Morphology
"The study of word structure is called morphology." (Curzan and Adams, 2012, p. 99)
The process of word formation can be classified into the following categories: combining, shortening, blending, shifting, reanalysis, and reduplication.
Slang is prevalent in the English language, and it is formed using the same processes as generally accepted words.
The process of word formation can be classified into the following categories: combining, shortening, blending, shifting, reanalysis, and reduplication.
- Combining - includes compounding, prefixing, and suffixing.
- Shortening - existing English words can be shortened by the processes of alphabetism, acronymy, and backformation
- Blending - two or more words are joined, but at least part of one of the words must be clipped (example - internet)
- Shifting - a word form in one lexical category (like noun) is moved to another lexical category (like verb) to create a new word
- Reanalysis - the redistribution of sounds in a morpheme to create a new morpheme
- Reduplication - a new word is formed by repeating a morpheme
Slang is prevalent in the English language, and it is formed using the same processes as generally accepted words.
Terms to know
Morphemes: the smallest meaningful units in language and can be words or non-words.
Free morphemes: morphemes that function independently as English words (examples: word, talk, up)
Closed morphemes: morphemes that appear in the same form regardless of how they appear in a sentence. These include prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, determiners ,and inflectional suffixes.
Open morphemes: morphemes that adapt to new grammatical and semantic demands and include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and derivational affixes.
Free morphemes: morphemes that function independently as English words (examples: word, talk, up)
Closed morphemes: morphemes that appear in the same form regardless of how they appear in a sentence. These include prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, determiners ,and inflectional suffixes.
Open morphemes: morphemes that adapt to new grammatical and semantic demands and include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and derivational affixes.
Implications for Teachers of ELLs
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