MORPHEME-QN

Morpheme, Is the smallest meaningful unit of a language (Mullay & Sockwell 2002:7)

(Lyons 1968:170) Morphemes are meaningful units in the sense that they cannot be analyzed further into distributionally classifiable units of English.

Example: Unacceptable it has 3 morphemes which are un-, accept, and -able.

Each one which has a particular distribution and also a particular phonological (orthographical) form or shape.

Note; Morpheme is not a segment of the word at all. It has no position in the word, but merely it is factorial   function (Lyons 1968: 183). “Morpheme are the abstract idea”.

Katamba (1993:24) defines morpheme as the smallest difference in the shape of the word that correlates with the smallest difference in word or sentence, meaning or in grammatical structure. The analysis of  a word into morphemes begins with the isolation of morphs.

Booij (2005: 23-24) defines Morpheme as a minimal linguistic units with the lexical or grammatical meaning. For instance the noun buyer consist of the two (2) morphemes that is buy   and -er.

Haspelmath (2002: 17) defines morpheme as the smallest meaningful constituency of words.  Example in the word Nuts, nut and s represent a morpheme.

Generally morpheme is an abstract idea presented in a morph having semantic or grammatical meaning.

MORPH

Lyons (1968:183) defines morph as the segmentation of words into parts.

Example :  “Bigger”  is analyzed into two morphs  which can be written  orthographically  as “big” and  “er” (with the orthographical  convention of English accounting for the additional linking  “g”  and as in phonological transcription as /big/ , /a/ . Each morph represents a particular morpheme (p. 184).

TUKI (1990) defines morph as a morphological segment representing morpheme.

Example: Anacheza   A - na - chez - a.

Habwe & Karanja (2004); is a physical representation of morpheme.

Example:  Analima A - na – lim - a. 

Katamba (1993:24), Morph is a physical form representing some morpheme in a language.

Example:  I parked the car.

             /ai/ - I

            /pa:rk/   -  park  ,     

             /t/   -ed

           /      / - the

          /ka: /   - car.

Generally a morph; is a physical form representing some morpheme in a language having a lexical or semantic meaning.

ha -  Is a  PORTMANTEAU  MORPH, Katamba (1993:29).

Portmanteau morph  -  Etymologically,  the word  “PORTMANTEAU”  is derived from French words  “PORTER”  means to  carry  and  “MANTEAU” means coat.

This occurs when a single morpheme represents simultaneously two or more grammatical function.

Booij (2005:57),   Portmanteau morpheme are morphemes that sense to express more than one morphological property.

Katamba (1993:61)  the idea of  portmanteau  morph  is found  frequently in  inflecting  languages illustrates the difficulties that arise if  Morphemes  are assumed to be always matched in a straight forward way  with  morphs.

Katamba & Booij (2005), add by saying in other cases one morph may have several grammatical functions in a given language, in the literatures such elements which have two or more grammatical functions are called portmanteau morphs. Katamba cites Bauer (2004:86) defines it as any morph which through commulation relies more than one morphosyntactic property.

Example;

Hakufika

Ha- subject marker

     -Negation marker

     -Singular

     -Third person singular

Examples from other languages which supports the explanations above;

SWAHILI LANGUAGE

Harudi    

“Ha” functions as;

                  -negation marker

                  -Number

                  -Third person singular

                   -subject marker

Ha- qualifies to be a portmanteau morph in Swahili language.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Walks          “-s”    functions as;

                 -Third person singular    example, she walks.

                  -Number

                  -Tense (Simple present)

JITA LANGUAGE

Siga means acha (Swahili), stop (English) “si” functions as;

               -subject marker

               - Second person singular

               -number

Derivation according Mullay & Stockwell (2002:7) is the addition of non-inflectional affixed morphemes. Example: help as a root in English has derived: helpful, unhelpful, helpless, helper.

Fasold & Linton (2006: 74); Derivation creates or derives new lexeme from existing ones.

Examples: 

         I.            Quick (adjective) when attached with - ly (derivational affix) results to quickly which is an adverb.

      II.             Man (noun)  when attached with -ly  (derivational affix) results to  manly which is an Adjective

Katamba (1993:47), Derivation occurs by changing the word class that a base belongs to. Example the addition of -ly to the adjective kind and simple produce the adverbs kindly and simply .He adds by saying derivation can form new words by changing the meaning of the base to which they are attached. Example the addition of prefix un- to the adjective kind produces the word unkind which differs from kind  in meaning although both are adjectives. 

The term Strata refers to layers or levels which are hierarchically arranged one below the others, Katamba (1993:91).

