Section 1 | Morphology Basics

Morphology

• Study of word structure.

  • Involves understanding how words are formed from smaller units called morphemes.

• Key Concepts:

  • Morphemes: Smallest units of meaning.

  • Word Formation: Combining morphemes.

Morphemes

• Smallest units of meaning in a word.

Types of Morphemes

• Free vs. Bound Morphemes

  • Free: Stand alone (e.g., "cat," "run").

  • Bound: Attach to others (e.g., "un-," "-ing").

• Lexical vs. Grammatical Morphemes

  • Lexical: Inherent meaning (nouns, verbs, etc.).

  • Grammatical: Connect/modify words (articles, prepositions, etc.).

Affixes

• Bound morphemes modifying meaning/grammatical function.

• Types

  • Prefixes: Beginning (e.g., un-happy).

  • Suffixes: End (e.g., happiness).

  • Infixes: Within (rare in English).

  • Circumfixes: Both ends (not in English).

Inflectional Morphology

• Modifies words to express grammatical categories (tense, number, etc.) without changing lexical meaning.

• Benefits

  • Shows grammatical relationships.

  • Helps construct accurate sentences.

  • Enhances language comprehension.

Derivational Morphology

• Creates new words, changing meaning/lexical category.

Allomorphs

• Sound variations of a morpheme in specific environments.

Word Formation Processes

• Monomorphemic: One morpheme.

• Polymorphemic: Multiple morphemes.

  • Compounding: Combining free morphemes (e.g., chalkboard).

  • Affixation: Adding bound morphemes.

  • Derived: Lexical affixes (e.g., un-breakable).

  • Inflected: Grammatical affixes (e.g., walk-ing).

  

  Morphological Analysis

• Breaking words into morphemes to understand types.

• e.g., "unbreakable": un- (prefix), break (base), -able (suffix).