e.g. cat, boy.
2) Bound morphemes
Morphemes that do not posses meaning when isolated; meaningful only when
attached to another morpheme e.g. the letter “s” in the word “dogs” is a bound
morpheme because it does not have any semantic meaning without the free
morpheme “dog.”

In the English language, morphemes may also be classified into the following types: root,
stem, or affix. A root, sometimes called a base, is the morpheme which gives the word its
meaning. For example, the root morpheme “bird” gives the word “birds” its meaning, which is a
particular type of animal. A stem is the root of a word combined with any affixes. An affix is a
morpheme that comes at the beginning, called a prefix, or at the end, called a suffix, of a root
morpheme.
c. Identification Morphemes
There are four principles in the identification of morphemes :
a. A morpheme is representation of all phonetically identical forms that share a common
semantic distinctiveness. With this principle, the suffix morphemes in the following sets
of data can be identified. For example :

Worker Boyish Books

Dancer Girlish Caps
Runner Bookish Cats
Killer mannish Clocks
Server Devilish Concepts
So can the prefix morphemes in following data:
Dipukul tertembak berduit
Diikat terhapus bermobil
Ditendang terbawa beristri
Dipotong tertelan beranak
Ditipu terinjak berteman
b. Different phonemic forms may constitute a morpheme provide that they share a common
semantic distinctiveness and the distribution of formal differences is phonologically
definable. Consider the following set of data from Bahasa Indonesia.

Menggambar menggoreng menjual

Mendulang mencangkul membabibuta
Mendebat menjarah mencubit
Mengkaji menggertak mentolerir
Schematically, the prefixes in these data can be shown as follows:
(məN-)
c. Phonemically different forms sharing a common semantic distinctiveness, whose
distribution is not phonologically definable, constitute a single morpheme provide the
 forms are in complementary distribution. In English, the plural morpheme does not only
have phonologically conditioned allomorphs, i.e. /iz~z~s/. but also other allomorphs such
as /-ən/ and /-r ən/, which are not phonologically conditioned. The last two allomorphs of
the English plural morpheme occurs with a base morpheme /‫ כ‬ks/, forming the word /
‫כ‬ksən/ (orthographically oxen), while the allomorph /-rən/ occurs with a base morpheme /
t∫aild/, forming the word / t∫ildren/ (orthographically children). As these allomorphs are
conditioned b the occurrence of a particular morpheme, they are called “morphologically
conditioned” allomorphs.

d. An overt formal difference in a structural series constitutes a morpheme if in any member

of such a series the overt formal difference and a zero structural difference are the only
significant features for distinguishing a minimal unit of phonetic-semantic
distinctiveness. In English, the word feet (in phonetic transcription /fit:t/) in Your feet are
dirty consists of two morphemes: foot (in phonemic transcription /fu:t/) and an allomorph
of the plural morphemes. In this example, the plural allomorph is represented by a
replacement of a phoneme as an ‘overt formal difference’. The phonemic replacement
can be shown by /i: u:/, signifying a replacement of a vowel /u:/by a vowel/i:/. Under
the same principle, the English word fish (in phonemic transcription /fi ∫/ ) in He caught
tree big fish is identified to consist of two morpheme. The zero allomorph is usually
represented by a form /Ǿ/ so that the structure of the plural word fish can be described as
/fi ∫ + Ǿ/. Thus, s far, we have identified the English plural morpheme to have
phonologically conditioned allomorphs, morphologically conditioned allomorphs,
replacive allomorphs, and zero allomorphs

d. Derivation and Inflection

1. Derivation created new words with different meanings. Derivational suffix usually
applies to words of one syntactic category and changes them into words of another
syntactic category. For example, the English derivational suffix -ly changes adjectives
into adverbs (slow → slowly).
Some examples of English derivational suffixes:
 adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
  adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) in British English or -ize
(archaic → archaicize) in American English and Oxford spelling
 noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
 noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
 verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
 verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
 verb-to-noun (concrete): -er (write → writer)

2. Inflection is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories

such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case. In English many
nouns are inflected for number with the inflectional plural affix -s (as in "dog" →
"dog-s"), and most English verbs are inflected for tense with the inflectional past
tense affix -ed (as in "call" → "call-ed"). English also inflects verbs by affixation to
mark the third person singular in the present tense (with -s), and the present participle
(with -ing). English short adjectives are inflected to mark comparative and superlative
forms (with -er and -est respectively). In addition, English also shows inflection by
ablaut (mostly in verbs) and umlaut (mostly in nouns), as well as long-short vowel
alternation. For example:
3. Write, wrote, written (marking by ablaut variation, and also suffixing in the
participle)
4. Sing, sang, sung (ablaut)
5. Foot, feet (marking by umlaut variation)
6. Mouse, mice (umlaut)
7. Child, children (ablaut, and also suffixing in the plural)