Assignment on morphology

TASK

All languages are similar or different in one way or another. By using the knowledge that you
gained from the course, compare your native language with the English language in terms of
morphology, syntax and semantics.

(a) Study the morphological system of your language and compare it with the inflectional and
derivational morphemes in English. Describe and discuss how they are similar or different.

( 10 marks)

(b) Analyse how compound sentences are formed in your language. Discuss how it is similar or
different to the formation of English compound sentences.

( 10 marks )

(c) Choose TWO metaphors that exist in your language and discuss how English expressthe same
or similar metaphors.

( 10 marks )

(d) Discuss how the similarities and differences that you have discussed above would affect the
learning of English by a native speaker of your language.

( 5 marks )

1

1. INTRODUCTION

In this task, I am going compare my native language, which is the Kadazan language of
Penampang, with the English language in terms of morphology, syntax and semantics. Then the
morphological system of the Kadazan language will be compared with the inflectional and
derivational morphemes in English. The Kadazan language and the English language will be
discussed according to similarities and differences to the formation of compound sentences.
Metaphors that exist in the Kadazan language will also be discussed and how these metaphors
are expressed in English language. Finally discussion on how the similarities and differences of
the discussed above will affect the learning of English by a Kadazan speaker.

2. DEFINITION

Morphology is the study of meaning in individual units of language. We can also say that the
morphology is the study of the structure and content of word forms. In other words, it is the
identification, analysis and description of the structure of words. It refers to the grammar of
words and how they are formed. It is an important aspect of grammar (along with syntax). It
presents articles that contribute to the further articulation of morphological theory and linguistic
theory in general, as well as provide new and unexplored data. Morphology is also features in-
depth analyses of specific languages and comparative, cross-linguistic analyses of the relevant
facts, which give relevant empirical evidence for all theoretical claims made in the journal.
(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998)

Syntax is the study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences in a language.
Syntax is about how words are sequenced to convey meaning. In other words, syntax is the study
of the rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form
grammatical sentences. It is the technical term for sentence structures. Webster Dictionary
(http://www.yourdictionary.com/syntax) defines syntax as the arrangement of and relationships
among words, phrases, and clauses forming sentences. It is the study of the rules, or ‘patterned
relations’ that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. Each spoken language has
a general set of rules for how words and sentences should be structured.

2

Semantic is the study of language. It is the study of how we infuse our language with
meaning or how we decipher the meaning in language and how we represent those meanings. In
semantics, we study the linguistic development by classifying and examining changes in
meaning and form. In other words, semantics is scientifically or philosophical study of the
relations of words and their meanings. In Linguistics, semantics is the study of relationships
between signs and symbols and what they represent.

Morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. In spoken language,
morpheme is composed of phonemes, which is the smallest linguistically distinctive units of
sound, and in written language morpheme is composed of graphemes, which are the smallest
units of written language. In other words, morpheme is the smallest indivisible units of a
language that retain meaning or the smallest part of a word that can exist alone or which can
change a word’s meaning or function, for example ‘un-’, ‘happy’, ‘-ness’. Morpheme can either
be a prefix or a suffix (called bound morphemes), and they must be attached to another
morpheme to create a word. Morphemes that can exist alone as a complete word is called free
morphemes, for example ‘happy’. (Glossary of Linguistic terms, Steve Campsall, 2009)

Metaphor is a figure of speech concisely expressed by comparing two things, saying that
one is the other. In other words, metaphor is a figure of speech in which words or phrases which
are not literally applicable are used in place of another to suggest analogy. Metaphor can also be
the comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one
important way. It is a way to describe something. The word ‘metaphor’ itself is a metaphor,
coming from a Greek word meaning ‘transfer’ or ‘carry across’. Metaphors ‘carry’ meaning
from one word, image, or idea to another. Some metaphors are so common that we may not even
notice that they are metaphors, for example in slogans like ‘Life is a journey. Enjoy the Ride.’
(Nissan)’ (http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/faqmetaphor07.htm)

3

3. Task (a): Study the morphological system of your language and compare it with the
inflectional and derivational morphemes in English. Describe and discuss how they are
similar or different.

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Morphology is divided into two domains: inflectional morphology and derivational morphology.
Inflectional morphology studies the ways words vary in their form in order to express a
grammatical contrast, for example, as in the case of houses, where the ending marks plurality.
Inflectional morphology deals with the inflectional forms of various lexemes. It has something of
the character of an appendix to the syntax, which tells us when a lexeme may or must carry a
certain inflectional property whilst inflectional morphology tells us what form it takes when it
carries that inflectional property. Other examples are that they are singular or plural (table
becomes tables) and to indicate tense (change becomes changes / changed / changing) or
possession (the cat’s whiskers).

