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MORPHOLOGY Morphology is the study of word structure and word formation. Words are impossible

to define in absolute terms because they can be thought of as the units that are combined to form sentences in a language such as English. This language derives a huge number of words on a daily basis from all the languages of the world and morphology gives you an idea about the source of the words with rules and regulations on how to form new words.

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COMMON PROCESSES OF WORD FORMATION Many words are formed or created from combinations of other words, or from

combinations of words with prefixes or suffixes. Thus, there are many possible ways of forming or creating new words in English.

Derivation Acronyms

Coinage

Clipping

Conversion

PROCESS OF WORD FORMATION

Blending

Borrowing

Compounding

Backformation

Coinage Coinage is the invention of totally new terms of words. The most typical sources are invented trade names for the company's product which become general terms (without initial capital letters) for any version of that product. Older examples are aspirin, nylon and zipper. The more recent examples of words are Kleenex, Teflon and Xerox.

Borrowing Borrowing is the taking over of words from other languages. Based on the history, the English language has adopted a vast number of loan-words from other languages. For example: (a)

Leak, yacht (from Dutch)

(b)

Barbecue, cockroach (from Spanish)

(c)

Piano, concerto (from Italian)

(d)

Coffee, safari (from Arabic)

(e)

Yam, banana (from African)

Compounding Compounding is combining two or more words together to form a new complex word. It is very common in languages like German and English. Obviously, there are many examples we can see in English language. finger +

print

=

fingerprint

sun

+

burn

=

sunburn

post

+

card

=

postcard

Blending The combining of two words to form a new word is called blending. However, blending is typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word. Blending process is different from compounding process of word formation. smoke

+

fog

=

smog

breakfast

+

lunch =

brunch

motor

+

hotel

motel

=

Clipping Clipping is the shortening of a longer word. This occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form, often in casual speech. Common examples are bra (brassiere), condo (condominium), gym (gymnasium), lab (laboratory), math (mathematics) and so on.

Back-formation A very specialized type of reduction process is known as back-formation. In other words, back-formation is an actual or supposed derivational affix detaches from the base form of a word to create a new word. Commonly, a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form another word of a different type (usually a verb). Examples of words created by this process are: (a)

donate (from 'donation')

(d)

emote (from 'emotion')

(b)

babysit (from 'babysitter')

(e)

enthuse (from 'enthusiasm')

(c)

opt (from 'option'

(f)

liaise (from 'liaison')

Conversion Conversion is a change in the function of a word, as for example, when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction). Other labels for this very common process are 'category change' or 'functional shift'. A number of nouns, such as paper, bottle and vacation can go through the process of conversion. The words come to be used as verbs, as in the following sentences: -

He's papering the bedroom walls.

-

We bottled the homebrew last night.

-

They're vacationing in France.

Acronyms Acronyms are words created from the initial letters of several words. Some acronyms can remain essentially 'alphabetisms' such as CD (compact disk) or VCR (video cassette recorder) where the pronunciation consists of the set of letters. More typically, acronyms are pronounced as single words as in NATO, NASA or UNESCO. There are other examples that have kept their capital letters, but many acronyms lose their capitals to become everyday terms such as laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), radar (radio detecting and ranging) and scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). Recent innovations in banking technologies such as the ATM (automatic teller machine) and the required PIN (personal identification number) have regularly heard in our everyday life.

Derivation Derivation is the word formation process in which a derivational affix attaches to the base form of a word to create a new word. Affixes, which include prefixes and suffixes, are bound morphemes. They cannot stand alone but must attach to another morpheme. Prefixes have to be added to the beginning of a word. Meanwhile, suffixes are added to the end of the word. All English words formed by this derivational process use either prefixes or suffixes, or both. Thus, mislead has a prefix, disrespectful has both a prefix and a suffix, and foolishness has two suffixes.

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KNOWLEDGE OF WORD FORMATION PROCESSES WILL HELP IN LEARNING ENGLISH Morphology has an overall purpose which would be the understanding of a language

itself. Learning of word formation processes definitely will help a language learner to learn the language more effectively, especially English. This knowledge is greatly helpful for the learners to learn English more effectively because when words have identifiable parts (such as prefixes or suffixes), they can be predictable at some extent. It can really help us to improve our writing, speaking, listening and reading.

Help to infer the meaning of words and learn new vocabulary In context, morphological analysis can help the learners to infer the meaning of some words and at the same time, they can learn new vocabulary easier than without it. We can easily see the words in signs on the street, or read in a written text, or hear in spoken messages. We usually do not realize the learning process that happens in our life. Knowing the terminations of the words and its meanings can come in handy for English teachers and students. This situation happens when we do not know exactly the meaning of some words or when we do not have a dictionary at hand. Discover the importance of being used to affixes and their roles in words Hence, learners can discover the importance of being used to affixes and suffixes and the role they play in words. It helps us to see the flexibility of language. Students can take the notion of the meaning in the word “like” and transform it into a number of possibilities (unlike, likely, unlikely, likable, unlikable, likeness, unlikeness) to express their message more accurately and precisely. This shows that morphological knowledge is very crucial among the teachers and the students. Help to be familiar with morphemes At some time, morphological awareness can help language students to familiarize with lexical derivations and with the meaning or morphemes. They will be able to distinguish, for instance, that the suffixes “-ment” or “-ness” form a noun, or that the suffix “-ly” forms an adverb. Eventually, they will be able to realize that, at some extent, the English language has a certain morphological logic people follow to know and produce new words. These new words, reminds us of what we could call, in Chomsky’s words, the transformationalgenerative morphology. It is the ability that we humans would have to perfectly produce the words we have never heard after we understand the roots. Determine learners’ proficiency in English Broadly speaking, morphological competence is also one of the essential elements that determine a higher level of proficiency in ESL or EFL. This is for sure to be one of the reasons why word-formation exercises (which work on derivational morphology) and conjugation exercises (which work on inflectional morphology) are very used in advanced levels and often incorporated in English international examinations such as Cambridge ESOL’s TOEFL, FCE and CAE.

