This document discusses word structure and morphology. It defines key terms like morpheme, affixes, roots, and allomorphs. Morphemes are the smallest units of language that carry meaning or function. Words can consist of a single morpheme or multiple morphemes. Affixes are bound morphemes that can be added to word roots or stems to change the word's meaning or function. Roots and stems carry the core meaning of words. Variations in the forms of morphemes are called allomorphs. The document provides examples to illustrate these concepts of word structure and morphology.

1. The Analysis of Word Structure

2. Morphology
Words like read, language, tall, on, etc. must be
learned and stored as separate items in the
lexicon.
Therefore, part of the linguistic competence is the
ability to construct and interpret words.
This system of categories and rules involved in
word formation and interpretation is called
morphology.

3. Word
definition
Words are meaningful linguistic units that can
combine to form larger structures (phrases, clauses, or
sentences).
A word is associated with a particular meaning..
It is a unit of expression that is intuitively recognizable
by native speakers.

4. Morphology
Identifying Morphemes
A morpheme can carry info about meaning or function. Haunt
cannot be broken down into h + aunt because only aunt has meaning.
Bats can be broken down into 2 morphemes: bat + -s (where the 2nd
morpheme means more than one).
The meanings of individual morphemes should contribute to the
overall meaning of the word. pumpkin cannot be broken down into
pump + kin because the meaning of pumpkin has nothing to do with
that.
Morphology
Slide 3

5. Morpheme
 A morpheme is not the same thing as a syllable. treat = 1
morpheme and 1 syllable; dracula = 1 morpheme and 3 syllables; -
s (PLURAL) in English = 1 morpheme and is not even 1 syllable.
 Often during word formation, changes in pronunciation and/or
spelling occur. These do not affect a morpheme’s status as a
morpheme.
scare + -y = scary (root = scare); scary + -er = scarier (root = scare)

6. Word
identification
Words are the physically definable units one
encounters in a stretch of writing or speech.
Words are most stable of all linguistic units, in respect
of their internal structure.
Words are uninterruptible.

7. Word = free form
A word is the smallest free form found in language.
A free form is an element that:
i can occur in isolation
bird vs. -s
and/or
ii whose position with respect to neighbouring elements isn’t
entirely fixed.
Birds avoid cats.(before a verb)
Cats chase birds. (after a verb)
The birds (before a noun)
The young birds (before something else)

8. Morpheme
Words have an internal structure consisting of smaller
units organized with respect to each other.
The most important component of word structure is the
morpheme.
It is the smallest unit of language that carries information
about meaning or function:
builder = build + -er
‘construct’ ‘one who does’
houses = house + -s
‘dwelling’ ‘more than one’

9. Morphemes
Free and Bound
A free morpheme can be a word by itself; it can
stand alone.
A bound morpheme must be attached to another
element; it cannot stand alone.
free bound
car -s
smile -ed
tall -er
care -ful

10. Allomorphs
Morphemes do not always have an invariant form.
The variant forms of a morpheme are called its
allomorphs.
English indefiniteness: a/an
English past tense: d, t, әd
English plural: z (cats), s (dogs), әz (horses)

11. Morphology
Morphology
Slide 2
 Morpheme - the smallest unit of language that carries information
about meaning or function (builder has 2 morphemes: build and -er)
 Simple words - contain only 1 morpheme
 Complex words - contain more than 1 morpheme
 Free morpheme - a morpheme that can be a word by itself
 Bound morpheme - a morpheme that must be attached to another
element

12. Now consider the word reconsideration. We
can break it into three morphemes: re-,
consider, and -ation.
Consider is called the stem/root. A
stem/root is a base unit to which another
morphological piece is attached.

13. Morphology Practice
WORD # of Morphemes FREE BOUND
2 erase -er
1 wicked
2 valid in-
1 invalid
2 walk -ed
2 Jack -s
5 act re-, -ive, -ate, -tion
eraser
wicked
invalid (A)
invalid (N)
walked
Jack’s
reactivation
Morphology
Practice
4

14. Morphology
Morphology
Slide 12
 Word structure
 Root/stem - the core of the word and carries the major component of
meaning
 Lexical category - Noun (N), Adjective (A), Verb (V), Preposition (P)
 Affixes - general term for a morpheme that does not have a lexical
category, and is always bound
Base is the form to which an affix is attached (most cases it is the root)

15. Morphology
Morphology
Slide 19
 Affixes can be suffixes, prefixes or infixes
Infixes must be morphemes inserted into the root of the word, and not just
adding another prefix or suffix to an existing one
freakin’ as an infix: abso-freakin-lutely not *absolute-freakin-ly
a true English infix?
 Problems: some words that have an affix no longer allow the root to be
a free form - unkempt, inept, overwhelmed - any others?
 Some words appear to have affixes but are considered one morpheme -
receive, submit, permit (still formed with other affixes like they do have
affixes though - permission, reception)