Parts of Speech and Morphology

Functional English

• Grammar Review

Noun

• .A noun names a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.

• Persons carpenter, tourists, team, cousins, Faith

• Places cities, theater, forest, neighborhood, UOS

• Things merry-go-round, bricks, birds, horse shoe, Liberty Bell

• Ideas justice, creativity, self-control, opinions, Buddhism

Kinds of Noun

• Common

• Proper

• Abstract

• Collective

• Concrete

• Compound

Common Nouns and Proper Nouns

• A common noun names any one of a group of persons, places, things,

• Or ideas. A proper noun names a particular person, place, thing, or idea.

• A common noun is not capitalized (except when it begins a sentence or is part of a title) a proper noun, however, is capitalized.

Common Nouns and Proper Nouns

• Woman Queen Elizabeth, Malik Riaz, Ch. Akram

• Nation Egypt, Mexico, Vietnam, New Zealand

• Event Pan American Games, French Revolution, Academy Awards, Boston Tea Party

• holiday Patriot’s Day;Fourth of July;MartinLuther King,Jr. ,Day; Independence Day

• language Hebrew, Spanish, Bantu, Thai, Latin

Concrete Nouns and Abstract Nouns

• A concrete noun names a person, place, or thing that can be perceived by one or more of the senses(sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell).

• An abstract noun names an idea, a feeling, a quality, or a characteristic.

Concrete Nouns

• sneeze, star, gravel, cinnamon, jack-o’-lantern,

Beijing, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Abraham Lincoln

Abstract Nouns

peace, civilization, honor, courage, citizenship,

Victorianism, Manifest Destiny

Collective Nouns

• The singular form of a collective noun names a group.

• Jury, band, family, class, flock, committee

Compound Nouns

• A compound noun consists of two or more words that together name a person, a place, a thing, or an idea. The parts of a compound noun may be written as one word, as separate words, or as a hyphenated word.

• One Word stairway, bookcase, toenail, Newfoundland

• Separate Words lieutenant governor, ceiling fan, blue jay, Golden Gate Bridge

• Hyphenated Word sister-in-law, jack-of-all-trades ,great-uncle, stick-in-the-mud

Exercise1

• Identifying and Classifying Nouns• Identify the nouns in each of the following sentences, and

classify each Noun as proper or common and as concrete or abstract.

EXAMPLE 1. In his report on the importance of religion in ancient Egypt, Joaquin wrote about the Great Sphinx and the Great Pyramid at Giza.

• 1. report—common, concrete; importance—common, abstract; religion—common, abstract; Egypt—proper, concrete; Aslam-proper, concrete; Great Sphinx—proper, concrete; Great Pyramid—proper, concrete; Giza—proper, concrete

Exercise

• 1.The objective was met when the crew repaired ten helicopters.2.Amalia Mesa-Bains and Michael Ríos are among the many Hispanic artists who launched their careers in San Francisco.

• 3.In Japan many homes have a place of honor in which the family displays a favorite scroll or a vase of flowers.

• 4.We purchased tomatoes, lettuce, and corn grown by local farmers.

• 5.Congress debated the merits of the bill but could not reach a consensus.

• 6.My goal is to visit every state in the United States.

Exercise

• 7.Our family drove from our home in Karachi Cityto Nawab Shah in our new van.

• 8.Her excellent record as treasurer convinced a majority of the students to vote for her for president.

• 9.Blunt honesty, quick wit, and fierce loyalty all characterize the protagonist of The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn.

• 10.The crowd roared as Qasim sank the winning basket for the Falcons just before time ran out.

Exercise

• Underline each noun in these sentences

1. His family stayed in a village.

2. The river was filled with small boats.

3. Many colourful flowers grew on the hillside.

4. A festival was held in Lahore.

5. People in costumes filled the streets.

Pronoun• A pronoun takes the place of one or more nouns or

pronouns.

