Morphology and Syntax ASimplified Course Book by DR Shaghi 20162017

ABSTRACT
This Simplified Course-Book of

Morphology and Syntax (332 /E332) aims
at developing the Yemeni students
awareness of how Morphology and Syntax
in Yemen (especially in Tihamah of Yemen,
Zabid city, Zabid College of Education,
Hodeidah University) is structured and
studied. It focuses on teaching Morphology
and Syntax that deals with the inflectional
or / and derivational formation of words and
their arrangement to make phrases,
clauses and sentences. It also focuses on
teaching concepts, terms, knowledge as
well as morphological and Syntactical
processes and rules of Morphology and
Syntax in English in the first place and
Arabic in the second place. To complete
the idea of the study of the five levels of
language, a summary of Semantics and
Pragmatics is taken into consideration in
this simplified course-book. It is compiled
by Dr. Abdullah Shaghi, an Assistant
MORPHOLOGY Professor of Linguistics, Ph.D. in

Linguistics, from Aligarh Muslim University
(A.M.U.), U.P., India, 2010. It is for the
third-Year-English-B.Ed. students, of the
AND SYNTAX year 2016-2017, 2nd semester 2016-2017,
in the English Department, Zabid-College
A Simplified Course-Book of Education, Hodeidah University, Yemen.
Dr. Abdullah M. M. Ali Shaghi
,
Morphology and Syntax, A Simplified Course-Book, by Dr. Abdullah Shaghi, for 3rd Y.E B.Ed. Students, 2nd Semester 2016-2017,
English Department, Zabid-College of Education, Hodeidah University
Table of Contents
Section 1: Welcome to the Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and Syntax2
Section 2: Morphology and Syntax . 6
Section 3: Morphology ...12
Section 4: Syntax ....................32
Section 5: Syntax and Semantics........ 53
Section 6: Summary of Arabic Morphology and Syntax... 55
Section 7: Summary of English Semantics..... 58
Section 8: Summary of Arabic Semantics.. 59
Section 9: Summary of English Pragmatics....61
Section 10: Summary of Arabic Pragmatics....... 63
Sources, References, and Bibliographies ...... 66
Appendices..... 68
Appendix 1: Previous Exam Question Papers ... 68
Appendix 2: Meanings of some Selected affixes (selected from English words: history
and structure ... 75
Appendix 3: A Self-Study of Exercises with Answer Key ......80
Appendix 4: General Exercises ...... 86
1
Section 1: Welcome to the Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and

Syntax
The Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and Syntax focuses on teaching
concepts, terms, knowledge and morphological and Syntactical processes and rules,
knowledge about Morphology and Syntax. It is for the third-Year-English-B.Ed.
students, of the year 2016-2017, 2nd semester 2016-2017, in the English Department,
Zabid-College of Education, Hodeidah University, Yemen. It is compiled by Dr.
Abdullah Shaghi, an Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Ph.D. in Linguistics, from
Aligarh Muslim University (A.M.U.), U.P., India, 2010; M.A. in Linguistics from
JNU, New Delhi, India in 2006, and B.Ed. in English from Hodeida University (HU) in
1996.
The Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and Syntax (332 /E332) aims at

developing the Yemeni students awareness of how Morphology and Syntax in
Yemen (especially in Tihamah of Yemen, Zabid city, Zabid College of Education,
Hodeidah University) is structured and studied. It focuses on teaching Morphology and
Syntax that deals with the inflectional or / and derivational formation of words and
their arrangement to make phrases, clauses and sentences. It also focuses on teaching
concepts, terms, knowledge as well as morphological and Syntactical processes and
rules of Morphology and Syntax in in English in the first place and Arabic in the
second place. To complete the idea of the study of the five levels of language, a
summary of Semantics and Pragmatics is taken into consideration in this simplified
course-book.
In your second academic year, 2nd semester, you studied the course the Simplified
Course-Book of Introduction to Language 2, where you learnt some introductory
and elementary aspects of Morphology and Syntax dealing with the study of the
structure of words / morphemes, phrases, and sentences (in English in the first place
and Arabic in the second place). This year, in your 2nd semester 2016-2017, you are
going to study and learn the Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and Syntax in
details.
The topics included will be morphemes, allomorphs, zero morpheme, phonological

and morphological conditioning, free and bound morphemes, and derivation and
inflection, the structure of a phrase in English noun, verb, adjective adverb and
preposition phrase and their structure. The structure of a sentence and sentence
elements, phrase structure rules and transformational rules will also be taken into
consideration. The course will also examine the relationship between Syntax and
Morphology by considering the effects that some Morphological Processes have on
syntax. Arabic Morphology and Syntax is also examined.
Finally, and according to the five levels of language: Phonetics and Phonology (all
sounds, system sounds), Morphology (forms and words), Syntax (phrases, clauses and
2
sentences), Semantics (meanings of various kinds), and Pragmatics (language use), we

will also study in this simplified course-book of Morphology and Syntax a summary of
Semantics and Pragmatics of both English and Arabic. This is in order to have a
complete idea of the study of the five levels of language.
The organization of this firsthand / empirical Simplified Course-Book of Morphology

and Syntax is as follows:
Section 1: Welcome to the Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and Syntax,

Section 2: Morphology and Syntax, Section 3: Morphology, Section 4: Syntax, 5:
Syntax and Semantics, Section 6: Summary of Arabic Morphology and Syntax,
Section 7: Summary of English Semantics, Section 8: Summary of Arabic Semantics,
Section 9: Summary of English Pragmatics and Section 10: Summary of Arabic
Pragmatics. There are also Sources, References, Bibliographies, and Appendices with
four appendixes: Appendix 1: Previous Exam Question Papers, Appendix 2: Meanings
of some selected affixes (selected from English words: history and structure, Appendix
3: A Self-Study of Exercises with Answer Key, and Appendix 4: General Exercises.
Assessment
Regular attendance is strongly advised! Besides the class lectures, there will be:
1. One final mid-term exam including Regular homework exercises to be discussed in
class (45 marks)
2. One final exam including Presence & active participation in class throughout
(105 marks)
Regular Attendance is Strongly Advised!

Despite bad experiences in the past, I will not take attendance this semester. This
means, however, that I will not waste my time with students who choose to not show
up for classes. I thus repeat: Regular attendance is strongly advised!
Suggestions for Further Reading

I cannot stress enough how important it will be for this course that you read at home!
So let me repeat: I cant stress enough how important it will be for this course that you
read at home! Im serious and I hope the message is clear.
All classes will follow the same pattern: (i) I will assign you readings, (ii) which you
will read for next class, (iii) when I will lecture on that material. This also means that I
cannot stress enough how important it will be for this course that you attend all classes!
Classes will be crucial and equally crucial will be that you understand everything we
do. I will not always cover all the material; we will find our pace in a few classes.
The readings materials related to your Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and

Syntax are included in the sources, references and bibliographies list and will be told to
you by your lecturer:
3
In addition, there are some good relevant articles published in refereed journals of the
field provided by your lecturer in the computers of your library as well as in your
flashes/pen-drives. Do not get me wrong: I just said how important it is to read but
this does not mean that you have to read outside the assigned Simplified Course-Book
of Morphology and Syntax, chapters or sections. The above core readings in tandem
together with the class lectures will definitely be enough. Im here to assist you!
Who am I?
To learn more about me, search my name shaghi, / abdullah.shaghi / drabdullahshaghi
/ abdullahshaghi / abulbaraa shaghion my website (where you can download all the
lectures and models of final examinations): http://abdullahshaghi2012.wordpress.com/
as well as on my gmail / google drive / google blogger, LinkedIn.com, academia.com,
scribd.com, or archive.org (https://archive.org/details/@dr_abdullah_shaghi)..
Key Linguistic Terms and Concepts

The Key Linguistic Terms and Concepts for the Morphology and Syntax are as
follows: All of you should know most of the following key linguistic terms and
concepts for the Morphology and Syntax. You should be not only familiar with them,
but be also able to define them, explain them and give examples. They are not
alphabetically ordered.
Morphology: morpheme, free morpheme, bound morpheme, allomorph, zero

morpheme, derivational morphemes, inflectional morphemes, zero derivation,
augment, affix, prefix, prefix, infix, suffix, post-suffix, circumfix, suprafix,
portmanteau morpheme, root, stem, fossilized form, closed-class words, open-class
words, Morphophonology, Morphosyntax, class marker, subject marker, object
marker, tense marker, aspect, mood, tense, clitics, proclitics, enclitics, paradigm,
paradigmatic derivation, syntagmatic derivation, suppression, irregular verbs,
defective verbs, backformation, acronyms
Syntax: grammatical relations, verb phrase, noun phrase, kernel sentence, main clause,
subordinate clause, relative clause, antecedent, subjectivization, objectivization,
cliticization, nominalization, pronominazation, adjectivization, head noun, modifier,
determiner, reflexive pronouns, demonstrative, Independent pronouns, null pronouns,
double-object construction, inherent direct objects, structural objects, oblique objects,
adjunct objects, juxtaposition., subject agreement, object agreement, anaphora,
cataphora, cleft sentences, pseudocleft sentences, yes-no questions, wh-questions, tag
questions, questioning in-situ, echo questions, serial-verb construction, constituency
analysis, existential clause, focus construction, transitivity, intransitivity,
extraposition, dislocation (left/right), external relation, alienable possession ,
inalienable possession, valency, passivization, antipassive voice, ergativity, agent,
causative, causee, causativization, accusative, nominative, genitive, recipient, patient,
theme, rheme, reciprocal, comitative. Associative, benefactive, recipient, stative verb,
4
active verb.
To find the definitions, explanations and exemplifications of these terms and concepts,
please Google these words or use any search engine for the online references or consult
linguistic dictionaries.
Acknowledgement
The author of this simplified course-book would like to thank all of those (colleagues
and students) who have invest time and effort into this project. This simplified
course-book would not have been possible without them.
The production of this simplified course-book was with the following open source
program: (archive.org). Students and interested readers can find the authors own
uploads in the link: (https://archive.org/details/@dr_abdullah_shaghi).
5
Section 2: Morphology and Syntax

Linguistics is the study of language and its structure. A linguistic theory must be
adequate on three levels: that of observation, of description and of explanation.
Different levels of language have been subject to theories in the second half of the 20th
century. In particular, Phonology and Syntax, because of their abstract and formal
properties, have attracted linguists of a theoretical persuasion. There is no generally
accepted theory of Semantics because the data is somewhat too diffuse and
fuzzy-edged. Moreover, as regards Morphology one can note that linguists usually
treat it as subordinate to Syntax (at least in generative theories).
Morphology and Syntax are two major subdisciplines in the field of Linguistics.
Other subdisciplines of Linguistics include Phonetics, Phonology, Semantics, and
Pragmatics. Morphology is the study of the formation of words and Syntax is the
study of the formation of sentences. Phonetics and Phonology have to do with how the
sounds of language are produced in the human vocal organs (lungs, larynx, mouth,
nasal cavity), and how sounds are systematically organized in particular languages.
Morphosyntax has to do with how these sounds combine to form words and
sentences. Semantics has to do with the meanings of individual elements of linguistic
structure and their combinations.
Actually, the term Morphosyntax is a hybrid [=crossbreed] word that comes from
two other words morphology and syntax. Since morphosyntax sounds better than
syntophology, the former is the word that linguists prefer to use.
One reason many linguists like to talk about Morphology and Syntax together is that
sometimes a communicative job that we perform by word shapes (Morphology) in one
language we perform by combinations of words (Syntax) in another language.
Therefore, if linguists want to compare different languages, it helps to be able to refer
to Morphosyntax.
6
Morphology and Syntax deals with the inflectional or / and derivational formation of
words and their arrangement to make phrases, clauses and sentences. The main
difference between Morphology and Syntax is that Morphology studies the way of
word formation, whereas Syntax studies the way of sentence formation. The final aim
of both these fields is the study of the way of meaning producing in language.
Morphology is another important subdiscipline of linguistics. It studies the structure

of words. It is concerned with the study of word forms. A word is best defined in terms
of internal stability (is it further divisible?) and external mobility (can it be moved to a
different position in a sentence?). A word structure is normally displayed by means of a
Morphological Tree Diagram (the so-called word structure) and by a system of
re-write rules one can move from an initial unit (the entire word) to the individual
elements (a so-called terminal string). See the following morphological tree diagram
of the word unproductively
adv.
/\
Derivational Prefix adv.
| /\
| adj. Derivational Suffix
| /\ |
| base/stem Derivational Suffix |
| | | |
Un- product -ive -ly
Morphology specifically examines the formation of words by putting together

morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest grammatical and meaningful unit of a
language. Different languages have different morphemes and different rules about the
formation of their words. An allomorph is a non-distinctive realization of a morpheme
as in the plural morpheme s having three allomorphs /s, z, z/ in books, dogs, and
boxes, respectively.
We can divide morphemes into two basic categories called free morphemes and
bound morphemes. A free morpheme is a meaningful unit that can stand alone as a
word. In other words, it is a word made up of only one morpheme. Book, trust, slow,
cat, old, fast, bring, and man are examples of free morphemes.
A bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand-alone; it is always bound to

another morpheme. Consequently, a bound morpheme has no meaning on its own.
Slow-ly, talk-ed, unthank-full, black-ish are examples of words having bound
morphemes. Bound morphemes attached to the front of a word are called prefixes
(dis-taste, un-true, ir-regular, etc.) and bound morphemes attached to the back of a
word are called suffixes (valuable, usual, endless, etc.).
7
Bound Morphemes can be divided further into two categories called derivational and
inflectional morphemes. Derivational morphemes are morphemes that are added to the
base form of a word to create a new word.
Example (1):
Able Ability
(Adjective) (Noun)
Send Sender
(Verb) (Noun)
Example (2):
Use Misuse
Stable Unstable
(Meaning is totally changed.)
As seen from these examples, adding a derivational morpheme will change either the
meaning or the class of the word.
Inflectional Morphemes are a type of bound morphemes that do not cause a change in
the meaning or word class: they serve as grammatical markers and indicate some
grammatical information about a word.
Laughed Past Tense
Cats Plural
Swimming Progressive
Accordingly, Morphology can further be divided into Inflectional Morphology

(concerned with the endings put on words) and Derivational Morphology (involves
the formation of new words).
Affixation is the process of attaching an inflection or, more generally, a bound
morpheme to a word. This can occur at the beginning or end and occasionally in the
middle of a word form.
Word Formation processes can be either productive or lexicalized (non-productive).

There are different types of word-formation such as compounding, zero derivation
(conversion), back formation, blending, clipping, etc.
Syntax is a discipline of linguistics that studies the structure of sentence. Syntax is the
study of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in any
language. It pays attention to components such as word order, agreement, and the
hierarchical structure of language. The meaning of any sentence in any language
depends on the syntax.
For example, the sentences in the English language often formed by following a
subject with a verb and the direct object. It is the positions of these words that convey
the subject-object relationship. Look at the following sentences.
8
The cat ate the mouse.

