Introduction
Hello,
we are going to talk about morphological processes. Morphological processes or morphological operations are different ways of making new words or forms of words. First, you are going to do an initial activity. Then we will explain each morphological process, and you will have to induce many things from the examples of the initial activity or from others that will be on the Power Point. Finally, with our help you will tell us the conclusion or summary of what has been covered.
Task
INITIAL ACTIVITY – PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE
We have just given some colour cards to you. Each of them has a number from 1 to 7, these are the main kinds of morphological processes. They already have an example of each process. You need to put the examples that we have given to you on paper on their corresponding colour card.
- GROUP 1a: jump-jumps
- GROUP 1b: nation-national
- GROUP 2: bomb- to bomb
- GROUP 3 : handbook
- GROUP 4 : very important personnel- VIP
- GROUP 5: telephone-phone
- GROUP 6: Spanish + English: Spanglish
- GROUP 7: abduction-abduce
Process
EXPLANATION
Groups 1,2 and 3 are the major processes for creating new words in English.
And groups 4, 5, 6 and 7 are minor processes, they are used less frequently.
Group 1 is affixation. In affixation we add affixes, which are bound morphemes; morphemes that cannot stand on their own. For example –ise from memorise, can ise stand on its own?... (NO).
Affixes can be prefixes or suffixes. Prefixes are located before/after the root(?). Suffixes are located before/after the root(?).
Group 1. a is inflection. Look at the examples. The only type of affix that is used in inflection is… (suffix).
Do you think that they create new words?...(NO. Exactly!!!! They don’t create new words.)They create different forms of the same lexeme. For example, the lexeme walk has different forms like…. (walks, walked and walking).
the answer are:
- walk-walking
- play-played
- table-tables
- big-bigger
- cheap-cheapest
Group 1.b is derivation. Look at the examples. Do the affixes create new words?... (YESS.) They create new lexemes. (Look at the examples)
- express-expressive
- inform-information
- memory-memorise
- happy-happily
- view-preview
- possible-impossible
Can they change the grammatical category of the word?... (YES.) For example, express is an verb and expressive is an adjective. They are potentially category- changing.
(Look at the examples) Is the prefix or the suffix which can change the category?... (THE SUFFIX (normally)). The suffix can change the word category and even if it doesn´t change it, it determines the category of the output. For example, yellow-yellowish, green-greenish. The suffix –ish here does not change the category but if the output has this suffix, it has to be an adjective.
Group 2 is Conversion. Conversion is a sort of derivation, but does it add affixes? (Look at the examples)....(NO. they don´t add affixes.) They keep the same lexeme and change its grammatical category.
- bottle- to bottle
- water – to water
- clean- to clean
- to approach- approach
Group 3 is compounding. Look at the examples. Do they add affixes?... (NO.) What do you think their constituents are?... (Their constituents are words or lexemes that are combined into larger words). For example, handbook is composed by the words…. (hand and book). They are usually composed by two lexemes, but they can consist of more than two. For example: White House travel office staff.
Orthography. (Look at the examples). They can be written without a space, with a hyphen or separately. To distinguish a compound word from a phrase, the stress goes to the left member. For example, ‘blackboard vs ‘black ‘board. Which one is a compound word?... (THE FIRST ONE)
Compound words usually have a head. The head determines the grammatical category of the compound word. Compounds can be left-headed or right-headed, depending if the head is the left or the right constituent of the compound.
- blue + berry: blueberry
- washing + machine: washing machine
- middle + aged: middle-aged
- globe + trotter: globe-trotter
Do you think English has normally left-headed or right-headed compounds?... (RIGHT-HEADED because the word on the right determines the category of the compound). For example, blueberry is a noun, and the word on the right, berry, is a noun.
The head is also relevant for the semantic interpretation of the compound. For example, handbook, do you think it refers to a kind of book or a kind of hand?...(A KIND OF BOOK because the word on the right, “book”, is the head).
The words middle-aged and globe-trotter were not created simply by compounding. This process is called synthetic compounding. What do you think it consists of?... (It consists of compounding plus derivation).
Group 4 is acronyms. Acronyms consist of the combination of initial/final letters of a word sequence (?).
They are written in... (capital letters). They can be read in two different ways.
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization- NATO
- United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund-UNICEF
- compact disc- CD
- United Kingdom- UK
What do you think is the difference in reading them?... (The difference is that some of them are read like normal words and others are read as if you were spelling); these are called alphabetisms.
Group 5 is clipping. Clipping consists of just taking one or several… (syllables) of a word.
- photograph-photo
- advertisement-ad
- bicycle-bike
- laboratory-lab
Group 6 is blending. What is the difference between this process and compounding?.… (In compounding we combine full words and in blending we just combine the first part of one word with second part of another).
- breakfast + lunch: brunch
- motor + hotel: motel
- simultaneous + broadcast: simulcast
- web+ seminar: webinar
Group 7 is backformation. In backformation, which of the processes that we have seen before is reversed?... (derivation). The more complex word comes first and then some element is subtracted from it. It can also affect compound words.
- investigation- investigate
- appreciation-appreciate
- brain washing-brain wash
- globetrotter-globetrot
Evaluation
FINAL ACTIVITY:
Complete each proccess with his corresponding definition.
-
Affixation
2. Conversion
3. Compounding
4. Acronyms
5. Clipping
6. Blending
7. Back formation
a. takes one or more syllables of a word
b. the process of derivation is reversed
c. combines the first part of one word with second part of another
d. keeps the same lexeme and change its grammatical category
e. adds affixes (bound morphemes) to the lexeme
f. takes the initial letters of a word sequence
g. combines two or more lexemes (words)
Conclusion
CONCLUSION
- What are morphological processes? What do they do?.... (They create new words or forms of words)
- ¿What are the seven morphological processes that we have seen?...... (affixation, conversion, compounding, acronyms, clipping, blending and back formation)
- ¿What are the three major processes?.... (affixation, which consists of inflection and derivation, conversion and compounding)
- What are the four minor processes?.... (acronyms, clipping, blending and back formation) Why are they minor processes?.... (because they are used less frequently in English)