Part 5: Morphology
Inflectional morphology
Catherine Anderson; Bronwyn Bjorkman; Derek Denis; Julianne Doner; Margaret Grant; Nathan Sanders; and Ai Taniguchi
Video Part 1:
So far we’ve focused on derivational morphology. The next kind of morphology we’ll discuss is inflectional morphology.
Unlike derivational morphology, inflectional morphology never changes the category of its base. Instead it simply suits the category of its base, expressing grammatical information that’s required in a particular language.
In English we find a very limited system of inflectional morphology:
- Nouns
- Number: singular vs. plural
- Case (only on pronouns)
- Nominative (subject): I, we, you, he, she, it, they
- Accusative (object): me, us, you, him, her, it, them
- Possessive: my, our, your, his, her, its, their
- Verbs
- Agreement: most verbs agree with third person singular subjects only in the present simple tense (-s), but the verb to be has more forms (am/is/are/was/were).
- Tense: Past vs. Present
- Past Participle: -ed or -en (Perfect aspect after auxiliary have, Passive voice after auxiliary be)
- Present Participle -ing (progressive aspect after auxiliary be)
- Adjectives
- Comparative -er, Superlative -est
That’s all of it! But if we look at other languages, we find more types of inflectional morphology.
One thing about inflectional morphology is that lots of it can be expressed syntactically instead of morphologically. So some languages have tense, but express it with a particle (a separate word) rather than with an affix on the verb. This is still tense, but it’s not part of inflectional morphology.
For information about inflections in other languages, please see the original source of this page.
Verbs need to agree with their subject. In English, this happens with the verb be (I am, you/we/they are, he/she/it is) and all other verbs in the third-person singular only (he has, she walks, it goes).
Present simple (or, timeless present) tense is the form: she eats, I like, they go, the students write.
The past participle is the form of the verb used in perfect tenses (I have waited, he has eaten, the students had gone). The past participle of regular verbs ends in -ed. The past participle of irregular verbs often ends in -en.
The present perfect tense is the form: I have finished; he has left; they have jumped; the teacher has entered.
Auxiliary verbs (or, helping verbs) are added to a verb group to express tense, aspect, or voice: we are waiting; they have finished; I don't know; the food was cooked. Modal verbs (can, may, could, etc.) are also auxiliaries.
When a verb is in the passive voice, the subject is not the Agent - e.g., the subject doesn't do the action of the verb (the email was sent; lessons are taught; the copier was fixed). If you can add "by zombies" to the verb, it is usually passive.
The present participle is the -ing form of the verb. It is used in the present progressive tense (I am walking, she was dancing) and other contexts.
The present progressive tense is the form: I am waiting, she is listening, they are eating, the doctor is sleeping.
The comparative form of an adjective means "more." It is formed with the -er suffix for short adjectives and the word "more" for other words.
The superlative is the form of an adjective that means "the most." Short adjectives can add the -est inflection. Others use "most." e.g. the largest cake, the most expensive car, the fastest runner.
