Morphology, affix, prefix, suffix

Morphology
• Morphology is the part of linguistic which analyzes or investigates the basic elements or grammatical function of words. It is the part of linguistics that deals with the study of words, their internal structure and partially their meanings. It is also interested in how the users of the given language, understand complex words and invent new lexical items (dictionary study).
• Morphology is the part of linguistics that deals with the study of words, their internal structure and partially their meanings.

Word and Morpheme
• Word: the smallest free form
• Morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit
• Word à simple and complex
– E.g. hunt and hunter
• Morpheme à free and bound
– E.g. hunt and -er

Type of morpheme
1. Free Morpheme (Content & Funct. Words)
2. Bound Morphemes
* Derivational Morpheme
* Inflectional Morpheme

Morpheme:
The minimal unit of meaning
Free morpheme: a single morpheme that constitutes a word and can stand alone.
Bound morpheme: a morpheme that must be attached to another morpheme.


AFFIX
 An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word

Affixes
(based on the function)
• Derivational morpheme: deriving (creating) a new word with a new meaning.
• Inflectional morpheme: changing the form of a word because of the rules of syntax.

English Affixes
(based on the position)
 Prefix: An affix that occurs before a morpheme
 Suffix: An affix that occurs after a morpheme

English Prefixes
 Examples of Negative Prefixes:
un- non- im- ir- dis-
 Examples of size and degree prefixes:
mini- sub- over- super-




Negative Prefixes
UN -
• Unauthorized (Adj.), Unbelievable (Adj.), Undamaged (Adj.), Unemployment (N.), Unforgetable (Adj.), Unrelated (Adj.), Unsatisfied (Adj.), Undo, Untie, Unwrap
IL -
• Illegal (Adj.), Illiterate (Adj.)
IM -
• Imbalanced (N), Impossible (Adj), Immeasurable (Adj.)
IR -
• Irregular (Adj.), Irresponsible (Adj.),
IN -
• Incorrect (Adj.), Intolerable (Adj.), Incomplete (Adj.)
DIS -
• Disappear (V), Discount (N.), Discover (V.), Dissatisfied, Dishonest (Adj.), Discontinue (V.), Discourage (V. )



Size and Degree Prefixes

TERMS DEFENITIONS
• ARCH- highest, worst - archbishop
• EXTRA- more than, beyond - extraordinary
• HYPER- extremely - hyperactive
• MAXI- most, very large - maximum
• MINI- small - miniskirt, minibus
• MULTI- many - multitask, multi-media
• OUT- more, to a greater degree - outdo, outrun
• OVER- more than normal, too much - overweight, overworked
• SUB- below, less than - subhuman, substandard
• SUPER- more than, better - superman, supermarket
• ULTRA- extremely, beyond a certain limit - ultra-modern, ultraviolet
• UNDER- too little - underpaid


English Suffixes
 Class preserving suffixation:
-er à lecturer
-ianà librarian
-ist à scientist
-let à piglet
 Class changing suffixation:
Verb à Noun
performà performance
Adjective à Adverb
nice à nicely
Adjective à Noun
active à activity