MorphologicalstructureofEnglishwords.ppt

Chapter 3 Morphological Structure of English Words Key points The definition classification of morphemes morphs allomorphs How to identify morphemes decontextualization decontextualization 3.1 Morpheme What is a morpheme？ It is the smallest functioning unit in the composition of words. （Crystal 1985） 语素是最小的有意义的单位。它是语言中最小的构词单位。 Characteristics All the morphemes have their own meanings, but they cannot be further divided, otherwise they will not make any sense. Morphemes may have some variants, e.g. - ation. May also be -tion, -sion,-ion, but they belong to the same suffix because they have the same meaning and grammatical function. Look at the following three words. Could you make out how many morphemes they have? Please judge which analysis is correct. denaturalization: de, na, tur, -al, -i, -za, -tion denaturalization: de, nature, -al, -ize, -ation Individualistic: in, divide, -al, -ist, -ic Individualistic: in, di, vi, du, -al, -ist, -ic Undesirables: un, de, sir, -able, -s Undesirables: un, desire, -able, -s Did you get the right answer Because No. 1,4, and 5 divide the words according to their syllables. Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit, but in No. 1,4 and 5, ….are all meaningless, so they cannot be regarded as morphemes. Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs. 词素是抽象的单元，在言语中以名为刑素的具体单位来体现。 The phonetic or orthographic strings or segments which realize morphemes are termed ‘morphs’. 体现词素的语音串和拼写字节被称为形素。 e.g. tree is a morpheme, but it is realized in speech by /tri:/. 3.2 Morphs and Allomorph Mono-morphemic words 单语素单词 eg. bird, green, sad, want,desire, etc. The morpheme of plurality -s has a set of morphs: /s/ in cats /z/ in dogs /iz/ in catches Allomorph 词素变体 An allomorph refers to a number of a set of morphs, which present one morpheme. 词素变体指一套刑素中的一个成员，表征一个词素。 When the plural marker s is added to cat, dog, and horse, it is pronounced differently as /-s, -z, -i