Morphology and Word Formation: Key Concepts Explained

Posted on Mar 25, 2025 in Linguistics and Applied Languages

Morphology and Word Formation

The position of stress can morphologically differentiate words. For example:

  • ‘import (noun)
  • im’port (verb)

The stress position determines whether the word is a noun or a verb. Nouns are stressed on the first syllable, while verbs are stressed on the second syllable. This connects the morphological category of the word with the phonological aspect (stress position).

Morphology and Syntax Interactions

Interactions between morphology and syntax occur, for instance, in the case of concord:

  1. The children are playing.

“Children” is plural. Identifying that “children” is the plural of “child” is a morphological aspect (singular and plural forms). To use the right concord, we must have this morphological knowledge. Concord is a syntactic aspect; choosing the wrong concord is a syntactic mistake.

  1. Some advice.

Saying “an advice” is a mistake because “advice” is an uncountable noun and needs a determiner like “some”.

Noun Phrases vs. Compounds

  • English ‘teacher = “A teacher who is English” (Noun Phrase – syntactic unit)
  • ‘English teacher = “A teacher of English” (Compound – morphological unit)

Traditionally, stress position comes in the second component in noun phrases and in the first component in compounds.

Allomorphs

Consider these words: cats, dogs, horses. Semantically, they are different. Morphologically, we have three plural forms but three different realizations of the plural morpheme (the way in which we pronounce it is different). In the first two cases, the pronunciation of the plural is voiced. In “horse”, we have a sibilant at the end of the word, so we need a vocalic support. This also occurs in the 3rd singular person of the verb and in the Saxon genitive morpheme. These cases are called “allomorphs” – different representations of the same morpheme which are phonologically conditioned.

Word Formation Processes

  • Bingeable – Derivation (Affixation, suffixation)
  • Google (verb) – Conversion
  • Selfie – Hypocorism (clipping process, from “self-portrait”, cutting the final part and adding a diminutive suffix)
  • Selfie stick – Compounding
  • Procaffinating – Blending (procrastinating + caffeine)
  • JOMO – Acronym (from “joy of missing out”)

Endocentric vs. Exocentric Compounds

  • Armchair: Endocentric compound (the referent is within the compound because an armchair is a type of chair).
  • Egghead: Intellectual person (not a type of head). Exocentric compound.

Compound Analysis

  • Taxidriver – N+N, O+S
  • Partygoer – N+N, Adv+S

These two compounds can be analyzed as if they were syntactic units.

Morphology vs. Syntax

Morphology is the study of the rules governing word formation. English has less complex morphology but more rigid syntax. Words are often divided into morphemes. Inflectional morphology adds a morpheme to produce a new word form but the same lexeme. Derivational morphology adds a morpheme to produce a new word form and a different lexeme. Inflectional morphology can be suffixes; derivational morphology can be prefixes, suffixes, and infixes.

Complex vs. Simple Words

  • Members (complex)
  • Prioritize (complex)
  • Handsome (complex)
  • Fizzy (complex)
  • Fix (simple)
  • Grammar (simple)
  • Writer (complex)
  • Rewind (complex)
  • Reject (simple)
  • Alligator (simple)

Lexical Differences

  • Revolve & revolution (different lexemes)
  • Revolve & dissolve (different lexemes)
  • Wash & reshaw (different lexemes)

Bound Roots

We can recognize the root of classify, solidify & personify. In the words specify, identify, mollify, it is not possible (bound roots).

Monomorphemic vs. Polymorphemic Words

  • Report (monomorphemic – ‘port’ is a formative element)
  • Brother (only 1 lexeme)
  • Receive (monomorphemic)
  • Reboot (2 morphemes)
  • Blackmail (compound word, 2 morphemes. The morpheme ‘black’ doesn’t have the same meaning in all words – problem of lexicalization)
  • Explorgasm (2 morphemes, blending)

-ER Suffix

-ER (comparative forms, agentive nouns & monomorphemic words)

Zero Affixation and Truncation

  • (to) father — (a) father: derivation, verb and a noun, concretely, it is a case of zero affixation or conversion
  • David – Dave: truncation (clipping + addition of a new element)
  • Bring – brought: extended exponence (2 marks for the meaning of the past)

Allomorphy and Stress Position

The phenomenon called allomorphy refers to the way the stress position is changed because of the morpheme added to the word. Example: activ-e // activ-ity. Two different representations of the root, they are allomorphs of the base. Why is “active” in “activity” pronounced with a different stress pattern? Because we add the suffix –ity. This addition brings about a change in the position of the stress (morphologically conditioned).

Compound Types

  • Recreation hall: endocentric, noun. adverbial (place) + verb (recreate)
  • Book keeping: endocentric, noun. object+verb / noun+noun -ing
  • Truck driver: endocentric, noun. object+verb / noun+noun -er
  • Pickpocket: exocentric, noun. verb+object / verb+noun
  • Homegrown: adjective, endocentric. adverb-place + adjective / noun+adjective
  • Potbelly: exocentric, noun. N is (like) N1 / noun+noun

Denominal Verbs and Deverbal Nouns

  • Denominal verbs: corner (locative), brake (instrumental), oil (locatum), mail (instrument), glue (instrument), nurse (agent), ship (instrument), skin (privative), grease (locatum), hammer (instrument), catalog (locative), bone (privative)
  • Deverbal nouns: cook (agent), study (locative), cut (result), catch (object), dismay (state), hit (action)