English Word Formation: Morphemes, Affixes, Compound Words, Apuntes de Gramática y Composición

¡Descarga English Word Formation: Morphemes, Affixes, Compound Words y más Apuntes en PDF de Gramática y Composición solo en Docsity! UNIT 1- MORPHEMES MORPHOLOGY Is the grammar component that studies how words are structured. MORPHEMES Are the smallest units of grammatical description since they cannot be segmented any further. FREE AND BOUND MORPHEMES Free morphemes occur on their own Bound morphemes can occur only if they are attached to other morpheme(s) -impossible: im-possible This is possible / *This is im- -employees: employ -ee -s The factory employs 400 people/ *There are 400 -ee -s -unfriendly: un- friend -ly He is a friend, *He is -ly FREE MORPHEMES Morphemes that can be used independently are called free morphemes. Free morphemes are also known as lexemes or as roots. Roots are the indivisible central part of a word. AFFIXES Bound morphemes are also known as affixes. Affixes can be classified according to the following criteria: a) their position in the word b) the type of information they add (A)POSITION Affixes added at the beginning of a word are prefixes. Those added at the end, suffixes: dis - (prefix) + agree=disagree book + s (suffix) = books (B) THEY TYPE OF INFORMATION THEY ADD Derivational affixes: Some affixes add lexical meaning. They are used to produce new words: happy + ness = happiness Inflectional affixes: They add grammatical meaning. They mark distinctions such as: singular/plural, present/past tense or the degree in adjectives and adverbs, but notice the word is the same: pets/ asked , asking, asks/ louder, loudest. Prefixes are always derivational and suffixes can be either derivational or inflectional. AFFIXATION Some words have just one morpheme, the root, they are monomorphemic: promise, neighbour, chair, friend Other words are created when affixes are added either to: a root : friend + ly = friendly to a word that already contains another bound morpheme: friendly + ness = friendliness ROOTS AND BASES Morphemes can be added to roots: Colony + al = colonial Morphemes can be added to bases: Colonial + ize = colonialize colony (root) + -al : colonial colonial (base) + -ize: colonialize colonialize (base) + -ation: colonialization The part of a word to which an affix is attached is called base. A root is a base that cannot be analysed any further into morphemes. All roots can be bases, but not all bases are roots.