Language is the most important social communication among countries and people in the world
English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong Acknowledgment Firstly, we are deeply grateful to Ms Huyen Nguyen Thi Thanh, my supervisor for her valuable instructions, corrections and assistance during the implementation process of our graduation thesis. Secondly, we would like to give our special thanks to all lecturers and staff from the Foreign Language Faculty, English Department of Phuong Dong University for giving us opportunities and encouragement to complete our study. Finally, we also would like to express our sincere thanks to TA vu Son Tung for his support during our process to complete this essay. Group: Luong Thi Thuan Ha Kim Phuong 1 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong OUTLINE Part I: Introduction. 1. Rationale (reasons of the study) .3 2. Aims of the study .3 3. Scope of the study 3 4. Methods of the study 4 Part II: Development. Chapter 1: Theoretical background. I. An overview of English morpheme I.1. Definition of Morpheme .5 I.2. Type of morpheme .6 II. An overview of Vietnamese morpheme II.1. Definition of Vietnamese morpheme .9 II.2. Derivational morphology: word formation 9 Chapter 2: Comparison with Vietnamese morphology. 1. The similarities 11 2. The difference .13 3. Some suggestion .15 Part III: Conclusion .18 Exercises 19 References .23 2 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong Part I: Introduction 1. The rationale “Language is the most important social communication among countries and people in the world”, said V.I Lenin. As the world changes and develops, the global integration becomes the trend in all over the world. All countries, including Viet Nam have been cooperated with each other in many aspects of society in order to enhance development of economy. It designated international communication as an important part of all sectors. English is considered as the international language which is widely used all over the world. However, each language as well as English has its own typical features which make difficulties for learners. To learn English well, first of all, we should understand deeply about its morpheme system. Living in a community, human beings need a tool to communicate with each other, and to carry on human and social affairs. They, therefore, arbitrarily named the things and occurrences around making use of vocal sounds for the purpose of communication. After that they showed the vocal sounds and sets of vocal sounds in written signals. Because of these reasons, we decided to choose the topic “English morpheme system and some applications of learning morpheme in establishing words”. 2. Aims of the study We hope that our study is useful for English learners, for those who want to consolidate their knowledge about morpheme. Furthermore, it can help people significantly improve their vocabulary to apply in translation and finally, they can also guess meanings new words without using dictionary. 3. Scope of the study. The elimination of the essay is from 15-20 pages, so we can only deal with • Definition, types of English morpheme. • Definition, types of Vietnamese morpheme. • Some suggestions in forming words. 3 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong 4. The methods of the study. To complete this study, we used some following methods: + Library research: we collected the data from curriculums, internet, and some valuable books of foreign and domestic scholars. We think these are valuable sources to effectively support for our study. + Comparison: we gave out the similarities and differences between English morpheme and Vietnamese morpheme. 5. Design of the study. Our essay is divided into five main parts: Part I: Introduction Part II: Development This is divided into 2 chapters: Chapter 1: Some theoretical background knowledge. Chapter 2: Comparison with Vietnamese morphology Part III: Conclusion Part IV: References Part V: Exercises 4 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong Part II. Development Chapter 1: Theoretical background I. An overview of English morpheme I.1. Definition A morpheme is the smallest isolable unit in the linguistic structure which caries an independent meaning for example a noun or a verb stem as well as a suffix or prefix, and the meaning can be specific such as John (proper name), general such as a house, or purely grammatical such as pluralize, verbalize, etc. The first part of the definition is the sequence of words smallest isolable unit, which means that these elements are the shortest stretches of sound which can be replaced by another such segment, and which always have some element of meaning attached to them, however broad or general this meaning might be. The final requirement, for example, meaning associated with the segment, is necessary to eliminate the possibility of having two morphemes, such as cut and cot in which it might be said that the