Lecture 3 Morphological structure of English words. Wordbuilding

1. Morphological structure of English words.

2. Different ways of wordbuilding in English.

3. Productive ways of word-building in English

4. Non-productive ways of word-building in English.

1. Morphological structure of English words.

English words are constructed from two different types of morphemes -- Roots and Affixes. Each of these classes can be further subdivided: Roots can be divided into Free Roots and Bound Roots; Affixes can be divided into Prefixes and Suffixes.

MORPHEMES
ROOTS		AFFIXES
Free Roots	Bound Roots	Prefixes	Suffixes

Roots differ from affixes in two ways:

1) Roots usually have a rather specific meaning, and this meaning tends to be relatively constant across all the words that use the root. EVERY WORD HAS AT LEAST ONE ROOT.

For example, pter is a root meaning 'wing'. It appears in words like:

pterodactyl	'wing-fingers'
helicopter	'spiral wing'
apterous	'lacking wings'

The form pter always has the specific meaning 'wing' in each word.

Affixes are morphemes which are attached to roots and other affixes. Their main use is to modify the meaning conveyed by the root or roots.

Consider the affix pro- meaning 'before, for, forward'. Some examples are:

pronoun	'substituting for a noun'
prologue	'something spoken before (something else)'

2) Roots have freer distribution; they can occur almost anywhere in a word. Look back at the examples we just discussed. We find pter at the beginning, at the end, and in the middle of the word. On the other hand, affixes are restricted to certain positions within a word. In our examples, pro- is always at the beginning of the word. In fact, since it is a prefix, it must be in front of a root. Consequently, it will always occur at or near the beginning of the word.

Types of Roots

Free Roots are roots that can occur alone as whole words. Many native words such as blue and berry, are free roots because they can stand alone as single words. Free roots can also be combined with other roots or affixes to form more complex words, for example blueberry and bluish.

Bound Roots can never occur alone as whole words. For example, the roots cran and rasp cannot stand alone; they must occur in combination with other morphemes, such as cranberry and raspberry.

Almost all the Latin and Greek roots are bound roots. Some examples are:

Compounds are words constructed from two or more roots. They may or may not have affixes. For example,

blueberry	a compound of two free roots
anthropology	a compound of two bound roots

 

Types of Affixes

Affixes by definition are always bound. They are divided into two different types depending on where they attach to the root.

• Prefixes occur before a root.

• Suffixes occur after a root.

The two types of affixes also differ in how they affect the meaning of the word.

Prefixes modify the meaning of the root in some way. Often, they provide spatial information about an action named by the root.

Their most important function of Suffixes is to indicate the part of speech of the word. Suffixes identify a word as being a NOUN, VERB, ADJECTIVE, or ADVERB. They can change the word from one part of speech to another. In fact, multiple suffixes can be added to a single root, changing it first to one part of speech and then another. For example,

verb -->	verbal -->	verbalize -->	verbalization
NOUN	ADJECTIVE	VERB	NOUN