Morphology is the branch of linguistics in which we study how words
are formed in a language and their internal structure. In morphology, we see
different grammatical structures which combine to give us a proper meaningful
word. The different word structures are explained below.
Lexeme
A word with its various manifestations is called a lexeme. A
lexeme is a basic form of a word that may take various inflected forms. It is
the usual dictionary entry under which all other forms are listed soit is the
one privileged form around which we have other word forms.
For example, in
English, ‘play’ is a lexeme as it is the lexical item under which all other
inflected forms get attached. Such as play is realized into its manifestations
i.e. plays, played and playing. In Urdu, the word 'کھیل'
is a lexeme under which other inflected forms originate such as کھیل سے کھیلنا، کھیلتا، کھیلے،. In Pothohari, one of the dialects of Punjabi, the lexeme کھیڑ is
realized into the following inflected forms:
Morpheme:
The minimal
grammatical unit is called a morpheme.According to H.A Gleason, morpheme can be
usually described as the smallest meaningful unit which cannot be reduced any
further without destroying or altering the meaning.Bloomfield defines a
morpheme as a linguistic form that bars no partial
phonetic-semantic resemblance to any other form.
For example, In English grammar, one of the tense marker is –ed which is added to the verb to make a past tense such as deliver into delivered, book in booked, etc. So these past tense words consist of two morphemes i.e. deliver + ed and book + ed. Here –ed is a separate morpheme giving the meaning of past tense. In Urdu, the word کھیلتا is a two morpheme word containing کھیل and تا.
In English, the
plurals are made by adding –s or –es to the word such as book into books, box
converts into boxes, etc. So, each word consists of two morphemes i.e. book +
s, and box + es. Here the -s and –es are separate morphemes carrying the
meaning of plurality. In Urdu, the plurals are made by adding different
morphemes according to the word, syntax and daily usage. Such as the word کرسیاں is
a plural containing two morphemes i.e. کرسی and اں. ‘اں’ is a separate morpheme carrying the
meaning of plurality.
Comparison between
Morpheme and Syllable:
A morpheme is not
identical with a syllable. Morphemes may consist of one or more than one
syllable. A morpheme may consist of whole syllable, part of it or other
phonemic combinations which are often less than a syllable so it is not
necessary for a morpheme to have a syllable.
For example, In English, the word 'antique' is a two syllable word but
it is a single morpheme which cannot be further divided or reduced
without altering its meaning while the word 'antiques'is a two
morpheme word with 'antique' and '-s'. The -s is a separate morpheme carrying
the meaning of plurality but this morpheme does not have any syllable. In Urdu, the word کھڑکی is
a two syllable word but is a single morpheme but the word کھڑکیاں is a three syllable
word consists of two morphemes i.e. کھڑکی + اں in which ‘اں’ is a
separate morpheme carrying the meaning of plurality.
Allomorphs:
According to H.A
Gleason, a variant of a morpheme which occurs in a certain definable
environment is called an allomorph.According to Jean Aitcheson, a morpheme has
a number of variants which are known as allomorphs.
For example, in English language, plurals are the best example of allomorphs e.g. oxen, children, teeth, men, cats, dogs which are the variants of the word ox, tooth, man, cat and dogs. In Urdu, plurals such as:
Past forms of the verbs of English are also the example of allomorphs such as drunk, sent, backed which are the variants of drink, send and back. In Urdu, گیا is a variant of the morpheme جانا.
Types of allomorphs:
Nelson Francis
defines allomorph as a family of morphs which are alike in two ways i.e. in the
allophone of which they are composed and in the meaning which they have. So
there are two different types of allomorphs i.e. phonologically conditioned
allomorphs and lexically conditioned allomorphs.
1) Phonologically
conditioned allomorphs
An allomorph is said to be phonologically conditioned when its form
is dependent on its adjacent phone.
For example, in
English,the allomorphs of past tense and past participle morphemes which occur
with verbs are phonologically conditioned e.g. backed = /beikt/, faded =
/feidid/, backed = /baegd/, etc. Here /t/, /id/ and /d/ are the variants of
past tense.In cats, dogs and houses /s/, /z/ and /iz/ are phonologically
conditioned plural morphemes.
2)
Lexically conditioned allomorphs
The lexically conditioned allomorphs are regarded as irregular
because we cannot state the variation in forms in terms of phonemic
environment.They do not follow any rule so they are learnt separately.
For example, in
English, the plural morphemes children, men, mice and teeth are the lexically
conditioned allomorphs from singular morphemes i.e. child, man, mouse and
tooth. Past tense morphemes also have irregular allomorphs such as in drank,
brought, took, etc.
Morph:
The term morph is
first used by the American linguist Charles F. Hockett.The word 'Morph' is
derived from Greek word 'Morphe' meaning ‘form or shape’. Any
phonemic shape and representation of morpheme is called a morph.According to
John Lyons, morph can be defined as a segment of a word form which represents a
particular morpheme. So each morph represents a particular morpheme but each
morpheme does not have a morph.It is the phonetic or orthographic form which
realizes the morph. When phonetic or orthographic strings are segment able they
are called morphs.
For example, In English, the plural ‘sheep’ has two morphemes have one morph
and the word 'went' has one morph but two morphemes i.e. go + past
tense. In Urdu, the words جانور، برتن، انسان are plurals with one morph
but all these have two morphemes.
Zero morph:
A morpheme which
does not have a morph is called a zero morph. The American linguist Charles F.
Hockett used the term ‘empty morph’ for certain forms which have same
singular and plural form. The linguists for the sake of uniformity assume that
the plural morpheme is present but phonetic representation is zero.
For example, in the words sheep, deer and cattle, there is no affixation which
shows pluralization and there is no visible marker of plural morpheme e.g.
Sheep + null = sheep, deer + null = deer, cattle + null = cattle, etc. Certain
verbs of English have same past and past perfect aspects as their present
aspects e.g. put + null = put (past tense), cut + null = cut (past tense), hit
+ null = hit (past tense). In Urdu, there are some words which are zero morphs such
as جانور، برتن،, انسان as they have the same singular and plural phonemic
and orthographic form but in our daily lives we usually use these words with
their plural forms i.e. جانوروں، برتنوں، انسانوں. These words have do not have
any morph according to correct grammatical structure but they are commonly used
wrongly so these words are non-words.
