BING 4316

English Morpho-Syntax
2nd Class : August 28, 2016

Siti Marina (Irin)

ukhtuka@gmail.com

Universitas Terbuka
Korea Selatan

MODULE 2

MORPHOLOGICAL
AND WORDS
FORMATION
Keywords:
Root
Stem
Affix
Derivational morph
Inflectional morph
Word coinage
Derivation process

Morphological Process
UNIT 1

Word internal structure

1. Morphological analysis: identifying

morphemes
2. Roots
3. Function word
4. Stems and Bases
5. Affixes
6. World-building processes using affixes
7. Multiple affixations
8. Stem extenders

Morphemes
Bound
Affix

Free
Root
-ceive
-mit
-fer

Derivational Inflectional
Prefix
preuncon-

Suffix
-ly
-ist
-ment

Suffix
-ing er s
-s est s
-en
-ed

Open Class
Closed Class
Noun (girl)
Conjunction (and)
Adjective (pretty) Preposition (in)
Verbs (love)
Articles (the)
Adverbs (quickly) Pronouns (she)
Auxiliary Verbs (is)

1.1. Morphological process:

identifying morphemes
Word morpheme(s)
same meaning in different words with same
forms
[Adj + comparative (-er)] ; [Adj. + superlative
(-est)]
Root morpheme + Bound
morpheme
mono

V + -er noun: singmorpheme

+ -er = singer ; love +
-er = lover
sober butter number

1.2. Root
root = the core of a word which cant be
reduced and nothings attached to it
root changes to word-form
walk walk walks walking walked
lexeme
root morpheme + bound
morpheme

suppletion same morphemes : root

word-form
bear (bears bearing) bore born;
good better ;
life lives

Free morpheme is an independent root, often

called lexical morpheme, imply semantic

1.3. Function word

Function word mainly implies grammatical

information or logical relations in a sentence.

articles (a, the) ; demonstrative (this, those) ;

pronouns (I, you) ; conjunction (and, though) ; etc.

Not all roots are free and cannot stand alone

bound morphemes (affixes)

e.g. un- , dis- , -ish , -ly , etc.

Examples of uncommon bound morpheme

latinate root:
e.g. -mit (permit, admit) send, do
--ceive (receive, conceive) take
pred- (predator, depredate) prey
sed- (sedan, sediment) sit

 Recognising morpheme: not only the meaning,

but also considering as distributional unit

latinate root
[mit]

[mi] before -ion,

-able/-ible

[mis] before -ive,

-ory

permit

permissible

permissive

remit

remission

remissory

dormit

dormitory

vomit

vomitory

Allomorph: [-mit] to [-mis-] alternation

1.4. Stems and Bases

Stem = Root + Affix(es)

may or may not be a word

Root

Stems

componen
t

Word

component

believ
e

believe + able

verb +
suffix

un +
believe +
able

prefix + verb +
suffix

syste
m

system + atic

noun +
suffix

un +
system +
atic + al +
ly

prefix + noun +
suffix + suffix +
suffix

un + system +
atic
Base
= all root

prefix +
noun +
suffix

Affixes inflectional (syntactic) or derivational

un + system +
prefix +
(semantic)
atic + al

Compound word =

noun +
suffix
+
a
word

contains more than one root

1.5. Affixes
Prefix: before a root or stem or base
re-make ; un-kind ; in-decent

Suffix: after a root or stem or base

house-s ; govern-ment ; able-ity

Infix: in the middle of a root or stem or

base
rare
Process
1.6. Word building

using

affixes

Suffix: kindly ; waiter ; books

Prefix: after a root or stem or base

Inflectional: discourage ; illegal ; rethink

Infix: e.g. -cub- incubate ; [m] in incumbent

1.7. Multiple affixations

Root: dict

verb

Base: dict verb

Round 1: prefixation (add contraoutput: contradict
Base: contradict
Round 2: 1st suffixation (add ory
output: contradictory

preposition

adjective

Base: contradictory
Round 3: 2nd suffixation (add ness
output: contradictoriness

noun

1.8. Stem extenders

Interposing formation between the rot,
base or stem:
Irregular plural allomorph -en, e.g. ox + -en
= oxen
child r en (from child)
breth r en (from brother)

Formative test 1
No

Words

1.

helps

2.

frogmarched

3.

student
book

4.

bookshops

5.

unfaithful

6.

windowcleaner

7.

dishonesty

8.

hardships

9.

greenhouse

10 brotherhood

Roots

Stems

Affixes
Prefix

Suffix

Word Formation
UNIT 2

Derivational Morphemes

Bound morphemes added to a root morpheme or

stem, deriving a new meaning of word.
Semantic content as content word (noun, verb,
etc.)
May or may not change grammatical class

noun to adjective (-ish in boyish)

noun to noun (-ship in friendship)

Other category:

Prefix:

a+moral mono+theism
super+human sub+minimal

Suffix:
vicar+age New Jersey+ite
oOld+ish fadd+ist

Changing the meaning and/or the word-class (p.

2.22-24)

Hierarchical structure of
words
Using tree diagrams to break down word
components
unsystematic has
adj internal structure as
follow:
un-

adj
noun
system

-atic

Formative test 2
No
.

Words

1.

jealousy

2.

diligently

3.

refreshme
nt

4.

acceptanc
e

5.

happiness

6.

motherho
od

7.

worker

8.

friendship

Suffix

Worldclass of
input
base

World
class of
output
word

Meaning

Word Coinage
UNIT 3

New words formed by derivational process

word coinage

Process

Example

Fit some purposes

Nike, Kodak

Specific brand

Xerox, Jell-O

Combining existing words

Videotape

Combined blends

Smog, motel

Abbreviation

Fax, gas

Acronyms

Gif (graphic interchange format),

laser

Clipping

Dot-com

Slang

Baldwin, Scooby

Political issues

Pro-life, pro-choice

Back formation

Hawker, peddler

Eponyms

Sandwich, jumbo

Compound words

Lazy susan

Scientific discovering

Black hole

Inventions

Radar, laser

Rhetorical post

homophobia

Formative test 3
No
.

Words

Word
Formation
Creation

No
.

Words

Word Formation
Creation

1.

NATO

11 landlord
.

2.

motel

12 ILO
.

3.

blackboar
d

13 bra
.

4.

vaseline

14 sandwich
.

5.

pizza

15 make up
.

6.

hansip

16 homopho
. bia

Draw tree diagram of phrases: Beautiful House Keeper and

7. scuba
17 exam
Green Tea Pot
.

Thank you

See you next

class!
Please prepare for Module 3