• The word or word group that a pronoun stands for is called the antecedent of the pronoun.

• EXAMPLES: Ahmad enjoys hiking and camping; in fact, they are his two favorite pastimes. [The nouns hiking and camping are the antecedents of the pronoun they.]

• One of the film projectors is broken. It is being repaired.

[The pronoun One is the antecedent of the pronoun It.]

Personal Pronouns

• A personal pronoun refers to the one(s) speaking (first person), the one(s)

• Spoken to (second person), or the one(s) spoken about(third person).

Singular Plural

First Person I, me, my, mine we, us, our, ours

Second Person you, your, yours you, your, yours

Third Person he, him, his, she, her, hers, It, its

They, them, their, theirs

Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns

Singular Plural

First Person Myself Ourselves

Second Person Yourself Yourselves

Third Person Himself, herself, itself Themselves

Reflexive Pronoun

• A reflexive pronoun refers to the subject of a verb and functions as a Complement or as the object of a preposition.

• EXAMPLES Maryam excused herself from the table.[Herself is the direct Object of excused.]

• He said the mastermind was, in fact, himself.[Himself is a predicate nominative referring to the subject, He.]

• They took extra biscuits for themselves.[Themselves is the Object of the preposition for.]

Demonstrative Pronoun

• A demonstrative pronoun points out a noun or another pronoun.

• This That These Those

• EXAMPLES

• Is this the one you want?

• That may be the only reasonable solution.

• These or those are the pictures from our vacation.

Interrogative Pronouns

• An interrogative pronoun introduces a question.

• who whom whose which what

• EXAMPLES :

• What is the capital of Afghanistan?

• Whose is this red sweater?

• To whom should I direct your call?

Indefinite Pronouns

• An indefinite pronoun refers to a person, a place, a thing, or an Idea that may or may not be specifically named. In other words, the

• Pronoun may not have a specific antecedent.

• EXAMPLES All of the members have voted.[All refers to members.]

• Does everyone favor a weekly meeting?[Everyone has no• Specific antecedent.]• The fallen tree provided homes for several of the creatures• Of the woods.[Several refers to creatures.]

Common Indefinite Pronouns

all both few nobody several

Another each none some many

any either more No one somebody

anybody everybody most nothing someone

anyone everyone much one something

Anything everything Neither other such

Identifying Pronouns

• Example

1. Most of those who took the photography class learned a great deal about how they perceive their environment.

1. Most, those, who, they, their

Exercise

• 1.Last year my school gave two photography courses, neither of which had been offered before.

• 2.The course that I took dealt with the ways in which people perceive their environment.

• 3.Many of us block out much in our everyday surroundings.

• 4.You can demonstrate to yourselves how unaware of our surroundings nearly all of us are.

• 5.Which of you, on returning home from a trip, hasn’t noticed how different all of the rooms look to you?

Exercise • 6.Some of your possessions may seem unfamiliar to you, and

a few of them may appear quite peculiar.

• 7.Eventually the sensation fades, and your surroundings assume their usual background role.

• 8.Each of us can regain the ability to see freshly if we learn to make full use of our sense of sight.

• 9.We can train ourselves to perceive the objects as shapes instead of thinking about their functions.

• 10.As the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet remarked, we must forget the names of the things that we observe.

Identify the pronouns

• Everybody loves someone sometimes.

• Both of the students should hand everything they have completed.

• I didn’t see anyone I knew.

• If no one helps others, nothing gets done.

• Somebody said that one should touch neither of them.

The Adjective

• An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun. An Adjective describes, limits, or adds to the meaning of a noun or a pronoun.

To modify means “ .” An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by telling what kind, which one, how many, or how much.

These five interesting books.The sky, blue and clear, stretched above us.

