Morphology _ mengenal morphemes

A.     Definition of Morphology and Morphemes

A word Morphology is from Greece “morphe “that has meaning “forms”. It means the morphology is a science of language that focuses on language and how that language special word   formed.Morphology is the study of the basic building blocks of meaning in language. Morphology is the study of how words are put together or “shaped” by using morphemes, which include prefixes, roots, and suffixes.

Knowing the different morphemes in a word allows one to not only figure out its definition, but also determine whether it’s a noun, verb, or adjective. The words morphology and morpheme both come from the Greek root word morph meaning “shape;” morphology is therefore the study of the “shape” words take, whereas morphemes are those building blocks which “shape” the word.

These building blocks, called morphemes, are the smallest units of form that bear meaning or have a grammatical function.A morpheme can be defined as a minimal unit having more or less constantmeaning and more of less constant form. For example, linguists say that the word buyers is made up of three morphemes{buy} +{er} +{s}. The evidence for this is that each can occur in other combinationsof morphemes without changing its meaning. We can find {buy} in buying, buys, and {er} in seller, fisher, as well as buyer. And {s} can be found in boys, girls, anddogs. The more combinations a morpheme is found in, the more productive it is said tobe.

B.     Kinds of Morphemes

1.      Free Morphemes

Free morphemes are those that can stand alone as words. They may be lexical morphemes ({serve}, {press}), or grammatical morphemes ({at}, {and}).

A morpheme is free if it is able to appear as a word by itself. It is bound if it can only appear as part of a larger, multi-morphemic word. Every morpheme is either free or bound. Free morphemes are also referred as roots.

2.      Bound Morphemes

Bound morphemes can occur only in combination—they are parts of a word. They may be lexical morphemes (such as {clued} as in include, exclude, preclude) or they may be grammatical (such as {PLU} = plural as in boys, girls, and cats).

Bound morphemes are also referred to as affixes, among which there are prefixes, infixes, and suffixes.

Lexical and Grammatical Morphemes

Lexical morphemes are those that having meaning by themselves (moreaccurately, they have sense). Grammatical morphemes specify a relationshipbetween other morphemes. But the distinction is not all that well defined.Nouns, verbs, adjectives ({boy}, {buy}, {big}) are typical lexical morphemes.Prepositions, articles, conjunctions ({of}, {the}, {but}) are grammatical morphemes.

C.     Roots and Affixes

1)      Root Words (also called stems)

A root is the irreducible core of a Word, with absolutely nothing else attached to it. It is the part that is always present, possibly with some modification, in the various manifestations of a lexical. Many words contain a root standing on its own. Roots which are capable of standing independently are called free morphemes.

Root	Stem
Non-affix lexical content morphemes that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts  (ex.) cran (as in cranberry), act, beauty, system, etc. ·         Free Root Morpheme: run bottle, phone, etc. ·         Bound Root Morpheme: receive, remit, uncouth, nonchalant, etc.	·         When a root morpheme is combined with affix morphemes, it forms a stem.  ·         Other affixes can be added to a stem to form a more complex stem.

Complex words consist of a root and one or more affixes. A root is a content morpheme that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts. Seen another way, the root is what's left when all prefixes and suffixes have been removed. Some examples are paint in painter, read in reread, and ling in linguistic. A root may or may not be a standalone word (ling isn't). Root words can be combined with prefixes and suffixes to create new words. In this basic course, the words "root" and "stem" are used interchangeably because, while not identical, they are linguistically similar in meaning. 

 2)      Affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and circumfixes)

Affixes are bound morphemes (meaning they cannot stand alone like words can) that we add to free morphemes to create new words. This is the four kinds of affixes with examples from languages of the world. 