Better writing skills Another utility of morphology is that it helps the learners of language to have better writing skills. Being aware that there are certain morphological irregularities in English language is important to speak the language properly and coherently. In addition, it may even have any beneficial effect in auditory skills as the phonological aspect is related with morphology in spoken language. The relation between morphology with syntax and phonology is so strong that it led the renowned linguist Kenneth Lee Pike to reject the division between them in his Tagmemic theory (Pike, 1949; Auroux & Koerner, 2001:1991). This is because, in the words of Richard Saunders Pittman, they have “inescapable interdependence” (Pittman, 1954:239, in Pike, 1967:189), which can be the point that morphology can improve syntax. Help to see the relation of English with other languages Another aspect that often diminished by some people, but very interesting for language students and linguists is that the study of morphology helps us to see the relation that English has with other languages. When we talk about the roots, for example, we can notice that some words have their origin in Latin, German and French language. We, as the learners of the language can see and understand how this morphological knowledge affected the pragmatic aspects of words, in regard to their degree of formality and informality.

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KNOWLEDGE OF MORPHOLOGY CAN CONTRIBUTE TO UNDERSTAND ENGLISH VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR AND HELP IN FUTURE ROLE AS AN ENGLISH TEACHER

Introduction Morphology is the field of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words. It is also known as the branch of linguistics that studies patterns of word-formation within and across languages. The knowledge of morphology can be applied among the teachers to increase their vocabulary, improve the teachers’ knowledge in grammar, detect the changes of word classes, know the word origins and enhances the teachers' mind to think creatively. Increase the vocabulary in English Morphology can help the future English teachers to increase their vocabulary in English as morpheme can be combined to form a new word. As a trainee teacher, we are newly exposed to the words in a variety of contexts in our studies. In our school before, morphology is not being integrated into the curriculum. So now, we need to explore morphology which will provide the most benefit for ourselves in order to create new words. We can clearly share the knowledge of word formations with the students in schools especially derivation. It is the basic thing they should learn in school – the uses of affixes to form words. Informally, word formation rules form "new words". Help to modify or change the word class The knowledge of morphology helps an English teacher in modifying or changing the word class. That is how teachers can improve their vocabulary and grammar in English. Morphemes are the smallest units of language that carries the information about meaning or function (Literacy, 2007). Free morphemes can function independently as a word while bound morphemes will always be in conjunction with a root. Bound morphemes can be further classified as derivational and inflectional. These features help people to understand the way a word functions in a sentence, whether it is a noun, verb, an adjective and so forth. Grammar in English can be understood well by learning morphology. It also helps us in understanding how a morpheme can create many words. Help to understand the nature of language system Knowledge of morphology helps an English teacher because it enables us to understand the nature of the language system. In simple words, studying in morphology means studying the system of the language works and how the words are formed and

structured. Besides that, teachers also would be prepared to read more and able to write better when it comes to writing an essay according to syllabus of education system. Student’s vocabulary level would increase and so does their writing. This improvement in English subject among the students and teachers in school can increase the level of education in Malaysia. Improve reading skills English teachers who learn morphology can improve their skills in reading. Teachers are able to recognize complex words, phrases and sentences. Furthermore, they are able to get new information by reading. As teachers-to-be, we should have higher knowledge than our students because we are the one who are going to teach them. It is a shame if a teacher teaches the wrong thing to the students. If the students do not understand the new words, they will ask us for sure. In learning process, it is a good thing for them to ask. Students will not be able to increase their vocabulary if they do not understand what they learn. Teachers must imply methods of morphology when teaching the students. Let them understand from the basic of the words. Understand the meaning of the words Apart from improving the teachers reading skills, knowledge of morphology also helps an English teacher to understand and find the meaning of the English words. As everyone knows that English is the second language to be taught in school. So, second language learners could have some trouble in understanding or finding the meaning of words as different languages have different ways of word formation. It is easier for the teachers to identify the meaning of the words if they master in morphology. For example, the word ‘brunch’ is from the word formation process called compounding. It is the combining of two words to form a new word. It is important for teachers and also the students to know the formation process of the word to get the meaning of the new word. Conclusion In conclusion, the knowledge of morphology does help us a lot in comprehending vocabulary and grammar. Not many of us realize that, ‘when you learn one word, you actually learn ten’ (Templeton, 2004). Morphology is so beneficial when it comes to the understanding of nature of words as how words are formed and structured. It helps to develop both word knowledge and high quality mental representations that contribute to success in reading in children and in enhancing teacher’s vocabulary. Morphology does not only benefit the teachers but also the students and increases the level of English vocabulary

among the students. As future English teachers, we need to master morphology in order to play our role better.

REFERENCES

Aras Ahmed Mhmad. (2013). The importance of morphology: English language as a prime example. Retrieved on 8 September 2015, from http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/importance-of-morphology-english-language-asprime-example/ Aronoff, M. & Fudeman, K. (2011). What is morphology?. West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Kosur, H. M. (2012). Word formation: derivation and back-formation. Retrieved on 8 September 2015, from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/esl-lesson-plans/59338word-back-formation-list/ Malmkjaer, K. (2004). The linguistics encyclopedia. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Syal, P. & Jindal, D. V. (2007). An introduction to linguistics: Language, grammar and semantics. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India Private Limited. Wilkins, D. A. (1972). Linguistics in language teaching. London: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.