Lesson Plans 1-2

(Week 1-2)

Chapter One: The study of the morphological structure of English

1. Learning Objectives
Upon completing this chapter, students are expected to be able
to:
1.1 Identify the morpheme base affixes allomorph and morph.
1.2 Identify the types of morpheme
1.3 Identify the function of morpheme base affixes, allomorph and
morph.
1.4 Use the morpheme base affixes, allomorph and morph in
English correctly.
1.5 Be aware of different types of allomorphs in words.

2. Topics of Content
2.1 What is Morpheme?
2.2 What is Segmentation?
2.3 Types of Morpheme
2.4 Base
2.5 Affixes and Affixation
2.6 Allomorph
2.7 Morph

3. Teaching and Learning Method

4.1 Lectures
4.2 Brainstorming
4.3 Discussions
4.4 Assignment
 4.5 Presentations

4. Teaching Materials
4.1 Main textbook
4.2 Supplementary materials
4.3 Transparencies
4.4 Charts
4.5 Worksheet
4.6 Textbooks
4.7 English Dictionary

5. Measurement and Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on:
5.1 Exercise in the book
5.2 Small test
5.3 Observation of the learners attention and participation
 Chapter One
The Study of the Morphological Structure of English

According to traditional linguistic theories, grammatical description

largely operates on two important units: the word and the sentence.
These two units form the basis of the differing writing systems in various
languages of the world.
In order to make the study of meaningful linguistic elements simpler
and more explicit, it has been found convenient to postulate abstract
entities called ‘morphemes’ in somewhat the same way in which
phonemics were postulated to make the study of speech sounds simpler
and more explicit.
In English, the smallest grammatical unit is the morpheme (which is
unstructured) and each higher unit is made up of units immediately
below it. The highest grammatical unit is the sentence which includes all
the smaller units. Thus, morphemes function in the word structure, word
structures in the group structure, group structures in the clause structure,
and clause structure in the complex sentence structure. The diagram
below shows this hierarchical arrangement of syntactic structure in
English.

Sentence

Clause

Group
 Word

Morpheme

What is Morpheme?
Morpheme, an important division of the grammar of a language, deals
with the structure of words. It is the study of words – words which
exhibit arrangements of morphemes. The study of word–formation or the
structure of words in a language is called the morphology of that
language.
The definition of the morpheme may not be completely unassailable
as will be evident from the discussion that follows, but it is certainly a
very satisfying definition applicable to a majority of words in any
language. Some linguists describe morphemes as the ‘smallest recurrent
elements of grammatical patterning’ and leave meaning out of the
definition. The word ‘receive’ may be regarded as one morpheme; if
broken down into smaller units, ‘re’ and ‘ceive’, one can claim that
‘ceive’ is grammatically significant and recurs in a slightly different form,
cept, in adjective such as receptive, perceptive, perceptual, etc. Similarly,
the following words may be split up into two units: conceive (con, ceive),
transport (trans, port), report (re, port), export (ex, port), perceive (per,
ceive), etc. This represents one point of view, but not one which is
accepted by many other linguists since it totally excludes meaning.
The morpheme is the second basic unit in the expression system of
a language, the first being the ‘phoneme’. A morpheme may be defined
as the smallest meaningful unit in the structure of a language. It cannot
be sub-divided without destroying or drastically changing its meaning. For
example, ‘man’/µ { ν / is a morpheme. We cannot subdivided it into /m-
/+/ / { n/ or /m/ +/{ / + /n/ because every time we do so, we get
units of language having meaning quite different from the meaning given
by /m{ n/. Therefore the unit /m{ n/ is a morpheme, the smallest
meaningful unit of English language.
The English word unassailable is made up of three morphemes, un,
assail, able, each one of which has a particular meaning distribution and
a particular phonological form or shape.
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language, and
morpheme is a short segment of language that meets three criteria:

1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.

2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without
violation of its
meaning or without meaningless remainders.
3. It recurs in differing verbal environment with a relatively stable
meaning.
The words 'bats' for example, has two morphemes, the form bat is a
morpheme, and also the form -s is a morpheme. The bat means "a kind
of animal" and the -s means "there are more than one".
The word ‘unlikely’ has 3 morphemes while the word ‘carpet’ is a
single morpheme. The word ‘car’ and ‘pet’ are independent morphemes
in themselves. The word ‘carpet’ has nothing to do with the meaning of
‘car’ and ‘pet’. Carpet is a minimal meaningful unit by itself. Again, the
word ‘garbage’ is a single morpheme while the word ‘grab’ and ‘age’
are independent morphemes by themselves. A systematic study of
morphemes or how morphemes join to form words is known as
morphology.
A word consists of at least one morpheme. Likewise if may
consist of two or more morphemes. Look at the following words.
 kind = one morpheme kind
kind ful = two morphemes kindful
un kind ful = three morphemes Unkindful
un kind ful ness = four morphemes Unkindfulness
Some morphemes have no clear shape. Such a morpheme will be
called "Zero" or /Ø/. Consider the following sentences.
A deer is in the park.
Deer are in the park.
A woman is in the class.
Women are in the class.
The nouns underlined consist of noun + plural (like dogs, cats,
boys). But the plural form is /Ø/ which is a variant form of the plural
morpheme.
deer : plural + deer

woman + plural = women

woman + Ø

boy + plural = boys

boy - s

A meaningful linguistic unit which is said to be minimal – unable to

be further divided or broken into smaller meaningful parts is called a
morpheme. Dealing with the study, description and classification of
morphemes in morphemic.
 Units of word building such as the prefix un- the base or stem read
and suffix - able are morphemes since they are meaningful and unable
to be segmented further, and if a conventional construction is to be
formed of these morphemes, we shall have the word unreadable, an
adjective meaning not able to be read.
George Yule gave the definition of a morpheme as “a minimal unit of
meaning or grammatical function”. We would say that the word
‘reopened’ in the sentence, The police reopened the investigation,
consists of three morphemes. One minimal unit of meaning is open,
another minimal unit of meaning is re- (meaning ‘again’), and a minimal
unit of grammatical function is – ed (indicating past tense). The word
tourists also contain three morphemes. There is one minimal unit of
meaning, tour, another minimal unit of meaning –ist (meaning ‘person
who does something’), and a minimal unit of grammatical function –s
(indicating plural).

