chaptermorphology.pptVIP

Chapter 3 Morphology Introduction Question: Why words are the most important factor to language? 1)Carrying meanings 2)Building blocks of a language 3) Stored in a speaker’s mental dictionary (lexicon) 4)As a native speaker, they grasp a quantity of basic words, yet they can construct and comprehend other countless words in terms of some rules of word constitution. Morphology Morphology is a branch of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. For example: dislike, disagree, and disadvantages dis+like, dis+agree, and dis+advantages 3.2. Open class and closed class 1. Open class words Open class words refer to a group of words which contain an unlimited number of items, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. These classes are also called lexical words or content words. For example, the number of nouns and adjectives in English is open-ended , such as frighteningness, and Hallidayan. ☆The open class words typically refer to entities and events in the world outside the language. That is they express the propositional content of the message, such a thing, quality, state or action. 2. Closed class words Closed class words refer to word classes like conjunctions, prepositions, and pronouns, which have little meaning on their own and consist of relatively few words. And new words are not usually added to them. Closed classes are also called grammatical words, function words, or structural words. For example, the definitive list of English pronouns can be easily drawn up, and changes in this list happen rarely. ☆Closed class words consist of a relatively small and stable number of items. ☆The words in closed sets are typically described as having a grammatical function, rather than expressing the propositional content of the message, they link parts of the message to each oth