Morphology. Morphological Units: Word-form, Morpheme. English Morphemics

1. Morphology. Morphological Units: Word-form, Morpheme. English Morphemics.

1. a) Word-form. Morpheme. Morphemics as a Branch of
Grammar.
b) Types of Morphemes: Positional and Functional
Classifications.
c) Morpheme in Descriptive Linguistics. Environment and
Distribution. Distributional classification.
2. Grammatical Category. Grammatical Oppositions.
3. Types of Word-form Derivation. Structural Types of
Languages.

2. 1(a)

Word-form. Morpheme.
Word-form – the expression side of the word, either
phonological or orthographical.
Grammatical word – a complete two-sided sign with specified
grammatical content as well as lexical content and
orthographical form.
Lexeme – a set of grammatical words associated with the same
lexical meaning.
Morphemics – a branch of Grammar that studies, classifies and
describes morphemes and their functions.

3. 1 b)

Types of Morphemes: Positional and
Functional Classifications.
Positional Classification:
- roots
- affixes
- prefixes
- suffixes
- inflections (grammatical endings)
Functional Classification:
- derivative
- inflectional

4. 1c) Environment and Distribution

Environment of a morpheme- adjoining elements in
the text.
Distribution – environment in generalised terms of
classes or categories.
Types of Morphemic Distribution:
contrastive;
non-contrastive;
complementary.
-

5. Distributional Classification of Morphemes

Degree of self-dependence: bound / free
Formal presentation: covert / overt
Segmental relation: segmental / supra-segmental
Grammatical alternation: additive / replacive
Linear characteristic: continuous / discontinuous

6. 2) Grammatical Category

Grammatical category – a system of expressing a
generalized grammatical meaning by means of
paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms.
Paradigm – an ordered set of grammatical forms
expressing a categorial function.

7. Opposition

Opposition - a generalized correlation of lingual forms
by means of which a certain function is expressed.
Types of oppositions:
- qualitative
- privative
- gradual
- equipollent
- quantitative
- binary
- ternary
- quaternary, etc.
The most important type: binary privative
opposition

8. Oppositional Reduction

Neutralization
- usu – weak member is used instead of the strong
one;
- stylistically neutral.
Transposition
- usu – strong member is used instead of the weak
one;
- stylistically coloured.

9. Classification of Grammatical Categories

Referent relation: immanent (declensional) /
reflective (conjugational)
e.g. number in nouns / number in verbs
Changeability: constant / variable
e.g. gender / number in nouns

10. 3) Types of Word-form Derivation

Synthetic Types
- affixation;
- grammatical inflection;
- root combination;
- sound alternations.
Analytical Types
Suppletive Formations

11. Morphological Classification of Languages

Flective languages
- mainly synthetic;
- mainly analytical.
Agglutinative languages
Isolating languages
Incorporating languages