Normally the ordering of strata in the lexicon reflects the ordering of word –formation processes. Primary affixes example –ic in phonemic which are phonologically non- neutral, are attached first at stratum 1. But the processes of compounding as well as the attachment of secondary affixes, example –ly as in widely which are phonologically neutral happen at stratum 2. Katamba (1993:92)

The underived root is like the kernel of the word. Stratum 1 takes the root as the base to which non-neutral affixes are attached. The stratum2 takes the root –plus stratum 1 affixes as its input. A natural consequence of assuming that the strata in the lexicon are ordered in this way is that stratum1 affixes are closer to the root of the word, and neutral affixes are added on the outside as an outer layer. Katamba (1993:92)

Derivational affixes according to Groover (1999:62), are affixes which form new lexical morphemes. He further adds these affixes normally change the part of speech or word category like energy (noun) when attached with the suffix -ize produces energize (verb).

Therefore; Derivational strata is a good as saying derivational affixes. Derivational strata refers to the affixes which when attached to a root they derive that root into different word classes like from noun to adjectives (girl – girlish), adjective to a verb (able – enable).

According to the sentential word hawatapiganishwa ‘they will not be caused to hit one another’, the word has four derivational strata to name them and give their function;

HAWATAPIGANISHWA  -    Ha  -  wa  -  ta  -  pig  -  an  -  ish  -  w  -  a

‘Ha-’    is a negative morpheme, which shows negation Ashton (1977).

‘-an-’   is a reciprocal morpheme, which shows reciprocity (act of affecting one another).

‘-ish-’   is a causative morpheme, function as causative of an action, Ashton (1977:230).

‘-w-’    is passive marker, which shows the one who is affected, Ashton (1977:22-223).

Never the less, derivational and inflectional affixes have been sometimes confusing owing to the fact that, there has been no clear cut in identifying the morpheme of whether being derivational or inflectional. Such a lack of clear cut is looming large or is most common in Bantu languages.

REFERENCES

Ashton, O.E. (1977). Swahili grammar: including intonation. Singapore: Longman.

Booij, G. (2005). The grammar of words: An introduction to linguistic morphology. Oxford:  

                  Oxford University Press.

Fasold, R. & Linton, C. J. (2006). An introduction to language and linguistics. Cambridge:

                                            Cambridge University Press.

 Groover, H. (1999). Essential introductory linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.

Habwe & Karanja (2004). Misingi ya sarufi ya Kiswahili. Nairobi: Print Park ltd.

Haspelmath, M. (2002). Understanding Morphology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Katamba, F. (1993). Morphology.  Oxford: Blackwell.

Katamba, F. (1993). Morphology. London: Macmillan.

Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to theoretical linguistics. New York: Cambridge University

                Press.

Mullay, L. & Stockwell, P.(2002). Introducing English language. UK: Routledge.

DAR ES SALAAM UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT: LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE.

COURSE TITLE: MORPHOLOGY

COURSE CODE: LL202

SEMINAR DAY: WEDNESDAY

SEMINAR HOUR: 09:00-09:55 A.M.

SEMINAR ROOM: LRD

SEMINAR LEADER: MR.TABARO.

PARTICIPANTS:

S/NO.	NAME	REG.NO.	DEGREE PROGRAMME
1	MAGATI  FAITH  A	2012-04-05357	B.Ed(Arts)
2	SHIO STELLA M	2012-04-05391	B.Ed(Arts)
3	STANLEY  LEYLA N	2012-04-05396	B.Ed(Arts)
4	ALFONCI  WINNY	2012-04-05301	B.Ed(Arts)
5	IDAPOH CLARA	2012-04-05917	BA.Ed
6	SIMON EDWARD	2012-04-06514	BA.Ed
7	MAHENGE HOSEA	2012-04-05359	B.Ed(Arts)
8	WAMBALI EMMANUEL E	2012-04-05398	B.Ed(Arts)
9	KAIZER  EDOM	2012-04-05977	BA.Ed
10	FANUEL  NICKSON	2012-04-05319	B.Ed(Arts)

 

QUESTION: 2

a)      Following Katamba, F.  (1993) Morphology. Oxford: Blackwell, the morpheme ha- has a specific name. Name and define it? Offer some other examples, with supporting explanation from other languages.

b)      Using the sentential word hawatapiganishwa ‘they will not be caused to hit one another’ provided above, how many derivational strata are available in the word? Name them and describe their functions.

                  FRAME WORK:

1: INTRODUCTION

·         Meaning of Morpheme.

·         Meaning of Morph.

2: MAIN BODY.

·         Naming morpheme ha.

·         Definition of morpheme ha.

·         Supporting examples from other languages.

·         Meaning of derivation.

·         Meaning of strata.

·         Meaning of derivational strata.

·         Identifying the number of derivational strata, naming them and showing their functions in the sentential word hawatapiganishwa.

3: CONCLUSION.

4:REFERENCES.