Morphology

Morphology

1. What is Morphology?

   • Morphology is the branch of Linguistics that studies the structure of words.

2. What is a word?

   • A word is a sound or combination of sounds that has meaning in human speech.
     • Classification of words
       • Simple words
         • They don’t have an internal structure because they only consist of one morpheme. They can’t be split into smaller parts which carry meaning or function. Examples: work, build, run.
       • Complex words
         • They have an internal structure because they consist of two or more morphemes. Example: worker: affix -er added to the root word “work” to form a noun.
       • Differences between words and morphemes
         • A morpheme is not necessarily the same as a word. The main difference between a morpheme and a word is that a morpheme sometimes does not stand alone, but a word, by definition, always stands alone. Every word is composed of one or more morphemes.

3. What is a morpheme?

   • Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language. They can't be divided into smaller meaningful parts.
     • Classification of Morphemes
       • Free morphemes
         • Free morphemes are simple words that consist of only one morpheme. Example:s: cat, rat, run.
       • Bound morphemes (also known as affixes)
         • They are morphemes that must be attached to a free morpheme to have a meaning. They are divided in two categories:
           • Prefix
             • They are added before the base word. Example: un-subscribe
           • Suffix
             • They are added after the base word. Example: subscribe-r

4. What is a grammatical category?

   • A grammatical category is a class of units (such as noun and verb) or features (such as number and case) that share a common set of characteristics.
     • Grammatical groups (and examples)
       • Verbs
         • They denote actions. Example: Drink
       • Nouns
         • They denote entities. Example: Elephant
       • Adjectives
         • They denote states and characteristics. Example: Gorgeous
       • Adverbs
         • They denote manner. Example: Incredibly
       • Prepositions
         • They denote locations. Example: Above

5. Morphological analysis

   • Overwhelmingly
     • Over
       • whelm
         • ing
           • ly
             • Affix
             • Suffix
           • Affix
           • Suffix
         • Root
         • Verb/Noun
       • Affix
       • Prefix
         • Verb
           • Adjective
             • Adverb
   • Disrespectfully
     • dis
       • respect
         • ful
           • ly
             • Affix
             • Suffix
           • Affix
           • Suffix
         • root
         • Noun
       • Affix
       • Prefix
         • Verb
           • Adjective
             • Adverb
   • Historically
     • Histori(y)
       • cal
         • ly
           • Affix
           • Suffix
         • Affix
         • Suffix
       • Root
       • Noun
         • Adjective
           • Adverb