Chapter 4 Morphology

I. Morphology: the internal structure of words Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words, and of the rules by which words are formed. E.g.: un+eaten *eaten+un lexical+ize+ed * lexical+ed+ize II. Words 1. Lexicon: the total list of words for any language. 2. A word is an arbitrary pairing of sound and meaning. 3. A word includes the following information: Pronunciation Spelling meaning parts of speech (syntactic category) Pragmatic information Information about the longest or shortest word in the language is not part of linguistic knowledge of a language, but general conceptual knowledge about a language. 4. Parts of Speech: syntactic/grammatical category Words belonging to the same part of speech share significant grammatical properties. E.g.: Nouns can combine demonstratives: this book Verbs take the suffix -ing: walk-ing A word can belong to more than one part of speech. E.g.: I love you. (V) You are the love of my life. (N) Major parts of speech: Nouns and Verbs exist in many, if not all, languages. Some categories are found in some languages but not in others. Specific grammatic properties associated with one part of speech can vary across languages. We can recognize which category a word belongs to by the way it is used. 5. Classes of Words Content Words (open class): Words which carry more semantic information and often belong to the major parts of speech are Content Words. They make up the large part of the vocabulary and are also called the open class words because many new words can be created and added in. In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs belong to the content words.

Function Words (closed class)

Words carry more syntactic/grammatical information, and serve to indicate some grammatical function in a phrase or sentence. They make up a small part of the vocabulary, and are called the closed class words because few new words can be added in. In English, conjunctions, articles, prepositions, pronouns belong to functions words. Function words are free morpheme. III. Morpheme 1. Morpheme Morpheme is the minimal unit of meaning in word-building. It is a grammatical unit which cannot be further analyzed into meaningful parts. E.g.: en+able+ed *t+able

2. Morpheme and Word Words are not the basic meaningful elements in a language, since some words are formed by combining a number of distinct unit of meaning. E.g.: en+able, im+polite

A single word may be composed of one or more morphemes: one morpheme boy two morphemes boy+ish three morphemes boy+ish+ness four morphemes gentle+man+li+ness five morphemes un+gentle+man+li+ness A morpheme may b represented by one or more syllables: one sound a+moral one syllable child+ish two syllables lady three syllables crocodile

3. Classes of Morphemes (1) Free morpheme: morphemes which can constitute words by themselves. E.g.: boy, girl, invite Bound morpheme: morphemes which have to be attached to other morphemes. They are never words but always parts of words. E.g.: un-, dis-, -ed, -ly (2) Root: Nonaffix basic free morphemes that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts. Stem: When a root morpheme is combined with affix morphemes it forms a stem. stem = root+affix root system stem system+atic stem un+system+atic word un+system+atic+al Affix: Bound morphemes attached to a stem or root morpheme Prefix: Affix that is attached to the beginning of another morpheme. Suffix: Affix that is attached to the end of another morpheme. Infix: Affix that is attached within anther morpheme. E.g.: Bontoc (a language spoken in the Philippines) fikas 'strong' fumikas 'to be strong' kilad 'red' kumilad 'to be red' Circumfix: Affix that is attached to a word both before and after the root. German lieb 'love' ge+lieb+t 'loved'

Eg.:

(3) Derivational affix Vs. Inflectional affix Derivational affix: Bound morphemes attached to stems to derive new words that may or may not change the syntactic category of words. Eg.: un-, -ly, -er, -able

Inflectional affix: Bound grammatical morphemes that are added to complete words according to
rules of syntax. All inflectional affixes in English are suffixes: Noun: Plural -s: girl --> girls Possessive 's: Mary --> Mary's Verb: 3rd person singular present -s: wait -->waits Past tense -ed: walk --> walked Progressive -ing: sing --> singing Past participle -en, -ed: beat --> beaten, walk -->walked Adjective: Comparative -er: fast --> faster Superlative -est: fast --> fastest

Differences between Derivational and Inflectional affixes

a. An inflectional affix never changes the syntactic category of its base morpheme, while a derivational affix may.

