1. Word as a Nominative Unit
The word is a basic nominative unit. Without words there cannot
be any communication even in thought, to say nothing about speech
communication.
From the point of view of its nominative function, the word is an
elementary indivisible constituent part of the lexicon.
It is not easy to identify the word because the words are heterogeneous from the point of view of both content and form.
To find the criteria of word identification linguists resort to the
notions of functional correlation and continuum. Functional correlation connects the elements which have similar and different properties. In fact, within a complex system of interrelated elements there
exist two types of phenomena - "polar" and "intermediary". Polar
44
Ɉɬɪɟɞɚɤɬɢɪɨɜɚɥɢɨɩɭɛɥɢɤɨɜɚɥɧɚɫɚɣɬɟ : PRESSI ( HERSON )
Seminar 2. Morphemic Structure of the Word 47
phenomena stand to one another in an explicit opposition. Intermediary phenomena are located in the system in between, the polar phenomena, making up a gradation of transitions. A total of these transitions makes up a continuum. Thus, between proper nouns and
common nouns - polar phenomena - there exist different transitions
of semi-proper nouns which make up a continuum.
Giving a definition to the word on these lines, it is necessary to
describe the notional one-stem word and the grammatical morpheme
as the opposing polar phenomena. The continuum existing between
them is constituted by functional words. Functional words are very
limited in number and perform various grammatical functions. In
distinction to these, notional words are infinite in number and are
nominative units proper.
Thus, the word is the nominative unit of language built up by
morphemes and indivisible into smaller segments as regards its nominative function.
2. Morphemic Structure of the Word
The morphological system of language reveals its properties
through the morphemic structure of words. So, it is but natural that
one of the essential tasks of morphology is to study the morphemic
structure of the word.
. In traditional grammar the study of the morphemic structure of
the word is based upon two criteria -positional and semantic (functional). The positional criterion presupposes the analysis of the location of the marginal morphemes in relation to the central ones. The
semantic criterion involves the study of the correlative contribution
of the morpheme to the general meaning of the word. In accord with
the traditional classification, morphemes at the upper level are divided
into root morphemes and affixal morphemes (lexical and grammatical).
The morphemic composition of modern English words has a wide
range of varieties but the preferable morphemic model of the common English word is the following: prefix + root + lexical suffix +
grammatical suffix.
Further insights into the correlation between the formal and functional aspects of morphemes may be gained in the light of the "alloernie" theory put forward by Descriptive Linguistics. In accord with
this theory, lingual units are described by means of two types of terms
-r "allo-terms" and "erne-terms". Eme-terms denote the generalized,
invariant units of language characterized by a certain functional status, e.g., phonemes, morphemes, lexemes, phrasemes, etc., but in pracɃɫɚ! analysis this terminology is applied only to the analysis of phonemes and morphemes. Allo-terms denote the concrete manifestations
or variants of the erne-units. Allo-units are distinguished by their regular co-location with other elements of language. Typical examples
of allo-units are allophones and allomorphs.
The allo-emic identification of lingual elements forms the basis
for the so-called "distributional" analysis. The aim of the distributional analysis is to study the units of language in relation to the adjoining elements in the text.
•» In the distributional analysis three main types of distribution are
discriminated: contrastive distribution 3 non-contrastive
distribution, and complementary distribution. Contrastive and
non-contrastive distributions concern identical environments of
different morphs. The morphs are said to be in contrastive
distribution if their meanings (functions) are different; such morphs
constitute different morphemes, e.g., "returned // returning //
returns". The morphs are in non-contrastive distribution if their
meanings (functions) are identical; such morphs constitute "free
alternants" ("free variants") of the same morpheme, e.g., the
suffixes "-ed" and "-t" in the verb forms "learned //learnt", or the
suffixes "-s" and "-i" in the noun forms "genies" // genii". As for
complementary distribution, it concerns different environments of
formally different morphs which fulfil one and the same function;
such morphs are termed "allo-morphs", e.g., there exist a few
allomorphs of the plural suffix of the noun: "-en" (children), "-s"
(toys), "-a" (data), "-es" (crises), "-i" (genii), the zero allomorph (trout
//trout), etc.
The application of distributional analysis to the morphemic level
results in the classification of morphemes on distributional lines. In
accord with this classification a few "distributional morpheme types"
are identified: free and bound morphemes, overt and covert morphemes, additive and replacive morphemes, continuous and discontinuous morphemes, segmental and supra-segmental morphemes.
Based on this info, do the tasks:I. Do the morphemic analysis of the words on the lines of the traditional and
distributional classifications.
MODEL: Do the morphemic analysis of the word "inseparable".
On the lines of the traditional classification the word "inseparable"
is treated as a three-morpheme word consisting of the root "-separ-",
the prefix "in-" and the lexical suffix "-able".
On the lines of the distributional analysis the root "-separ-" is a
bound, overt, continuous, additive morpheme; the prefix "in-" is bound,
overt, continuous, additive; the suffix "-able" is bound, overt, continuous, additive.
a) unmistakably, children's (books), disfigured, underspecified, surround
ings, presume, kingdom, brotherhood, plentiful, imperishable, unpre
cedented, oxen, embodiment, outlandish;
b) hammer, students' (papers), sing - sang - singing - singer, really, profi
cient - deficient - efficient, gooseberry, unreproved, incomparable;
c) quiet, perceptions, vvheaterina, bell, unbelievably, glassy, uncommuni
cative, inexplicable, infamy, strenuousness;
d) inconceivable, prefigurations, southernism, semidarkness, adventuress
es, insurmountable, susceptibility, ineptitude, unfathomable, insufficien
cy, to prejudge, cranberry.
II. Define the type of the morphemic distribution according to which the given words are grouped.
MODEL: insensible - incapable
The morphs "-ible" and "-able" are in complementary distribution,
as they have the same meaning but are different in their form which is
explained by their different environments.
a) impeccable, indelicate, illiterate, irrelevant; .b)
undisputable, indisputable;
c) published, rimmed;
d) seams, seamless, seamy.
III. Group the words according to a particular type of morphemic distribution.
MODEL: worked - bells - tells -fells - telling - spells - spelled -
spelt -felled - bell.
spells - spelled: the allomorphs "-s" and "-ed" are in contrastive
distribution (= fells - felled);
bell - bells: the allomorph "-s" and the zero allomorph are in contrastive distribution;
spelt - spelled: the allomorphs "-t" and "-ed" are in non-contrastive distribution;
worked - spelled: the allomorphs "-ed" [t] and "-ed" [d] are in com-
, plementary distribution, etc.
a) burning - burns - burned - burnt;
b) dig - digs - digging - digged - dug - digger;
"c) light - lit - lighted - lighting - lighter;
d) worked - working - worker - workable - workoholic.
• IV. Group the words according to a particular type of morphemic distribution:
1. mice, leapt, appendices, kittens, cats, witches, leaping, children, leaped,
leaps, formulae, stimuli, matrices, sanatoria;
2. geese, dogs, chickens, deer, mats, bade, bid, phenomena, formulae, for
mulas, genii, geniuses, scissors;