English Education 1

Vol. 02 No. 01. JANUARi 2014

MORPHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS

By:
Hamka1

Abstrak
Morfologi adalah kajian kata dan modifikasinya. Seiring waktu berjalan,
pembelajaran morfologi sangat betautan dengannya. Ini bisa dilihat dari
banyaknya pengembangan kata dari satu fungsi menjadi fungsi lain.
Pengembangan itu adalah dinamis dan tentu diperlukan kemampuan
yang matang untuk memodifikasi sebuah kata. Untuk itu, tulisan ini
sangat bermanfaat untuk pembelajar yang ingin mengetahui dasar dan
pengembangan sebuah kata.

Kata Kunci : Morphology dan Analysis

A. Intoduction
Linguistics is the science of languages, and the object of linguistics is
language. Language itself is a system of communication used by group of
persons in order to express their messages. It may be assumed that
language is used to express our feelings, ideas, emotions, and desires.
General linguistics covers a wide range of topics and its boundaries
are difficult to define, such as morphology as a part of linguistics.
Morphology is the study of morphemes and different forms
(allomorphs), and the way they combine in word formation. For example:
the English word “powerless” is derived from the word “power”, the
adjective forming suffix “-less”. The process is named affixation. While
affix means a letter or sound, a group a letters of sounds, which is added
to a word, and change the meaning of function of the word. Morphology
has been an obligation subject for language study in all study programs.
For English Department, it is as the third subject in major studies of

1
English Lecturer of English Education Deaprtement, FTIK, IAIN Padangsidimpuan.

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linguistics after Phonetics and Phonology. Morphology covers the theory

of words and the structures. It is so modify the lexical words more
functional and applicable for another word functions.
B. DISCUSSION

1. Morphology
Morphology is the study of the ways in which words are constructed
out of smaller units that have a meaning or grammatical function.2 It
means that Morphology goes to the theory of a word modification by
giving smaller units that may be front or back that have meaning or again
as grammatical function. Morphology is the study of morphemes and their
arrangements in forming words.3 It means that Morphology goes to the
theory of morphemes by giving arrangements that will be forming words
which may constitute words or parts of words. Morphology is the system
of catagories and rules involved in word formation and interpretation.4 It
means that Morphology goes to the theory of Morphology, beginning with
the inventory of nations relevant to the analysis of word structure.
Morphology is a branch of major studies of linguistics. It covers the
theory of word modification. In linguistics, morphology is the second step
for the theory of language forms after the theory of expressions, they are
phonetics and phonology. Then, it is followed by syntax. So, morphology
is the bridge between phonology and syntax. Morphology concerns to the
study of word modification (words and the functions), lexicon,
morphemes (inflection and derivation), affixes and discourse
morphology.Booij says that morphology is the sub disciplines of

2
Cipollone, Keiser & Vasishth, Language Files. Seventh Edition (Columbus: Ohio University
Press, 2006), p. 5.
3
Jackson & Amvela, Words, Meaning and Vocabulary, an itroduction to modern Leicology.
(London: Cromwell Press, 2000), p. 2
4
O’grady & Dobrovolsky, Contemporary Linguistic Analysis. (Toronto: Copp Clark Ltd, 2006), p.
637.

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linguistics that deals with such pattern.5 The existence of such patterns
also implies that word may have an internal constituent structure. It
means, morphology is one of the studies of changes form of the word. The
example, walks, walks, walked, walking. Walking can be divided into the
constituents walk and –ing.
In Sibarani, morphology is the analysis of word structure.6 It means,
the words can be constructed and comprehended by the application of
quite general rules to more basic word. The example, any speaker of
English who knows the verb fax recognized faxed is as its past tense form.
According to Alwi, morpologi adalah kata yang dapat dipotong-potong
dan menjadi bagian terkecil , yang kemudian dapat dipotong lagi menjadi
bagian yang lebih kecil lagi sampai ke bentuk yang jika dipotong lagi ,
mempunyai makna.7 Morphology is a word that can be cut into pieces
and become the smallest, which can then be cut again into smaller sections
to the form that if it is cut again, to have meaning.
Pateda states that morphology is science of forms, words and the
meaning which is up caused by the modifications of the forms.8 From that
statement, it is concluded, morphology has three objects. They are: a)
forms, b) words form and the formation of word forms and, c) the
meaning appearing from the formation of words
1. The two basic functions of morphological operations are:
a. The creation of new word (new lexemes), an example in a
lexeme formation of the word bottle factory from the existing
lexemes bottle and factory, the morphology thus provides means

5
Booij, The Grammar of Words, an Introduction to Linguistic Morphology. (New York: Ashford
Colour Press, 2005), p. 5.
6
Sibarani, An Introduction to Morphology. (Medan: Penerbit Poda, 2006), p. 111.
7
Alwi & Lapolliwa, Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia. Edisi Ke-tiga. (Jakarta: Balai Pustaaka,
2003), p. 28.
8
Pateda, Linguistic, Sebuah Pengantar. (Bandung: Angkasa, 1988), p. 71.