What kind? Asian countriesripening apples

Happy childUp-to-date-look

Which one? This bookThose girls

Last strawNext step

How many? Two studentsSeveral choices

Both answersMany people

How much? One-half cupMore money

Enough timeLess trouble

Adjectives1. The old farmer was sitting under the oak tree ( Quality)

2. How many students have passed the test? ( Quantitative)

3. This boy has passed the test. (Demonstrative)

4. Few students have failed the test. ( Indefinite)

5. Which question can you answer? ( Interrogative)

6. This is my shirt. ( possessive)

Adjectives

• Adjectives usually come immediately before the noun, and not after it. Adjectives have only one form, i.e. they do not change when describing plural nouns.

• one black cat.

• black cats.

Position of Adjectives

• Attributive Adjectives

Before Nouns

I am reading an interesting novel.

Wasim needs expensive suits.

Adjectives which appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they describe are called attributive adjectives.

Good boys are always polite

Each one of us brought used books from the jumbo sale.

Predicative Adjectives

• After the verb

Certain adjectives come after the verbs and are said to be used predicatively. These verbs are these: be, become, appear, feel, sound, taste, make, keep, look, get, turn, grow etc.

I feel good.

It sounds great.

The water grew cool.

It appears nice.

Classes of Adjective

• Adjectives of Qualities, used to tell how many things are spoken of, or how much of a thing.

(descriptive)

• Demonstrating Adjectives, pointing out particular things.

Adjective of Quality

• These adjective describe the quality e.g. good or bad etc. of a noun.

young, empty, small, spacious, black, elegant, ugly, strong, lonely, intelligent, round, happy, hard. Creative, rough, transparent etc.

Comparison

• There are three degrees of comparisonPositive Comparative SuperlativeDark darker darkestTall taller tallestUseful more useful most usefulFine finer finestStrong stronger strongestLovely lovelier loveliestNear nearer

Irregular Comparison

• Positive Comparative Superlative

bad

far

good

little

many/much

old

Adjective of Quantity

• Adjectives of quantity tell how much, how many.

• Quantity in Bulk: A few, few, little, a little

These expressions show the speaker’s attitude towards the quantity he/she is referring to.

A few( for countable nouns) and a little (for uncountable nouns) describe the quantity in positive way.

Positive Way

1. I have got a few friends. ( may be not many, but enough)

2. I have got a little money. (I’ve got enough to live on)

3. Only a few of our customers have accounts.

4. I have quite a few books on art.

5. They grumbled a little about having to waite.

Negative Way• Few and little describe the quantity in a negative

way.1. Few people visited him in the hospital.(he had almost no visitors)2. He had little money. (almost no money)

Few fewer fewestLittle less leastMany more mostMuch more most

These are the graded quantifiers.

Examples

• There are many people in Poland, more in India, but the most people live in China

• Much time and money is spent on education, more on health services, but the most is spent on national defense.

• Fewer people die young than in the previous century.

• She had less time to study than I did but had better results.

Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

• Some adjectives and adjectival phrases can only go with uncountable nouns( salt, rice, money, advice)

• And some nouns can only go with countable nouns( friend, bags, people)

• Some adjectives can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.

With uncountable Nouns With both With countable nouns

How much

A little

A bit (of)

A great deal of

A large amount of

A large quantity of

How much? Or how many

No/none

Not any

Some (any)

A lot of

Plenty of

Lots of

How many

A few

A number (of)

Several

A large number of

A great number of

A majority of

Distributive Adjective

• A distributive adjective refers to a particular noun out of a group or the whole group altogether.

• These are each, every, all, both, either or neither.

Distributive Adjective

• Each girl received a prize• Each rose had a different color• Every circle is round• All men are equal but • All bread is made by using yeast.• I’ve read both books• Both dishes taste delicious.• Either dress is suitable for party• Neither dress is suitable for the party.

