07/10/2018

1 The word
 The notion of word is a very complex one, often
controversial. A possible definition would be that a
word is a meaningful linguistic unit that can be
combined to form phrases and sentences.
 I love eating spaghetti with my hands.

1 The word 2 Morpheme

 Main criteria:  A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a
 Phonetic identity language.
 Semantic identity  Morphemes are represented between curly brackets:
 Morphological stability { }
 Syntactic mobility

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2 Morpheme 2 Morpheme
 Characteristics of morphemes: morpheme
 They are internally indivisible:
 -able /Əbl/; book /bʊk/
 They have internal stability:
 comfort - *comablefort - comfortable grammatical lexical
 They are externally transportable:
 uncommon, unfamiliar

function inflectional content derivational

word affix word affix

2 Morpheme 3 Morphs and allomorphs

 Lexical morphemes: lexical or dictionary meaning.  Morph: concrete realization of a morpheme.
 Independent words:  Morphemic analysis: analysis into morphemes.
 Parts of words: affixes  Morphological analysis: analysis into morphs.
 Grammatical morphemes:
 Inflectional affixes:
 Function words:

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3 Morphs and allomorphs 3 Morphs and allomorphs

Morphemic Morphological
analysis analysis
build
 Allomorphs: variant morphs.
 Morphophoneme: a morpheme with allomorphs.
building
 {pl}
/z / after voiced sounds except sibilants
buildings /s / after voiceless sounds except sibilants
/ɪz/ after sibilants /s, z, ʃ, Ʒ, tʃ, dƷ/

3 Morphs and allomorphs 3 Morphs and allomorphs

Morphemic Morphological
 {past}
analysis analysis
/t/ after voiceless sounds except /t/ beds
/d/ after voiced sounds except /d/
/ɪd/ after /t,d/
shoes

snores

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3 Morphs and allomorphs 3 Morphs and allomorphs

Morphemic Morphological
analysis analysis  These allomorphs are phonologically conditioned,
stopped because the occurrence of each allomorph depends on
the phonological environment.
 Those allomorphs that are not determined by the
mended phonological environment are called
morphologically conditioned.

raised

3 Morphs and allomorphs

Morphologically conditioned allomorphs:
3 Morphs and allomorphs
Morphemic Morphological Morphemic Morphological
analysis analysis
mice analysis analysis
burnt

fish (pl)

oxen is

broke

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3 Morphs and allomorphs 3 Morphs and allomorphs

 Morphologically conditioned lexical allomorphs:
Morphemic Morphological
 house /haʊs/ - houses /haʊzɪz/
analysis analysis
house
 wife /waɪf/ - wives /waɪvz/

houses
 Also called allomorphic variation of the root.

wives

4. Classification of morphs 4 Classification of morphs

morph

free (root) bound

 A free morph may stand alone as a word:
content function affix  A bound morph must always be attached to another
bound root
word word morph:
 A root carries the main lexical or grammatical
prefix suffix meaning: methodically, outlandish, ultraviolet.

derivational derivational inflectional

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4 Classification of morphs 4 Classification of morphs

 Affixes are always attached to roots:
 Stem: root + derivational affixes.
 Prefixes: before roots, e.g. pre-, re-
disembowelments:
 Suffixes: after roots, e.g. –er, -dom
 Infixes: within roots.

5 Types of words 6 Inflection vs derivation

 Derivational affixes  creation of new words.
 Simple words: one free root
 e.g. 2 types:
 Complex words: one free root and one or more bound  class-changing:
morphs (inflectional and/or derivational), or two or  e.g.
more bound morphs
 class maintaining:
 e.g.
e.g.
 Compound words: two free roots 

 e.g.  Inflectional affixes  NO creation of new words.

 Compound-complex words: two free roots and  diferent (inflected) forms of the same word:
associated bound morphs  e.g.
 e.g.

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6 Inflection vs derivation
 English inflectional affixes
plural number -s
Noun
genitive case -s

present tense, 3rd p sg -s

past tense -ed

Verb
past participle -ed

present participle -ing

comparative degree -er

Adjective
superlative degree -est