Chapter 3 Morphology.doc

Chapter 3 Morphology1、What is a morpheme? Dissect the following words into morphemes:The smallest unit of meaning.de-scrip-tion under-develop-edphoto-synthe-ticana-tomyradia-tiongeo-graph-yphil-harmon-icde-frost-edre-fresh-mentde-mobil-iz-edcon-duct-ingsup-press-ioncircum-spectdia-loguede-form-edcom-bina-tion2、Describe with examples the various types of morpheme used in English Free morpheme e.g. mate, sun, fame, likeBound morpheme: roots and affixesRoots e.g. fin-, spect-, -cideAffixes: inflectional and derivationalDerivational: prefix and suffixInflectional affixes:-ing, -ed, -(e)sPrefixes: un-, dis-, de, en-Suffixes:-ly, -less, -tion, -ize3、What are the main inflectional affixes in English? What grammatical meaning do they convey?-(e)s plural number-(e)s third-person、 singular、 present tense-(e)d past tense-ing progressive aspect-er comparative degree-est superlative degree-s possessive case4、Try to find out the meaning of the following roots in English and give two or three words that contain each of them.1、 Hydro water e.g. hydraulic, dehydrate2、 Chron time e.g. chronological, chronicle3、 Demo people e.g. democracy, demography4、 Dur lasting e.g. during, durable5、 Agr farming e.g. agriculture, agrarian6、 Kilo one thousand e.g. kilometer, kilogram7、 Nym name e.g. pseudonym, antonym8、 Ped foot e.g. centipede, impede9、 Rupt breaking e.g. rupture, abrupt10、 Gress movement e.g. progress, digress11、 Poly various e.g. polygon, polyglot12、 Syn identical e.g. synchronic, sympathy5、State the morphological rules that govern the use of the given derivational affixes.Example: -er This suffix is added to a verb to form a noun indicating the agent that carries out the action, e.g. write writer 1、-antsuffix added to a verb to form a noun indicating the agent e.g. assistant2、-mentsuffix added to a verb to form its corresponding noun e.g. development3、sub-Prefix added to an adjective to form another adjective to indicate a lesser degree e.g. substandard4、-enSuffix added to an adjective to form a verb to indicate the acquisition of the quality denoted by the adjective e.g. darken5、en-Prefix added to an adjective to form a verb to indicate the acquisition of the quality denoted by the adjective e. g. enrich6、-eeSuffix added to a verb to form a noun indicating the recipient of the action denoted by the verb e.g. employee7、-fulSuffix added to a noun to form an adjective indicating the quality denoted by the noun e.g. plentiful8、-someSuffix added to a noun to form an adjective indicating the quality denoted by the noun e.g. quarrelsome9、-wiseSuffix added to a noun to form an adverb meaning “with regard to the area indicating by the noun” e.g. careerwise10、un-Prefix added to an adjective to indicate the absence of the quality indicated by the adjective e.g. unemployed6、What are the main features of the English compounds?1、 Orthographically a compound can be written as one word, two separate words with or without a hyphen in between. E.g. armchair, follow-up.2、 Syntactically, the part of speech of a compound is determined by the last element.E.g. icy-cold, greenhouse3、 Semantically, the meaning of a compound is idiomatic, not calculable from the meanings of all its components.e.g. a redcoat is not a coat at all, and neither a hotdog a dog.4、 Phonetically, the word stress of a compound usually falls on the first element, while the second element receives secondary stress. e.g The same form “running dog” can possibly be pronounced in two differently ways. One way to pronounce it is to give the primary stress to the noun “dog, so that the fall occurs on this word and the ing form receives secondary stress. running dog. Thus pronounced, the form means “a dog that is running,” i.e. the action indicated by the ing form is carried out by the noun that follows it. The other way is to put the primary stress on the first element “running” so that the fall of the intonation occurs on the syllable “run” and the word “dog” receive secondary stress: running dog. In this case, “running dog” is actually a compound noun and it does not means a dog that is running, but metaphorically it refers to a person who follows another person obediently in his wrong doings.7、Explain the formation and meaning of the following compounds: Example: nightcap, noun formed by combining two nouns, meaning a drink one takes before going to bed1、cats paw -noun formed by combining two nouns, meaning a person used by another as a cool2、tablecloth - noun formed by combining two nouns, meaning a piece of cloth spread on a table to cover it3、green-eyed -adjective formed by combining an adjective an an ed from, meaning jealous4、green horn -noun formed by combining an adjective and a noun, meaning a person not experienced for a job or occupation5、update -verb formed by combining an adverb and a verb, meaning to bring something up to date6、jet lag -noun formed by combining two nouns, meaning the feeling of fatigue caused by traveling in a jet plane crossing different time zones7、bootleg - verb (also noun) formed by combining two nouns, meaning “ to take, carry, or sell illicit goods”8、built-in - adjective formed by combining a past participle with a preposition, meaning “ made as an integral part”9、cockpit - noun formed by joining two nouns, meaning the compartment in an aircraft where the pilot or the crew sit10、good-for-nothing adjective formed by joining an adjective, a preposition, and a pronoun, meaning irresponsible or worthless8. Explain the following terms, using one or two examples for illustration1) MorphologyMorphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. Morphology is divided into two sub-branches, inflectional morphology and lexical or derivation morphology.2) MorphemeMorpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language. .e.g. re- is not a word, but it does carry meaning, thus re s a morpheme3) Free morphemeFree morphemes are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with other morphemes.e.g. help, table, able4) Bound morphemeBound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word. E.g. er, -en, dis- bio-, -less, -sym.5) Root A root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it bears clear, definite meaning; it must be combined with another root or an affix to form a word. e.g. liter- in literal, and literature.6） AffixAffixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional affixes (inflectional morphemes) ing,-ed manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree, and case. Derivational affixes (derivational morphemes) are added to an existing form to create a word. E.g. in-, -er. The existing form to which a derivational affix can be added is called a stem.According to its position in the new word, affixes are divided into two kinds: prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word, it modify the meaning of stem, but usually do not change the part of speech of the original word, except be-, and en(m)-. Suffixes are added to the end of stems; they modify the meaning of the original word and in many cases change its part of speech. e.g. large, enlarge, rich, enrich.7） DerivationDerivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word. Derivation can be viewed as the addition of affixes to stems to form new words.8） CompoundingCompounding is another popular and important way of forming new words in English. Compounding can be viewed as the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.N+N handbook, sunshineA+N highway, easychairV+N driveway9. What are the two sub-branches of morphology? What does each of tem study?Morphology is divided into two sub-branches; inflectional morphology and lexical or derivational morphology. The former studies the inflections and the latter the study of word-formation.10. How do you distinguish a compound noun from a noun phrase?There are various ways to