Morphology:Morphology:Word Formation ProcessesWord Formation Processes

(Yule, 2003 & Jarvie, 1993)(Yule, 2003 & Jarvie, 1993)

M.C. Rafael Velasco Argente

Linguistics

Spring 2012

What’s Morphology?

• Morphology refers to the study of how words are created in a language

• There are two processes involved in Morphology: Inflection and Word Formation

What are Inflection and Word Formation?

• Inflection refers to the change in the base form of a word (root or stem)

• The base form of a noun is the singular form (e.g. cat); for an adjective the base form (old) and for a verb the base form is the infinitive or imperative (speak)

Examples of Inflection

• Apple apples

• House houses

• Sad sadder saddest

• Big bigger biggest

• Learn learned learning

What about word formation?

• The word formation processes consists on the following ones:– EtymologyEtymology– CoinageCoinage– BorrowingBorrowing– CompoundingCompounding– BlendingBlending– ClippingClipping– BackformationBackformation– ConversionConversion– AcronymsAcronyms– Affixation (prefixes, suffixes and infixes) Affixation (prefixes, suffixes and infixes) – Compound processesCompound processes

CoinageCoinage

• This refers to the creation of totally new terms into a language. Most of them come from the name of the inventors, the products’ names or the company’s name.

– KleenexKleenex– NylonNylon– ZipperZipper– AspirinAspirin– RotoplasRotoplas

BorrowingBorrowing

• This process refers, as the name claims, when a language ‘borrows’ terms from other languages.

– Alcohol (Arabic)Alcohol (Arabic)– Boss (Dutch)Boss (Dutch)– Piano (Italian)Piano (Italian)– Yoghurt (Turkish)Yoghurt (Turkish)– Robot (Czech)Robot (Czech)

CompoundingCompounding

• It It refers to the joining of two separate words to produce a single word. The two words don’t lose their individual sounds.

– BookcaseBookcase– FingerprintFingerprint– SunburnSunburn– DoorknobDoorknob– BasketballBasketball

BlendingBlending

• Similar to compounding, blending refers to the joining of two terms; however, in this case one (or both) word(s) lose a sound.

– Motel (motor-hotel)Motel (motor-hotel)– Telecast (television-broadcast)Telecast (television-broadcast)– Spanglish (Spanish-English)Spanglish (Spanish-English)– Modem (Modulator-demodulator) Modem (Modulator-demodulator)

ClippingClipping

• Clipping a synonym of reduction. In this process a word that has more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form

– Celular (cel)– Brassiere (bra)– Fanatic (fan)– Situation Comedy (sitcom)– Facebook (el Face)

BackformationBackformation

• This occurs when a word of one type (usually a noun) is changed to another different type of word (usually a verb)

– Donation(n) -donate (v)– Option(n) -Opt (v)– Babysitter(n) -Babysit (v)

Hypocorisms: the reduction of a long word to a single syllable and the –y and –ie are added to the end.

Television-telly Barbecue-barbie Breakfast -breakie

ConversionConversion

• This is the change of the function of the word. For example when a noun comes to be used as a verb.

– ButterButter– BottleBottle– WaterWater– Print out (a printout)Print out (a printout)– Want to be (wannabe)Want to be (wannabe)

EtymologyEtymology

• Etymology refers to the origin of several words. Usually these words are originated from Latin or Greek.

• Some of them are not necessarily complete words but prefixes or part of blendings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_and_Latin_roots_in_English

AffixationAffixation

• Affixation is the process where we take a base form word and we add a prefix, infix or suffix.

• A prefix is an affixation process that includes adding a morpheme at the beginning of the word

• A suffix is a segment that we add at the end of the words.

• An infix is what goes between the prefix and the root

Prefixes (examples)Prefixes (examples)

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/prefixtext.htm

SuffixesSuffixes

• These are the responsible for making words change their function.

• There are:

– Noun suffixesNoun suffixes– Adjective SuffixesAdjective Suffixes– Verb SuffixesVerb Suffixes– Adverb SuffixesAdverb Suffixes

• As a reading, writing or listening recognition strategy, despite of not having the exact meaning of a word, just by looking at the suffix we now the function of the word.

Suffixes (Examples)

• http://www.scribd.com/doc/441225/English-suffixes

InfixesInfixes

They are not very common in English.

When they appear is because they are usually in an exclamation word.

Unfuckingbelievable!

Absogoddamlutely!

AcronymsAcronyms• Sometimes words are created because of

acronyms. Acronyms are abbreviations pronounced as if they were words. They have proloferated.

• Spanish– SIDA (Sindrome de Inmuno-Deficiencia Adquirida)– OVNI (Objeto Volador No Identificado)

• English– Radar (Radio Detecting and ranging)– UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural

Organization)

AnalogiesAnalogies

• It’s when you use a word to compare the person.

• Technobabble

• Telethon

• Smart cookie

Compound ProcessesCompound Processes

• Sometimes in order to form a word we can combine some of the previous processes. – For example:

• Deli (borrowing from German Delicatessen/Clipping)

• Yuppie (Young Urban Professional (Acronym+ie(hypocorsim)

MorphemesMorphemes

• A morpheme is the minimal unit of a word.• There are different types of morphemes

– Free Morphemes– Bound Morphemes– Lexical– Functional– Derivational– Inflectional

– Allomorphs

Free Morphemes

• These are morphemes that stand by themselves as single words, for example – Open– Tour– Teach

Bound morphemes

• The bound morphemes are those that are attached to a free morpheme to have a meaning.

• All prefixes and suffixes are bound morphemes.

– Un-dress-ed care-less-ness– Ex: reduce, receive and repeat (bound stems)

Free Morphemes-Lexical & Functional

• Lexical morphemes Lexical morphemes are usually free morphemes. They carry their full meaning in the word itself. – Nouns, adjectives and verbs

• Functional Morphemes Functional Morphemes are words that bring a function inside of them. They assist lexical morphemes to add details to the meaning.– Conjunctions (and...) prepositions, articles,

pronuouns

Bound morphemes-Derivational and inflectional Morphemes

• Derivational morphemes: Derivational morphemes: They refer to those bound morphemes that create new words out of/with a free morpheme.

– Pay-ment– Quick-ly– God-ess

• Inflectional morphemes. Inflectional morphemes. These are morphemes that help the words to change their grammatical function. They are suffixes

• Car-cars

• Do-Done

• Cold-Coldest

Bound morphemes-Derivational and inflectional Morphemes

Morph and Allomorphs

• A morph is a modification of a morpheme. The basic example of it is the plural ‘s’.

• Bus-Buses

• Girl-Girls

• Baby-babies

• Sheep-sheep

The allomorph is the set of morphs