Structure and formation of words

Basic concepts:
Note the following words:
choiceThe
choiceair
choicearization
choicearizar
under-choicearization
Observing them, we notice that there is an element common to all of them: the chosen form. Furthermore, in all of them there are detachable elements, responsible for some detail of meaning. Compare, for example, choiceThe and choiceair: starting from school, he graduated from school by adding the detachable element -air.

Through this work of comparison between the various words we selected, we can infer the existence of different forming elements. Each of these forming elements is a minimal unit of meaning, an indecomposable significant element, which we call a morpheme.
Classification of morphemes:
Radical
There is a morpheme common to all the words we are looking at: choose-. It is this common morpheme – the radical – that makes us consider words from the same family of meaning – the cognates. The stem is the part of the word responsible for its main meaning.
Affixes
As we have seen, the addition of the morpheme -

air create a new word from school. Similarly, the addition of morphemes sub- and -arization the shape choice- created subschooling. These morphemes are called affixes.
When they are placed before the radical, as with sub-, the affixes are named prefixes. When as -arization, appear after the stem the affixes are called suffixes. Prefixes and suffixes, in addition to operating a grammatical class change, are capable of introducing meaning changes in the stem to which they are added.
Endings
When the verb is conjugated love, you get shapes like mava, ohgoodbye, ohava, ohwe were, ohgreedyy amavam. These changes occur as the verb is inflected in number (singular and plural) and person (first, second or third). They also occur if we change the tense and mood of the verb (amava, ohplow, ohbake, for example).

We can thus conclude that there are morphemes that indicate the inflections of words. These morphemes always appear at the end of variable words and are called endings. There are nominal endings and verbal endings.

• Nominal endings: indicate the gender and number of names. For the indication of gender, Portuguese usually opposes the endings -the/-the:
girlO/garotThe; girlO/meninThe

For the indication of number, it is customary to use the morpheme -s, which indicates the plural as opposed to the absence of morpheme, which indicates the singular: garotO/garotyou; girlThe/garotat; girlO/meninyou; girlThe/meninat.
In the case of names ending in -r and –z, the plural ending takes the form -es: mar/mares; revolverr/revólveres; crudez/cruze.
• Verbal endings: In our language, verbal endings belong to two distinct types. There are those that indicate the mood and tense (temporal-mode endings) and those that indicate the number and person of the verbs (personal-number ending):

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we'll sing	sing-a-se-is
cant: radical	cant: radical
-á-: thematic vowel	-á-: thematic vowel
-go-: temporal-mode ending (characterizes the imperfect tense of the callsign)	-sse-:temporal-mode ending (characterizes the imperfect past tense of the subjunctive)
-mos: personal-number ending (characterizes first person plural)	-is: personal-number ending (characterizes second person plural)

Thematic vowel
Note that, enter the radical sing- and the verbal endings, the morpheme always appears -The.
This morpheme, which links the stem to the endings, is called thematic vowel. Its function is to link to the radical, constituting the so-called theme. It is to the theme (stem + thematic vowel) that the endings are added. Both verbs and nouns have thematic vowels.
• Nominal thematic vowels: Are -a, -and, and -O, when final unstressed, as in monthThe, artistThe, searchThe, missThe, choiceThe, sadand, basand, combatand. In these cases, we could not think that these endings are gender-indicating endings, since the table, school, for example, do not suffer this type of flexion. It is to these thematic vowels that the plural indicating ending is linked: mesat, choiceat, loss-s. Names ending in stressed vowels (sofá, coffeeé, cipó, persimmoni, for example) do not have thematic vowel.
• Verbal thematic vowels: Are -a, -and and -i, which characterize three groups of verbs called conjugations. Thus, the verbs whose thematic vowel is -The belong to the first conjugation; those whose thematic vowel is -and belong to the second conjugation and those with thematic vowel -i belong to the third conjugation.

first conjugation	second conjugation	third conjugation
govern-a-va	settled down	define the
attack-a-va	ha-ha	stopped
perform-it-self	wriggle	we act-we

Leading vowel or consonant
Connecting vowels or consonants are morphemes that arise for euphonic reasons, that is, to facilitate or even enable the reading of a given word. We have an example of a connecting vowel in the word schooling: o -i- between the suffixes -air- and -ity makes it easier the vocal emission of the word. Other examples: gasometer, alvinegro, technocracy, stick, coffee maker, kettle, knitting.

By Marina Cabral
Specialist in Portuguese Language and Literature
Brazil School Team

Below is the chorus of the song “Cabelo”, by Jorge Ben Jor and Arnaldo Antunes. Based on this analysis, try to respond to what is asked:

hair, hair
hairy, disheveled
hair, hair
Hairy, disheveled...

a) Among the elements that form the structure of a word, there is an element common to several words, called a stem. Identify it in the fragment in question.
b) We realized that from this same radical, some elements were added to it, forming new units of meaning. Based on that assumption, picture them.

(UFSCar-SP - adapted) Check the alternative in which the highlighted morphic element is correctly analyzed:

a) girl (-a) - nominal gender ending
b) sold (-e) – connecting vowel
c) gasometer (-ô-) - thematic vowel of second conjugation
d) kneaded (-sse-) - second person plural ending
e) cantary (-is) - ending of the imperfect of the subjunctive