Inflectional Morphemes
Wang, Wa ng, 1
Inflectional Morphemes Morphemes in the English Language
According to Delahunty and Garvey (2010, !Morphemes are the smallest forms in a language that have meanings or grammatical functions"# Morphemes can $e either free or $ound" %ree morphemes are le&emes that can occur on their o'n 'ithout $eing attached to any other morpheme" %or e&le, 'ords lie dog , chair can can have meanings independently) they are also called the root " *ound morphemes are 'ord parts that al'ays al'a ys need to $e attached to other root 'ords to create meanings" *ound morphemes are a re usually affi&es, mostly prefi&es and suffi&es $ut can sometimes $e infi&es" +hose of 'hich are not presented in the form of affi&es affi&es are called cran$erry morphemes" ran$erry morphemes are !a type of $ound morphemes that cannot $e assigned a meaning nor a grammatical function, $ut nonetheless serves to distinguish one 'ord from the other"# (Aronoff, 1-./ %or e&le, the $ound morpheme -ceive originally -ceive originally from atin meaning !to seie something# can $e found in 'ords lie receive, receive, conceive, conceive, etc" A 'ord can have one or more $ound morphemes" %or e&le, the 'ord walks contains walks contains one free morpheme walk and one $ound morpheme -s) -s) +he 'ord surprisingly 'ord surprisingly contains contains three morphemes, one free morpheme surprise morpheme surprise,, 'hich can occur on its o'n) and t'o $ound morphemes -ing and and -ly that -ly that need to $e attached to the root morpheme surprise morpheme surprise to to function as a signal of the inflection of a noun surprise noun surprise from from adective surprising adective surprising to to adver$ surprisingly adver$ surprisingly"" %urthermore, $ound morphemes can $e divided into t'o categories, inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes" Derivational morphemes are 'ord parts that changes the meaning or part of speech 'hen they are attached to a root" %or e&le, if a $ound morpheme -ment is is attached to the root govern root govern,, it changes the part of speech from a ver$ govern ver$ govern to a noun government noun government " Inflectional morphemes are 'ord parts that do not change the meaning or the part of speech 'hen they are attached to a root" %or e&le, the plural mar -s does -s does not change the meaning or class 'hen it is attached to the root dog and and changing it into dogs, dogs, it only signals the plural form of the root" +hus, the inflectional morphemes are implemented to signal syntactical relationships in sentence constructions, the derivational morphemes are utilied to
Inflectional Morphemes
Wang, Wa ng, 2
create ne' 'ords related to the root 'ords3 meanings" 4o'ever, the notions of these t'o categories are very often confused especially $ y 56 learners" +herefore, in this morphology research paper, I 'ill ela$orate the definition, classifications, and functions, of the morphological, phonological and semantic conditioning of the inflectional morphemes in the 5nglish language in order to distinguish the utiliation especially in the aspect of the different entries in dictionary compilations as 'ell as to raise a'areness for the fact of certain compounded development of inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes"
Types of Inflectional Morphemes in the English Language
In the modern 5nglish language, only eight inflectional morphemes are used and all of them are suffi&es (7uir, et al", 1-89: 1 +hird person, person, singular singular,, present present tense of ver$s: ver$s: ;-(e)s ;-(e)s< < ;-(e)s< -(e)s< is a third person singular present tense indicative of ve r$s" %or e&le, John walks to school every day" day" =ote that if this third person singular present tense indicative ;-s ;-s< < is after a si$ilant, 'hich is a manner of articulation of fricative or affricate consonants that are higher in pitch such as s, >s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, d ʒ>, the indicative 'ill present in an allomorph form as ;-es ;-es<" <" Allomorphs are different realiations of a morpheme depending on the phonological content 'ithout changing its meaning(s" %or e&le, The dog catches the ball " 2 ?lur ?lural al mar mare err of noun nouns: s: ;-(e)s ;-(e)s< < In this case, ;-s ;-s< < is a grammatical structure that indicates the noun that it h as attached to is more than one count, that is to say, in its plural form" %or e&le, the plural form of the noun desk is is desks" desks" As mentioned a$ove, if this plural marer is after a si$ilant, it 'ill present in an allomorph form as ;-es ;-es<" <" %or e&le, the plural form of the noun batch is batch is batches" batches" @ Geniti Genitive ve of noun phrase phrases: s: ;-’s -’s< Genitive is also no'n as the possessive case" It indicates the o'nership or possession pertaining of a noun phrase" %or e&le, John’s e&le, John’s car is red " =ote that if a
