Masyhud Zainuddin WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION 4.1. Words and Grammar: Lexemes, Word Forms, and Grammatical Words PDF

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Masyhud Zainuddin WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION 4.1. Words and Grammar: Lexemes, Word Forms, and Grammatical Words Words is the smallest element that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content (with literal or practical meaning). Word can be decomposed into smaller meaningful el...

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Masyhud Zainuddin

WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

4.1. Words and Grammar: Lexemes, Word Forms, and Grammatical Words Words is the smallest element that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content (with literal or practical meaning). Word can be decomposed into smaller meaningful elements that linguistics call morpheme. Car-s Re-consider Over-general-iz-ation A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has meaning or a grammatical function. Some morphemes can be realized in more than one way, i.e. a morpheme can have different forms in different environments. The variants of a morpheme are called allomorphs. Examples: 1. dog-[z] 2. cat-[s]

ₔ

3. bush-[ z] Classification of morphemes Free morpheme vs Bound Morpheme Cat Walk-ed The expression to which a bound morpheme is attached is called the stem, e.g. in believable ‘believe’ is the stem, and in unbelievable ‘believable’ is the stem (root and base). Prefix and Suffix In English, all the productive affixes are either attached at the end of the stem – suffixes, or at the front of the stem – prefixes. Example: Common Prefix -

Co+occur ‘occur together’

-

Mid+night ‘middle of the night’

-

Mis+treat ‘treat badly’

-

Re+turn ‘turn back’

-

Act+or ‘person who acts’

-

Un+filled ‘not filled’

-

Act+ive ‘pertaining to being in

-

Peri+meter ‘measure around’

Common Suffix -

Act+ion ‘state of acting’

action’ -

Child+ish ‘like a child’

-

Child+hood ‘state of being a child’

-

Child+less ‘without a child

Inflection is a morphological change by means of which a word adapts to a grammatical function without changing its lexical meaning. By means of inflection, one change can happen to a word per context so that it adapts to a grammatical function appropriate for the context without changing the lexical meaning of the word.

4.2. Regular and Irregular Inflection -

What is regular inflection? Inflection, the way we change a word’s form to reflect things like tense, plurality, gender,

etc., is usually governed by consistent, predictable rules. This is known as regular inflection. For example, we usually create the past simple tense of verbs by adding “-d” or “-ed” (as in heard or walked, which also function as the verbs’ past participles), and we normally create plurals by adding “-s” or “-es” to the ends of nouns (as in dogs, cats, watches, etc.). -

What is irregular inflection? However, there are many instances in which the way a word is inflected doesn’t seem to

follow any rules or conventions at all—this is known as irregular inflection. For example, the past simple tense of the verb go is went (rather than goed, as regular inflection would suggest), and its past participle is gone. Irregular inflection affects nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and (most commonly) verbs.

4.3 Form of Nouns According to Cambridge dictionary noun is the word that is the name of something (such as a person, animal, place, thing, quality, idea, or action) and is typically used in a sentence as

subject or object of a verb or as object of a preposition. From a morphological point of view, nouns are less varied than verbs, having just two forms, singular and plural. Forms of noun contrasting in number usually added by suffix –s or –es. In morpheme-based morphology, a singular noun have just one morpheme different with plural noun have two morpheme or more. Example likes: Plural –s is added to most nouns. The suffix –s is the regular suffix for forming plurals (Andrew Carstairs and Carthy, 2002). Cat = cat + -Ø = ROOT ("cat") + SINGULAR

Cats = cat + -s = ROOT ("cat") PLURAL

Ball= ball + -Ø = ROOT ("ball”) + SINGULAR

Balls=ball+-s = ROOT ("ball”) +PLURAL

Hat= hat + -Ø = ROOT ("hat”) + SINGULAR

Hats= hat + -Ø = ROOT ("hat”) + PLURAL

In morphology there are some rules to add the suffix in the nouns or word. The suffix –es is the regular suffix for forming plurals. Add -es to make nouns plural that end with: 1. S = Buses = bus + -es = ROOT ("bus") PLURAL 2. X = Taxes = tax + -es = ROOT ("tax") PLURAL 3. Ch = Benches = + -es = ROOT ("bench") PLURAL 4. Sh = Dishes = + -es = ROOT ("dish") PLURAL

If the last of word are S, X, CH, SH just added suffix-es to make them be a plural noun. While the suffix-ies the word have to end with a consonant and a y: 1. Y=Ladies= lady + -es = ROOT ("lady") PLURAL 2. Y= Fries= fry + -es = ROOT ("fry") PLURAL

Table of Noun forms (regular and irregular) a) ball – balls hat – hats

Plural –s is

sister – sisters

added to most nouns.

b) box – boxes church – churches

Final –es is

brush – brushes class - classes

added to nouns

buzz – buzzes

that end in –ch, -sh, -ss, and -z c) baby – babies party – parties

Words ending

city – cities poppy – poppies

in consonant + y take –ies as a plural suffix.

d) man - Men

Foot- feet

Ox – oxen

Tooth – teeth

These nouns

Woman -

Women

Mouse -

Mice

have irregular

Child -

Children

Goose -

Geese

forms, so there is no specific rule.

