2. Word Structure

In order to represent the morphological structure of words, it is necessary to identify each of the component morphemes. Words that can be divided have two or more parts: a core called a root and one or more parts added to it. The parts are called affixes — "something fixed or attached to something else." The root is the morpheme that expresses the lexical meaning of the word, for example: teach — teacher — teaching. Affixes are morphemes that modify the meaning of the root. An affix added before the root is called a prefix (un-ending); an affix added after the root is called a suffix. A word may have one or more affixes of either kind, or several of both kinds. For example:

Prefix	Root	Suffix(es)	Example
un-	work	-able	unworkable
	govern	-ment	government
	fright	-en, -ing	frightening
re-	play		replay
	kind	-ness	kindness

Complex words typically consist of a root morpheme and one or more affixes. A root constitutes the core of the word and carries the major component of its meaning. To find the root, you have to remove any affix there may be, for example, the root -morph-, meaning "form", remains after we remove the affixes a- and -ous from amorphous. Roots have more specific and definite meaning than prefixes or suffixes, for example Latin root -aqua- means “water” (aquarium), -cent- means "hundred" (centennial), Greek -neo- means "new" (neologism), etc.

Roots belong to a lexical category, such as noun (N), verb (V), adjective (A), or preposition (P). Nouns typically refer to concrete and abstract things (door, intelligence); verbs tend to denote actions (stop, read); adjectives usually name properties (kind, blue); and prepositions encode spatial relations (in, near). Unlike roots, affixes do not belong to a lexical category and are always bound morphemes. For example, the affix -er is a bound morpheme that combines with a verb such as teach, giving a noun with the meaning "one who teaches".

A base is the form to which an affix is added. In many cases, the base is also the root. In books, for example, the element to which the affix -s is added corresponds to the word's root. In other cases, however, the base can be larger than a root. This happens in words such as blackened, in which the past tense affix -ed is added to the verbal base blacken — a unit consisting of the root morpheme black and the suffix -en. Black is not only the root for the entire word but also the base for -en. The unit blacken, on the other hand, is simply the base for -ed.

One should distinguish between suffixes and inflections in English. Suffixes can form a new part of speech, e.g.: beauty — beautiful. They can also change the meaning of the root, e.g.: black — blackish. Inflections are morphemes used to change grammar forms of the word, e.g.: work — works — worked—working. English is not a highly inflected language.

Depending on the morphemes used in the word there are four structural types of words in English:

1. simple (root) words consist of one root morpheme and an inflexion (boy, warm, law, tables, tenth);

2. derived words consist of one root morpheme, one or several affixes and an inflexion (unmanageable, lawful);

3. compound words consist of two or more root morphemes and an inflexion (boyfriend, outlaw);

4. compound-derived words consist of two or more root morphemes, one or more affixes and an inflexion (left-handed, warm-hearted, blue-eyed).

In conformity with structural types of words it’s possible to distinguish two main types of word-formation: word-derivation (encouragement, irresistible, worker) and word-composition (blackboard, daydream, weekend).

Within these types further distinction may be made between the ways of forming words:

WORD FORMATION
Word Derivation			Word Composition
Affixation	Conversion	Derivational Composition	Derivational Composition

The basic ways of forming words in word-derivation are affixation (feminist, pseudonym) and conversion (water — to water, to run — a run, slim — to slim). The importance of these processes of construction to the development of the lexicon is second to none. They are used in a complex and productive way. Word-formation has all the rights to be called the grammar of lexicon.