Transcript Introduction to Linguistics - An

Introduction to Linguistics
Ms. Suha Jawabreh
Lecture 15
Review: What is Morphology?
Morphology, in linguistics, is the study of the forms
and the structure of words.
- Word-forms may consist of elements.
-Example :
tour-ist-s = tourists
re-open-ed = reopened
- We call these elements : morphemes .
What is a morpheme?
A morpheme is a minimal
unit of meaning or
grammatical function.
Types of morphemes
There are two types of morphemes:
1. Free morphemes : morphemes which can stand
by themselves as single words.
E.g. Open , tour
2. Bound morphemes: morphemes what can NOT
stand alone. (all affixes are bound morphemes in
English)
E.g. –ist , -ful, un-
What is the stem?
-The stem is the basic word-form.
-Identify the stems in the question in the previous
slide.
- Are all stems free morphemes?
Types of free morphemes
1. Lexical morphemes.
They are words which carry ‘content’ of messages
we convey.
E.g. Look, follow, yellow, break, house boy.
- We can add new lexical morphemes to the
language easily, so they are treated as open class
of words.
2. Functional morphemes.
They consist of conjunctions, prepositions, articles
and pronouns.
E.g. But, when, because, on, a, near, she, they.
- We almost never add new functional morphemes
to the language; they are describes as a closed
class of words.
Types of bound morphemes
1. Derivational morphemes.
-They are used to make new words in the language
and often change the grammatical category of the
stem.
Example :
care (n.)+ less = careless (adj.)
good (adj.)+ness= goodness (n.)
-less and –ness are derivational morphemes.
2. Inflectional morphemes.
-They are NOT used to produce new words in
English, but rather to indicate aspects of
grammatical function of a word.
- Inflectional morphemes are used to show if the
word is
1. plural or singular
2. past tense or not
3. a comparative or possessive form
- All inflectional morphemes in English are
suffixes.
- English has eight inflectional morphemes:
Noun + ‘s , -s
Verb + -s, -ing, -ed,-en
Adjective + -est , -er
Derivational vs. Inflectional
What is the difference between derivational and
inflectional morphemes?
1. An inflectional morpheme never changes the
grammatical category of a word.
Example :
old (adj) , older (adj), oldest (adj)
2. A derivational morpheme can change the
grammatical category of a word.
Example: teach (v) , teacher (n)
Question : what is the difference between –er in
older and –er in teacher?
Morphs & allomorphs
Answer the following questions:
1. What is the plural of cat?
2. What is the plural of man?
3. What is the plural of sheep?
4. What is the plural of ox?
5. What is the plural of syllabus, criterion?
6. What is the plural of mouse?
7. What is the plural of bus?
8. What is the plural of dog?
Allomorphs of the morpheme ‘plural’
‘plural’
Allomorphs of the morpheme ‘past
tense’
‘past tense’