What is Segmentation?
A large number of words can be broken down into segments and
are said to be “determinate with respect to segmentation.”
Examples:
boys boy-s
playing play-ing
passed pass-ed
unable un-able
knowingly know-ing-ly
watches watch-es
But there are several words which can either not be segmented
(indeterminate) at all, or are only partially determinate with respect to
segment.
Examples:
 men, children, mice, sheep, went, took, broke, sung, brought, better,
best, worse, worst.
The problems of segmentation in all such words may vary in kind as
well as in degree. This presents a serious problem. Although better and
went stand in the same grammatical relationship with good and go and
as lower and walked have with low and walk, yet the words better and
went cannot be segmented into parts (as lower and walked) as per the
given definition of the term morphemes. Since we know that better has
the same grammatical function vis-a-vis good as shorter has vis-a-vis
short, we can express the relationship as a proportion of grammatical (or
distributional) equivalence:
good : better : best :: short : shorter : shortest
Good and short are both adjectives and the expression better and
shorter are grammatically alike in the sense that they both express only
the comparative degree of the adjective. Similarly, best and shortest too
are alike as they express the superlative degree of the adjective. Now
suppose, on an analogy from algebra, we resolve each of the six words
given above into factors/components, the word good being denoted by
the factor a, short by b, there the positive, comparative and superlative
functions being marked by factors x, y and z respectively, the above
equation can be rewritten as:
ax : ay : az :: bx : by : bz
All the three words on the left hand side have the component a (i.e.
good) in them and those on the right hand side have the component b
(i.e. short) in them. Components x, y and z stand to mark the positive,
comparative and superlative degrees of the adjectives in question. All
these components, or distributional factors of words are morphemes.
Thus, a morpheme may not necessarily be a part of a segment of a
word, but may merely have a factorial role as indicated above.
Types of Morphemes
Morphemes in English can be classified into two categories: free
morphemes and bound morphemes.
2.1 Free morphemes
A free morpheme is independent for it can occur alone by itself
as a word in the language. Free morphemes are those that can occur
alone: dog, girl, good, run, two, have, I, you, of, can, the, love, bad,
etc. A free morpheme is one that can be uttered alone with meaning.
For instance, in reply to “What are you going to do now?” you might
answer “Eat”. This is a free morpheme. A bound morpheme, unlike the
free, cannot be uttered alone with meaning. It is always annexed to one
or more morphemes to form a word, e.g. antedate, replay, manly,
keeper, unable. The underlined morphemes in the examples are all
bound, for one would not utter in isolation forms like ante-, re-, -ly, - er,
and un-.

2.2 A bound morpheme

A bound morpheme is dependent as it is always attached to
another morpheme. Affixes are bound morphemes as they always occur
with bases. The bound morphemes are those that cannot occur alone,
and must be attached to words i.e. enlarge, quickly, widen, singing,
replace, etc.
Most bases occur independently as free morphemes and few
bases are bound morphemes.
For example:
The morpheme - ed in loved
- ful in beautiful
- miss in mistake
- ness in goodness
- s in dogs
 un- in unhappy
dis- in dislike
re- in replay
ante- in antedate
ex- in ex-president, ex-wife, ex-
child mid- in middle, midterm,
midday, midnight neo- in neo-Latin, neo-
Nazi, neoclassic, post- in post-war,
postpaid, postscript
pre- in pre-test, prepay, predate,
preview,
preschool, prefix, preflight.

Classification of Morphemes
MORPHEMES

FREE MORPHEMES BOUND

MOREPHEMES

Noun Conjunctions (and, or) Affixes Bound

Contracted
Verbs Articles (the, a) Base Forms
Adjectives Demonstrative (this, that)
Adverbs Preposition Prefixes Suffixes
‘ll
re- -s cran - ‘d
un- - ize ‘ive
dis- - ify ‘s
 mis- - en

Bases
Another classification of morpheme puts them into two classes: bases
and affixes. A base morpheme is the part of a word that has the
principal meaning. A base is a morpheme which is the core of the word
that contains the word’s basic meaning. The underlined morphemes in
these words are bases: denial, lovable, annoyance, reenter, disagree,
pretest, manly.
Bases are very numerous, and most of them in English are free
morphemes; but some are bound, like- sent in ‘consent’, ‘dissent’, and
‘assent’. A word may contain one base and several affixes. ‘Readability’,
for example, contains the free base read and the two affixes –abil- and
–ity; and ‘unmistakable’ has the free base take and the affixes un-, mis-,
and –able.
In the words like unhappy, disregarded, childhood, etc. morphemes
such as happy, regarded and child can stand on their own as
independent words. Such morphemes are called free morphemes. On the
other hand, morphemes like un-, dis-, -ed, -hood, etc. cannot stand on
their won as independent words. They are always attached to a free
morpheme. Morphemes such as dis-, un-, -ed, -hood are also called
bound affixes. The form to which an affix is attached is called a base.
Here is a tree diagram showing the morphological analysis of the word
‘unknowingly’:

Unknowingly

affix
base
un- -knowingly
 base
affix
(knowing) (-
ly)

stem (root) affix

know -ing

Affixes and Affixation

Affixes may be divided into prefixes (which appear at the
beginning of the base) and suffixes (with appear at the end of the
base).
Consider the following sets:
Set - A Set - B
Prefix Base Base Suffix
unhappy un- -happy friendship friend -
ship
immobile im- -mobile childhood child -
hood
enable en- -able girls girl -s
illegal il- -legal nicely nice -ly

The bound morphemes, in word–formation, are called “affix” and

the words to which the affixes are added, are called “base word” (free
morpheme).

act  actor
base word affix
 play  replay

affix base word

The word “affix” is a general term that means either prefix or
suffix. Those that have to be added at the beginning of words are called
“prefixes”, and those that are added at the end of words are called
“suffixes”.
affix

prefix + base word + suffix

An affix is a bound morpheme that occurs before or within or after a
base. An affix does not carry the principal meaning but is added to a
free or a bound base to change the meaning of the base or to mark a
grammatical function.
The affixes in English can be arranged into two groups: inflectional
and derivational. Inflection is a change made in the form of a word to
express its relation to other words in the sentence. Derivation, on the
other hand, is the process by which new word belong to the same class
(e.g. girl and girlhood, both nouns, play and replay, both verbs) and is
class-changing if the two words belong to different categories (e.g. able
and enable, verb from adjective, reason and seasonal, adjective from
noun, dance and dancer, noun from verb).
Inflectional suffixes do not change the class of the word, for example
slide - slides (both verbs)
hot - hotter (both adjectives)
boy - boys (both nouns)
speak - speaking (both verbs)
They come last in a word and appear only as suffixes. (Derivational
affixes can be both prefixes and suffixes). They do not pile up (only one
ends a word), e.g. books, higher, written. Also, inflectional suffixes go
with all stems of a given part of speech, for example
Verbs Adjectives Nouns
come comes cold colder girl girls
sing sings tall taller pen pens
see sees short shorter bench
benches
More examples of inflectional suffixes classified according to a part of
speech.