e) echo – echoes potato – potatoes

Some nouns

hero – heroes tomato – tomatoes

ending in –o take final -–es.

f) auto- autos photo- photos studio – studios

Only the final –

ghetto-ghettos piano- pianos tattoo- tattoos

s is added to

kilo- kilos radio –radios video – videos

some nouns

memo-memos solo- solos zoo- zoos

ending in – o

soprano – sopranos kangaroo- kangaroos g) memento – mementoes/ mementos

It is possible to

volcano- volcanoes/ volcanos

add –es or –s to

zero – zeroes/ zeros

nouns in this

mosquito- mosquitoes/ mosquitos

category.

tornado – tornadoes/ tornados h) calf –calves life – lives thief- thieves

Some nouns

half – halves loaf- loaves wolf – wolves

that end in –f or

knife- knives self- selves scarf – scarves

fe are changed

shelf – shelves

to – ves to form the plural.

i)belief – beliefs cliff- cliffs

Some nouns

chief – chiefs roof – roofs

ending in –f are not changed and simply – s is added to form the plural.

j) deer – deer series – series means - means

Some nouns

fish - fish sheep – sheep shrimp – shrimp

have the same

offspring- offspring

singular and

species – species

plural form. Some nouns

criterion – criteria phenomenon- phenomena

that English has

l) cactus – cacti/ cactuses nucleus – nuclei

borrowed from other languages

fungus- fungi stimulus – stimuli

have foreign

syllabus- syllabi/ syllabuses

plurals.

m) formula – formulae/ formulas vertebra – vertebrae n) appendix – appendices/ appendixes index- indices/ indexes o) analysis – analyses basis – bases crisis – crises hypothesis- hypotheses oasis – oases thesis- theses parenthesis – parentheses p) bacterium – bacteria curriculum – curricula datum – data medium – media

memorandum – memoranda

Regular and irregular noun very different forms, regular just added a suffix but irregular sometimes express their plural with no suffix at all. In irregular there is a change in the vowel of the root, an allomorph of the root with different vowel from the singular. However there are also some noun not change the vowel even though be a plural form; for example like deer, sheep etc. Therefore be a plural or singular the nouns are same.

1. A deer was visible through the trees. 2. Two deer were visible through the trees. The two example above are different form the first is singular, because there are marks that the first sentence are singular. The marks are article and verb. There is an A article before a noun. It means that the subject is singular, and the second marks are verb. A verb (was) explain that is a singular sentence. While the plural there are word (two) and (were) as a mark that the subject is plural.

4.4 Forms of Pronouns and determiners Pronouns are used for persons or things and change form according to the people or things they refer to and their position in a sentence (Subject or Object). Thus I is used as the subject of a sentence (I am happy.), me is used as an object in various ways (He hit me. He gave me a book. Do this for me?), and my is used as the possessive form (That’s my car.) The same is true of the other personal pronouns: the singular you and he/she/it and the plural you, they, and we. These forms are called cases. The chart below illustrates the different forms among the cases. Singular

Subject Pronouns

Object Pronouns

st

I

me

nd

You

you

He

him

She

Her

It

it

Subject Pronouns

Object pronouns

1 person 2 person rd

3 person Plural

st

We

us

nd

You

you

rd

They

them

1 person 2 person 3 person

1. Personal Pronoun This kind of pronoun refers to a particular person or thing. The form of the personal pronoun that is appropriate to use for a specific sentence depends on the gender and number of persons or things. Subject of a sentence

Object of a sentence

Examples

I

me

I had dinner at my house.

you

you

You had dinner at your house.

he, she, it

him, her, it

She had dinner at her house.

we

our

We had dinner at your house.

you

your

You had dinner at your house.

they

their

They had dinner at their house.

2. Possessive Pronouns and Determiners Determines are not pronouns. It is useful to learn them at the same time as pronouns, however, because they are similar in form to the possessive pronouns. Determines function as adjectives, so they appear before the noun they modify. They do not replace a noun as pronouns do. While the possessive pronouns replace possessive nouns as either the subject or the object of a clause. Because the noun being replaced doesn't appear in the sentence, it must be clear from the context. Possessive determiners

Possessive pronouns

Examples

my

mine

This is my car. It is mine.

your

yours

This is your car. It is yours.

his, her, its

his, hers, its

This is his car. It is his.

our

ours

This is our car. It is ours.

your

yours

This is your car. It is yours.

their

theirs

This is their car. It is theirs.

3. Reflexive Pronouns The reflexive pronouns indicate that the sentence subject also receives the action of the verb. This kind of pronoun is used to refer back to the subject. Reflexive pronouns

Examples

myself

I did it myself.

yourself

You did it yourself.

himself, herself, itself

She did it herself.

ourselves

We did it ourselves.

yourselves

You did it yourselves.

themselves

They did it themselves.

4. Relative Pronouns This kind of pronoun links one clause or phrase to another. Relative pronouns

Examples

who

Ben, who moved to London, bought a house.

which

He bought the black car, which was cheaper.

whose

This is the tower whose façade was restored last year. I visited Roberta, whose husband had left her.