Exercise

• Write the comparative and superlative of the following adjectives

• Expensive jolly

• Cheap honest

• Safe dim

• Dangerous friendly

• Long little

• Small glad

Conti…

• Glad prompt

• Noble funny

• Interesting delicious

• Outstanding ill

• Perfect bad

• Far clever

• Pity silly

Exercise

• Identify adjectives in the following sentences

1. His folly was matched by his overbearing pride

2. Eleven players are needed if we are to have a good game.

3. That shirt goes well with all my suits.

4. What nonsense are you up to?

5. Each sentence he uttered revealed his ignorence.

Conti…

6. No decent person would voice such opinions.

7. Their turn is next in the examining room

8. Yesterday we played our worst concert.

9. The grapes smelled fresh.

10. Hafeez grew bitter.

11. Khdija stored small suitcases in the attic.

12. This shirt is big, but that shirt is the right size.

Short questions

• What is an adjective?

• What do you understand by the adjective of quality or descriptive adjectives?

• What are the three degrees of Comparison?

Verb

• A verb is a word that describes some action or state of the subject. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can not make a one word sentence with any other type of word. However you can make a one word sentence with a verb.

Listen !

Stop!

Verb

• Verbs are sometimes described as “action words”. This is partly true. Many verbs give the idea of “doing” something. For example words like run, fight, do and work all convey action.

1. He is running.

2. I worked hard.

Verb

• But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence or of state of “being”.

1. I am a teacher.2. There are four books on the table.3. He became rich after doing business.A verb always has a subject. In the sentence like “

Ahmad speaks English”, Ahmad is the subject and speaks is the verb. In simple terms we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is; they describe action or state.

Verb

• My son is a doctor. (linking verb)

• The student wrote intelligent essays.(transitive)

• He went home late. (intransitive)

• We can play polo. (modal)

Verb

• Main verbs are also called “lexical verbs” main verbs have meaning on their own.

Asim works hard. ( works is the main verb)

Helping verbs have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure of a sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. They help the main verbs.

Helping verbs

Forms of Be am been wasAre being were Be is

Forms of Have Had has have

Forms of Do Do does did

Modals can might shouldcould must willMay shall wouldOught to

Linking verb

• A linking verb connects the subject to a word or word group that identifies or describes the subject. Such a word or word group is called a subject complement.

• EXAMPLES

Saleem was an influential pianist.[The subject complement pianist identifies the subject Saleem.]

• Marcy looks serious.[The subject complement serious describes the subject Marcy.]

Linking verb

• Linking verb connects the subject with a noun or a pronoun or an adjective in the predicate or sometimes an adverb.

He is happy.The baby seems happy.They are happy.

The word happy which is used to make the sense complete is called the complement of the verb

Common linking verbs

am be will be had been

Is can be could be shall have been

Are maybe should be will have been

Was might be would be could have been

were must be has been should have been

Being shall be have been would have been

Others

Appear grow seem stay

Become look smell taste

feel remain sound turn

Exercise (linking verbs)

• That tone does not sound correct to me.

• Books seemed his only trustworthy companions.

• The dictionary became more important as he learned English.

• Clerks act childish when they are busy.

• The child’s ability to differentiate colors appeared uncanny.

Conti…

• Dr. Shafique was the only physician who was available at that time.

• She seemed eager to take the job.

• Sidra’s eyes grew lively as she listened to the song.

• The dog acted sick after the veterinarian checked him over.

• Asim was the only single man in the room.

Transitive verb

• A transitive verb has an object—a word or word group that tells who or what receives the action of the verb.

• EXAMPLES: The rain lashed the windows.[The object windows receives the action of the verb lashed.]

• We closed and bolted the shutters.[The object shutters receives the action of the verbs closed and bolted.]

Transitive verb • A transitive verb is a verb that denotes or describes an

action which passes over from the doer or subject to an object or affects something or someone.

• The object is the noun or noun equivalent that receives the action of the verb. To find object in the sentence, put what or whom after the verb. Some verbs can only be used transitively.

• He made something. (NOT He made)• I like it. ( NOT I like)• The car hit a tree (NOT The car hit)• He bought the book. (NOT He bought)

Intransitive verb • An intransitive verb does not have an object.

