In morphology, a null morpheme or zero morpheme is a

morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone ar ...

that has no phonetic form. In simpler terms, a null morpheme is an "invisible" affix. It is a concept useful for analysis, by contrasting null morphemes with alternatives that do have some phonetic realization. The null morpheme is represented as either the figure zero (''0'') or the

empty set In mathematics, the empty set is the unique set having no elements; its size or cardinality (count of elements in a set) is zero. Some axiomatic set theories ensure that the empty set exists by including an axiom of empty set, while in oth ...

symbol ∅. In most languages, it is the

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...

es that are realized as null morphemes, indicating that the derived form does not differ from the

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushr ...

. For example, plural form ''sheep'' can be analyzed as combination of ''sheep'' with added null affix for the plural. The process of adding a null affix is called ''null affixation'', ''null derivation'' or ''zero derivation''. The concept was first used by the 4th century BCE

Sanskrit grammarian Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

from ancient India, Pāṇini, in his

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

In English

Inflection

The existence of a null morpheme in a

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

can also be theorized by contrast with other forms of the same word showing alternative morphemes. For example, the singular number of English

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Organism, Living creatures (including people ...

s is shown by a null morpheme that contrasts with the plural morpheme ''-s''. * ''cat'' = ''cat'' + ''-∅'' = ROOT ("cat") + SINGULAR * ''cats'' = ''cat'' + ''-s'' = ROOT ("cat") + PLURAL In addition, there are some cases in English where a null morpheme indicates plurality in nouns that take on irregular plurals. * ''sheep'' = ''sheep'' + ''-∅'' = ROOT ("sheep") + SINGULAR * ''sheep'' = ''sheep'' + ''-∅'' = ROOT ("sheep") + PLURAL Also, a null morpheme marks the present tense of English

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

s in all forms but the third person singular: * ''(I) run'' = ''run'' + ''-∅'' = ROOT ("run") + PRESENT: Non-3rd-SINGULAR * ''(He) runs'' = ''run'' + ''-s'' = ROOT ("run") + PRESENT: 3rd-SINGULAR

Derivation

According to some linguists' view, English verbs such as ''to clean'', ''to slow'', ''to warm'' are converted from

adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

s by a null morpheme – in contrast to verbs such as ''to widen'' or ''to enable'' which are also converted from adjectives, but using non-null morphemes. Null derivation, also known as conversion if the word class changes, is very common in

analytic language In linguistic typology, an analytic language is a language that conveys relationships between words in sentences primarily by way of ''helper'' words ( particles, prepositions, etc.) and word order, as opposed to using inflections (changing th ...

s such as English.

In other languages

In languages that show the above distinctions, it is quite common to employ null affixation to mark singular number, present tense and third persons. It is also frequent to find null affixation for the least- marked

case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...

s (the

nominative case In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...

in nominative–accusative languages, and the absolutive case in ergative–absolutive languages). English is unusual in its marking of the third person singular with a non-zero morpheme, by contrast with a null morpheme for others. Another unusual usage of the null morpheme is the feminine genitive case plural in most Slavic languages, cf. Russian singular nominative ''женщин-а'' (''zhenshchin-a''), ''woman'', singular genitive ''женщин-ы'' (''zhenshchin-y''), ''woman's'' and plural genitive ''женщин-∅'' (''zhenshchin-∅''), ''women's''. In most languages of the world it is the affixes that are realized as null morphemes. But in some cases roots may also be realized as these. For instance, the Russian word вы-''∅''-ну-ть (''vynut, 'to take out') consists of one

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...

(вы-), one zero root (''-∅-''), one infix (-ну-), and one suffix (-ть).Russian Language Institute, question 210775
/ref> A basic radical element plus a null morpheme is not the same as an

uninflected word In linguistic morphology, an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological markers (inflection) such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or conjugation. If a word has an uninflected form, this is usually th ...

, though usage may make those equal in practice.

References

Note: All of the examples under the Inflection heading come from the same source. {{DEFAULTSORT:Null Morpheme

Morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone ar ...

Zero (linguistics)

In English

Inflection

Derivation

In other languages

See also

References