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A language's lexicon (vocabulary) comprises words and parts of words that carry different meanings. These meaningful units of language are referred to as morphemes. The study of morphemes in a language is known as Morphology. In general, Morphology is concerned with how words are created, the structure of words, and how word structure can affect meaning. One type of Morphology is lexical Morphology.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenA language's lexicon (vocabulary) comprises words and parts of words that carry different meanings. These meaningful units of language are referred to as morphemes. The study of morphemes in a language is known as Morphology. In general, Morphology is concerned with how words are created, the structure of words, and how word structure can affect meaning. One type of Morphology is lexical Morphology.
Lexical morphology is a specific type of morphology that refers to the lexemes in a language. A Lexeme is a basic unit of lexical meaning; it can be a single word or a group of words.
Lexical morphology is the study of lexemes and how they are created. The discipline is particularly interested in neologisms (newly created words from existing words), derivation, and compounding.
Derivation refers to a way of creating new words by adding affixes to the root of a word - this is also known as affixation. In case you need reminding: "affix" is a broad term used to refer to a morpheme added to the beginning or end of a root word. Affixes are known as bound morphemes, meaning they must be attached to another word as they do not make sense on their own.
The affix "ing" in the word "turning" is a bound morpheme. On its own, "ing" does not make grammatical sense, so it must be attached to a root word in order to create meaning.
If a morpheme makes sense on its own and doesn't need to be attached to anything else, it is known as a free morpheme.
There are two types of affixes: prefixes and suffixes.
Prefixes are placed at the beginning of a root word to change the word's meaning (e.g., the "re" in "reapply").
Suffixes are placed at the end of a root word to change the word's meaning (e.g., the "ful" in "hopeful").
When affixes are used to create new words with new meanings, they are referred to as derivational affixes. When they are used to create different forms of the same root word (such as to show changes in tense or plurality), they are referred to as inflectional affixes.
Fig. 1 - Impossible is an example of derivation.
For example, the prefix "im" in "impossible" creates a new word from the root word "possible." This gives it a new meaning (the opposite of "possible"), so it is a derivational prefix.
The suffix "s" in "walks" creates a different form of the same root word "walk," so is an inflectional affix.
Compounding refers to the creation of new words by combining two or more existing words together.
For example, the nouns "bed" and "room" can combine to create the compound noun "bedroom." It is important to know that compound words do not always have to be nouns. For example, there are also compound adjectives, such as "long-term, "quick-witted," and "rose-tinted."
Fig. 2 - Bedroom is an example of a compound noun.
Both derivation and compounding are significant parts of lexical morphology as they are a large source of new words in the English language. Below are some examples of derivation; including the original root words and the types of affixes added to create the derivation:
Root Word | Derivation | Type of affix added |
Write | Rewrite | Prefix |
Legal | Illegal | Prefix |
Establish | Disestablish | Prefix |
Fair | Unfair | Prefix |
Exist | Coexist | Prefix |
Treat | Treatment | Suffix |
Joy | Joyful | Suffix |
Agree | Agreeable | Suffix |
Free | Freedom | Suffix |
Condition | Conditional | Suffix |
Now here are some examples of compounding:
Green + house = Greenhouse
Mother + in + law = Mother-in-law
Motor + bike = Motorbike
Cook + book = Cookbook
Foot + ball = Football
Sky + scraper = Skyscraper
Skate + board = Skateboard
Lexical morphology looks at the structure and form of lexemes. A Lexeme can have many different inflected forms, meaning the word can be changed in order to indicate a grammatical role in a sentence, such as to show plurality or tense. For example, take the lexeme "walk." The inflected forms of this verb are:
Walked
Walking
Walks
These are all different forms of the same lexeme; walk. To create these forms, suffixes have been added to the end. Keep in mind that the noun "walker" is NOT an inflected form of "walk" - it is a separate lexeme as it is a different word class.
Lexical Morphology can also refer to the theory first put forward by Pesetsky in 1979 and later developed by Kiparsky in 19821.
It is worth mentioning that there is not only one lexical morphology theory to follow, but each theory contains the key idea that both phonology rules and morphology rules work together when building the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language.
So what is phonology, and how does it work alongside morphology?
Phonology deals with the speech sounds (known as phonemes) of a language and studies how sounds are organized in a language. It also takes into account elements such as:
Both phonology and morphology look at patterns in language and how they create meaning; phonology focuses on the sounds (phonemes) in a language, whereas morphology focuses on the formation/structure of words (morphemes) in a language. They must both combine in order to communicate, as written and spoken words correlate with one another.
Without morphological rules, we would be unable to create new meaningful words. Without phonological rules, we would be unable to comprehend the sounds that letters make, so we would therefore be unsure how to pronounce written words or spell spoken words.
The relationship between phonology and morphology (and how they affect one another) can also be understood by looking at the Level Ordering Hypothesis, which is further discussed below.
A key model to be aware of when looking at the lexical morphology process is the Level Ordering Hypothesis, originally developed by Siegel (1974).2 The hypothesis aims to show that affixation occurs in two different classes.
The different derivational affixes in English can be broken down into class 1 and class 2 affixes.
Adding a class 1 affix to a word causes a change in the phonological process (particularly the stress pattern) of a word.
Adding a class 2 affix does not change the stress pattern.
An example is as follows:
Take "parental" and "parenthood," both of which are different inflected forms of the lexeme "parent."
When affixation takes place with "parental," the suffix "al" is added to the end. By adding this suffix, the stress you place on the word changes, i.e.
Parent = stress placed on the "a"
VS
Parental = stress placed on the "e"
So, the suffix "al" is an example of class 1 affixation.
When affixation takes place with "parenthood," the suffix "hood is added to the end of the word. When this suffix is added, the stress placed on the word remains the same.
Parent = stress placed on the "a"
VS
Parenthood = stress is still placed on the "a"
This means the suffix "hood" is an example of class 2 affixation.
Another example is as follows:
Take the words "relativity" and "relativeness," both of which are different forms of the root "relative."
Relative = stress placed on "e"
VS
Relativity = stress placed on the "i"
The suffix "ity" is an example of class 1 affixation.
Relative = stress placed on "e"
VS
Relativeness = stress still placed on "e"
The suffix "ness" is an example of class 2 affixation.
Fig. 3 - Affixation is the addition of affixes to a word.
1Paul Kiparsky. Lexical Phonology and Morphology. 1982.
2Dorothy Siegel. Topics in English Morphology. 1974.
Lexical morphemes refer to any words in a language that carry meaning by themselves.
An example of lexical morphology is derivation - a way of creating new words by adding affixes to an existing root word.
There are two types of morphemes:
1. Free (make sense on their own)
2. Bound (do not make sense on their own)
Bound morphemes can be classified into:
1. Derivational (creates new word with new meaning)
2. Inflectional (creates another form of the root word)
There isn't a single set theory, but each one shares the idea that both phonology and morphology rules work together when building the lexicon of a language.
Lexicon refers to the vocabulary of a language, and morphology is the study of meaningful units of language (morphemes). Morphemes make up the lexicon of a language.
Flashcards in Lexical Morphology25
Start learningA meaningful unit of language is referred to as a what?
A morpheme
The study of morphemes is referred to as what?
Morphology
What does lexicon refer to?
A language's vocabulary
The study of lexemes is referred to as what?
Lexical morphology
What is a lexeme?
A basic unit of lexical meaning comprised of a single word or a group of words.
What does lexical morphology take into account?
The formation of existing words and the construction of neologisms
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