EXAMPLES

• The rain fell.

• My cousin arrived yesterday.

An Intransitive verb is a verb that denotes or describes an action which does not pass over to an object.

The baby sleeps.

The boy is running.

Identify the verbs as transitive or intransitive

• The automobile struck the wall and burned.

• He smiled at last.

• Divorce hurts many children.

• The crowd indicated its approval.

• Zafar Ali Khan gave a memorable speech.

Identify verbs

• EXAMPLE 1. The dark clouds did not make the day more pleasant.did make—action, transitive

1.When will Halley’s Comet next appear?2.A creosote bush in the Mojave Desert has lived for approximatelyTwelve thousand years.3.How many decimal places of pi can you name?4.What is the purpose of the Electoral College?5.You can remove chewing gum from clothing more easily if youFirst harden it with ice.6.MarkTwain used a type writer when he wrote The Adventures ofTom Sawyer.

Conti…

• 7. You should be more careful, young man!

• 8. In1997, Tiger Woods became the youngest winner of the Masters Tournament.

• 9. Have you been listening to the Shostakovich CD that I lent you?

• 10. The first Pakistani League was very exciting; the Lahore lions defeated the Karachi Dolphins by 6 wickets.

Give past tense of the verbs given in the brackets

1. I _____________at Sheikh’s joke. (laugh)

2. Nadir _________me a funny story. (tell)

3. Anny _________the ball to Asifa. (throw)

4. Zahid _________second in the exam. (stand)

5. I _________ a rock in the field. (find)

6. Shahid ______his bike to the game. (bring)

7. We also _________cold drink. (have)

Encircle the helping verbs and main verbs.

1. We have already bought our tickets.

2. Our team has won four games this year.

3. The school newspaper has praised them.

4. We have cheered them.

5. Last year they have hoped for a final victory.

6. Ali was throwing a pass in the last game.

7. I am expecting a victory this year.

8. The coach is working very hard.

Short questions

• What is verb?

• What is a transitive verb?

• What is an intransitive verb?

• What is object?

AdverbAn adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.The word adverb means joined to a verb; they tell how

(manner), when (time) where (place), how much (degree), and why(cause). Adverbs that tell how, when, why, where, always modify the verbs.

Asima spoke eloquently.[The adverb eloquently modifiesthe verb spoke ,telling how.]Have you heard this melody before?[The adverb beforemodifies the verb phrase Have heard, telling when.]They searched everywhere.[The adverb everywhere

modifies the verb searched, telling where.]He had not read the contract thoroughly.[The adverbs notAnd thoroughly modify the verb phrase had read, telling towhat extent.]

How

• The accident occurred mistakenly.

• The Prime Minister spoke boldly.

• She moved slowly and spoke quietly.

• Misbah ul Haq scored century very quickly.

• Pakistan whitewashed Australia easily.

When

• The people arrived in the evening.

• He attended the party late.

• He tries to get back before dark.

• Imran finished his tea first.

• My friend left early.

Where

• They met me in Islamabad.

• The couple was married in the sit-in.

• She has lived on an island all her life.

• She still lives there now.

To what extent

• He would never deceive our friends.

• Raheel had scarcely begun his lesson when there was knock at the door.

why(purpose)

He shops in several stores to get the best buys.

The captain drives his boat slowly to avoid hitting the rocks.

Find the adverbs in the following sentences and identify what they tell us.

• Example: he kicked the ball solidly.(how)• He kicked the ball immediately.(when)• He kicked the ball forward.(where)• He kicked the ball too hard.(how Much)

1.Pasha answered the question quickly.2.The answer was given too softly.3.I soon understood what he had said yesterday.4. Badar and Pasha wanted to know there and then.5. Why do we misunderstand others so often?

