语素和形态学

MorphologyABSTRACT: Morphology studies the internal structure of words and their alteration through the combination of morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest element in a language capable of creating a distinction in meaning. There are bound morphemes (e.g. -s, -ed, -ing) and free morphemes (e.g. go, stop, run).Definition of MorphologyMorphology is the study of word formation in a particular language. It focuses especially on the internal structure ofthe words and their alteration through the addition of prefixes and suffixes.The MorphemeWe have noted elsewhere (Language) that language is a set of symbols used to transmit meaning. But just what is the smallest element of meaning in a language? Most people tend to think of a word as being the smallest element. Is this the case? Well, consider the following words.dog dogswalk walkedsad sadlyrun runningIf you were to look up these words in a dictionary you would not find them listed as eight separate words. You would find only four listings of the words in the first column, i.e. dog, walk, sad and run. The words in the second column would be shown within each listing as a variation of the listed word. For example, the word dog is used to mean a domesticated animal belonging to the same family as the fox, wolf and jackal. The word dogs would then be shown as the plural of dog, i.e. meaning more than one. Grammatically, then, words can be divided into smaller elements. In the example just discussed, one such element is dog and the other element is -s, which can be added to dog to make it plural. These smaller elements are known as morphemes. Other examples of the morpheme -s being added to other morphemes to make them plural include:cat-shat-srat-sIn the earlier example of walk and walked, the morpheme -ed is used here to indicate the past tense, i.e. that something happened before the present time. Other examples include:thank-edwork-edplay-edThe example of sad and sadly indicates how the morpheme -ly has been added to the morpheme sad to produce an adverb, i.e. a word which indicates how an action was performed. Other examples include:loud-lyproud-lysincere-lyThe final example of run and running indicates how the morpheme -ing has been added to the morpheme run to denotean ongoing action. Further examples are:sitt-ingring-ingsing-ingYou may have noticed that, in some instances, when a morpheme is added to another morpheme the spelling of the morpheme which has been added to changes. This is true of run to running (where an extra n is inserted), sit to sitting (where an extra t is inserted). In the case of smile to smiling, the e of smile is omitted, and with funny to funnily, the y of funny is replaced with an i. These structural changes in the way we write the word do not alter the meaning that is produced by the combination of the morphemes.So far, all the cited examples have involved adding morphemes to the ends of other morphemes. Morphemes in this position are known as suffixes. Morphemes could, of course, be added to the front of other morphemes, in which case they are known as prefixes. Examples of this are re- as in re-print and re-do, pre- as in pre-ordain and pre-pay, and dis- asin dis-allow and dis-agree. It is also possible to alter the meaning of morphemes by the combined use of both prefixes and suffixes. Consider how the morpheme organize can be altered:re-ORGANIZE-eddis--erpre--ation-ing-sBound and free morphemesIt should be apparent from the above discussion that some morphemes can occur alone and still convey meaning. Examples of such so-called free morphemes are go, stop, sit, bus, like and organize (as in the above example). Some types of morpheme, however, cannot occur on their own, e.g. -ly, -ing, -ed, -er, -s, -dis, -re. These morphemes must always be bound to another morpheme if they are to be meaningful. Consequently, these morphemes are said to be bound morphemes.Notice from the above example of how organize may be altered that organize is the central morpheme. It is this so-called root morpheme which is altered by the addition of the affixes re-, dis- and pre- (prefixes) and -ed, -er, -ation, -ing and -s (suffixes). For most English words the root is usually a word in its own right and it is typically a free morpheme.There are, however, examples of root morphemes that are not free. An example of such a bound root occurs in theword unconscionable, where un- can be related to the un- of un-relate, un-justified, un-lawful and so on.However, conscionable cannot occur on its own, it always appears bound to the prefix un-. Another example is theword dissuade. Here, the prefix dis- can be related to the dis- of dis-agree, dis-appear and dis-like but suade cannot appear on its own.4. morpheme and morphologymorpheme is the smallest unit of language, a unit that cannot be divided into further smaller units without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical.Morpheme studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed, including inflection and word formation.5. types of morphemes(1) free morpheme and bound morphemeFree morphemes are those which may occur alone or constitute words by themselves. All monomorphemic words are free morphemes. And polymorphemic words, which consist wholly of free morphemes, are compounds. Bound morphemes cannot occur alone.they must appear with at least another morpheme.(2)root, affix and stemPoly-morphemic words other than compounds may be divided into roots and affixes.A root is the base form of a word that cannot further e analyzed without total loss of identity. All words contain a root morpheme, which may be a free morpheme or a bound morpheme.An affix is the collective term for the type of formative that can be used only when added to another morpheme (the root or stem),which has three subtypes, prefix, suffix and infix. All the affixes are bound morphemes.A stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional affix can be added. It can be equivalent to a root, or a root and a derivational affix.(3) inflectional affix and derivational affixInflectional affix and derivational affixInflectional affixes do not change the word class of the word but only add a minute or delicate grammatical meaning to the stem.Derivational affixes often change the lexical meaning and the word class. In English, inflectional affixes are mostly suffixes(e.g.drums, walks, Mary’s), but derivational affixes can be prefixes(e.g.suburban ,online,depart)or suffixes(e.g. teacher,workable).6. inflection and word formationInflection is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and case, which do not change the grammatical class of the stems to which they are attached .Compound refers to those words that consist of more than one lexical morpheme,or the way to join two separate words to produce a single pounds can be divided into the endocentric and the exocentric compound. Derivation shows the relation between roots and affixes.forms derived from derivation arerelatively large and potentially open.in English, there is usually one productive inflectional affix per word,but multiple derivational affixes are allowed,such as joyfulness,effectively, contradiction,etc.7. the counterpoint of phonology and morphology(1) morpheme and phonemea phoneme is the smallest unit of sound and a morpheme is the smallest unit in grammar. A single phoneme may represent a single morpheme, but they are not identical, e.g.the phoneme/z/represents the plural morphemein boys but nothing in raise.(2)morphemic structure and phonological structureMorpheme may be represented by phonological structures,which are monophonemic,monosyllabic or polysyllabic.(3)allomorphSome morphemes have a single form in all contexts,such as dog,cat, etc.some others may have considerable variation,i.e. a morpheme may have alternate shapes or phonetic forms called the allomorph, such as the allomorphs of the plural morpheme{-s~-z~-iz~-zi~-i:~-n~-o}. some morphemic shapes represent different morphemes and thus have different meanings,e.g.the morphemic shape{-s}can express plurality in tables, person/finiteness in talks and cade in bo y’s.(4)morphophonology or morphophonemicsMorphophonology or morphophonemcs is a branch of linguistics referring to the analysis and classification of the phonological factors that affect the appearance of morphemes, and the grammatical factors that affect the appearance of phonemes. It studies the interrelationship between phonology and morphology.8. lexical changeapart from compound and derivation,lexical change includes invention,blending, abbreviation, acronym,back-formation,analogical creation and borrowing.Phonological change is related to language variation in the phonological system of language. It refers to changes in sound leading to changes in form, like loss, addition, metathesis and sddimilation.Semantic change includes broadening, narrowing, meaning shift, conversation and folk etymology. Orthographic change—since writing is a recording of the sound system in English, phonological changes will no doubt set off graphitic changes.。