Morphological Processes, Linguistics, Morphology, Morphemes, Affixes

1. Morphological Processes
Resume
Compiled by:
Bening Anggadita
Didit Kurniadi
Luqman Hakim
Andi Rizki
Khairi

2. Introduction
When we are having conversation with others we will get difficulties in accepting the feautures
of word. If it is in question form we will question and answer necessarily. We will not pay
attention of the words formation. It is because there will be the obstacle in relating with the
sound, environment and the sound formation.
Learning about language is like learning about science. It is because many linguists supposed
that language as living organism. It can be breaking down into small pieces. We can take an
example for the study of morphology. It is proven by the process of morphology which has been
studied for a long time before saussure period. They take seriously attention to the formation of
words. Here there is the story inside: "The term 'morphology' has been taken over from biology
where it is used to denote the study of the forms of plants and animals. . . . It was first used for
linguistic purposes in 1859 by the German linguist August Schleicher (Salmon 2000), to refer to
the study of the form of words. In present-day linguistics, the term 'morphology' refers to the
study of the internal structure of words, and of the systematic form-meaning correspondences
between words.
"The notion 'systematic' in the definition of morphology given above is important. For instance,
we might observe a form difference and a corresponding meaning difference between the
English noun ear and the verb hear. However, this pattern is not systematic: there are no similar
word pairs, and we cannot form new English verbs by adding h- to a noun."
So based on the explanation above we can infer thatmorphology is one of the branch of
linguistics (and one of the major components of grammar) that studies word structures,
especially in terms of morphemes.
Word Classes
Words are fundamental units in every sentence, so we will begin by looking at these. Consider
the words in the following sentence:
my father rides a fast bycicle
We can tell almost instinctively that father and bycicle are the same type of word, and also that
father and rides are different types of words. By this we mean that father and bycicle belong to

3. the same word class. Similarly, when we recognise that father and rides are different types, we
mean that they belong to different word classes. We recognise seven MAJOR word classes:
Verb be, drive, grow, sing, think
Noun brother, car, David, house, London
Determiner a, an, my, some, the
Adjective big, foolish, happy, talented, tidy
Adverb happily, recently, soon, then, there
Preposition at, in, of, over, with
Conjunction and, because, but, if, or
You may find that other grammars recognise different word classes from the ones listed here.
They may also define the boundaries between the classes in different ways. In some grammars,
for instance, pronouns are treated as a separate word class, whereas we treat them as a subclass
of nouns. A difference like this should not cause confusion. Instead, it highlights an important
principle in grammar, known as gradience. This refers to the fact that the boundaries between the
word classes are not absolutely fixed. Many word classes share characteristics with others, and
there is considerable overlap between some of the classes. In other words, the boundaries are
"fuzzy", so different grammars draw them in different places.
We will discuss each of the major word classes in turn. Then we will look briefly at some minor
word classes. But first, let us consider how we distinguish between word classes in general.
Criteria for Word Classes
We began by grouping words more or less on the basis of our instincts about English. We
somehow "feel" that brother and car belong to the same class, and that brother and drives belong
to different classes. However, in order to conduct an informed study of grammar, we need a
much more reliable and more systematic method than this for distinguishing between word
classes.

4. We use a combination of three criteria for determining the word class of a word:
1. The meaning of the word
2. The form or `shape' of the word
3. The position or `environment' of the word in a sentence
1. Meaning
Using this criterion, we generalize about the kind of meanings that words convey. For example,
we could group together the words brother and car, as well as David, house, and London, on the
basis that they all refer to people, places, or things. In fact, this has traditionally been a popular
approach to determining members of the class of nouns. It has also been applied to verbs, by
saying that they denote some kind of "action", like cook, drive, eat, run, shout, walk.
This approach has certain merits, since it allows us to determine word classes by replacing words
in a sentence with words of "similar" meaning. For instance, in the sentence My son cooks dinner
every Sunday, we can replace the verb cooks with other "action" words:
My son cooks dinner every Sunday
My son prepares dinner every Sunday
My son eats dinner every Sunday
My son misses dinner every Sunday
On the basis of this replacement test, we can conclude that all of these words belong to the same
class, that of "action" words, or verbs.
However, this approach also has some serious limitations. The definition of a noun as a word
denoting a person, place, or thing, is wholly inadequate, since it excludes abstract nouns such as
time, imagination, repetition, wisdom, and chance. Similarly, to say that verbs are "action" words
excludes a verb like be, as in I want to be happy. What "action" does be refer to here? So
although this criterion has a certain validity when applied to some words, we need other, more
stringent criteria as well.