Find the adverbs in these sentences

1.The yearly crop was totally ruined by the weather.2. Daily we did our very hard lessons.3. Hourly we listened to the rapidly falling rain.4.The friendly person suddenly ran up to me.5. The unusually large dog jumped outside and licked my face.6. We shouldn’t decide this very important decision quickly or

foolishly.7. Suddenly and quietly the boys slipped from the room.8. The girls did the dishes laughingly and happily together.9. Maryum types rapidly and quickly.10. Either today or tomorrow we will go to the zoo.

Position of adverbs

One of the hallmarks of adverbs is their ability to move around in a sentence. They are particularly flexible in this regard.

Solemnly the minister addressed the gathering.

The minister addressed the gathering solemnly.

The minister solemnly addressed the gathering.

Adverbs modifying adverbs

• He ran fast.

In this sentence the adverb fast modifies the verb ran.

• He ran very fast.

In this sentence the adverb very modifies the adverb fast.

Adverbs of frequency

• Adverbs of frequency should be used between the Subject and the Verb, but if there are two or more auxiliaries, use them after the first auxiliary.

• I always go to the cinema.

• They are usually at home.

• I should never have eaten so much.

Adverbs of frequency are always, usually, often, seldom, normally, constantly, never, hardly, ever, sometimes.

Find the adverbs

1. After the hike my muscles were extremely tired and very sore.

2. Yesterday I had hardly completed my very hard assignment when I was rudely interrupted.

3. Gradually everyone reached the top of the mountain they had climbed before.

4. Just now he remembered his rather important assignment.

5. Often you go too far with your jokes.

Adverbs of opinion

• Adverbs of opinion express the speaker’s opinion.Actually, certainly, apparently, clearly, obviously,

probably, definitely, undoubtedly.1. The new student is actually very bright.2. You obviously dislike pizza.3. The plant has clearly not been watered.Perhaps, maybe, possibly, frankly, luckily, unluckily,

honestly, naturally, fortunately, unfortunately.1. Perhaps we can go out tonight.2. Frankly I don’t like him very much.

Adverb of degree

• Adverbs of degree generally modify adjectives or verbs and indicate the extent of intensity(degree) thereof.

Fairly, quite, hardly, too, almost, pretty, rather, barely,

completely, enough, nearly, really, just, even, every, so.

He is entirely right.

These shoes are too wide.

My house isn’t big enough.

Arif nearly lost his balance.

Form the adverbs from the following words.

• Considerable• Strange• rare • Heavy• Unrealistical• Quick• Slow• Beautiful• Wonderful• Thoughtful

Short question

• What is an Adverb?

• What do you understand by Adverbs of Time.

• What are Adverbs of Frequency?

• What do you understand by Adverbs of Manner.

• Briefly explain Adverb of Place

Morphology

• The term morphology is Greek and is a makeup of morph-meaning 'shape, form', and -ology which means 'the studyof something'. The term is used not only in linguistics butalso in biology as the scientific study of forms and structureof animals and plants, and in geology as the study offormation and evolution of rocks and land forms. We aregoing to stick to morphology in linguistics, as the scientificstudy of forms and structure of words in a language.[1]

• Morphology as a sub-discipline of linguistics was named forthe first time in 1859 by the German linguist AugustSchleicher who used the term for the study of the form ofwords.

• [2] Today morphology forms a core part of linguistics.

What is a ‘word’.

• If morphology is the study of the internal structure ofwords, we need to define the word word before we cancontinue. That might sound easy - surely we all know whata word is. In texts they are particularly easy to spot sincethey are divided by white spaces. But how do we identifywords in speech?

• A reliable definition of words is that they are the smallestindependent units of language. They are independent inthat they do not depend on other words which means thatthey can be separated from other units and can changeposition.[3] Consider the sentence:

• The man looked at the horses.

Cont…

• The plural ending –s in horses is dependent on the noun horse to receive meaning and can therefore not be a word. Horses however, is a word, as it can occur in other positions in the sentence or stand on its own:

The horses looked at the man.- What is the man looking at? - Horses.

