MORPHOLOGY: Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes and Infixes

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MORPHOLOGYRoots, Prefixes, Suffixes and Infixes

• by Don L. F. Nilsen
• and Alleen Pace Nilsen

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Michael Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm

• Smith and Wilhelm have three rules to determine
  what terms (metalanguage) to teach in a grammar
  class
• The term is so commonly used that teachers,
  texts, and tests presume that students know it.
• The term is essential to being able to explain an
  important issue of style or correctness.
• The term becomes essential to the work of a class
  (such as ENG 506).
• (Smith Wilhelm 13-14)

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Parts of Speech Traditional Definitions

• A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing.
• A verb expresses action or state of being.
• An adjective describes or modifies a noun.
• An adverb modifies verbs, adjectives, and other
  adverbs.

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• A pronoun takes the place of a noun.
• A preposition shows the relationship of a noun or
  pronoun to some other word in the sentence.
• A conjunction joins words or groups of words.
• An interjection shows excitement or emotion.
• (Smith Wilhelm 11)

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Smith Wilhelms Parts of Speech to Teach
Content Classes Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Content or Grammatical? You Decide Pronouns Grammatical Classes Prepositions Conjunctions Interjections (Smith Wilhelm 15)
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Word Choice Smith Wilhelm find these Common
Confusions in Student Papers
Aggravate-annoy Amount-number Can-may Collective-collected Conscience- conscientious-conscious Criterion-criterions- criteria Definitely-defiantly Disinterested- uninterested Eligible-legible Enumerate-remunerate Etc. (not ect.) et cetera Fewer-less Good-well I-me-myself Illegible-ineligible Imply-infer In-into Incredible-incredulous Lay-lie Media-medium Past-passed Raise-rise Set-sit That-which Use-utilize Woman-women Your-youre BAD WORD-BREAKING A lot-a lot Any body-anybody Every day-everyday (Smith Wilhelm 150-169)
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Semantic vs. Structural Definitions of Parts of
Speech

• Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
• Did gire and gimble in the wabe.
• All mimsy were the borogroves,
• And the mome wraths outgrabe.

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CONTENT WORDS VS. FUNCTION WORDS

• You may have been told that there are eight Parts
  of Speech in English.
• You may have been told that their names are
  Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns,
  Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives.

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• What your teachers told you is not a lie, but it
  is very much an oversimplification.
• These Part-of-Speech Categories need to be
  divided into two very different types of Parts of
  Speech.
• The Content Words carry real-world meaning.
• The Function words carry only grammatical meaning.

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• The Content Words are Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives
  and Adverbs.
• The Function Words are Articles, Auxiliary Verbs
  and Expletives.
• The Pronouns belong to neither of these
  categories. Pronouns can stand in the place of
  Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositional Phrases, or
  even Sentences.

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• Since Content Words carry real-world meaning
• Content words can be stressed.
• Content words cannot be easily figured out if
  they are deleted.
• Content words can be inflected.
• Content words more readily enter into compounds.
• Content words are an open set new ones enter our
  language daily.

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• Pronouns meet some of these criteria but not
  others. They carry some real-world meaning, but
  not as much as the words they replace.
• They can sometimes be stressed.
• They can be figured out if deleted.
• They can be inflected.
• They dont enter into compounding.
• They are a closed set.

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CATEGORIES VS. FUNCTIONS

• Noun is a category. Subject is a function.
• A Noun or a Pronoun can function as a Subject, a
  Subject Complement, a Direct Object, an Indirect
  Object, an Object Complement or an Object of a
  Preposition.
• Pronouns functioning as S or SC are in subject
  form those functioning as DO, IO, OC, or OP are
  in object form.

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• A Verb functions as a Predicate.
• An Adjective or an Adverb functions as a
  Modifier.
• An Adjective answers which, what kind of, or
  how many and modifies a Noun.
• An Adverb answers how, when, where or how
  much and modifies a Verb, an Adjective, an
  Adverb or a Sentence.

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• Function Words have only grammatical meaning.
• Prepositions relate Nouns to other Nouns (fourth
  of July).
• Conjunctions relate Sentences to other Sentences.
  
• Articles mark Nouns.
• Auxiliaries mark Verbs.
• Expletives mark the place of the Subject so that
  the Subject can be postponed.

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OLD AND NEW INFORMATION

• The Subject of a sentence gives Old Information.
  It provides the subject for the people to talk
  about.
• The Predicate of a sentence gives New
  Information. It provides new and insightful
  information about the Subject.

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• Subject and Predicate are important not only to
  Linguists, but also to Rhetoricians,
  Psychologists, Logicians, etc., but different
  names are used in different fields
• Subject vs. Predicate
• Topic vs. Comment
• Old Information vs. New Information
• Theme vs. Rheme
• Presupposition vs. Assertion

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Contrast the following

• Bound vs. Free Morphemes
• Stem vs. Affix
• Prefix vs. Suffix vs. Infix
• Derivational vs. Inflectional
• Content vs. Functional Morphemes

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Analyze the following word

• antidisestablishmentarianism
• STEM stable or establish
• Suffixes -ment, -arian, -ism
• Prefixes dis-, anti-

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NOUNS

• PLURAL cats, dogs, horses, deer, data, mice,
  alumni
• POSSESSIVE dogs, its
• PLURAL POSSESSIVE dogs
• NOTE English used to have four cases
  Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative

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VERBS

• THIRD PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT INDICATIVE goes
• PAST TENSE buzzed, walked, heated, sang
• PAST PARTICIPLE driven, hit, liked
• PRESENT PARTICIPLE driving
• NOTE English used to have two more forms
  driveth, drivest

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SUPPLETIVE VERBS

• A suppletive form is one which comes from two
  different paradigms. These must be
  high-frequency words, or they will become
  regularized through common use.
• Go-went is a suppletive verb, as is is-be.
  Go comes from the go paradigm, while went
  comes from the wend paradigm.