Noun inflectional suffixes

a. Plural marker –s
girl – girls
(The girls are here)

b. Possessive marker-’s
Samran – Samran’s
(Samran’s pen)

Verb inflectional suffixes

c. Third person present singular marker –s
bake – bakes
(She bakes well)
d. Past tense marker – ed
walk – walked
(We walked here yesterday)
e. Progressive marker -ing
play – playing
(They are playing)
f. Part participle markers –en or –ed
eat – eaten
 (She has eaten mango)
bake – baked
(He has baked a cake)
Adjective inflectional suffixes
g. Comparative marker –er
fast – faster
(She is faster than you)
h. Superlative marker –est
fast –fastest
(She is fastest)
English has only the inflectional affixes listed above, and all
inflectional affixes in English are suffixes (none are prefixes, unlike the
situation with derivational affixes, which include both suffixes and
prefixes).

Kinds of affixes
There are three kinds of affixes, which are: prefixes, infixes, and
suffixes:
Prefixes are those bound morphemes that occur before a base, as in
import, prefix, reconsider, unhappy. Prefixes in English are a small class
of morpheme, numbering about seventy-five. Their meanings are often
those of English prepositions and adverbial.
Prefixes in English usually modify the meaning of the base form. The
following are some of the active prefixes, together with their approximate
meaning.
Prefix Approximate Meaning Examples
anti- against anti-people
arch- chief arch-enemy
bi- twice, two bi-monthly, bi-plane
co- with co-passenger
contra- against contra-dication
counter- against counter-move
de- from, away decentralize
dis- away, without disable
em- in, on emplane
en- encircle
equi- equal equidistant
ex- former ex-president
extra- outside extra-constitutional
hyper- abnormally high hyper-sensitive
I- illogical
i + m- not immobilise
n- invisible
r- irresponsible
inter- between inter-college
intra- within intra-college
mal- defective, bad(ly) maladjustment, maltreat
mini- small miniskirt
mis- not misbehave
non- not non-committal
pan- all pan-Indian
post- after postgraduate
pre- before predegree
pro- favouring pro-capitalist
pseudo- sham pseudo-intellectual
quasi- half, seeming(ly) quasi-passive
re- back, again regain
semi- half semi-circle, semi-final
sub- under sub-committee
super- very high degree super-diplomat
 trans- across trans-continental
tri- three tri-junction
ultra- excessively ultra-modern
un- not unusual

under- not sufficiently (with vbs.) under-estimate.

(placed) under (with nn) under-secretary
vice- next below vice-president

Infixes are bound morphemes that have been inserted within a word,
although in English these are rare. Occasionally they are additions within
a word, but, infixes in English are most commonly replacements, not
additions. They occur in a few noun plurals. Like the –ee- in geese,
replacing the –oo- of goose, and more often in the past tense and past
participles of verbs, like the –o- of chose and chosen replacing the –oo-
of choose.
Suffixes are bound morphemes that occur after a base, for example
shrinkage, failure, noisy, realize, nails, dreamed. A suffix can occur after
another suffix but not directly after a prefix. Suffixes may pile up to the
number of three of four, whereas prefixes are commonly single, except
for the negative un- before another prefix. In ‘normalizes’ we perhaps
reach the limit with four: the base norm plus the four suffixes –al, -ize,
-er, -s. when suffixes multiply like this, their order is fixed: there is one
and only one order in which they occur.
Suffixes are generally divided into two classes: (a) those that
serve some grammatical functions, and (b) the others that are used to
derive new words from the base form. According to these two functions
the first group is called grammatical or Inflectional Suffixes and the
second group is called lexical or Derivational Suffixes.
Classification of Affixes
Affixes may be classified as derivational and inflectional according
to their effect on the base.

Inflectional affixes
Inflectional affixes are bound morphemes that mark grammatical
meanings such as plurality, past tense, or comparison. They do not
change the word class of the base to which they are attached.
Inflectional affixes are those that do not change words (to which
they are added) from one word – class or subclass to another.
For example:
understand  misunderstand
v
v
countable  uncountable
adj.
Adj.
boy  boys
n n
In English, as in many other languages, words are sometimes
modified or changed to meet grammatical requirements. For instance, the
word ‘like’ in Dogs like meat. The forms are so changed or modified to
indicate their connection with or dependence on other words in the
sentence, or for other grammatical functions snf are called the
Inflectional forms of the words; and this is usually done by adding
inflectional suffixes to the base form. However, unlike some highly
inflected languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Latin, etc.) where even entire sentence
can be squeezed into a single inflected form, English uses inflection only
for a few limited purposes. They are:
1. Tense affixes
The tense affix is used by adding it at the end of an auxiliary or
a verb which is the first element in the predicative structure, The tense
affix in English is divided into two kinds: present and past.
(i) The present tense affix in a verb has two forms: /- s /and /Ø/
the form –s is used if the subject of the sentence is singular with a
third person in the present tense, thus done by adding –s or –es to the
base form in writing, the form /Ø/ will be used if the subject of the
sentence is plural or I, You, or if the sentence consists of modal (M)
/-s/ if the subject of sentence is
singular
present tense affix
/-Ø/ if the subject of sentence is
plural or I, you or if the sentence
consists f modal (M)
Subject Predicate
A girl takes my pen
She has a book
Men take my books
They have books
You have one book
A girl may take my pen
She can have a book

Modal  can, will, shall, may, must,

take + present  takes

take -s
have + present  have
 have Ø
The allomorphs of this morpheme too are phonetically identical
with the plural and case-suffixes and occur under similar phonetic
contexts, namely:

(ii) The past tense affix has two forms: -ed and Ø
ed
past tense affix
Ø
The form of the past tense affix will be shown at the first element
of the predicative structure of a sentence. For examples
A sentence : She went to Lomsak.
Is the string : she + go + past + to + Lomsak
went

A sentence : The girl opened a letter.