Prefixes	Suffixes	Infixes	Circumfixes
Bound morphemes which occur only before other morphemes. Examples: un- (uncover, undo) dis-(displeased, disconnect), pre- (predetermine, prejudge)	Bound morphemes which occur following other morphemes. Examples: -er (singer, performer) -ist (typist, pianist) -ly (manly, friendly)	Bound morphemes which are inserted into other morphemes.	Bound morphemes that are attached to a root or stem morpheme both initially and finally.

a.      Prefixes

Morphemes are the minimal units of meaning in all languages, and many languages have prefixes and suffixes. But languages may differ in how they deploy their morphemes. A morpheme that is a prefix in one language may be a suffix in another language. 

Prefix is a letter or group of letters attached to the beginning of word that party indicates its meaning. For example, the word prefix itself begins with a prefix-pre, with generally means before. Understanding of the common prefixes can help deduce the meaning of new words that we encounter. However, some of prefixes (such as in-) have more than one meaning. Agusmortoyo et al (2012: 3-4)

Prefix	Meaning	Example
a, an	Without	Amoral
Ante	Before	Antecedent
Anti	Against	Anticlimax
Auto	Self	Autopilot
Circum	around	Circumvent
Co	with	Copilot
Com Con	with	Companion, contact
Contra	Against	Contradict
De	Off, away from	Devalue
Dis	Not	Disappear

b.      Sufixes

Suffix is a letter or a group of letters attached to the end of a word to form a new word or to alter the grammatical function of the original word. For example, the verb read can be made into the noun reader by adding the suffix –er; read can be made into the adjective by adding the suffix – able. Agusmortoyo et al (2012: 3-4)

Suffix	Meaning	Example
-acy	State or quality	Privacy
-al	Act or process of	Refusal
-ance, ence	State or quality of	Maintenance, eminence
-dom	Place or state of being	Freedom, kingdom
-er, -or	One who	Trainer, protector
-ism	Doctrine, belief	Communism
-ist	One who	Chemist
Ity,-ty	Quality of	Veracity
-ment	Condition of	Argument
-ness	State of being	Heaviness
-ship	Position held	Fellowship
-sion, -tion	State of being	Concession, transition

c.       Infixes

Some languages also have infixes, morphemes that are inserted into other morphemes. An infix is an affix inserted into the root itself. Infixes are very common in Semitic language like Arabic and Hebrew. But infixing is somewhere rare in English. Slat and Taylor (1978) suggest that the only infix that occurs in English morphology is /-n-/ which is inserted before the last consonant of the root in a few words of Latin origin, on what appears to be an arbitrary basis.

In fact, in fixation of sorts still happens in contemporary English. 

Example:

-         Kalamazu (places name)     → Kalama-goddam-zoo

Instantiate (verb)                 → in-fuckin-stantiate

-         Kangaroo                             → kanga-bloody-roo

Impossible                           → in-fuckin-possible

Guarantee                            → guaran-friggin-tee

(Recall that the arrow → means “becomes” or is “re-written as”.)

As you can see, in present-day English in fixation, not of an affix morpheme but of an entire word (which may have more than one morpheme, blood-y, fuck-ing) is actively used to form words. Curiously, this infixation is virtually restricted to inserting expletives into words in expressive language that one would probably not use in polite company. 

BontocIgorot, spoken in the Philippines, uses infixes, as illustrated by the following:

Noun/Adjective		Verb
Fikas	"strong"	Fumikas	"to be strong"
Kilad	"red"	Kumilad	"to be red"
Ngitad	"dark"	Ngumitad	"to be dark"

We have infixes in English, too, but they tend to be infixed full-word obscenities into another word, usually into adjectives or adverbs. The most common infix in America is the word firkin' and all the euphemisms for it, such as friggin', freakin', flippin', and bloody (and its euphemism, bloomin', British), as in un + fuckin' + believable and fan + funckin' + tastic, I'm not o + fuckin' + kay(in the song, "I'm not Okay" by the group My Chemical Romance.) 

