Odia morphology

Odia morphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of morphemes and other units of meaning in the Odia language. Morphemes (called ରୁପିମ in Odia and pronounced Rüpémë) are the smallest units of the Odia language that carry and convey a unique meaning and is grammatically appropriate. A morpheme in Odia (Termed as: ରୁପିମ) is the most minuscule meaningful constituent which combines and synthesizes the phonemes into a meaningful expression through its (morpheme's) form & structure. Thus, in essence, the morpheme is a structural combination of phonemes in Odia. In other words, in Odia language, the morpheme is a combination of sounds that possess and convey a meaning. A morpheme is not necessarily a meaningful word in Odia. In Odia, every morpheme is either a base or an affix (prefix or a suffix).

The combination of one or multiple morphemes lead to construction of a word. Morphemes are the smallest units of sentence analysis (Syntax) and include root words, prefixes, suffixes, and verb endings.

The current approach to Odia morphology treat morphology and morphemes as the basic rules involving the linguistic context, rather than as isolated pieces of linguistic matter. In context of semantics (Analysis of Meaning), the approach is that:

1. Meaning is linked to segmented phonological units, with influences of tone and/or stress;
2. Meaning of a morpheme with a given form varies on account of its immediate usage environment.

General analysis

The existence and span of rules of morphemes in a language depend on the "morphology" in that particular language. In a language having greater morphology, a word would have an internal compositional structure in terms of word-pieces (i.e. free morphemes - Bases) and those would also possess bound morphemes like affixes. Such a morpheme-rich language is termed as synthetic language. To the contrary, an isolating language uses independent words and in turn, the words lack internal structure. A synthetic language tends to employ affixes and internal modification of roots (i.e. free morphemes - Bases) for the same purpose of expressing additional meanings.

Odia is a moderately synthetic language. It contains definite synthetic features, such as the bound morphemes mark tense, number (plurality), gender etc. However, though Odia language has a larger number of derivational affixes, it has virtually no inflectional morphology.

Derivational synthesis in Odia morphology

Odia morphemes of different types (nouns, verbs, affixes, etc.) combine to create new words.

Relational synthesis in Odia morphology

In relationally synthesized Odia words, base morphemes (root words) join with bound morphemes to express grammatical function.

Odia language has a tendency for commonly used words to have a 2:1 morpheme-word ratio i.e. on an average; there are 2 morphemes in a single word. Because of this tendency, Odia is said to "possess morphology" since almost each used word has an internal compositional structure in terms morphemes. In Odia language, generally, separate words are used to express syntactic relationships which imparts an isolating tendency, while using inflectional morphology could have made the language more synthetic.

Morphology

Examples:

Base Morpheme: /ଘର/ (Pronounced as ghuru, as u in but; meaning: house)

Phonetic Components:
/ଘରକୁ/ = /ଘ୍/ + /ଅ/ + /ର୍/ + /ଅ/ + /କ୍/ + /ଉ/

Morphological Components:

/ଘରକୁ/ = / ଘର/ + /କୁ/

Base Morpheme: /ହାତ/ (Pronounced as hato; meaning: hand)

Morphological Components/Derivatives:

/ହାତୀ/ = / ହାତ/ + /ଈ/ [ଈ = ଅଛି]
/ହାତିଆ/ = / ହାତ/ + /ଇଆ/ [ଇଆ = ପରିମାଣ]
/ହାତୁଡି/ = / ହାତ/ + /ଉଡି/ [ଉଡି = ଆକୃତି]

Components of a morpheme

There are several components of a morpheme in Odia language. There are as follows:

Base: A morpheme that imparts meaning on a word.

Derivational Morpheme: These morphemes alter and/or modify the meaning of the word and may create a whole new word.

Allomorphs: These are different phonetic forms or variations of a morpheme. The final morphemes in several words are pronounced differently, but they all signify plurality.

