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Lesson 3: Morphology

Definition: Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies word formation, looking at how words change and work together. The smallest meaningful unit in a language is called a “morpheme”. There are two types: the ones that only exist in combination with a free morpheme – they are called “bound” morphemes because they are dependent, and those that stand alone – they are called unbound or free morphemes.

  • Morphology

  • Morpheme

  • Analytic Language

  • Synthetic Language

  • Inflected / Inflection

  • Case

  • Declension

  • Subjective

  • Objective

  • Possessive

Key Concepts

UNIT 1: From a Synthetic to an Analytic Language

First things first, let us have a look at the following two sentences in Old English along with their translations in Modern English. Can you identify the sentence elements and their functions? Do you notice any similarities or differences with Modern English and German?

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se cyning ofslōg þone ċeorl

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‘The king killed the peasant.’ 

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iċ ġeaf mīn sweord þǣre cwēne.

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‘I gave my sword to the queen / I gave the queen my sword.’

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Answers

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In the first sentence, the article “se” is declined and used in nominative (“se”) and accusative (“þone”). Both nouns “cyning” and “ċeorl” are masculine, which is the reason for which the masculine form of the article (“se”) is used. In the second sentence, the feminine form of the article “seo” is used since “cwēne” is a feminine noun in the dative case, corresponding to “þǣre” (article in dative).

As a German speaker, you are familiar with the genders in Old English: masculine, feminine and neuter. However, the English language has abandoned gender distinctions over time due to inconsistencies in other languages. 

Moreover, in the Modern English translation of the two sentences, there are no more (visible) cases. Maintaining the given word order becomes crucial to avoid changing the sentence’s meaning as there are no longer inflections providing information on word function (“the king killed the peasant” vs. “the peasant killed the king”). 

 

In contrast, Old English had more flexible word order since cases clarified the relationships between words. Morphology, or word forms, played a more significant role because Old English was more inflected or synthetic. A language is considered “synthetic” when its grammar relies on word endings or cases, signalling the functions of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Old English had five cases, one more than German: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and instrumental (not for all words).

 

Nevertheless, in Modern English grammar, cases, or, in word inflections, have nearly disappeared, marking a shift from a synthetic to an analytic language. In an analytic language like Modern English, auxiliary words (e.g., prepositions), and word order establish relationships between words in a sentence. Consequently, grammar focuses more on syntax (= level of sentence) than inflections (= level of morphology).

 

That said, there are still some remnants from Old English. While adjectives are no longer inflected, nouns are declined in the singular, adding an ’s in genitive singular. For example: 

The student is in the classroom. (the student = subjective)

The student’s bag is in the classroom. (the student’s = possessive)

The teacher returned the exam to the student. (the student = objective)

 

As you can see, a distinction is made with the possessive singular – unlike pronouns, which are still more inflected than nouns. Pronouns have separate forms for the subjective, the objective, and the possessive. 

 

He is in the classroom. (he = subjective)

His bag is in the classroom. (his = possessive)

The teacher returned the exam to him. (him = objective)

 

The subjective is a descendant of the Old English nominative, the objective of the accusative / dative, and the possessive of the genitive. From the previous examples, we can summarise that the distinction between the forms student / student’s, he / his / him, and, consequently, we / our / us, and I / my / me is a legacy from Old English.

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Exercise 1

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In pairs, take a look at the sentences in Modern English. Determine in which case – nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative – the highlighted word would be in Old English:

 

  1. Two students were asleep.

  2. They got their teacher’s permission to leave earlier for the break. 

  3. The teacher corrected exams. 

  4. The guests of honour received a warm welcome. 

  5. After all, I think their new car is much more beautiful than the old one. 

  6. It is important to spend a lot of quality time with your family and friends.

  7. The idea of leaving my wallet on the table when I went smoking was stupid. 

  8. The deer slept in the woods.  

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Answers

UNIT 2: Remnants from Old English

In the previous chapter, we mentioned that almost all cases had disappeared in Modern English. The majority of nouns are inflected the same way. In the singular, we add an -s to make a possessive, and we add an -s to make a plural. However, there are some exceptions to these rules, and there is an explanation for it, which you can find in the history of English. 

 

In Old English, there were more declension classes. Consequently, the nouns that build regular plurals in Modern English by  adding an -s belonged to a different class than some that are considered irregular nowadays, such as the ones that add -en (like ox, oxen), insert -r- (like children), or change their vowel (tooth / teeth) in plural. Briefly, they were not irregular back then; they simply belonged to different classes of nouns. 

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By way of example, “tooth”, “man” and “woman” belonged to the athematic nouns, which sometimes went through changes to the root vowel instead of adding an ending. So, the word “mann” (‘man’) was declined the following way: mann (nominative, accusative singular), mannes (genitive singular), menn (dative singular), men (nominative, accusative plural), manna (genitive plural), and mannum (dative plural). 

It can be seen from the different declined forms that the plural has survived to the present day. In Old English, there were more athematic nouns; however, nouns started adjusting to the regular paradigms already during that period, e.g., oak and book build regular plurals with -s.

 

Another case in point are “ox” and “child”, which add the ending “-en” in plural. Ox was “oxa” in Old English and belonged to the weak masculine nouns, which declined as follows: oxa (nominative singular), oxan (genitive, dative and accusative singular), oxan (nominative and accusative plural), oxena (genitive plural) and oxum (dative plural). Again, the Old English plural form “oxen” has been preserved. 

Exercise 2

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In pairs, read the following nouns. Do you know their plural forms? What do they have in common? Can you divide them into groups and identify the ones that have Old English roots?

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foot, analysis, tomato,

sheep, leaf, box, man,

cactus, woman, fish, child,

ox, wife, mouse, hero, tooth,

crisis, goose, potato, deer, 

fungus, person, life

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Answers

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Form

Final thought for this lesson

English lost its genders and seems to work without them. Discuss the following questions with a partner:
 

  1. Do you think German is clearer / less ambiguous than English thanks to the genders? 

  2. Do you know any rules regarding German genders as to when a noun is masculine, neuter or feminine? 

  3. Do grammatical genders (der, die, das) have to do with biological sex (Mann, Frau, Mädchen) or do you think they are just arbitrary? 

  4. Would German work without genders? 

  5. What would be in favour of getting rid of them? What against it?

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If you are interested in this topic, read the article by ETH Zürich

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Sources used

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