english morphology

Aim and objectives Subject aim: The purpose of this course is to introduce students words and word-formation processes in English.. Students are expected to investigate the internal str

ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

Võ Nguyễn Hồng Lam Subject lecturer

English Morphology Subject name

Aim and objectives

Subject aim:

The purpose of this course is to introduce students words and word-formation processes in English Students are expected to investigate the internal

structures of words and the rules by which words are formed.

Subject objectives: At the end of this course, students are able to:

- Explain the terms used in English word-formation.

- Describe the word-formation processes used in English.

- Distinguish different types of morphemes.

- Make comparison between English formation and Vietnamese

word-Textbooks and reference books

Textbooks:

1 The Study of Language (Third Edition) by George Yule

2 English Word-formation by Laurie Bauer

3 Morphology (Second Edition) by Francis Katamba & John Stonham

Reference books:

1 A Glossary of Morphology by Laurie Bauer

2 An introduction to Language by Fromkin et al

3 periods Study questions and research tasks (2)

9

3 periods Morphological description

8

3 periods Morphology- Types of morphemes (cont)

7

3 periods Morphology- Types of morphemes

6

3 periods Study questions and research tasks (1)

5

3 periods Compounding and Derivation

4

3 periods Word and word-formation processes (cont)

3

3 periods Word and word-formation processes

2

3 periods Course introduction

1

Notes Contents

Session

CLASS RULES

Come on time

Come prepared

Come ready to participate

One person speaks at a time

No cell phone use during the lesson

WORDS AND WORD-FORMATION

PROCESSES

The study of the origin and history of a word.

1 Coinage 6 Back formation

Coinage: (one of the least common processes

of word formation in English)

The invention of totally new terms

Ex: aspirin, xerox, vaseline

Borrowing: (one of the most common sources of new words

in English)

The taking over of words from other languages

Ex: chalet (Swiss), Geisha (Japanese), baguette (French)

elements of a word into the borrowing language.

gratte-ciel (French term) from “scrape-sky”

wolkenkrabber (Dutch term) from “cloud scratcher ”

Compounding: a joining of (at least) two

Ex:

- Ginger- haired (chap)

- Back- to- school (sale)

- End- of- season (clothing sale)

- off- site training / on-site training (program)

- (a) not-for-profit organization

- Not-too-distant (future)

Full-time/ part- time

Blending: The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term Blending is typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word.

Ex:

- Sitcom (situation comedy)

- Motel (motor + hotel)

Infotainment (information + entertainment)

Clipping: the reduction of a word

Ex:

- Condo (condominium)

- Flu (influenza)

- Gas (gasoline)

A longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then –y or –ie is added to the end.

Ex:

- Goalie (goalkeeper)

- Telly (television)

Brekky (breakfast)

Backformation: a word of one type (N) is reduced

to form a word of another type (V).

Ex:

- Television (n) televise (v)

- Donation (n)  donate (v)

- Babysitter (n)  babysit (v)

Conversion: a change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb

(without any reduction)

Acronyms: are new words formed from the

initial letters of a set of other words.

Ex:

- ATM: Automatic teller machine

- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

- BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation

- VOA: Voice of America

PIN: Personal Identification Number

Derivation: (the most common word-formation process) This process is formed by adding affixes to the original words.

Affixes

Prefixes: mislead, foresee, discourage

Suffixes: foolish, careless, faithful

Infixes: unfuckinbelievable, Singabloodypore

(usually taboo, not good to use)

Multiple processes: These word-formation processes are formed by at least two processes

Words and word-formation

processes

Quan ngại (quan tâm + lo ngại)

Khái lược (khái quát + sơ lược)

Nhiệt thành (nhiệt tình + chân thành)

Trung kiên (trung thành + kiên cường)

ứng xử (ứng phó + xử lý)

Giao tế (giao tiếp quốc tế)

Kí túc (kí túc xá)

ủy ban (ủy ban nhân dân)

Kho bạc (kho bạc nhà nước)

Doanh trại (doanh trại quân đội)

???