Is the string : the + girl + open + past + a letter
opened
open + past  opened

open - ed

(iii) The plural affix is added at the end of the word, for a
countable noun, therefore, it is the suffix. The plural affix has two
forms :/-s/ and /Ø/ .
The plural affix taking the form -s
girl girls
chair chairs
 dog + plural  dogs
pen (-s) pens
etc. etc,
The plural affix taking form Ø
deer deer
fish fish
sheep sheep
man men
child + plural  children
woman women
goose Ø geese
etc. etc.
-s
plural affix
Ø

(iv) The affix – ing usually occurs together with ‘be’ in a

sentence,
(be + ing)
A sentence:
She is coming
is
be + present tense affix am
are

The previous sentence is the string:

 She + be + present + come + ing
She + be + - s + come + ing

is
She is coming.
All full verbs and the auxiliaries ‘Be’ and ‘have’ (auxiliary ‘Do’ has
no –ing form) regularly take the –ing suffix to form the present participle
and the gerund. Since both of these are identical in form and sometimes
difficult to distinguish grammatically, they are conveniently labelled as
‘the –ing form’ of a verb.
The suffix is regarded as inflectional when its function is purely
grammatical. For instance, is inflectional in the continuous (progressive)
tense of the verb. It becomes a derivational functional suffix when the
resultant form has an adjectival or nominal function, e.g. Seeing is
believing (here the suffix is used to derive the two nominals); A rolling
stone gathers no moss (here the suffix is used to derive the adjectival).

(v) The participle affix usually occurs together with ‘have’ in a

sentence (have + participle), the participle affix has three forms:
- ed, -en and /Ø/. See the following sentences:
We have talked in the park.
You have spoken in class.
I have cut the paper.
talk + participle = talked
speak + participle = spoken
cut + participle = cut

A sentence:
He has been here.
he + have + present + be + participle + here
 has been
-ed
Participle affix -en
Ø
The participle forms of regular verbs are spelt –d or –ed, and
three different forms can be added to the base. They are:
/t/ : after a voiceless sound except /t/, e.g. looked
/d/ : after a voiced sound except /d/, e.g., begged
/id/ : after /t/ or /d/, e.g., seated ; sounded
As in the case of the –ing suffix, these suffixes may be
inflectional or derivational according to their functions. They have
grammatical functions in the formation of the tenses (simple past and
the perfect tense) and in passivisation, and therefore in these functions,
they are inflectional. On the other hand, the past participle form (like the
–ing form) is sometimes used in a purely adjectival function, e.g. the
wanted man. In this function it is derivational, and it can even be added
to nouns: e.g. bearded, talented (cold), blooded, etc.
The verbs which take these suffixes are called ‘regular verbs’
because the great majority of the English verbs use them. They are also
regularly added to any new verb acquired by the language.

2. Comparative affix The comparative affix ‘– er’ is added to many

adjectives and a
few adverbs. The adjectives that take the comparative affix are the
following:

2.1 Nearly all one syllable adjectives: big/ bigger small /smaller
young/
younger long/ longer short/shorter.
 2.2 A number of two–syllable adjectives; particularly those ending
in – y: dirty/dirtier, happy/happier, friendly /friendlier.
2.3 Three – syllable adjectives made by adding the prefix un- to
words of the second group: unhappy /unhappier, unfriendly/ unfriendlier.
In Comparative transformation , two sentences, each with the
same adjective or adverbs in the predicate, are put together with suffix –
er the word than to form a result sentence.
Somyos is old.
Samran is old.
Result: Somyos is old + er + than + Samran is old
= Somyos is older than Samran is.
= Somyos is older than Samran.

Superlative affix in the Superlative Transformer, the word the is

inserted before the adjective or adverb, which is then followed by the
superlative affix – est, the word of and the subject of the inserted
sentence.
All of them were wise.
Albert was wise.
Result: Albert was + the + wise + est+ of + all + of
them were wise.
= Albert was the wisest of all of them
= Albert was the wisest.

The comparative with more

For most adjectives of two syllables and all of more than two
except the un- type, more must be used instead of - er
Robert is hopeful.
Amy is hopeful.
 Result : Amy is + more + hopeful + than + Robert is hopeful
= Amy is + more hopeful + than + Robert is
= Amy is more hopeful than Robert.
= Amy is more hopeful.

The superlative with most

For most adjectives or adverbs of two syllables and all of more
than two except the un-type, most must be used instead of –est, The
and most are placed before the adjective or adverb, and of after it.
The girls were beautiful.
Mary was beautiful.
Result: Mary was + the + most + beautiful + of the
girls.

The inflectional affix can be schematized as follows:

Inflectional affixes Examples Name
1. {-s pl} cars, oxen, mice noun plural

2. {-s sg ps} girl’s, bird’s noun singular

possessive

3. { -s pl ps} boys’, men’s noun plural

possessive

4. {-s 3d} vacates, watches present third person singular

5. {-ing vb} discussing, studying present participle

6. {-d pt} chewed, rode past tense

7. {-d pp} chewed, eaten, swum past participle

8. {-er cp} bolder, nearer, higher comparative

9. {-est sp} soonest, nearest, highest superlative

3. Pronominal Inflexions: The English noun has only two inflected forms,
namely, the plural and the genitive case-form. But the English personal
pronouns exhibit an elaborate system of inflected forms to distinguish not
only case (subject, object and two genitives) and number (all except
‘you’) but also person and gender (at least in three of them). As this
elaborate pronominal system was acquired by the language quite early in
its career, many of the distinguishing feathers have been obliterated by
long usage. It has therefore become extremely difficult to analyse them
into their respective bases and suffixes. Indeed, only the self- forms
(which some grammarians regard as compounds) have an easily
distinguishable suffix. Nevertheless, the pronominal forms that follow
represent an inflectional class:

st nd
Subject Objec 1 Genitive 2 Genitive Reflexiv
form t (dependent, (independen e form
form i.e. followed t, i.e. not
by a noun) followed by
a noun)
Singular
st
1 Person I me my mine myself
nd
2 Person you you your yours yourself
rd
3 Person

