Lesson Plans 1-2(Week 1-2)

Chapter One: The study of the morphological structure of English

1. Learning ObjectivesUpon completing this chapter, students are expected to be

able to: 1.1 Identify the morpheme base affixes allomorph and

morph.1.2 Identify the types of morpheme1.3 Identify the function of morpheme base affixes,

allomorph and morph.1.4 Use the morpheme base affixes, allomorph and morph

in English correctly. 1.5 Be aware of different types of allomorphs in words.

2. Topics of Content2.1 What is Morpheme?2.2 What is Segmentation?2.3 Types of Morpheme2.4 Base2.5 Affixes and Affixation2.6 Allomorph2.7 Morph

3. Teaching and Learning Method4.1 Lectures4.2 Brainstorming4.3 Discussions4.4 Assignment4.5 Presentations

4. Teaching Materials4.1 Main textbook4.2 Supplementary materials4.3 Transparencies4.4 Charts4.5 Worksheet4.6 Textbooks4.7 English Dictionary

5. Measurement and EvaluationStudents will be evaluated on:5.1 Exercise in the book5.2 Small test

5.3 Observation of the learners attention and participation

Chapter One The Study of the Morphological Structure of English

According to traditional linguistic theories, grammatical description largely operates on two important units: the word and the sentence. These two units form the basis of the differing writing systems in various languages of the world.

In order to make the study of meaningful linguistic elements simpler and more explicit, it has been found convenient to postulate abstract entities called ‘morphemes’ in somewhat the same way in which phonemics were postulated to make the study of speech sounds simpler and more explicit.

In English, the smallest grammatical unit is the morpheme (which is unstructured) and each higher unit is made up of units immediately below it. The highest grammatical unit is the sentence which includes all the smaller units. Thus, morphemes function in the word structure, word structures in the group structure, group structures in the clause structure, and clause structure in the complex sentence structure. The diagram below shows this hierarchical arrangement of syntactic structure in English.

Sentence

Clause

Group

Word

Morpheme

What is Morpheme?Morpheme, an important division of the grammar of a language,

deals with the structure of words. It is the study of words – words which exhibit arrangements of morphemes. The study of word–formation or the structure of words in a language is called the morphology of that language.

The definition of the morpheme may not be completely unassailable as will be evident from the discussion that follows, but it is certainly a very satisfying definition applicable to a majority of words in any language. Some linguists describe morphemes as the ‘smallest recurrent elements of grammatical patterning’ and leave meaning out of the definition. The word ‘receive’ may be regarded as one morpheme; if broken down into smaller units, ‘re’ and ‘ceive’, one can claim that ‘ceive’ is grammatically significant and recurs in a slightly different form, cept, in adjective such as receptive, perceptive, perceptual, etc. Similarly, the following words may be split up into two units: conceive (con, ceive), transport (trans, port), report (re, port), export (ex, port), perceive (per, ceive), etc. This represents one point of view, but not one which is accepted by many other linguists since it totally excludes meaning.

The morpheme is the second basic unit in the expression system of a language, the first being the ‘phoneme’. A morpheme may be defined as the smallest meaningful unit in the structure of a language. It cannot be sub-divided without destroying or drastically changing its meaning. For example, ‘man’// is a morpheme. We cannot subdivided it into /m- /+/ / n/ or /m/ +// + /n/ because every time we do so, we get units of language having meaning quite different from the meaning given by /mn/. Therefore the unit /mn/ is a morpheme, the smallest meaningful unit of English language.

The English word unassailable is made up of three morphemes, un, assail, able, each one of which has a particular meaning distribution and a particular phonological form or shape.

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language, and morpheme is a short segment of language that meets three criteria:

1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without

violation of its meaning or without meaningless remainders.

3. It recurs in differing verbal environment with a relatively stable meaning.

The words 'bats' for example, has two morphemes, the form bat is a morpheme, and also the form -s is a morpheme. The bat means "a kind of animal" and the -s means "there are more than one".

The word ‘unlikely’ has 3 morphemes while the word ‘carpet’ is a single morpheme. The word ‘car’ and ‘pet’ are independent

morphemes in themselves. The word ‘carpet’ has nothing to do with the meaning of ‘car’ and ‘pet’. Carpet is a minimal meaningful unit by itself. Again, the word ‘garbage’ is a single morpheme while the word ‘grab’ and ‘age’ are independent morphemes by themselves. A systematic study of morphemes or how morphemes join to form words is known as morphology.

A word consists of at least one morpheme. Likewise if may consist of two or more morphemes. Look at the following words.

kind = one morpheme kindkind ful = two morphemes kindfulun kind ful = three morphemesUnkindfulun kind ful ness = four morphemes

UnkindfulnessSome morphemes have no clear shape. Such a morpheme will

be called "Zero" or /Ø/. Consider the following sentences.A deer is in the park.Deer are in the park.A woman is in the class.Women are in the class.The nouns underlined consist of noun + plural (like dogs,

cats, boys). But the plural form is /Ø/ which is a variant form of the plural morpheme.

deer : plural + deer

Ø

woman + plural = women

woman + Ø

boy + plural = boys

boy - s

A meaningful linguistic unit which is said to be minimal – unable to be further divided or broken into smaller meaningful parts is called a morpheme. Dealing with the study, description and classification of morphemes in morphemic.

Units of word building such as the prefix un- the base or stem read and suffix - able are morphemes since they are meaningful and unable to be segmented further, and if a conventional construction is to be formed of these morphemes, we shall have the word unreadable, an adjective meaning not able to be read.

George Yule gave the definition of a morpheme as “a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function”. We would say that the

word ‘reopened’ in the sentence, The police reopened the investigation, consists of three morphemes. One minimal unit of meaning is open, another minimal unit of meaning is re- (meaning ‘again’), and a minimal unit of grammatical function is – ed (indicating past tense). The word tourists also contain three morphemes. There is one minimal unit of meaning, tour, another minimal unit of meaning –ist (meaning ‘person who does something’), and a minimal unit of grammatical function –s (indicating plural).

