Shrnutí - morfologie

INTRODUCTION

Morpheme - the smallest meaningful part of a word

classification of morphemes:

A) free - can occur on its own, do not have to be attached to anything

bound - cannot stand on its own, must be attached - affixes

B) root - a basic form to which other morphemes are attached

derivational morpheme - changes either part of speech or meaning of a stem (each derivationally related form is given its own entry in a dictionary) - prefix, suffix, affix

inflectional morpheme (ending) - marks grammatical categories

Derivation

- formation of new words by means of derivational affixes

- words formed by means of derivation always have one root

- morphemes are added in a fixed order

- this order, for better illustration in the form of the tree diagram, reflects the hierarchical structure of a word = morphemic analysis

Conversion (zero derivation)

- derivation can involve prefixing or suffixing, but it can also involve no change at all - then we speak about conversion or zero derivation

example: saw (noun) / saw (verb)

Compounding

- formation of new words by joining roots

- the kinds of combinations are nearly limitless

Form

- essential observable components that make an object what it is

e.g. for a word to be classified as a particular part of speech the following criteria are decisive:

- actual and potential inflectional elements

- derivational elements

- stress

- potential position in grammatical structure

- potential for grammatical operations such as movement, deletion (omission), or substitution

Function

- not "What it is" but "How it is used", it designates the way in which a word or a a larger unit is used in a sentence, i.e. function expresses the relationship of the unit in question to other parts of the sentence

e.g. certain parts of speech can function as certain sentence elements, or as head and modifiers

In English similar parts of speech are distinguished as in Czech - at least what concerns open classes: nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. What concerns closed word classes - the number of classes distinguished depends on the number of criteria set to define a particular class - the more detailed criteria the more different classes are needed for the members of a particular class to conform to the criteria set. The classes generally found in grammar books are: pronouns, conjunctions + other possible word classes are: articles, quantifiers - sometimes join under the heading determiners, particles, numerals, interjections ...

In English, in contradiction to Czech, word classes are morphologically marked only to a small extent: certain typical nominal, adjectival, verbal ... suffixes, formally marked grammatical categories: plural of nouns, 3rd person singular of present simple, comparative of adjectives... There are many English words whose morphematic structure is not distinctive - these words are typical for English lexis. The ability of a word to function as more word classes without the change of the form is called conversion. The formal non-distinctiveness of English word classes is solved by context and formally often by their position in a sentence. Individual sentences taken out of the context can be ambiguous due to the fact that some of their constituents can function as more parts of speech: Spring in the air!, Ship sails today.