The Morphological Structure of ME

To understand what the morphological structure of a language is we are to know what a morphological type is. It is a set of prevalent features characterizing a group of languages. At present linguists distinguish the following morphological types of languages. : isolated, synthetical, agglutinative, analytical and incorporative. Grammatical relations are expressed differently in them. In isolated languages grammatical relations are expressed without inflexions: by adjoinment, word order, composition (NN, NA). In synthetical languages grammatical relations are expressed by means of inflexions (Slavic, Latin, Old English, etc.). Analysis finds its expression in auxiliaries and prepositions, in notional words turning into semantically empty words. In agglutinative languages unchangeable monosemantic suffixes are glued to the preceding elements to express grammatical relations [(Turkish and Ugra-Finnish languages, Hungarian: kertemben – kertedben (in my garden – in your garden)}. In incorporative languages (the languages of Northern, Central and Southern American Indians, of the peoples inhabiting the coasts of the Arctic Ocean) whole syntactic complexes (phrases and sentences) function as words.

English is prevalently analytical. Grammatical relations are expressed by such auxiliaries as shall, will, do, have, should, would, more, most. Analytical are degrees of comparison of polysyllabic adjectives, passive forms, Future tense forms, continuous forms, perfect forms, The Conditional mood and The Suppositional mood forms.. Under certain contextual circumstances some verbs (go, get, come, stand) are coming to lose their meaning (He went mad, Let us get going, The house got burnt, I am coming to understand you, we are finished), turning into newer auxiliaries. Prepositions are also very important to express different relations within a sentence (to rely upon, to arrive at, to refer to, etc.). Still, we find in ME the features of other morphological types (synthesis, agglutination, isolation and incorporation).

Isolation in English is expressed by the formation of phrases on the model NN (college education, a computer specialist, a burn center); the formation of composite words on the models NN, NA (finger-width, spine-chills, Shakespeare-mad, theatre-mad, chalk-white); conversion (NàA, NàV, Vàn: queer – a queer, patientàa patient, I bank no more, etc.); word order (Mother loves her children. There is no external difference between the subject and the object). Isolation is progressing in different genres.

Synthesis is extremely important in English. Historically English had a synthetical structure. There were external and internal inflexions, sound alternation, etc. Much of it got preserved. We do find inflexions, vocalic and consonantal interchange, suppletivity (knife – knives, man-men, go-went, I – me, mine, etc).The categories of number and case in nouns, the category of degrees of comparison of monosyllabic adjectives, the present and the past forms of regular verbs, participle I, participle II, the gerund are expressed inflexionally (a boy : : boys, a boy:: a boy’s hat; fine::finer::finest; goes, jumped; writing, written, writing).

Agglutination is insignificant (oxen’s hooves, the children’s room, giantesses, etc). Incorporation, though being exotic, is progressing in different genres (newspapers, journals and magazines, fiction): a father- to – son talk, mouth – to – mouth propaganda, a don’t care appearance, the do-nothing cops, a name-your –own – price contract, It was a from- the moment- I-saw – you – I – understood – that- there – could- be – nobody- but- you syndrome, etc.)..Incorporative complexes are structurally variable (from a phrase to a supra-phrasal unit). They function variously in a sentence, their most frequent function is that of an attribute.