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for extending the set of words of language in a system way.

The coinage of bottle factory is.
b. A case of compounding, in which two lexemes are combined
into a new one.
c. Spelling out the appropriate form of a lexeme in a particular
syntactic context.
2. The goals of morphology:
a. To describe and analyze the languages of the world as
accurately and as insightfully as possible.
To developing a typology of languages: what are dimensions along
which languages differ, and how are these dimensions of variation
related and restricted, do all languages have morphology and all possible
kinds and are there explanations for morphological similarities and
differences between languages.

2. Words
Words is the smllest free forms found in language.9 It means that
words goes to most familiar. A word is a minimal free form.10 Hence, a
word is viewed as a form which can occur in isolation and have meaning
but which cannot be analysed into elements which can all occur alone and
also have meaning.
Words can be chopped into smaller pieces.11 At the morphological
level, words ma consists of more than one unit as well, which we may
call mmorphological atoms of a word. Words have an internal structure
consisting of smaller units organized with respect to each other in a
particular way. The most important component of word structure is a
morpheme. Morpheme is the smellers unit of language that carries

9
O’gardy & Dobrovolsky, 2006, Opcit., p. 649.
10
Jackson & Ampela, 2000, Op.Cit., p. 48.
11
Booij, 2005, Op.Cit., p. 27.

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information about meaning or function. The example of word „builder‟,

that consists of two morphemes: build (with the meaning of „construct‟)
and –er (with the meaning „one who builds).

3. Morpheme
Morpheme is smallest linguistic unit that has a meaning or
grammatical function.12 It means that morphemes can stand alone.
Morphemes is the minimal units with a lexical or a grammatical
meaning.13 It means that morphemes goes to the morphological building
blocks of words. Words have an internal structure consisting of smaller
units organized with respect to each other in a particular way. The most
important component of word structure is a morpheme. Morphemes is the
smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or
function.14 It means that morphemes goes to words have an internal
structure consisting of smaller units organized with respect to each other
in a particular way. The example of word „builder‟, that consists of two
morphemes: build (with the meaning of „construct‟) and –er (with the
meaning „one who builds).
4. Lexicon
Lexicon is a speaker‟s mental dictionary, which containts information
about the syintactic properties, meaning, and phonological representation
of a language‟s words.15 Lexicon is a word that cans modification be new
word functions.
Lexicon is mental listening of the words in a language, including
information about their meaning, grammatical function, pronounciation,

12
Cipollone, Keiser & Vasishth 2006, Op.Cit., p. 479.
13
Booij, 2005, Op.Cit ., p. 8.
14
O’grady & Dobrovolsky 2006, Op.Cit., p. 637.
15
O’grady & Dobrovolksky 2006, Op.Cit., p. 636.

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etc.16 It means that lexicon goes to all information of words in a language.

Lexical is free verbal morpheme.17 Based the statement lexical can occur
as a word by itself.
5. Free Morpheme
A free morpheme is independent for it can occur alone by itself as a
word in the language. Free morphemes are those that can occur alone:
dog, girl, good, run, two, have, I, you, of, can, the, love, bad, etc. A free
morpheme is one that can be uttered alone with meaning. For instance, in
reply to “What are you going to do now?” you might answer “Eat”. This
is a free morpheme. A bound morpheme, unlike the free, cannot be
uttered alone with meaning. It is always annexed to one or more
morphemes to form a word, e.g. antedate, replay, manly, keeper, unable.
The underlined morphemes in the examples are all bound, for one would
not utter in isolation forms like ante-, re-, -ly, - er, and un-.
6. Bound Morpheme
A bound morpheme is dependent as it is always attached to another
morpheme. Affixes are bound morphemes as they always occur with
bases. The bound morphemes are those that cannot occur alone, and must
be attached to words i.e. enlarge, quickly, widen, singing, replace.
Derivational morpheme is a bound morpheme creating new words
by changing either the meaning.18 The examples happy vs. unhappy or the
part of speech; ripe as an adjective and ripen as verb. Certain bound
morphemes have the effect of changing the part of speech of the word to
which they are affixed. In English, derivational morphemes are therefore
either prefixes or suffixes. Most bases occur independently as free
morphemes and few bases are bound morphemes.

