Morpheme

Typology of the morphemes

Lexical or grammatical morphemes

There exist two main categories of morphemes: the lexical morphemes (or Lexemes ) and the grammatical morphemes . In the terminology of the functional linguistics of Andre Martinet, these two categories are gathered under the name of Monème , and the term of morpheme is reserved for the only grammatical morphemes.

The grammatical morphemes are morphemes which belong to a closed class, such as “you”, “with”, “and”, etc

The lexical morphemes are morphemes which belong to an opened class, such as “lava”, “quickly”, “the moon”, etc

Dependant or free morphemes

One can say of a morpheme which it is:

dependant if it does not appear like lemma and never exists in a free state, but is always attached to another morpheme called bases: as - ons in let us open or Re in to remake ;
free if it can constitute a word: the beautiful or is free.

Morphemes dérivationnels and flexional

Among the bound morphemes, one distinguishes two classes traditionally: the flexional morphemes dérivationnels and morphemes.

Morphemes dérivationnels

The morphemes dérivationnels, or Affix S, are used for creation of new lexical words by derivation.

One distinguishes two principal types from morphemes dérivationnels according to two criteria: the place that they occupy compared to the lexical base on which they graft and their effect on the category of the base.

the prefixes are affixes which are antéposés at the base, such as “die” in “demolishing” and “Re” in “remaking”. The prefixes never cause change of grammatical category of the base.
the suffixes are affixes which are placed after at the base, such as “lies” in “agreeably” and “whitebait” in “mangeable”. The suffixes can involve a change of grammatical category of the base.

Derivation can take place at the same time by a prefixation and a suffixation, and one speaks then about parasynthetic derivation.

Flexional morphemes

The flexional morphemes, or Flection S, indicate the relation that the base to which they are added maintains with the other units the statement.

One distinguishes two principal types from inflections according to the category of the base:

the inflections which relate to the nominal bases, adjectival and pronominal. They are of three kinds in French: the kind, the number and cases.
the verbal inflections which correspond to the conjugation of the verbs. They have as a function to mark the person, the number, time, the mode and the voice.

A flexional morpheme never modifies the category of the base with which it associates, contrary to the morphemes dérivationnels.

Discussion

Certain linguists refuse preceding classification because it would be valid as well as possible for the languages of traditional Antiquity:

for the modern languages Indo-European, it would be introduced by the projection of passed into the present of the language, which is contrary with the synchronic principle of description;
for much of nonIndo-European languages, it would hardly have direction.

This is why the tendency is to be called same name all the significant units entering the word: morpheme or formative English , morpheme or formant in French.

Autonomous or dependant morphemes

One can say of a morpheme which it is

autonomous, if it can only constitute a statement with him (like an answer to a question) and does not depend inevitably on other elements: red , city;
dependant, if it is related to other words of the sentence (which they present or are supposed) that it is used to build: of , it , with , tomorrow . To note that if with can with him only constitute a statement valide ( Your coffee, with or without sugar? With. ), it is necessary all the same to imply another term. There remains dependant. In the same way for tomorrow , which requires a situation of communication: “ tomorrow compared to the moment when I speak”.

Morphology of the morphemes

One can distinguish the morphemes according to their morphology.

Morphemes with meaning discontinuous

The morphemes with meaning discontinuous are made of a succession of elements distributed at several places in a statement.

“It does not know” is in particular made up of a discontinuous morpheme “(...) step” which indicates the negation;
“It ate” comprises a discontinuous morpheme “has (...) E” which indicates the time of the made up Passé.

Morphemes amalgamated in only one meaning

Certain morphemes amalgamate in only one meaning:

in the statement “Outward journey at the market”, “the” east an amalgam of the morphemes “with” and “it”;
in the statement “the niche of the dog”, “the” east an amalgam of the morphemes “of” and “it”.

Morphemes with meaning zero

The morphemes with meaning zero are not marked morphemes, i.e. silences which mean something. If one compares the three following statements, their phonetic transcription and their cutting and morphemes:

ate /m ɑ̃ʒ-j-ɔ̃/;
will eat /m ɑ̃ʒ-r-ɔ̃/;
let us eat /m ɑ̃ʒ- Ø - ɔ̃/.

one can consider that eat comprises a morpheme with meaning zero indicating the present in opposition to the morphemes /j/ and /r/ which indicate imperfect code respectively or the present subjunctive and the future of the code.

Allomorphic

The morphemes which are contextual variations and are thus in complementary distribution are Allomorphe S.

Synthèmes

In the terminology of Trip hammer, the multiple morphemes which function as a simple morpheme are called Synthème S. It acts of fixed combinations of minimal significant units.

Ex: potato is defined compared to leek , cabbage etc, but the speaker does not choose successively apple compared to pear , ground compared to water , etc

(However, Martinet uses the term Monème rather than morpheme ).

Morphemes and morphes

The nature even of the “minimal significant units” which one seeks to identify installation problem. One can wonder whether it acts:

of physical, perceptible entities (of the Meaning S within the meaning of Saussure)
of signs (within the meaning of Saussure), i.e. of entities neither semantic nor physical, but having demonstrations in these two fields.

Indeed, for example:

the I of will go and the all of let us go indicate both the same concept to go
the has of Latin bona (“good”) indicates at the same time the kind (female), the case (personal) and the number (singular).

This is why certain American linguists call morphe any significant phonetic unit which could not be analyzed in significant phonic elements more small; the morphemes are then redefined like classes, or units, of morphes. Thus in the preceding example, I , all and has are all of the morphes:

I and all is in this case considered as allomorphic (they bring same semantic information, and their substitution is not possible)
the has bona , in charge of multiple information, is called morphe-coat rack (he is regarded as member of several different morphemes).

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