b. Inflectional affixes follow derivational affixes. E.g.: modern+ize+d (mothers-in-law, mother-in-law's) c. Derivational affixes may have semantic shift, while inflectional affixes may not. d. Inflectional affixes indicate certain grammatical functions of words. They are not listed separately in a dictionary. Derivational affix a. Change syntactic category or lexical meaning. b. c. d. e. Inflectional affix Do not change syntactic category and do not completely change lexical meaning. Signal the semantic relation between parts of Signal the syntactic and semantic relations word. between words in a sentence. Can only be applied to parts of certain syntactic Can be applied to most of the words in a categories. certain syntactic category. Preceding inflectional morpheme. Following derivational morphemes e.g.: rational+ize+d The words formed by adding derivational The words formed by adding inflectional affixes are listed separately in a dictionary. affixes are not listed as separate items in a dictionary.

(4) Conclusion: English morphemes: (English) Morphemes Bound Affix Root -ceive -mit cranOpen Class (Content words) Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Free Closed Class (Function words) Conjunctions Prepositions Articles Pronouns Auxiliary verbs

Derivational

Inflectional

Prefix preunanti-

Suffix -ly -ist -ment

Suffix -s, -ing, -ed, -en -er, -est -s, -s

Problems: a. not meaningful morpheme: Some morphemes are not meaningful in isolation. They acquire their meaning only by connection to the conjoined morphemes in which they occur. e.g.: huckleberry, cranberry, strawberry incestN.), disgusted, outlandish () b. no consistent meaning e.g.: receive, perceive, conceive, deceive permit, commit, submit, transmit, admit 4. Morpheme and Phonological Form 1. More than one morpheme with the same meaning. e.g.: in-, un-, dis-: 'not' 2. different morphemes with the same phonological form. e.g.: er: VERB+ er : 'one who VERBs' writer, driver ADJ+ er: comparative shorter, deeper

Exception: water (only one morpheme) homophones: 'son' and 'sun' 3. A morpheme may have alternate phonetic forms. e.g.: the regular plural morpheme --> /z/ -->[s], [z], [z] III. Morphological Rules Morphological rules explain how the different morphemes are combined to form words. Some morphological rules are very productive, and can be used quite freely to foorm another words. 1. Change syntactic category Noun --> Adj V --> N boy+ish clear+ance humor+ous accus+ation affection+ate confer+ence health+ful sing+er alcohol+ic lingu+ist life+like free+dom friend+ly predict+ion

N -->V moral+ize haste+n beauti+fy

Adj-->Adv excat+ly happi+ly lone+ly

Adj --> N tall+ness active+ity honest+y

V-->Adj read+able creat+ive desir+ous

2. Don't Change syntactic category N --> N V Adj friend+ship re+cover pink+ish music+ian re+print a+moran 3. Hierarchical structure of word

N ex+wife super+human

Adverb Stem Adj Stem Adj Stem Adj Prefix N Adj Stem Adj Suffix Adj Suffix Adv Suffix

un

system

atic

al

ly

4. Productive Some of the morphological rules are more productive. (1) VERB + able --> ADJ "able to be VERB-ed" e.g.: accept+able = "able to be accepted" (2) VERB + er --> 'one who VERBs' worker: "one who works" (3) un + ADJ = "not -ADJ" e.g.: un+acceptable = "not acceptable" 5. Exclusive When new words enter the lexicon by the application of morphological rules, it is often the case that other complex forms will not. e.g.: commun+ist *commun+ian lingu+ist *linguistic+ian beauti+fy *beaut+ize

6. Evidence of morphological rules: She tried many reducing diets, but remained indefatigable. in+de+fat+ig+able: not able to take the fat off.