Derivational morphology studies the way in which new items of vocabulary can be built
up out of combinations of elements, for example, in-describ-able. It describes the processes by
which new lexical bases are formed and the structure of complex lexical bases, those composed
of more than one morphological element. The traditional term is simply 'word-formation.'
(Huddleston & Pullum, 2002)

In the case of the Kadazan language, the morphological system is the same as that of
English language. Some examples of inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes in
both the English and Kadazan languages are shown below.

4

3.2 INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES

(a) SIMILARITIES

(i) Verbs
ENGLISH INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES

wait-s Third person singular present She waits at home.

wait-ed Past tense She waited at home.

wait-ing Progressive She is waiting at home.

KADAZAN INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES

m-indad Third person singular present Mindad isido doiho daamin.

min-indad Past tense Minindad isido doiho daamin.

poing-indad Progressive Poingindad isido doiho daamin.

The above examples of both languages have the same verb meaning that is ‘wait’ (English) and
‘indad’ (Kadazan). The ‘s’, ‘ed’ and ‘ing’ are suffixes while the ‘m’, ‘min’ and ‘poing’ are
prefixes. However, all the words still refer to the same meaning.

(ii) Nouns

Some examples of inflectional morphemes of English language

singular Bird Tombohog

plural Birds Tombohog-tombohog

In English, an ‘s’ is added to show that the word ‘birds’ is plural but in Kadazan, the word is
repeated, showing that there are many birds.

(iii) Comparisons of Adjectives
5

Big Bigger Biggest

Agazo Agagazo Tagazo

The first column is the root word. In the second column ‘er’ and ‘ag’ are added to the root words
while in the third column, ‘est’ and ‘t’ are added to the root words.

(b) DIFFERENCES

In my native language, which is the Kadazan language, the morpheme differs from the English
morphemes in terms of length, prefix and suffix of the word formation as shown below.

Agagazo and ‘bigger’

Length Poingindad and ‘waiting’

Tombohog and ‘bird’

The words agagazo, poingindad and tombohog are formed longer compare to the words ‘bigger’,
‘waiting’ and ‘bird’ which short in length.

Agagazo and ‘bigger’
Prefix and suffix
Poingindad and ‘waiting’

The inflectional morphemes for the Kadazan language start with prefixes while the English
morphemes end with suffixes. In the above examples, prefixes and suffixes are used but the
meaning of the verbs or nouns are not changed. These prefix and suffix are bound morphemes
and they cannot occur unattached.

3.3 DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY

(a) SIMILARITIES
ENGLISH DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES

Paint (verb) – an action of putting colours Painter (noun) – a person who paints
6

Dress (noun) – a garment for a woman or girl Dressing (verb) – an action of putting clothes
Hope (noun) – desire for something to happen Hopeless (adjective) – most unlikely to
improve or success

KADAZAN DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES

manaat (verb) – an action of putting colours tukang saat(noun) – a person who paints
Mamakai gaung (verb) – an action of putting
gaung (noun) – a garment for a woman or girl
clothes
halapan (noun) – desire for something to Aiso halapan (adjective) – most unlikely to
happen improve or success

The above examples of derivational morphemes have different meaning in both English and
Kadazan language. The verb ‘paint’ becomes a noun ‘painter’ and so do manaat (paint) becomes
a noun which is tukang saat (painter). The similarity here is that both English and Kadazan
languages change in meaning when derivational morphemes are added to the root words.

(b) DIFFERENCES

I found out that the length and word formations in both languages differ between English and
Kadazan. The Kadazan morphemes use two words, for example tukang saat, mamakai gaung
and aiso halapan, whereby the words before derivational morphemes are added, only one word
is used as in manaat, gaung and halapan.

CONCLUSION

The inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes have similarities and differences. But
in most cases in the Kadazan language, prefixes are commonly used compare to the English
language where suffixes are often used. However the meaning of the words when inflectional
morphemes are used is not changed. As for derivational morphemes, when prefixes and suffixes
are added to the base morphemes, the meanings of the words change.

7

4. Task (b): Analyse how compound sentences are formed in your language. Discuss how it
is similar or different to the formation of English compound sentences.

