Morphology
- Morphology: the study of word formation and meaningful changes in the forms of words
* meaningful changes in syntax often have morphological changes
* morphemes: smallest meaningful units of words - Basic Terminology
* Simplex / Monomorphic word: word cannot be broken down further and still have meaning
* Complex / Polymorphic word: can be broken down further (sunset, background, jumping)
* Parse: break down a complex word into its simplest element
* Lexical Morpheme: carries syntactic meaning, roots
* Grammatical Morpheme: carries syntactic meaning. specifies lexical category (noun, verb, etc.)
* ex: childish. child = lexical. ish = grammatical
* root: structural center. morpheme which other bound morphemes latch onto
* stems: root that has already been modified by a bound morpheme and is modified by a further morpheme
* prefix and suffix
* affixes: any added elements (prefixes, circumfixes, suffixes)
* circumfixes: adding both prefix and suffix in order to change the meaning
* inflexion: changing conjugate forms of the same word
* ex: dance - dances - danced - dancing
* lexeme: speakers are aware of inflectionally related forms of lexemes
* derivation: a new word form is created from an existing word
* usually in different lexical category
* you’re my friend (n) ➝ friend (v) me on insta - other processes
* prefixation
* suffixation
* infixation: morpheme inserted in the middle of a complex root
* compounding: the formation of new words through two independent words
* reduplication: repetition of all or part of a morpheme to create a new word of a different meaning
* pingan (dish) ➝ pingan pingan (dishes)
* talon (field) ➝ tal-talon (fields)
* stem alterations: nothing is added or subtracted from the word - there’s an internal alteration to the root
* man ➝ men
* tooth ➝ teeth
* zero derivation: shift in lexical class w/out a change in phonological or morphological form
* ex: fish (animal) and fish (go fishing)
* suppletion: when a morpheme has a completely unrelated root as part of its set of forms
* kind kinder kindest
* good gooder goodest*
* good better best