The mouse ate the cat.
These two sentences convey two different meanings although they contain the exact
same words. It is the word order of the sentences, which affect the meaning of these
two sentences.
A Syntactic Structure certainly affects morphology, and morphology is one very

important way that syntactic structure is discovered. The main ideas to keep in mind to
this point are:
(1.) Language is a tool for communication; therefore, we attribute structural
similarities among unrelated languages to common communicational functions.
(2.) Languages can accomplish the same or similar communicative tasks by
changing the shapes of words (morphologically) or by changing how words are
arranged (syntactically).
Therefore, the sentence structure is usually presented by means of a Syntactic Tree

Diagram (STD) (the so-called phrase structure) and by a system of re-write rules
one can move from an initial unit (the entire sentence) to the individual elements (a
so-called terminal string).
S
/\
NP VP
/\ /\
Det. N V NP
| | | /\
| | | Det. N.
| | | | |
The dog ate the bone
(S= Sentence, NP= Noun Phrase, VP= Verb Phrase, D= Determiner, N= Noun, V=
Verb)
The term generation is used in linguistics to describe exhaustively the structure of

sentences. Generative Grammar (GG) can be divided into three main periods. An
early one dating from Chomsky (1957), a central one which was initiated by Chomsky
(1965) and a more recent one which reached its maturity in the 1980s with the
development of the government and binding model.
Universal Grammar represents an attempt to specify what structural elements are

present in all languages. That is to say what the common core is, and to derive means
for describing these structural elements adequately.
9
The purpose of analyzing the internal structure of sentences is (1) To reveal the
hierarchy in the ordering of elements; (2) To explain how surface ambiguities come
about; and (3) To demonstrate the relatedness of certain sentences. So, linguists
distinguish between Deep Structure (DS) the level on which the unambiguous
semantic structure of a sentence is represented and Surface Structure (SS) the
actual form of a sentence. Given below are illustrations of the Deep Structure and
Surface Structure:
Deep Structure (DS): (represents the meaning)

The boy kissed the girl the girl hugged the man. (However, it is not a grammatical
sentence.) Add Transformational rules (e.g., NP deletion) the girl the girl the girl
who.
Surface Structure (SS): (what we speak and hear)

The boy kissed the girl who hugged the man.
A transformation is a change in form between the deep and the surface structures and
maintains the relatedness of semantically similar sentences such as active and passive
ones. It changes the basic sentence structure into a derived one in the deep structure as
shown below:
Active Passive
NP1 V NP2 NP2 be V -en by NP1
Mary ate the cake. The cake was eaten by Mary.
Let us observe the syntactic tree diagram using the phrase structure rules in the
following active sentence: Mary ate the cake.
S
/\
NP1 VP
/ /\
N VP NP2
| | /\
| V D N
| | | |
Mary ate the cake
Also, let us observe the syntactic tree diagram using the phrase structure rules in the
following passive sentence: The cake was eaten by Mary.
10
S
/\
NP2 VP
/\ /\
DN VP PP
/ \ /\ /\
/ \ Aux V P NP1
/ \ / \ / \
/ \ / \ / N
/ \ / \ / \
The cake was eaten by Mary
(Sources with some modifications:: All above about Morphology and Syntax are
from: Thomas, E. Payne (2006) Exploring Language Structure): A Students Guide.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, New York.,
http://pediaa.com/difference-between-morphology-and-syntax/2/2/2017)
(Source of the image and tree diagram above: and (Source: Raymond Hickey the Neat
Summary of Linguistics P. 13)
http://pediaa.com/difference-between-morphology-and-syntax/2/2/2017 )
11
Section 3: Morphology
Morphology comes from a Greek word meaning 'shape' or 'form' and is used in
linguistics to denote the study of words, both with regard to their internal structure and
their combination or formation to form new or larger units. It is the words of language;
it is the study of the structure of words, including the rules of word formation.
The study of the internal structure of words and the rules governing the formation of
words in a language is the preoccupation of the branch of language study referred to as
Morphology. Although interest in the study of words, their meaning, structure and
function has been a part of grammar from the classical to the medieval times, the study
of word structure did not become a distinct level of grammatical analysis until the
nineteenth century.
Early studies of word structure were more diachronic in nature, having more to do with
the origins and evolution of languages from a study of word formation patterns of
different languages. For instance, in the nineteenth century Franz Bopp produced
evidence based on the comparison of sound systems and word formation patterns of
Sanskrit, Latin, Persian and Germanic languages. This is to prove that these languages
evolved from the same ancestor.
Morphology in this century is synchronic in approach. This means that it focuses on

studying the word structure of a language at some stage of its life rather than how the
words of the language have changed in form and meaning over a period. Consequently,
Morphology can further be divided into Inflectional Morphology (IM) (concerned
with the endings put on words), Derivational Morphology (DM) (involves the
formation of new words), and Lexical Morphology (concerned with the Word
Formation Processes that can be productive or lexicalized / non-productive.
Inflectional Morphology refers to the study of inflectional morphemes. Function

words like to and of are free morphemes. Many languages including English have
bound morphemes that have a strictly grammatical function. These bound morphemes,
involving tense, number, case, gender and others, are called inflectional morphemes.
The syntactic category of the words or morphemes to which they are attached never
change. Look at these examples:
(1) I play basketball in the park.
(2) He plays basketball in the park.
(3) Rey played basketball in the park.
(4) Rey has played basketball in the park.
(5) Rey is playing basketball in the park.
To analyze, in sentence (2) the -s at the end of the verb is an agreement marker (subject
`He of the verb is 3rd person singular, present tense). It does not add lexical meaning.
12
The suffix -ed in sentence (4) indicates past tense, and is also required by the syntactic
rules of the language when verbs are used with have, just as ing in sentence (5) is
required when verbs are used with forms of be.
English is no longer a highly inflected language. However, we have other inflectional

endings such as the plural suffix -s, which is attached to certain singular nouns, as in
boy/boys and cat/cats. At the present stage of English history, there are eight bound
inflectional affixes (Fromkin, p. 2003):
In the following table designed by the author of this Simplified Course-Book of

Morphology and Syntax, the English Inflectional Morphemes are illustrated:
English Inflectional Morphemes
No. Word Class Inflectional Morpheme English Examples
1. Nouns -s plural Tom ate the bananas last night.
2. - s possessive Carmens car is new.
rd
3. Verbs -s 3 person singular present She learns fast.
4. -ed past tense She learned fast.
5. -en past participle She has eaten the bananas.
6. -ing progressive She is eating the banana.
7. Adjectives -er comparative Hassan has newer car than Malik.
8. -est superlative Abdullah has the newest car.
Derivational Morphology refers to the study of derivational morphemes. Bound

morphemes, like -ing and able, are called derivational morphemes. When they are
added to a root morpheme, a new word with a new meaning is derived. The addition of
-ing to read reading means `the act or process of reading and the addition of -able
readable means `something that could be read. The form that results from the
addition of a derivational morpheme is called a derived word. Here are some examples
of English Derivational Morphemes:
1) -ic : Noun Adj ; alcohol alcoholic
2) -ly : Adj Adv ; exact exactly
3) -ate : Noun Verb ; vaccin vaccinate
4) -ity : Adj Noun ; active activity
5) -ship : Noun Noun ; friend friendship
6) re- : Verb Verb ; cover recover
Examples of derivational morphemes in Spanish are as in nio/nia `child, niear to

act childishly, niear nanny, niera childishness niero fond of children, and
niez childhood.
In relation to derivational morphology, we could assert that certain morphemes such as

-ness or -ment have meaning only when combined with other morphemes in a word:
kindness and agreement. Likewise, there are Grammatical Morphemes that have
13
meaning only when used with other words in a sentence. In the sentence `The car of
John is new, what is the meaning of òf? The function word of has a strictly
grammatical meaning or function in the sentence. It does not have any clear lexical
meaning or concept associated with them. It is in the sentence because it is required by
the rules of sentence formation the syntax (see separate topic). Of, in relation to the
noun (John) has the grammatical function showing possession or ownership. Similarly,
to in the sentence `She likes to eat ice-cream functions as an infinitive marker of the
verb eat.
Different morphemes serve different purposes. Some create new words by either
changing the meaning: just ~ unjust, both adjectives; dark ~ darken, an adjective to a
verb. Other morphemes add information: dance ~ danced.
Lexical Morphology deals with the Word Formation Processes that can be productive
or lexicalized / non-productive. There are different types of word-formation
processes such as compounding, conversion (zero derivation), clipping, blending,
backformation, acronyms, abbreviations, coinage, neologism, creativity/productivity
and eponyms, etc.
Word Forms / Word Types.

The English Morphology is concerned with the study of Word Forms / Word Types.
It is the analysis of the Word Structure, the Main Divisions of Word Classes: Content
Words and Function Words (Parts of Speech) illustrated in the following table:
Content Words Nouns (N)

Verbs (V)
Adjectives (A)
Function Words Conjunctions (Conj.)
Prepositions (P)
Articles (art.)/Determiners (D)
Words and Morphemes

A Word is the smallest free form. It is a term in common everyday use but one that
linguists cannot easily define. A word is best defined in terms of internal stability (is it
further divisible?) and external mobility (can it be moved to a different position in a
sentence?). Is isn't, for example, one word or two words? and, how about
mother-in-law? It denotes one concept but it is formed out of three recognizable
'words': mother, in, and law. The word is simple and complex as in hunt and hunter
respectively. Linguists, therefore, prefer other terms, referring to morphemes,
allomorphs, morphs, and lexemes when talking about 'words'. A Morpheme is the
smallest meaningful unit of grammatical analysis. A word such as pen is a single
morpheme while pens is made up of two morphemes: the normal meaning of pen
14
and the signal which indicates number. This information is obtained from the /z/
ending in /penz/.
Morphemes and Allomorphs

An allomorph is a non-distinctive realization of a morpheme. In other words, an
allomorph is any of two or more alternative forms of a morpheme (/-s/ and /-es/ forms
of the plural morpheme as well as present-simple-tense-morphemes. The words keys
and buses are broken into the root [key and bus] and the plural morphemes -s and -es,
respectively. The verbs asks and watches are broken into the root [ask and watch] and
the present-simple-tense-morpheme -s and -es, respectively. Morphemes are pairings
of sounds with meanings, not spellings. The plural morpheme s, in cat-s, and dog-s
are spelled with the same letter. However, it does not sound the same in the two words.
Different pronunciations (i.e. phonetic forms) of the same morpheme are called
allomorphs. For example, [s] in cat-s, [z] in dog-s, and [z] in church-es are allomorphs
of the same plural morpheme -s. Discovering allomorphs shows an interaction of
Morphology and Phonology.
Morphemes
The morpheme has been explained as the smallest unit of speech that is meaningful
(Udofot, 1999. P. 4). In other words, it is the smallest meaningful unit of grammatical
analysis. A word such as pen is a single morpheme while pens is made up of two
morphemes: the normal meaning of pen and the signal which indicates number. This
information is obtained from the /z/ ending in /penz/. The plural morpheme has other
variants namely: {s, z} and the zero plural morphemes // as in sheep. The term
morpheme is sometimes identical with the term word as for example in the words
boy, cat, and church being morphemes and also words.
When however these words take the additional {s, z, z}, they cease to be single
morphemes because they can be further broken down into parts (in this case the
semantic element of the word and the signal for more than one). At other times, the
term morpheme is seen as the next in rank to the word in the ranking of grammatical
units: sentence, clause, phrase, word, morpheme (cf. Tomori 1977, pp. 16-17). In other
words, a word is said to be a morpheme when it cannot be further broken down into
parts without destroying the meaning. Meaning is therefore very important in the study
of morphology since morphemes are meaningful units. In the following examples:
paints, painting, painted the words can be broken down into {pe:nt} + {s}; {pe:nt} +
{ ing}; {pe:nt} + { ed}. The word paint has meaning in English while the /s/ indicates
the present tense marker, /ing/ the progressive marker and /d/ is the past participle
marker. (See Udofot, 1999).
Allomorphs
The analysis of words into morphemes starts with the identification of morphs. A
morph is a physical form representing some morpheme in a language (Katamba 1993,
15
p. 24). If different morphs represent the same morpheme, they are referred to as
allomorphs of that morpheme. For example, the plural morpheme {s} in English as
in books/bks/ can be represented as {z} as in boys/bz/. The past tense of regular
verbs in English which is spelled -ed is pronounced /t/, /d/, or / d/ depending on the
last sound of the verb to which it is attached - its phonological environment. Thus, /t/,
/d/ and / d/ are allomorphs of the past tense morpheme in English. The past tense
morpheme is realized as:
(a) /d/ if the verb ends in /d/ or /t/ as for instance in: mend /mend/; mended /mendd/
want /wnt/; wanted /wntd/.
(b) /d/ if the verb ends in a voiced sound except /d/ as in: clean /kli:n/ cleaned / kli:nd/
beg /beg/ begged / begd/.
(c) /t/ after verbs ending in any voiceless consonant other than /t/ as in:
park /pa:k/ parked / pa:kt / miss /ms/ missed / mst /.
We can represent this relationship between morphemes, allomorphs, and morphs

diagrammatically as shown below using the past tense morpheme in English:
Morpheme
(Past Tense)
/|\
allomorph allomorph allomorph
| | |
morph morph morph
| | |
/d/ /d/ /t/
(Source: Adapted from Katamba (1993, p. 26))
We can say that /d/, /d/ and /t/ can be grouped together as allomorphs of the past tense
morpheme. The notion of distribution is central to the identification of morphemes in
any language. By distribution, we mean the context in which a particular linguistic
element occurs. A set of morphs are classified as allomorphs of the same morpheme if
(i) They represent the same meaning or serve the same grammatical function;
(ii) They occur in the same contexts.
When the above criteria are satisfied, we say that the morphs are in complementary
distribution. Thus, the three morphs /d, d, t/ which are realizations of the regular past
tense morpheme are in complementary distribution because each morph only occurs in
the context described above and are therefore allomorphs of the same morpheme.
Similarly, the negative morpheme which means not can be realized as / n /, / m / and
// as in the following examples: inactive /nktv/, indecent /ndi:snt /, impenitent
/mpentnt/, impossible /mp sbl/, and incomplete /kmpli:t/, incorrigible
/kridbl/.
16
We can note that the nasal consonant in the various allomorphs of the morpheme {in}
is pronounced the way it is depending on the nature of the sound that follows it:
/m/ is used before labial consonants like /p, b, m / as in impossible; / / is used
before velar consonants like /k/ and /g/ as in incorrigible; /n/ is used elsewhere as for
example before alveolar consonants like /t, d, s, z, n/ as in indecent. The three
allomorphs /m, , n/ of the morpheme {in} are therefore in complementary
distribution in that the use of one in one slot excludes the other.
Allomorphic Variations
An allomorph as already explained is a member of a family of a morpheme a variant
of a morpheme depending on the environment where it occurs. The plural morpheme
{s} for example changes its nature depending on the phonological environment where
it occurs. The addition of the {s} morpheme to a word obtains not only in the formation
of plurals in English but also in the formation of possessives as, for instance, in goat,
goats, John, Johns as well as in changes in verb patterns as a result of changes in
person as in I dance, she dances. Generally, we refer to the three sets of {s}
morphemes with the umbrella term the Z Morpheme. When the Z Morpheme relates
to plural formation, it is called Z1 Morpheme; when it is concerned with the
formation of possessives, it is referred to as Z2 Morpheme; when it has to do with
changes in verb forms, it is referred to as Z3 Morpheme or Concord Morpheme. The
different kinds of Z Morpheme therefore are:
Z1 Plural
Z2 Possessive
Z3 Changes in verb forms
Z1 or Plural Morpheme
In English, the Z1 or Plural Morpheme has four allomorphs: /s/, /z/, and /z /. The /s/
allomorph occurs with words ending in voiceless sounds except /s/ as in cats /kts/,
books /bks/, cups /cps/. The /z/ allomorph occurs with words ending in voiced
sounds including ll vowels and voiced consonants as in mangoes / mngz/, boys
/bz/, and bags /bgz/. The /z/ allomorph is selected by words which end in alveolar
or alveopalatal sibilants (that is consonants with sharp hissing sounds as in fishes
/fi:z/, dishes /dz/, and churches /t:tz/. The // zero allomorph occurs with
words which normally do not have plurals reflected in their morphological shapes as
for instance in sheep and deer.
The Z2 or Possessive Morpheme

