Structural types of words and Principles of morphemic analysis

 
 
 
 

Structural types  of words. 
 

• The morphological  analysis of word-structure on the morphemic  level aims at splitting the word into  its constituent morphemes - the basic  units at this level of analysis -  and at determining their number and types. 

 
 
 
 

The four  types: 

• root words, 
• derived words,
• compound,
• shortenings

   represent the main structural types of Modern English words, and conversion, derivation and composition are the most productive ways of word building. 

 
 
 
 

 According to the number of morphemes words can be classified into: 

• monomorphic (root-words) - consist of only one root-morpheme, e.g. small, dog, make, give, etc.
• Polymorphic

 
 
 
 

    All polymorphic word fall into two subgroups according to the number of root-morphemes they have :  

• derived  words (composed of one root-morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes, e.g. acceptable, outdo, disagreeable, etc. )

 

• compound  words (are those which contain at least two root-morphemes, the number of derivational morphemes being insignificant. There can be both root- and derivational morphemes in compounds as in pen-holder, light-mindedness, or only root-morphemes as in lamp-shade, eye-ball, etc.)

 
 
 
 

   These structural types are not of equal importance. The clue to the correct understanding of their comparative value lies in a careful consideration of:  

• the importance of  each type in the existing wordstock, and 
• their frequency value in actual speech. Frequency is by far the most important factor.

 
 
 
 
 

    According  to the available word counts made in  different parts of speech, we find that:  

• derived  words numerically constitute the largest class of words in the existing wordstock;
• derived nouns comprise approximately 67% of the total number,
• adjectives about 86%, whereas compound nouns make about 15% and adjectives about 4%.
• Root words come to 18% in nouns, i.e. a trifle more than the number of compound words;
• adjectives root words come to approximately 12%.

 
 
 
 
 

• But we cannot  fail to perceive that root-words occupy  a predominant place. Thus it is the  root-words that constitute the foundation and  the backbone of the vocabulary and that  are of paramount importance in speech.  It should also be mentioned that root  words are characterized by a high degree  of collocability and a complex variety  of meanings in contrast with words of  other structural types whose semantic structures  are much poorer. Root- words also serve  as parent forms for all types of  derived and compound words.

 
 
 
 

Principles of  morphemic analysis. 

• The segmentation  of words is generally carried out according  to the method of Immediate and Ultimate  Constituents. This method is based on  the binary principle. 
• At each stage these two components are referred to as the Immediate Constituents.
• Each Immediate Constituent at the next stage of analysis is in turn broken into smaller meaningful elements.
• The analysis is completed when we arrive at constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes. These are referred to Ultimate Constituents.

 
 
 
 

• A synchronic morphological analysis is most effectively accomplished by the procedure known as the analysis into Immediate Constituents. ICs are the two meaningful parts forming a large linguistic unity.

 

• This method is  based on the fact that a word characterized  by morphological divisibility is involved in  certain structural correlations.

 
 
 
 

As we break the word  we obtain at any level only ICs one  of which is the stem of the given  word. All the time the analysis is  based on the patterns characteristic of  the English vocabulary. As a pattern showing  the interdependence of all the constituents  segregated at various stages, we obtain  the following formula:  

un+ { [ ( gent-  + -le ) + -man ] + -ly} 

Breaking a word into  its Immediate Constituents we observe in each cut the structural order of the constituents. 

1. un- / gentlemanly 

2. un- / gentleman  / - ly 

3. un- / gentle /  - man / - ly 

4. un- / gentl /  - e / - man / - ly 

A similar analysis on  the word-formation level showing not only  the morphemic constituents of the word  but also the structural pattern on which  it is built.

 
 
 
 

• The analysis of  word-structure at the morphemic level must  proceed to the stage of Ultimate Constituents.

 

    For example,  the noun friendliness is first segmented  into the ICs: 

    [frendl?-]  recurring in the adjectives friendly-looking  and friendly and [-n?s] found in a  countless number of nouns, such as unhappiness,  blackness, sameness, etc. the IC [-n?s]  is at the same time an UC of  the word, as it cannot be broken  into any smaller elements possessing both  sound-form and meaning. Any further division  of -ness would give individual speech-sounds  which denote nothing by themselves. The  IC [frendl?-] is next broken into the  ICs [-l?] and [frend-] which are both  UCs of the word.

 
 
 
 

• Morphemic analysis  under the method of Ultimate Constituents  may be carried out on the basis of  two principles: the so-called root-principle and affix principle.

 

• According to the  affix principle the splitting of the word into its constituent morphemes is based on the identification of the affix within a set of words, e.g. the identification of the suffix -er leads to the segmentation of words singer, teacher, swimmer into the derivational morpheme - er and the roots teach- , sing-, drive-.

 

• According to the  root-principle, the segmentation of the word is based on the identification of the root-morpheme in a word-cluster, for example the identification of the root-morpheme agree- in the words agreeable, agreement, disagree.

 

• As a rule,  the application of these principles is  sufficient for the morphemic segmentation of  words.