What is Segmentation?A large number of words can be broken down into segments

and are said to be “determinate with respect to segmentation.”Examples:boys boy-splaying play-ingpassed pass-edunable un-ableknowingly know-ing-lywatches watch-esBut there are several words which can either not be

segmented (indeterminate) at all, or are only partially determinate with respect to segment.

Examples:men, children, mice, sheep, went, took, broke, sung, brought,

better, best, worse, worst.The problems of segmentation in all such words may vary in kind

as well as in degree. This presents a serious problem. Although better and went stand in the same grammatical relationship with good and go and as lower and walked have with low and walk, yet the words better and went cannot be segmented into parts (as lower and walked) as per the given definition of the term morphemes. Since we know that better has the same grammatical function vis-a-vis good as shorter has vis-a-vis short, we can express the relationship as a proportion of grammatical (or distributional) equivalence:

good : better : best :: short : shorter : shortestGood and short are both adjectives and the expression better

and shorter are grammatically alike in the sense that they both express only the comparative degree of the adjective. Similarly, best and shortest too are alike as they express the superlative degree of the adjective. Now suppose, on an analogy from algebra, we resolve each of the six words given above into factors/components, the word good being denoted by the factor a, short by b, there the positive, comparative and superlative functions being marked by factors x, y and z respectively, the above equation can be rewritten as:

ax : ay : az :: bx : by : bz

All the three words on the left hand side have the component a (i.e. good) in them and those on the right hand side have the component b (i.e. short) in them. Components x, y and z stand to mark the positive, comparative and superlative degrees of the adjectives in question. All these components, or distributional factors of words are morphemes. Thus, a morpheme may not necessarily be a part of a segment of a word, but may merely have a factorial role as indicated above.

Types of MorphemesMorphemes in English can be classified into two categories:

free morphemes and bound morphemes.2.1 Free morphemesA free morpheme is independent for it can occur alone by

itself as a word in the language. Free morphemes are those that can occur alone: dog, girl, good, run, two, have, I, you, of, can, the, love, bad, etc. A free morpheme is one that can be uttered alone with meaning. For instance, in reply to “What are you going to do now?” you might answer “Eat”. This is a free morpheme. A bound morpheme, unlike the free, cannot be uttered alone with meaning. It is always annexed to one or more morphemes to form a word, e.g. antedate, replay, manly, keeper, unable. The underlined morphemes in the examples are all bound, for one would not utter in isolation forms like ante-, re-, -ly, - er, and un-.

2.2 A bound morphemeA bound morpheme is dependent as it is always attached to

another morpheme. Affixes are bound morphemes as they always occur with bases. The bound morphemes are those that cannot occur alone, and must be attached to words i.e. enlarge, quickly, widen, singing, replace, etc.

Most bases occur independently as free morphemes and few bases are bound morphemes.

For example:The morpheme - ed in loved

- ful in beautiful - miss in mistake- ness in goodness- s in dogsun- in unhappydis- in dislikere- in replayante- in antedateex- in ex-president, ex-wife, ex-

child mid- in middle, midterm, midday, midnight neo- in neo-Latin, neo-Nazi, neoclassic, post- in post-war, postpaid, postscript

pre- in pre-test, prepay, predate, preview,

preschool, prefix, preflight.

Classification of MorphemesMORPHEMES

FREE MORPHEMES BOUND MOREPHEMES

Noun Conjunctions (and, or) Affixes Bound Contracted

Verbs Articles (the, a) Base FormsAdjectives Demonstrative (this, that)Adverbs Preposition Prefixes Suffixes ‘ll

re- -s cran - ‘dun- - ize ‘ivedis- - ify ‘smis- - en

BasesAnother classification of morpheme puts them into two classes:

bases and affixes. A base morpheme is the part of a word that has the principal meaning. A base is a morpheme which is the core of the word that contains the word’s basic meaning. The underlined morphemes in these words are bases: denial, lovable, annoyance, reenter, disagree, pretest, manly.

Bases are very numerous, and most of them in English are free morphemes; but some are bound, like- sent in ‘consent’, ‘dissent’, and ‘assent’. A word may contain one base and several affixes. ‘Readability’, for example, contains the free base read and the two affixes –abil- and –ity; and ‘unmistakable’ has the free base take and the affixes un-, mis-, and –able.

In the words like unhappy, disregarded, childhood, etc. morphemes such as happy, regarded and child can stand on their own as independent words. Such morphemes are called free morphemes. On the other hand, morphemes like un-, dis-, -ed, -hood, etc. cannot stand on their won as independent words. They are always attached to a free morpheme. Morphemes such as dis-, un-, -ed, -hood are also called bound affixes. The form to which an affix is attached is called a base. Here is a tree diagram showing the morphological analysis of the word ‘unknowingly’:

Unknowingly

affix baseun- -knowingly

base affix (knowing) (-

ly)

stem (root) affixknow -ing

Affixes and AffixationAffixes may be divided into prefixes (which appear at the

beginning of the base) and suffixes (with appear at the end of the base). Consider the following sets:

Set - A Set - BPrefix Base Base Suffix

unhappy un- -happy friendship friend -shipimmobile im- -mobile childhood child -hoodenable en- -able girls girl -sillegal il- -legal nicely nice -ly

The bound morphemes, in word–formation, are called “affix” and the words to which the affixes are added, are called “base word” (free morpheme).

act actor base word affix

play replay affix base word

The word “affix” is a general term that means either prefix or suffix. Those that have to be added at the beginning of words are called “prefixes”, and those that are added at the end of words are called “suffixes”.

affix

prefix + base word + suffix

An affix is a bound morpheme that occurs before or within or after a base. An affix does not carry the principal meaning but is added to a free or a bound base to change the meaning of the base or to mark a grammatical function.

