Lingustics - An exercise

Lida Lampropoulou Syllable /morpheme Affix / suffix / prefix / infix / Free morphemes / bound morphemes Derivational morphemes / inflectional morphemes  SYLLABLE / MORPHEME A syllable can be described phonetically and phonologically. A morpheme, on the other hand, can be defined morphologically or grammatically. To be able to see the main difference that makes, a look at the smallest possible form of each might prove helpful. A minimum syllable may consist of at least one vowel or vowel-like sound or diphthong {Yule, G. The Study of Language. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 45} and as a part of a sound of a word whose centre presents little or no obstruction of airflow as it is pronounced. {Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009), p.67} For instance, the word lapsed consists of only one syllable, but includes two morphemes. In contrast, a morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function (Yule, p.67) and it might include one or more syllables, as in the word sincere. The structure of a syllable is divided into an onset and a rhyme which, in turn, is divided into a nucleus and a coda. Out of these, only the nucleus is necessary, while the onset and the coda are optional. All of those are the consonants and the vowels of the syllable, and their arrangement in the word is defined by the phonotactics of a language. Based on whether a syllable has a coda or not, it is categorised as a closed or open syllable respectively. For morphemes, however, the distinction and categorisation among them does not take their sound into consideration. In fact, their main categorisation considers whether a morpheme can stand on its own, therefore making it a free or bound morpheme, and subsequently, they can be separated into lexical, functional, derivational or inflectional, based on their meaning or grammatical function. Another difference might be found in the fact that a syllable has a maximum length, at least in the English language, which is defined by the possible combinations of vowels and consonants in the onset and the coda. However, morphemes do not have to be of any particular length, which also proves that it is a morphological structure and not a phonological one, like the syllable. AFFIX / SUFFIX / PREFIX / INFIX The most common word formation procedure in the English language is through derivation, which is the process of creating lexemes out of other lexemes. This is done by adding morphemes to a word. These morphemes that are added to a word are called affixes. Suffixes, prefixes and infixes are all types of affixes, but they differ in the position they take up in a word. Prefixes are affixes added in the beginning of a word, such as un- in the word unintentional, whereas suffixes are added in the end of a word, as, for example, the –ful in beautiful. Infixes are added in the middle of a word before the syllable that receives the most stress {Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck, Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction (Wadsworth, 2010) pp.149-15}and, in contrast with the other affixes, are not so common in English, but are widely used in other languages for derivational purposes. An example of an infix is the description of Prince William to Kate Middleton as fan-flaming-tastic by the Prince’s former nanny [Tiggy Pettifier], (The Telegraph [UK], Nov 21, 2010). In English, most less or more seriously offensive intensifiers can be used that way. A similarity between prefixes and suffixes is that they both are bound morphemes. FREE MORPHEMES / BOUND MORPHEMES As mentioned in a. in this essay, a morpheme is a minimum unit of meaning or grammatical function. Free and bound morphemes are distinguished by whether they can stand on their own or not. If a morpheme is a word on its own, such as dog, then it is categorised as a free morpheme. If it is an affix that needs to be added to a stem/free morpheme to express its meaning, such as the plural –s in dogs, then it is categorised as a bound morpheme. A basic difference between free and bound morphemes is also that free morphemes are generally the carriers of meaning of the content, as for example, the free morphemes blue or near, whereas bound morphemes affect the grammatical category or function of the word, as in the comparative –er in taller, or the –s in the third person she plays. A word might consist of a free morpheme or two bound morphemes. According to Carstairs, McCarthy, An Introduction to English Morphology, p19, English language users tend to prefer complex words which contain a free morpheme in their core to words that only contain bound morphemes (e.g. readable rather than legible) and words with free morphemes come from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, whereas words with only bound morphemes have been introduced to English from Latin. DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES / INFLEXIONAL MORPHEMES Derivational and inflectional morphemes are both bound morphemes; therefore they cannot stand alone but must be bound to a stem. The main difference between them is that the former change a word into another new word, which carries different meaning and which can be of different grammatical category, as for example happy + the derivational morpheme -ness = happiness (different category), or happy +the derivational un- = unhappy (different meaning). By contrast, inflexional morphemes do not produce words which carry different meaning, but only attribute a grammatical function to it as in the plural –s of dog-dogs (same meaning). An inflectional morpheme never causes the word to change category. (Yule, chapter 6) There is a specific list of eight inflectional morphemes in English, whereas the list of possible derivational morphemes is by far larger. In addition, as seen in the examples above too, derivational morphemes can be added both as prefixes and as suffixes, whereas inflectional morphemes can only be added as suffixes. Finally, derivational morphemes are closer to the root of the word than inflectional morphemes, which actually means that when both are added to a word, the derivational morpheme comes first and the inflectional last, e.g. play – players, with play being a free morpheme, -er a derivational one and –s an inflectional one. {Bauer,L. Introducing Linguistic Morphology. (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2003) chapter. 6.5, pp.99-101  BIBLIOGRAPHY Bauer, L. Introducing Linguistic Morphology. (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2003) Carstairs-McCarthy, A. An Introduction to English Morphology. (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2002) Denham Kristin and Lobeck Anne, Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction, Wadsworth, 2010 Popova, Geri and Soden, Satori Introduction to English Language. (London, University of London, 2012) Roach, p. English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009) fourth edition Yule, George, The Study of Language. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010) fourth edition 6