Homonyms: are morphemes that are spelled the similarly but have different meanings. Such examples abound Odia grammar and are termed as similarly pronounced words (ସମୋଚ୍ଚାରିତ ଶବ୍ଦ). Examples:

ଜୀବନ (life) and ଜୀବନ (water), ହରି(Lord Vishnu) and ହରି (Monkey).

Homophones: These are morphemes that sound alike but have different meanings and spellings. Examples: ସିତ (Black colour), ସୀତ (Plough head).

Classification

Morphemes in Odia language may be classified, on the basis of word formation, characteristics into the following types:

Type Structure Bound Free Sub-types
Root 1. Simple
2. Made up of a single morpheme
3. Basis for compounding and affixation		Yes/NoYes/NoNone
Stem 1. Simple/Complex
2. Composed of one/multiple morphemes
3. Basis for affixation		Yes/NoYes/NoNone
Affix SimpleYesNoPrefix, Infix, Suffix, Suprafix, Simulfix, and Circumfix
CliticSimpleYes (Phonologically) Yes (Syntactically)Proclitic and Enclitic

Types of morphemes

Free morpheme

Independent meaningful units are free morphemes. These are elemental words. Free morpheme can stand alone as a word without help of another morpheme. It does not need anything attached to it to make a word.

ରାମ ଭାତ ଖାଉଛି = ରାମ ଭାତ(କୁ) ଖାଉଛି: କମౕ ରାତି ବିତାଇଲା = ରାତି(ରେ) ବିତାଇଲା: ଅଧିକରଣ ରାମ କଥା ଶୁଣିଲି = ରାମ(ର) କଥା ଶୁଣିଲି: ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧ ପଦ

Bound morphemes

Units which are not independent words but convey meaning on account of their usage on combination are bound morphemes. A bound morpheme is a sound or a combination of sounds that cannot stand on its own as a meaningful word. Most of the bound morphemes in Odia language are ‘affixes’. An affix is a morpheme that may come at the beginning (Termed as Prefix) or the end (Termed as Suffix) of a base morpheme.

In Odia, prefixes are bound morphemes are affixes that come before a base morpheme. For example:

/ଉପକୂଳ/ = /ଉପ/ + /କୂଳ/ /ଉପନଦୀ/ = /ଉପ/ + /ନଦୀ/ /ଅପବାଦ/ = /ଅପ/ + /ବାଦ/ /ଅପରୂପ/ = /ଅପ/ + /ରୂପ/

A suffix is an affix that comes after a base morpheme. Example of suffix Bound Morphemes are:

/ସାଧୁତା/ = /ସାଧୁ/ + /ତା/ /ବୀରତ??/ = /ବୀର/ + /ତ/ /କାମିକା/ = /କାମ/ + /ଇକା/ /ନିସୃୃତ/ = / ନିଃ/ + /କୃତ/ /ତା/, /ତ/, /ଇକା/ are bound morphemes used suffixes. /ସାଧୁ/, /ବୀର/, /କାମ/ etc. are ‘complete bound morphemes’ /ତା/, /ତ??/, /ଇକା/ etc. are ‘dissected or partial bound morphemes’.

The free morphemes carry a fixed meaning while the bound morphemes exhibit large scale variations in meanings. The variable and changing meanings of the bound morphemes impart diversity to word meanings and enrich the language.

Complex or combined morphemes

In a complex morpheme, multiple free morphemes are combined to form a word and impart meaning. More than one Stem Morphemes create a complex morpheme.

