AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

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1 Ali Alhaj AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY A Textbook for Advanced University Students of Linguistics Anchor Academic Publishing disseminate knowledge

2 Alhaj, Ali: AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY: A Textbook for Advanced University Students of Linguistics, Hamburg, Anchor Academic Publishing 2015 PDF-eBook-ISBN: Druck/Herstellung: Anchor Academic Publishing, Hamburg, 2015 Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek: Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über abrufbar. Bibliographical Information of the German National Library: The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography. Detailed bibliographic data can be found at: All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Dies gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Bearbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. Die Wiedergabe von Gebrauchsnamen, Handelsnamen, Warenbezeichnungen usw. in diesem Werk berechtigt auch ohne besondere Kennzeichnung nicht zu der Annahme, dass solche Namen im Sinne der Warenzeichen- und Markenschutz-Gesetzgebung als frei zu betrachten wären und daher von jedermann benutzt werden dürften. Die Informationen in diesem Werk wurden mit Sorgfalt erarbeitet. Dennoch können Fehler nicht vollständig ausgeschlossen werden und die Diplomica Verlag GmbH, die Autoren oder Übersetzer übernehmen keine juristische Verantwortung oder irgendeine Haftung für evtl. verbliebene fehlerhafte Angaben und deren Folgen. Alle Rechte vorbehalten Anchor Academic Publishing, Imprint der Diplomica Verlag GmbH Hermannstal 119k, Hamburg Hamburg 2015 Printed in Germany

3 Dedication For my three second beings( Naila. Mathani and Sa'adia) i

4 PREFACE Realistically speaking, the experience of having taught English language, and morphology and syntax in particular as long as over than seven years convinces us that students of linguistics and translation most often need a solid grounding in the course of morphology and syntax. Once they have a basic understanding of these two important areas, they have little trouble mastering English language as a whole. Hence, both morphology and syntax are important parts of linguistic knowledge and constitute a component of student's mental grammar. It can be said that even for grammar savants and scholars bow. Of Course, the more courses required of students within their discipline, the more can they benefits themselves from the fields inside their major. Such factors often help student develop a positive attitude towards linguistics to be sensitized to the morphological and syntactic system of the language while being exposed to both morphology and syntax, and especially in unfamiliar area. Obviously, an introductory book such as this has several obvious limitations. First, there are entire subbranches of morphology and syntax that are not included. In terms of content, this book delimits both its scope and audience by shedding new light on a subject whose problems and obscurities look inexhaustible. A colossal book of this kind is therefore an attempt to: Make morphology and syntax more easy, which usually appear to be incredible complicated, at first glance. Keep the standard high so that even postgraduate students can benefit from it; because we strongly believe that students learn best by'' doing'' exercises, and, to this end, we have added dozen of practice exercises. In general, these require more research or analysis beyond what can be accomplished within a single classroom period. These exploratory exercises can also form the basis for short papers. Therefore, the book can be of immense help not only to the students of linguistics ii

5 and translation, but also to the professors of linguistics and translation and research supervisors as also advisors around the globe and the Arab world in particular. iii

6 Contents CHAPTERS Subjects P.No PREFACE Ii CHAPTER ONE 8 Morphology: Important Basic 8 Concepts. 1.1 Defining Morphology Defining Morpheme Lexical & Grammatical Morpheme The Main Difference between 9 Morphology, Etymology and Lexicography. 1.5 The Two Main Branches or Fields of 11 Morphology: Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes. 1.6 Free & Bound Morphemes What are Bases? What are Roots? What are Stems? What are Affixes? Types of Allomorphs What is Cliticization ( Clitics)? Differences between Inflectional affixes 17 & Clitics What is a Morph? 18 Practice Exercises (1) 19 CHAPTER TWO 24 Inflectional & Derivational 24 Morphemes. 2.1 Defining Inflection& Derivation Inflectional and Derivational Affixes: Historical & Critical Background Characteristics of Derivational 24 Morphemes. 2.4 Characteristics of Inflectional 25 Morphemes. 2.5 Morphological Properties or Categories that Characterize. 25 5

7 CHAPTERS Subjects P.No 2.6 Differences between Inflections & 26 Derivation. 2.7 Differences between Types of Affixes Class-maintaining and Class changing 29 Derivational Prefixes. 2.9 Class-maintaining and Class changing 39 Derivational Suffixes. Practice Exercises (2) 31 CHAPTER Prefixes in English 36 THREE 3.1 Prefixes& Suffixes: Critical & Historical 36 Background. 3.2 Negative Prefixes Reversative or Privative Prefix Pejorative Prefix Prefixes Referring to Parts of Human 38 Body or Their Functions. 3.6 Prefixes of Degree or Size Prefixes of Attitude Locative Prefixes( Prefixes of Place) Number Prefixes Other Common Prefixes. 42 Practice Exercises (3) 43 CHAPTER FOUR Suffixes in English Defining Suffix Noun Noun Suffixes Noun Adjective Suffixes Adverb Suffixes Noun Suffixes Verb Noun Suffixes Noun Noun Suffixes Verb Suffixes Other common suffixes. 53 Practice Exercises (4) 56 CHAPTER FIVE Word Formations 6

8 CHAPTERS Subjects P.No 5.1 Defining Word Formation Compounding Derivation Reduplications Blends( Portmanteau Words) Borrowing Conversion Clipping Back-formation Acronyms Word-manufacture( Coinage). 72 Practice Exercises (5) 74 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 76 7

9 CHAPTER ONE MORPHOLOGY: IMPORTANT BASIC CONCEPTS (Carve (Carve (every word before you let it fall.) Oliver Wendell Homles, Sr.(1994:6) 1.1 Defining Morphology Morphology can be defined as:- a) The study of how words are structured and how they are put together from smaller linguistic units. b) The study of word structures and word formation. c) Branch of language studies which deals with what morphemes are and how they operate in the structure of a word. d) The study of the rules governing the formation of words in a language. e) The study of words in terms of their constituent morphs. It is, in other words, a study of how prefixes, suffixes and infixes are combined in accordance with the rules of derivation and inflection. f) Study of word structure. 1.2 Defining Morpheme A morpheme can be defined as:- a) The minimal linguistic unit with a meaning or a grammatical function. b) The minimal linguistic element that carries grammatical and /or semantic meaning; it is not further divisible into smaller grammatical component. According to Robins(1998: 201):- To take an example, boy in English is one grammatical unit, boys is two: it is made up of the semantic element in boy and the signal of' more than-one'. This latter information is given in boys by the /z/ termnation of the speech-stream. This is 8