Morphology is the study of word forms and the rules for word formation. [1] It involves analyzing the internal structure of words and identifying morphemes. [2] A morpheme is the minimal unit of meaning and can be a prefix, suffix, or root. [3] Morphemes combine in rule-governed ways to form words.

2. • Morph (form) + ology (science of)
•  Morphology (the science of word
forms)
• The study of the internal structure
of words, and
• The rules by which words are
formed

3. • Look at the following words
• Likely unlikely developed undeveloped
• un- is a prefix that means No.
• -ly in ‘likely’ is an adverbial suffix.
• -ed in ‘developed’ is a suffix
morpheme.

4. • Definitions:
A morpheme is the minimal unit of
meaning.
• Example: un+system+atic+al+ly
• Note: morphemes ≠ words

5. • One morpheme boy (one syllable)
desire, lady, water (two
syllables)
crocodile (three syllables)
salamander (four syllables), or
more syllables
• Two morphemes boy + ish
desire + able
• Three morphemes boy + ish + ness
desire + able + ity
• Four morphemes gentle + man + li + ness
un + desire + able + ity
• More than four un + gentle + man + li + ness
anti + dis + establish + ment +
ari + an + ism

6.  a morpheme can have different phonetic forms in
different environments.
 a unit of meaning can vary in sound without changing
meaning.
Examples: Roots [S], bees [Z], coaches [Ә S]
the negative prefix in has several allomorphs:
 In-capable
 Il-logical
 Im-probable
 Ir-reverent
More examples of allomorphs:
Hunted [Әd], banned [d], fished [t]
Can you think of more?

7.  "Take the morpheme 'plural.' Note that it can be
attached to a number of lexical morphemes to
produce structures like 'cat + plural,' 'bus + plural,'
'sheep + plural,' and 'man + plural.' In each of
these examples, the actual forms of the morphs
that result from the morpheme 'plural' are
different. Yet they are all allomorphs of the one
morpheme. So, in addition to /s/ and /əz/, another
allomorph of 'plural' in English seems to be a zero-
morph because the plural form of sheep is actually
'sheep + ∅.' When we look at 'man + plural,' we
have a vowel change in the word . . . as the morph
that produces the 'irregular' plural form men."
(George Yule, The Study of Language, 4th ed.
Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010)

8.  'Electric' usually has final /k/; but has final /s/ in
'electricity'.
 The morpheme 'electric' has two allomorphs:
'electri/k/' and 'electri/s/-';
 the second occurs only when the suffix -ity' is
attached to the word.
 Words such as 'life', 'shelf', 'leaf' have a final /f/ in
most forms, but when they are pluralized, the base
has a final /v/: 'lives', 'shelves', 'leaves'. Thus these
words have two allomorphs.

9.  The form of a morpheme is based on its function;
spelling is irrelevant.
 Homophones are different morphemes that have
the same morphological form.
 Rabbits [s]  plural morpheme
 Rodrigo’s [s]  genitive case
 Drives [s]  3rd person singular morpheme
 More Homophones:
 sale, sail;
 read (past), red;
 two, to, too...

10. In all languages, discrete linguistic
units combine rule-governed ways to
form larger units
• Sound units combine to form
morphemes,
• morphemes combine to form from
words
• word combine to form phrases
• phrases combine to form sentences

11. • Humans can understand words that
have never been heard before
• Human can also create new words
• For example, a writable CD
a rewritable CD
an unrewritable CD

12. • Bound morphemes
• Free morphemes
• Root morphemes
• Stem morphemes
• Derivational morphemes
• Inflectional morphemes
• Affixes: prefixes and suffixes
• Grammatical morphemes
Morphemes can also be classified
as content and function ones