The Z2 or Possessive Morpheme is similar in distribution to the Z1 Morpheme. The
only difference is in the orthographic convention. The possessives have the apostrophe
in specific places in words whereas plurals are not written with apostrophes. The
distribution of the Z2 or Possessive Morpheme is as follows: /s/ occurs with words
17
ending in voiceless sounds except the sibilant consonants as in Jacks / dks/. /z/
occurs after voiced sounds other than sibilants as in Janes /denz/. /z/ occurs after the
sibilants as in nurses /n:sz/, and // occurs with words which end with the sibilants
which may be plurals or words that naturally end with the letter s as in Jones /d:ns/
and students /stju:dnts/. The possessive morpheme, unlike the plural morpheme, does
not occur frequently because in real life people own things so the possessive
morpheme tends to go more regularly with proper names. In addition, the possessive is
often replaced with of + noun phrase constructions as in the custom of the country
instead of the countrys customs. This type of construction is often preferable to
possessives in some clumsy sounding cases as in the following: The eve of St. Agnes
instead of St. Agnes Eve.
The Z3 or Concord Morpheme

The Z3 or Concord Morpheme is the morpheme that shows changes in verb patterns
occasioned by changes in person or number, as in I go, and she goes. Like the other Z
Morphemes, it is phonologically conditioned as follows: /s/ after voiceless
consonants except sibilants as in walks /w:ks/. /z/ after voiced sounds other than
sibilants as in goes /gz/, /z/after sibilant sounds as in washes /w:z/. The Z3 or
Concord Morpheme is also often referred to as the third person singular present tense
morpheme.
The D or Past Time Morpheme

The allomorphs /t, d, d/ are phonologically conditioned. In addition to the allomorphs
/t/, /d/ and /d/ there is a // allomorph which occurs where there is no change in the
morphological shape of the verb, as for instance, in the verbs hit and put which have
the same morphological shapes for both present and the past. The phonological
conditioning noted in the behavior of the ZI, Z2, and Z3 morphemes is not peculiar to
these morphemes. We have noted this behavior with the D morpheme too and earlier in
the various allomorphs of the morpheme {-in}.
Summary of Allomorphic Variations
To sum up the allomorphic variations, we can say that a morph is the physical
representation of a morpheme in a language. An allomorph is a variant of a morpheme
that occurs in a specific environment. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of
grammatical analysis. Allomorphs of a morpheme occur in complementary
distribution. The Z Morphemes and the D Morphemes have at least three allomorphs.
The Z1 or Plural Morpheme has four allomorphs - /s/, /z/, / z/ and // The Z2 or
Possessive Morpheme has the following allomorphs: /s/, /z/, / z/ and //. The Z3 or
Concord Morpheme has the following allomorphs: /s/, /z/, / z/. The D or past time
morpheme has the following allomorphs: /t/, /d/ and / d/ there is a // allomorph which
occurs where the past and present tense forms are the same. All allomorphs are
18
phonologically conditioned. In addition, we can summarize the allomorphic variations

so far discussed as follows:
For the Z Morpheme

/s/ [s] in voiceless environments except sibilants.
/s/ [z] in voiced environments except sibilants.
/s/ [z] after sibilants /s, z, , t, , d /.
For the D Morpheme

/d/ [t] in voiceless environments except after /t/
/d/ [d] in voiced environments except after /d/
/d/ [d] after /t/ and /d/
For any sibilant suffix in English

The different phonetic representations are as follows:
/s/ after voiceless consonants other than the sibilants.
/z/ after vowels and voiced consonants like /b, n, d/.
/z/ after the alveolar and alveo-palatal sibilants /s, z, , t, , d /.
Nature of Morphemes
The morpheme is sometimes confused with the syllable but it is different. Syllables are
made up of sounds that are grouped together for pronunciation purposes. For instance,
the word star is made up of the sounds /s/, /t/ and /a: / which add up to /sta: /. The
division of words into the component sound (phonemes) makes it possible for
languages to be written using letters. Words can also be broken down into syllables.
Some words are composed of one syllable as the word pens /penz/. Others are made
up of two or more syllables as the words today/t de /, saliva /s-la -v /, embarrass /
m-b-r s/ and companion /k m-pnn/.
While the syllable is the unit of pronunciation, being the smallest stretch of sound that
can be uttered with one breath (Abercrombie, 1975, p. 350), the morpheme is the
smallest unit of meaning and of grammatical analysis. For instance, the words today
and embarrass are made up of two and three syllables respectively but they are
composed of only one morpheme each. On the other hand the word pens is a
monosyllabic word (made up of one syllable) but has two morphemes namely: the
morpheme {pen} and the plural morpheme {s}.Therefore, when we divide words into
morphemes, we isolate groups of sounds that have semantic and grammatical
meanings, the fact that they do not constitute syllables notwithstanding.
Types of Morphemes: Free and Bound Morphemes

Morphemes are free when they can stand on their own and constitute independent
words as in black, board, tea, pot, sweet, heart. Single words as the ones listed
above are the smallest free morphemes that are capable of self-governing existence.
19
When joined together to form compound words like blackboard, teapot, sweetheart,
each of the two morpheme words still retain meanings of their own which add up to the
meaning of the words of which they are part.
In contrast, bound morphemes are those morphemes that are not capable of
self-governing existence. They occur usually with some other word-building element
attached to them. Examples of bound morphemes are given below:
(a) -ceive as in receive, perceive
(b) -mit as in permit, commit
(c) -intro as introspect, introduce
Some words are made up of two bound morphemes as is the case in introduce while
many other words are made up of free and bound morphemes as in the words
pillows and cleaner. The bound morphemes also often occur as prefixes and suffixes
but never in isolation as words.
Roots, Stems, and Bases

The morpheme that carries the core meaning is referred to as the root of the word. In
the word faithfulness for instance, the core of the word or root morpheme is faith.
Similarly, in the word naturalization the root morpheme is nature. The root of the
word is the permanent present part of the word.
The stem of the word is that part to which we add the last morpheme. It is thus the part
in existence before any inflectional affixes (those additions required by the grammar of
a language such as indicators of number in nouns, tense in verbs etc.). In the words
cats and learners, we add the {s} morpheme to the root cat while we add the
agentive morpheme -er to the root learn to make the word learner to mean one who
learns. In learners the root is learn while learner is the stem to which we add the
inflectional plural morpheme -s to make the plural word learners and to give the
additional meaning of more - than - one.
The base on the other hand is a unit to which we can add any affix. The affix may be
inflectional (selected for grammatical reasons) or derivational in which case it alters
the meaning or grammatical category of the base.
A root like girl to which we have added no affix can be a base. This is because it can
take an inflectional affix like {-s} to form the plural girls or a derivational affix like
{ish} to turn the noun into an adjective girlish. In effect, all roots are bases but roots
are stems when they take inflectional suffixes. Thus although all roots are bases, not all
roots are stems. In the word faithfulness, faith is the root of the whole word; it is also
the stem of faiths and the base of faithful while faithful becomes the base for
faithfulness. We can use knowledge of the root of words to explain the origin and
core meaning of words from Latin or Greek.
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To sum up, the syllable is the unit of pronunciation while the morpheme is the smallest
unit of meaning and of grammatical analysis. Free morphemes can stand by themselves
as words but bound morphemes are incapable of independent existence. The root is the
morpheme that carries the core meaning of a word. The stem of the word is that part to
which we add the last morpheme. The base on the other hand is a unit to which we can
add any affix. Although all roots are bases, not all roots are stems.
Affixation
The formation of New Words in many languages can be by the addition of morphemes
to bases. The addition of such morphemes can be before or after the base. Affixation is
the morphological process in which the addition of such morphemes to existing words
to form new words. The morphemes added are affixes. An affix is not capable of
self-governing existence except as an attachment to another morpheme such as a root,
stem or base. Affixes are therefore bound morphemes. For example, no English word is
made up of an affix alone like al, -er, -ed or im. Similarly, affixes cannot be joined
together in a recognizable structural word to form words as the following examples
show: *im al, *al ed, *im ed.
Affixation involves (free morpheme + affix) as in blacken (black + -en) in English,

sumulat to write in Tagalog (from sulat write), mudarris-ah a female teacher in
(from mudarris a male teacher) in Arabic.
There are two types of affixes, which usually operate in English: prefixes, which are
added before the bases to form new words and suffixes added after the base. A word
like unhappiness, for instance, is made up of the root morpheme happy before and
after which the prefix un and the suffix -ness have been added respectively.
Prefixation and suffixation are the major forms of affixation. Therefore, they are
major morphological processes in English.
To sum up, one of the basic principles of word formation in English is through the
morphological process of Affixation. This includes the techniques of attaching prefixes
and suffixes as well as multiple affixations of several affixes to words. This principle
underlines the dynamism of English as an international language.
Prefixation
Prefixation is a morphological process by which a prefix as a bound morpheme is
attached at the beginning of a root. Many English words derived from Latin and Greek
consist of a familiar root and a prefix. The prefix is usually a syllable or two. The Latin
prefix sub means below or under. When added to soil for instance, it modifies
the meaning of the root. Subsoil is therefore a layer of soil that is below the surface
soil. If the prefix mal- is added to treat it becomes maltreat that means treat badly.
Sometimes the prefix alters the word class of the base as in the following example: en
+ danger (noun) becomes endanger (verb).
21
A prefix is an affix that is attached to the front of a base. In English, examples of

prefixes are: re-write, un-happy, and pre-history, etc., which occur before other
morphemes. Let us observe some examples of prefixes from other languages: In
Arabic, for the morpheme (root-word) katab wrote, we can have the prefix ma-
(ma-ktab desk/office, ma-ktuub written).In Filipino, for the morpheme (root
word) laro play, we can have the prefix ka- (kalaro playmate).
Note: (See Appendix 2 for many selected examples of prefixes with meaning)
Suffixation
Suffixation is also a morphological process in English. It involves the addition of a
bound morpheme to a root or base. Many English words derived from Greek or Latin
are made up of familiar roots and common suffixes. A suffix is an affix that is attached
to the end of a base. Like prefixes, suffixes, can be made up of one or more syllables
attached at the end of a word to modify its meaning. Suffixes are of two types namely
inflectional and derivational suffixes, which reflect two major word formation
processes: inflection and derivation. Knowledge of Greek and Latin suffixes helps to
explain words we encounter and use every day though many of them are common in
technical or scientific fields. To sum up, Suffixation is a morphological process
involving the addition of a morpheme at the end of a root or base.
In English, some morphemes of suffixes are: happy-ness, teach-ing, teach-er,

journal-ist, happi-ly, etc. Let us observe some examples of suffixes from other
languages: In Arabic Language, for the morpheme (root-word) ktb katab to write
we can have the suffix -ah (ma-ktabah library/bookshop) or from kaatib male
writer we can have kaatib-ah female writer.In Filipino, for the morpheme
(rootword) laro play, we can have the suffix -an (laruan toy).
Note: (See Appendix 2 for many selected examples of suffixes with meaning)
Infixation
Infixation is also a morphological process in English. It involves the addition of a
bound morpheme within a root or base. An infix is an affix that occurs within a base,
e.g. (in Indonesian) s-in-ambung. Some languages also have infixes, morphemes that
are inserted into other morphemes. Filipino is such a language, as illustrated by the
following:
Morpheme (Noun) Verb

ganda beauty gumanda to become beautiful
lakas strength lumakas to become strong
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In this language, the infix -um- is inserted after the first consonant of the noun. Thus, a
speaker of Filipino who learns that yaman is `wealth, would understand the meaning
of yumaman, `to become rich, on hearing the word for the first time, just as an English
speaker who learns the verb sing would know that singer is òne who sings. A Filipino
speaker who knows that bumigat means `to become heavy would know that the noun
`weight must be bigat.
Circumfixation
Circumfixation is also a morphological process in English. It involves the addition of
a bound morpheme to the front and to the end of a root or a base simultaneously. A
circumfix is an affix that is attached to the front and to the end of a base
simultaneously, e.g. (in Indonesian) ke-lapar-an. Circumfixes are morphemes that are
attached to another morpheme both initially and finally, and are also called
discontinuous morphemes. Examples in English are:
teach un-teach-able
definite in-definite-ly
form trans-form-ation
courage dis-courage-ment
conscious pre-concious-ness
Examples of this circumfixing in Filipino are:

bigay give magbigayan (mag- -an) to give each other
luto cook pinaglutuan (pinag--an) ware used for cooking
balik return pabalikin (pa- -in) to order someone back
Multiple Affixations
A Multiple Affixation as a morphological process is also possible in English to form
complex words by the addition of several affixes (derivational morphemes) to roots
and bases. For instance, if we take the root friend, we can create a word by adding the
inflectional suffix -ly to form friendly. To the base friendly can be added the
derivational prefix un and the derivational suffix ness to form the complex word
unfriendliness. This process of forming complex words such as unfriendliness by the
addition of several affixes is the process of multiple affixations. The process takes
place in a number of steps so that the word formed by one-step by affixation becomes
the base for the next step as can be seen in the following examples: nature natural
unnatural naturalization. To sum up, the multiple affixation is the morphological
process of forming complex words by the addition of several affixes.
Inflection and Derivation

Linguists can divide affixes into two categories depending on their functions in word
formation. These are inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes. This
division recognizes two major processes of word building: Inflection and Derivation.
23
Inflection and derivation are two major word-building processes in English.