(a) Masculin he him his his himself

e she her her hers herself

(b) Feminine it it it its (rare) itself

(c) Neuter

Plural we us our ours ourselv

st
1 Person you you your yours es

2
nd
Person they them their theirs yoursel
 rd
3 Person ves
themsel
ves

The affixes we are studying are called inflectional affixes. When we

add inflectional suffixes to a base, the new form (base + affix) is
usually the same part of speech as the base form was.
When we add the inflectional affixes plural to the noun girl, the new
form (girls) is still a noun. When we add the inflectional suffixes past to
the verb run, the new form (ran) is still a verb. When we add the
inflectional suffix comparative to the adjective hot, the new form (hotter)
is still an adjective.
Similarly, if we take any of these inflectional affixes away from the
base + affix form, we do not change the part of speech. Smoothest is
an adjective. Smooth is an adjective. Go is a verb. Going is a verb.
To conclude, an inflectional suffix is different from a derivational suffix
in the following ways:
1. It is added to a word for a grammatical reason. It does not
change a word from one class to another, whereas a
derivational suffix changes a word into a different word class
and sometimes adds new meaning to the base.

2. It comes at the end of a word, e.g. enlightens, falsified.

3. It does not pile up. Only one ends a word, e.g. walks, tallest.
The only exception is the genitive (possessive) plural, as in
boys’ toys.

4.2 Derivational Affixes

The derivational affixes are those that change words (to which they
are added) from one word class or subclass to another, for example:
happy  happiness
 adj. n
nation  national
n adj.
Almost all the prefixes are inflectional. Only some of them are
derivational. Those are a-, en-, em-, etc.
slave  slave
n n
large  enlarge
adj. v
body  embody
n v
Most suffixes are derivational. Though there are numerous such
suffixes from a strictly philological point of view, many of them have
become extinct in the sense that they are no longer used in the
language to derive new words. Some of the active suffixes that are still
freely used in the language are given below:
Suffix Class of words derived Examples
-able, -ible adjective workable, irresistible
-age noun leakage
-al adjective derivational
-ance, -ence noun observance, existence
-ant noun claimant
-er, -or noun worker, visitor
-ate noun; verb electorate, educate
-cy noun proficiency
-dom noun freedom
-ed adjective bearded, haunted (house)
-en adjective: verb silken, lengthen
-ette noun (diminutive) kitchenette
-ful adjective harmful
 -fy verb personify
-graphy noun photography
-ic adjective heroic
-ical adjective historical
-ing noun; adjective writing, interesting
-ion noun rebellion
-ise (ize) verb equalise
-ish adjective wolfish
-ism noun groupism
-ist adjective opportunist
-ity noun deformity
-ive adjective remunerative
-less adjective worthless
-like adjective godlike
-ling, -let noun (diminutive) princeling, starlet
-logy adverb; adjective biology
-ly adverb; adjective quickly, friendly
-ment noun movement
-ness noun darkness
-ory adjective migratory
-ous adjective dangerous
-some adjective troublesome
-th noun; ordinals width, tenth
-ure noun failure
-ward adjective westward
-ways adjective; adverb sideways
-wise adjective, adverb lengthwise
-y noun discovery

The differences between Inflectional and Derivational Suffixes

 The following points of difference between the two kinds of
suffixes may be noted:
1. A derivational suffix usually changes the base into another
word class (e.g. a
noun into an adjective, an adjective into a verb, etc.), while an
inflectional suffix does not so change the base but fulfils certain
grammatical requirements in the sentence.
2. More than one derivational suffix may occur together (e.g.
loveliness,
personality, backwardness, etc.) but normally only one inflectional suffix
occurs with the base.
3. Usually the inflectional suffix is the last item added to the base
and no other
suffix occurs after it. Hence, when the two kinds of suffixes occur
together, the inflectional suffix follows the derivational suffix.

Note:
Sometimes, the distinction between the two kinds of suffix is not
very clear-cut. For example, in forms like doctor’s children’s, wives’, etc.,
the two inflectional suffixes (viz., the plural and the genitive) occur
together. The forms of markedly, reportedly, etc, (-ed followed by –ly)
and writings, doings, willingness, willingly (-ing followed by both
inflectional and derivational suffixes) can be explained by assuming two
derivational suffixes (-ed and –ing) identical in form with the two
derivational suffixes. This accounts for the inclusion of these two suffixes
in the list of inflectional as well as in derivational suffixes. In each case
there are two phonemically identical forms, one inflectional and the other
derivational.
Derivation affixes are bound morphemes which are added to the base
in order to add meaning, to form a new word, or to change the word
class (part of speech) of the base. A derivation affix may appear in the
final position or may be followed by other derivational suffixes.
However, there is a large set of affixes in English called derivational
affixes that usually (not always) change words from one part of speech
to another. By adding the derivational affix signaled by –al to the verb
base arrive, we get the noun arrival.
Compare: They usually arrive early.
Their early arrival was typical.
The addition of the derivational suffix –ment to the verb ‘employ’
gives the noun ‘employment’.
Compare: They employ many new workers each year.
His employment was terminated.
Sometimes the addition of a derivational affix changes a noun
form to a verb form.
You are my friend.
You befriend me.
The addition of the affix be- to the noun ‘friend’ gives the verbs
the verb ‘befriend’ in the above example.
You bring me joy.
I enjoy you company.
The addition of the affix en- changes the noun ‘joy’ to the verb
‘enjoy’.
Derivational suffixes usually do not close off a word; that is, after
a derivational suffix one can sometimes add another derivational suffix
and can frequently add an inflectional suffix. For example, to the word
fertilize, which ends in a derivational suffix, one can add another one,
-er, and to fertilizer one can add the inflectional suffix –s, closing off the
word.
The following diagram summarises all the statements made above
(applicable to English language only):
 Morpheme

