Morphology

Morphology is a branch of linguistics that involves the study of the grammatical structure of words and how words are formed and varied within any given language. Morphology studies the relationship between morphemes, referring to the smallest meaningful unit in a word, and how these units can be arranged to create new words or new forms of the same word.

A morpheme is, more broadly speaking, a language unit, which can be a word unit.

Morphology is also the study of synthetic language in which grammatical relations and distinctions are realized within words.

Definition

A division of linguistics, morphology is the study of the smallest segments of language that carry meaning.

In the example of the word smallest, the two segments small and -est come together to make a complete word. These building blocks are an example of individual morphemes.

Definition

Morphemes are the smallest units of language that have meaning and can’t be further subdivided.

Morphology is a combination of two words Morph means (form) and Ology means (science of). Thus, morphology is the science of word formation. It is the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. The term was first used in linguistics by August Schleicher in 1859

Morpheme types

There are two major types of morphemes: free morphemes and bound morphemes.

Bound Morphemes cannot normally stand alone but they are typically attached to another form.  Example :Smallest Small – is a free morpheme -est – is a bound morpheme Bound morphemes can do one of two things: they can change the grammatical category of the root word (derivational morpheme), or they can simply alter its form (inflectional morpheme).

Free Morphemes

A free morpheme is a morpheme that occurs alone and carries meaning as a word. Free morphemes are also called unbound or freestanding morphemes.

Example : Frigid, Are, Must, Tall, Picture, Roof, Clear

These examples are all free morphemes because they cannot be subdivided into smaller pieces that hold significance. Free morphemes can be any type of word—whether an adjective, a noun, or anything else—they simply have to stand alone as a unit of language that conveys meaning. free morphemes are actually categorized as either lexical or functional according to how they function.

Bound is further divided into root and affix.

An affix is an additional segment added to a root word to change its meaning. An affix may be added to the beginning (prefix) or the end (suffix) of a word.

Not all bound morphemes are affixes, but they are certainly the most common form. Here are a few examples of affixes you might see:

-est, -ly. –ed, -s, un-, re-, im-, a-

Root Morpheme: A root is a morpheme that can't be analyzed into smaller parts. It is that part of word which is left when all the affixes have been removed.For example, act, beauty, system etc. +faith + ful

believe +able (verb + suffix)

Word

un + believe+ able (prefix + verb + suffix)

affix  can also be divided into two types. i. Derivation Morpheme ii. Inflectional Morpheme

5. Derivational Morpheme: (kind of Bound Morpheme) When root+ derivational morpheme combine a newword is formed with new meaning. This word usually changegrammatical clause.A derivational morpheme can change the grammaticalcategory of a word.

Noun + Derivational Morpheme (adj) Boy+ish

Verb + Derivational Morpheme (Noun)

Clear + ance

Adj or Adverb + Derivational Morpheme

(Quiet + ly)  (Exact+ly)

Ex. good => adjective good+ness => noun Care => noun care + less => adjective

6. Inflectional Morpheme: (Kind of Bound Morpheme) Inflectional morphemes have grammatical meaning inthe sentence. They never change part of speech. For example,

Infinitive is its best example "to" is added before theword "to go" to work, to finish etc.There are eight inflectional Morpheme in English. An inflectional morpheme neverchanges the grammatical category of a word.

1. "-s" or "-es" third person singular present

She waits at home.

2. "-ed" past tense

She waited at home.

3. "-ing" progressive www.bseln.com