Inflectional and derivational morphemes behave differently in word formation.
The Inflectional Morphemes always come at the end of words in English. They are
therefore inflectional suffixes. No other morpheme we can add to a word after an
inflectional morpheme/suffix. An inflectional morpheme does not change the word
class of the root but only modifies it to enable it fit into a particular grammatical
category. A derivational morpheme can change the word class and the meaning of the
base to which we add it.
We often use the techniques of inflection and derivation systematically to build

English words. Inflection and Derivation perform grammatical functions that further
explain the interesting uniqueness of the principles of word formation in English.
Although the process of inflection may create a new word, it may not change the word
class of the word. This is not the case with derivations where the class of the new word
is completely different from the previous word.
Word Formation Processes

In recent years, linguists have extended the domains of morphology to include not only
an analysis of the structure of existing words but also rules that guide the creation of
new words. So far, we have noted an open ended tendency of English words in the
sense that there appears to be no upper limit to the number of affixes or the length of
forms that may function as bases for the formation of new words. We shall observe
here a tendency of existing words to combine to form compounds. Here is the
productive nature of morphology that we will examine.
There are different types of word formation processes such as compounding,

conversion (zero derivation), clipping, blending, backformation, acronyms,
abbreviations, coinage, neologism, creativity, and eponyms, etc. These processes of
word formations are illustrated as follows:
Compounding (word + word):

Compounding (word + word) is a process of word formation that refers to the two or
more words joined together to form a new word. For examples: girlfriend, looking
glass, man-made, and hanger on the primary stress of a compound always falls on the
first word. The meaning of a compound is not always predicable from its components.
Compare boathouse, Redcoat, and hotdog. How to determine the part of speech of a
compound? Here are some general rules:
a) when two words of the same part of speech form a compound, the compound will
also have this part of speech, e.g. bittersweet, sleepwalk, rainbow.
b) When two words of different parts of speech form a compound, the compound will
have the same part of speech of the second or the last word, e.g. headstrong,
24
poorhouse, spoonfeed, carryall.
c) Compounds formed with a preposition have the part of speech of the

non-prepositional part of the compound, e.g. hanger-on, sundown, downfall, overtake.
Blending (part of a word + part of a word):

Blending is a process of word formation that refers to the similar to compounds, but
parts of the words are deleted.
For Examples:
Motor + hotel Motel
Breakfast + lunch Brunch
Wireless + Fidelity Wi-Fi
More examples of Blends or blending are as follows: motel (motor + hotel), cybrary
(cyber + library) and brunch (breakfast + lunch)
Acronym:
Acronym is a process of word formation that refers to forming a new word by
combining the initials of different words, e.g. scuba (self- contained underwater
breathing apparatus), RAM (random access memory), TLC (tender loving care), ER
(emergency room).
Other examples on acronyms are demonstrated in the following table:

Other examples of Acronyms
Radar Radio detecting and ranging
FYI For Your Information
TGIF Thanks God Its Friday
a.k.a also known as
Html Hypertext mark-up language
www World wide web
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
Radar Radio detecting and ranging
Clipping:
Clipping is a process of word formation that refers to the shortening a polysyllabic
word by deleting one or more syllables.
Examples:
Facsimile fax
Hamburger burger
Gasoline gas
Advertisement ad
25
In other words, clipping is a process of forming a new word by shortening the spoken
form of a word and a compound, e.g. lab (from laboratory), fridge (from refrigerator),
flu (from influenza), floppy (from floppy disk), hifi (from high fidelity).
Abbreviation:
Abbreviation is a process of word formation that refers to Forming a new word by
shortening the written form of a word or a compound, e.g. prof. (for professor), Tex.
(for Texas), and Dr. (for doctor), bsmt (for basement)
Reduplication:
Reduplication is a process of word formation that refers to forming new words by
repeating an entire word or part of it.
1) Total Reduplication: In Indonesian, ruman means house and rumanruman means

houses; in Arabic bal to wet and balbal to wet again and again.
2) Partial Reduplication: In Amis, pawli means banana, and pawliwli means every
bunch of banana
Morpheme-Internal Change (MIC):

Morpheme-internal Change (MIC) is a process of word formation that refers to
Creating new words through morpheme-internal modifications, e.g. goose-geese,
ring-rang-rung and strife-strive in English. It sometimes combines with affixation, e.g.
break-broke-broken, bite-bit-bitten,
Suppletion:
Suppletion is a process of word formation that refers to marking a grammatical
contrast by replacing a morpheme with an entirely different morpheme, e.g. am-was,
go-went in English.
Conversion
Conversion is a process of word formation that refers to the assigning an already
existing word to a new syntactic category.
Examples:
butter (N) to butter the bread

permit (V) an entry permit
empty (A) to empty the litter-bin
Zero Derivation:
Zero Derivation is a process of word formation that derives a new word without any
change of the form. (E.g. email (noun and verb; record (noun and verb)
26
Back-formation:
Back formation is a process of word formation that refers to the creative reduction due
to incorrect morphological analysis.
Examples:
editor (1649) edit (1791)
television (1907) televise (1927)
In other words, backformation is a process of forming a new word through incorrect

morphological analysis, e.g. edit from editor, peddle from peddler, cheeseburger from
Hamburger.
Coinage
Coinage is a process of word formation that refers to the construction and addition of
new words into the language. They become the generic names though originally
product names (e.g., Kleenex, Xerox, Vaseline).
Neologism
Neologism is a process of word formation that refers to a new or newly coined word or
phrase. As we invent new techniques and professions, we must also invent neologisms
such as "microcomputer" (=a small digital computer based on a microprocessor and
designed to be used by one person at a time) and "astronaut" (a person trained to travel
in a spacecraft) to describe them.
Neologisms are words coined to express some new phenomena or the attitude of the
speaker or writer. A typical example is snail-mail referring to the postal service as
opposed to the modern electronic mail. Extension of meaning could be said to be a
characteristic feature of neologisms. In the case of snail-mail above, the characteristic
slow speed of the snail is extended to the speed of postal services. Many neologisms
are compounds which are semantically opaque. In present-day English the words
walk-man and tallboy are ready examples. A tallboy is not a kind of boy but a piece of
furniture, while a walk-man is not a kind of man but a type of stereo equipment.
Creativity/Productivity
Creativity/Productivity is a process of word formation that refers to the capability of
human language users to produce an infinite number of words and utterances using the
word formation rules of languages that are themselves finite. Creativity has the same
sense as Productivity. In morphology, creativity can be rule-governed when the
formation of new words follow the rules and principles learnt and internalized by the
user of the language as, for instance, when abstract nouns are formed from verbs in
English by the addition of the suffix -ion / -ition as in addition and information.
Creativity can also be rule bending when users bend the rules and at times do violence
to the everyday meaning of words in an attempt to create new words.
27
Eponyms
Eponyms is a process of word formation that refers to the words derived from proper
names or things.
Examples:
Kodak
Sandwich
Celcius
Morphological Rules
Morphological Rules are rules of word formation. Looking over the discussion so far,
we can see some basic patterns of morphological rules. Let us review some of them. If
we consider compounding/compounds first, we notice a remarkable pattern using
brackets to show how these words are formed:
[V [N bar] [V tend]] bartend

[N [N apple] [N pie]] apple-pie
[A [N jet] [A black]] jet-black
[N pl. [N sg. part] [N pl. suppliers] part suppliers
[N sg. [N pl. parts] [N sg. supplier] parts supplier
[N [N [N rocket] [N motor]] [N chamber]] rocket motor chamber
Instead of using brackets to show how the abovementioned-bracketed words are

formed, it is often easier to use a Morphological Tree-Diagrams (MTD), like the
following:
Bartend jet-black
V A
/\ /\
N V NA
/ \ / \
Bar tend jet black
Rocket motor chamber University parking lot

N N
/\ /\
N N N N
/\ \ / /\
N N \ / N N
/ \ \ / / \
Rocket motor chamber University parking lot
These trees are upside down: the point at the top is the root; along the bottom, we have
the pronounced leaves. The root, the leaves, and the other labeled constituents in the
tree are called nodes of the tree. There is always just one root, and the branches never
28
cross. Notice that the different structures of the last two examples, what modifies what,
is figured out by considering what makes the most sense.
Another basic thing we see is that the roots combine in pairs. The pairs we see here can
be described with rules like the following (this rule format is not presented in the text):
VNV
NNN
ANA
There is regularity here. All of these rules have the morphological rule:
XYX
This regularity in English compounds is described as follows: (1) In English, the

rightmost element of a compound is the head; and (2) A compound word has the
category and features of its head. This is called the English Right Hand Head Rule
or the Head-Final Principle
There is an analogous/similar way to write affixation rules. The important thing to

notice is that the head-final rule in compounds predicts some of the patterns we see in
affixation: (1) an English suffix often changes category, but prefixes rarely do; and (2)
the conditions on affixation typically refer to the just the last suffix. The conditions for
attaching a suffix never refer to the root, which may seem surprising to a non-linguist,
since, intuitively, it is usually the root that provides most of the meaning of the word.
How can we exploit this insight that affixes and compounds both seem to have their
properties determined by their right-hand members? Well, we can just suppose that
affixation structures are head-final too. Then, considering the most productive affixes
first, we can use rules like the following to describe their requirements and their
effects:
N -er / [V ] (manager)
A -able / [V ] (manageable)
N -ness / [A ] (happiness)
The first rule says that the N -er is allowed when it can form a complex with a verb.
Moreover, by the head-final rule, we know that the resulting complex will be a noun
N. We read the other rules similarly. We can draw the resulting structures with trees.
For affixation structures, let us presents morphological tree diagrams like the
following:
29
manager manageable happiness

N A N
/\ /\ /\
V -er V able A -ness
/ / /
manage manage happy
However, if we use the rules given above, then INSTEAD, we can provide categories
for the affixes, conforming to the English head-final rule:
manager manageable happiness

N A N
/\ /\ /\
V N V A A N
/ \ / \ / \
manage -er manage -able happy -ness
Prefixes in English tend not to be category changing, but rather just modifiers. So if we
had to assign categories to them, we could observe the following:
1. A modifies N, as in happy day
2. Adv modifies V, as in he completely finished
3. Adv modifies A, as in completely happy
Therefore, we could assign morphological tree diagrams like these to prefix structures:
Unhappy untie remake unhappinesses antiracist

A V V N N
/\ /\ /\ /\ /\
Adv N Adv V Adv V N N A N
/ \ / \ / \ /\ \ / /\
/ \ / \ / \ A N \ / N N
/ \ / \ / \ /\ \ \ / / \
/ \ / \ / \ Adv A \ \ / / \
/ \ / \ / \ / \ \ \ / / \
unhappy untie remake unhappy -ness -es anti- race -ist
These trees conform to the same generalization that we had for compounds: the right
sister determines category. In fact, applying the head-final rule to each of the affixes in
our first example sentence, we obtain a category for all of the suffixes:
D N N V V P V N A Adv P D N N
The friend -s promis -ed to ask care -ful -ly about a school-master
P D A N
For the fair Fatimah
30
A Morphological Tree-Diagram (MTD)

A word structure is normally displayed by means of a Morphological Tree Diagram
(MTD) (the so-called word structure) and by a system of re-write rules one can move
from an initial unit (the entire word) to the individual elements (a so-called terminal
string). See the following morphological tree diagram of the word unproductively.
adv.
/\
Prefix adv.
| /\
| adj. Suffix
| /\ |
| base/stem Suffix |
| | | |
Un- product -ive -ly
Now, let us see the following morphological tree diagram of the complex word
Antidisestablishmentarianism.
N
/\
N Aff
/\ |
Aff N |
| /\ |
| N Aff |
| /\ | |
| Aff N | |
| | /\ | |
| | V Aff | |
| | | | | |
Anti dis establish ment arian ism
We can represent it as follows:
31
Section 3: Syntax
The grammar of a language has several components. These can be described as
follows: a) The phonetics that governs the structure of sounds; b) The morphology that
governs the structure of words; c) The syntax, which governs the structure of sentences
d) The semantics that governs the meanings of words and sentences. We are concerned
here primarily with the Syntax of the structure of sentences.
Syntax originates from the Greek words syn, meaning `together and taxis, meaning
`sequence or order. Syntax concerns the possible arrangements of words in a language.
The basic unit is the sentence that minimally consists of a main clause (containing at
least a subject and verb). Syntax studies how words combine to form sentences.
Moreover, Syntax deals with the arrangement of inflected or / and derived
morphologically words to make phrases, clauses and sentences.
In linguistics, Syntax is the study of the rules, or "patterned relations", that govern the
way the words in a sentence are arranged. It concerns how different words (nouns,
adjectives, verbs, adverbs, etc.) are combined into phrases and clauses, which, in turn,
are combined into sentences.
Any speaker of a human language can produce and understand an infinite number of
sentences. We can show this quite easily through examples such as the following
(Fromkin: 2003):
1). The cat chased the mouse.
2). The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese.
3). The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow.
4). The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow that
grazed in the field.
The speaker could continue creating sentences by adding an adjective, or a noun

connected by and, or a relative clause. Thus, this could go on forever since all
languages have mechanisms such as these modification, coordination, and clause
insertion that make the number of sentences limitless.
Part of what is meant by structure is word order. The meaning of a sentence depends
largely on the order in which words occur in a sentence. Thus,
Mary bought what John needs. vs. Mary needs what John bought.
Thus, syntax refers to the structure of sentences and the rules that govern the
correctness of a sentence. There are five basic sentence elements in the traditional
classification; these are Subject (S), Verb (V), Object (O), Adverbial (A) and
Complement (C) often represented as SVOAC. Of the five elements, the verb is the
compulsory element while the other elements are optional. Sentences can be formed
32
using the five elements as follows: V, SV, SVO, SVA, SVOO, SVAC, and SVOAC.
Of the five sentence elements: S V O A C, the subject and verb are constant; they are
always present while the object, adverbials or complements are variable. Their
presence depends on the pattern of sentence and the type of verb. In addition, the
elements O can be direct OD, or Indirect OI, C can be Cs or Co that is subject or object
complement, A can be adverbial of time, place, manner, condition, reason etc.
English, like all languages, has generally accepted patterns for sentences. Using the
abovementioned five elements SVOAC, the following sentence patterns are possible:
V - Sing
SV - She is singing, Birds fly, the aeroplane has landed. SVA - She is singing
beautifully. Jane dances gracefully. Tom came immediately.
SVC - My brother is a doctor. He is very successful. He has become a commissioner
for Health.
SVO - I ate the meat. The students played basketball. My father paid my fees.
SVOO - They gave their friends presents. She lent me her book. My father bought my
mother a new pair of shoes.
SVOC - His father named him his heir. I made her my successor. The company
nominated my brother the managing director.
SVAC - She was formerly a beauty queen. I will remain forever grateful
SVOCA They elected him chairperson each year.
SVOA - My father put the money in the bank. She hid her handbag somewhere.
The students spent their public holiday at the beach.
Thus, there can be the following sentence patterns.

One Element - V
Two Elements - SV
Three Elements SVO - SVA
Four Elements SVOO SVAC SVOC - SVOA
Five Elements SVOCA
We should note that a sentence might be a word as shown above. In this case, either the
subject or predicate is implied.
With transitive verbs, the following types of sentence patterns are possible:
SVO - I drank the beer

SVOO - She gave me the beer
SVOA - He poured the beer into my glass;
On the other hand, the following patterns are possible with intransitive
Verbs:
33
SV - You are joking

SVC - You are humorous
SVA - Your friend is in the car
With linking verbs, only the following patterns are possible:
SVC - She is beautiful.

