Morphology studies the internal structure of words.
Morphology examines how morphemes combine to form words.
Morphology identifies the smallest meaningful units of language, called morphemes.
Morphology studies the systematic covariation of word form and meaning.
Morphology's focus is on the structure of words, with words composed of sound sequences and phonological structures.
Definition of a Word
The word is a fundamental unit in grammar, lexicography, and the distinction between morphology and syntax.
The term "word" can refer to the radical form or inflected forms.
Lexeme: A lexeme can be realized as a word in different forms (e.g., (\text{chant} \rightarrow \text{chantions})).
Variations within a paradigm are associated with functional changes of the lexeme.
Graphic Word: A unit between two spaces in writing, but this definition has inconsistencies.
Intonative Criterion: Defines a word as an accentual unit but doesn't account for languages without word accents or unaccented words like clitic pronouns.
Morphological Typology
Languages differ in how prominently they use morphology.
What one language expresses through morphology, another may express through separate words.
Languages can be classified based on the autonomy of elements (bases and affixes) and the degree of synthesis:
Isolating (Analytic) Languages
Agglutinative Languages
Fusional Languages
Polysynthetic Languages
Types of Languages
Isolating Languages: Words are invariable and lack conjugations, declensions, or agreement markers (e.g., Vietnamese).
Agglutinative Languages: Words are formed by "gluing" affixes to a radical, with clear boundaries between morphemes and each morph corresponds to a single semantic or grammatical information (e.g., Finnish, Turkish).
Fusional Languages: Affixes can express multiple grammatical relationships (gender, number, case, tense) simultaneously, and affix boundaries are often unclear (e.g., Latin).
Polysynthetic Languages: Words are composed of many morphemes and can correspond to entire phrases in other languages (e.g., Kalaallisut).
Types of Morphemes
Lexical Morphemes: Denote new concepts and are like "complex" lexemes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs). They are open class, benefit from permanent contributions, and are recorded in dictionaries.
Grammatical Morphemes: Organize relationships between lexemes. They are limited in number and part of paradigms (articles, number, tense, prepositions).
Morphological Relations
Flexion: Relationship between different words of the same lexeme; does not change the category of the base (V -> V).
Derivation: Relationship between lexemes of a word family.
Bases and Affixes
Bases can be concrete (lav-) or abstract (-able in lavable).
A word comprises a base (chant-) or a base and affixes (chant-eur).
Lexical Bases: Can exist autonomously (bases libres) or only in complex forms (bases liées).
Radical: A verbal base.
Types of Affixes:
Prefixes: Before the base (ir-réalis-able).
Suffixes: After the base (chant-er).
Infixes: Inside the base.
Circonfixes: Around the base.
Other Morphological Operations
Reduplication: Copying part or all of a base (e.g., Malagasy, Ponapean).
Duplifixes: Combination of copied and fixed segments (e.g., Somali, Tzutujil).
Morphemes, Morphs, and Allomorphs
Morphemes are abstract units of meaning.
Morphs are the concrete phonological realizations of morphemes.
Allomorphs are different forms of the same morpheme (e.g., peuv- / pouv- in French).
Portmanteau Morph: A single morph that cumulates several morphemes (e.g., French "au" = à + le).
Suppletion: Replacement of one stem by another, with the same function, and without any phonological similarity (e.g. go -> went).
Morphological Typology - Flexion
Flexion relates to the different forms of the same lexeme (number, tense, gender).
Flexion does not change the category of the base.
Flexion indicates the relationship of the lexeme to the phrase.
Cases: Translate the function of the noun in the sentence.
Gender: Agreement outside the nouns themselves. May be marked overtly (on the name) or covertly (through articles).
Number: Plurality is often indicated by adding an "s" in writing.
Morphological Typology - Derivation
Derivation is the formation of new words from existing words.
Suffixes can change the syntactic category of words, while prefixes generally do not.
Conversion: A change in the grammatical nature of an existing word (N -> Adj).
Parasynthétique Formation: Adding both a prefix and a suffix simultaneously.
Affixes can be homonymous, having multiple meanings.