Morphology Morphemes and Words

II. THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Morphology

In this century, morphology has been regarded as an essentially synchronic discipline, that is to say, a discipline focusing on the study of word-structure at one stage in the life of a language. Katamba 1993:3 says that morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. Some other linguists like Tarigan 1985:4 says that morfologi adalah bagian dari ilmu bahasa yang membicarakan seluk beluk kata serta pengaruh perubahan-perubahan bentuk kata terhadap golongan dan arti kata . While, Nida 1949:1 says that morphology is the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words . Also, Samsuri 1975:126 says that morfologi ialah cara pembentukan kata-kata dengan menghubungkan morfem satu dengan morfem yang lain . And Keraf 1975:69 says that morfologi adalah sebagian dari tatabahasa yang membicarakan bentuk kata. Based on those quotations above it can be said that morphology is a branch of the study language that talks about word structure and formation. It studies how words are put together from their smaller parts and the rules governing this process. Morphology has the object of research. It is morpheme. It is different with phonology that is concerned with the functioning of sounds units within the system of individual languages, whereas that of phonetics is concerned with the Universitas Sumatera Utara nature and typology of speech sound in themselves and also syntax that traditionally covers both the constructions of phrases and sentences and also the features of meaning which are associated with them, and semantics then reduces to the study of words meaning-to which perhaps we may add the meanings of idioms Muchtar 2006:2. These subfields have a big relationship. If we want to investigate a language, we have to investigate it from these subfields.

2.2 Morphemes and Words

2.2.1 Morphemes Morphology emphasizes in morpheme. So, morpheme cannot be ignored. Some definitions of morpheme can be seen below: Katamba 1993:20 says that the term morpheme is used to refer to the smallest, indivisible units of semantic content or grammatical function which words are made up of. While, Bloomfield 1933:161 says that morpheme is a linguistic for which bears no partial phonetic –semantic resemblance to any other form is a simple form or a morpheme. Also, Hockett 1958:123 says that morphemes are the smallest individually meaningful elements in the utterances of a language . So, from those quotations above it may conclude that morpheme is the minimal distinctive unit of grammar, and the central concern of morphology. For example: Dogs The word ‘dogs’ consists of two morphemes. They are: • Dog Æ one kind of animals Universitas Sumatera Utara • -s Æ a plural marker on nouns According to Ridwan, in his book entitled “Dasar-Dasr Linguistika”, he classifies type of morpheme become 3 dimensions. They are: 1. Bound Morpheme or Dependent Morpheme Bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand alone. It must be attached to the base form. Or, a bound morpheme is a grammatical unit that never occurs by itself, but is always attached to some other morpheme. 2. Free Morpheme or Independent Morpheme Free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand alone. It must not be attached to the base form. Or, a free morpheme is a grammatical unit that can occur by it. However, other morphemes such as affixes can be attached to it. Example: BASE FORM SUFFIX ENGLISH run + {-er} Æ runner correct + {-tion} Æ correction hundul + {-an} Æ hundulan ‘sit’ ‘place for BATAK SIMALUNGUN sitting’ LANGUAGE etek + {-an} Æ etekan ‘small’ ‘smaller’ Universitas Sumatera Utara Suffix –er and –tion in English and suffix –an in Batak Simalungun Language are bound morpheme. If they are not attached to the base form, they will not have meaning. While, base form run and correct in English and hundul and etek in Batak Simalungun language are free morpheme because they can stand alone. And if they stand alone, they have meaning. 3. Poly-morphemic word Poly-morphemic word is morphemes that are attached in word consist of free morphemes. Example: Air + craft Æ aircraft ENGLISH House + work Æ housework From those examples above, word aircraft consists of two free morphemes, air and craft. And also, word housework consists of two free morphemes house and work. Each free morpheme has meaning.

2.2 2 Words