Morphology & Word Formation for UGC NET Aspirants
Morphology: The study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.
Word Formation: The processes through which new words are created in a language.
Word Formation: The processes through which new words are created in a language.
1. Basic Concepts in Morphology
Morphemes: The Building Blocks
- Morpheme: Smallest meaningful unit in a language
- Free morpheme: Can stand alone as words (e.g., "book", "happy")
- Bound morpheme: Must attach to other morphemes (e.g., "-s", "un-")
| Type | Definition | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Root | Primary lexical unit carrying core meaning | "teach" in "teacher", "happy" in "unhappiness" |
| Affix | Bound morpheme attached to a base | Prefixes (un-), suffixes (-ness), infixes, circumfixes |
| Stem | Base form to which affixes attach | "teach" in "teachers", "quick" in "quicker" |
| Base | Any form to which affixes attach | "happy" in "unhappy", "unhappy" in "unhappiness" |
Morphological Typology of Languages
| Type | Characteristics | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Isolating | One morpheme per word, no affixation | Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese |
| Agglutinative | Clear morpheme boundaries, one meaning per affix | Turkish, Finnish, Swahili |
| Fusional | Affixes combine multiple meanings, unclear boundaries | Latin, Russian, Sanskrit |
| Polysynthetic | Very complex words incorporating many morphemes | Inuktitut, Mohawk |
2. Word Formation Processes
Major Processes
| Process | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Affixation | Adding prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes | un+happy, quick+ly, abso-bloody-lutely |
| Compounding | Combining two or more free morphemes | blackboard, sunflower, babysit |
| Conversion | Changing word class without affixation | to bottle (from noun), a call (from verb) |
| Clipping | Shortening longer words | ad → advertisement, flu → influenza |
| Blending | Combining parts of two words | brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog) |
| Backformation | Creating simpler forms from complex ones | edit from editor, televise from television |
| Acronyms | Initial letters pronounced as words | NASA, RADAR, UNESCO |
| Initialisms | Initial letters pronounced separately | BBC, USA, ATM |
| Reduplication | Repeating all or part of a word | bye-bye, flip-flop (English), jalan-jalan (Malay) |
| Borrowing | Adopting words from other languages | café (French), kindergarten (German) |
| Coinage | Creating completely new words | Google, Kodak, nylon |
Affix Types
- Derivational: Change meaning/word class (happy → happiness, teach → teacher)
- Inflectional: Mark grammatical categories (cat → cats, walk → walked)
- English Inflectional Morphemes (Only 8):
- Noun: plural -s, possessive -'s
- Verb: 3rd sg. -s, past -ed, progressive -ing, past participle -en/-ed
- Adjective: comparative -er, superlative -est
3. Morphological Analysis
Morphological Trees
Example: "Unhappiness"
N
/ \
Aff N
| / \
un Adj Aff
| |
happy -ness
/ \
Aff N
| / \
un Adj Aff
| |
happy -ness
Allomorphs
Variant forms of morphemes conditioned by phonological environment:
- English plural: /s/ (cats), /z/ (dogs), /ɪz/ (dishes)
- English past tense: /t/ (walked), /d/ (robbed), /ɪd/ (wanted)
Morphophonemics
Study of phonological changes at morpheme boundaries:
Examples:
- electric + -ity → electricity (k → s)
- sign + -ature → signature (g → n)
- five + -th → fifth (v → f)
4. Theoretical Approaches
Item-and-Arrangement (IA): Words are formed by arranging morphemes in sequence (Bloomfieldian structuralism).
Item-and-Process (IP): Words are formed by applying processes to bases (Hockett's model).
Word-and-Paradigm (WP): Focuses on complete word forms and their paradigmatic relationships (traditional grammar approach).
Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz): Morphemes are abstract units realized at different levels of derivation.
5. Key Distinctions
Inflection vs. Derivation
| Feature | Inflection | Derivation |
|---|---|---|
| Function | Grammatical marking | Lexical word formation |
| Word Class | Doesn't change | May change |
| Productivity | Highly productive | Limited productivity |
| Position | Always outermost | Can be inner |
| Meaning | Predictable | Often unpredictable |
| Examples | walk → walks, walked | happy → unhappy, happiness |
Root vs. Stem vs. Base
Example Analysis: "Unhappinesses"
- Root: "happy" (core meaning)
- Stem for -ness: "unhappy"
- Base for -es: "unhappiness"
6. Important Concepts for UGC NET
- Cranberry Morpheme: Bound roots with no independent meaning (e.g., "cran-", "huckle-")
- Suppletion: Irregular forms where one morpheme is replaced completely (go → went, good → better)
- Portmanteau Morph: Single morph realizing multiple morphemes (French "au" = Ã + le)
- Zero Derivation: Another term for conversion (no overt marker)
- Blocking: Existing word prevents formation of new word (*stealer blocked by "thief")
- Lexical Gap: Missing word where formation would be possible (*goer from "go" exists, but *comeer doesn't)
7. Morphology in Different Languages
Non-Concatenative Morphology
- Semitic Root-and-Pattern: Consonantal roots with vowel patterns (Arabic k-t-b "write" → kataba "he wrote", kitaab "book")
- Reduplication: Full or partial repetition (Tagalog: sulat "write" → susulat "will write")
- Tone Changes: Using pitch differences (Bantu languages)
Case Systems
Morphological marking of grammatical relations (Latin, Russian, Finnish):
Latin "dominus" (master):
dominus (nominative), domini (genitive), domino (dative), dominum (accusative)
dominus (nominative), domini (genitive), domino (dative), dominum (accusative)
8. Applications of Morphology
- Lexicography: Dictionary making, word formation patterns
- Natural Language Processing: Stemming, lemmatization
- Language Teaching: Vocabulary building strategies
- Historical Linguistics: Tracing language change through morphological shifts
- Clinical Linguistics: Analyzing language disorders affecting morphology
UGC NET Focus Area
Be prepared to:
- Analyze word structure into morphemes
- Identify word formation processes
- Differentiate inflection vs. derivation
- Recognize allomorphs and morphophonemic changes
- Understand theoretical approaches to morphology
Conclusion
Morphology provides crucial insights into how words are structured and formed in human languages. For UGC NET, focus on mastering morpheme analysis, word formation processes, inflection vs. derivation, and the application of morphological knowledge in language teaching and research.
Revision Tip: Practice by:
- Breaking down complex words into morphemes
- Creating morphological trees for derived words
- Identifying word formation processes in new vocabulary
- Comparing morphological processes across languages