d.      Circumfuses

Some languages have circumfuses, morphemes that are attached to a base morpheme both initially and finally. In Chickasaw, a Muskogean language spoken in Oklahoma, the negative is formed with both a prefix ik- and the suffix -o. The final vowel of the affirmative is dropped before the negative suffix is added. Examples of this circumfixing are:

Affirmative		Negative
Chokma	"his is good"	ik + chokm + o	"he isn't good"
Lakna	"it is yellow"	ik + lakn + o	"it isn't yellow"

 

D.    The Derivational and Inflection

There are two types of morpheme: free morpheme, and bound morpheme. Free morpheme is then further divided into two: lexical and functional morpheme. Bound morpheme is also further divided into two categories: derivational and inflectional morpheme.

Derivational morpheme changes the root's class of words or its meaning, or both. The word 'unhappy' derives from the root happy added with a prefix un. Both 'happy' and 'unhappy' are adjectives. The meaning, however, is totally different. "I am unhappy" is totally different from "i am happy". in this case, the prefix un is called derivational morpheme.

Inflectional morpheme, on the other hand, does not change either the root's class of words or the meaning. the word 'books', for example, derives from the root book added with a suffix –s. both 'book' and 'books' are noun. the meaning is still the same. the suffix –s only indicates the plural form. in this case, the suffix –s is inflectional.

We can make a further distinction within the set of morphemes that are both bound and grammatical. Bound grammatical morphemes (those that don’t havea sense by themselves and, additionally, always occur in combinations) arecommonly known as affixes. They can be further divided into inflectionalaffixes and derivational affixes.Here is some of the evidence for the distinction between inflectional andderivational affixes (the book has more):

Inflectional Affixes	Derivational Affixes
All are suffixes	May be either suffixes or prefixes
Have a wide range of application. E.g. most English nouns can be made plural, with {PLU}	May have a wide or narrow range
All native to English (since Old English was spoken around 500-1000 AD)	Many were adopted from Latin, Greek, or other languages. (Though others, especially the suffixes, are native, including {ful}, {like}, {ly}, and {AG})

1.      Inflectional Affixes

Inflectional morphemes, on the other hand, do notchange meanings or parts of speech, but instead simply make minor grammatical changes necessary for agreement with other words.

Example: cats        =cat + s

cooler        =cool + er.

English has only eight inflectional affixes:

2.      {PLU} = plural                                          Noun                            –s                     boys

3.      {POSS} = possessive                               Noun                            -’s                    boy’s

4.      {COMP} = comparative                           Adjective                      -er                   older

5.      {SUP} = superlative                                  Adjective                      -est                  oldest

6.      {PRES} = present                                     Verb                            -s                     walks

7.      {PAST} past                                             Verb                            -ed                   walked

8.      {PAST PART} = past participle                Verb                            -en                   driven

9.      {PRES PART} = present participle           Verb                            -ing      driving

Notice that, as noted above, even irregular forms can be representedmorphologically is using these morphemes. E.g. the irregular plural sheep iswritten as {sheep} + {PLU}, even though the typically form of {PLU} is not usedhere.

Similarly, better = {good} + {COMP}; drove = {drive} + {PAST}.

2.      Derivational Affixes

Derivational morphemes create new words. Theyderive new words from other words. Derivational change part of speech or the meaning of a word.

Example :

unhappy un + happy;

happiness happy + ness

preview pre + view.

There is an indefinite number of derivational morphemes.For example, the following are some derivational suffixes:

{ize} attaches to a noun and turns it into a verb: rubberize

{ize} also attaches to an adjective and turns it into a verb: normalize

{ful} attaches to a noun and turns it into an adjective: playful, helpful

{ly} attaches to an adjective and turns it into an adverb: grandly, proudly

A different {ly} attaches to a noun and changes it into an adjective: manly, friendly

English also has derivational prefixes, such as:{un}, {dis}, {a}, {anti}, all of which indicate some kind of negation: unhappy, dislike, atypical, anti-aircraft.

Terima kasaih atas kunjungannya. semoga bermanfaat yaa.. ^_^