英语词汇学第4讲

Readings Task IV
• Chapter 12 of A Survey of English Lexicology • Key points in the book will be discussed next week
Morpheme: definition
Morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of language, not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms. Words are composed of morphemes. What is usually considered a single word in English may be composed of one or more morphemes.
Root: free root
In English, many roots are free morphemes and they can stand alone as words such as boy, moon, walk, black.
Root: bound root
Quite a number of roots derived from foreign sources, especially from Greek and Latin, belong to the class of bound morphemes. e.g. -tain (= hold) contain（con全部+tain-->包容） detain（de下+tain-->拘留） sustain （sus下面+tain-->撑住 retain （re回+tain-->保留）
Affix: inflectional affix
Affixes attached to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional morphemes. e.g. cats, walked, walking, John’s book…

Neologism
3. Modes of Development
Lecture IV Morphological Structure
Lecture IV Morphological structure
1. Morpheme Definition Identification 2. Root Free root Bound root 3. Affix Inflectional and derivational Prefix and suffix Origin and productivity 4. Allomorph
Root
Alternatively, morphemes may be divided into roots (or root morphemes) and affixes (or affixational morphemes).
Root
Roots is the basic unchangeable part of a word, and it conveys the main lexical meaning of the word. e.g. work, workable, worker, worked, working
decentralization specialize individualistic half-hearted a man of letters downfall power-drunk
de-, center, -al, -ize, -ation species, -al, -ize in-, divide, -al, -ist, -ic half, heart, -ed a, man, of, letter, -s down, fall power, drink, an (allomorph of -ed)
Origin and productivity
Affixes (such as re-, un-, -able, -ize) are called productive or living when they can be used to form new words. Those that are no longer used to form new words are termed dead or unproductive. e.g. for- as in forget, forgive, forbid; with- as in withdraw, withhold, withstand, -ant or -ent as in servant, different.
Origin and productivity
Native affixes are those that existed in the OE period or were formed from OE words, such as un-, mis-Hale Waihona Puke Baidu be-, out-, over-, -ness, -dom, -hood, -ly, –er. Foreign affixes came as a part of loan words from Latin, Greek, French, or other languages. Examples: ab-(L), bi-(L), dis-(L), re-(L), kilo(Gk), poly-(Gk), mal-(F), -ic(Gk), -ism(Gk), ist(Gk), -able (F), -ize(F).
Morpheme: identification
For example, • One morpheme: nation • Two morphemes: nation-al • Three morphemes: nation-al-ize • Four morphemes: de-nation-al-ize
Affix: prefix and suffix
Derivational morphemes or derivational affixes are commonly subdivided into prefixes and suffixes. Affixes before the word are called prefixes; those after are called suffixes.
Morpheme: exercise
ecocrisis meaningfulness prediction inequality understatement undeveloped downsizing moonscape supernatural • • • • • • • • • eco-, crisis mean, -ing, -ful, -ness pre-, -dict-, -ion -in, equal, -ity -under, state, -ment -un, develop, -ed down, size, -ing moon, -scape -super, nature, -al
Affix: derivational affix
Derivational affixes are added to other morphemes to create new words. They can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes.
Allomorph
A prefix like im- occurs before p, b, or m (imperfect, imbalance, immobile). Its allomorphs are ir- before r (irregular, irresponsible); il- before l (illogical, illegal); in- before all other consonants and vowels (inflexible, incomplete).
Morpheme: exercise
Please identify the morphemes.
ecocrisis meaningfulness prediction inequality understatement undeveloped downsizing moonscape supernatural
Types of Morphemes
Free Morpheme Bound Affixes Derivational Suffix Free root
Bound root Inflectional Prefix
Allomorph
An allomorph is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds. e.g. the morpheme of plurality {-s}: /s/ after the sounds /t, p, k/ /z/ after /d, b, g, l/; /iz/ after /s, z, …/
Morpheme: exercise
Please identify the morphemes. decentralization specialize individualistic half-hearted a man of letters downfall power-drunk
Morpheme: exercise
Affix
Affixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or function. According to the functions of affixes, we can put them into two groups: inflectional and derivational affixes.
English Lexicology
Review of Lecture III
1. The History of English Old English (450-1100) Middle English (1100-1500) Modern English (1500-present) 2. Modern English Words Borrowing
Morpheme: identification
More example,
book books bookish bookcase tolerate tolerance tolerant toleration tolerable intolerable telephone telegram telescope telecommunication -s, -ate, -ish, -case, in-, -able