2015-09-06
2358
The morphological systems of the English and Ukrainian languages are characterised by a considerable number of isomorphic as well as of several allomorphic features. The isomorphic features are due to the common Indo-European origin of the two languages, while allomorphisms have been acquired by English and Ukrainian in the course of their historical development and functioning as independent national languages.
The main typological constants that make the object of contrasting at the morphological level of English and Ukrainian, and not only of these but also of many other languages, are three. These are 1) the morpheme; 2) the parts of speech; 3) their morphological categories.
The principal typological constant of the morphological level is, of course, the morpheme which is endowed in both contrasted languages with some minimal meaning. As to its structure, the morpheme may be
a) simple (one-phoneme): a-, -s, -t (a like, say s, burn t) in English and -a, -u, -у, з-, c-, etc. in Ukrainian (весна, хати, беру, з'їсти, сховати) or
b) compound (-ment, -hood, -ward, -ство, -ський, -цький) as in man agement, brotherhood, seaward, суспільство, сільський, ткацький. The complexity of its nature, structure and meaning makes the morpheme one of the main objects of contrastive study at the morphological level. Moreover, the morpheme in English and Ukrainian has some peculiar fea tures, which are characteristic of each of these contrasted languages.
