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English Structures
Morphology
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Can a bound morpheme attach to anything? Can it attach to another bound morpheme? Or are there some limits?
| Morphemes - Free and
Bound |
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Review
Morpheme: The smallest unit with meaning
Morph: A form without meaning attached
Allomorph: An alternative form of a morpheme
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Activity: Free and
Bound Morphemes
Mark the ungrammatical sentence:
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| It should be obvious that the last sentence is ungrammatical,
I saw two -s. The morpheme -s cannot stand alone. It is a bound morpheme. |
Morphemes can be considered free or bound.
- A Free Morpheme can be a word on its
own.
- A Bound Morpheme must be attached to
another element.
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An analysis of the word cats, as described in terms of words and
morphemes, would be:
- Cat = simple word, one morpheme
- Cat = free morpheme, can be a word
- Cats = complex word, two morphemes
- Cats = two morphemes, one free (cat), one bound (-s)
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Word Analysis for Morphemes |
Consider these words:
Bears
Bearers
Look at their Analyses:
Bears = bear + -s
Bearers = bear + -er + -s
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We can characterize these words as follows
Bear is a free morpheme, -s is a bound morpheme.
Bear is a simple word because it is contains only
one morpheme.
Bearer is a complex word because it contains two morphemes: bear
+ -er.
Bearer is also a free form because it is a word.
-s and er are bound morphemes because they are not words
in isolation |
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| However, we don't yet have a way to talk about the fact that -s can attach to both bear, a simple word, and bearer, a complex word. |
We need new terms to help us out:
Base
Root
Stem
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| A Base is a word
form that other morphemes can attach to. Bases include both roots
and stems.
A Root is the core of a word.
A root can be free or bound.
A Stem is a root with some modifications
to it. They are usually derivational in nature. |
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With the use of plant terminology,
it might be helpful to imagine a plant in order to keep these terms clear in your mind.
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What does Derivational mean? |
- Derivational morphemes are different from inflectional morphemes.
- Derivational morphemes are morphemes that allow us to derive, or pull
out, new words with new meanings or parts of speech from another word.
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Examples of derivational morphemes are:
- -er, which allows us to turn a verb into a noun meaning one who does
something
- -ify which allows us to turn an adjective into a verb meaning make something
become something (simplify, amplify)
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And there are Inflectional
Morphemes: |
Inflectional morphemes are morphemes
that provide grammatical alterations without changing the core meaning.
Examples include:
- -s, which allows us to make cat plural but still refers to the animal
- -ed which allows us to make a verb refer to past time, but still
refers to an action
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Affixes |
| Bases, roots, and stems are the morphemes that other morphemes
attach to. The parts that get attached are called affixes. |
Affixation is the process
of attaching morphemes to bases.
An affix is the morpheme that
gets attached.
Affixes are always bound morphemes. |
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You and George Carlin already know two kinds of affixes.
Prefixes:
Morphemes that are attached to the front of a base
Suffixes:
Morphemes that are attached to the end of a base
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English uses both prefixes:
Un-kind
Im-possible
and suffixes:
Work-ed
Teach-er |
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Along with suffixes and prefixes, other languages have circumfixes. These are two-part morphemes that surround the base.
Examples:
German: ge-base-t meaning past participle - Geliebt means loved
Shilha Berber: t-base-t meaning feminine - Romi means foreign man,
Taromit means foreign woman
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Other languages also have infixes.
Morphemes that are inserted into the middle of a base.
Example:
Bantoc: -um- changes an adjective into a verb. Fikas means strong;
fumikas means to be strong.
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English has an infix, too, but it is profane. In English people sometimes insert the F-word into another word to create a higher sense of emotion. Sometimes a less profane euphemism like freaking (or fricative?)is used instead of the obscenity.
Examples:
un - f_ _ _ _ _ g - believable
fan - f_ _ _ _ _ g - tastic
These examples show the process of inserting the word f_ _ _ _ _ g into the stem unbelievable or fantastic.
(Note: linguistics is about language, and profanity is part of language,
so talking about language includes talking about profanity.)
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| Go to Part 5 |
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American Sign Language The sign language used by the deaf community in the United States.
Test of English for International Communication. A standardized exam for Educational Testing Services that is intended to determine the general capability of an NNSE to use English to conduct business. It is used by some businesses, predominantly in Asia, in hiring.
Test of English as a Foreign Language. A standardized exam from Educational Testing Services that is intended to determine the general capability of an NNSE to use English as the language of insruction .It is used as an admissions requirement by most US universities and colleges for international students.
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. A term that encompasses both TEFL and TESL. It is the name of the professional organization to which many teachers belong. TESOL the organization has many regional affiliates both in the US and abroad.
Teaching English as Second Language. Refers to the activity of teaching the English language as a tool necessary for some daily task like instruction, shopping, or interpersonal interactions.
Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Refers to the activity of teaching the English language as an intellectual, academic pursuit to non-native speakers of English.
Native Speaker of English. Refers to a person who acquired English in infancy and young childhood as a first language.
Native Speaker. Refers to a person whose relationship to a language is that it was encountered in infancy and young childhood as the dominant language of the environment.
Non-Native Speaker of English. Refers to a person who didn't acquire English as a first language, but came to it after another language was established.
Non-Native Speaker. Refers to a person whose relationship to a particular language is that he/she didn't encounter it while initially acquiring language, but came to it after another language was established.
Limited English Proficient. An adjectival phrase used to refer to the same students as ELL refers to. LEP is falling into disuse as it focuses attention on student deficiency rather than on the positive attribute of learning. Is being replaced by ELL.
Second Language. Refers to any language gained subsequent to the first or native language. It is acquired or learned secondarily to the native language. Doesn't refer to the ordinal numbering of languages, only to the relationship of a particular language to a persons native language.
First Language. Refers to the language that an individual encounters as an infant and young child; a persons native language.
English for Specific Purposes. Refers to the goal of learning English to use it for highly focused activity, such as for business or for aviation communication.
English as a Second Language Program. refers to a school program that is purposefully structured to provide instruction on the English language to NNSEs. An ESL program does not typically include instruction in any other subjects than English. An ESL program may be a component of a larger ELL program at a school.
English as a Second Language. Refers to the subject matter of the English language and the methodology for teaching the English language to non-native speakers. ESL makes no reference to the subjects other than English, but it is not methodology alone either, it refers to teaching the English language as content area. Typically, ESL refers to the study of English in a country where it is used for at least one daily task, such as instruction, interpersonal relations, or shopping.
English Langauge Learner Program. Refers to a school program that is purposly structured to provide instruction on the English language and instruction in other content areas to English Language Learners.
English Language Learner. Refers to students who are in the process of learning English, whether they are in ESL classes exclusively or a combination of ESL classes and other subject area classes.
English as a Foreign Langauge. Refers to the study of English as an intellectual, academic pursuit, not a a language whose use is necessary or desirable for daily life, although it may be used as a research tool. Typically, EFL is the study of English in a country where English is not a language of instruction or daily interactions, such as in Italy or in Saudi Arabia.
English for Academic Purposes. Refers to the goal of learning English to use it as the language of instruction for other subject areas.
Refers to a school program that is purposely structured so that students will use two languages on a daily basis.
Refers to the use of two languages in any capacity on a daily basis. A bilingual person uses two languages on a daily basis--for work and at home, perhaps, or for different subjects at school. Can also refer to the ability to use two languages, even if not used daily.