SVAC - She was formerly a beauty queen.
It is important to note that any of the sentence elements can be a word, a phrase or a
clause as the following sentences show:
SVO - Susan ate apples (words)

SVA - The pen was seen in the bag (SVA= phrases).
SVA - The biro pen was seen where it was kept (A= Clause).
Sentences are composed of morphemes, but sentence meaning is more than the sum of
the meaning of the morphemes. The sentence, The girl gave the flower to a friend
has the same morphemes as À friend gave the flower to the girl. However, not the
same meaning; and the string of morphemes `*gave the to girl a friend the flower has
no linguistic meaning. There are rules in ones grammar that determine how
morphemes and words must be combined to express a specific meaning. These are the
syntactic rules of the languages.
Syntactic Rules
Syntax is the study of the principles that govern the organization of words into phrases
and sentences. Words are not put randomly into sentences. They are arranged
according to principles or syntactic rules. The Syntactic Rules reveal the grammatical
relations among the words of a sentence and tell us when structural differences result in
meaning differences and when they do not. Moreover, the syntactic rules permit
speakers to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences never produced or
heard before the creative aspect of language use. Thus, the syntactic rules in a
grammar account for at least (Fromkin: 2003):
1). The grammaticality of sentences

2). Word order
3). Hierarchical organization of sentences
4). Grammatical relations such as subject and object
5). Whether different structures have differing meanings or the same meaning
6). The creative aspect of language
Analysis of Sentence Structure

How do we know we have the knowledge of syntax? We can make a judgment on the
34
grammaticality of the sentences that we have not previously encountered:

a. Some students annoyed the teacher. (Grammatical, well formed)
b. Annoyed teacher some the students. (Ungrammatical, ill formed)
c. Some green beans annoyed the book. (?)
d. Some students annoyed the teacher with a stick.
While every sentence is a sequence of words, not every sequence of words is a

sentence. Sequences of words that conform to the rules of syntax are well-formed or
grammatical, and those that violate the syntactic rules are ill-formed or
ungrammatical.
1). The boy found the ball

2). The boy found quickly
3). The boy found in the house
4). The boy found the ball in the house
To be a sentence, words must conform to specific patterns determined by the syntactic

rules of the language as shown above.
Representations of Syntax
In Linguistics, the syntax of sentences can be described by different methods, for
instance, for the following sentence: "The boy kicked the ball." The syntax can be
described, by the following methods:
1. A statement of the correct sequence of the parts of speech (or

Syntactic Categories):
Subject is followed by verb is followed by object. In the above example,
subject = "The boy" (article followed by noun)
verb = "kicked"
object = "The ball" (article followed by noun)
2. by a series of transformational rules

For example:
Where in the above example,
35
3. by parsing diagrams
Here, the parts of a sentence are shown in a graphical way that emphasizes the
hierarchical relationships between the components of a sentence. For example:
Where:
Subject = the boy (article + noun)
Verb = kicked
Object = the ball (article + noun)
The above structure is the basic syntactic structure for a sentence in the English
language. As sentences that are more complex are considered, it is easy, by this
method, to see how these different structures relate to each other, by further breaking
down the branches of the structure. The syntax of the language contains the rules that
govern the structure of phrases and how these can be joined together. The structures
and associated rules vary from one language to another.
Parsing diagrams are capable of representing not just one particular languages
grammar but are capable of representing any kind of grammar. For instance, they can
be used to represent the rules of invented languages such as computer programming
languages.
This method of representation is the one that I will use to represent musical structures
because of the graphic nature of the representation and the flexibility of the approach.
By this method, we can show the types of syntactic structures in music and show how
they relate to each other by expending or contracting branches of the structure.
36
Examples of More Complex Syntactic Structures in Language
1. Embedding
It is possible to construct sentences that are more complex than the example above.
This is done by embedding further phrases within the basic structure. For example, in
the sentence: "The boy with red shorts kicked the ball." "With red shorts" is a
prepositional phrase that further describes the boy . This can be represented, within
the basic sentence structure, as follows:
Here we can see how the Prepositional Phrase (PP) with red shorts is embedded
within the subject Noun Phrase (NP) so that the subject is subdivided into a Noun
Phrase and Prepositional Phrase (PP). The Prepositional Phrase itself contains a further
Noun Phrase. The parsing diagram clearly shows the hierarchical relationship between
the sentence and its components. There are many other ways of extending this structure
by embedding subordinate phrases at different parts of the basic structure.
2. Conjoining.
It is also possible to extend sentences by joining complete structures or complete and
incomplete structures, for example: "The boy with red shorts kicked the ball and scored
a goal." The conjunction and joins the complete sentence: "The boy with red shorts
kicked the ball" and the verb phrase: scored a goal"
37
(Source from: http://www.harmony.org.uk/book/linguistics_syntax.htm/15/2/2017)
A Syntactic Tree Diagram (STD)

We use tree diagrams to represent Phrase Structure. A syntactic tree diagram
provides the following information: the word class of each word, the phrase structure
of the whole sentence (what the word-groupings and their hierarchical structure are
how they are nested or not nested inside each other), and the phrasal category of each
phrase (what kind of phrase each phrase is). A tree diagram does not show, directly,
information about the function of phrasal categories. In ordinary sentences, the
sentence (S) is always subdivided into NP VP. That is to say (S = NP + VP). This is
illustrated in the following syntactic tree diagram for the sentence The dog ate the
bone:
S
/\
NP VP
/\ /\
Det. N V NP
| | | /\
| | | Det. N.
| | | | |
The dog ate the bone
Noun Phrases
A Noun Phrase is syntactically represented as follows: NP = Det. + N and N = N +
Modifier. Modifiers may be a word, a phrase, or a clause. In addition, modifiers are
38
subdivided into Pre Modifiers and Post Modifiers. These are demonstrated below:
Pre Modifiers
Pre Modifiers may be Adjectives as illustrated in the following syntactic tree diagram:
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| / \
| A N
| | |
A lazy boy
Alternatively, they may be Nouns as illustrated in the following syntactic tree

diagram:
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| / \
| N N
| | |
A school boy
Alternatively, they may be Participles as illustrated in the following syntactic tree

diagrams:
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| / \
| Pre. Part N
| | |
A crying girl
39
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| / \
| Past. P N
| | |
The broken window
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| / \
| G N
| | |
A swimming pool
Alternatively, they may be Adverbials as illustrated in the following syntactic tree

diagram:
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| / \
| Adv N
| | |
A nearby school
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| Adj. P N
| /|\ |
| / | \ |
| A Conj. A |
| | | | |
A handsome and intelligent boy
40
Post Modifiers
Post modifiers may be Prepositional Phrase as illustrated in the following syntactic
tree diagrams:
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| N PP
| | /\
| | Prep NP
| | | |
| | | N
| | | |
The way to school
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| N PP
| | /\
| | Prep NP
| | | /\
| | | Det. N
| | | | |
The girl near the door
NP
/\
Det. N
| /|\
| Adj. N PP
| / | /\
| / | Prep NP
| | | | /\
| | | | Det. N
| | | | | /\
| | | | | AP N
| | | | | | |
| | | | | Adj. |
| | | | | | |
The beautiful girl in the blue dress
41
Alternatively, they may be Participle Phrase (PPP) as illustrated in the following

syntactic tree diagram:
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| N PPP
| | /\
| | Prep P PP
| | | /\
| | | Prep. NP
| | | | /\
| | | | Det. N
| | | | | /\
| | | | | Adj. N
| | | | | | |
The schoolgirl sitting in the front row
Alternatively, they may be Relative Clauses as illustrated in the following syntactic

tree diagram:
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
|. N S
| | /\
| | NP VP
| | | /\
| | | V N
| | | | |
The student who played tennis
Alternatively, they may be Adverbs as illustrated in the following syntactic tree

diagram:
NP
/\
Det. N
| /\
| N Adv.
| | |
A room upstairs
42
Alternatively, they may be Adjectives as illustrated in the following syntactic tree

diagram:
NP
/\
Pro Adj.
| |
Something new
Adjective Phrases
An adjective Phrase consists of the optional Degree (Deg.) and the Adjective (Adj.)
The adjective Phrase (AP (Deg.) + Adj.) is illustrated within a sentence in the
following syntactic tree diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
| /\
Pro V AP
| | /\
| | Deg. Adj.
| | | |
She is very beautiful
Adverb Phrases
An Adverb Phrase consists of the optional Degree (Deg.) and the Adverb (Adv.) An
adverb phrase (AdvP Deg. + Adv.) is illustrated within a sentence in the following
syntactic tree diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
| /\
Pro V AdvP
| | /\
| | Deg. Adv.
| | | |
She sang fairly well
Prepositional Phrases
A Prepositional Phrase consists of the preposition (Prep.) and the Noun Phrase (NP).
The prepositional phrase (PP Prep. + NP) is illustrated in the following syntactic
tree diagram:
43
PP
/\
Prep. NP
| /\
| Det. N
| | |
| | N
| | |
Behind the door
Verb Phrases
Verb Phrases come in a variety of shapes as listed below:
1. V alone
2. V + NP
3. V + PP
4. V + NP + PP
5. V + AP
6. V + AP + PP
7. V + NP + NP
8. V+Q
V alone is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
/\ |
Det. N V
| | |
| N |
| | |
The baby cried.
V + NP is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree diagram:
44
S
/\
NP VP
/\ /\
Det. N V NP
| | | /\
N | | Det. N
| | | | |
| | | | N
| | | | |
The man built a house.
V + PP is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
/\ /\
Det. N V PP
| | | /\
| N | PreP. NP
| | | | /\
| | | | Det. N
| | | | | |
| | | | | N
| | | | | |
The men live in the city
V + NP + PP is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree diagram:
VP
/|\
V NP PP
| /\ /\
Det. N Prep. NP
| | | | /\
| | N | Det. N
| | | | | |
| | | | | N
| | | | | |
Put the pen on the table
45
V + AP is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
| /\
Pro. V AP
| | |
| | Adj.
| | |
She is nice
V + AP + PP is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
| /|\
Pro V AP PP
| | | /\
| | Adj. Prep. NP
| | | | |
| | | | Pro.
| | | | |
They are nice to us.
V + NP + NP is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree diagrams:
S
/\
NP VP
| /|\
Pro. V NP NP
| | | /\
| |. Pro. Det. `N
| | | | |
| | | | N
| | | | |
We sent him a letter.
46
S
/\
NP VP
| /|\
Pro. V NP NP
| | | /\
| |. Pro. Det. `N
| | | | |
| | | | N
| | | | |
We chose him our leader
V + Q is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
/\ /\
Det. N V Q
| | | |
| N | |
| | | |
Mikes complaints were many
Auxiliary Verb
Auxiliaries are the helping verbs - have, be, and modals (can, will, shall, etc.) as well
as do used in negation, questions, and emphasis. VP Aux + V
V = VP without auxiliaries
An Auxiliary Verb (Aux) is illustrated within a sentence in the following syntactic tree
diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
| /|\
N M Aux V
| | | /\
| | | V NP
| | | | |
| | | | N
| | | | |
Susan will be seeing Mark
47
Summary of the Phrase Structure Rules for the Syntax of English

We can summarize all the phrase structure rules for the Syntax of English as follows:
1. S NP VP
2. S Comp (= Complementiser) + S
3. NP Det. N
4. N AP N
5. N N PP
6. or N {AP N N (PP)}
7. N (PP) VP V (NP) (PP)
8. VP V (NP) (PP)
9. VP V S
10. or VP V { (NP) (PP) S}
11. Auxiliary Verb VP Aux + V and V = VP without auxiliaries
12. AP (Deg) A
13. PP P NP
14. AdvP NP Adv. or AdvP Deg. + Adv.
Syntactic Analysis of Simple Sentences
S
/\
NP VP
| /|\
Pro / | \
| V Inf.P PP
| | /\ /\
| | / \ / \
| | Inf. NP Prep NP
| | | | | /\
| | | Pro | Det. N
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | N
| | | | | | |
I want to thank you on behalf of these refugees
48
S
/|\
/ | \
NP VP PP
| /\ /\
Pro Aux V Prep NP
| | /\ | /\
| | V NP | N PP
| | /\ | | /\
| | | Det. N | | / \
| | | | | | | / \
| | | | | | | /_____\
We will delay the papers, pending arrival of the contract.
S
/|\
PastPP NP VP
/\ /\ /\
PastP PP Det. N V AdvP
| /\ | | | /\
| / \ | | | NP Adv
| / \ | | | /\ |
| /________ \ | | | /__\ |
Delayed by the bad weather, the plane arrived one our late.
Syntactic Analysis of Compound Sentences

S= S1 Coordinating Conjunction S2
S
/|\
S1 Conj. S2
/\ | /\
/ \ | / \
/ \ | / \
/ \ | / \
/_______\ | /________\
His paintings were not selling, and he had money problems.
49
S
/|\
S1 Conj. S2
/\ | /\
/ \ | / \
/ \ | / \
/ \ | / \
/_________\ | /________\
There was show going out, and so they ask him some questions.
Syntactic Analysis of Complex Sentences

A Sentence with Adverbials Clauses is illustrated in the following syntactic tree
diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
| /\
N V S
| | /\
| | Comp S
| | | /\
| | | / \
| | | / \
| | | / ____\
Julia laughed when Mark snored
Noun Clauses Functioning as Subject and Direct Object S (Complementiser + S) is

illustrated in the following syntactic tree diagrams:
S
/\
NP = S VP
/\ /\
Comp S / \
| /\ / \
| / \ / \
| /____\ /_________\
That Tom wants to build a better mousetrap is clear
50
S
/\
NP VP
| /\
Pro V S
| / /\
| / Comp S
| / | /\
| / | / \
| / | / \
| / | /__ ___ \
I know that she is a good student
S
/\
NP VP
| /\
Pro V S
| / /\
| / Comp S
| / | /\
| / | / \
| / | / \
| / | /__ ____ \
We know that you are nice to us
A Noun Clause functioning as Complement of Noun is illustrated in the following

syntactic tree diagrams:
S
/\
NP VP
/\ /\
Det. N / \
| /\ / \
| N S / \
| | /\ / \
| | Comp S / \
| | | /\ / \
| | | / \ / \
| | | / \ / \
| | | / \ / \
| | | /__ ___ _ _\ /__ ____________ _\
The idea that frogs eat spaghetti is preposterous
51
A Noun Clause functioning as Complement of Adjective is illustrated in the

following syntactic tree diagram:
S
/\
NP VP
| /\
Pro V AP
| | /\
| | A S
| | | /\
| | | Comp S
| | | | /\
| | | | / \
| | | | / \
| | | | / \
| | | | /__ ___ ____ \
We were delighted that you were able to come
52
Section 5: Syntax and Semantics

Syntax and Semantics are two very important branches in linguistics. Linguistics is
the study of language. Syntax is the study of the structure of sentence while semantics
is the study of meaning in language. Therefore, the main difference between syntax
and semantics is that syntax is concerned with structure while semantics is concerned
with meaning.
Syntax is a sub-discipline of linguistics that studies the structure of a sentence. It

studies the set of rules, principles, and processes that rule the structure of sentences in
any language. Here, the term structure of sentence refers to the word order. The
meaning of a sentence can depend on the word order. For example, look at the two
examples below.
Example 1
Because banana he is ate a hungry.
Example 2
He ate a banana because he is hungry.
The first example does not make any sense, but if you look carefully, it contains the
same words as the second example. The only difference exists in the word order.
Therefore, the word order is a key element in the syntax.
However, this does not mean that syntax is about meaning. A sentence can be
syntactically correct, yet have no meaning.
Colorless, green ideas sleep furiously.
Though the above sentence does not make any sense, it is syntactically correct. In this
sentence, you can notice that adjectives, adverbs are placed in the correct order and,
subject and verb are in accordance with each other.
53
In terms of syntactical categories, most sentences in any language can be divided as

subject and predicate. Syntax usually studies sentences that have a clear inner division
into subject and predicate. There are three types of sentences with this structure; simple
sentence, compound sentence, and complex sentence. In addition, words and phrases
in a language can be categorized according to their function in a sentence. Syntactical
classes of words are called parts of speech.
Semantics is a branch of Linguistics that focuses on the study of meaning. It studies

the meaning of words and language. Semantics study ways in which the meanings of
words can be related to each other (synonyms, homophony, etc.), ways in which the
meanings of sentences can be related to each other, and ambiguity. Ambiguity is one
way of studying the meaning of language. A sentence is said to be ambiguous when it
has more than one meaning. For example, (I saw the girl with eyeglasses.)
This sentence I saw the girl with eyeglasses has two meanings. One meaning is that I
saw a girl while I was looking through the eyeglasses. The other is that I saw a girl who
was using eyeglasses.
A syntactically correct sentence is not necessarily a meaningful sentence. A

meaningful sentence has to be syntactically correct.
(Source with some modifications

http://pediaa.com/difference-between-syntax-and-semantics/3/2/2017)
(Source of the tree diagram shown above:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syntax_tree.svg#/media/File:Syntax_tree.s
vg/3/2/2017)
54
Section 6: Summary of Arabic Morphology and Syntax