The affixes in English can be arranged into two groups: inflectional and derivational. Inflection is a change made in the form of a word to express its relation to other words in the sentence. Derivation, on the other hand, is the process by which new word belong to the same class (e.g. girl and girlhood, both nouns, play and replay, both verbs) and is class-changing if the two words belong to different categories (e.g. able and enable, verb from adjective, reason and seasonal, adjective from noun, dance and dancer, noun from verb).

Inflectional suffixes do not change the class of the word, for example

slide - slides (both verbs)hot - hotter (both adjectives)boy - boys (both nouns)speak - speaking (both verbs)They come last in a word and appear only as suffixes.

(Derivational affixes can be both prefixes and suffixes). They do not pile up (only one ends a word), e.g. books, higher, written. Also, inflectional suffixes go with all stems of a given part of speech, for example

Verbs Adjectives Nounscome comes cold colder girl

girlssing sings tall taller pen penssee sees short shorter bench

benchesMore examples of inflectional suffixes classified according to a

part of speech.

Noun inflectional suffixesa. Plural marker –s

girl – girls(The girls are here)

b. Possessive marker-’sSamran – Samran’s(Samran’s pen)

Verb inflectional suffixesc. Third person present singular marker –s

bake – bakes(She bakes well)

d. Past tense marker – edwalk – walked(We walked here yesterday)

e. Progressive marker -ing

play – playing(They are playing)

f. Part participle markers –en or –edeat – eaten(She has eaten mango)bake – baked(He has baked a cake)

Adjective inflectional suffixesg. Comparative marker –er

fast – faster(She is faster than you)

h. Superlative marker –estfast –fastest(She is fastest)English has only the inflectional affixes listed above, and all

inflectional affixes in English are suffixes (none are prefixes, unlike the situation with derivational affixes, which include both suffixes and prefixes).

Kinds of affixesThere are three kinds of affixes, which are: prefixes, infixes, and

suffixes:Prefixes are those bound morphemes that occur before a base,

as in import, prefix, reconsider, unhappy. Prefixes in English are a small class of morpheme, numbering about seventy-five. Their meanings are often those of English prepositions and adverbial.

Prefixes in English usually modify the meaning of the base form. The following are some of the active prefixes, together with their approximate meaning.

Prefix Approximate Meaning Examplesanti- against anti-peoplearch- chief arch-enemybi- twice, two bi-monthly, bi-planeco- with co-passengercontra- against contra-dicationcounter- against counter-movede- from, away decentralizedis- away, without disableem- in, on emplaneen- encircleequi- equal equidistantex- former ex-presidentextra- outside extra-constitutionalhyper- abnormally high hyper-sensitive

I- illogicali + m- not immobilise

n- invisible r- irresponsible

inter- between inter-college

intra- within intra-collegemal- defective, bad(ly) maladjustment, maltreatmini- small miniskirtmis- not misbehavenon- not non-committalpan- all pan-Indianpost- after postgraduatepre- before predegreepro- favouring pro-capitalistpseudo- sham pseudo-intellectualquasi- half, seeming(ly) quasi-passivere- back, again regainsemi- half semi-circle, semi-finalsub- under sub-committeesuper- very high degree super-diplomattrans- across trans-continentaltri- three tri-junctionultra- excessively ultra-modernun- not unusual

under- not sufficiently (with vbs.) under-estimate.(placed) under (with nn) under-secretary

vice- next below vice-president

Infixes are bound morphemes that have been inserted within a word, although in English these are rare. Occasionally they are additions within a word, but, infixes in English are most commonly replacements, not additions. They occur in a few noun plurals. Like the –ee- in geese, replacing the –oo- of goose, and more often in the past tense and past participles of verbs, like the –o- of chose and chosen replacing the –oo- of choose.

Suffixes are bound morphemes that occur after a base, for example shrinkage, failure, noisy, realize, nails, dreamed. A suffix can occur after another suffix but not directly after a prefix. Suffixes may pile up to the number of three of four, whereas prefixes are commonly single, except for the negative un- before another prefix. In ‘normalizes’ we perhaps reach the limit with four: the base norm plus the four suffixes –al, -ize, -er, -s. when suffixes multiply like this, their order is fixed: there is one and only one order in which they occur.

Suffixes are generally divided into two classes: (a) those that serve some grammatical functions, and (b) the others that are used to derive new words from the base form. According to these two functions the first group is called grammatical or Inflectional Suffixes and the second group is called lexical or Derivational Suffixes.

Classification of Affixes

Affixes may be classified as derivational and inflectional according to their effect on the base.

Inflectional affixesInflectional affixes are bound morphemes that mark

grammatical meanings such as plurality, past tense, or comparison. They do not change the word class of the base to which they are attached.

Inflectional affixes are those that do not change words (to which they are added) from one word – class or subclass to another.

For example:understand misunderstand v vcountable uncountable

adj. Adj. boy boys

n nIn English, as in many other languages, words are sometimes

modified or changed to meet grammatical requirements. For instance, the word ‘like’ in Dogs like meat. The forms are so changed or modified to indicate their connection with or dependence on other words in the sentence, or for other grammatical functions snf are called the Inflectional forms of the words; and this is usually done by adding inflectional suffixes to the base form. However, unlike some highly inflected languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Latin, etc.) where even entire sentence can be squeezed into a single inflected form, English uses inflection only for a few limited purposes. They are:

1. Tense affixes The tense affix is used by adding it at the end of an auxiliary

or a verb which is the first element in the predicative structure, The tense affix in English is divided into two kinds: present and past.