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ADJECTIVES

• COMPARATIVE higher, more beautiful, more
  friendly
• SUPERLATIVE highest, most beautiful, most
  friendly
• NOTE Old English Adjectives used to have four
  cases (Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc), agreed with nouns,
  and came after nouns

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ADVERBS

• COMPARATIVE faster, more imaginatively
• SUPERLATIVE fastest, most imaginatively
• (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 98-101)
• Adverbs usually end in ly, however there are
• FLAT ADVERBS fast, first
• AND LY ADJECTIVES friendly

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PERSONAL PRONOUNS

• Sing Nom Obj Pos Substantive
  Reflexive
• 1st I me my mine
  myself
• 2nd you you your yours
  yourself
• 3rd he him his his
  himself
• she her her hers
  herself
• it it its
  its itself
• Plural
• 1st we us our ours
  ourselves
• 2nd you you your yours
  yourselves
• 3rd they them their theirs
  themselves

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RELATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS

• RELATIVE INTERROGATIVE
• when when
• where where
• why why
• how how
• which which
• what what
• that

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DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

• singular plural
• close this these
• far that those

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Contrast these sentences

• When did she arrive? (Int Pro)
• I know when she arrived. (Rel Pro)
• This is the pen that you borrowed. (Rel Pro)
• Please give me that pen. (Dem Pro)
• I know that you wanted to do well. (SC)

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INDEFINITE PRONOUNS (GO WITH A SINGULAR VERB)

• THING PLACE TIME BODY
• ANY anything anywhere ever anybody
  
• NO nothing nowhere never nobody
• SOME- something somewhere sometimes somebody
• EVERY- everything everywhere always everybody

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ARCHAIC FORMSSHAKESPEARE THE BIBLE

• NOMINATIVE POSSESSIVE ACCUSATIVE
• SINGULARS thou (Nom), thy, thine (Gen),
  thee (Acc)
• PLURALS you, ye
• DUALS wit, uncer, unc, git, incer, inc (NOTE
  In Old English, but not in Middle English nor in
  Modern English

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!MORPHOLOGICAL HUMOR
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UGLIFICATION

• I never heard of Uglification, Alice ventured
  to say. What is it? The Gryphon lifted up
  both its paws in surprise. never heard of
  uglifying! it exclaimed. You know what to
  beautify is, I suppose? Yes, said Alice
  doubtfully it meansto makeanything-prettier.
  Well, then, the Gryphon went on, if you dont
  know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.
• (Carroll 128-129)

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• The term uglification is part of a longer quote
  in which Alice is being told about the education
  system in Wonderland. Students in Wonderland
  study Reeling, Writhing, Uglification and
  Derision.
• They call their teacher Tortoise because he
  taught us.
• Lessons get shorter each day. Thats why theyre
  called lessens.
• In Wonderland, Latin and Greek becomes
  Laughing and Grief, and drawing, sketching and
  painting in oils becomes Drawling, Stretching,
  and Fainting in Coils.
• (Carroll 128-129)

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CLICK AND CLACKTHE TAPPET BROTHERS

• On National Public Radios Cartalk, Click and
  Clack are playing with Morphology in their list
  of credits
• Copyeditor Adeline Moore
• Accounts Payable Ineeda Czech
• Pollution Control Maury Missions
• Purchasing Lois Bidder
• Statistician Marge Innovera
• Russian Chauffeur Picov Andropov
• Legal Firm Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe.
• (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 72)

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!BILINGUAL MORPHOLOGICAL WORD PLAY

• Un petit dun petit
• Sétonne aux Halles
• This makes no sense in French, but it makes
  perfect sense in English
• Humpty Dumpty
• Sat on a wall
• (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 72)

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!!WATERGATE

• The Watergate Hotel is where the break-in of the
  National Democratic headquarters occurred.
• Todays dictionaries give more room to the
  metonymous meaning of Watergate than to the
  literal meaning of a gate controlling the flow
  of water.
• Gate has now become a suffix meaning scandal
  as in Irangate, Contragate, Iraqgate, Pearlygate,
  Rubbergate, Murphygate, Gennifergate, Nannygate,
  Monicagate, ad infinitum.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 180)

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!!!NEW DEFINITIONS

• Artery The study of painting
• Bacteria The back door of a cafeteria
• Barium What doctors do when patients die.
• Nilsen Nilsen 177)

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• References
• Carroll, Lewis. Alices Adventures in Wonderland.
  New York, NY Random House, 1960.
• Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa.
  Language Readings in Language and Culture, 6th
  Edition. New York, NY St. Martins Press, 1998.
• Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams.
  Morphology The Words of Language. An
  Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston,
  MA Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, 71-114.
• Gleason, H. A. Jr. The Identification of
  Morphemes (Clark, 144-153).
• Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen.
  Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor.
  Westport, CT Greenwood, 2000.
• Smith, Michael W., and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm.
  Getting It Right Fresh Approaches to Teaching
  Grammar, Usage and Correctness. New York, NY
  Scholastic, 2007.