文档介绍：4 Major Process of Word Formation Morphemes, Root and Affix Morphemes ( 词素) : the smallest meaningful linguistic units of words. They are not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms. “ the smallest functioning unit in position of words ” Greek Morphe (=form) + - eme , (cf. phoneme, sememe ) Morph: minimal carriers of meaning (形素) ? nation ? nation + al ? nation + al + ize ? de + nation + al ? de + nation + al + iz + ation c. f. Phonemes : yes /j/, /e/, /s/ A word may be analyzable into one or more morphemes A morpheme is also an association of a given meaning with a given sound pattern. A morpheme vs. A word A morpheme is not autonomous. Morphemes occur in speech only as constituent parts of words. They can not be used independently, although a word may consist of a single morpheme. Nor are morphemes divisible into smaller meaningful units. That is why the morpheme may be defined as the minimum meaningful language unit. A morpheme vs. A syllable A syllable has nothing to do with meaning. A morpheme may be represented by one syllable, like boy and child, or by two or more syllables, as in . . crocodile, salamander, disagreeable Often the syllabic structure of a word and its morphemic structure do not correspond. Allomorphs (形素变体) : morphemes that are realized by more than one morphs allo (Greek) "other ”, (cf. allophones, allomorphs). . -ion/ - tion / - sion / - ation (proportional) variants of the same suffix) verbs ending with /t/, -- -ion, invention, position, verbs ending with consonants other than /t/, -- - tion , description verbs ending in - ify and – ize -- - ation , justification modernization verbs ending in -d, -de, or – mit --- sion , expansion, decision, omission. "A allomorph is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds". Allomorphs also occur