Morphology - உருபனியல்

linguistics #language #words

generallinguistics

lexicology

Author: Prasanth Karuppasamy

Content Index

• What is : Morphology
• Etymology: Morpho+logy
• Form and Structure
• What is: Morpheme
• Differ From: Lexeme
• Classifications of: Morpheme

- Word Formation

• References

What is : Morphology

Form and Structure

A scientific study of form and structure, usually without regard to function. Especially:
(linguistics) The study of the internal structure of morphemes (words and their semantic building blocks).

Etymology: Morpho+logy

Morpho:
Representing combining form of Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form”).

-logy:
From λόγος (lógos, “explanation”) +‎ -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, abstract noun suffix).

Form and Structure

Unit: Morpheme

Root
Affixes: Prefix, Infix, Suffix

What is: Morpheme

smallest meaningful unit of language

any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word.

The smallest linguistic unit within a word that can carry a meaning. It may be a letter, a syllable, or otherwise.

Example:
Word: Uniform
Morphemes: uni, form

Differ From: Lexeme

indicate set of words, so it is abstract

abstract dictionary unit

A lexical item corresponding to the set of all words (or of all multi-word expressions) that are semantically related through inflection of a particular shared basic form.

Example: FORM:{form, forms, formed, forming}→ all belong to the lexeme FORM

Lexeme = FORM (covers only its inflected forms).
Derivatives = separate lexemes, even though they are morphologically related.

How Lexeme Written

Lexeme(UPPERCASE): FORM
Implies(lowercase): form, forms, formed, forming

Lexeme: RUN
Word forms (inflections): run, runs, ran, running

And:
Lexeme: CHILD
Word forms (inflections): child, children

Classifications of: Morpheme

Morpheme
├── By Independence
│ ├── Free Morpheme
│ └── Bound Morpheme
│
├── By Function
│ ├── Lexical Morpheme
│ └── Grammatical / Functional Morpheme
│
├── By Position / Role
│ ├── Root Morpheme
│ └── Affix Morpheme
│ ├── Prefix
│ ├── Suffix
│ ├── Infix
│ └── Circumfix
│
└── By Meaning Change
├── Inflectional Morpheme
└── Derivational Morpheme

References