Morphology is the study of word structure to see how words are formed → to study the processes of word formation. English words are morphologically complex.
1. Many English words are indivisible units of meaning because they are morphologically simple. ( Ex: the, desk, eat, fee, ... )
2. Many English words can not be segmented or divided up into smaller units that are themselves meaningful. (Ex: mosquito → can't be divided as : mos / quito,) complex can't be divided as : com/ plex, ...)
UNIT 1
MORPHEMES
A. DEFINITION: a morpheme → a word or part of a word lexical meaning
grammatical meaning
Ex:
teach → 1 morpheme
teacher → 2 morphemes
teachers → 3 morphemes
Explain: → smallest meaningful unit in a language.
Test: How many morphemes are there? Explain the statement.
common → ?
smaller → ?
meanings → ?
unexpectedly → ?
internationalized → ?
B. MORPHEMES, PHONEMES, SYLLABLES, WORDS.
1. Morphemes vs phonemes:
Morphemes → meaning
Phonemes → no meaning
Ex 1: * She sings a nice song
→ morpheme → meaning → to indicate “the third person”
* speak, consist, this → phonemes
Ex 2: * rainy
→ morpheme → suffix → to form the Adj
* yellow, lawyer, happy → phonemes
2. Morphemes vs syllables
→ 1 morpheme may have 1 syllable or more syllables.
Ex: eat, cat, tea, …
pattern, reason, contact, …
animal, bungalow, banana, …
3. Morphemes vs words
A word may be composed of 1 or more morphemes.
Ex: rain → 1 m
rainy → 2 m
developments → 3m
C. HOMEWORK
[[[
1. Find 3 words with one morpheme.
2. Find 3 words with two morphemes.
3. Find 3 words with three morphemes.
4. Exercise III.1 /Textbook / p.26
5. Exercise III.2 /Textbook/ p.26
4. Exercise III.1 /Textbook / p.26
How many morphemes are there in each word ?