Technically, A Word Is A Unit of Language That Carries Meaning and Consists of One or

WORD STRUCTURE
Technically, a word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or

more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetic value.
Typically a word will consist of a root or stem and zero or more affixes.
Words can be combined to create phrases, clauses, and sentences.
A word consisting of two or more stems joined together is called a compound.
It is quite hard to define what exactly a ‘word’ is, because
what is classified as words in different language are different
determining word boundaries in speech is very complex (e.g. short words are often run together
and long words are often broken up)
If a word is a unit of language that consists of one or more morphemes, then we need to know
what a morpheme is.
A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning
E.g
Rude
un-true
smooth-ly
dis-organize-d
A word can consists of:
one morpheme (simple)
cat
travel
appear
more than one morpheme (complex)
cat-s
travel-ed
dis-appeare-d
There are 6 main types of morphemes:
free
bound
lexical
grammatical
inflectional
derivational
Free morphemes can constitute a word on their own:
Thakuru
will
Bound morphemes must appear with one or more morphemes to form a word:
Thakuru’s
help–ed
en–able
Words often consist of a free morpheme with one or more bound morphemes attached to it:
en-danger-ed
In this sort of word, the free morpheme is called the root or stem, and the bound morphemes
are affixes
An affix attached to the front of a word is called a prefix
An affix attached to the back of a word is called a suffix

lexical morphemes have lexical (semantic) meanings:
help
impressive
race
Grammatical morphemes provide grammatical information:
Help-ed
under
en–danger
Lexical morphemes tend to be free morphemes:
Hiyala
jump
afternoon
Grammatical morphemes may be either free or bound:
Hiyala’s
jump-ed
afternoon-s
Inflectional & Derivational Morphemes
Bound grammatical morphemes seem to come in (at least) two types:
Inflectional
derivational
The precise difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes is hard to define
But the most obvious difference is:
derivational morphemes build new words by changing the meaning and/or syntactic category
of the word
inflectional morphemes permit a word to agree with other words in its context by
providing grammatical information
The study of word structure is called morphology. Understanding word structure helps us:
 improve spelling
 expand vocabulary
In studying word structure, we start by looking at a few key concepts first:
 root words
 prefixes
 suffixes
Root words are words, or parts of words, that can usually stand alone. The following are all root
words:
 elbow
 fast
 nudge
Most root words can be changed in various ways by adding additional elements to them:
 elbows
 faster
 nudged
Each of the examples above has been altered by adding an element at the end. The elements at
the end, namely -s, -er, and -ed, cannot stand alone. These elements are called suffixes.
Sometimes, elements are added to the beginning of a word:
 expose → underexpose
 appear → disappear
 take → overtake
 event → non-event
The elements added to the beginnings of the words above cannot stand alone, and are
called prefixes.
Sometimes, when we add a prefix or suffix to a word, we create a new word. This process is
called derivation.
appear → appearance
The two words above are definitely two different words - the first is a verb, the second a noun.
Their meanings and uses in sentences are different. In a dictionary, we would have to look them
up separately, even though they have a common root word.
Sometimes, when we add a suffix, we don't create a new word at all. This process is
called inflection.
 cat → cats
In the above example, we really have just one word - the first is singular, the second plural. In a
dictionary, we might look for cat, but we wouldn't look for a separate entry for cats.
When words are built from a common root word, or a common ancestor in history (often a Latin
word), we call the group of words a word family.
 grammar, grammatical, grammatically, ungrammatical, ungrammatically
The terms above are all built from a common root word, grammar. This word family includes
a noun, adjectives, and adverbs.
The terms below are built from a common ancestor, the Latin word spectare, meaning 'to look':
 inspect, spectacle, spectacular, inspection
This word family includes verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
• Words have an internal structure that requires analysis into constituents (much like
syntactic structure does)
• For example:
– Unusable contains three pieces: un-, use, -able
• Question: If we are thinking about the procedures for building words, is the order
– derive use-able, then add un-; or
– derive un-use, then add –able
Word Formation Processes

Obviously words don’t make words, people make words! But study of historical change in
languages shows that people do so in ways that are systematic.
derivation: adding a derivational affix, thus changing the syntactic category.orient > orientation
category extension: extending a morpheme from one syntactic category to another. chair (N) >
chair (V)
compound: combining two old words to make one new one: put-down root creation: inventing a
brand new word. Kodak
clipped form: shortening a word: brassiere > bra
blend: two words smooched together: smoke + fog > smog
acronym: the letters of a title become a word: NASA
abbreviation: a little like clipping: television > TV
proper name: hamburger < Hamburg
folk etymology: a foreign words is assimilated to native forms: cucuracha
(Spanish) > cockroach (English)

Division structure of word into Various Types

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WORD STRUCTURE

Technically, a word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or

Typically a word will consist of a root or stem and zero or more affixes.

Words can be combined to create phrases, clauses, and sentences.

A word consisting of two or more stems joined together is called a compound.

It is quite hard to define what exactly a ‘word’ is, because

what is classified as words in different language are different

A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning

A word can consists of:

one morpheme (simple)

more than one morpheme (complex)

There are 6 main types of morphemes:

Free morphemes can constitute a word on their own:

Bound morphemes must appear with one or more morphemes to form a word:

Words often consist of a free morpheme with one or more bound morphemes attached to it:

An affix attached to the front of a word is called a prefix

An affix attached to the back of a word is called a suffix

Grammatical morphemes provide grammatical information:

Lexical morphemes tend to be free morphemes:

Grammatical morphemes may be either free or bound:

Inflectional & Derivational Morphemes

Bound grammatical morphemes seem to come in (at least) two types:

But the most obvious difference is:

The study of word structure is called morphology. Understanding word structure helps us:

In studying word structure, we start by looking at a few key concepts first:

Sometimes, elements are added to the beginning of a word:

This word family includes verbs, nouns, and adjectives.

– Unusable contains three pieces: un-, use, -able

– derive use-able, then add un-; or

– derive un-use, then add –able

Word Formation Processes

clipped form: shortening a word: brassiere > bra

blend: two words smooched together: smoke + fog > smog

acronym: the letters of a title become a word: NASA

abbreviation: a little like clipping: television > TV

proper name: hamburger < Hamburg

folk etymology: a foreign words is assimilated to native forms: cucuracha

(Spanish) > cockroach (English)

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