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MORPHOLOGY:
The Study and Analysis of Word
Structure
©Mohamad Subakir Mohd Yasin 2008
A. WHAT IS MORPHOLOGY?
 The linguistic studies which emphasized
the relationships between morpheme and
its variants (Asmah Omar 1986).
 The study of word forms and word
classifications (Nik Safiah Karim 1988).
 The smallest element which has a meaning
in a particular language (Hockett 1954)
 The internal structures of words (Lyons
1978).
 Words are the smallest free forms found
in language = an element that can occur in
isolation/on its own.
 The most important concept in morphology
is MORPHEME.
 What is a Morpheme?
‘a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical
function’ (G. Yule 1996)
‘unit tatabahasa terkecil yang bermakna,
samada makna leksikal atau makna fungsian’
(Kamus Linguistik DBP)
the smallest unit
free and bound
has meaning
has grammatical function
smaller than word
all words are morphemes, but not all
morphemes are words.
MORPHEME example I:
diberitahukannya
 beri
 di + beri
 di + beri + tahu
 di + beri + tahu + kan
 di + beri + tahu + kan + nya
MORPHEME example II:
i. men
ii. bicycles
 man
 man + plural
 cycle
 bi + cycle
 bi + cycle + plural
B. TYPES OF MORPHEMES
i.
FREE/LEXICAL MORPEHEMES
 can stand on its own
 has its own meaning
 example: rumah, buku, cantik
 example: boy, buy, big
ii. BOUND/GRAMMATICAL
MORPHEMES

Meaning depends on the structure they
are combined with.
 Cannot stand on their own.
 Example: tawa, rama, ber-, -an
 Example: of, the, affixes
C. ALLOMORPHS



A single morpheme can have many forms
(variants).
This variant of the same morpheme is
called ALLOMORPH.
In English, there is a single morpheme
that ‘express indefiniteness’ but it has
two variants/forms: a and an.
What is the condition that allows us to
choose either ‘a’ or ‘an’ to express
indefiniteness?
 Plural morpheme ‘s’ also has diff. forms:
cats
[s]
dogs
[z]
judges
[z]
 three diff. allomorphs for a single
morpheme ‘s’ that indicates plurality.


Active marker morpheme {MeN} in BM
has 6 variants/forms:
MEMBERI
MENCARI
MENGKAJI
MENGEPOS
MELAWAN
MENYAPU

The pronunciation changes according to
the environment, but it is still one
morpheme.
D. Derivational Morphology


Formation of new words with a meaning
distinct from its base through the
addition of an affix.
Creating new words by changing the
meaning of the base words by adding
affixes:
INAPPROPRIATE, DISALLOW,
REBORN.

Can also change word class (part of
speech) and meaning:
MINUM - MINUMAN, SIMPLE –
SIMPLY, JUDGE – JUDGEMENT.

Examples of English derivational affixes:
-able
-er
-ment
-ful
E. Inflectional Morphology


Do not change the word class (part of
speech) even though affixes have been
added – big and bigger are both
adjectives.
Indicate only syntactic relations, for
example: -S for AGREEMENT and
PLURALITY.
F. Morphological Processes



A process where new words are
produced, invented, or created in
language.
Adding a new meaning to existing words
or morphemes.
Changes the form of words.

Main morphological processes in English
and BM:
1. Affixation
2. Duplication
3. Acronyms
1. Affixation



Affixes added to stems (root words).
New words are classified into new
classes/categories.
Types of affixation:
a. prefixes
b. suffixes
c. infixes
d. circumfixes
2. Reduplication

(Re)Duplicating parts or all elements of
the stems.

The new forms are known as duplicated
words.
3. Acronyms
 Combination of certain elements of
words, or
 Short forms from combination of a few
words.
 2 types of acronyms:
a. combination of initial letters of root
words (and rewritten in capital letters)
b. combination of the first syllables of
root words.
Activities
1.
How many morphemes do the following words
have? Identify the morphemes.
fly
succotash
desks
enlightens
dislike
feet
payment
geese
delight
prematurely
Mississippi
optionality
sup
judgmental
catsup
misdemeanor
2.
All but one of the following Persian words consist
of more than one morphemes (Note: xar means
‘buy’ and –id designates the past tense).
xaridam
‘I bought’
xaridi
‘you (sg) bought’
xarid
‘bought’
naxaridam
‘I did not buy’
namixaridand
‘they were not buying’
naxaridim
‘we did not buy’
mixarid
‘was buying’
Try to match each of the following nations with a
morpheme in the Persian data.
I ____
they ____
you (sg)____ not _____
we ____
was/were + -ing ___
you (pl) ____
How would you say ‘you (sg) did not buy’ in
Persian? ______________________

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
Morphological Knowledge
Your knowledge of English morphology is amply
illustrated by Lewis Carroll:
(3) Lewis Carroll and Through the Looking Glass (1872)
and Alice in Wonderland (1865)
.........................
Jabberwocky
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
..........................

Although some of these words are non-occurring
English words, you know that they are all
potentially meaningful and legitimate words of
English. In fact, you also know what parts of
speech (category) some of these words belong to,
and may even imagine what they might mean.

(1) Take the first stanza of Lewis Carroll's
Jabberwocky, and

(a) identify the category that each word must or
most probably belongs to,

(b) single out word(s) whose category seems
difficult to identify,

(c) write a parody of this stanza with actual
English words, using your own imagination.

Discuss and support your answers to (a) and (b) if
you wish, for thoroughness.

(2) Based on your own intuition about English,

(a) create 5 new English words (new "words" that
you are sure are not listed in any English
dictionary, but are legitimate English coinages).
Indicate why they are possible, though not
occurring, English words, should the need arise to
coin them. Exclude from your discussion any
foreign words borrowed into English or foreign
proper names.

(b) give five examples that cannot possibly be
English words, and indicate why.