This thesis has been written in six chapters. Chapter 1, the Introduction, is intended to give the reader, in as general and concise a form as possible, sufficient information about Malay for him to be able to follow the analysis of the morphology of the language which is undertaken in the subsequent chapters. The Introduction thus includes, in addition to a discussion of the place of the National Language in relation to other styles and dialects, a brief account of its phonology and syntax.Chapter 2 provides the theoretical framework within which the morphology of Malay has been described. The units of morphology, 'morphemes' and 'words', are here defined, as also are the relevant morphological processes: affixation, reduplication and compounding. Allomorphic variation plays little part in Malay and, as demonstrated, can be dealt with satisfactorily by a few general rules.The derivation of nominal word -forms is described in Chapter 3. Simple, or root, nominals (as well as roots belonging to other classes) are fully listed in the appendices - but complex, reduplicated and compound forms are treated within the chapter.Chapter 4 describes the morphology of verbal word -forms. Generally speaking, verbals are more complex because there are three different classes of affixes involved: Intransitive (100), Transitive (200), and Voice (300). They may occur in up to three layers in one construction. The process of reduplication in the verbals, must be ordered before affixation (except with respect to affixes of Subclass 110 which are unproductive and derive forms that behave exactly like roots with respect to further morphological processes). Compounds are mostly composed of two constituent forms, which may be combined endocentrically or exocontrically.The adverbials are described in Chapter 5. They constitute only a small word class, and in all respects (with regard to affixation, reduplication and compounding) they resemble the verbals. They are treated exhaustively within the chapter.Chapter 6 deals with the remainder of the words m particles. Being a residual class, it is heterogeneous in nature. There are nine different subclasses, each of which is small in number. The members of all nine subclasses are fully listed in appendix 13. There are two particles that may be reduplicated, and a few that may enter into compounds. Otherwise the particles are not subject to morphological processes. Most of them occur in their root forms as free (full) forms, satellitics, or clitics.The thesis contains a set of rather lengthy appendices. These serve two purposes: (1) to list the root morphemes of each form class without putting long lists in the main body of the work; and (2) to list all the word -forms that may be derived by means of the productive affixes. This information given in the appendices forms an integral part of the thesis. Each of some 5,000 different roots is coded according to the morphological constructions into which it may enter. To the best of my knowledge most of this information, which is based upon the results of my own investigation, is nowhere else available, though some of it may also be extracted from the Malay National Language Dictionary (cf. Iskandar, 1970). It is primarily upon the provision of this detailed information that this dissertation bases its claim to originality