Inflectional Morphemes
Wang, Wa ng, @
noun ends in the letter s letter s,, the genitive marer 'ill present 'ithout ;-’ ;-’ss< $ut only as an apostrophe ;-’ ;-’ < due to the phonological environment" Begular Begular past past tens tensee of ver$s: ver$s: ;-ed < +his inflectional morpheme conugates regular ver$s to indicate the past time frame" %or e&le, John e&le, John walked to school today" today" 9 ?ast ?ast partic participl iplee marer marer of of ver$s: ver$s: ;-ed ;-ed , -en< -en< Csually, this inflectional inflectional morpheme is utilied 'ith have or have or passive be in be in the present perfect, past perfect and future perfect tenses" %or e&le, The seat was taken"> taken">She She has inished all the homework " / omparative omparative of short short adectives adectives and adver$s: adver$s: ;-er < A comparative is a form that e&presses the greater or lesser degree" A short short adective or adver$, in this case, is typically considered as adective or adver$ that consists t'o or less sylla$les" +hat is to say, the comparative form of most of the short adectives or adver$s 'ill $e root -er! %or e&le, big"bigger , narrow"narrower " =ote that if a oneEsylla$le adective or adver$ ends in the letter e, the comparative form only need to add the ;-s ;-s<" <" %or e&le, nice"nicer " Moreover, if it ends in the letter y letter y,, the comparative allomorph 'ill present as ;-ier ;-ier <" <" %or e&le, greasy"gr e&le, greasy"greasier easier " . 6uperlative 6uperlative of short short adectives adectives and adver$s: adver$s: ;-est < 6uperlative indicates the highest level" As mentioned a$ove, if an adective or adver$ consist t'o or less sylla$les, in most cases, the superlative form 'ill $e root#-est! %or e&le, bright"brightest , clever"cleverest " =ote that if a oneEsylla$le adective or adver$ ends in the letter e, the superlative form only need to add the ;-st ;-st <" <" %or e&le, nice"nicest " Moreover, if it ends in the letter y letter y,, the superlative allomorph 'ill present as ;-iest <" <" %or e&le, happy"happiest " 8 ?rogre ?rogressi ssive ve mare marerr of ver$s: ver$s: ;-ing < +his inflectional morpheme indicates the present continuous time frame of a ver$" %or e&le, study"studying e&le, study"studying " =ote that if a ver$ ends in the letter e, the progressive form reFuires the ver$ to drop the e in order to attach the inflectional morpheme due to phonological content" %or e&le, leave"leaving "
Morphological, Phonological and Semantic Conditioning of Inflectional Morphemes
1 Morphologica Morphologicall conditioni conditioning ng of inflectiona inflectionall morphemes morphemes
Inflectional Morphemes
Wang, Wa ng,
Morphological conditioning refers to the allomorphs 'hich occur 'ithout the influence of the near$y phonological pho nological content" It can $e further classified into t'o situations: grammatical conditioning and le&ical conditioning" Grammatical conditioning mainly occurs 'hen the past tense of a ver$ is an irregular form such as sleep"slept as sleep"slept , make"made, make"made, etc" Whilst le&ical conditioning mainly occurs under the influence of phonemic environment or morphological environment" %or e&le, z >z , s, s, iz > are the allophones of the plural marer ;-s ;-s< < due to phonemic influence" e&ical conditioning ;;ai, ai, -i, -i, -n, -n, -e, -e, -∅< only e&ist in certain 'ords such as ish"ish as ish"ish,, sheep"sheep" sheep"sheep" 2 ?honological ?honological conditioning conditioning of inflect inflectional ional morphemes morphemes +he inflectional morpheme ;-ed ;-ed < of the past tense of regular ver$s v er$s has multiple allophones such as >t, d, id>" +his depends on the coda of the root ver$" %or instance, if a ver$ ends in a voiceless consonant consona nt other than >t>, the ;-ed ;-ed < 'ill $e pronounced as >t >t >, >, such as walk ends ends in a voiceless consonant >k >k >, >, hence the coda of walked 'ill 'ill $e pronounced as >kt >" >" In contrast, if a ver$ ends in a voiced consonant other than >d >d >, >, the ;-ed ;-ed < 'ill $e pronounced as >d >d >, >, such as hug ends ends in a voiceless consonant g >g >, >, hence the coda of hugged 'ill 'ill $e pronounced as gd >gd >" >" astly, if a ver$ ends in consonants lie >t, d>, the ;;ed < 'ill $e pronounced as >id >id >, >, such as haunt ends ends in a voiceless consonant >t >t >, >, hence the coda of hugged 'ill 'ill $e pronounced as >id >id >, >, bend ends ends in a voiced consonant >d >d >, >, the coda of bended 'ill 'ill $e pronounced as >id >id >" >" @ 6emantic 6emantic conditi conditioning oning of inflectiona inflectionall morphem morphemes es +he semantic conditioning mainly occurs in the morphemes that has $oth the inflectional meaning and derivational meaning" %or e&le, ;-ed ;-ed < is the inflectional morpheme of regular past tense ver$s, $ut it can also function as a signal of adectives or adver$s such as completed ) ;-ing ;-ing < is the inflectional morpheme of present progressive ver$s, $ut it can also function as a signal of nouns lie eeling lie eeling " +o sum up, inflectional morphemes can, on one hand, not only $e influenced $y morphological conditioning $ut also $y the phonological and semantic content" n the other hand, even if the same inflectional morpheme can e&press different meanings or has different functions" *eing a$le to understand the mutual interactions 'ithin different linguistic aspects 'ould greatly facilitate the memoriation of the inflectional morphemes"
Inflectional Morphemes
Wang, Wa ng, 9
Inflectional Morphemes vs. Derivational Morphemes
According to Matthe's (1--1, inflectional morphology is defined !as the $ranch of morphology that deals 'ith paradigms" It is therefore concerned 'ith t'o things: on the one hand, 'ith the semantic oppositions among categories) on the other, 'ith the formal means, including inflections, that distinguish them"# Although in (1--. did not directly point out the difference $et'een inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes, he consider that the grammatical morphemes such as the plural marer ;Es< and regular past tense ver$ ;Eed< are utilied according to the syntactic environment 'hilst le&ical morphemes are utilied to create ne' voca$ulary" Hacson and Amvela Amvela (2000 also point out that !inflection is a general grammatical process 'hich com$ines 'ords and affi&es to produce alternative grammatical forms of 'ords# 'hile !derivation is a le&ical process 'hich ac tually forms a ne' 'ord out of an e&isting one $y the addition of a derivational affi&"#, that is to say, !the application of inflection leads to the formation of alternative grammatical forms of the same 'ord, that of derivation creates ne' voca$ulary items"# (Hacson and Amvela, 2000 +herefore, the difference $et'een inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes is certainly 'orth emphasiing" +ae +ae ;-er ;-er < for e&le: if 'e regard the ;-er ;-er < as an inflectional morpheme, never 'ill it changes the meaning or part of speech of the adectives or adver$s that is attached 'ith it" 6uch as, $oth nice and nicer , big and and bigger , are adectives and neither their meaning nor parts of speech change accordingly $y the addition of ;-er ;-er <" <" 4o'ever, if 'e regard the ;-er ;-er < as a derivational morpheme, it 'ill change the part of speech 'hen it is attached to a ver$ such as hang"hanger , the ver$ hang $ecomes $ecomes the noun hanger " Although the form in these t'o cases are e&actly the same$ound morphemesthey function very differently" Wang Wa ng (2001 points out ou t that numerous 5nglish dictionaries and hineseE5nglish dictionaries did not strictly distinguish the differences $et'een inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes" %or instance, in the ollins o$uild: 5ssential 5nglish Dictionary (1--1, care, care, careul and and careless are careless are listed under different entries, 'hile happy, happy, happiness and happiness and happily are happily are listed under the same entry of happy" happy" In ongman Dictionary of ontemporary 5nglish (1-.8, modern, modern, modernism, modernism, modernistic, modernistic, modernity and modernity and modernize are modernize are listed as different entries as 'ell as kind , kindly and kindly and kindness, kindness, happy, happy, happiness, happiness, and happily are happily are under different entries" 4o'ever, it categoried keenly and keenly and keenness under keenness under the same entry of keen, keen,
Inflectional Morphemes
Wang, Wa ng, /