5. 2. The form or `shape' of a word
Some words can be assigned to a word class on the basis of their form or `shape'. For example,
many nouns have a characteristic -tion ending:
action, condition, contemplation, demonstration, organization, repetition
Similarly, many adjectives end in -able or -ible:
acceptable, credible, miserable, responsible, suitable, terrible
Many words also take what are called inflections, that is, regular changes in their form under
certain conditions. For example, nouns can take a plural inflection, usually by adding an -s at the
end:
car -- cars
dinner -- dinners
book -- books
Verbs also take inflections:
walk -- walks -- walked -- walking
3. The position or `environment' of a word in a sentence
This criterion refers to where words typically occur in a sentence, and the kinds of words which
typically occur near to them. We can illustrate the use of this criterion using a simple example.
Compare the following:
[1] I cook dinner every Sunday
[2] The cook is on holiday
In [1], cook is a verb, but in [2], it is a noun. We can see that it is a verb in [1] because it takes
the inflections which are typical of verbs: And we can see that cook is a noun in [2] because it
takes the plural -s inflection.

6. Notice that we can replace verbs with verbs, and nouns with nouns, but we cannot replace verbs
with nouns or nouns with verbs:
*I chef dinner every Sunday
*The eat is on holiday
It should be clear from this discussion that there is no one-to-one relation between words and
their classes. Cook can be a verb or a noun -- it all depends on how the word is used. In fact,
many words can belong to more than one word class.
Lexical word
The branch of linguistics that studies the stock of words (the lexicon) in a given language.
Some word classes are open, that is, new words can be added to the class as the need arises. The
class of nouns, for instance, is potentially infinite, since it is continually being expanded as new
scientific discoveries are made, new products are developed, and new ideas are explored
Lexicology and Syntax. Here are the examples of lexical words; are nouns, lexical verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs.
Having a look at the explanation below;
- Noun is The part of speech (or word class) that is used to name or identify a person,
place, thing, quality, or action. Most nouns have both a singular and plural form, can be
preceded by an article and/or one or more adjectives, and can serve as the head of a noun
phrase.
- Verb is the part of speech (or word class) that describes an action or occurrence or
indicates a state of being. There are two main classes of verbs: (1) the large open class of
lexical verbs (also known as main verbs or full verbs--that is, verbs that aren't dependent
on other verbs); and (2) the small closed class of auxiliary verbs (also called helping
verbs). The two subtypes of auxiliaries are the primary auxiliaries (be, have, and do),
which can also act as lexical verbs, and the modal auxiliaries (can, could, may, might,
must, ought, shall, should, will, and would). Verbs and verb phrases usually function as

7. predicates. They can display differences in tense, mood, aspect, number, person, and
voice
- Adjective is The part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun.
Adjective: adjectival. In addition to their basic (or positive) forms, most descriptive
adjectives have two other forms: comparative and superlative.
- Adverbs is The part of speech (or word class) that is primarily used to modify a verb,
adjective, or other adverb. Adverbs can also modify prepositional phrases, subordinate
clauses, and complete sentences. Adjective: adverbial. Adverbs typically add information
about time (rarely, frequently, tomorrow), manner (slowly, quickly, willingly), or place
(here, there, everywhere). Many adverbs--especially adverbs of manner--are formed from
adjectives by the addition of the ending -ly (easily, dependably). But many common
adverbs (just, still, almost, not) do not end in -ly, and not all words that end in -ly
(friendly, neighborly) are adverbs
Function word
A word that expresses a grammatical relationship. Also known as a grammatical word. Function
words include determiners, conjunctions, and prepositions. Contrast with content word.
Function words are like thumbtacks. We don't notice thumbtacks; we look at the calendar
or the poster they are holding up. If we were to take the tacks away, the calendar and the
poster would fall down. Likewise, if we took the function words out of speech, it would
be hard to figure out what was going on
The the function words include pronouns (you, them), modal verbs (could, must),
determiners (a, the), prepositions (of, in), and conjunctions (and, but). New members
of these classes are not added to the language very often. Instead they tend to gradually
evolve from lexical words in a process called grammaticalization. For example, the
lexical verb go means 'to move (toward a goal).' But its progressive form be going (to)
has evolved into a grammaticalized prospective (future) marker, as in She's going to love
her gift. The 'movement' meaning of go has been bleached out of the grammaticalized
version and so the going in be going to can be considered to be a function word, rather
than a content word.

