2. Two basic criteria of the morphemic structure of the word

In traditional grammar the study of the morphemic structure of the word was conducted in the light of the two basic criteria: positional crite­rion (the location of the marginal morphemes in relation to the central ones) and semantic or functional criterion (the correlative contribution of the morphemes to the general meaning of the word). The combina­tion of these two criteria in an integral description has led to the rational classification of morphemes that is widely used both in research linguis­tic work and in practical lingual tuition.

In accord with the traditional classification, morphemes on the up­per level are divided into root-morphemes (roots) and affixal morphemes (affixes). The roots express the concrete, "material" part of the meaning of the word, while the affixes express the specificational part of the mean­ing of the word, the specifications being of lexico-semantic and grammatico-semantic character.

The roots of notional words are classical lexical morphemes.

The affixal morphemes include prefixes, suffixes, and inflexions (in the tradition of the English school, grammatical inflexions are common­ly referred to as "suffixes"). Of these, prefixes and lexical suffixes have word-building functions, together with the root they form the stem of the word; inflexions (grammatical suffixes) express different morpho­logical categories.

The root, according to the positional content of the term (i.e. the border-area between prefixes and suffixes), is obligatory for any word, while affixes are not obligatory. Therefore one and the same morphemic segment of functional (i.e. non-notional) status, depending on various morphemic environments, can in principle be used now as an affix (mostly, a prefix), now as a root.

out - a root-word (preposition, adverb, verbal postposition, adjec­tive, noun, verb);

throughout - a composite word, in which -out serves as one of the roots (the categorial status of the meaning of both morphemes is the same);

outing - a two-morpheme word, in which out- is a root, and -ing is a suffix;

outlook, outline, outrage, out-talk, etc. - words, in which out- serves as a prefix;

look-out, knock-out, shut-out, time-out, etc. - words (nouns), in which -out serves as a suffix.

The morphemic composition of modern English words has a wide range of varieties; in the lexicon of everyday speech the preferable mor­phemic types of stems are root stems (one-root stems or two-root stems) and one-affix stems. With grammatically changeable words, these stems take one grammatical suffix (two "open" grammatical suffixes are used only with some plural nouns in the possessive case, cf: the children's toys, the oxen's yokes).

Thus, the abstract complete morphemic model of the common English word is the following: prefix + root + lexical suffix + grammatical suffix.

3. Categorial structure of the word

Notional words, first of all verbs and nouns, possess some morph­emic features expressing grammatical (morphological) meanings. These features determine the grammatical form of the word.

Grammatical meanings are very abstract, very general. Therefore the grammatical form is not confined to an individual word, but unites a whole class of words, so that each word of the class expresses the corresponding grammatical meaning together with its individual, con­crete semantics.

The most general notions reflecting the most general properties of phenomena are referred to in logic as "categorial notions", or "catego­ries". The most general meanings rendered by language and expressed by systemic correlations of word-forms are interpreted in linguistics as categorial grammatical meanings. The forms themselves are identified within definite paradigmatic series.

The means employed for building up member-forms of categorial oppositions are traditionally divided into synthetical and analytical; ac­cordingly, the grammatical forms themselves are classed into synthetical and analytical, too.

Synthetical grammatical forms are realized by the inner morphemic composition of the word, while analytical grammatical forms are built up by a combination of at least two words, one of which is a grammatical auxiliary (word-morpheme), and the other, a word of "substantial" meaning.

Synthetical grammatical forms are based on inner inflexion, outer inflexion, and suppletivity; hence, the forms are referred to as inner-in­flexional, outer-inflexional, and suppletive.

Inner inflexion, or phonemic (vowel) interchange, is not productive in modern Indo-European languages, but it is peculiarly employed in some of their basic, most ancient lexemic elements. By this feature, the whole family of Indo-European languages is identified in linguistics as typologically "inflexional".

Inner inflexion (grammatical "infixation", see above) is used in Eng­lish in irregular verbs (the bulk of them belong to the Germanic strong verbs) for the formation of the past indefinite and past participle; be­sides, it is used in a few nouns for the formation of the plural. Since the corresponding oppositions of forms are based on phonemic interchange, the initial paradigmatic form of each lexeme in question should also be considered as inflexional. Cf: take - took - taken, drive - drove - driven, keep - kept - kept, etc.; man - men, brother - brethren, etc.

Suppletivity, like inner inflexion, is not productive as a purely mor­phological type of form. It is based on the correlation of different roots as a means of paradigmatic differentiation. In other words, it consists in the grammatical interchange of word roots, and this, as we pointed out in the foregoing chapter, unites it in principle with inner inflexion (or, rather, makes the latter into a specificvariety of the former).

Suppletivity is used in the forms of the verbs be and go, in the irreg­ular forms of the degrees of comparison, in some forms of personal pronouns. Cf: be- am - are - is - was - were; go - went; good-better; bad- worse; much - more; little - less; I- me; we - us; she - her.

In a broader morphological interpretation, suppletivity can be rec­ognized in paradigmatic correlations of some modal verbs, some in­definite pronouns, as well as certain nouns of peculiar categorial prop­erties (lexemic suppletivity - see Ch. IV, § 8). Cf: can - be able; must -have (to), be obliged (to); may - be allowed (to); one - some; man -people; news - items of news; information -pieces of information, etc.