Free morpheme Bound morpheme

Prefixes Suffixes

Derivational Inflectional Derivational

Class Class Class

Class
changing maintaining changing
maintaining

Allomorph
An allomorph may be defined as the “variant of morpheme which
occurs in a certain definable environment”.
One of the various distinct forms of a morpheme is an allomorph.
Allomorphs occur in predicable environments.
A morpheme may have one or more allomorph.
Allomorphs can be described in terms of phonemes.
An abstract such as plural morpheme in English can be represented
in three forms:
-s as in books, pens, marks
-es as in beaches, dishes, peaches
-en as in oxen, children, women
The suffixes –s, -es and –en, each, represent the plural morpheme in
the English language. Each of these distinct forms cannot be established
as a morpheme because they cannot occur independently, but do occur
under phonetic conditioning, as follows:
 -s occurs after sounds spelled with p, t, k, d, g, f, v, th, l, r, n,
m, ng, y, w.
-es occurs after sounds spelled with ch, sh, s, z, x.
-en does not occur under phonetic conditioning, but is a matter of
convention.

The negative particle not in English also has a bundle of allomorphs.

Representing the negative not are im-, il-, ir-, un-, in-, and dis-.
Phonetic conditioning that determines the negative prefixes in-, im-,
il-, ir-, and un-, in certain composite words is the initial sound of the
base which follows each of the prefixes:
Im- is prefixed to possible bases with initial letter m or p as in
immovable, improper, immature, impossible, immorality, impolite.
il- is prefixed to possible bases with initial letter I as in illegible,
illegal, illiterate, illogical, illuminate, illiquid.
ir- is prefixed to possible bases with initial letter r as in irrelevant,
irregular, irrational, irresponsible, irremovable, irreversible.
un- is prefixed to possible base with other initial letter sounds as in
unbeloved, unhappy, unanalyzed, unburnt, unprejudiced, ungraceful.
in- is prefixed to possible bases with other initial letter sounds as in
incapable, inapplicable, independent, inadequate, inhuman, insensible,
inviolable,
dis- is prefixed to possible bases with other initial sounds as in
disagree, dislike, disapprove, disestablish, disunion, disaffection.
In the relation to a bound morpheme, we should consider the notion
of the allomorph. To simplify it, we can look at the way English nouns
are pluralized in the following examples:
Nouns Plural morpheme Allomorphs of the plural morpheme
cat- /s/ cat + s /s/
dog- /z/ dog + s /z/
 horse- /Iz/ horse +s /Iz/
deer -/Ø/ deer + Ø /Ø/
ox- /∂ z/ ox + en /∂ z/

/s/ occurs after the singular forms of nouns ending in voiceless

consonants,
except the sibilants and affricates.
/z/ occurs after the singular forms of nouns ending in voiced
consonants or
vowels, except the sibilants and affricates.
/Iz/ occurs after the singular forms of nouns ending in the
sibilants and
affricates.
In cases where there is no marker for the plural (as in ‘deer’,
sheep,’ etc.) the allomorph of the plural morpheme is shown as /Ø/
{=zero); it is called a zero allomorph.
In the case where the plural meaning is manifested through the
phonological modification such as a change in the vowel of the noun as
in ‘man’, ‘men’, the allomorph shows a process; it is called a process
allomorph.
The occurrence of the allomorphs /s/, /z/ and /Iz/ of the plural
morpheme in English is predictable in terms of phonological ending of
the base form of the noun. This kind of predictability is called
phonological conditioning.
But the occurrence of the allomorph /∂z/ in words like ‘oxen’,
‘children’, etc., is not predictable in term of the phonologically. What is
not phonologically conditioned is morphological conditioned.
Allomorphs of morphemes may change their phonemic shapes due
to two types of conditioning:
(a) phonological or phonemic conditioning
 (b) morphological conditioning
(a) Phonological condition
We shall first examine the following sets of words:
A B
sets /sets/ beds /bedz/
bits /bits/ lads /l{ dz/
bats /b{ t/ cabs /k{ bz/
caps /k{ ps/ clubs /klς bz/
clips /klips/ beads /bi:dz/

The pluralizing suffix in set A appears as /s/; in set B it appears

as /z/. This can be explained as due to the occurrence of the final
sound of the stem (root) which is voiced or voiceless. In set A words
end in the voiceless sounds /t/ and /p/ affecting the plural morpheme
which also appears as a voiceless phoneme /-s/. But in set B the stems
end in voiced sound and affect the plural morpheme, which becomes
/-z/. The phonetic quality of one sound affected sound is phonetically
conditioned. Both /-s/ and /-z/ are the allomorphs of the plural
morpheme. Their positions cannot be interchanged, i.e., we cannot
have /z/ placed in set A and /s/ in set B. Thus, sounds are in
complementary distribution. In the same way words ‘rose, pose, advise,
horse, judge’ take the plural morpheme which is phonemically realized
as /Iz/ so we have rose /ρ≅Υζ Iz/; pose /π≅Υζ Iz;
horse /η Ο : σ Iz/ , etc. These words also show phonological
We thus obtain three phonologically conditioned allomorphs
of the plural morpheme /s/ - /z/ - /Iz/. Phonological is predictable.

{Plural Morpheme}

/s/ /z/ /Iz/

 {Past Tense Morpheme}

/t/ /d/ /Id/

(b) Morphological condition

The regularity of phonological conditioning is restricted. There are
several irregular forms that do not show the predictable direction of
morphophonemic changes. We can always explain reasonably why such
variant forms as the /t/ - /d/ - /Id/ occur for past tense and /s/ - /z/
- /Iz/ for plural morpheme.
But such explanation is not possible in the case of the plural form of
‘child – children’, and ‘sheep – sheep’. These forms are not
phonologically conditioned., i.e. the proximity of a sound does not affect
these forms. en is peculiar to ‘children, oxen’ and ‘brethren’. Such
changes are said to be due to morphological conditioning.

