Our language consists of words. But not only of them, because every word also consists of letters and sounds, and combinations of words form phrases. Language is a complex and multi-level system of signs. The morphological characteristic will help to find out which cell in the system of language a particular word occupies. So, more details.
What does morphology do?
Morphology is a field of linguistics that studies the grammatical meaning of a word. The name of this science comes from the Greek words “logos” - “knowledge, doctrine”, and “morpho” - “form”. That is, morphology explores the form of a word, but the form is not external, sound, but internal, structural.
It is thanks to the development of morphology that we were able to learn that parts of speech exist in a language - groups of words united by common attributes. So, we know that nouns name an object, adjectives - its quality or attribute, verbs - action or process, etc. Also, any student will easily determine that "pear" is a feminine word, and "apple" is a middle word . That "run" - the verb of the present tense, set in 3 l. many hours (they), and "run" - the present tense, used in 1 l. units h. (me). The description of various grammatical categories is called the morphological characteristic of the word. But first things first.
Why is the morphological characteristic of a word needed?
In the last century, academician L. Shcherba suggested that his students understand the meaning of such a phrase: "Gloky cuzdra budlanula bokra." Agree that at first glance this is an absolutely meaningless remark, because in the Russian language there is neither the word “cuzdra”, nor the word “bokr”, nor any other words from this sentence. However, taking a closer look, we will realize that it is still possible to catch some meaning in this phrase.
So, we know that the feminine gender of adjectives in the Russian language has the ending –th: green grass, red rose. Hence, “glock” is a form of the name of the adjective. We also know that the past tense of verbs is formed using the suffix -l-: read - read (a), walk - walk (a). Accordingly, “budlanula” is a verb whose action occurred in the past. And the hypothetical infinitive of this word will “budanut”.
As we see from the example of L. Shcherba, words in a language have not only lexical, that is, semantic meaning. But each part of them carries some kind of information that is easily and unconsciously perceived by native speakers. The morphological characteristic of the word is needed in order to characterize the lexeme in terms of its belonging to the speech structure.
How to make?
Let's figure it out. To compose a morphological characteristic of a word, you need to know the parameters by which it can be described. For different main parts of speech, they will be different.
The table below shows the morphological criteria. Characterization of the word should be carried out gradually from the definition of part-line membership to the description of grammatical forms.
Part of speech | Parameters of morphological characteristics |
Noun | Gender, declension, number, case, animate / inanimate |
Adjective | Gender, number, case |
Verb | Initial form (infinitive), real / passive voice, time, person and number (present and future tense) or gender (past tense), perfect / imperfect form, transitional / intransitive. |
And further. Depending on the objectives of the analysis, the word can be characterized by all parameters or only by some.
Examples: noun
All nouns in the Russian language have a constant criterion - gender. You can not change the word by gender, but you can decline in cases and numbers. However, for indeclinable nouns, it is impossible to determine the case, and their gender can often be recognized only if you look into the dictionary. It should also be borne in mind that the masculine forms of the genitive and accusative cases coincide for animate nouns.
- Star - w. p., I declination, unity. h., them. P.
- Stars - w. p., I declination, pl. h., them. P.
- Stars - w. p., I declination, unity. hours, kind. n. As can be seen from this example, form them. plural case and gender. singular cases differ only in the spelling of the letter -- and the place of stress.
- Time - cf. p., diverging, unity. hours, kind. P.
- Kangaroo - m. R., unshakable, unity. h
Examples: adjective
The adjective is inclined by gender, number and case. As a rule, adjectives are consistent with nouns, and therefore its gender must be determined by the gender of the noun.
- Black (coffee) - m. R., unity. h., them. n. The form of the secondary kind of "black coffee" is colloquial.
- Scotch (whiskey) - cf. r., unity. h., them. P.
- Russian (tradition) - w. R. (since "tradition" - zh.r.), unity. hours, tv P.
- Russian (dancing) - a lot. hours, tv n. For adjectives used in the plural, gender is not indicated.
- Young (students) - a lot. hours, kind. n. or wines. p., since “student” is an animated noun.
Examples: verb
Russian verbs have an infinitive (initial form) and vary in tenses, persons and numbers in the present and future tenses. And by birth - in the past. The type of verb, its voice, transitiveness are constant morphological characteristics of this part of speech.
- I draw - the initial form: to draw, imperfection. view (what am I doing?), valid pledge, present v., 1 l. unity. hours, transitional (I draw - what? - the picture).
- Fell in love - the initial form: to fall in love, perfect. view (what did?), valid pledge, past vr., m., intransitive.
- Will come - the initial form: come, perfect. view (what will he do?), valid pledge, bud. vr., 2 l. unity. hours, intransitive.
Example morphological characteristics of the proposal
The determination of the parameters of the word is most often carried out in the analysis of the phrase. The morphological characteristic of the sentence is needed to understand the means by which the grammar of the Russian language is used to construct our speech. In addition, due to the coincidence of some forms (for example, the genitive and accusative cases in animated nouns), sometimes the correct morphological characterization of a word is possible only if the context is known.
In general, everything is quite simple. The following is one example of a morphological analysis of the composition of a sentence.
Dad | bought | Sachet | white | puppy |
The subject (subject), represented by an animated noun in a m., Unity. h., them. n. (the subject is always used in the nominative case) | A predicate (predicate), in the role of which is the verb used in past. v., m. | Addition represented by an animated noun in the form of m. Or g. kind (since we don’t know, Sasha is a girl or a boy), unities. hours, dates P. | The definition expressed by the adjective m. hours, wines. P. | Addition, in the role of which is an animated noun in the m., Unity. hours, wines. n. (the verb "bought" requires a direct object (who?), which is expressed by the accusative, and not the genitive case). |
To summarize. The morphological characteristic is an important stage in the analysis of the grammatical structure of both a single word and the whole sentence. It helps to better understand the internal structure of the language and learn how to use it correctly in live speech.