(i) The present tense affix in a verb has two forms: /- s /and /Ø/ the form –s is used if the subject of the sentence is singular with a third person in the present tense, thus done by adding –s or –es to the base form in writing, the form /Ø/ will be used if the subject of the sentence is plural or I, You, or if the sentence consists of modal (M)

/-s/ if the subject of sentence is singular

present tense affix /-Ø/ if the subject of sentence is plural or I, you or if the sentence consists f modal (M)

Subject PredicateA girl takes my penShe has a bookMen take my books

They have booksYou have one bookA girl may take my penShe can have a book

Modal can, will, shall, may, must,take + present takes

take -shave + present have

have ØThe allomorphs of this morpheme too are phonetically

identical with the plural and case-suffixes and occur under similar phonetic contexts, namely:

(ii) The past tense affix has two forms: -ed and Øed

past tense affix Ø

The form of the past tense affix will be shown at the first element of the predicative structure of a sentence. For examples

A sentence : She went to Lomsak.Is the string: she + go + past + to + Lomsak

went

A sentence : The girl opened a letter.Is the string: the + girl + open + past + a letter

openedopen + past opened open - ed

(iii) The plural affix is added at the end of the word, for a countable noun, therefore, it is the suffix. The plural affix has two forms :/-s/ and /Ø/ .

The plural affix taking the form -sgirl girlschair chairsdog + plural dogspen (-s) pensetc. etc,

The plural affix taking form Ødeer deerfish fishsheep sheepman men

child + plural childrenwoman womengoose Ø geeseetc. etc.

-splural affix

Ø

(iv) The affix – ing usually occurs together with ‘be’ in a sentence, (be + ing)

A sentence:She is coming

isbe + present tense affix am

are

The previous sentence is the string:She + be + present + come + ingShe + be + - s + come + ing

isShe is coming.

All full verbs and the auxiliaries ‘Be’ and ‘have’ (auxiliary ‘Do’ has no –ing form) regularly take the –ing suffix to form the present participle and the gerund. Since both of these are identical in form and sometimes difficult to distinguish grammatically, they are conveniently labelled as ‘the –ing form’ of a verb.

The suffix is regarded as inflectional when its function is purely grammatical. For instance, is inflectional in the continuous (progressive) tense of the verb. It becomes a derivational functional suffix when the resultant form has an adjectival or nominal function, e.g. Seeing is believing (here the suffix is used to derive the two nominals); A rolling stone gathers no moss (here the suffix is used to derive the adjectival).

(v) The participle affix usually occurs together with ‘have’ in a sentence (have + participle), the participle affix has three forms:

- ed, -en and /Ø/. See the following sentences:We have talked in the park.You have spoken in class.I have cut the paper.

talk + participle = talkedspeak+ participle = spokencut + participle = cut

A sentence:He has been here.he + have + present + be + participle + here

has been-ed

Participle affix -en Ø

The participle forms of regular verbs are spelt –d or –ed, and three different forms can be added to the base. They are:

/t/ : after a voiceless sound except /t/, e.g. looked /d/ : after a voiced sound except /d/, e.g., begged /id/ : after /t/ or /d/, e.g., seated ; sounded As in the case of the –ing suffix, these suffixes may be

inflectional or derivational according to their functions. They have grammatical functions in the formation of the tenses (simple past and the perfect tense) and in passivisation, and therefore in these functions, they are inflectional. On the other hand, the past participle form (like the –ing form) is sometimes used in a purely adjectival function, e.g. the wanted man. In this function it is derivational, and it can even be added to nouns: e.g. bearded, talented (cold), blooded, etc.

The verbs which take these suffixes are called ‘regular verbs’ because the great majority of the English verbs use them. They are also regularly added to any new verb acquired by the language.

2. Comparative affix The comparative affix ‘– er’ is added to many adjectives and a

few adverbs. The adjectives that take the comparative affix are the following:

2.1 Nearly all one syllable adjectives: big/ bigger small /smaller young/

younger long/ longer short/shorter. 2.2 A number of two–syllable adjectives; particularly those

ending in – y: dirty/dirtier, happy/happier, friendly /friendlier.2.3 Three – syllable adjectives made by adding the prefix un-

to words of the second group: unhappy /unhappier, unfriendly/ unfriendlier.

In Comparative transformation , two sentences, each with the same adjective or adverbs in the predicate, are put together with suffix – er the word than to form a result sentence.

Somyos is old.Samran is old.

Result: Somyos is old + er + than + Samran is old= Somyos is older than Samran is.= Somyos is older than Samran.

Superlative affix in the Superlative Transformer, the word the is inserted before the adjective or adverb, which is then followed by the superlative affix – est, the word of and the subject of the inserted sentence.

All of them were wise.Albert was wise.

Result: Albert was + the + wise + est+ of + all + of them were wise.

= Albert was the wisest of all of them= Albert was the wisest.

The comparative with moreFor most adjectives of two syllables and all of more than two

except the un- type, more must be used instead of - erRobert is hopeful.Amy is hopeful.

Result : Amy is + more + hopeful + than + Robert is hopeful

= Amy is + more hopeful + than + Robert is= Amy is more hopeful than Robert.= Amy is more hopeful.

The superlative with mostFor most adjectives or adverbs of two syllables and all of more

than two except the un-type, most must be used instead of –est, The and most are placed before the adjective or adverb, and of after it.

The girls were beautiful.Mary was beautiful.

Result: Mary was + the + most + beautiful + of the girls.

The inflectional affix can be schematized as follows:Inflectional affixes Examples Name1. {-s pl} cars, oxen, mice noun plural2. {-s sg ps} girl’s, bird’s noun singular

possessive3. { -s pl ps} boys’, men’s noun plural

possessive4. {-s 3d} vacates, watches present third person

singular5. {-ing vb} discussing, studying present

participle6. {-d pt} chewed, rode past tense7. {-d pp} chewed, eaten, swum past participle8. {-er cp} bolder, nearer, higher comparative9. {-est sp} soonest, nearest, highest superlative

3. Pronominal Inflexions: The English noun has only two inflected forms, namely, the plural and the genitive case-form. But the English personal pronouns exhibit an elaborate system of inflected forms to distinguish not only case (subject, object and two genitives) and number (all except ‘you’) but also person and gender (at least in three of them). As this elaborate pronominal system was acquired by the language quite early in its career, many of the distinguishing feathers have been obliterated by long usage. It has therefore become extremely difficult to analyse them into their respective bases and suffixes. Indeed, only the self- forms (which some grammarians regard as compounds) have an easily distinguishable suffix. Nevertheless, the pronominal forms that follow represent an inflectional class:

Subject form

Object form

1st Genitive(dependent, i.e. followed by a noun)

2nd

Genitive(independent, i.e. not followed by a noun)

Reflexive form

Singular1st Person2nd Person3rd Person

(a)Masculine

(b)Feminine

(c) Neuter

Plural1st Person2nd Person3rd Person

Iyou

hesheit

weyouthey

meyou

himherit

usyou

them

myyour

hisherit

ouryourtheir

mineyours

hishers

its (rare)

oursyourstheirs

myselfyourse

lf

himself

herselfitself

ourselves

yourselves

themselves

The affixes we are studying are called inflectional affixes. When we add inflectional suffixes to a base, the new form (base + affix) is usually the same part of speech as the base form was.

When we add the inflectional affixes plural to the noun girl, the new form (girls) is still a noun. When we add the inflectional suffixes past to the verb run, the new form (ran) is still a verb. When we add the inflectional suffix comparative to the adjective hot, the new form (hotter) is still an adjective.

Similarly, if we take any of these inflectional affixes away from the base + affix form, we do not change the part of speech. Smoothest is an adjective. Smooth is an adjective. Go is a verb. Going is a verb.

To conclude, an inflectional suffix is different from a derivational suffix in the following ways:

1. It is added to a word for a grammatical reason. It does not change a word from one class to another, whereas a derivational suffix changes a word into a different word class and sometimes adds new meaning to the base.

2. It comes at the end of a word, e.g. enlightens, falsified.3. It does not pile up. Only one ends a word, e.g. walks,

tallest. The only exception is the genitive (possessive) plural, as in boys’ toys.

4.2 Derivational AffixesThe derivational affixes are those that change words (to which

they are added) from one word class or subclass to another, for example:

happy happiness adj. nnation national n adj.

Almost all the prefixes are inflectional. Only some of them are derivational. Those are a-, en-, em-, etc.

slave slaven nlarge enlarge adj. vbody embody n v

Most suffixes are derivational. Though there are numerous such suffixes from a strictly philological point of view, many of them have become extinct in the sense that they are no longer used in the language to derive new words. Some of the active suffixes that are still freely used in the language are given below:

Suffix Class of words derived Examples-able, -ible adjective workable, irresistible-age noun leakage-al adjective derivational-ance, -ence noun observance, existence-ant noun claimant-er, -or noun worker, visitor-ate noun; verb electorate, educate-cy noun proficiency-dom noun freedom-ed adjective bearded, haunted

(house)

-en adjective: verb silken, lengthen

-ette noun (diminutive) kitchenette-ful adjective harmful-fy verb personify-graphy noun photography-ic adjective heroic-ical adjective historical-ing noun; adjective writing, interesting-ion noun rebellion-ise (ize) verb equalise-ish adjective wolfish-ism noun groupism-ist adjective opportunist-ity noun deformity-ive adjective remunerative-less adjective worthless-like adjective godlike-ling, -let noun (diminutive) princeling, starlet-logy adverb; adjective biology-ly adverb; adjective quickly, friendly-ment noun movement-ness noun darkness-ory adjective migratory-ous adjective dangerous-some adjective troublesome-th noun; ordinals width, tenth-ure noun failure-ward adjective westward-ways adjective; adverb sideways-wise adjective, adverb lengthwise-y noun discovery

The differences between Inflectional and Derivational Suffixes

The following points of difference between the two kinds of suffixes may be noted:

1. A derivational suffix usually changes the base into another word class (e.g. a

noun into an adjective, an adjective into a verb, etc.), while an inflectional suffix does not so change the base but fulfils certain grammatical requirements in the sentence.

2. More than one derivational suffix may occur together (e.g. loveliness,

personality, backwardness, etc.) but normally only one inflectional suffix occurs with the base.

3. Usually the inflectional suffix is the last item added to the base and no other

suffix occurs after it. Hence, when the two kinds of suffixes occur together, the inflectional suffix follows the derivational suffix.

Note: Sometimes, the distinction between the two kinds of suffix is

not very clear-cut. For example, in forms like doctor’s children’s, wives’, etc., the two inflectional suffixes (viz., the plural and the genitive) occur together. The forms of markedly, reportedly, etc, (-ed followed by –ly) and writings, doings, willingness, willingly (-ing followed by both inflectional and derivational suffixes) can be explained by assuming two derivational suffixes (-ed and –ing) identical in form with the two derivational suffixes. This accounts for the inclusion of these two suffixes in the list of inflectional as well as in derivational suffixes. In each case there are two phonemically identical forms, one inflectional and the other derivational.

Derivation affixes are bound morphemes which are added to the base in order to add meaning, to form a new word, or to change the word class (part of speech) of the base. A derivation affix may appear in the final position or may be followed by other derivational suffixes.

However, there is a large set of affixes in English called derivational affixes that usually (not always) change words from one part of speech to another. By adding the derivational affix signaled by –al to the verb base arrive, we get the noun arrival.

Compare: They usually arrive early.Their early arrival was typical.

The addition of the derivational suffix –ment to the verb ‘employ’ gives the noun ‘employment’.

Compare: They employ many new workers each year.His employment was terminated.

Sometimes the addition of a derivational affix changes a noun form to a verb form.

You are my friend.You befriend me.The addition of the affix be- to the noun ‘friend’ gives the

verbs the verb ‘befriend’ in the above example.You bring me joy.I enjoy you company.The addition of the affix en- changes the noun ‘joy’ to the verb

‘enjoy’.Derivational suffixes usually do not close off a word; that is,

after a derivational suffix one can sometimes add another derivational suffix and can frequently add an inflectional suffix. For example, to the word fertilize, which ends in a derivational suffix, one can add another one, -er, and to fertilizer one can add the inflectional suffix –s, closing off the word.

