MORPHOLOGY

MORPHOLOGY

Morphology is the study of word formation, was to describe all the basic element  which are used in language. And the Morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning.  For example of morpheme: 

1. “The police reopened the investigation” ,
there is consist  of three morphemes. One minimal unit of meaning is open, another minimal unit of meaning is re- (meaning ‘again’) and a minimal unit of grammatical function is –ed (indicating past tense).

Three principal approaches to Morphology,  there are  :

- Morpheme-based Morphology, which makes use of an Item-and-Arrangement approach.
- Lexeme-based Morphology, which normally makes use of an Item-and- Process approach.
- Word-based Morphology, which normally use of a Word-and Paradigm approach.

Free and bound morphemes

Free morphemes can stand by themselves as single words . Bound morphemes cannot stand by itself as it would have no meaning.
Free morphemes can be subdivided into two categories:

1. Lexical morphemes are words that have some meaning –verbs, adjectives, nouns.
For example : print, house, pretty, fire, go, girl.
2. Functional morphemes, on the other hand, are a closed class of words, prepositions, pronouns.
For example : and, but, when, because, on, near, above, to, that, that, it.

Bound Morpheme which are subdivided into

1. Derivational Morpheme, are those morphemes which produce new words, or change the function of a word.

2. Inflectional morphemes do not create new words, but only show grammatical functions of a word. A good example of an inflectional language could be Latin which has numerous case endings for nouns, as well as endings for verbs and adjectives. For examples :

- To make plural : Boy-boys, car-cars, etc.

- To form tenses : Walk-walked, go-gone, present-presented,etc.

- To make comparison : Long, longer, and longest.

- To show possessive : Boy : Boy’s room, girl’s room, etc.

We noted that there is a morpheme in English, meaning “not” that has the form un and that when combined with adjectives like afraid, fit, free, smooth, American, and British forms the antonyms, or negatives, of  these adjectives – for examples, unafraid, unfit, unfree, unsmooth, un-American, and un-British. We can also add the prefix un- to derived words that have been formed by morphological rules.

Un + believe + able
Un + accept + able
Un + talk + about + able
Un + keep + off + able
Un + speak + able

The rule seems to be freely applicable to an adjectival form derived from a verb, as in unenlightened, unsimplified, uncharacterized, unauthorized, undistinguished, and so on.It’s true, however, that we cannot always know the meaning of the words derived from free and derivational morphemes from the morphemes themselves. The following un + words unpredictable meanings:

Unloosen         loosen, let loose

Unrip               rip, undo by ripping

Undo               reverse doing

Untread                        go back through in the same steps

Unearth                        dig up

Un frock          deprive (in cleric) of ecclesiastic rank

Unnerve           fluster

ALLOMORPH

where the same distinction is effected by alternative forms of a "word", are called allomorphy.

In English, we have word form pairs like ox/oxen, goose/geese, and sheep/sheep, where the difference between the singular and the plural is signaled in a way that departs from the regular pattern, or is not signaled at all.

Even cases considered "regular", with the final -s, are not so simple; the -s in dogs is not pronounced the same way as the -s in cats, and in a plural like dishes, an "extra" vowel appears before the -s.

On the other hand, compounds formed with preposition are in the category of the nonprepositional part of the compounds, such as :

- Overtake (Verb)                                -    Hanger-on (Preposition)

- Undertake (Verb)                              -    Sandown (Preposition)

- Afterbirth (Noun)                              -    Downfall (Noun)

- Uplift (Verb)

. Acronyms
Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words. Such words are pronounced as the spelling indicates. For example :

-  UFO = Unidentified flying Object

-  UNO = United Nation Organization

Blends
Blends are compounds that are less than compounds, or we can say that Blends are the combination of parts of words, as in :

Brunch = Breakfast + Lunch

Chunnel = Channel + Tunnel

Abbrevation
Abbreviation is part of longer words or pharases. The process is sometimes called Clipping, as in :

-  Phone = Telephone

-  Math = Mathematic

Words From Names
The creativity of word coinage (or vocabulary addition) is also revealed by the number of words in English vocabulary that derive from proper names individuals or places.

Back Formation

New words may be formed from existing words by substracting an affix. As in :

To edit = derived from the word editor.

To peddle = derived from the word peddler.

Borrowing
            One of the common sources of the new words in English is the process labeled borrowing, that is, the taking over of words from other languages. Throughout its history the English languages has adopted a vast number of loan words from other languages. As in :

Alcohol            from Arabic

Boss                 from Dutch

Croissant          from French

Yogurt             from Turkish