We shall consider below some major types of morphological

conditioning.
1) Zero suffix
2) Vowel mutation
3) Consonant change

Zero suffix
Certain words in English do not show any change of form
when inflected
either of pluralizing or being made into past tense form. These singular
– plural and present tense forms are alike.
 Set A Singular Set B (Plural)
sheep sheep
deer deer
cattle cattle
Set A Present Tense Set B Past Tense
cut cut
put put
hit hit
beat beat
But we know that set A words are in the present tense and
that set B
words are in the past tense. With this understanding we use the words.
There is a sheep.
There are sheep.
He cuts
He has cut
We can say that a zero suffix of plural and a zero suffix of
the past tense
has been added to these forms. The change is not one of overt
alternation in the phonemic shape of the morpheme (allomorph). They
are said to undergo a zero modification. This is shown by /Ø/ symbol
which is called zero allomorph.
Thus, ‘sheep’ is written as /Σ ι : π + Ø /
‘cut’ is written as / κ ς τ + Ø/

Vowel mutation
Let us take another example; the plural form of ‘man’ is
‘men’ that of
‘woman’ is ‘women’, and ‘louse’ is ‘lice’. In making them plural we see
that nothing has been added, but a change in the vowel and diphthong
has been made.
/a/ -- > /e/
/au/ -- > /aI/
Similarly, for making past tense, we can change the vowels
as shown
below:
find – found /aI/ -- > /au/
swim – swam /I/ -- > /{ /
bring – brought /I/ -- > /Ο /
seek – sought /ι : / -- > /Ο : /
catch – caught /{ / -- > /Ο : /
feed – fed /ι : / -- > /e/
These changes too cannot be explained by the process of
phonetic
change. These irregular changes are known as vowel-mutation.
A few more examples can to be seen below:
fly – flew /aI/ -- > /u:/
slay – slew /eI/ -- > /u:/
get – got /e/ -- > /Ο /
meet – met /I:/ -- > /e/
take – took /eI/ - > /u/
Vowel mutation can also be seen in verb-making,
adjectivising, noun-
making, and so on.

Consonant change
Apart from vowel changes, pluralizing is effected by
changes in
consonants also. Some English words ending in /f/ -leaf, life, wife, knife,
shelf, loaf, make their plural by converting /f/ into /v/ and adding /z/.
Examples are given below:
shelf /Σ elf/ -- > shelves /Σ elvz/
sheaf /Σ I:f/ -- > sheaves /Σ I:vz/
knife /naIf/ -- > knives /naIvz/
wolf /wulf/ -- > wolves /wulvz/
wife /waIf/ -- > wives /wIvz/

But here too we observe irregularity. Not all words ending

in /f/ undergo
such changes – ‘proof, roof’ and ‘reef’, to name only three, take /s/ for
changing into plural form; while ‘hoof’ is pluralized both by simply adding
/s/ - ‘hoofs’ and through the process of consonant change – ‘hooves’.
In the case of past tense formation also we observe
consonant replacement –
send -- > sent
bend -- > bent /d/ -- > /t/
lend -- > lent
spend -- > spent

Morph
The concept of morph recognizes that a morpheme has a phonetic
shape. This phonetic representation is called its morph. The word ‘writer’
has two morphemes, ‘write’ and ‘-er’. These are realizable in the
phonetic shapes as / ρ α Ι τ / and / -∂:/. These are two morphs of
the morpheme (or word in this case).
When the word is segmented into parts, the different parts are
referred to as morphs. For the analysis of word structure, a term related
to morpheme is established: morph. When a word segment represents
one morpheme in sound or writing, the segment is a morph. For
example, unhappiness, is comprised of three segments un-, happy, ness,
and each segment represents one morpheme. We say that unhappiness
consists of three morphemes; famous contains two morphs; and mouse
has just one morph. The word happier thus consists of two morphs
which can be orthographically written as happy and er (conventions of
English orthography allowing a charge of ‘y’ into ‘i’). In phonological
transcription the two morphs can be represented as /h{ pI/ and /∂ /.
Each morph thus represents (or is the exponent or factor of) a particular
morpheme.
The terms ‘morpheme’ and ‘morph’ are thus comparable to the
term ‘form’ and ‘substance’ given by Saussure. The morpheme is an
element of form which may be represented directly by phonological (or
orthographical) segments with a particular ‘shape’ i.e. by morphs. It is
customary to represent morphemes between braces. For example the
word went (phonologically /went/) which cannot be segmented into
morphs, represents the combination of two morphemes.
Sometimes, a particular morpheme may be represented not by the
same morph but by different morphs in different environments. Such
different representations of a morpheme are called allomorphs.
Examples:
Plural morpheme
Allomorphs
/Iz/ in the case of word ending in /s/, /z/, /Σ /, / Ζ /, /τ Σ /
, dΖ /
e.g. buses /bς sIz/, vases /vΑ :zIz/, bushes /bΥ Σ Iz/,
rouges /re:Ζ Iz/, churches /τ Σ Ζ ;τ Σ Iz/
{e(s)} /s/ in the case of word ending in a voiceless consonants
(other than /Σ /,/s/
/τ Σ / e.g. cats /k{ t/, cap /k{ ps/
 /z/ in the case of words ending in voiced sounds (other
than /z/, / Ζ / and /dΖ / e.g. boys /bΟ Iz/, bags /b{ gz/

Similarly, present tense morphemes {-e(s)} have three

allomorphs /s/, /z/ and /Iz/, e.g. packs /p{ ks/, digs /diθ z/,
washes /wΑ Σ Iz/. The past tense morpheme of English, {-e(d)} has also
three different (phonological conditioned) allomorphs /t/, /d/ and /Id/. The
rule that governs these allomorphs is as follows:
Past morpheme
/t/ after morphs ending in voiceless sound (except /t/)
e.g. booked /bΥ kt, pushed /pΥ Σ t/
{e(d)} /d/ after morphs ending in voiced sounds (except /d/)
e.g. love /lς vd/, bagged /b{ θ d/
/Id/ after morphs ending in /t/ and /d/
e.g. wanted /wΑ ntId/, wedded /wedId/
Lexical Analysis: morpheme, allomorph, morph

Lexicon

(Lexical Analysis)

Morpheme

(Segmented)