meaning difference between the two units was carried by the single phonemic distinction /ʌ/ and /ɔ/, which is of course true on the phonemic level of analysis, but it is probable also true that the meaning distinction is carried by only a single distinctive feature on the distinctive feature level of analysis. These are some examples of morpheme: • One morpheme boy (one syllable) desire, lady, water (two syllables) crocodile (three syllables) salamander (four syllables • Two morpheme boy + ish desire + able • Three morpheme boy + ish + ness desire + able + ity • Four morpheme gentle+man+li + ness un + desire + able + ity • More than four un + gentle + man + li + ness anti + dis + establish + ment + ari + an + ism 5 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong I.2. Types of English morpheme I.2.1. Root morpheme A root is a morpheme that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts. It is also called the lexical morpheme or simply the root. Example: book, system, school, etc. 6 Morpheme Root morpheme Affixational morpheme free morpheme Bound morpheme The inflectional morpheme The derivational morpheme Prefix Suffix English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong Free Root Morpheme: run, bottle, phone, etc. Bound Root Morpheme: receive, remit, uncouth, nonchalant, etc 1.2.1.1. Free morphemes • Free morphemes are those that can stand alone as words. E.g.: girl system Desire hope Act phone Happy love 1.2.1.2. Bound morphemes Bound morphemes (affixes) must be attached to the word. They are prefixes, infixes, suffixes, such as {happy} as in unhappy, happily, happiness) or they may be grammatical (such as called, closing, and faster). 1.2.2. Affixational morpheme The affixational morpheme is further divided into inflectional morpheme and derivational morpheme. 1.2.2.1. The inflectional morpheme Inflectional morphemes have grammatical meaning or function in the sentence, they never change part of speech. It also called grammatical morpheme. Words can have an internal structure much like the syntax of phrases. Morphemes such as the, -s, and re- near the grammatical end of the continuum are called grammatical morphemes. Note that grammatical morphemes include forms that we can consider to be words like the, a, and, and of and others that make up parts of words like –s and -ed. 7 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong E.g. pencils walked 1.2.2.2. The derivational morpheme Root morpheme combines with Derivational Morpheme forming a new word with a new meaning (usually change grammatical class) N + Derivational Morpheme --> Adj • E.g.: mountain + ous, Verb + Derivational Morpheme --> Noun • E.g.: clear + ance Adj. + Derivational Morpheme --> Adverb • E.g.: Exact + ly The Derivational morpheme consists of affix, which includes prefix and suffix. Affix is a morpheme that comes at the beginning (prefix) or the ending (suffix) of a base morpheme. An affix usually is a morpheme that cannot stand alone. Examples: -ful, -ly, -ity, -ness. A few exceptions are able, like, and less. a. Prefix is an affix that comes before a base morpheme. E.g.: The -in in inspect. b. Suffix is an affix that comes after a base morpheme. E.g.: The -s in cats. II. Vietnamese morpheme II.1. Definition of Vietnamese morpheme 8 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong A Vietnamese morpheme is the smallest isolable unit in the linguistic structure which caries an independent meaning, forming by the repetition of that morpheme itself or some variants of that word II.2. Derivational morpheme: word formation There are 3 types of words in Vietnamese: simple (từ đơn), reduplicative (từ láy) and compound (từ ghép). Moreover, Vietnamese has borrowed vocabulary from other languages, including Chinese, French and English. II.2.1.Simple words Most simple words in Vietnamese are monosyllabic.The number of polysyllabic simple words such as bù nhìn (scarecrow), ễnh ương (frog), mồ hôi (sweat), mà cả (bargain) is relatively small. II.2.2. Reduplicative words Reduplication is a specific type of word-formation in Vietnamese. Vietnamese is among the languages in the world which most frequently use reduplicatives. II.2.3.Compounds There are three types of compounds in Vietnamese. a. Coordinate compounds Coordinate compounds are formed by two morphemes, neither of which modifies the other one, such as quần áo (cloths), mua bán (purchase and sell), phải trái (right and wrong). b. Subordinate compounds Subordinate compounds are formed by two morphemes, one of which modifies the other one. E.g.: xe đạp (bicycle) xe máy (motorbike) xe hơi (car) xe lửa (train) khó tính (be difficult to please) khó chịu (unbearable) khó nghe (be difficult to hear) khó thương (unlovable) trắng tinh (immaculate) trắng muốt (pure white) trắng hếu (very light, white, of skin) trắng phau (very white) nhà báo (journalist) nhà văn (writer) nhà doanh nghiệp (businessman) nhà thơ (poet) 9 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong hội trưởng (president of association) đội trưởng (head of group) nhóm trưởng (head of group) tổ trưởng (head of small group) Many morphemes in this type may be regarded as affixes. c. Isolated compounds Unlike the coordinate and subordinate compounds, isolated compounds do not form systems. Such compounds as mè nheo (bother with requests), thiêu thân (May fly), tai hồng (a part of bicycle) belong to the isolated type of compounds. Chapter 2: Comparison with Vietnamese morphology 2.1. The similarities 10 [...]