Học (v) – việc học (n)

Hành trình (v)- cuộc hành trình (n)

Di chuyển (v)- sự di chuyển (n)

Nhân ái (adj)- tình nhân ái (n)

Công nghiệp (n)- công nghiệp hóa (v)Tin học (n)- tin học hóa (v)

Compounding

2 Compound verbs

1 Noun + verb: sky-dive

2 Verb + noun: shunpike

3 Verb + verb: typewrite

4 Adjective + verb: double-think

5 Particle + verb: overbook

6 Adjective + noun: bad-mouth

7 Noun + noun: brainstorm

3 Compound adjectives

7 Adjective + noun White-collar (worker)

8 Particle + noun Before-tax (profits)

9 Verb + verb Go-go (dancer)

10 Adjective + verb High-rise (tower)

11 Verb + particle See-through (blouse)

4 Compound adverbs

Overnight

Double-quick

5 Other form classes

Into; onto (compound prepositions)

Somebody; anyone (compound pronouns)

Whenever; so that (compound conjunctions)

6 Rhyme-motivated compounds

Roly-poly (boy)

Brain-drain

7 Ablaut-motivated compounds

zig-zag

Riff-raff

Morphology

Swahili >< English

ni -ta -ku -penda (Swahili- East Africa)

I will you love (English)

(I will love you)

 It would seem that this Swahili ‘word’ is rather

different from what we think as an English ‘word’

 Morphology: the study of the basic element used in

a language

MORPHOLOGY: THE WORDS OF LANGUAGE

grammatical function.

Examples:

‘teachers’ has three morphemes (teach, er and s)

Free and bound morphemes

by themselves as single words

Examples: lock, want

stand alone and are typically attached to

another form

Examples: un(lock), (want)ed

Lexical and functional morphemes

adjectives and verbs They carry the ‘content’ of the messages we convey They are treated as an ‘open’class of words Ex: house, sad, look

of the functional words in the language such as

conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns

They are described as a ‘closed’ class of words Ex:

but, on, an, they

Derivational and inflectional morphemes

 We use these bound morphemes to make new words or to make words of a different grammatical category from the stem.

morphemes: noun (2), verb (4), adjective (2).

 These bound morphemes are not used to produce new

words in the language, but rather to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word.

Morphological description

How many morphemes can you identify in the

following sentence?

The child’s wildness shocked the teachers.

the: functional, child: lexical, -’s: inflectional,

wild: lexical, ness: derivational, shock: lexical, ed: inflectional, the: functional, teach: lexical, -er: derivational, -s: inflectional

-Morphs and allomorphs

put + {past tense}  put

go + {past tense}  went

read + {past tense}  read

walk + {past tense}  walked

cat + {plural}  cats

bus + {plural}  buses

sheep + {plural}  sheep

man + {plural}  men

Morphs and allomorphs (cont)

more morphs (surface forms) in different environments These morphs are called

An allomorph is one of two or more

complementary morphs which manifest a

morpheme in its different phonological or morphological environments

More exercises

Alternate the following phrases, clauses, or sentences in a more effective way by applying morphological rules.

Example:

1 University degree is something that everyone

must have to apply for a job.

3 People usually talk about the environmental

pollution.

4 The TOEFL is based on English used in the

classroom but the TOEIC is based on English used in the workplace.

5 Rice is briefing European officials on the results

of her tour in six countries in the Middle East.

6 Don’t try to have a pronunciation which is similar to

that produced by native speakers.

7 Education should be considered the most important.

8 A latest report by the branch of the State Bank of

Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City says that capital that the commercial banks have mobilized has grown steadily.

10 South Korea refused to satisfy the demands of those

who are keeping the hostages.

Match the expressions on the left with the correct morphological description on the right.

1 compound noun

2 root morpheme plus derivational prefix

3 phrase consisting of adjective plus noun

4 root morpheme plus inflectional suffix

5 root morpheme plus derivational suffix

6 grammatical morpheme followed by