Like many other Semitic languages, Arabic is highly inflected; the derivation of words
are from a root and pattern, combined with prefixes, suffixes and circumfixes. The root
consists of 3-4 consonants, we call them radicals and the pattern is a sequence of
consonants and variables CvCvCv. We create Arabic words by assigning the root
radicals to the pattern variables. A root contains the seed meaning of the word, but the
pattern may change that meaning. Thus, combinations of the same root with different
patterns may have different meanings. For instance, the combination of the root /k t b/
(k.t.b) and the pattern maCCaC (here, C is a variable) results in the word ( mktb,
office). Combining the same root with the pattern CiCaaC, results in the word
(kitaab, a book). We also generate Arabic verbs also in the same way. It is attested in
literature that there are essentially ten different patterns for verbs, but not all them are
valid to combine with every root.
Sometimes, there are prefixes and/or suffixes attached to words. Those affixes may
modify several features of the word, including its number (singular, dual, plural or
collective), its gender (masculine, feminine or no gender), possession, definiteness,
case (nominative, accusative or genitive), tense (past, present or future) and more.
Arabic affixes have the feature of concatenating with each other according to
predefined linguistic rules, which increases the overall number of affixes.
Modern-standard-Arabic sentences usually stick to the Verb-Subject-Object (VSO)
structure. (English, by way of contrast, is SVO.) Within an Arabic sentence, there are
several required points of agreement between the verbs and the subjects. Adjectives
and nouns mostly need to agree on their gender, number and definiteness. An Arabic
noun phrase places the noun before the adjectives, which is the opposite of English
noun phrase syntax.
Arabic Morphology is a root-based system in which the derivation of words are from
radicals. Radicals are considered the fundamental consonants used in an Arabic word.
Typical Arabic roots consist of three consonants, while some roots consist of four
consonants. Less complex words, normally words used with children, consist of only
two radicals (e.g. ab- father, yad- hand).
A root contains the seed meaning of the word, but the pattern may change that
meaning. Thus, combinations of the same root with different patterns may have
different meanings. For instance, the combination of the root ..( k.t.b) and the
pattern mXXX (here, X is a variable) results in the word ( mktb, office).
Combining the same root with the pattern XXAX, results in the word ( ktAb,
book). Verbs are also generated in the same way. Actually, there are 10 different
patterns for verbs, but not all them are valid to combine with every root.
Sometimes, there are prefixes and/or suffixes attached to words. Those affixes may
modify several features of the word, including its number (singular, dual, plural or
55
collective), its gender (masculine, feminine or no gender), possession, definiteness,

case (nominative, accusative or genitive), tense (past, present or future) and more.
Arabic affixes have the feature of concatenating with each other according to
predefined linguistic rules, which increases the overall number of affixes.
Arabic Syntax is the science of classical Arabic which deals with how to identify the
grammatical positioning of the three parts of speech; letter, noun and verb by
recognizing the changes which occur at their end. In addition to this, it discusses how
to connect the parts of speech with one another and make meaningful sentences. The
purpose of Arabic Syntax is to guard one from making errors when articulating and
understanding the language of the Arabs. From the various sciences associated with the
Arabic language, Arabic Syntax is by far the most important. All discussions in Arabic
Syntax are centering upon words, phrases, and sentences.
In Arabic Syntax, the Modern standard Arabic (MSA) sentences usually stick to the
Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) structure. (English, by way of contrast, is SVO.) Within
an Arabic sentence, there are several required points of agreement between the verbs
and the subjects. Adjectives and nouns mostly need to agree on their gender, number
and definiteness. An Arabic Noun Phrase places the noun before the adjectives, which
is the opposite of English Noun Phrase Syntax.
Arabic Word order

Unlike the English language, Arabic Morphology and Syntax is typically patterned and
predictable. For example, the verb is often placed before the subject noun, while
adjectives follow their nouns in which they describe (Battle, 2002). As a result, Arabic
speakers use participles to bring out the subject in front of the verb. inna, meaning
it is true that, is a common participle used in Arabic. For example,
Arabic: 'inna ('a)l-walad(a) yaqra'(u) kitaaba-h(u)

Meaning: it is true that the boy reads (the) book (of) him
Translation: the boy reads his book
Other Word Order Characteristics of Arabic:

Auxiliary verbs precede main verbs, and prepositions precede their objects. Adjectives
follow the noun they are modifying and agree with the noun in case, gender, number,
and state. When producing negatives, the particle is placed before the verb. There is no
copula verb, auxiliary do, future tense, modal verbs, gerunds, or infinitive forms in
Arabic, and no indefinite articles. Plural nouns agree with feminine singular unless the
denote human beings (Prchazka, 2006)
Arabic Noun Inflection

Arabic has three grammatical cases: nominative, genitive and accusative. Nominative
cases are subjects of a verbal sentence or predicates of a non-verbal sentence. Certain
56
adverbs retain nominative markers as well. Accusative case is direct object after the
transitive verb. Genitive case refers to the marking of a noun modifying another noun.
Nominative case /u/ Singular nouns marked with /-u/, Accusative case /a/ Singular
nouns marked with /-a/ Genitive case /i/ Singular nouns marked with /-i/
Arabic Number
Arabic distinguishes between nouns based on three different quantities. Nouns are
singular, dual, or plural. Dual is typically marked with the suffix ani while the plural
form is either formed by una for masculine or at for feminine.
Arabic Genders
The masculine gender of a noun is unmarked, while the feminine gender of the noun is
typically marked at.
Male teacher: mu"allim
Female teacher: mu"allima(t)
Arabic Tense
For finite verbs, Arabic has two tenses: perfect and imperfect. A different vowel
patterns are used to form passive voice (e.g. darab-a he hit vs. durib-a he was hit).
According to Battle, the most commonly used verb tense is imperfect tense (2002).
57
Section 6: Summary of English Semantics

Semantics is concerned with the study of meaning and is related to both philosophy and
logic. Semiotics is the study of communication systems in general. Sign language is a
common means of communication among those who are deaf and can, if learned from
childhood, approach natural language in terms of scope and flexibility.
There are two major subfields in Semantics: the Lexical Semantics (meanings of
words), and the Sentential Semantics (meanings of sentences). Moreover, there are
four recognizable types of meaning: lexical meaning, grammatical meaning, sentence
meaning and utterance meaning which refer to the areas of derivational morphology,
inflectional morphology, syntax and pragmatics respectively.
External meaning relationships involve sense (relationships between words) and

denotation (relationship of word to what it signifies).
There are various internal meaning relationships such synonymy (sameness of

meaning), antonymy (difference in meaning), hyponymy (hierarchical order of
meaning).
Different models for semantic analysis are available: prototype theory, where a central
concept is taken, as typical and less central ones are peripheral and componential
analysis, which seeks to break words down into their component semantic parts.
Given below are the relationship between words:
Synonym refers to the words have the same or nearly the same meaning. e.g.
couch/sofa, large/big, boy/lad, Some synonyms imply positive or negative attitude:
naive/gullible/ingenuous Some synonyms are collocationally restricted: e.g. my big
sister vs. my large sister
Antonym refers to the words have the opposite meanings. Antonyms share all but one
semantic property
Homonym: Words of different meanings that are pronounced the same or even spelled
the same. tail vs. tale bat (baseball bat) vs. bat (animal) bear (v) vs. bear (animal)
Polysemy: A polysemous word having multiple meanings (either historically or
conceptually related)
Hyponym: Hyponym is a relation of inclusion. A hyponym includes the meaning of a
more general word. E.g. dog and cat are hyponyms of animal. Sister and mother are
hyponyms of woman. (Note: dog and puppy are not hyponym of dog.)
There are at least three aspects in the nature of meaning:

1. Information content
2. Mental representation
3. Context of an utterance (the study of pragmatics)
58
Section 8: Summary of Arabic Semantics

The most basic utterance that comes out of the human beings mouth is termed /lafdh/
pronunciation. If it has no established meaning, it is known as /muhmal/ (meaningless),
whereas if it does convey established meaning, it is called /mawdhuu/ (meaningful).
The meaningful could be either one word, termed /mufrad/ (single) also known as
/kalimah/ (word) or a group of words; /murakkab/ (compound). The group of words
can be linked together to result in a complete sentence; /mufiid/ /gumlah/ /kalaam/
(beneficial combination/sentence), or it may constitute a phrase; /murakkab gheer
mufiid/ (non-beneficial combination).
Ibn Khaldun, may Allah elevate his rank, wrote in his magnificent Introduction
/muqadimat/ ( ) regarding the Arabic language and its superiority over all other
languages. He said, the grace of Allah on him( ) , it is because in Arabic
even non-words i.e. vowel sounds and patterns carry meaning. In other languages, to
convey these non-word meanings we need to use whole words. He said that is why we
see massive difference in length when there is a translation of some Arabic passage
into a non-Arabic language. The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
said, Speech has been made comprehensive for me.
We have three distinct sources for meanings, only our first meaning is because of the
words themselves:
A meaning originating from the base letters of a word i.e. wherever and in whichever
pattern those letters are to be, the base letter meaning will be present e.g. the base
letters kaf, taa, and baa express the meaning of writing. Wherever these letters are
found, the base letter meaning of writing will be there. In Arabic, almost all
combinations of three consonants have meaning. It is the job of the dictionary to give
us this base letter meaning.
A meaning coming from the pattern. The letters themselves are all consonants.
Consonants alone are unpronounceable. For instance, try pronouncing the letter b
without adding a vowel to it! The moment a sound comes out, one realizes it is either
ba, bi bu or the like which has been pronounced, not just the letter b by itself.
The reality is all consonants need to be coupled with vowels in order to become
syllables and thus pronounceable. This is the nature of human utterance. A syllable is
the sound produced by coupling a consonant with a vowel. This is nothing more than a
manifestation of human limitations. In other languages, the vowelling that arose out
of pure necessity is mostly random and carries little significance. However, in Arabic it
is this very vowelling which Ibn Khaldun is calling our second meaning, namely the
pattern meaning./k/ , /t/ , and /b/ we said expresses the meaning of to
write. In Arabic, there are literally dozens, if not hundreds of ways to vowel those
three letters, some of which include the addition of non-base letters. All of these
patterns carry distinct meaning. Now, depending on the particular pattern, the
59
expressiveness of the base-letter meaning of writing is in unique way. For instance,

/kataba/ (he wrote), /kutiba/ ( it was written), /yaktubu/ ( he writes, is writing
or will write), /kaatib (writer), /maktab/ (desk i.e. place of writing), /uktub/
( write!) and many, many others. Also, recall that we said the subjects of all of
these verbs i.e. the pronouns are not separate words but letters. The recognition of these
patterns and designated letters that come at the end of the verbs to reflect the pronouns
is the subject matter of Arabic Morphology.
As for our third and final meaning, which is also a non-word meaning, we refer back
to the first section of this discussion i.e. introducing grammatical states. Let us recall
that grammatical structure in Arabic reflection occurs by change in the last letter. It is
from the ending of a given word that we determine whether we use that word in the
sentence as a subject of the verb, an object, or whether the word is in the possessive
case. Arabic Syntax deals with all the technicalities of grammatical meaning.
In summary, we may say the most basic meaning originates from the given three base
letters of a word. These three letters then need arrangements with vowels in order to
pronounce them. In most languages, this vowelling carries little if any meaning. In
Arabic, we convey the completely distinct meanings such as tenses and the gender,
plurality and person of pronouns via these vowels and letters. When the individual
words are constructed, we need to use them in sentences, because people do not speak
in words. They speak in sentences. Sentence structure is reflected again, not by
separate words (like in other languages), but by vowels or letters! This is our third
meaning.
60
Section 9: Summary of English Pragmatics

In contrast with semantics, the study of the relationship between linguistic properties
and entities in the real world, pragmatics is frequently defined as the study of language
use, i.e. the study of purposes for which [such linguistic forms] are used (Stalinker
1973, p. 38). In its narrower sense, pragmatics deals with how linguistic elements and
contextual factors work side by side in the interpretation of an utterance, enabling the
hearer/reader to grasp the right meaning intended by the speaker/writer rather than just
adhering to the referential meaning of an utterance.
In addition, Pragmatics is the study of language from the point of view of usage. It has
various sub-forms depending on the emphasis given by linguists, for instance it can be
investigated from a strictly linguistic stance or with regard to social factors.
Presupposition means that something is taken for granted in a sentence whereas
entailment implies that some other fact(s) apart from that stated in the sentence also
hold(s). In the analysis of conversation various implicatures rules if you like
are taken to apply.
They refer to the quality, quantity, relevance and manner of conversation and are
assumed to be almost universally valid. A speech act is a classifiable and structured
utterance spoken in an actual communication situation. There are preconditions for
speech acts such as felicity conditions, which must be met for a speech act to be
successful.
Speech acts are classified according to their effect. Locutionary acts simple express
sense or reference. Illocutionary acts express the intentions of the speaker whereas for
perlocutionary acts the effect is of greatest importance. There are further subdivisions
in type such as directives (commands for example) or commissives (promises for
instance). An indirect speech act is one where the intended meaning of a sentence is
different from the literal one.
Deixis concerns the various types of pointing which is possible with language. This
can be direct, with adverbs of direction, or indirect, for instance with different types of
pronoun. Discourse analysis is concerned with the analysis of spoken language in
sections larger than the sentence. The two main features for successful discourse are
coherence (based on semantic transparency) and cohesion (achieved through formal
mechanisms such as sentence connectors and anaphoric elements).
Emphasizing sentence elements is achieved mainly through topicalisation (movement

of highlighted elements, normally to the beginning of a sentence) and clefting (moving
an element to the beginning by placing it in a dummy sentence with the rest in a
subordinate clause).
61
The ethnography of communication concerns itself with discourse strategies in

cultures, which differ considerably from each other.
(Source from Raymond Hickey, The Neat Summary of Linguistics Page 18 of 40 and
(Stalinker 1973, p. 38))
62
Section 10: Summary of Arabic Pragmatics

