Morphological structure of English words. Morphemes. Morphological analysis

A word consists of morphemes – a structural or constituent part of a word. Morphemes include stem (root+affixes) and ending. Morphemes pass their own meaning: root has a semantic meaning, ending have a grammatical meaning, and affixes – both semantic and grammatical.

Word-formation. Major types of word-building

To major types of word-building belong:

1) Derivation (affixation) – words are made by adding affixes. Affixes can be: derivational (make a new word [-ful, un-]) and inflectional (make a new grammatical form [-ed, -ing]), productive (make new words nowadays [-ful, -ness]) and non-productive (aren’t used to make new words any more [-hood, -ship]), native [-ful, -ty, -ness] and borrowed [-tion, de-, anti-];

2) Conversion – by transforming one part of speech to another (hand – to hand). The most often used is noun to verb. Subtypes: 1) noun is a part of a body, verb is an action made by this part; 2) noun is an animal, verb is an action this animal is supposed to do; 3) noun is a profession, verb is an action made by people of this profession; 4) noun is a tool, verb is an action made by it; 5) noun is a container, verb is an action of putting into this container.

3) Composition – words are made by combining several roots or stems. The result is a compound word. Compounds are subdivided into 3 main groups: neutral (without linking element; subdivided into simple [2 roots: bedroom], derivational [stems or stem+root: newcomer] and contracted [contraction+root: TV-set]), morphological (roots or stems with linking element: spok es man) and syntactic (phrase or sentence: mother-in-law). Semantically they are subdivided into 3 groups: 1) the meaning of a whole compound is equal to the meanings of its elements; 2) meaning of one element remains the same, meaning of another is changed: lady-killer; 3) meanings of both elements are changed: lady-bird.

4) Contraction is shortening of a word. There are 2 ways: 1) using a part of a word (phone = telephone), and 2) using initial letters (GF = girlfriend).

Word-formation. Minor types of word-building

To minor types of word-building belong:

1) Onomatopoeia is based on sound imitation (to murmur);

2) Reduplication is based on doubling the root or the stem. It can be simple (bye-bye) or gradational (ping-pong);

3) Reversion – words are made by subtracting an affix (burglar – to burgle);

4) Blending – words are made by using the beginning of the 1^st word and the end of the 2^nd word (motel = moto+hotel).