The following diagram summarises all the statements made above (applicable to English language only):

Morpheme

Free morpheme Bound morpheme

Prefixes Suffixes

Derivational Inflectional Derivational

Class Class Class Class

changing maintaining changing maintaining

AllomorphAn allomorph may be defined as the “variant of morpheme which

occurs in a certain definable environment”. One of the various distinct forms of a morpheme is an

allomorph. Allomorphs occur in predicable environments.(a)A morpheme may have one or more allomorph.(b)Allomorphs can be described in terms of phonemes.An abstract such as plural morpheme in English can be

represented in three forms:-s as in books, pens, marks-es as in beaches, dishes, peaches-en as in oxen, children, women

The suffixes –s, -es and –en, each, represent the plural morpheme in the English language. Each of these distinct forms cannot be established as a morpheme because they cannot occur independently, but do occur under phonetic conditioning, as follows:

-s occurs after sounds spelled with p, t, k, d, g, f, v, th, l, r, n, m, ng, y, w.

-es occurs after sounds spelled with ch, sh, s, z, x.-en does not occur under phonetic conditioning, but is a

matter of convention.

The negative particle not in English also has a bundle of allomorphs. Representing the negative not are im-, il-, ir-, un-, in-, and dis-.

Phonetic conditioning that determines the negative prefixes in-, im-, il-, ir-, and un-, in certain composite words is the initial sound of the base which follows each of the prefixes:

Im- is prefixed to possible bases with initial letter m or p as in immovable, improper, immature, impossible, immorality, impolite.

il- is prefixed to possible bases with initial letter I as in illegible, illegal, illiterate, illogical, illuminate, illiquid.

ir- is prefixed to possible bases with initial letter r as in irrelevant, irregular, irrational, irresponsible, irremovable, irreversible.

un- is prefixed to possible base with other initial letter sounds as in unbeloved, unhappy, unanalyzed, unburnt, unprejudiced, ungraceful.

in- is prefixed to possible bases with other initial letter sounds as in incapable, inapplicable, independent, inadequate, inhuman, insensible, inviolable,

dis- is prefixed to possible bases with other initial sounds as in disagree, dislike, disapprove, disestablish, disunion, disaffection.

In the relation to a bound morpheme, we should consider the notion of the allomorph. To simplify it, we can look at the way English nouns are pluralized in the following examples:

Nouns Plural morpheme Allomorphs of the plural morpheme

cat- /s/ cat + s /s/dog- /z/ dog + s /z/horse- /Iz/ horse +s /Iz/deer -/Ø/ deer + Ø /Ø/ox- /∂ z/ ox + en /∂ z/

/s/ occurs after the singular forms of nouns ending in voiceless consonants,

except the sibilants and affricates./z/ occurs after the singular forms of nouns ending in voiced consonants or

vowels, except the sibilants and affricates./Iz/ occurs after the singular forms of nouns ending in the sibilants and

affricates.In cases where there is no marker for the plural (as in ‘deer’,

sheep,’ etc.) the allomorph of the plural morpheme is shown as /Ø/ {=zero); it is called a zero allomorph.

In the case where the plural meaning is manifested through the phonological modification such as a change in the vowel of the noun as in ‘man’, ‘men’, the allomorph shows a process; it is called a process allomorph.

The occurrence of the allomorphs /s/, /z/ and /Iz/ of the plural morpheme in English is predictable in terms of phonological ending of the base form of the noun. This kind of predictability is called phonological conditioning.

But the occurrence of the allomorph /∂z/ in words like ‘oxen’, ‘children’, etc., is not predictable in term of the phonologically. What is not phonologically conditioned is morphological conditioned.

Allomorphs of morphemes may change their phonemic shapes due to two types of conditioning:

(a)phonological or phonemic conditioning(b)morphological conditioning

(a) Phonological conditionWe shall first examine the following sets of words:

A B

sets /sets/ beds /bedz/bits /bits/ lads /ldz/bats /bt/ cabs /kbz/caps /kps/ clubs /klbz/clips /klips/ beads /bi:dz/

The pluralizing suffix in set A appears as /s/; in set B it appears as /z/. This can be explained as due to the occurrence of the final sound of the stem (root) which is voiced or voiceless. In set A words end in the voiceless sounds /t/ and /p/ affecting the plural morpheme which also appears as a voiceless phoneme /-s/. But in set B the stems end in voiced sound and affect the plural morpheme, which becomes /-z/. The phonetic quality of one sound affected sound is phonetically conditioned. Both /-s/ and /-z/ are the allomorphs of the plural morpheme. Their positions cannot be interchanged, i.e., we cannot have /z/ placed in set A and /s/ in set B. Thus, sounds are in complementary distribution. In the same way words ‘rose, pose, advise, horse, judge’ take the plural morpheme which is phonemically realized as /Iz/ so we have rose Iz/; pose Iz; horse /Izetc. These words also show phonological conditioning.

We thus obtain three phonologically conditioned allomorphs of the plural morpheme /s/ - /z/ - /Iz/. Phonological is predictable.

{Plural Morpheme}

/s/ /z/ /Iz/

{Past Tense Morpheme}

/t/ /d/ /Id/

(b) Morphological conditionThe regularity of phonological conditioning is restricted. There

are several irregular forms that do not show the predictable direction of morphophonemic changes. We can always explain reasonably why such variant forms as the /t/ - /d/ - /Id/ occur for past tense and /s/ - /z/ - /Iz/ for plural morpheme.

But such explanation is not possible in the case of the plural form of ‘child – children’, and ‘sheep – sheep’. These forms are not phonologically conditioned., i.e. the proximity of a sound does not affect these forms. en is peculiar to ‘children, oxen’ and ‘brethren’. Such changes are said to be due to morphological conditioning.

We shall consider below some major types of morphological conditioning.

