ON THE MULTIVARIATE DIMENSIONS OF MORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES IN ENGLISH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/jah.v9i12.2007Abstract
Abstract
This paper contends that the morphology of English is rather complex and has multivariate dimensions. Morphological studies should begin at the typologization of the language as analytic (isolating) or synthetic (inflectional) or agglutinating (affixing). There is need too to try and marry the various theories propounded by linguists on morphology. For example some authors maintain that single morphemes, their meanings and grammatical functions are put together and stored in the lexicon of that language while others are of the opinion that morphological units evolve through the process of affixation. Since no theory is sacrosanct, a grammatical morphology in which the morpheme synergizes with the other aspects of grammar including the lexicon, phonology, syntax and semantics is advocated. The word as the basic unit of morphology especially in its phonology, orthographic system and syllabic structure is recognised. Morphemic alternant including allophonic and allomorphic variants as aspects of the phonological morpheme are identified. There is an attempt to distinguish between the morph and the morpheme in our discussion of morphology as a process in the systemic and systematic processes of language. This broadening of the study of morphology corroborates the fact of grammar as an interrelationship of parts in the language system.
Key words: grammar, language typology, lexicon, morphemic Alternant, morphology
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