16
Cipollone, Keiser & Vasishth, 2006, Log.Cit., p. 478.
17
Booij, 2005, Op.Cit., p. 9.
18
Sibarani, 2006, Op.Cit ., p. 44 .

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Figure 1 Classification of Morpheme

Hornby says that affix is a letter or group of letter or sound which is

added to the beginning or the end of a word to change its meaning or the
way it is used. Affixation is just like adding affixes to a word and one
should notice what process takes place and what result of the process are.
For example, the suffix –ize attaches to a noun and turns it to the
corresponding verb as in criticized simonize.
Affixes is the bound morpheme that change the meaning or
syntactic function of the words to which they attach.19 It means that
affixes goes to prefixes, infixes, and suffixes are the three types of affixes.
Affix is a bound morpheme that cannot function as a word on its own.20
It means that affix goes to general term for bound morpheme that are
added to roots and stems.In English, affixation can be classified as a
prefix and suffix. In addition, in some words there is also an infix. But, it
is in a rarely occurrences.

19
Cipollone, Keiser & Vasishth, 2006, Op.Cit., p. 471.
20
Booij, 2005, Op.Cit., p. 9.

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Prefix
Prefix is an affix attached before a root or stem and based, or prefix
is an affix, which is added to the front of the stem.
Examples: re → write → rewrite
Un → tidy → untidy
Il → legal → illegal
Pro→ action → proaction
Prefix is an affix that attaches to the beginning of a word. It is an
affix which is placed before the stem of a word only.

Suffix
According the Oxford‟s dictionary define suffix is a letter, sound or
syllable at the end of a word to make another word. In linguistics, a suffix
(also sometimes called a postfix or ending) is an affix which is placed after
the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate
the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form
the conjugation of verbs.21 The suffixes are a morphological process that
uses to make new words from the suffixation.
The general term for bound morphemes that are added to roots and
stems is affix. If an affix that appears before the root/stem, it is a prefix. If
it appears after the root/stem, it is a suffix. So, al- and ap- are prefixes,
whereas –ment, and –o are suffixes, and infix (within a root).
Inflection
The word of inflectional is derived from the verb to inflect. In A.S
Hornby dictionary stated that to change the ending or form of a word to

21
Jackson & Ampela, 2000, Opcit., p. 69

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show its relationship to other words in a sentence. According to Yule

says, the inflectional morphemes are affixes that attached to verbs, nouns,
and adjectives which are not used to produce new in English language.
And the used of inflectional morphemes to indicate aspects of
grammatical function of a word. Inflectional morphemes are used to
show if a word is a plural or singular, if it is past tense or not, if it is
comparative or passive form. Inflectional morpheme is bound morpheme
that it modifies word (lexicon) based on the previous and the next
elements. It does not change word function. But, enrich the meaning:
a. He writes (V) (writes = write + -s/es)
b. He wrote (V) (wrote = write + -ed)
c. He written (V) (written = write + -en)
d. He writing (V) (writing = write + -ing)
Words that are never subjected to inflection are said to be invariant;
for example, "must" is an invariant item: it never takes a suffix or changes
form to signify a different grammatical category. Its category can only be
determined by its context.
Inflection changes grammatical properties of a word within its
syntactic category. In the example: The weather forecaster said it would clear
today, but it hasn't cleared at all. The suffix -ed inflects the root-word clear to
indicate past tense. Some inflectional suffixes in present day English
Noun show the following inflectional suffixes:
1) Books: -s plural
2) Book‟s: -„s possessive
3) Books‟: -s‟ plural + possessive
Adjectives show the following inflectional suffixes:
1) Colder: -er comparative
2) Coldest: -est superlative
3) Happier: -er comparative
4) Happiest: -est superlative
Verb show the following inflectional suffixes
1) Eats: -s third person singular present

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2) Ate: past tense

3) Eaten: -en past participle
4) Eating: -ing present participle

In pronouns, not add a suffixes which are inflections, but their

respective forms fit the noun inflectional paradigm as shown below:
1) I wrote a letter: I as grammatical subject
2) Rina wrote me a letter: me as grammatical object
3) Rina wrote a letter to me: me as a complement of preposition
4) My books: my as a possessive adjective
5) This books is mine: mine as possessive pronoun
An adverb (some, and not usually –ly adverbs like quickly) of one or
two syllables:
1) Faster: -er as a comparative
2) Fastest: -est as a superlative
3) Sooner: -er as a comparative
4) Soonest: -est as a superlative
Inflectional is the modification of a word‟s form to indicate the
grammatical subclass to which it belongs.22 The word of inflectional is
derived from the verb to inflect.
Derivations
In addition to a short list of inflectional suffixes English has a large
supply of another kind of suffix, called derivational suffixes. These consist
of all the suffixes that are not inflectional. Not all affixes have the same
function when attached to the root or base. When the affixes change the
class of a root or base then they are usually called derivational
morphemes.
Root/base Affix Example
Happy -ness happiness