Basically, a compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinator. The
formation of compound sentences both in English and in Kadazan languages has similarities and
differences as will be discussed.

4.1 SIMILARITIES

In English language, a compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses joined by a
coordinator. The clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction, a correlative conjunction, or a
semicolon that functions as a conjunction. The coordinators are as follows: for, and, but, or, yet,
so. Except for very short sentences, coordinators are always preceded by a comma.

1. The lightning flashed and the rain fell.

2. Mary tried the noodles, for her sister tried the syrup.

3. He played tennis, so she went jogging.

The above three sentences are compound sentences. Each sentence contains two independent
clauses, and they are joined by a coordinator with a comma preceding it. Note how the
conscious use of coordinators can change the relationship between the clauses. Sentences 2 and
3, for example, are identical except for the coordinators.

8

In Kadazan language, the formation of the compound sentence is also similar to that of
English language. It has two independent clauses that are related to each other and joined by a
conjunction. For the Kadazan language, the conjunctions are like om (and), toiko (or) and nga
(but) as shown in the examples.

1. Minongoi hud pasal om minomohi do sada zi Ati di koniab.

2. Minglawa no toihaan di Rowena nga au kozo songkuo pandai moboos.

3. Toombo kaanangan nu, iho topuak toiko tohisou?.

4.2 DIFFERENCES

In English, the formation of the compound sentences start with subject and followed by verb and
predicate, as shown in the examples below.

a) The lightning flashed and the rain fell.

b) He played tennis, so she went jogging.

The above compound sentences (a) and (b) start with the subject ‘The lightning’ and ‘He’, whilst
‘flashed’ and ‘played’ are verbs and ‘the rain fell’ and ‘so she went jogging’ are predicates.

In contrast, the formation of compound sentence for the Kadazan language is the other
way round, whereby the formation starts with the predicate, followed by the subject and
sometimes starts with a verb as shown in the examples below.

a) Minongoi hud pasal om minomohi do sada zi Ati di koniab.

b) Minglawa no toihaan di Rowena nga au kozo songkuo pandai moboos.

Minongoi (went) and Minglawa (make over) are verbs. The subjects Ati and Rowena are put after
the verbs.

For summation, the formation of sentences in the Kadazan language is different from that
of English compound sentence in terms of morphology, syntax and semantics.

9

5. Task (c): Choose TWO metaphors that exist in your language and discuss how English
expresses the same or similar metaphors.

In this task, I am going to discuss two metaphors of the Kadazan language and how English
expresses the same or similar metaphors. Basically, a metaphor is when we compare things and
say they are virtually the same. The metaphor is similar to the simile, but does not say that one
thing is like another thing or other thing. A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech, or
something that we use to replace ‘normal’ words in order to help others understand or enjoy our
messages.

For examples, we use the phrase ‘the green carpet’ to describe the grass that covers the
ground evenly, as if the ‘grass’ is the ‘carpet’. Sometimes the breaking of semantic rules can be
used to convey a particular idea. ‘Walls have ears’ is certainly ‘anomalous’ but we can interpret
the meaning as ‘you can be overheard even when you think nobody is listening’. Other examples
are as follows:

i) John is a snake in the grass.

The above sentence can be interpreted literally to refer to a pet snake on the lawn named John.

ii. Time is money.

It is necessary to know that in our society we are often paid according to the number of hours or
days worked.
10

As for the Kadazan language, some examples are as follows:-

i. Aavi ginavo nu mogindusuk poimbuhai nopo tuhu nu.

The above sentence is a metaphor as a whole as Aavi ginavo nu mogindusuk means ‘you tried so
hard to hide’ but poimbuhai nopo tuhu nu means ‘your head is always seen’. The metaphors
implies to the dagger and its case or cover. No matter how we hide the dagger, the dagger’s head
can always be seen as the ‘head’ does not go into the its case.

ii. Tumohop tanak sina igitan tampuk-ampuk.

The above sentence is also a metaphor. Tumohop tanak sina means ‘When the Chinese child
dives’ and igitan tampuk-ampuk means ‘get hold of the string’, and this refers to the net for
catching fish which have a string to hold with when we cast it to the water.

As stated in the examples above and their descriptions, the appearances of metaphors in
English and Kadazan languages are obviously similar in terms of how they are going to be
expressed whereby the metaphors can help readers or listener to better understand something
about the object or idea and make speeches or writings more lively and interesting.