Noun + Noun: ଘର + ଭଡା = ଘରଭଡା /ରଂଗ ମଂଚ/ = / ରଂଗ / + /ମଂଚ/

Adjective + Noun: କଳା + ପଟା = କଳାପଟା

Noun + Adjective: ସବౕ + ସାଧାରଣ = ସବౕସାଧାରଣ

Adjective + Adjective: ଭୀମ + କାଂତ = ଭୀମକାଂତ

Mixed morphemes

Where both free and bound morphemes combine to form another morpheme, the result is called a mixed morpheme. The mixed morpheme may result from the following combinations:

/ମଣିଷ/ + /ପଣ/ + /ଇଆ/ = /ମଣିଷପଣ/ + /ଇଆ/ = /ମଣିଷପଣିଆ/

/ମଣିଷପଣ/ is a complex morpheme while /ଇଆ/ is a bound morpheme.

Inflectional morphemes can only be suffixes. An inflectional morpheme creates a change in the function of the word. Example, /ଇଲା/ with /ଖା/, giving rise to /ଖାଇଲା/, indicates past tense. Odia has innumerable inflectional morphemes, unlike only seven in English Language. Among others, these include the following:

In Odia morphology, there are no adjective and adverb inflections like the comparative (-er) and superlative (-est) of English language. Instead, bound morphemes like /ଠାରୁ/ and /ରୁ/, and free morphemes like /ତୁଳନାରେ/ etc. are used.

Marker morphemes

In linguistics, a marker is a morpheme, mostly bound, that indicates the grammatical function of the target (marked) word or sentence. In a language like Odia with isolating language tendencies, it is possible to express syntactic information via separate grammatical words instead via morphology (with bound morphemes). Therefore, the marker morphemes are easily distinguished.

Verb morphemes

Verb roots can take transformation and function as morphemes.

/ଖା/ + /ଇଆ/ = /ଖିଆ/ = /ମଣିଷଖିଆ ବାଘ/ Verb Morpheme can be either continuous morphemes or perfect morphemes on the basis of tense.

Verb continuous morphemes: /ଖା/ + /ଇ/ = /ଖାଇ/

Verb perfect morphemes: /ଖା/ + /ଇଲା/ = /ଖାଇଲା/

Sub-morphemes

Sub-morphemes are metamorphosis of actual morphemes. Sub-morphemes are also called complementary morphemes or meta-morphemes. Sub-morphemes may arise on account of changes in number of noun morphemes or tense of verb morphemes or gender of noun morphemes, as under:

Number

/ଗୋଟିଏ/ + /ଘର/ = /ଗୋଟିଏ ଘର/ One + House = A House

/ଗୁଡ଼ିଏ/ + /ଘର/ = / ଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ଘର/ Many + House = Many Houses

/ଗୋଟିଏ/ + /ଲୋକ/ = /ଲୋକଟିଏ / /ଅନେକ/ + /ଲୋକ/ = /ଲୋକ/ Sub Morphme: /ଏ /

Tense

The sub-morphemes are different appearances of a morpheme at different tense. For instance, the present perfect morpheme in Odia is: /ଇଲା/ However, the present perfect sub-morpheme of /ଇଲା/ is /ଲା/. For instance: /ଖା/ + /ଇଲା/ = /ଖାଇଲା/ /ପା/ + /ଇଲା/ = /ପାଇଲା/ are normal usage of /ଇଲା/. However, the sub-morpheme is: /ଗ/ + /ଲା/ = /ଗଲା/ /ଦେ/ + /ଲା/ = /ଦେଲା/ /ନେ/ + /ଲା/ = /ନେଲା/

Difference between morphemes, words and syllables in Odia

Even though morphemes combine to create a word in Odia, the morphemes are not always independent words. Some single morphemes are words while other words are composed of two or more morphemes.

In Odia, morphemes are also different from syllables. Many words have two or more syllables but only one morpheme. For example:
କୁକକର, ମୋ'ର are examples. On the other hand, many words have two morphemes and only one syllable; examples include ଧନୀ, ମୋଟା etc.

See also

References

    Bibliography

    Neukom, Lukas and Manideepa Patnaik. 2003. A grammar of Oriya. (Arbeiten des Seminars für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft; 17). Zürich: Seminar für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Zürich. ISBN 3-9521010-9-5

    Further reading

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