Summary of Material "Morphology"

MORPHOLOGY

Morphology is a part of Linguistics. It is a study of words. There are some definitions of morphology based on some experts as follows :

Geert Booij (2005) says : “Morphology, the study of the internal structure of words, deals with the forms of lexemes (inflection), and with the ways in which lexemes are formed (word-formation). New words are made on the basis of patterns of form-meaning correspondence between existing words. Paradigmatic relationships between words are therefore essential, and morphology cannot be conceived of as ‘the syntax of morphemes’ or ‘syntax below the word level’.”

John Lions (1968) says : “….morphology deals with the internal structure of words…”

L. Bloomfield (1973) says : “By the morphology of a language we mean the constructions in which bound forms appear among the constituents.”

H.A. Gleason (1970) says : “….morphology is the description of the more intimate combinations of morphemes, roughly what are familiarly called ‘words’….”

Charles F. Hockett (1958 : 177) says: “Morphology includes the stock or segmental morpheme and the ways in which words are built out of them”.

From the definitions above we can conclude that Morphology is a branch of Linguistics that studies the word form, the forming process of word and also its changing in forms which creates the difference in function and meaning. The object of Morphology is called Morpheme, the object of Phonology is Sound, the object of Phonemics is Phoneme, and the object of Syntax is Sentence.

1.    Morpheme

There are some definitions of Morpheme based on experts :

L. Bloomfield says in his book, ”Linguistics form which bears no partial phonetic – semantics resemblance to any other form is a simple form morpheme.” 

Charles F. Hockett says that “Morphemes are the smallest individually meaningful elements in the utterances of a language.”

Then, Ramlan (1980:11) says, “Morpheme adalah bentuk yang paling kecil yang tidak mempunyai bentuk lain sebagai unsurnya.” (Morpheme is the smallest element which cannot be divided into any other forms).

So we can conclude that Morpheme is the smallest element that cannot be divided into several elements and has a meaning. All the based form is Morpheme. In Linguistics we can find that Morpheme is classified into two: Free Morpheme and Bound Morpheme.
Free Morpheme is a morpheme that can stand alone (independent) without bound morpheme. For example: run, read, far, etc. While Bound Morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand alone (dependent) but have to attach to free morpheme. For example: Affixation: Prefix, Suffix, and Infix.

In English, there are 10 prefixes : in-(adj), un- (adj), un-(verb), dis-(verb), dis- (noun), dis-(adj), dis-(verb),re- (verb), ex-(noun), in- (noun). For example, the word discount in English has a new meaning as “reduction in price” after being attached together. Discount derives from the combination of prefix /dis-/ and verb /count/. While in Gayonese the are 7 prefixes : /mu-/, /pe-/, /be-/, /ke-/, /te-/, /i-/, and /se-/. For example, the word munyara derives from the combination of prefix /mu-/ and /sara/ which means “unite” in English and “menyatu” in Bahasa.

2.    Word

Based on the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995:1374), Word is a sound or group of sounds that expresses a meaning and forms an independent unite of a language. From the statement above, we can conclude that word is the smallest free element or we can also say that every free element is a word.

There are some criterions that can be used to identify a word :

1. A word might consists of one free morpheme.
For example : sick, sleep, fall, etc. These are called simple words.

2. A word might consists of one free morpheme and minimum one bound morpheme.
For example: unlock, unreal, dismiss, etc. These are called complex words.

3. A word might consists of one bound morpheme or more with one more bound morpheme with it. From example : unbreakable, unfaithfully, etc. These are also called complex words.

4. A word might consists of one free morpheme and one free morpheme or one bound morpheme.
For example in Bahasa we find the word: matahari, hulubalang, syahbandar. These are called compound word.

So, we can conclude that each basic form is morpheme but not every morpheme can be classified as word and not all morphemes can be made into basic form. 

From the explanation given above, it is clear that morphology is the study of word forming which also distinguish a word from morpheme. For example the word /recheck/ has two morphemes : /re-/ which is bound morpheme and check which is free morpheme. /Re-/ is dependent morpheme and can not stand alone if it is combined with other independent morpheme. So we can conclude that morphological process is the process of morphological which includes the Affixation (Prefixation, Suffixation, Infixation ) Circumfixation, Modification and Reduplication. A morphological process is a means of changing a stem to adjust its meaning to fit its syntactic and communicational context.

Most languages that are agglutinative in any way use suffixation. Some of these languages also use prefixation and infixation. Very few languages use only prefixation, and none employ only infixation or any of the other types of morphological processes listed below. Affixation is the morphological process whereby an affix is attached to a root or stem.
Affixation is divided into three, as follows :

1. Prefixation

Prefixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme is attached to the front of a root or stem. The kind of affix involved in this process is called a prefix.

Example (English)

The prefix un- attaches to the front of the stem selfish to form the word unselfish.

• /un-/ + / selfish/ → unselfish

2. Suffixation

Suffixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme is attached to the end of a stem. The kind of affix involved in this process is called a suffix.

Example (English)

The past tense suffix -ed attaches to the end of the stem walk to form the past tense verb walked.

• /walk/ + /-ed/ → walked

3. Infixation

Infixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme attaches within a root or stem. The kind of affix involved in this process is called an infix.

Example: Philippines (Tagalog)

The focus marker -um- is a infix which is added after the first consonant of the root.

• bili: root ‘buy’

• bumili: word ‘bought’


http://repository.usu.ac.id/bitstream/123456789/25395/3/Chapter%20II.pdf
http://www.academia.edu/7095932/The_Grammar_of_Words_-_Geert_Booij_-_Oxford_Textbooks_in_Linguistics