8. The closed classes represent a more restricted range of meanings, and the meanings of
closed class words tend to be less detailed and less referential than open-class words.
Prepositions have gradually expanded their membership somewhat by admitting
participles such as including, concerning, but the remaining classes are very resistant to
the introduction of new items. This has been noticeable in recent years when attempts
have been made to find gender-neutral pronouns.
Morphological Processes
'Morphology is the study of the rules governing the formation of words.'
Morphological processes can be by affixation or other words formation. Affixation can be
inflection or derivation while other words formation can be compound, reduplication, suppletion,
internal chage, clipping, conversion.
A. AFFIXATION
Affixation is the process in which free morphome (root) is added with bound morphemes
(affixes). There are two kinds of affixation, they are inflection and derivation.
I. INFLECTION
Inflection is word formation process that changes the morphological form of a word to fit a
syntactic context.
Example:
- walk vs. walked
- cat vs. cats
There are some characteristics of inflection:
inflection does not change the grammatical category of the base;
inflection does not affect the meaning of the word;
inflectional processes take place after derivational ones;
Example
neighborhoods vs. *neighborshood
inflectional affixes have few exceptions (they are almost fully productive), while
derivational affixes usually attach to a limited class of words;
English inflectional affixes are all suffixes.

9. Example
- plural -s: cat - cats
- possessive/genitive ’s: John’s
- 3rd person sg. non-past -s: sing-sings
- progressive -ing: sing-singing
- past tense -ed: talk-talked
- past participle -en/-ed: eat-eaten/study-studied
- comparative -er: happy-happier
- superlative -est: happy-happiest
There are two types of inflection. They are:
regular inflection = rule-based; walk-walked
irregular inflection = stored in the lexicon; come-came;goose-geese
 Evidence for distinction
- for irregular verbs, response time is linked to the frequency of the verb
- for regular verb, no such difference is found since the past tense is formed by a regular
rule
II. DERIVATION
Derivational affixes are affixes (suffixes) which change the meaning of the base in some
important ways, or change it into a different word class. They turn nouns into adjectives,
adjectives into verbs, nouns of one type into nouns to the other type, and so on. They add new
meanings to the base. They are readily followed by inflectional suffixes, and in many cases more
than one derivational suffix can be found in the some word.
For instance, let us start with the verb Establish in its rather specialized meaning of ‘grant special
state privileges to a church’. We can derive the verb disestablish, meaning ‘take away special
privileges’. Then we can form the noun disestablishment meaning ‘the act of taking away
privileges’, then the noun disestablishmentarian meaning ‘one who advocates disestablishment’,
then the noun disestablishmentarianism meaning ‘the doctrine of disestablishment’, and finally

10. antidisestablishmentarianism, meaning ‘opposite to the disestablishing the church. The latter
word is often cited as ‘the longest word in English Language’ Brockman (1971: 8)
Some derivational affixes of English
Nature of
Class(es) of word to which affix
AFFIX change in Examples
applies
meaning
Noun: non-
Negation/opposi starter
Prefix 'non-' Noun, adjective
te Adj.: non-
partisan
electric/electr
icity o
Suffix '-ity' Adjective Changes to noun
bese/ob
esity
tie/untie,
Reverses action fasten/unfast
Verb
Prefix 'un-' opposite en
Adjective
quality clear/unclear,
safe/unsafe
fame/famous,
Changes to
Suffix '-ous' Noun glamor/glam
adjective
orous
tie/retie,
Prefix 're-' Verb Repeat action
write/rewrite
Changes to print/printabl
Suffix '-able' Verb adjective; e,
means 'can drink/drinka

11. undergo ble
action of
verb'
Derivational Suffixes
Abstract noun Concrete noun makers Nouns from Nouns from adjectives
makers verbs
-age = frontage - eer = engineer -age = -ity = falsity
wastage
-dom = kingdom - er = teenager - al = -ness = kindness
refusal
-ery = slavery - ess = waitress - ant = Adjective-noun makers
inform
ant
-ful = spoonful - let = booklet -ation = -ese = Chinese
education
-hood = - ling = duckling -ee = -an = republican
brotherhood commitee
- ing = - ster = gangster -er = writer -ist= socialist
farming
- ism = -ing = -ite = Luddite
idealism clothing
- ocracy = -ment =
aristocrac equipment
y

12. - ship = -or = actor
friendship
Adverb-makers Verb makers Adjectives from Adjectives from
nouns verbs
-ly=quickly -ate= orchestrate -ed= pointed -able= drinkable
-ward(s)= onwards -en= ripen -esque= burlesque -ive= attractive
-wise= clockwise -ify= certify -ful= successful
-ize/ise= advertise -(i)al= accidental
-ic= atomic
-ish= foolish
-less= careless
-ly= friendly
-ous= ambitious
-y= hairy
Noun Suffixes
ROOT SUFFIX WORD

