- •8. Morphemic structure of words
- •Learn definitions of the following terms:
- •Problems to discuss:
- •Identify the lexical meaning of morphemes in the following words:
- •State the morphemes the differential meaning of which helps to distinguish between words in the given list.
- •Identify the following words in accordance with their derivational structure: a) suffixal derivatives; b) prefixal derivatives.
- •State in the given list of words derivational bases that coincide with morphological stems of different degree of complexity: a) simple stems; b) derived stems; c) compound stems.
- •Derivation
- •Learn definitions of the following terms:
- •Problems to discuss
- •Exercises
- •In the following examples the italicized words are formed from the same root by means of different affixes. Translate these derivatives into Russian and explain the difference in meaning.
- •Types of forming words. Affixation
- •Learn definitions of the following terms:
- •Point to discuss:
- •Exercises:
- •State the type and the way of forming words.
- •Identify the type of forming words.
- •Classify cases of shortening into the following groups: 1) initial shortenings; 2) medial shortening; 3) final shortening; 4) initial and final shortenings.
- •Sort out the given acronyms according to their pronunciation: 1) those that are read as ordinary English words; 2) those with the alphabetic reading.
- •In the given sentences identify the words formed by means of back-formation.
- •Define and write down the derivational base of the given nouns into the first column. Classify the derivational suffixes according to the lexico-grammatical character of the base they are added to.
- •Form appropriate words from the words in brackets by means of attaching suitable suffixes to them. Analyze the valency of the affixes in terms of the bases they are attached to.
Identify the lexical meaning of morphemes in the following words:
Model: monthly
The lexical meaning of the root-morpheme month- is ‘a period of 30-31 days’. The lexical meaning of the affixational morpheme –ly is ‘frequency’.
Darkness, briefly, unbalance, homeless, changeable, discomfort, betrayal, pre-war, friendship, eyelet, kitchenette, thoughtful.
State the morphemes the differential meaning of which helps to distinguish between words in the given list.
Model: bookcase, bookshelf, bookstall, bookshop
The morphemes –case, -shelf, -stall and –shop possess the differential meaning as each of them may serve to distinguish the word it forms from the other words in the given list.
baseline, basement, base-plate, base-weight;
single-minded, narrow-minded, simple-minded, broad-minded;
blueberry, gooseberry, strawberry, cranberry;
pen-friend, pen-holder, pen-case, pen-stocker
Classify the following words according to the part-of-speech meaning of their affixational morphemes.
Model: darkless
The affix –less indicates that the derived word is an adjective
Curious, handsome, revolution, breakage, eatable, neighbourhood, obligatory, weaken, sympathy, befriend, extremely, inflectional, usage, productive, arrival, actress, editor, eastward, identify, ridiculous, suitability, analyze.
Analyze the following words according to their morphemic types. Identify the subtypes of polymorphic words.
Model: book-keeper
The word book-keeper is polymorphic, polyradical, contains two roots and one affixational morpheme.
Ladybird, real, cat, moonlight, fighter, childhood, doorbell, office, bloody, breathless, carefree, central, disobey, coach, goodness, gamekeeper, unanswerable, ex-wife, laughter-filled, black, historian.
Classify the words in accordance with the type of word-segmentability they refer to: 1) complete segmentability; 2) conditional segmentability; 3) defective segmentability.
Remain, fraction, shorten, nameless, pretend, assist, lifeless, mirror, friendliness, proceed, retain, carefulness, receive, stressful, strawberry, hostage, overweight, dismiss, pocket, spacious, detail, manic, effectiveness, discuss.
Give other examples of the words of conditional segmentability.
Model: retain
The word retain can be conditionally segmented into two morphemes re- and -tain which occur in number of other words, for example, re-cieve, re-lax, con-tain, de-tain.
Receive, pretend, persist, attain, proceed.
In the case of defective segmentability state the denotational meaning of affixational morphemes.
Model: fraction
The denotational meaning of the affix –tion is ‘the result of the action’
Tablet, athlete, raspberry, manic, hostage, pioneer, budget.
Analyze the following words using the morphemic analysis.
Model: dishonestly
The morphemic analysis of the word is based on the application of the affixational principle and includes the following stages: 1) dishonest- (IC) + -ly (commonly, slowly) (IC/UC); 2) dis- (disable, discrete) (IC/UC) + -honest (IC/UC). The word consist of 3 UCs.
Unforgettable, injustice, disobedience, spotlessness, beautifulness, independence, unladylike, disarmament.