张维友英语词汇学教程第三章

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1、Chapter threeMorphological Structure of English Words3.1 Morphemes Traditionally,words are usually treated as the basic and minimal units of a language to make sentences,which are combinations of words according to syntactic rules.Structurally,however,a word is not the smallest unit because many wor

2、ds can be separated into even smaller meaningful units.These minimal meaningful units are known as morphemes(morphe is the Greek word for“form”;-eme as in“phoneme”means class of).3.2 Morphs and Allomorphs Morphemes are abstract units,which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs.The

3、y are actual spoken,minimal carriers of meaning.In other words the phonetic or orthographic strings or segments which realize morphemes are termed morphs.Most morphemes are realized by single morphs like bird,tree,green,sad,want,desire,etc.These morphemes coincide with words as they can stand by the

4、mselves and function freely in a sentence.Words of this kind are called mono-morphemic words.Some morphemes,however,are realized by more than one morph according to their position in a word.An allomorph refers to a number of a set of morphs,which represent one morpheme.Just as we class phones togeth

5、er as allophones of a single phoneme,so we class morphs together as allomorphs of a single morpheme.3.3 Classifying Morphemes Morphemes vary in function.Accordingly,we can classify morphemes into several general categories:free versus bound,derivational versus inflectional,and lexical versus grammat

6、ical.1.Free versus Bound Morphemes These morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used free grammatical units in sentences.They are identical with words,for example,man,earth,wind,car and anger.Morphemes which cannot occur separate words are bound.They are so named because they are

7、bound to other morphemes to form words or to perform a particular grammatical function.Bound morphemes are chiefly found in derived words.Free morphemes are all roots,which are capable of being used as words or as word-building elements to form new words like collect,ideal,prison,whereas bound morph

8、emes consist of either roots or affixes,most of which can be used to create new words like re-,-ion,-ist and ex-.Bound morphemes include two types:bound root and affix.2.Derivational versus Inflectional Morphemes Morphemes which are used to derive new words are known as derivational morphemes becaus

9、e when these morphemes are conjoined,new words are derived.In English,derivatives and compound are all formed by such morphemes.Inflectional morphemes,in contrast,indicate the syntactic relationships between words and function as grammatical markers.Inflectional morphemes are confined to suffixes.Th

10、e differences between inflectional and derivational morphemes can be summarized as follows:Inflectional(1)Does not change meaning or part of speech of the stem.(2)Indicates syntactic or semantic relations between different words in a sentence.(3)Occurs with all members of some large class of morphem

11、es.(4)Occurs at margins of words.Derivational(1)Changes meaning or part of speech of the stem.(2)Indicates semantic relations within the word.(3)Occurs with only some members of a class of morphemes.(4)Occurs before any inflectional suffixes added.3.Content versus Grammatical Morphemes Content morph

12、emes are lexical morphemes which are used as we see above to derive new words,so also known as derivational morphemes.Grammatical morphemes,on the other hand,function primarily as grammatical markers,which are traditionally called functional words.3.4 Identifying Morphemes Since morphemes are the mi

13、nimal distinct units,they should be identifiable by their forms,meaning and distribution.Generally speaking,lexical morphemes are easy to define:Mono-morphemic:land,sky Double-morphemic:chill+y,mis+take Triple-morphemic:anti+govern+ment Four-morphemic:un+friend+li+ness Over-four-morphemic:inter+nati

14、on+al+iz(e)+ation If the morphemes are always consistent in form and meaning,there should be no difficulty in identification.However,there is often mismatch between form and meaning.Some morphemes are identical in form but different in meaning.Some morphemes are not meaningful in isolation but acqui

15、re meaning by virtue of their connection in words.There are other morphemes which occur in many words,but their meaning is difficult to define.Some forms are meaningful,but not morphemes.The identification of inflection morphemes is more problematic.In most cases,an inflectional morpheme can be segm

16、ented from the stem of a word and naturally can be added to the stem.3.5 Morpheme and Word-formation We know that words can be analyzed into morphemes,which are the minimal meaningful units in the composition of words.In word-formation,however,morphemes are conventionally labeled root,stem,base and

17、affix.1.AffixAffixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or function.All affixes are bound morphemes because none of them can stand as words in their own right.According to the functions of affixes,we can divide them into inflectional affixes like s,-ed and ing,an

18、d derivational affixed like pre-,ex-,de-and less.Derivational and inflectional affixes are identical with derivational and inflectional morphemes.In view of their distribution in the formation of words,affixes can fall into prefix and suffix.Prefixes are all derivational,i.e.they are used to form ne

19、w words whereas suffixes embrace both derivational suffixes and inflectional suffixes.Accordingly,the above-mentioned affixes can be further grouped into prefixes:pre-,ex-and de-,and suffixes:-less,-s,-ed and ing.2.Root,Stem,Base A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed wi

20、thout total loss of identity.As mentioned earlier,the root,whether free or bound,generally carries the main component of meaning in a word.A root is that part of a word form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed.A stem may consist of a single root morpheme as

21、in iron or of two root morphemes as in a compound like handcuff.A stem is that part of the word-form which remains when all inflectional affixes have been removed.A base is used in this book as an all-purpose term,referring to a form to which affixes of any kind(both derivational and inflectional)can be added.It can be a root or a stem.