MODERN ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY Morphological Structure of the English

MODERN ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY Morphological Structure of the English Word

Problems for discussion Methods of word-structure analysis Distinction between “morpheme”, “morph”, “allomorph” Structural classification of morphemes Semantic classification of morphemes Structural types of words

Which methods are used to observe structural composition of words? Morphemic analysis Morphological analysis Method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents

Morphemic analysis Segments a word into morphemes to determine their number and types: girlishness one root morpheme (-girl-) + two suffixes (-ish; -ness)

Morphological analysis Compares structures of words to state: a) the structural pattern of the word formation: Girl :: girlish  “noun stem + -ish  adjective” b) the meaning of the pattern of word-formation: The pattern “noun stem + -ish  adjective” has the meaning“typical of, or having the qualities of”

The method of immediate and ultimate constituents Observes the structural order of the constituents: girlishness Stage 1. girlish + -ness Stage 2. girl + -ish + -ness

What is a morpheme? Morpheme is the smallest indivisible two-facet language unit which occurs in speech only as a constituent part of words and recurs with the same meaning in a number of words: worker miner the doer of the action teacher

What is a morph? A morph is a single realization of a morpheme.

What is an allomorph? im- (before b, m: impossible, immobilize), il- (before l: illogical), ir- (before r: irregular) are allomorphs of in-

Structural classification of morphemes Morpheme free bound semi-bound hand amazement sleep well handful handful well handy handy well-known

Semantic classification of morphemes Morpheme root morpheme non-root morpheme derivational functional prefix infix suffix inflection

Examples unreadable: un- - prefix - read- - root - able - suffix stand -n- - infix near – nearer – nearest: -er\-est - functional affixes

Structural types of words Word complex simple (root) derived compound compound-derived

Simple words root morpheme (+ inflexion) seldom chair longer asked

Derived words prefix + root (+inflexion) unkind root + suffix (+inflexion) readable prefix + root + suffix (+ inflexion) unanswerable

Compound words root + root (+ inflexion) sunflower baby-moon wait-and-see steam-boat

Compound-derived words root + root + suffix (+inflexion) prefix + root + root (+inflexion) prefix + root + root + suffix (+inflexion) daydreamer middle-of-the-roader job-hopper