'hile it categoried careully and careully and careulness under careulness under the careul entry entry $ut it also categoried carelessly and carelessly and carelessness under carelessness under the entry of careless" careless" Moreover, in the 5nglishEhinese Dictionary (1--9 categoried modernly and modernly and modernness under modernness under the modern entry, modern entry, 'hile listing modernity, modernity, modernize and modernize and modernization as modernization as different entries separately" It also categoried happy, happy, happiness and happiness and happily as happily as different entries, 'hilst putting keenly and keenly and keenness under keenness under the keen entry" keen entry" +hese chaotic categoriations significantly indicate the ar$itrariness and inconsistency of dictionary compilations" In my opinion, due to the fact that a derivational morpheme changes the meaning and part of speech of a root 'ord that it is attached to, the root 'ord and the ne' voca$ulary created $y the addition of derivational morpheme should $e categoried under different entries" Accordingly, $ecause an inflectional morpheme does not change the meaning or the part of speech of a root 'ord 'hen the morpheme is attached to the root, the root 'ord and the ne' voca$ulary created $y the addition of an inflectional morpheme to a root 'ord should $e categoried under the same entry" It is very important to note that the development of $oth inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes are not ust singleEstreamed, separated traces, instead, they sometimes develop in a mi&ed 'ay" 'a y" In In other 'ords, inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes are interchangea$le and closely related" +his depends on the addition of inflectional morphemes to derivational morphemes" %or e&le, if the noun computer is is attached to a derivational morpheme ;Eize ;Eize<, <, it $ecomes the derivational morpheme computerize) computerize) $ut if 'e attach an inflectional morpheme ;-ing ;-ing <, <, the derivational morpheme 'ill $ecome the inflectional morpheme computerizing " r, if the ver$ mark is is attached to an inflectional morpheme ;-ed ;-ed <, <, it $ecomes an inflectional morpheme marked ) 'e can also add a derivational morpheme ;-ness ;-ness< < to change mared into a derivational morpheme markedness" markedness" %rom here 'e can see that the development of $oth inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes are mi&ed and complicated, it changes pertinently according to the content" Conclusion
Although the inflectional morphemes in the modern 5nglish language only e&ist in eight forms, they can $e influenced and $e developed in many different 'ays" +hese confusing notions may level up the difficulty of the language acFuisition process of 56 leaners" 4ence, it is necessary for 56 teachers to thoroughly understand the definition, classification and utiliations
Inflectional Morphemes
Wang, Wa ng, .
of inflectional morphemes as 'ell as to no' the morphological, phonological and semantic conditioning circumstances so they may e&plain and distinguish the complicated, mi&ed development of $oth inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes" Also, Also, understanding the characters of inflectional morphemes can help 56 teachers to choose 'ellEorganied 5nglish dictionaries that are categoriing the 'ord entries reasona$ly in order to $etter improve students3 academic performance" Moreover, though differentiating the usage of inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes are highly demanded, it is also necessary to related these t'o morpheme categories $ecause they the y sometimes share a mi&ed, interacting development that seem to $e the interchangea$le interchangea$ le process of either the inflectional morphemes or derivational morphemes of a root 'ord"
eferences!
Aronoff, M" (1-./" Word %ormation in Generative Grammar" $%T Grammar" $%T &ress &ress"" Delahunty, G" ?, and Garvey, H" H" (May 21, 2010" +he 5nglish language: %rom 6ound to 6ense" ?erspectives on Wr Writing" iting" The ' learinghouse and &arlor &ress" &ress" pp" ./E.. Hacson, 4", and Amvela 5" J" (2000 Words, Meaning and Koca$ulary: Koca$ulary: An Introduction to Modern 5nglish e&icology" * e&icology" * +lack " in, " (1--." An Introduction to 5nglish ecicology" 'uhan niversity &ress" &ress" ongman Dictionary of ontemporary 5nglish" (1-.8" ongman (1-.8" ongman .roup limited " u, G" (1--9" +he 5nglish hinese Dictionary" Shanghai Translation &ublishing /ouse" /ouse" Matthe's, ?" 4" (1--1" Morphology" ambridge niversity &ress" &ress" 7uir, B", Green$aum, 6", eech, G", and 6vartiv, H" (May 1, 1-89" A omprehensive Grammar of the 5nglish anguage" /arlow0 anguage" /arlow0 ongman" ongman" 6inclair, H" (1--1" ollins *CID 5ssential 5nglish Dictionary" 'illiam 'illiam ollins Sons * o td!" td!" Wang, Wa ng, W" (2001" 5nglish e&ical 6emantics" 1he2iang 6emantics" 1he2iang 3ducation &ublishing /ouse" /ouse"