In our everyday interactions with other people, our ideas and thoughts expressed in
words seem to flow naturally. Interrelations between members are an area that we
explore by pragmatics.
In regard of Arabic pragmatics, our Arabic Language vividly expresses cultural values,
and our culture values are expressed through our Arabic Language. Let us go through
the following:
Given below are somehow Yemeni Arabic Pragmatic rules (values and expressions)
about relations of members: boys and girls, men and women, among relatives, among
friends, etc.)
VALUE: In Yemen, being a man versus being a woman each have their benefits,
depending on the family. Nevertheless, in the end, all over the country their roles in
society are regarded very differently.
EXPRESSION: In spoken Arabic, even in written form, it is possible to identify if it is
a woman or a man who is using either the language or being spoken to or about. Aside
from things like general tone and topics, there are specific morphemes and affixes for
women and men.
For example, when saying /mushtaaqalak/ "I miss you. This would be said from a boy
to another boy. To say it from a boy to a girl, the suffix would be changed to "lik" or
"laki" (with the letter "yaa") depending on dialect and context. In /mushtaaq-ta-lik/,
the added suffix /-ta/ for the letter /taa/ indicates femininity. A girl would say this to
another girl. To say it to a boy, the suffix would be changed to /-lak/ as in
/mushtaaq-ta-lak/
The Importance of Greetings

VALUE: In the Islamic culture of Yemen, Allah's name is used to express blessing,
hope, intention, wellbeing, as well as many other things. The importance of knowing
commonly used phrases is essential to communicating in Yemeni culture and it is
dangerous to get it wrong.
EXPRESSION: Typically, when greeting someone whether in person, on the phone,
through an email, etc., the expected greeting is /assalaamu alaykum/ or "The peace of
Allah/God be with you." Then, the expected response is, /wa alaykumu ssalaam/,
which means, "And also with you."
When leaving, the expected farewell saying is /maa-ssalaamah/, which means, "Go
with the peace of Allah/God." Alternatively, in English culture, people say to each
other Go well and Stay Well.
Among Relatives: Talking to Your Mom (Showing Respect)

63
VALUE: Showing respect for age and authority is extremely important in Yemeni
culture.
EXPRESSION: There are many examples of respecting elders and authorities in
Arabic, but this is a very simple, daily example: When someone is doing something,
and then another person calls their name to get their attention, there are different ways
to respond. If a son or a daughter is called by their mother, the respectful response is,
/haa/ /matshee/ /habiibi/ which basically communicates, "I'm with you" or "You have
my attention." Such words are not something you would find in a textbook and it is
very difficult to translate. Some consultants translated it best as "my attention is on
you" or as a generally respectful way of giving someone your attention. Looking
online, the closest thing to an etymology on this word that could be found was having a
similar origin as that of the phrase "hail Mary" (n. A salutation to the Virgin Mary
now used in prayers to her) in English, but again, no specific etymology could be
found.
If that same person in was called by a friend or sibling, the typical response would be,
/naahi/ or /haa/ or /eeh/ or /eewah/, (meaning "yeah" or "yes), or possibly the person's
name or the endearing term /habiibi/. In Modern Standard, or formal Arabic, the
response would be /mathaa turiid/, (meaning "what do you need/want). These different
responses demonstrate the very basic level at which respect for elders is taught to
Yemeni children. Though, it is important to note that this is not only expected of
children when they are young, but also when they are adults.
Compliments (Giving and Receiving Them)

VALUE: Humility and putting others above yourself. This is a religiously grounded
value, as are most of the cultural values in Yemen.
EXPRESSION: When someone compliments you, there are two options: one, you can
offer them whatever they complimented, or two, you say, /thi min halaawat uyuunak/
or /uyuunaka-l-hilwah/, which means, "Your eyes see goodness/beauty," giving them
the credit for seeing something good in whatever they were complimenting. A typical
conversation including this would be as follows:
Person 1: /intaa hilw/ (You are nice/beautiful).

Person 2: /uyuunaka-l-hilwah/ (Your eyes see goodness/beauty).
Person 1: /uyuunaka-l-ahlaa/ (Your eyes are the best/most beautiful).
This interaction is very symbolic of the values of always outdoing other people in
generosity and hospitality, as it strives to give the credit/approval to the other person.
Among Friends
VALUE: Friendship and brotherhood are taken very seriously in Yemeni culture.
relationships are bonded extremely closely.
64
EXPRESSION: Just because someone calls another person, his "brother" does not
necessarily mean they are actually even related. Do not be caught off guard if you
cannot keep up with who is related to who.
Instead of, or in addition to, the traditional greetings, in the Arabic of Yemen one will
often hear /ahlan wa sahlan/ or /hala/ as another way of saying "hello" among friends.
In the Tihami Yemeni Arabic, they also say /ahlee wsahlee/ to enthusiastically greet
each other.
In all Arabic dialects, one will hear many endearments used between men and between
women alike. For example, they will refer to their friends in normal conversation as
/qalbi (which means "my heart), /hayaati/ (which means "my life), /habiibi/, or
/habiibati/ (which means baby or sweetie. /habiibati/ is only for girls, while
/habiibi/ is for boys (and sometimes for girls as well). Friends use extremely
affectionate language with each other as a way of showing respect and love. However,
for them, the endearments are so normal that sometimes they are even unconscious. It
is a fact of tradition and of showing constant respect for one another.
65
Sources, References, and Bibliographies

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Bauer, L. 20022. An Introduction to International Varieties of English. Edinburgh:
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Bauer, L. 20032. Introducing Linguistic Morphology. Edinburgh: EUP.
Carnie, A. 2002. Syntax. Oxford: Blackwell.
Carstairs-McCarthy, A. 2002. An Introduction to English Morphology. Edinburgh:
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Haegeman, L. & J. Guron. 2000. English Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.
Haspelmath, M. 2002. Understanding Morphology. London: Arnold. [not yet there]
Horn, Laurence R. & Ward, Gregory (Eds.). (2004). The Handbook of Pragmatics.
Malden: Blackwell.
Katamba, F. (1993). Morphology. London: Macmillan:Lagos: Longman
Katamba, F. 1994. English Words. London: Routledge.
Levinson, Stephen C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lieber, R. 1992. Deconstructing Morphology. Chicago: UCP.
Lbner, Sebastian (2002). Understanding Semantics. London: Arnold.
Lyons, John (1977). Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nida, E. (1949). Morphology: the descriptive analysis of words. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.
Poole, G. 2002. Syntactic Theory. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Portner, P. 2004. What Is Meaning? Oxford: Blackwell.
Radford, A. (2004) English Syntax: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, ISBN 0 521 54275 8 (paperback)
Radford, A. 1988. Transformational Grammar. Cambridge: CUP.
Radford, A. 2004a. Minimalist Syntax. Cambridge: CUP.
Radford, A. 2004b. English Syntax. Cambridge: CUP.
Riley, Philip. (1981) Towards a Contrastive Pragma-Linguistics. In Contrastive
Linguistics and Language Teacher, ed. by Jacek Fisiak, pp. 121-146.
Pergamon Institute of English.
Spencer, A. & A. Zwicky (eds.). 1998. The Handbook of Morphology. Oxford:
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Stalinker, R. C. (1973). Pragmatics. In D. Davidson and G. Harman (eds.), Semantics
of Natural Languages. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
Stockwell, R. P. & D. Minkova. 2001. English Words. Cambridge: CUP.
Stockwell. R. and Minkova, D. (2001). English words: history and structure.
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Thomas, E. Payne (2006) Exploring Language Structure): A Students Guide.
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Tomori, S. H.O. 1977. The morphology and syntax of present-day English: an
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Verschueren, Jeff (1999). Understanding Pragmatics. London: Arnold.
http://pediaa.com/difference-between-morphology-and-syntax/2/2/2017
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http://pediaa.com/difference-between-syntax-and-semantics/3/2/2017
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syntax_tree.svg#/media/File:Syntax_tree.s
vg/3/2/2017
http://pediaa.com/rules-in-subject-verb-agreement/3/2/2017
http://www.harmony.org.uk/book/linguistics_syntax.htm/15/2/2017
http://www.nou.edu.ng/uploads/NOUN_OCL/pdf/edited_pdf3/ENG%20121%20MA
IN.pdf/16/2/2017
http://www.nou.edu.ng/uploads/NOUN_OCL/pdf/pdf2/ENG%20122%20MAIN.pdf/
16/2/2017
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Previous Exam Question Papers
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
Appendix 2: Meanings of some selected affixes (selected from English

words: history and structure
Prefixes
Counting-Prefixes: those, which in some way quantify the root
a- or an- "lacking" as in asymmetric, amoral, atonal
ambi- "both, around" as in ambidextrous, ambiguous, ambivalent, amphibious,
amphitheater
arch- "chief, principal, high" as in archbishop, archduke bi- twice, double as in
bifocal, biennial, bipolar, bisulfate
di- two as in dioxide, ditransitive, dichloride
mono- one as in monograph, monosyllabic
multi- many as in multifaceted, multivalent, multiform oligo- few as in oligarchy,
oligotrophic
omni- all as in omnipotent, omnidirectional
pan- all, comprising or affecting al1" as in panorama, pandemic
poly- many" as in polychromatic, poly-angular, polygamy
tri- three" as in triangle, tridimensional
uni- one" as in unisex, unidirectional, univocal
Involvement prefixes: those which say something about the kind of involvement of
the participants in the action of the root
anti- opposed, instead" as in antidote, anti-Semitic, antacid
auto- self" as in automaton, autobiography, automobile
co-, con- together, jointly" as in coexistence, cooperate, concur
contra- against, opposite" as in contradiction, contrary
vice- in place of, instead" as in vice-consul, vice-president
Judgment prefixes: those which make a judgment about the root
dis- used as an intensifier as in disturb, disgruntle, disannul
dys- bad, badly" as in dyslogistic, dyspeptic
eu- good, wel1" as in eugenics, evangelical, euphoria
extra- outside the scope of" as in extraordinary, extramarital
mal- "ill, evil, wrong" as in malfeasance, mal-odorant, malpractice
meta- transcending, changed" as in metaphysics, metamorphosis
mis- "badly, wrongly" as in misspent, miscalculate, mislead
pro- "on behalf of" as in pro-British, pro-education
proto- "first, chief" as in proto-organism, protoplasm, prototype
pseudo- "false, deceptive resemblance" as in pseudonym, pseudo-prophet,
pseudo-archaic
Locative prefixes: those which say something about place or direction

ab- or a- or abs- "from, away" as in abnormal, abstinence, abjure
ad- toward" as in admit, advance, admonish
75
ana- back" as in anatomy, analogy

apo- "away, from" as in apocryphal, apostasy, apology
cata- down, away, back, opposite as in catapult, catastrophe
circum- around as in circumnavigate, circumspect, circumcise
counter- against, opposite as in counterfeit, counterbalance
de- away from, down as in decay, debase, deny, depend
en- "in, into" (a form of in-) as in encapsulate, enclose
endo- internal" as in endodontic, endogenous, endocardia, endocrinology
epi- on, over" as in epiglottis, epidermis, epicycle
ex-, ec out from, away" ex consul, ex-wife, eccentric; in reduced form educate,
eradicate, emit
in- in, into, within" as in inaugurate, inchoate
infra- below, beneath, within" as in infrastructure, infrared, infra-territorial
inter- "between, among" as in interchange, interpose, intersect,
intra-, intro- "inside" as in intra-city, intramural, intracellular, introvert
ob- "toward, against" as in obdurate, obfuscate
para- beside, along with" as in paramedic, parallel
per- through, thoroughly" as in perspire, pernicious, pervade peri- around, nearby" as
in perimeter, peristomatic
pro- in front of" as in proposition, proscenium, propel
pros- concerning, towards" as in prosody, proselyte
retro- "backwards, back" as in retrogression, retrospection
sub- under, below" as in subdivision, subtraction, subtitle
super- over, above" as in supernatural, supererogatory, superman
sur- "over, above, beyond" as in surtax, surrealistic
syn- "with, together" as in synthetic, synchronic
trans-, tres-, tra-, "across, surpassing" as in transalpine, transoceanic, trans-human,
trespass, trajectory, traduce, tradition
Measurement Prefixes
crypto- "secret, hidden" as in cryptography, cryptanalytic
hyper- "over, to excess" as in hyperactive, hypersensitive
hypo- "under, slightly" as in hypotactic, hypoglossal, hypo-toxic
is-, iso- "equal" as in isochronism, isosceles, isotope
macro- 1arge, broad scale" as in macroeconomics, macroclimatology
micro- tiny, small scale" as in microorganism, microscope
mid- middle" as in midwinter, midlands, midnight
semi- half, partly" as in semicolon, semifinal, semi-annual
ultra- "beyond, extreme" as in ultraliberal, ultramodest, ultraviolet
Negative Prefixes
dis- apart, reversal, 1acking" as in displease, disallow, distaste
in- negative" as in indiscreet, ineffectual, incredible, illegible
non- "not" as in nonsense, non-resident, non-intervention
76
ob- inverse, in the opposite direction" as in object, obverse

se-, sed- apart as in separate, select chosen apart sedition, seduce
un-not as in unclear, uneven, unmindful
un-opposite as in untie, unlock
Temporal Prefixes: those which say something about time or duration

ante-preceding as in antechamber, ante-Norman
fore- before in time or space, as in forecast, forefinger
post- after, behind as in postpone, postposition
pre-, pro- before, in front of as in preconceive, preposition, progress, professor
re- anew, again, back as in regenerate, reward, restore
Suffixes
Suffixes, which form adjectives from nouns or verbs
-able fit for doing, fit for being done" as in agreeable, comfortable
-al (-ial, -ical, -ual) having the property of" as in conjectural, fraternal, sensual,
analytical
-an, ian belonging to, resembling as in reptilian, Augustan, plebeian, patrician
-ary having a tendency or purpose forms adjectives, and then secondary nouns, as in
secondary, discretionary
-ate "ful1 of" forms adjectives from nouns as in passionate, affectionate
ese belonging to a place forms adjectives from locative nouns, as in Vietnamese,
New Yorkese
-esque having the style of X forms adjectives usually from nouns, as in Romanesque,
lawyeresque, statuesque
-ful full of X forms adjectives from nouns, as in powerful, skillful
-iac "pertaining to the property X" as in elegiac, hypochondriac, maniac
-ic having the property X" forms adjectives, as in alcoholic, theistic, naturalistic,
romantic.
-ical is an occasional variant, as in comical
-ish "to become like X" forms adjectives from nouns, as in churlish, boyish, Irish,
modish
-ive "characterized by" forms adjectives from most stems, especially verbs, as in
abusive, contradictive, retrospective
-less "without, free from" forms adjective from noun, as in faultless, keyless, fearless
-ly appropriate to, befitting" as in friendly, timely, shapely, fatherly
-oid "having the shape of, resembling" as in humanoid
-ory "connected with, serving for" forms adjectives as in obligatory, inflammatory,
illusory ; also forms nouns with the meaning place where," as in dormitory, lavatory,
refectory
-ous of the nature of X" forms adjectives, as in virtuous, torturous, glorious, grievous
-some like, characterized by, apt to" forms adjectives from almost any kind of stem, as
in cumbersome, awesome, bothersome
77
-y full of, characterized by" forms adjectives from nouns, as in mighty, moody,
healthy.
Suffixes, which form abstract nouns