7. Problems (1) Exception N + able e.g.: peace+able, knowledge+able, reason+able (2) Different meaning hospitable hospit+able feasible feas + ible unloosen : "loosen, let loose" undo : "reverse doing" unearth : "dig up"

IV. Word Coinage: Forming new words 1. Compound: combine individual words to form a compound Adjective Noun Adjective bittersweet (Adj) poorhouse (N) Noun headstrong (Adj) rainbow (N) Verb carryall (N) pickpocket (N)

Verb highborn (Adj) spoonfeed (V) sleepwalk (V)

(1) Syntactic category: the rightmost head word When the two words are in the same syntactic category, the compound will be in this category. When the two words fall into different categories, the class of the second or final word will be the syntactic category of the compound. (2) Stress: main stress falls at the leftmost word Green house, White house (3) Meaning: the head The meaning of a compound is not always the sum of the meanings of its parts. e.g.: blackboard, Redcoat, cat house (brothel) (4) Universality of compounding Compounding is a common and frequent process for enlarging the vocabulary of all languages. e.g.: English: toothpick French: cure-dent Mandarin: 2. Acronym: Words derived from the initials of several words. radar: radio detecting and ranging laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Agency AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome IBM: International Big Mouth BMW: Big Mouth Women 3. Back-Formation: Words formed from existing words by subtracting an affix thought to be part of the old word peddler peddle donation donate editor edit beggar beg laser lase 4. Clipping: Abbreviation TV: television prof: professor gym: gymnasium

gas: gasoline bus: omnibus van: caravan

math: mathematics ad: advertisement exam: examination

5. Words from Names: Proper names of individuals, brands, or places sandwich: name of Earl of Sandwich robot: name of a mechanical creature xerox: copy jumbo: name of an elephant kleenex: tissue paper

6. Blend: A word composed of the parts of more than one word smog: smoke + fog motel: motor + hotel brunch: breakfast + lunch 7. Meaning extension: metaphorical extension, Broadening and narrowing, Reverse ship --> space ship cool (adj) --> cool (N), father (N) --> father (V) 8. Derivation/ inflection

V. Morphology, Phonology and Syntax 1. Allomorph: the alternate phonetic forms of a morpheme are called allomorphs of that morpheme 2. Morphophonemic Rules: Morphophonemic rules are determined by both the morphology and phonology. For example, the regular plural rule in English. [s] e.g.: cups, cats regular plural morpheme /z/ [z] e.g.: hands, pens [z] e.g.: fishes, houses This is not a purely phonological rule because morphology adds the suffix to the root, and the phonology controls the pronunciation of the morpheme. [s], [z] and [z] are allomorphs of the regular plural morpheme. 3. Inflectional (morphological) vs. Syntactical Some grammatical relations can be expressed either inflectionally (morphologically) or syntactically (sentence structure). e.g.: England's queen the Queen of England the planes which fly the flying planes more happy happier

4. Inflectional affixes vs. function words What one language signals with inflectional affixes, another does with word order and another with functional words. English: The word order is very important. Maxim defends Victor. Victor defends Maxim. Russian: The inflectional suffix -a is an object marker. Maksim zasciscajet Viktora. 'Maxim defends Victor' Maksim Viktora zasciscajet. Viktora Maksim zasciscajet. Viktora zasciscajet Maksim. French: Jean vient lundi Jean viendra lundi. 'Jean is coming Monday.' 'Jean will come Monday'

VI. Morphological Analysis 1. Collect a representative corpus Adjective Meaning ugly "very unattractive" uglier "more ugly" ugliest "most ugly" pretty "nice looking" prettier "more nice looking" prettiest "most nice looking"

Adjective tall taller tallest

Meaning large in height more tall most tall

2. Look for recurring forms 3. Identify morphemes ugly root morpheme pretty root morpheme tall root morpheme er bound morpheme "comparative" est bound morpheme "superlative"

Exercise

1. Divide the following words by placing a + between their separate morphemes. Example: replaces --> re + place + s a. retroactive b. befriended c. televise d. margin e. endearment f. psychology g. unpalatable h. holiday i. grandmother j. morphemic k. mistreatment l. disactivation m. saltpeter n. airsickness

Answer

1. English morphemes a. retro+act+ive e. en+dear+ment i. grand+mother m. salt+peter

b. be+friend+ed f. psych+ology j. morph+em+ic n. air+sick+ness

c. tele+vise g. un+palat+able k. mis+treat+ment

d. margin h. holi+day l. dis+act+ive+ate+ion