Morphs
 Allomorphs

I possibl

m e

- regulari
ze -s
Ir
logical -

happy e

appropr
em
iate
-

The relationship between the terms morph, allomorph and

morpheme is similar to that between phone, allophone and phoneme.
The term ’morph’ means shape. Any minimal phonetic form that has
meaning is a morph. Thus, buses /bς sIz/ = Iz, bushes /bΥ Σ Iz/ =Iz ,
cap /k{ ps/ =/s/ are all morphs. Those morphs which belong to the
same morpheme are called allomorphs of that morpheme. Thus /s/, /z/
and /Iz/ are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme {e(s)}. Similarly, a
phoneme is a minimal, distinctive unit in the sound system of language.
A phoneme may sometimes occur in more than one phonetic form,
called allophone. These phonetic forms have considerable phonetic
similarity between them and their phonological function is the same.
They, however, never occur in the same phonetic environment and are
said to be in complimentary distribution. Allomorphs, like allophones, are
also in complimentary distribution. The phonemes /p/, /t/ and /k/ for
h
example, have two phonetic forms each i.e. [p] and [ph], [t] and [t ], [k]
 h
and [k ]. Here [p] and [ph] are the allophones of the phoneme /p/. All
speech sounds (phonemes as well as allophones) are called phones.
It may be noted that in some languages words can generally be
segmented into parts (morphs) while it is not so in others. Similarly,
there are languages in which the morph tends to represent a single
minimal grammatical unit (a morpheme) while these are others in which
it is not so. Allomorphs too exist in some language only.

Summary
A word may consist of a single morpheme or a number of
morphemes. For instance, the word ‘meaningful’ is made up of three
meaningful units or morphemes; namely ‘mean, ing and ful’. Of these
meanings, however, only one, namely, ‘mean’, can stand by itself; the
others, though carrying some meaning, cannot stand singly. The
morpheme that can stand by itself is called a free morpheme and the
one that cannot is called a bound morpheme. A morpheme is a minimal,
meaningful unit in the grammatical system of a language. A systematical
study of morphemes or how morphemes join to form words is known as
morphology. A large number of words can be broken into segments.
Such words are said to be determinate with respect to segmentation
while some others (e.g. broke, better) are indeterminate with respect to
segmentation. In the case of the word belonging to the latter type, it is
conventional to use the term ‘factor’ for morphemes, e.g. spoke =
{speak} + {ed}.
Sometimes a particular morpheme may be represented not the by
same morph but by different morphs in different phonetic environments.
Such different representations of a morpheme are called allomorphs. The
plural morpheme in English, for example, is represented by three
different allomorphs: /s/, /z/, /Ι z/ in a different environment. Consider
the following cases:
 2) The plural morpheme –s is pronounced in three different
common
ways: in ‘cats’ it is /-s/ : in ‘boy’ it is /-z/, and in ‘rose’ it is /-Ι z/.
3) The past tense morpheme –ed in verbs is pronounced in
three
different common ways: in ‘ruled’ it is /-d/ : in ‘stopped’ it is /-t/ : and in
wanted it is /Ι d/.
Thus /s/, /z/ and /Ι z/ above are three allomorphs of a single
morpheme or are members of the same plural morphemes. Similarly, :
/-d/, /-t/, /-Ι d/ are three allomorphs of single past-tense morphemes.
They are considered as such because they occur in a certain definable
environment as,
- /-s/ (as also /-t/) occurs after voiceless consonants.
- /-z/ (as also /-d/) occurs after voiced consonants.
- /-Ι z/ occurs after the consonants /s/, /z/, /Σ /, /Ζ /.
- /-Ι d/ occurs after the consonants /t/ and /d/.
Some morphemes can stand on their own as independent
morphemes (e.g. sad, regard, girl). Such morphemes are called free
morphemes. On the other hand, morphemes like –ed and -un can not
stand on their own as independent words, and are called bound
morphemes. Bound morphemes are also called affixes. Affixes may be
divided into prefixes and suffixes. These are two important kinds:

1) Prefixes: Affixes which are added at the beginning of a

base (free
morpheme) are prefix, for example.
un- in the word ‘unkind’, de-in the word ‘demerit’, re- in the word
‘resign’.
2) Suffixes: Affixes which are added after the base (free
morpheme) are
called suffixes, for example.
-ly in the word ‘manly’; -s in the word ‘boys’: -hood in the word
‘boyhood’ ; -er in the word ‘player’.

There are two kinds of Suffixes:

1) Derivational Suffix: The derivational suffix changes the
part of speech
of the word to which it is added. For example, -ly is a derivational
suffix. When added to the base ‘man’ (noun), we get ‘manly’ which is
an adjective. More examples of derivational suffixes are:
Suffix ‘–en’: fright (n) -- > frighten (v); strength (n) -- > strengthen
(v)
Suffix ‘– ve, ize’: memory (n) -- > memorize (v); sympathy (n) --
> sympathize (v)
Suffix ‘– fy’: beauty (n) -- > beautify (v)
Suffix ‘– ment’: encourage (v) -- > encouragement (n)
Other derivational suffixes are; -ion, -tion, -iton, -cation, -ance,
-ence, -ture, -ature, -er, -or, -ar, -ist, -ant, etc.

2) Inflectional Suffix: The inflectional suffix merely modifies

the word to
which it is added, without changing its part of speech. No other suffix
can ordinarily be added to it. A number of inflectional suffixes commonly
used in English are mentioned here. These are:
1) The plural –s in boys, girls, cats, dishes, etc., the
sound which
may vary as /s/, /z/, / and /Iz/.
2) The possessives in Samran’s, Somsak’s, the sound
of which may
also vary as /s/, /z/, / and /Iz/.
 3) The verb-person and number-suffix includes the three
forms of
‘be’, is, am, are, -s in ‘sleep, plays, rises,’ the sound varies as /s/, /z/, /
and /Iz/.

4) The verb past tense suffix ‘-ed’ in ‘stepped, rubbed,

and wanted,
the sound of which varies as /t/, /d/ and /Id/.

5) The verb continuous – forming suffix ‘-ing’ in

sleeping, going, etc.
6) The verb past-participle suffix ‘-ed’ or ‘-en’ with its
perfective and
passive functions (the perfective being form with the helping verb ‘have’,
and the passive with the helping verb ‘be’).

7) The suffixes that occur with the comparative and

superlative
markers ‘-er and –est’, as the set fine-finer-finest.

8) The suffixes in the pronoun system of English. For

example.

Subject: I you he she it we they

Object: me you him her it us the
m
Possessive my you his her its our their
I: r
Possessive min you his hers its ours their
II: e r s