Chapter 3 MorphologyWord格式.docx

Chapter 3 MorphologyWord格式.docx

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Howisawordstructured?

Whatisthebasiccomponentpartofaword?

Howarethecomponentpartsputtogethertoformwords?

Whataretheword-formationprocessesinalanguage?

Howistheformofawordaffectedwhenitisusedwithotherwordsorinasentence?

3.2Thewordsoflanguage

Itisdifficulttodefinetheterm“word”.Forsomepeople,wordsarephysicallydefinableunits,whoseboundariesareusuallyrecognizedbyspacesinwritingorslightpausesinspeech.Forothers,awordisaunitofmeaningandaunitofsound.Therearestillotherswhoregardwordsasgrammaticalunitsthatcanfunctioninasentence.Stockwell&

Minkova（2001:

56）characterizeawordasthesmallestunitthatonethinksofasbeingbasictosayinganything.Itisthesmallestunitofsentencecompositionandthesmallestunitthatweareawareofwhenweconsciouslytrytocreatesentences.Toputthingstogether,wecandefineawordasthesmallestofthelinguisticunitswhichcanoccuronitsowninspeechandwriting（Richardsetal.,1985:

311）.Forexample,care,carelessandcarefularesmallestlinguisticunitsinspeechandwriting,sotheyareallwords.Somepeoplemayarguethatcarelessandcarefularenotsmallest,becausecarelessismadeupofcareand-less,andcarefulismadeupofcareand-ful.However,inspeechandwritingwedonotusecareand-less,orcareand-fulseparately.Somepeoplemayalsoarguethatmanywordslikethe,so,ofcanhardlyoccurontheirown,becausetheyarealmostalwaysusedwithotherwordsinspeechandwriting.Thisistrue,butinthisdefinition,“standonitsown”meansthatdistinctfromunitslike-lessand-ful,awordisanindividualunitofmeaningthatisnotboundtoanyotherunits.Thisdefinitionmaynotbeperfect,butitcapturesthebasiccharacteristicsofaword.Thatis,awordisasound-meaningunitandafundamentalunitofspeechandwriting.

Indiscussingwords,thefollowingtermsarealsofrequentlyused,andsometimesdistinctionsaremadeasfollows:

●Lexis:

thevocabularyofalanguage,incontrasttoitsgrammarorsyntax.

●Lexicon:

thesetofallthewordsandidiomsofanylanguage,oftenusedinterchangeablywithvocabulary.

●Lexeme:

thesmallestunitinthemeaningsystemofalanguage,anabstractunitthatremainsconstant.Forexample,giveisthelexemeofitsvariantsgave,given,giving.

●Vocabulary:

Acompleteinventoryofthewordsinalanguage.

Wordscanbeclassifiedintocontentwordsandfunctionwords.Contentwordsarewordswhichrefertoathing,quality,state,oractionandwhichhavestablelexicalmeaningorsemanticcontent.Theymainlyincludenouns,verbs,adjectives,andadverbs.Contentwordsarealsocalledlexicalwordsorfullwords.Contentwordsarealso“open-class”words,becausenewwordscanbeaddedtothesesclasses.

Functionwordsarewordswhoseroleisprimarilytoexpressgrammaticalrelationshipsandsuchwordshavelittlemeaningontheirownexcepttheirgrammaticalmeaning.Theymainlyincludeconjunctions,prepositions,auxiliariesandarticles.Functionwordsarealsocalledformwords,emptywords,grammaticalwords,structuralwordsorstructurewords.Functionwordsare“closed-class”wordsbecausenewwordsarenotusuallyaddedtotheseclasses.

3.3Thestructureofwords

Althoughwordsarethesmallestofthelinguisticunitsinspeechandwriting,theyhaveaninternalstructure.Thatis,theyaresaidtobemadeupofmeaningfulunitsoftheirown,asexemplifiedinthefollowing:

carefulcare+ful

sadnesssad+ness

realizereal+ize

disobeydis+obey

unthinkableun+think+able

Theseexamplesshowthatawordcanbeanalyzedintominimalunitsofmeaning.Indisobey,therearetwominimalunitsofmeaning,onebeingdis-（meaning“not”）,theotherbeingobey.

Whenwordsareusedinsentences,theword-formssuchasworks,worked,workingcanalsobeanalyzedintominimalunitsofmeaning.Inthiscase,theword-formsconsistofoneelementwork,andanumberofotherelementssuchas-s,-ed,-ing,whichindicatevariousgrammaticalmeanings.

Thus,awordcanbeanalyzedintothemostelementalunitsofmeaning.Somewordsarecomposedofoneunitofmeaning,likehelp,the,happy,apple.Somewordsconsistoftwoormorethantwounitsofmeaning.Forexample,happilycontainstwominimalunitsofmeaning,andungentlemanlinesscontainsfiveminimalunitsofmeaning.Theminimalunitofmeaningistraditionallycalledmorpheme.Thus,itcanbesaidthatawordiscomposedofatleastonemorphemeanditmaybecomposedofmorethanone.Wordsthatareformedbyonemorphemeonlyandcannotbeanalyzedintopartsarecalledopaquewords.Wordsthatconsistofmorethanonemorphemeandcanbesegmentedintopartsarecalledtransparentwords.