13. EMPLOY - Ment EMPLOY-MENT
AGREE AGREE- MENT
DISCUSS - ion, tion, sion DISCUSS-ION
PRODUCE PRODUC-TION
PERMIT PERMI-S-SION
INVITE - ation, - ition INVIT – ATION
OPPOSE OPPOS – ITION
PREFER -ence, - ance PREFER- ENCE
DISTANT DISTAN- CE
CERTAIN - ty, - ity CERTAIN-TY
SECURE SECUR- ITY
SAD - Ness SAD-NESS
ILL ILL-NESS
BUILD - Ing BUILD-ING
UNDERSTAND UNDERSTAND-ING
Nouns for People
SUFFIX ROOT WORD
- er, -or, - ress Drive DRIV-ER
Edit EDIT-OR
Wait WAIT-RESS
- ist Tour TOUR-IST
Science SCIENT-IST
- ant , - ent Assist ASSIST-ANT
Study STUD-ENT

14. -an, - ian Republic REPUBLIC-AN
Electric ELECTRIC-IAN
- ee Employ EMPLOY-EE
Examine EXAMIN-EE
Address ADDRESS-EE
Forming Adjectives
- y added to the names of Rock = ROCKY
common substances, objects (full of rocks, like rocks)
and things that are Noise = NOISY
experienced ( producing noise)
- ly Added to time words and to Day = DAILY
certain family/personal Week= WEEKLY
words Man = MANLY
- ful Added when it indicates in a Use = USEFUL
positive way the presence of Skill = SKILFUL
a quality or ability
- less Negatively suggests the Use = USELESS
absence of a quality or Meaning = MEANINGLESS
ability
- al Added to certain nouns of Addition = ADDITIONAL
Latin origin ending in – ion, Music = MUSICAL
-ic(s) and -ure Ethics = ETHICAL
Nature = NATURAL
Words can often be divided into morphemes. Words can have prefixes, infixes, suffixes, show
inflectional or derivational morphology, and much more...

15. 'Morphology is the study of the rules governing the formation of words.'
B. OTHER WORD FORMATION
1-Compounding
A compound word contains at least two bases which are both words ,or at any rate , root
morphemes.
examples :-
n+n))(Tea) +( pot ) => teapot
Hair) + (dress) + er => hairdresser(n+v)
Blue) + (bird) => bluebird (a+n)
Over) + (lord) => overlord (pre+n)
2-Conversion
Conversion is a process that assigns an already existing word to a new syntactic category.
Examples :-
=>V derived from n
e.g button (the shirt)
=>N derived from v
(a long) walk
=>V derived from A
Open (a door)
3-Clipping

16. Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more syllables. It is
especially popular among students.
Examples:-
Prof => for professor
Poli – sci => for political science
Zoo for => zoological garden
4-Blends
Blends are words that created from non-morhpemic parts of two already existing items.
A blend is usually formed from the first part of one word and the the final part of the second one.
Examples:-
brunch =>from breakfast and lunch
Smog => from smoke and fog.
Spam => from spiced and ham.
5-Internal change
Internal change is a process that substitutes' one non-morphemic segment for another .
Examples:-
sing(present) =>sang(past)
Sink(present) =>sank(past)
Foot (singular) => feet(plural)
Goose(singular) => geese(plural)

17. 6-Suppletion
Suppletion is a morphological process whereby a root morpheme is replaced by a phonologically
unrelated form in order to indicate a grammatical contrast.
Examples:-
have => had
Go => went
good=> better
7. Acronym
They are formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.
They are usually pronounced as single words (e.g. NATO, PIN, etc.) Or as a set of letters (e.g.
CD, VIP, etc.)
8. Back Formation
A word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to a word of a different type (usually a verb)
through widespread use.
• to donate from donation
• to opt from option
• Other examples: pronunciate (< pronunciation), resurrect (< resurrection),
enthuse (< enthusiasm),
9. Borrowing
Taking over words from other languages.
• Examples from Italian
• pasta

18. • piano
10. Coinage
Coinage is the invention of totally new terms. Often a brand name becomes the name for the
item or process associated with the brand name
• Examples:
– hoover
– Kleenex
– Xerox
– Kodak
References
Kusumawardhani, Ratna., Prabowo., Fani, Entika. 2008. A Handbook of Lexical Studies 1.
Semarang: IKIP PGRI SMG press

19. Ardini, Sukma Nur. 2008. English Morphology. Semarang: IKIP PGRI SMG Press