-asy, -acy state or quality" as in advocacy, intricacy, accuracy, ecstasy
-age "condition, state, rank, office of" as in anchorage, postage, coinage
-ance, -ence "state, act, or fact of" forms abstract nouns from verbs, as in repentance,
perseverance, emergence
-ad(e) general noun" accolade, brigade, ballad, salad, parade, lemonade,
-al "act of" forms abstract nouns from verbs, as in renewal, revival, trial
-ation state of being X-ed" forms abstract nouns from verbs of four types: those
ending in -ify, -ize, -ate, and a few without endings (like damn, inform). Examples:
purification, organization, contemplation, information
-ery, -ry collectivity" forms abstract nouns from concrete nouns, as in masonry,
carpentry, slavery, savagery
-hood state of, condition of" forms abstract nouns from concrete nouns, as in
childhood, womanhood, priesthood
-ia condition of" as in euphoria
-icity abstract noun from -ic" as in historic/historicity, electric/ electricity
-ism "doctrinal system of principles" as in communism, realism, romanticism
-ity "state, quality, condition of" forms abstract nouns from adjectives, as in agility,
diversity, actuality
-ment "condition of being X" forms abstract nouns from verbs and adjectives, as in
advancement, treatment, abandonment, amusement, merriment
-ness "state, condition, quality of" forms abstract nouns usual1y from adjectives, but
not verbs, as in bitterness, fairness, idleness, deafness
-ship "state, condition" forms abstract nouns usually from concrete nouns, as in
dictatorship, trusteeship, workmanship
Suffixes, which form agentive nouns

-ant, -ent one who" forms agentive nouns from verbs, as in agent, defendant,
participant
-arian member of a sect, holding to a doctrine" forms nouns or adjectives, as in
utilitarian, egalitarian, authoritarian, septuagenarian
-ast "one associated with X" as in enthusiast, pederast
-er agent" forms agentive nouns from verbs, as in baker, thriller, worker, sweeper,
retriever
-ist "one connected with, often agent" as in socialist, perfectionist, dentist,
ventriloquist
-ician "one skil1ed in some art or science" as in physician, musician, magician,
mathematician
Suffixes, which form verbs from roots and stems

-ate cause X to happen" as in create, contaminate, frustrate, terminate
78
-en "to become" forms verbs from adjectives, as in darken, chasten, cheapen, deafen
-ify to cause to (be) X" forms a causative verb, as in purify, denazify, sanctify, verify,
amplify
-ize "to cause to be X' forms a causative verb from almost any stem, as in popularize,
legalize, plagiarize, miniaturize, weatherize
Miscellaneous Suffixes
-arium, -orium locative, a place for or connected with" as in aquarium, vivarium,
honorarium, auditorium
-ess "feminine of X" as in tigress, laundress, stewardess
-let "diminutive" as in leaflet, driblet
(Source: Stockwell. R. and Minkova, D. (2001). English words: history and structure.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)
79
Appendix 3: A Self-Study of Exercises with Answer Key

Exercise 1: Identify the number of the morphemes in these words. List the
morphemes.
Words Number of Bound Free Morphemes
(1.) replay 2 replay
(2.) play 1 play
(3.) date 1 date
(4.) antedate 2 antedate
(5.) hygiene 1 hygiene
(6.) weak 1 weak
(7.) weaken 2 -en weak
(8.) man 1 man
(9.) manly 2 -ly man
(10.) keep 1 keep
(11.) beautiful 2 -ful beauty
(12.) miniskirt 2 miniskirt
(13.) rainy 2 -y rain
(14.) cheaply 2 -ly cheap
(15.) cheaper 2 -er cheap
(16.) widen 2 -en wide
(17.) happiness 2 -ness happy
Exercise 2. Write the meaning of the underlined morphemes, and give your own
examples.
Morphemes Meanings Examples
(1.) antedate in front of, before
(2.) replay again
(3.) manly like
(4.) keeper one who
(5.) unable not
(6.) cheapest most
(7.) inactive not
(8.) impossible not
(9.) malfunction bad
Exercise 3. Identify the bound morpheme(s) in of each of the given words.

(1.) speaker -er
(2.) kingdom -dom
(3.) intervene inter-, vene
(4.) syllabic -ic
(5.) revise re-, -vise
(6.) idolize -ize
(7.) worked -ed
80
(8.) selective -ive

(9.) undo un-
Exercise 4. Underline the bases in these words.

(1.) womanly
(2.) lighten
(3.) unlikely
(4.) endear
(5.) enlighten
(6.) prewar
(7.) failure
(8.) friendship
(9.) subway
(10.) famous
(11.) befriend
(12.) falsify
(13.) infamous
(14.) Bostonian
(15.) unenlivened
Exercise 5. Identify the meaning of the bound base in the given sets of words.
(1.) audience, audible, audition and auditorium The bound base audi- means
hear
(2.) suicide, patricide, matricide and -cide means kill infanticide
(3.) oral, orate, oration, oracle and oratory ora- means mouth
(4.) aquaplane, aquarium, aquatic and aquaduct aqua- means water
(5.) mortuary, moribund, mortal and immortal mor (t) means dead
(6.) corporation, corporeal, corps and corpse corp- means body
(7.) tenable, tenant, tenure and tenacious ten- means hold
(8.) pendulum, suspender, pendant and pend- means hang impending
(9.) manuscript, manacle, manual and manicure man- means hand
(10.) eject, inject, inject, reject and projectile ject- means throw
(11.) portable, porter, portfolio, portage port- means carry
Exercise 6. Classify the following words as derivational / inflectional morphemes.

his, books, Beths, walks, hoped, violated, does, bigger, desserts, media, speaker,
toughest, having, social, eaten, midnight, forms , insulted, government , furiously,
exercising
Derivational Inflectional
(1.) Speaker his, books, Beths having, eaten
(2.) Social walks, hoped forms, insulted
(3.) Midnight violated, does exercising
(4.) Furiously bigger, desserts
(5.) Government media, toughest
81
Exercise 7. Diagram these words to show the layers of structure

Unverbalized
| | | |
Un | verb | al | ize | d
| ____||___| |
| | |
|________|___ |
____|___________ |
___ _____________|___
| | |
Help | less em | bodi | ment
____ |____ | |
___|_____ |
|_____
Exercise 8. Give the original words from which these clipped words were form.
Words Originals
(1.) disco discotheque
(2.) taxi taxicab
(3.) cab cabriolet
(4.) curio curiosity
(5.) memo memorandum
(6.) Fred Frederick
(7.) Al Albert, Alfred, Alvis
(8.) Tom Thomas
(9.) bus omnibus
(10.) van caravan
(11.) chute parachute
(12.) cute acute
(13.) dorm dormitory
(14.) flu influenza
(15.) prof professor
(16.) ad advertisement
Exercise 9: Pronounce these acronyms and give their originals.

ACRONYMS ORIGINALS
(1.) UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization
(2.) OK Old Kinderhook
(3.) OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
82
(4.) TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language

(5.) IELTS International English Language Testing System
(6.) HOU HoChiMinh City Open University
(7.) WHO World Health Organization
(8.) UNICEF United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund
(9.) jeep GP= general purposes
(10.) laser light amplication by stimulated emission of radiation
(11.) FIFA Federation of International Football Associations
(12.) BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
(13.) MC Master of Ceremony
(14.) RV recreational vehicle
(15.) BC before Christ
(16.) TESL Teaching English as a Second Language
Exercise 10. Give the originals of these blends.

BLENDS ORIGINALS
(1.) Flunk flinch + funk
(2.) Happenstance happen + circumstance
(3.) Stagflation stagnation + inflation
(4.) Simulcast simultaneous + broadcast
(5.) Telecast tele + broadcast
(6.) Dandle dance + handle
(7.) Splatter splash + spatter
(8.) Dumbfound dumb + confound
(9.) Medicare medical + care
(10.) Singlish Singaporean + English
(11.) Newsboy newspaper + boy
(12.) Hinglish Hindi + English
Exercise 11. Give the blends that result from fusing these words.
(1.) Gasoline + alcohol gasohol
(2.) Transfer + resistor transistor
(3.) Automobile + omnibus autobus
(4.) Escalade + elevator escalator
(5.) Blare or blow + spurt blurt
(6.) Smoke + fog smog
Exercise 12. Give the original word(s) and identify the processes of word formation
of the following. Provide one example to illustrate each type of processes.
Word Original words Processes
(1.) WTO World Trade Organization Acronym
(2.) Flu influenza clipping
(3.) Brunch breakfast + lunch blending
(4.) Disagree agree Derivation
83
(5.) Ice-cream ice + cream Compounding

(6.) Automation automate Back - formation
(7.) Humid humidifier Derivation
(8.) Love, seat loveseat Compounding
(9.) Typographical error typo Clipping
(10.) Aerobics, marathon aerobathon Blending
(11.) Act deactivate Derivation
(12.) Perambulator pram Clipping
(13.) Random Access Memory RAM Acronym
(14.) Megabyte meg Clipping
(15.) teleprinter exchange telex Blending
(16.) Information Technology IT Acronym
(17.) WHO World Health Organization Acronym
Exercise 13. Classify the italicized words as N (noun), V (verb), Adj (adjective), Adv
(Adverb), or UW (Uninflected Word).
(1.) Tom is fond of Siamese cats. N
(2.) The island was colonized by the North-men. V
(3.) One of her stockings is torn. N
(4.) What punishment do you think should be administered? N
(5.) Fritz always say the wrong thing. UW
(6.) Her room was in a state of chaos. UW
(7.) They will gladly refund your money. Adv
(8.) The nurse puts a disinfectant on the cut. N
(9.) Carl sleeps late mornings. N
(10.) How peaceful the house seems today! Adj
(11.) You should shorten that dress. V
(12.) Sue likes to play golf on Sunday morning. UW
(13.) Only the dregs are left. N
(14.) There will be a meeting at four tomorrow afternoon. N
(15.) Which nation colonized Tierra del Fuego? V
(16.) Every social class has its own snobbery. N
(17.) May you be healthy and prosperous? Adj
(18.) Be careful not to run aground. UW
(19.) She smiled cheerfully. Adv
(20.) The quickest way is to use your pocket calculator. Adj
(21.) We counted the tickets in haste. UW
Exercise 13. Identify each italicized element by N-al (nominal), V-al (verbal), Adj-al
(adjectival), or Adv-al (adverbial).
(1.) Last Monday was a holiday. N-al
(2.) The Monday washing is on the line. Adj-al
(3.) Mrs. Reed always jogs Mondays. Adv-al
(4.) The outs were angry with the ins. N-al
84
(5.) They stomped upstairs. Adv-al

(6.) They slept in the upstairs room. Adj-al
(7.) One can see the airport from upstairs. N-al
(8.) Jake was wrestling with his math. V-al
(9.) The wrestling roommates were exhausted. Adj-al
(10.) Juniper found wrestling exciting. N-al
(11.) They came in wrestling. Adv-al
(12.) The student movie is presented weekly. Adv-al
(13.) The student movie is a weekly occurrence Adj-al
(14.) His way is the best. N-al
(15.) He did it his way. Adv-al
(16.) The mechanic ran the engine full speed. Adv-al
(17.) By this means, he burned out the carbon. Adv-al
(18.) He raised the hood because the engine was hot. Adv-al
(19.) They found the cabin just what they wanted. N-al
85
Appendix 4: General Exercises

Morphology: Define the area and the terms morpheme and allomorph. Distinguish
between inflectional and derivational morphology giving examples to illustrate what
you mean. What does the linguist understand by an open and a closed class. What is a
word class and what categories do conjugation and declination refer to? Distinguish
between tense and aspect, illustrating what you mean by examples from English. What
is language typology? In this connection distinguish between synthetic (inflecting),
analytic and agglutinative languages and offer a general characterization of English
within this framework.
Syntax: Define the area and state what its main unit of analysis is. How do the latter
subdivide? What are major and minor syntactical categories? Mention in this
connection what is meant by a phrase structure grammar.
What is the main theory of syntax at the present? What are the main periods recognized
within this theory? Explain the terms generative and transformation. Who can they be
traced back to?
Semantics: Define the area and the following key terms: sense and denotation;
lexeme. What is meant by homonymy and polysemy? Explain the following meaning
relationships: synonymy, antonymy (graded and non-graded) and hyponymy.
Distinguish between the following kinds of meaning: lexical, grammatical sentence
and utterance meaning. What is understood by a word field? How is the concept
useful? What is meant by prototype theory in semantics?
86

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ABSTRACT

This Simplified Course-Book of

MORPHOLOGY Professor of Linguistics, Ph.D. in

Section 1: Welcome to the Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and

The Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and Syntax (332 /E332) aims at

The topics included will be morphemes, allomorphs, zero morpheme, phonological

sentences), Semantics (meanings of various kinds), and Pragmatics (language use), we

The organization of this firsthand / empirical Simplified Course-Book of Morphology

Section 1: Welcome to the Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and Syntax,

Regular Attendance is Strongly Advised!

Suggestions for Further Reading

The readings materials related to your Simplified Course-Book of Morphology and

Key Linguistic Terms and Concepts

Morphology: morpheme, free morpheme, bound morpheme, allomorph, zero

Section 2: Morphology and Syntax

Morphology is another important subdiscipline of linguistics. It studies the structure

Morphology specifically examines the formation of words by putting together

A bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand-alone; it is always bound to

Accordingly, Morphology can further be divided into Inflectional Morphology

Word Formation processes can be either productive or lexicalized (non-productive).

The cat ate the mouse.

A Syntactic Structure certainly affects morphology, and morphology is one very

Therefore, the sentence structure is usually presented by means of a Syntactic Tree

The term generation is used in linguistics to describe exhaustively the structure of

Universal Grammar represents an attempt to specify what structural elements are

Deep Structure (DS): (represents the meaning)

Surface Structure (SS): (what we speak and hear)

NP1 V NP2 NP2 be V -en by NP1

Mary ate the cake. The cake was eaten by Mary.

Morphology in this century is synchronic in approach. This means that it focuses on

Inflectional Morphology refers to the study of inflectional morphemes. Function

English is no longer a highly inflected language. However, we have other inflectional

In the following table designed by the author of this Simplified Course-Book of

Derivational Morphology refers to the study of derivational morphemes. Bound

Examples of derivational morphemes in Spanish are as in nio/nia `child, niear to

In relation to derivational morphology, we could assert that certain morphemes such as

Word Forms / Word Types.

Content Words Nouns (N)

Words and Morphemes

Morphemes and Allomorphs

We can represent this relationship between morphemes, allomorphs, and morphs

(Source: Adapted from Katamba (1993, p. 26))

The Z2 or Possessive Morpheme

The Z3 or Concord Morpheme

The D or Past Time Morpheme

Summary of Allomorphic Variations

phonologically conditioned. In addition, we can summarize the allomorphic variations

For the Z Morpheme

For the D Morpheme

For any sibilant suffix in English

Types of Morphemes: Free and Bound Morphemes

Roots, Stems, and Bases

Affixation involves (free morpheme + affix) as in blacken (black + -en) in English,

A prefix is an affix that is attached to the front of a base. In English, examples of

In English, some morphemes of suffixes are: happy-ness, teach-ing, teach-er,

Morpheme (Noun) Verb

Examples of this circumfixing in Filipino are:

Inflection and Derivation

Inflection and derivation are two major word-building processes in English.

We often use the techniques of inflection and derivation systematically to build

Word Formation Processes

There are different types of word formation processes such as compounding,

Compounding (word + word):