Rovuma University

English Teaching Course Branch Nampula - year 2

Subject: Morphology/semester II
Name: Elias Daniel Passangeze
Essay about introduction to word structure

Introduction

After discuss introduction of morphology and word in the first assignment, in this piece of
essay, which is the second one, it will be describing every aspects related to the word
structures as well as the main components of word. Knowing that spoken language is made
through is use of voice and words. It is crucial understand the formation of word in every
aspects. As all academic writing this essay will follow some goals, to bring coherent and
precise information about the topic. At the next are some objectives which will compose
this essay:

General

 To comprehend the process of word formation and word instructure.

Specific objective

 To define word structure and some elements related;

 To explain the organization of word;
 To clarify the essential questions related to the topics.

To be specific, in this essay will be used all relevant sources as long discuss about the topic.
The expectation is this work should be used with the future academic learners to clarify
their doubts about the theme mentioned early. About the organization the essay will present
cover, introduction, development, conclusion and reference.
 1. Definition of word: Words are units of language (either sequences of sounds, or
signs) that function as meaning bearers. A word is the basic meaningful unit of a language.
Words can be classified into different word classes according to their functions.

A word is the basic meaningful unit of a language. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a
word is defined as “a single unit of language that means something and can be spoken or
written”. In linguistics, a unit of meaning underlying a group of inflected word forms is
often referred to as a lexeme.

A word can be just a letter (Examples: I, a) or one that contains multiple syllables
(Examples: is, cat, about, theory, comfortable). Two or more words can be combined to
form phrases and clauses, which in turn, can be put together to form sentences. There is,
however, a particular word order and sentence structure one needs to follow to form
meaningful sentences.

1.1. Word structure

Word structure is the way words are formed from smaller units, called morphemes, and is
also known as morphology. The study of word structure can help improve spelling and
vocabulary. Here are some aspects of word structure:

Derivation: The process of creating new words, such as "blackbird" from "black"
and "bird".
Roots and Affixes: Learning the most common roots and prefixes in English can
help you recognize and understand many words without using a dictionary.
1.2. Sentence structure

In English, sentences usually follow a subject, verb, object pattern. This structure helps
readers understand who is performing the action and what the outcome is.
 Explanation

Affixes Affect the meaning of the base word, and can help identify the subject area or part of
speech.

Roots An entire "constellation" of words can be built up around a well-understood root

word.

Prefixe Many prefixes have changed in meaning and spelling over time, and most have more
s than one meaning.

In linguistics, word structure refers to the way words are formed and organized, including
their internal components and the rules governing their construction. It involves
studying morphemes, the smallest units of meaning, and how they combine to create words.

1.3. Word Classes and Word Formation

 Word class is a term used to classify specific groups in which different words can be
categorically placed.

Example:Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, prepositions, interjecti

ons and determiners are all word classes.

 Word formation is a process by which new words are formed by means of

inflections. It is done in four main ways – adding a prefix, adding a suffix, combining
words to form compound words and converting words from one word class to another.
2. Lexeme (words) definition, Etymology and examples

In linguistics, a lexeme is the fundamental unit of the lexicon (or word stock) of a language.
Also known as a lexical unit, lexical item, or lexical word. In corpus linguistics, lexemes
are commonly referred to as lemmas. A lexeme is often--but not always--an individual
word (a simple lexeme or dictionary word, as it's sometimes called). A single dictionary
word (for example, talk) may have a number of inflectional forms or grammatical variants
(in this example, talks, talked, talking).

 The lexeme: is an abstraction over one or more word types that convey the same
lexical meaning, also, Lexeme is a class of forms representing a word in different contexts.

A multiword (or composite) lexeme is a lexeme made up of more than one orthographic
word, such as a phrasal verb (e.g., speak up; pull through), an open compound (fire engine;
couch potato), or an idiom (throw in the towel; give up the ghost). The way in which a
lexeme can be used in a sentence is determined by its word class or grammatical category.

2.1. Etymology

From the Greek, "word, speech"

Examples and Observations

"A lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings
it may have or the number of words it may contain. Thus, fibrillate, rain cats and dogs, and
come in are all lexemes, as are elephant, jog, cholesterol, happiness, put up with, face the
music, and hundreds of thousands of other meaningful items in English. The headwords in
a dictionary are all lexemes."

2.2. Specifications of Lexemes

"[A] lexeme is a linguistic item defined by the following specifications, which make up
what is called the lexical entry for this item:

• Its sound form and its spelling (for languages with a written standard);

• The grammatical category of the lexeme (noun, intransitive verb, adjective, etc.);

• Its inherent grammatical properties (for some languages, e.g. gender);

• The set of grammatical forms it may take, in particular, irregular forms;

• Its lexical meaning.

• "These specifications apply to both simple and composite lexemes."

2.3. The Meanings of Lexemes

"Definitions are an attempt to characterize the 'meaning' or sense of a lexeme and to

distinguish the meaning of the lexeme concerned from the meanings of other lexemes in the
same semantic field, for example, the 'elephant' from other large mammals. There is a sense
in which a definition characterizes the 'potential' meaning of a lexeme; the meaning only
becomes precise as it is actualized in a context.