All in all, no matter how the metaphors are shaped in beliefs and attitudes of a specific
culture, the interpretation of the meanings is based on the 'cognitive equivalence,' where
metaphors must be looked at as cognitive constructs representing instances of how people
conceptualize their experiences, attitudes and practices, and record them.

11

6. Task (d): Discuss how the similarities and differences that you have discussed above
would affect the learning of English by a native speaker of your language.

After the discussion of tasks (a), (b) and (c), I found out that there are similarities and differences
between the English and my native language which is the Kadazan language and it really affects
the learning of English. The similarities and differences are obviously influenced in terms of
morphology, syntax and semantics. As mentioned earlier, morphology stresses on the study of
word formation, syntax as the technical term for sentence structure and semantic studies how we
infuse our language with meaning, how we decipher the meaning of the language and how the
meaning is represented.

Basically, the similarities and differences between the English and the Kadazan
languages are influenced by the effect of direct translation, time consuming and stress. They are
related to the inflectional and derivational morphemes of English and Kadazan languages, the
formation of compound sentences and the expression of metaphors between the two languages.

(a) SIMILARITIES

In the terms of similarities, the Kadazan speakers love to learn English because learning the
language will increase their knowledge of the language as their second language. By learning the
English language, they will think that they are more educated compare to those who do not learn,
so this is some sort of motivation for the Kadazan speakers to be a good speaker among them.
Through learning English and at the same time having great knowledge of the Kadazan
language, they can create or construct compound sentences as both languages have the same
formation which are joined by conjunctions as stated in task (b). Thus this will decrease the

12

mistakes when constructing any sentences. As time goes by, they will become independent after
learning the English language, so time consumes for an individual to master the second language.

(a) DIFFERENCES

The Kadazan language and the English language are not the same. The Kadazan people are
confused when learning English because they thought that English language is the same as the
Kadazan language so they directly translate whatever the Kadazan words to English words
without considering the sentence structure of each language uses. This is because they do not
really understand the term of syntax between the English and the Kadazan languages. Other than
that, the Kadazan people are confused with used of some words in English which have only one
meaning word in Kadazan. For example, finally, lastly, and ultimately. The Kadazans find it
hard to choose the suitable words to be used in the particular sentence. In terms of stress, the
Kadazan words are stressed lightly compare to English whereby the /t/ and the /p/ sounds are
really stressed. Thus, they believe that it is hard to learn English, so this affect their motivation in
learning the English language as their second language.

7. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, there are similarities and differences between the English and the Kadazan
languages in terms of morphology, syntax and semantics. Some of the similarities and
differences are mentioned in tasks (a) and (b) which involved the use of the inflectional and
derivational morphemes as well as the formation of compound sentences in both languages.
Metaphors expressions in both languages have the same style with the purpose of relating objects
or subjects with other matters in order to be more creative in speeches or writings. Nevertheless,
the morphology, syntax and semantics do not affect the learning of English by any native
speakers. It is the willing to learn that really affects the learning of the English language, so if
one wants to learn English, one should be motivated to be successful as ‘success is the key to
excellence’.
13

REFERENCES

Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia (2008). Puralan Boros
KadazanDusun Id Sikul. Putrajaya Kuala Lumpur: Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia.

David H. Deterding, Gloria R. Poedjosoedarmo (2001). The Grammar Of English
Morphology and Syntax For English Teachers in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Pearson
Education Asia Pte. Ltd.
Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka (2005). Huraian Sukatan Pelajaran Bahasa KadazanDusun Tahun
6. Kuala Lumpur: Dawama Sdn. Bhd.
Dr David CL Lim, Dr Andrew Ng Hock Soon, Dr Carol E Leon, Assoc Prof Hazidi Abdul
Hamid (2009). HBEL4403 Morphology, Syntax and Semantics. Selangor Darul Ehsan:
Univision Press. Sdn. Bhd.
Fromkin, V & Rodman, R. (1998). An Introduction to Language. Florida. Harcourt Brace
College Publishers.

Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum. (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English
Language. Cambridge Univ. Press

semantics. (n.d.). The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition.
Retrieved November 25, 2009, from Dictionary.com website:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/semantics

http://www.abcteachcom/free/w/wksht_grammar_compound_sentences.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/inflectional

http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/caneng/morpheme.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor

14

http://www.how-to-study.com/study-skills/en/language-arts/7/metaphors/

http://www.ehow.com/how_4466239_motivate-students.html?ref=fuel&utm_source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflectional#Examples_in_English

15

Assignment on morphology

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Assignment on morphology

More from Linda Midy

Assignment on morphology