II Structure of the Word. Problem of Parts of Speech

The notions of the Word and the Morpheme.

Principles of subdivision of parts of speech.

Classification of parts of speech.

Theory of the field structure of the word.

The notions of the Word and the Morpheme

The word morphology is based on the two Greek words morpheme and logos.

Morpheme means form.

Logos was regarded as one of the main notions of the Old Greek philosophy. It meant both: 1) word (expression, sentence or speech) and 2) sense/meaning (notion, judgment or base). To the Old Greek philosophy it was introduced by Heraclites in the 6^th – 5^th centuries B.C. Logos (Mind) and Spirit (Soul) were considered as the base of the World’s Fire or the initiation of Existence (Life).

Thus, it is seen that morphology in Linguistics does not only refer to the Form but also takes into consideration the Content.

To simplify, Morphology studies morpheme and word which is built with morphemes and can change due to them.

Morphology refers to:

1) A part of the system of language, the system of parts of speech, their grammar meanings, categories and forms of the Word.

2) A section of Grammar that studies such part of the language system; a science about parts of speech, their grammar meanings, categories and forms of word.

Word (general definition) is the main unity of morphology; a unity of language that denotes/names a definite object, thing, phenomenon or notion.

The definition of the Word, which is characteristic for flexible languages (given by Maslow, a professor, Leningrad school):

Word is a minimum unity of a language whose property is a positional independence (the examples are given under). It has characteristics of mobility (different words-parts of speech take different positions in a sentence) and discrete (can exist separately unlike/in the contrast to the Morpheme that has a meaning but cannot exist separately).

For example:

II Structure of the Word. Problem of Parts of Speech - student2.ru Respect is a desirable attitude (subject).

He has been paid a lot of respect (object). positional independence and mobility

We respect him (predicate).

When the word respect is said or written or heard it can exist separately and be perceived and understood (discrete).

Morpheme is a minimum meaningful unity of word that does not have a positional independency (prefix takes the position in the beginning of the Word, root takes main central position in the midst and suffix – at the end). Thus, all the morphemes can be divided into two big groups, root morphemes and affixes (table 2.1).

Table 2.1

Kinds of Morphemes

	Kinds of Morphemes
	Root	Affix (prefix, suffix)
Inflective	Word-formative (derivational)
E S S E N C E	Is a part of a word which does not change and is always presented in any form of the word. For example: Black, blackish, blacken. Black is a root morpheme.	Serves to change the form of the same very word. For example: 1) I always invite him. He invites me. I invited him yesterday. 2) A boy – boys.	Serves to form new words. For example: Resist (action), resistance (phenomenon), resistant (characteristics), resister (person), resistor (thing), resistible(quality), irresistible (quality).

NOTE! In English the Root coincided with the Stem. Stem is also regarded to be a root morpheme. Stem is a significant unity of Morphology, a part of the Word till the Ending.

In a language Morpheme is presented by its versions, allomorphemes (алломорфы, from the Greek allo = other/another).

Characteristics of allomorphemes:

1) they have language (they mean sth, they form words’ forms) and phonetic (they sound) power;

2) the allomorphemes of a definite morpheme can absolutely coincide in pronunciation

For example:

Fresh, freshment, freshen. The letters s,h in the root morpheme fresh create the same sound [ ].

3) the allomorphemes of a definite morpheme can be not identical in pronunciation

For example:

II Structure of the Word. Problem of Parts of Speech - student2.ru Dreamed [d] the morpheme-suffix ed means the same – it is the index of Past Simple or