The morphology of lexical verbs simply
means the different forms of lexical verbs. Lexical verbs have five
forms:
- The base form of the verb (e.g. eat).
- The -s form of the verb (e.g. eats).
- The -d/past form of the verb (e.g. ate).
- The -ing/continuous form of the verb (e.g.
eating).
- The -n/past participle form of the verb (e.g.
eaten).
The x+o /base form of the verb
Forget the mathematics there! It
is called English Maths. 'X + 0' simply means the base form of the verb, that
is, the natural state of the verb. It has not undergone any changes at all.
The base form of the verb has two
variants from the point of view of finiteness. In other words, it can be finite
and non finite. When it is in its finite form, it occurs alone, e.g. I eat rice
every day.
When it is non finite, it occurs with
an auxiliary verb, e.g. I can eat rice daily.
It can also occur with a preposition if
it is not finite, e.g. To eat rice every day can be tiring.
The x+ s form of the lexical verb
Every lexical verb manifests this form.
The x + s form of the lexical verb goes with a singular noun and the third
person singular pronoun.
Examples:
Emeka eats rice
every day.
He eats rice every day.
Orthographically, the -s morpheme is
realized as 's' and 'es.'
Examples:
He eats rice every day.
He teaches English
Language in school.
Phonologically, the -s morpheme is
realized as:
- /s/- it is a voiceless non sibilant, e.g. eats
- /z/- it is a voiced non sibilant, e.g. goes,
calls etc.
- /iz/ - sibilant sound, e.g. finishes, brushes,
tries etc.
The x+s form is finite, that is, it
always occurs alone and reflect for numbers.
Examples:
Eze goes to school.
He eats bread
every day.
He drives recklessly.
There is a form of relationship between
the x+o and x+s forms. They mark tense (the present tense form).
Examples:
They come home late.
He comes home late.
The x+g/-ing/continuous form of the
verb
The x+g form is assumed by every
lexical verb. It is formed by the addition of -ing to the base form of the
verb, e.g., eat/eating.
The only variation is that, in some
verbs that end in '-e', as in 'write,' you delete the 'e' before adding 'ing.'
In verbs like 'traffic,' you add 'k' to it before adding 'ing.' Verbs like
'lie,' you change the 'ie' to 'y' before adding 'ing.'
The x + d/past form of the verb
The x+d form is the finite form of a verb. It always occurs alone, that is, without an auxiliary verb.
Examples:
He went out of the
class.
The baby cried at
night.
Everybody laughed at
him.
The x+d form is formed by the addition
of the 'd' morpheme. The -d morpheme has the following allomorphs used
according to phonological environment. It is realized as:
- /d/ after voiced consonants or vowels, e.g., play --- played/pleid/.
- /t/ after voiceless consonants except if the
consonant ends in 't,' e.g. like - liked/laikt/, place - placed/pleist/, pass - passed/pa:st/etc.
- /id/ e.g., hate - hated/heitid/, want -wanted/wantid/.
The x+n/past participle form of the
verb.
The x+n form is formed by the addition
of 'n' or 'en' or 'ed' to the base form of the verb.
Examples
Know + n = known.
Eat + en = eaten.
Travel + ed = travelled.
There are instances where the x+n form
takes the base form of the verb.
Examples:
Cut
Come
Run
Put
Burst etc.
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