Since the division of the meaning of a lexeme into senses is based on the variation of
meaning perceived in different contexts, a tension exists in lexicography between the
recognition of separate senses and the potentiality of meaning found in definitions.

This may well account in large part for the divergence between similar-sized dictionaries
in the number of senses recorded and in consequent differences of definition."

2.4. Invariable and Variable Lexemes

"In many cases, it makes no difference whether we take a syntactic or a lexical perspective.
Lexemes such as the and and are invariable, i.e., there is only one word corresponding to
each.

Also invariable are lexemes like efficiently: although more efficiently is in some respects
like harder, it is not a single word, but a sequence of two, and hence efficiently and more
efficiently are not forms of a single lexeme.

Variable lexemes, by contrast, are those which have two or more forms. Where we need to
make clear that we are considering an item as a lexeme, not a word, we will represent it in
bold italics.

Hard, for example, represents the lexeme which has hard and harder--and also hardest- -as
its forms. Similarly are and is, along with be, been, being, etc., are forms of the lexeme be. .
. . A variable lexeme is thus a word-sized lexical item considered in abstraction from
appears."
 3. Word form

Word-form: is a form of word which is influenced by grammatical function. Word

form represents how you say a word when you read it out loud. In word form, 642 is “six
hundred forty-two.” 214 is “two hundred fourteen.” Write Numbers in Word Form. You
can also write numbers with words

Word form in English refers to parts of speech and their usage. Words belong to families,
and their forms must be carefully chosen. Nouns should be used as nouns, verbs should be
used as verbs, adverbs should be used as adverbs and adjectives should be used as
adjectives.
 NOUN: Belief, predominance, and obedience
 VERB: believe, obey, and predominate
 ADJECTIVE: believable, obediant and predominant
 ADVERB: believably, obediently and predominantly
4. The grammatical word

Words for which the primary function is to indicate grammatical relationships, as distinct
from lexical words, the primary function of which is referential (content words).
Grammatical words include articles, pronouns, and conjunctions. Lexical words include
nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

5. Morphemes, morphs and allomorphs

 Morpheme

Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a language. Allomorph is phonologically

diverse variants that exist in complementary phonological environments. Allomorphs are
different realizations of the same morpheme.

 Morph

Morph is a phonetic form of morpheme which studies the units of form, sound, and
phonetic symbols. Morph is divided into two, namely, lexical and grammatical.

 Allomorph
Allomorph is a variant form of morpheme about sound and phonetic symbols but it does
not change the meaning. Allomorphs differ in pronunciation and spelling according to their
condition. . Allomorph is phonologically diverse variants that exist in complementary
phonological environments. Allomorphs are different realizations of the same morpheme.

 Types of morphemes
 Free Morphemes: Free morphemes can occur independently. Free morphemes are
common in both English and German.
E.g. boy, sing, girl, man.
 Bound Morphemes: Bound morphemes must be attached to another morpheme, and
cannot be used independently.
e.g. [NUMBER pl] -s → boys
6. Grammatical conditioning, lexical conditioning and suppletion

 Grammatical conditioning is when the selection of a particular allomorph is de-

termined by a certain grammatical class--irregular verbs in English.

E.g.: See, saw, seen determined by the present, tense, past tense, and the non-progressive
participle (these are grammatical features).
 Lexical conditioning is when an irregular morph is used with a specific lexical item
or a small group of lexical items:

E.g. the noun plural “-en”; it is determined by child, ox, brother (in the religious sense)
(these are lexical items).

 Suppletion is when two or more allomorphs are not phonologically related.

 Go, went, gone

 Note: went is probably /wœn+t/. See later for discussion verb
inflection.
 Suppletion refers to ’stem replacement’: a verb has more than one stem which are
used in different contexts. In many European languages, suppletion occurs with the verb ’to
be’, e.g. in English, the verb uses three historically different roots:
 Am, are, is
 Was, were
  Be

Conclusion

After several researches and reading of reading materials provided early by tutor and
examining others sources, it’s possible to say that this assignment is one of the most
important one. As specified early this assignment is made through some objectives, here
will be mentioned some aspects as a brief conclusion:

Words are units of language (either sequences of sounds, or signs) that function as
meaning bearers. A word is the basic meaningful unit of a language. Words can be
classified into different word classes according to their functions.

A word is the basic meaningful unit of a language. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a
word is defined as “a single unit of language that means something and can be spoken or
written”.

Word structure is the way words are formed from smaller units, called morphemes, and is
also known as morphology. Lexeme is the fundamental unit of the lexicon (or word stock)
of a language.
 Reference

Adams, Valerie (1973), An Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation, London:

Longman.

Booij, G. (2005). The Grammar of Words (K. Brown, A. McMahon, J. Miller, & L. Milroy
(eds.)). Oxford University Press.

Harley, H. (2006). English Words: A Linguistic Introduction (D. Crystal (ed.); Vol. 148).
Blackwell Publishing.

Stump, G. T. (2003). Inflectional Morphology: A Theory of Paradigm Structure (Second).

Cambridge University Press.