3 Morphological structure of English words

Chapter3MorphologicalstructureofEnglishwords英语单词的形态结构Objectives:•Discussmorphemes,theirclassificationandidentification;•Explaintherelationshipbetweenmorphemesandword-formationTeachingfocus:•Definitionofmorphemes•Definitionofallomorphs•Typesofmorphemesfreemorphemeboundmorpheme•Definitionsofroot,stemandbaseBeforewestarttotalkaboutthewaysinwhichwordsareformed,wemusthaveageneralideaaboutthemorphologicalstructureofEnglishwords,i.e.wemustlearnaboutmorphemes（词素/语素）andhowtheyareusedtomakewords.1.Morpheme词素/语素Whatisamorpheme？Itistheminimalmeaningfulunitoflanguage.Oritisthesmallestfunctioningunitinthecompositionofwords，notdivisibleoranalyzableintosmallerforms.语素是最小的有意义的单位。它是语言中最小的构词单位，不可再分。ExamplesOnemorpheme—nationTwomorphemes—nation+alThreemorphemes—nation+al+izeFourmorphemes—de+nation+al+iz+ationMorethanfourmorphemes—de+nation+al+iz+ation*Wordsarecomposedofmorphemes.Awordmaybeanalyzableintooneormoremorphemes.Morpheme(词素)&phoneme(音素)Morpheme(词素/语素/形位)isatwo-facetlanguageunitwhichpossessesbothsoundandmeaning.Phoneme音位，音素isthesmallestphonetic语音的unitinalanguagethatiscapableofconveyingadistinctioninsound.Thusk/k/andu/ju:/areonlyphonemes,fortheyhavenomeaning;a/ei/andi/ai/arephonemeswhentheyexistin,forexample,tameandtimerespectively;itisimpossibleintheseinstancestosingleouttheirindividualmeaning.Theybecomemorphemesonlywhenaisusedasanindefinitearticleorasaprefix,andi(capitalized)designatesthefirstpersonsingular.Phone音标:(phonetics)isanindividualsoundunitofspeechwithoutconcernastowhetherornotitisaphonemeofsomelanguageInalanguageordialect,aphonemeisthesmallestsegmental分段的unitofsoundemployedtoformmeaningfulcontrastsbetweenutterances.Thusaphonemeisagroupofslightlydifferentsoundswhichareallperceivedtohavethesamefunctionbyspeakersofthelanguageordialectinquestion.Anexampleofaphonemeisthe/k/soundinthewordskitandskill.(Intranscription,phonemesareplacedbetweenslashes,ashere.)Eventhoughmostnativespeakersdon'tnoticethis,inmostdialects,theksoundsineachofthesewordsareactuallypronounceddifferently:theyaredifferentspeechsounds,orphones(which,intranscription,areplacedinsquarebrackets).Inourexample,the/k/inkitisaspirated送气音,[kʰ],whilethe/k/inskillisnot,[k].ThereasonwhythesedifferentsoundsarenonethelessconsideredtobelongtothesamephonemeinEnglishisthatifanEnglish-speakerusedoneinsteadoftheother,themeaningofthewordwouldnotchange:saying[kʰ]inskillmightsoundodd,butthewordwouldstillberecognized.Bycontrast,someothersoundscouldbesubstitutedwhichwouldcauseachangeinmeaning,producingwordslikestill(substituting/t/),spill(substituting/p/)andswill(substituting/w/).Theseothersounds(/t/,/p/and/w/)are,inEnglish,differentphonemes.Insomelanguages,however,[kʰ]and[k]aredifferentphonemes,andareperceivedassuchbythespeakersofthoselanguages.Thus,inIcelandic,/kʰ/isthefirstsoundofkátur'cheerful',while/k/isthefirstsoundofgátur'riddles'.Insomelanguages,eachletterinthespellingsystemrepresentsonephoneme.However,inEnglishspellingthereisapoormatchbetweenspellingandphonemes.Forexample,thetwolettersshrepresentthesinglephoneme/ʃ/,whiletheletterskandccanbothrepresentthephoneme/k/(asinkitandcat).Phonesthatbelongtothesamephoneme,suchas[t]and[tʰ]forEnglish/t/,arecalledallophones音位变体.Acommontesttodeterminewhethertwophonesareallophonesorseparatephonemesreliesonfindingminimalpairs:wordsthatdifferbyonlythephonesinquestion.Forexample,thewordstipanddipillustratethat[t]and[d]areseparatephonemes,/t/and/d/,inEnglish,whereasthelackofsuchacontrastinKorean(/tʰata/ispronounced[tʰada],forexample)indicatesthatinthislanguagetheyareallophonesofaphoneme/t/.Hereisachartthatcomparesphonesandphonemes:Aphone音标/语音is…Oneofmanypossiblesoundsinthelanguagesoftheworld.Thesmallestidentifiableunitfoundinastreamofspeech.Pronouncedinadefinedway.Representedbetweenbracketsbyconvention.Example:[b],[j],[o]Aphoneme音位is…Acontrastiveunitinthesoundsystemofaparticularlanguage.Aminimalunitthatservestodistinguishbetweenmeaningsofwords.Pronouncedinoneormoreways,dependingonthenumberofallophones.Representedbetweenslashesbyconvention.Example:/b/,/j/,/o/ExamplesK/k/andU/ju:/arephonemes.A/ei/andI/ai/arephonemeswhentheyexistintameandtimerespectively.Theybecomemorphemesonlywhenaisusedasanindefinitearticleorasaprefix,andi(capitalized)designatesthefirstpersonsingular.Morpheme&syllableAunitofspokenlanguageconsistingofasingleuninterruptedsoundformedbyavowel,diphthong,orsyllabicconsonantalone,orbyanyofthesesoundspreceded,followed,orsurroundedbyoneormoreconsonants.音节：口语的一个单位，由一个不间断的音构成，该音可由一个元音、双元音和单音节辅音单独构成，也可由一个或多个辅音在前面提到的语音的任一个后面或前面与其共同构成Thelatterhasnothingtodowithmeaning.Example*Amorphememayberepresentedbyonesyllable,likeboyandchild,orbytwoormoresyllables,asinla·dy,croc·o·dileandsal·a·man·der火蜥蜴/沙罗曼蛇.*dis·a·gree·a·bleconsistsoffivesyllablesasagainstthreemorphemes(dis+agree+able)Oftenthesyllabicstructureofawordanditsmorphemicstructuredonotcorrespond,becauseamorphemeisrepresentedbymorethanonesyllableastheaboveexamples.2.MorphandallomorphThedefinitionofmorphs：Thephoneticororthographic正字法的stringsorseg