22
O’grady & Dobrovolksky 2006, Opcit., p. 634

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Quick -ly quickly

Wide -en widen
The suffixes –ness and –ly and –en in the examples above are usually
called derivational affixes because –ness changes an adjective (happy) into
a noun (happiness); -ly changes an adjective (quick) into an adverb
(quickly) and changes an adjective (wide) into a verb (widen). Among the
characteristics of the derivational suffixes there are three that will be quite
important for us to understand.
a. The words with which derivational suffixes combine are arbitrary
matter. To make a noun from the verb adorn we must add the suffix –
ment and no other suffix will do, whereas the verb fail combines only
with –ure to make a noun failure. Yet the verb employ may use three
nouns with different meaning (employment, employer, and
employee).
b. In many cases, but not at all, a derivational suffixes changes the part
of speech of word to which is added. The noun act becomes an
adjective by the addition of –ive. Although we have not yet taken up
the parts of speech we probably know enough about them to
distinguish between noun, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
c. Derivational suffixes usually do not close of a word; that is after a
derivational suffix we can sometimes add another derivational suffix
and can frequently add an inflectional suffix. For example the word
fertilize which ends in a derivational suffix, we can add another
suffix, -er and to fertilizer, and we can add the inflectional suffix –s
closing of the word fertilizers.
Derivational (lexical): words formed by the attachment of lexical
affixes are derived from other words, and derivational affixes are those
affixes which help in this derivation (e.g. dis-, re-, in-, be-, en-, -ly, -ance, -
able, -ize, -ish, -like, -ment, -ing).

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1) Nouns Derived from a Verb are Also Called „nominalizers.

Table 3a Derivations

No Verb Suffixes Noun

1 Argu -ment Argument
2 Leak -age Leakage
3 Disturb -ance Disturbance
4 Conclude -ion Conclusion
2) Nouns Derived from Adjectives
Table 3b Derivation
No Adjectives Suffixes Noun
1 Social -ist Socialist
2 Free -dom Freedom
3 Good -ness Goodness
4 True -th Truth
3) Verbs Derived from Nouns, also known as „Verbalizers‟
Table 3c Derivation
No Noun Suffixes Verb
1 Glory -fy Glorify
2 Pressure -ize Pressurize
3 Fright -en Frighten

4) Verb Derived from Adjective

Table 3d Derivation
No Adjectives Suffixes Verb
1 Soft -en Soften
2 Fure -ify Purity
3 Legal -ize Legalize

5) Adjectives Derived from Noun, also called „Adjectivizer‟

Table 3e Derivation
No Noun Suffixes Adjectives
1 Season -al Seasonal
2 Care -less Careless
3 Gold -en Golden

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6) Adjectives Derived from Verb

Table 3f Derivation
No Verb Suffixes Adjectives
1 Argue -able Arguable
2 Create -ive Creative
3 Depend -ent Dependent
4 Sense -ory Sensory

7) Adverbs Derived from Adjectives, known as „adverbializer‟

Table 3g Derivation
No Adjectives Suffixes Adverb
1 Consistent -ly Consistently
2 Slow -ly Slowly
3 Obvious -ly Obviously
8) Adverbs derived from nouns
Table 3h Derivation
No Nouns Suffixes Adverb
1 Home -ward Homeward
2 Sky -wards Skywards
3 Clock -wise Clockwise

Derivational morpheme is a bound morpheme creating new words by

changing either the meaning. The examples happy vs unhappy or the part of
speech; ripe as an adjective and ripen as verb. Certain bound morphemes have the
effect of changing the part of speech of the word to which they are affixed. In
English, derivational morphemes are therefore either prefixes or suffixes. Most
bases occur independently as free morphemes and few bases are bound
morphemes.

