3 - words and morphemes

Lexeme

an abstract, dictionary-level unit of meaning.

• it underlies all its inflected variants.

• represented in capital letters (e.g., RUN, GO).

Syntactic Word (Word Form)

an inflected instance of a lexeme used in actual grammar.

• runs, ran, running are forms of the lexeme RUN.

Paradigm

the complete set of inflected forms of a lexeme.

• run, runs, ran, running

Orthographic Word

a sequence of graphic symbols bounded by spaces.

Morpheme

the smallest meaningful unit in a language.

• cannot be subdivided without losing meaning.

• Written in curly brackets: {walk}

Morph

the actual spoken or written form of a morpheme.

Allomorphs

variant forms of the same morpheme in complementary distribution.

English plural morpheme {-s} has:

• /s/ in cats

• /z/ in dogs

• /ɪz/ in buses

Conditioning of Allomorphy

• Phonological: Due to surrounding sounds.

• Lexical: Specific to certain words.

• Morphological: Influenced by affixation patterns.

Emic vs. Etic Approach

Emic: Refers to underlying morphemes (abstract units).

Etic: Refers to morphs and allomorphs (surface forms).

Free Morphemes

can occur independently as words (monomorphemic).

• {book}, {green}, {go}

Bound Morphemes

cannot stand alone; must attach to other morphemes.

• {un-}, {-ed}, {-s}

Affixes

bound morphemes attached to roots or stems.

Type	Position	Function	Example
Prefix	Before stem	Always derivational	un-happy
Suffix	After stem	Inflectional or derivational	happy*-ness*, walk*-ed*

Inflectional Affixes: add grammatical information without changing word class. (run → runs)

Derivational Affixes: form a new lexeme by altering meaning or syntactic category. (happy → happiness)

Root

the core morpheme with all affixes removed.

• usually a free morpheme.

• {act} in reactivation

Stem

the part of a word to which inflectional affixes are added.

• may include derivational affixes.

• unhappy is the stem in unhappier.

Morphological Typology of Languages

Type	Description	Examples
Isolating	Words consist of single morphemes; little/no affixation	Mandarin Chinese
Agglutinating	Words are sequences of separable morphemes, each with one function	Turkish
Fusional	Morphemes encode multiple grammatical meanings in one form	Latin, Russian

 Derivation

creating a new lexeme by adding derivational affixes.

• create → creation (verb → noun)

Conversion (Zero Derivation)

changing word class without altering form.

• Google (noun) → to Google (verb)

Approximate Conversion

minor phonological change marks word class shift.

• record (noun: /ˈrekɔːd/) vs. record (verb: /rɪˈkɔːd/)

Compounding

combining two or more lexemes/roots

• blackboard

Clipping

shortening a lexeme to a more informal form.

• advertisement → ad

Blending

combining fragments of two lexemes.

• smoke + fog → smog

Backformation

creating a new lexeme by removing an apparent affix.

• editor → edit

Acronym Formation

using initial letters/syllables to form new lexemes.

• NASA, radar

Blocking

when a word that already exists prevents a new one from being made or used.

• not "childs" → “children” blocks the regular plural.

• not "stealer" → “thief” already exists and means the same thing