词汇学chapter2.ppt

Chapter 2 Morphological Structure of English Words
Content
1. Morpheme
2. Allomorph
3. Classification of Morphemes
4. Root, stem and base
5. Summary
English Lexicology(I)
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1. Morphemes
The definition of a morpheme
The morpheme(词素) is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of language, not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms.
The term morpheme is derived from Greek morphe (form) + -eme, which denotes the smallest unit or the minimum distinctive feature of some class of things.
English Lexicology(I)
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1. Morphemes
A word is the smallest unit of a language that stands alone municate meaning. Structurally, however, a word is not the smallest unit because many words can be separated into smaller meaningful units. Words posed of morphemes. What is usually considered a single word in English may posed of one or more morphemes.
English Lexicology(I)
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1. Morphemes
one morpheme---nation
two morphemes---nation-al
Three morphemes---nation-al-ize
Four morphemes---de-nation-al-ize
More than four morphemes
---de-nation-al-iz-ation
A word, therefore, may be analyzable into one or more morphemes.
A morpheme is also an arbitrary union of a
sound and a meaning which can’t be further
analyzed.
English Lexicology(I)
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2. Allomorphs
An allomorph(词素变体) is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds.
A morpheme may take various shapes or forms. For
example, the inflectional morpheme (屈折词素)
–(e)s of books, pigs, horses has the same meaning
“more than one,” yet it has three different
phonological forms: /-s, -z, iz/. The three forms are
variants of the same morpheme –s. They are called
allomorphs.
English Lexicology(I)
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2. Allomorphs
-ion/-tion/-sion/-ation are the positional variants of the same suffix.
Verbs ending with the sound /t/ usually take –ion (as in invent, invention);
verbs ending with consonants other than /t/ take –tion (as in describe, description);
verbs ending in –ify and –ize take –a