1) Zero suffix2) Vowel mutation3) Consonant change

Zero suffixCertain words in English do not show any change of

form when inflected either of pluralizing or being made into past tense form. These singular – plural and present tense forms are alike.

Set A Singular Set B (Plural)sheep sheepdeer deercattle cattle

Set A Present Tense Set B Past Tensecut cutput puthit hitbeat beat

But we know that set A words are in the present tense and that set B

words are in the past tense. With this understanding we use the words.

There is a sheep.There are sheep.He cutsHe has cut

We can say that a zero suffix of plural and a zero suffix of the past tense

has been added to these forms. The change is not one of overt alternation in the phonemic shape of the morpheme (allomorph). They are said to undergo a zero modification. This is shown by /Ø/ symbol which is called zero allomorph.

Thus, ‘sheep’ is written as + Ø /‘cut’ is written as Ø/

Vowel mutationLet us take another example; the plural form of ‘man’ is

‘men’ that of ‘woman’ is ‘women’, and ‘louse’ is ‘lice’. In making them plural we see that nothing has been added, but a change in the vowel and diphthong has been made.

/a/ -- > /e//au/ -- > /aI/

Similarly, for making past tense, we can change the vowels as shown

below:find – found /aI/ -- > /au/swim – swam /I/ -- > /bring – brought /I/ -- > //

seek – sought // -- > //catch – caught / -- > //feed – fed // -- > /e/

These changes too cannot be explained by the process of phonetic

change. These irregular changes are known as vowel-mutation.A few more examples can to be seen below:fly – flew /aI/ -- > /u:/slay – slew /eI/ -- > /u:/get – got /e/ -- > //meet – met /I:/ -- > /e/take – took /eI/ - > /u/

Vowel mutation can also be seen in verb-making, adjectivising, noun-

making, and so on.

Consonant changeApart from vowel changes, pluralizing is effected by

changes in consonants also. Some English words ending in /f/ -leaf, life, wife, knife, shelf, loaf, make their plural by converting /f/ into /v/ and adding /z/. Examples are given below:

shelf /elf/ -- > shelves /elvz/sheaf /I:f/ -- > sheaves /I:vz/knife /naIf/ -- > knives /naIvz/wolf /wulf/ -- > wolves /wulvz/wife /waIf/ -- > wives /wIvz/

But here too we observe irregularity. Not all words ending in /f/ undergo

such changes – ‘proof, roof’ and ‘reef’, to name only three, take /s/ for changing into plural form; while ‘hoof’ is pluralized both by simply adding /s/ - ‘hoofs’ and through the process of consonant change – ‘hooves’.

In the case of past tense formation also we observe consonant replacement –

send -- > sentbend -- > bent /d/ -- > /t/lend -- > lentspend -- > spent

MorphThe concept of morph recognizes that a morpheme has a

phonetic shape. This phonetic representation is called its morph. The word ‘writer’ has two morphemes, ‘write’ and ‘-er’. These are realizable in the phonetic shapes as / and / -∂:/. These are two morphs of the morpheme (or word in this case).

When the word is segmented into parts, the different parts are referred to as morphs. For the analysis of word structure, a term

related to morpheme is established: morph. When a word segment represents one morpheme in sound or writing, the segment is a morph. For example, unhappiness, is comprised of three segments un-, happy, ness, and each segment represents one morpheme. We say that unhappiness consists of three morphemes; famous contains two morphs; and mouse has just one morph. The word happier thus consists of two morphs which can be orthographically written as happy and er (conventions of English orthography allowing a charge of ‘y’ into ‘i’). In phonological transcription the two morphs can be represented as /hpI/ and /∂ /. Each morph thus represents (or is the exponent or factor of) a particular morpheme.

The terms ‘morpheme’ and ‘morph’ are thus comparable to the term ‘form’ and ‘substance’ given by Saussure. The morpheme is an element of form which may be represented directly by phonological (or orthographical) segments with a particular ‘shape’ i.e. by morphs. It is customary to represent morphemes between braces. For example the word went (phonologically /went/) which cannot be segmented into morphs, represents the combination of two morphemes.

Sometimes, a particular morpheme may be represented not by the same morph but by different morphs in different environments. Such different representations of a morpheme are called allomorphs.

Examples:Plural morpheme

Allomorphs/Iz/ in the case of word ending in /s/, /z/, //, / /, // , d/ e.g. buses /bsIz/, vases /v:zIz/, bushes /bIz/,

rouges /re:Iz/, churches /;Iz/{e(s)} /s/ in the case of word ending in a voiceless consonants (other than //,/s/

// e.g. cats /kt/, cap /kps//z/ in the case of words ending in voiced sounds (other than /z/, / / and /d/ e.g. boys /bIz/, bags /bgz/

Similarly, present tense morphemes {-e(s)} have three allomorphs /s/, /z/ and /Iz/, e.g. packs /pks/, digs /diz/, washes /wIz/. The past tense morpheme of English, {-e(d)} has also three different (phonological conditioned) allomorphs /t/, /d/ and /Id/. The rule that governs these allomorphs is as follows:

Past morpheme/t/ after morphs ending in voiceless sound (except /t/)e.g. booked /bkt, pushed /pt/

{e(d)} /d/ after morphs ending in voiced sounds (except /d/)

e.g. love /lvd/, bagged /bd//Id/ after morphs ending in /t/ and /d/ e.g. wanted /wntId/, wedded /wedId/

possibleregularizelogicalhappyappropriatecatchurchoxpower

Lexical Analysis: morpheme, allomorph, morph

Lexicon

(Lexical Analysis)

Morpheme

(Segmented)

Morphs

Allomorphs

The relationship between the terms morph, allomorph and morpheme is similar to that between phone, allophone and phoneme. The term ’morph’ means shape. Any minimal phonetic form that has meaning is a morph. Thus, buses /bsIz/ = Iz, bushes /bIz/ =Iz , cap /kps/ =/s/ are all morphs. Those morphs which belong to the same morpheme are called allomorphs of that morpheme. Thus /s/, /z/ and /Iz/ are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme {e(s)}. Similarly, a phoneme is a minimal, distinctive unit in the sound system of language. A phoneme may sometimes occur in more than one phonetic form, called allophone. These phonetic forms have considerable phonetic similarity between them and their phonological function is the same. They, however, never occur in the same phonetic environment and are said to be in complimentary distribution. Allomorphs, like allophones, are also in complimentary distribution. The phonemes /p/, /t/ and /k/ for example, have two phonetic forms each i.e. [p] and [ph], [t] and [th], [k] and [kh]. Here [p] and [ph] are the allophones of the phoneme /p/. All speech sounds (phonemes as well as allophones) are called phones.