5. Interrogative Pronouns As the title implies, the function of this kind of pronoun is to ask questions. Interrogative pronouns

Examples

who

Who left the door open?

what

What were you thinking?

which

Which car do you like best?

whose

Whose fault was it?

6. Demonstrative Pronouns The function of this kind of pronoun is to point to a noun. Examples are: this, these, that, and those. The pronouns “this” and “these” points to things that are nearby while the other two are for things that are far. Aside from proximity, you must also consider the number of things you are pointing out. For singular nouns, “this” and “that” should be used, while for plural nouns “these” and “those” are appropriate.

Demonstrative

Examples

pronouns this

This is my house right here.

that

That over there is the school.

these

These are my children. Aren't they cute?

those

Those are my sister's children. They are brats!

Determines The functional category that is most closely associated with nouns are the determiners which always precede nominal elements determines like an article, the, a, an etc. Syntactic position

Before a noun (and adjective, if one precedes the noun); only one determiner can precede a single noun (*the a car). a. The party b. A snake

4.5 Forms Of Verbs English verbs have five basic forms: the base, - S, -ing, past, and past participle forms. 1) Irregular Verbs 

An irregular verb is used to form the simple past and past participle without take the – ed ending.





Irregular verbs, however, have no consistent patterns. Base form

Present tense

Present/ progressive participle

Past tense

Past participle

Drink

Drink(s)

Drinking

Drank

Drunk

Swim

Swim(s)

Swimming

Swam

Swum

Catch

Catch(es)

Catching

Caught

Caught

The past participles for irregular verbs are challenging, however, because they are sometimes the same as the base form and/or the past form and because they are sometimes different from both.



Example in the sentence a. Basic form : e.g.

write

Ryan wants to write an article Ryan can write 3 articles in a week

b. Third person singular present tense : e.g.

Ryan writes an article every week

c. Past tense : e.g.

writes

wrote

Ryan wrote an article last week

d. Progressive participle :

writing

e.g.

Ryan is writing an article today

e. Past perfect or passive participle : e.g.

written

Ryan has written an article today An article is written by Ryan

2) Regular Verbs 

A regular verb is used to form the simple past and past participle by adding a suffix –d or -ed.



Regular verbs have reliable forms.



Base form

Present tense

Present/ progressive participle

Past tense

Past participle

Laugh

Laugh(s)

Laughing

Laughed

Laughed

Start

Starts(s)

starting

Started

Started

Fish

Fish(es)

Fishing

Fished

fished

For the regular verb has only three forms include the base form, because the past tense and the past participle have the same form.

4.6 Forms Of Adjectives Adjectives have three forms: positive, comparative, and superlative. The simplest form of the adjective is its positive form. When two objects or persons are being compared, the comparative form of the adjective is used. When three or more things are being compared, we use the adjective’s superlative form. 1) Comparative 

Comparatives are used to show the difference between two objects.



Rules for forming comparatives: a. If an adjective has 1 syllable we add the ending –er to the adjective.

 small + er = smaller than  hard + er = harder than The ant is smaller than the hippo b. If a one syllable adjective ends with a consonant + a vowel + a consonant you must double the last consonant and then ad –er.  big + er = bigger than  fat + er = fatter than The elephant is fatter than the giraffe. c. If an adjective ends with a “y”, remove the “y” and add –ier.  happy –y + ier = happier than  funny –y + ier = funnier than The girl is happier than the duck. d. If an adjective has two syllables or more without a “y” then add the word “more” before the word. If the adjective ends with a “y”, you will only add the word “more” if it has three syllables or more.  beautiful + more = more beautiful than  expensive + more = more expensive than  satisfactory + more = more satisfactory than The butterfly is more beautiful than the frog. 

Remember, when using a comparative you must always follow it with the word “than”.

2) Superlative



Superlatives are used to show the difference between more than two objects.



Rules for forming comparatives: a. If an adjective has 1 syllable we add the ending –est to the adjective.  small + est = the smallest  hard + est = the hardest The ant is the smallest. b. If a one syllable adjective ends with a consonant + a vowel + a consonant you must double the last consonant and ad –est.  big + est = the biggest  fat + est = the fattest The hippo is the fattest. c. If an adjective ends with a “y”, remove the “y” and add –iest.  happy –y + iest = the happiest  funny –y + iest = the funniest The elephant is the heaviest. d. If an adjective has two syllables or more without a “y” then add the word “most” before the word. If the adjective ends with a “y”, you will only add the word “most” if it has three syllables or more.  beautiful + most = the most beautiful  expensive + most = the most expensive  satisfactory + most = the most satisfactory The airplane is the most expensive.



Remember, when using a superlative you must always precede it with the word “the”.

There are a few exceptions in adjectives like good, bad and far form, their comparatives and superlatives have different words. Adjective

Comparative

Superlative

Good

Better

The best

Bad

Worse

The worst

Far

Farther/further

The farthest/furthest

CONCLUSION

Some words (lexemes) have more than one word form, depending on the grammatical co...