• Words are thus both independent since they can be separated from other words and move around in sentences, and the smallest units of language since they are the only units of language for which this is possible.

Structure versus content words

• English words fall into two broad types: thosethat belong in the dictionary like ‘storm’ and'confabulate’, called content or lexical words,and those that belong in the grammar like ‘of’and ‘the’, called structure or grammaticalwords.

•

Content Words• - are best explained and listed in the dictionary, like 'book’, ‘teddy bear’ or

‘encapsulate’•

- exist in large numbers, tens or hundreds of thousands, as seen in any dictionary•

- vary in frequency from common words like ‘beer’ to very rare like ‘adduction’ (6 times in a 100 million words)

•- are used more in written language- consist of Nouns (‘glass’), Verbs (‘move’), Adjectives (‘glossy’) etc- are always pronounced and spelled in essentially the same way; ‘tree’ is always

said with the same consonants and vowel- usually have a fixed stress or stresses; ‘theatre’ is always ‘theatre’ /'Ti‚t‚/) never

‘theatre’ /Ti‚'t‚:/- usually have more than two letters, as in ‘eye’, two’, ‘inn’- can always be invented – I heard ‘vagueity’ on the radio this morning. Virtually

all the new words coming into the language say ‘cyberpunk’, are content words.•

Structure Words

• - are best explained in the grammar, i.e. in terms of how they fit into sentences: the’ is a definite article that goes with nouns

- are very limited in number, consisting of 220 or so in English

- are mostly very high frequency, for example all the top ten for English and 45% of the top 100 are structure words

- consist of Prepositions (‘to’), Articles ‘the’), Auxiliaries (‘can’) etc

- vary in pronunciation for emphasis etc; ‘have’ can be said as /hQv/, as /h‚v/ with a change of vowel and as /v/ (‘ve)- are usually unstressed but given stress for emphasis etc; ‘I’ve done it/I have done

it/I havedone it’- can consist of one or two letters, as in ‘I’, ‘to’, ‘in’- can never be invented, apart from changes over time. One attempt was ‘per’ for

‘he/she’, which has never caught on.

•

‘Root’, ‘stem’ and ‘base’ are all terms used in the literature to designate that part of a word that remains when all

affixes have been removed.

Root

• A root is a form which is not further analysable,either in terms of derivational or inflectionalmorphology. It is that part of word-form thatremains when all inflectional and derivationalaffixes have been removed. A root is the basicpart always present in a lexeme. In the form‘untouchables’ the root is ‘touch’, to which firstthe suffix ‘-able’, then the prefix ‘un-‘ and finallythe suffix ‘-s’ have been added. In a compoundword like ‘wheelchair’ there are two roots,‘wheel’ and ‘chair’.

Stem

• A stem is of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology.In the form ‘untouchables’ the stem is ‘untouchable’, although in the form ‘touched’ the stem is ‘touch’; in the form ‘wheelchairs’ the stem is ‘wheelchair’, even though the stem contains two roots.

Base

• A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can beadded. This means that any root or any stem can be termeda base, but the set of bases is not exhausted by the unionof the set of roots and the set of stems: a derivationallyanalysable form to which derivational affixes are added canonly be referred to as a base. That is, ‘touchable’ can act asa base for prefixation to give ‘untouchable’, but in thisprocess ‘touchable’ could not be referred to as a rootbecause it is analysable in terms of derivationalmorphology, nor as a stem since it is not the adding ofinflectional affixes which is in question.

•

Cont…

• The plural ending –s in horses is dependent on the noun horse to receive meaning and can therefore not be a word. Horses however, is a word, as it can occur in other positions in the sentence or stand on its own:

The horses looked at the man.- What is the man looking at? - Horses.

• Words are thus both independent since they can be separated from other words and move around in sentences, and the smallest units of language since they are the only units of language for which this is possible.