... scope, we have introduced some features of English morpheme system as well as its importance in learning English in general and spelling, developing vocabulary in particular It’s also play an 17 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong important part in teaching English for children at the first year of ages in order to help them have a basic acknowledgement about English and find out the good... form of the same word 19 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong A Derivational morphemes B Inflectional morphemes 6 ‐ed‐ in He washed the car is A Inflectional morphemes B Derivational morphemes 7 ‐s‐ in He walks to school is A Inflectional morphemes B Derivational morphemes 8 ‐tion‐ in Radiation leaked out of the plant is A Inflectional morphemes B Derivational morphemes 9 ‐ing‐ in She... think of, and which laymen tend to find the most obvious This is so to such an extent that very often beginners think that morphemes are an 14 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong inevitable, fundamental notion of morphology, and many five-minute explanations of morphology are, in fact, five-minute explanations of morpheme- based morphology This is, however, not so The fundamental idea of. .. awareness of morpheme will also find out a good way to attack to sound word, which can help them much in spelling and developing their vocabulary 16 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong Morphemes give an indication of the meaning of words They also have a fixed spelling Because morphemes are represented in spelling, many word that is seemed to have an unpredictable or irregular spelling can... → powerful rực → rực rỡ: flaring → blazing The reduplication decreasing intensity: • • • • • nhẹ → nhè nhẹ: soft → mild (less) xinh → xinh xinh: pretty → cute đỏ → đo đỏ: red → reddish xanh → xanh xanh: blue/green → bluish/ greenish In addition, both of them can change the part of speeds of some words E.g.: English: work worker, working, hardworking 12 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong... having a good acknowledgment of morpheme, especially in children, will help them much in spelling, as well as in improving vocabulary Part III Conclusion In short, English nowadays is become more and more important part of human’s life It helps people from all over the world be closer The more popular of English becomes the more important of using correct English we should do In the limited time and. .. spell and build words We also give you some exercise to help you test your knowledge about morpheme Let’s do it by your-self and check with the keys below With all the information we focused above and these exercises, we hope that they will help you much in learning English Exercise I Count the number of morphemes in each word Underline the bound morphemes 1 alligator 2 calmly 3 running 4 blindness... talk" > nói nói "to keep talking and talking” 13 English morpheme system • Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong Moreover, English morpheme is not as concrete as Vietnamese morpheme In English sometimes when we pronounce some sounds are lost and some are combined but it doesn’t happen with Vietnamese E.g.: unforgettable: /'ʌnfə'getəbl/ We can NOT read all morphemes ‘un’/forget’/able/ clearly and separately but with... studying everyday is A Inflectional morphemes B Derivational morphemes 10 ‐ly‐ in Slowly, he ambled down the street is A Inflectional morphemes B Derivational morphemes 11 ‐est‐ in That is the biggest fish I have ever seen is A Inflectional morphemes B Derivational morphemes Answers I 1 alligator 1 2 calmly 2 3 running 2 4 blindness 2 5 stapler 2 6 bargain 1 7 regrouping 3 8 undeniable 3 20 English morpheme. .. may think: un: cant, impossible (negative meaning) Forget: to cease or fail to remember Able: having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something: 15 English morpheme system Luong Thuan & Kim Phuong Unforgettable: impossible to forget, indelibly impressed on the memory By analyzing some examples we can see that the knowledge of morpheme can help learner to guess the meaning of the words . sounds in written signals. Because of these reasons, we decided to choose the topic English morpheme system and some applications of learning morpheme in establishing. • Definition, types of English morpheme. • Definition, types of Vietnamese morpheme. • Some suggestions in forming words. 3 English morpheme system