Class 003: Morphology

In this lesson, we were taught about Morphology. Basically, we already learn about Morphology during our pra-PISMP but of course not for the same subject. For me there is no differences between Morphology for Bahasa Melayu and Morphology for Bahasa Inggeris, both are related under linguistic studies.

What exactly is Morphology? What it related to? And What is it's function?

Morphology on linguistics aspect mean the identification, analysis and description of the structure of a given language's morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context (words in a lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology). Morphological typology represents a method for classifying languages according to the ways by which morphemes are used in a language —from the analytic that use only isolated morphemes, through the agglutinative ("stuck-together") and fusional languages that use bound morphemes (affixes), up to the polysynthetic, which compress lots of separate morphemes into single words... based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_%28linguistics%29.

morphology

 Morphemes:  free and bound

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word, by definition, is a freestanding unit of meaning. Every word comprises one or more morphemes.

Every morpheme can be classified as either free or bound. These categories are mutually exclusive, and as such, a given morpheme will belong to exactly one of them.

• Free morphemes can function independently as words (e.g. town, dog) and can appear with other lexemes (e.g. town hall, doghouse).
• Bound morphemes appear only as parts of words, always in conjunction with a root and sometimes with other bound morphemes. For example, un- appears only accompanied by other morphemes to form a word. Most bound morphemes in English are affixes, particularly prefixes and suffixes. Bound morphemes that are not affixes are called cranberry morphemes, their nomenclature derived from the bound, non-affix function of cran- in the word cranberry.

 Derivational morpheme and Inflectional morpheme

Bound morphemes can be further classified as derivational or inflectional.

• Derivational morphemes, when combined with a root, change either the semantic meaning or part of speech of the affected word. For example, in the word happiness, the addition of the bound morpheme -ness to the root happy changes the word from an adjective (happy) to a noun (happiness). In the word unkind, un- functions as a derivational morpheme, for it inverts the meaning of the word formed by the root kind.
• Inflectional morphemes modify a verb's tense or a noun's number without affecting the word's meaning or class. Examples of applying inflectional morphemes to words are adding -s to the root dog to form dogs and adding -ed to wait to form waited.

Allomorphs

Allomorphs are variants of a morpheme that differ in pronunciation but are semantically identical. For example, in English, the plural marker -(e)s of regular nouns can be pronounced /-z/, /-s/, or /-ɨz/, depending on the final sound of the noun's singular form.

Word structure and Word formation processes

(http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/05words/05words.html)

The way in which a word is constructed, the elements of which it is made, is an important building block in our understanding of our language. Although it is often easy to refer to vocabulary, which is a word and its meaning, it is also important to consider the construction of a word, its morphemes, affixes and inflexions.

Syntax 

The green sports car is an example of a deconstructed sentence.
The word "disappeared" from that sentence is deconstructed here.

Lexis

Lexis is linguistics terminology for words - their choice and appropriateness in a text.

Comment on the choice of lexis in the following extracts from speeches by George W Bush:

“No you’re not going to see me stay put... I am not going to forsake my responsibilities. You may not see me put as much- I mean, un-put as much” —11/8/91

“They misunderestimated me.” — Nov. 2000

“We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.’’

“It was just inebriating what Midland was all about then.” — reflecting in 1994 about growing up in Midland, Texas

“Well, I think if you say you’re going to do something and don’t do it, that’s trustworthiness.” — in a CNN online chat, Aug. 2000

“Ann and I will carry out this equivocal message to the world: Markets must be open.” — at the swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, March 2, 2001

How to create new words

The Macmillan English Dictionary features Words of the Year and gives examples of typical ways to create new words:

Prefixing: deshopping, "to buy something intending to use it once, then return it for a refund"

Suffixing: Whovian, "a fan of the British sci-fi series Doctor Who"

Changing the part of speech - eg making a noun or an adjective into a verb: supersize "to provide an outsize version"

Compounding: gripesite "a web-site that makes consumers aware of deficient goods or services"

Borrowing from another language: wiki "a website where users can collectively add or modify text" [from Hawaiian for "quick"]

Acronyms: ICE "In Case of Emergency contact number stored in the address book of a mobile pohone"

Truncation: fanfic "new stories featuring characters and settings from a movie, book or TV show, written by fans, not the original author"

Portamanteau (combining the start of one word with the end of another): spim [spam + im] "unwanted adverts sent via instytant messaging"

Metaphor: zombie "a PC infected by a virus that makes it send out spam without the user's knowledge"

Metonym: 9/11, 7/7 "terrorist bombing"

Onomatopoeia and sound symbolism: sneezle words that sound like or remind one of the thing they describe"