Im-Ir-Il-

em-in-

-s-es

It may be noted that in some languages words can generally be segmented into parts (morphs) while it is not so in others. Similarly, there are languages in which the morph tends to represent a single minimal grammatical unit (a morpheme) while these are others in which it is not so. Allomorphs too exist in some language only.

SummaryA word may consist of a single morpheme or a number of

morphemes. For instance, the word ‘meaningful’ is made up of three meaningful units or morphemes; namely ‘mean, ing and ful’. Of these meanings, however, only one, namely, ‘mean’, can stand by itself; the others, though carrying some meaning, cannot stand singly. The morpheme that can stand by itself is called a free morpheme and the one that cannot is called a bound morpheme. A morpheme is a minimal, meaningful unit in the grammatical system of a language. A systematical study of morphemes or how morphemes join to form words is known as morphology. A large number of words can be broken into segments. Such words are said to be determinate with respect to segmentation while some others (e.g. broke, better) are indeterminate with respect to segmentation. In the case of the word belonging to the latter type, it is conventional to use the term ‘factor’ for morphemes, e.g. spoke = {speak} + {ed}.

Sometimes a particular morpheme may be represented not the by same morph but by different morphs in different phonetic environments. Such different representations of a morpheme are called allomorphs. The plural morpheme in English, for example, is represented by three different allomorphs: /s/, /z/, /z/ in a different environment. Consider the following cases:

2) The plural morpheme –s is pronounced in three different common

ways: in ‘cats’ it is /-s/ : in ‘boy’ it is /-z/, and in ‘rose’ it is /-z/.3) The past tense morpheme –ed in verbs is pronounced

in three different common ways: in ‘ruled’ it is /-d/ : in ‘stopped’ it is /-t/ : and in wanted it is /d/.

Thus /s/, /z/ and /z/ above are three allomorphs of a single morpheme or are members of the same plural morphemes. Similarly, : /-d/, /-t/, /-d/ are three allomorphs of single past-tense morphemes. They are considered as such because they occur in a certain definable environment as,

- /-s/ (as also /-t/) occurs after voiceless consonants.- /-z/ (as also /-d/) occurs after voiced consonants.- /-z/ occurs after the consonants /s/, /z/, //, //.- /-d/ occurs after the consonants /t/ and /d/.Some morphemes can stand on their own as independent

morphemes (e.g. sad, regard, girl). Such morphemes are called free morphemes. On the other hand, morphemes like –ed and -un can

not stand on their own as independent words, and are called bound morphemes. Bound morphemes are also called affixes. Affixes may be divided into prefixes and suffixes. These are two important kinds:

1) Prefixes: Affixes which are added at the beginning of a base (free

morpheme) are prefix, for example. un- in the word ‘unkind’, de-in the word ‘demerit’, re- in the

word ‘resign’.2) Suffixes: Affixes which are added after the base (free

morpheme) are called suffixes, for example.

-ly in the word ‘manly’; -s in the word ‘boys’: -hood in the word ‘boyhood’ ; -er in the word ‘player’.

There are two kinds of Suffixes:1) Derivational Suffix: The derivational suffix changes

the part of speech of the word to which it is added. For example, -ly is a derivational suffix. When added to the base ‘man’ (noun), we get ‘manly’ which is an adjective. More examples of derivational suffixes are:

Suffix ‘–en’: fright (n) -- > frighten (v); strength (n) -- > strengthen (v)

Suffix ‘– ve, ize’: memory (n) -- > memorize (v); sympathy (n) -- > sympathize (v)

Suffix ‘– fy’: beauty (n) -- > beautify (v)Suffix ‘– ment’: encourage (v) -- > encouragement (n)Other derivational suffixes are; -ion, -tion, -iton, -cation, -ance,

-ence, -ture, -ature, -er, -or, -ar, -ist, -ant, etc.2) Inflectional Suffix: The inflectional suffix merely

modifies the word to which it is added, without changing its part of speech. No other suffix can ordinarily be added to it. A number of inflectional suffixes commonly used in English are mentioned here. These are:

1) The plural –s in boys, girls, cats, dishes, etc., the sound which

may vary as /s/, /z/, / and /Iz/.2) The possessives in Samran’s, Somsak’s, the sound

of which may also vary as /s/, /z/, / and /Iz/.

3) The verb-person and number-suffix includes the three forms of

‘be’, is, am, are, -s in ‘sleep, plays, rises,’ the sound varies as /s/, /z/, / and /Iz/.

4) The verb past tense suffix ‘-ed’ in ‘stepped, rubbed, and wanted,

the sound of which varies as /t/, /d/ and /Id/.

5) The verb continuous – forming suffix ‘-ing’ in sleeping, going, etc.

6) The verb past-participle suffix ‘-ed’ or ‘-en’ with its perfective and

passive functions (the perfective being form with the helping verb ‘have’, and the passive with the helping verb ‘be’).

7) The suffixes that occur with the comparative and superlative

markers ‘-er and –est’, as the set fine-finer-finest.

8) The suffixes in the pronoun system of English. For example.

Subject: I you

he she it we they

Object: me you

him her it us them

Possessive I:

my your

his her its our their

Possessive II:

mine

your

his hers

its ours

theirs