Morphemic Analysis
Analysis is an inspection concerning meaning and essence something.
According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines analysis as the detail
study or examination in order to understand more about the result of the

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study. According to the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia tells that analysisi is
an identification on an event to know the real meaning.23 It means that,
analysis is the research to an even to know the actually situation.
Morphological analysis is the process of forming words or word formation
by adding affixes to the base form or in other word. The process of
morphological in the way to form words by combining one morpheme with
others. The base form is the linguistic form which may be a single form or
complete form.So, based of those definitions above, the writer concludes
that morphemic analysis is the research to detail study to know about the
result of the actually situation in the study of morphology.
Both morpheme and word are the two main points of morphological
process. Morpheme constitutes a form which belongs to linguistic form;
furthermore words constitute two kinds of unity which are called phonology
and grammatical unity. A morpheme is not a word, but on the contrary a
word is always a morpheme because a word often consists of one or more
morphemes. To get more complete understanding about morphological
process, what it is and how really is, some linguist provides definitions on
morphology and some of them are as follow:
Gleason concludes that morphology is the study of word formation.24
It means, it identifies meaningful units that appear to separable parts of
words. According to O’grady, morphology is the analysis of word structure
It means, the words can be constructed and comprehended by the
application of quite general rules to more basic word. The example, any
speaker of English who knows the verb fax recognized faxed is as its past
tense form.
Pateda states that morphology is science of forms, words and the
meaning which is up caused by the modifications of the forms. And the

23 Pusat Bahasa Departement Pendidikan Nasional, Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (Jakarta:
Balai Pustka) 2001, p. 43
24 Gleason & Rater, Psycholinguistics, Second Edition (New York: Harcourt Brace College

Publisher) 2008, p. 14

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object of morphology is words form, the formation of word forms, and the
meaning appearing from the formation of words.
By morphology, we may analyze the most elemental unit of
grammatical form which is called morpheme. Every word in language is
composed of one or more morphemes. The morpheme arrangements which
are treated under the morphology of language include all combinations that
form words of part of words.
In many languages, words play in important grammatical role, in that they
are building out of smaller elements by certain patterns. For the analysis of word
formation, it is important to apply which one is a base form, it is an affix. Thus,
morphology takes an important role in arranging and combining them to
constitute new word.
According to Cipolloe, Keiser & Vasishth say that word, since they are
formed by steps, have a special type of structure characterized as hierarchical.25
This hierarchical structure can be schematically represented by means of a tree
that indicates the steps involved in the formation of the word, which morphemes
joined together first and so on. The tree for unusable is

Figure 2 Analysis in Tree Diagram

25 Cipolloe, Keiser & Vasishth , 2006, p. 140 Opcit

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From the explaining above, the writer concludes that morphological process
is the study of internal structure of the word and the rules by which words are
formed. We may recognize that word form such as dances, dancer, danced, and
dancing which must consist of one element, i.e. ‘dance’. And a number of other
elements such as , -s, -er, -ed, -ing. All these elements are described as
morphemes.
Exmple of Morphology in analysis: Organization

So, based of those definitions above, the writer concludes that

morphemic analysis is the research to detail study to know about the
result of the actually situation in the study of morphology.

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Conclusion

The conclusion of this writing is drawn based on the data analysis,

findings and discussions as the following:
1. Ability is power or mental having someone to do something by hard
2. Morphology is an obligation to a student especially in English to
comprehend and also to modify a word by having ability to analyze
3. Analysis is the way to comprehend a word on its modification and
the possible modification for further cases.

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References
Alwi, H., Lapoliwa, S. N, Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia, Edisi ketiga,
Jakarta: Balai Pustaka, 2003

Booij, G, The Grammar of Word. An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology,

New York: Ashford Colour Press, 2005

Cippolone, N; Keiser, H & Vasishts, S, Language File, Material for an

Introduction to Language & Linguistics. Seventh Edition, Columbus:
Ohio University Press, 2004

Gleason, J. B., & Ratner, N,B, Phycholinguistics, Second Edition, New York:
United States of America, 2002

Hamka, English, An Introduction Grammar, Linguistics and Genre,

(unpublished Handout Padangsidimpuan: STAIN Padangsidimpuan),
2012

Jackson, H & Amvela, E, Z, Words, Meaning and Vocabulary, An Introduction

to Modern Lexicoloogy, London & New York: British by the
Cromwell Press, 2000

Sari, N. An Introduction to linguistics. Jakarta: P2LPTK, 1988

O‟grady, W, Contemporary Linguistic Analysis, Ottawa: COPP Clark LTD,

2000

Pateda, M, Linguistic (sebuah pengantar), Bandung: Angkasa, 1988

Pusat Bahasa Department Pendidikan Nasional, Kamus Besar Bahasa

Indonesia, Jakarta: Balai Pustaka, 2001

Sibarani, F, An Introduction to Morphology, Medan: Penerbit Poda, 2006

Morphology and Analysis…Hamka