3.4Morpheme,morphandallomorph

Amorphemeisthesmallestmeaningfullinguisticunitthatcannotbefurthersegmented.Forexample,thewordmorphemeitselfcontainstwomorphemes,morph-,meaning“form”,and-eme,meaning“unit”.Wesometimescanpredictthemeaningsofawordbyidentifyingitsmorphemes.

Amorphemeisanabstractconcept.Theconcreteformofamorphemeiscalledmorph.Thatistosay,morphsaretheactualformsusedtorealizemorphemes.Amorphememaytakedifferentshapesorforms,whicharecalledallomorphs.Thus,anallomorphisanyofthevariantformsofamorpheme.

Whyisthereanabstract-concretedistinctionhere?

Onepossibleansweristhatsuchadistinctionisnecessitatedbymorphologicaldescription.Forexample,thefollowinggroupofwordshaveonegrammaticalmeaningincommon:

dogs,buses,sheep,men,geese,children,phenomena.Theyareallpluralformsexpressingthegrammaticalmeaningof“morethanone…”Thepluralmeaningisexpressedby-sindogs,butby-esinbuses.Thingsbecomemorecomplicatedwhenwelookattheotherwords:

whatmakessheepthepluralofsheep,orgeesethepluralofgoose?

Canwesaythatthepluralmeaninginallthesewordsisexpressedbydifferentmorphemes?

Certainlynot.Thereisonlyonemorphemeinvolvedhere,andwemaycallitthemorpheme“plural”.Itcanbeattachedtoanumberoflexicalmorphemestoproducestructureslike“dog+plural”,“sheep+plural”,“goose+plural”,andsoon.Themorpheme“plural”takesdifferentformsinactualrealization,calledmorphs,andtheyareallallomorphsoftheonemorpheme.Wecansaythat“dog+plural”,“sheep+plural”,“goose+plural”areabstractanalysesatthemorpheme-level,andarerealizedasdogs,sheep,geeseatthemorph-level（Yule,2000:

79）.Thistwo-levelanalysismakesmorphologicaldescriptionmucheasier,butveryoftentheterm“morpheme”isusedforconveniencewhenweactuallyrefertoamorph.Somanypeoplerefertoformslike-sand-ed,whicharemorphs,asmorphemes.

3.5Classificationofmorpheme

3.5.1Freemorphemesandboundmorphemes

Afreemorphemeisamorphemewhichcanstandbyitselfasanindependentword,e.g.water,child,attack,andberry.Aboundmorphemeisamorphemewhichcannotstandonitsownasaword,butwhichistypicallyattachedtoanotherform,e.g.-dominfreedom,-hoodinchildhood,-shipinfriendshipandun-inundo.Onethemorphemiclevel,wordscanbeclassifiedintosimplewords,compoundwordsandcomplexwordsaccordingtothenumberandtypeofmorphemeswordscontain:

●Asimplewordconsistsofasinglemorpheme（whichiscertainlyafreemorpheme）,e.g.hill,walk,great,element.

●Acompoundwordiscomposedoftwoormorefreemorphemes,e.g.blackboard,sunset,headstrong,forget-me-not.

●Acomplexwordconsistseitherofafreemorphemetogetherwithoneormorethanoneboundmorpheme,oroftwoboundmorphemes,e.g.cats,careful,unfriendly,contain,conceive,prelude.

3.5.2Rootsandaffixes

Arootisthebasicunchangeablepartofaword,anditconveysthemainlexicalmeaningoftheword.Itisthepartofawordremainingwhenallaffixeshavebeenremoved.Arootcanbeafreemorpheme,e.g.workinworker,thinkinunthinkable,oraboundmorpheme,e.g.ceiveinperceive,taininretain,vitinvital.

Anaffixisaboundmorphemethatisusedonlywhenaddedtoanotherwordormorpheme.Itisusedtomarkthegrammaticalfunctionofawordorcreateanewword.Affixescanbefurtherclassifiedintoinflectionalmorphemesandderivationalmorphemes.

3.5.3Inflectionalmorphemesandderivationalmorphemes

Whenawordappearsinavarietyofformsdependingonitsgrammaticalroleinthesentencewesaythatitinflectsorundergoesinflection（Radfordetal.,2000:

154）.Thus,aninflectionalmorphemeisanaffixthatindicatesaspectsofthegrammaticalfunctionofaword,suchas-sforpluralityofcountablenouns,-edforpasttenseofverbs,-erand-estforthecomparativeandsuperlativedegreesofadjectivesoradverbs.Aninflectionalmorphemedoesnotformanewwordwhenitisaddedtoanotherword,nordoesitchangethepartofspeechofthewordtowhichitisaffixed（withafewexceptionslike-ingand-ed,asinthelearningofalanguage,andthegolden-hairedwoman）.Thepartofawordtowhichaninflectionalaffixisaddediscalledastem,e.g.talkintalked,farmerinfarmers,classmateinclassmates.

Aderivationalmorphemeisonethatisusedtoformanewword.Forexample,-mentisaddedtomoveandthenewwordmovementisderived.Englishisalanguagerichin