Morphemes - the building blocks of morphology

• Although words are the smallest independent units oflanguage, they have an internal structure and are builtup by even smaller pieces. There are simple words thatdon’t have an internal structure and only consist of onepiece, like work. There is no way we can divide work(wo-rk?) into smaller parts that carry meaning orfunction. Complex words however, do have an internalstructure and consist of two or more pieces.Consider worker, where the ending –er is added tothe root work to make it into a noun meaning someonewho works. These pieces are called morphemes and arethe smallest meaning-bearing units of language.[4]

Lexical vs. Grammatical Morphemes

• ◮ Content (Lexical) Morphemes: express generalreferential or informational content, a meaningthat is essentially independent of thegrammatical system of a particular language.

• ◮ Functional (Grammatical) Morphemes: othermorphemes are heavily tied to a grammaticalfunction, expressing syntactic relationshipsbetween units in a sentence, or obligatorilymarked categories such as number or tense.

Complex Morphemes

• A complex morpheme is a morpheme that contains a lexical morpheme and at least one grammatical morpheme. A common example in English are the so called strong irregular verbs — those that change a vowel in the past tense and again in the non-progressive participle:

•

• swim — swam — swum• drink — drank — drunk• draw — drew — drawn• see — saw — seen• write — wrote —written• eat — ate — eaten• slay — slew — slain• fall — fell — fallen• shrink — shrank — shrunk•

Some noun plurals are also compound morphemes:

• tooth — teeth

• foot — feet

• goose — geese

• mouse — mice

• louse — lice

• man — men

•

Sometimes the compound morphemes are syncretic:

• deer — deer

• sheep — sheep

• elk — elk

• moose — moose

Structure versus content words

• English words fall into two broad types: thosethat belong in the dictionary like ‘storm’ and'confabulate’, called content or lexical words,and those that belong in the grammar like ‘of’and ‘the’, called structure or grammaticalwords.

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Content Words• - are best explained and listed in the dictionary, like 'book’, ‘teddy bear’ or

‘encapsulate’•

- exist in large numbers, tens or hundreds of thousands, as seen in any dictionary•

- vary in frequency from common words like ‘beer’ to very rare like ‘adduction’ (6 times in a 100 million words)

•- are used more in written language- consist of Nouns (‘glass’), Verbs (‘move’), Adjectives (‘glossy’) etc- are always pronounced and spelled in essentially the same way; ‘tree’ is always

said with the same consonants and vowel- usually have a fixed stress or stresses; ‘theatre’ is always ‘theatre’ /'Ti‚t‚/) never

‘theatre’ /Ti‚'t‚:/- usually have more than two letters, as in ‘eye’, two’, ‘inn’- can always be invented – I heard ‘vagueity’ on the radio this morning. Virtually

all the new words coming into the language say ‘cyberpunk’, are content words.•

Structure Words

• - are best explained in the grammar, i.e. in terms of how they fit into sentences: the’ is a definite article that goes with nouns

- are very limited in number, consisting of 220 or so in English

- are mostly very high frequency, for example all the top ten for English and 45% of the top 100 are structure words

- consist of Prepositions (‘to’), Articles ‘the’), Auxiliaries (‘can’) etc

- vary in pronunciation for emphasis etc; ‘have’ can be said as /hQv/, as /h‚v/ with a change of vowel and as /v/ (‘ve)- are usually unstressed but given stress for emphasis etc; ‘I’ve done it/I have done

it/I havedone it’- can consist of one or two letters, as in ‘I’, ‘to’, ‘in’- can never be invented, apart from changes over time. One attempt was ‘per’ for

‘he/she’, which has never caught on.

•

Allomorphs: The English Noun Plural Morpheme

CONTEXT ALLOMORPH

baby, bag, hood, eye, hive Z

book, cat, caps, proof

crutch, garage, glass, buzz

S

@Z

Irregular plurals