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Knowing a language means knowing the sounds, the words, and the rules for their combination to express & understand intended p meaning
Semantic Pragmatic Syntax
An important part of linguistic knowledge & constitute a component of our mental grammar
What is a WORD?
The means through which thoughts are conveyed to others and from which thoughts of others are received and comprehended Knowing a word means knowing that a particular q p sequence of sound is associated with a particular meaning Able to segment stream of sounds into individual y words: How may words are there in this utterance?
More on Words
Each word is a sound-meaning unit Each word, stored in our mental lexicon (i.e. mental dictionary) must be listed with its unique phonological representation & with a meaning Each stored word includes other information (i.e. syntactic categories)
Forming grammatical sentences
ThefirstassignmentisdueverysoonsoIhopethat youhavepreparedeverythingthatisrequired )
More on Words
Content Words
Words that denote concepts (Lexical)
Objects (nouns) Actions (verbs/adverbs) Attributes (adjectives) Ideas (nouns)
Function Words
Words which specify grammatical relations & have little or no semantic content
Conjunctions Prepositions Articles Pronouns
Open class
Can add new words to the above classes May change category (e.g. Google, google)
Closed class
No addition of new words Estimated only 300 words
Omission of function words by Agrammatic Aphasics indicative of the distinction between the organization of content and function words in the brain
Possibility that these two classes of words are processed in different brain areas or by different neural mechanism
Morphemes?
Most elemental unit of grammatical form (sound-meaning unit)
One morpheme Boy y Two morphemes Boyish Three morphemes Boyishness Four morphemes Gentlemanliness More than four morphemes Ungentlemanliness
Words are made up of morphemes Simple words consist of a single morpheme Complex words consist of more than one morpheme (each contributes some meaning to the overall word)
Reflection
Can you identify ALL the morphemes in the following English sentence?
The musicians reconsidered their directors unusual proposal
The (Grammatical morpheme - definite) music (root) consider (root) -ian (indicates person whose works related to meaning of root) Re (meaning = again) s (plural marker) ed (past tense marker) s (possession)
More on Words
Content Words
Words that denote concepts (Lexical)
Objects (nouns) Actions (verbs/adverbs) Attributes (adjectives) Ideas (nouns)
Function Words
Words which specify grammatical relations & have little or no semantic content
Conjunctions Prepositions Articles Pronouns
their (Grammatical morpheme possession of following noun plural 3rd person ) direct (root) usual (root) propose (root) - or (denotes someone performing action of the verb) un (meaning = not) al (turning root verb into a noun)
Open class
Can add new words to the above classes May change category (e.g. Google, google)
Closed class
No addition of new words Estimated only 300 words
Morphemes?
Minimal linguistic unit arbitrary union of a sound and a meaning that cannot be further analyzed The decomposition of words into morphemes illustrates a fundamental property of human l fh language discreteness
The study of the internal structure of words, and of the rules by which words are formed is known as: MORPHOLOGY
Form (word) Science of
box
boxes
Inflectional morpheme
ableunuse
usaableun
Morphological Knowledge
Knowledge of the individual morphemes Un Think Able Their pronunciation Their meaning Free (stand alone) or Bound (must be attached to a base morpheme) Knowledge of the rules that combine them into complex words Unablethink Thinkunable Ablethinkun Unthinkable
Affixation
Prefixes (precedes/before) Suffixes (follow after) Infixes (inserted) Circumfixes (begin & end)
No attachment Morphemes minimal linguistic signs in ALL languages; however deployment varies from one language to another
Derivational Morphemes
Stem Word
Root
Derivational Morphology
A new word with a new meaning is derived when bound morpheme (s) are added to the base
Suffix (form adjective) -able Suffix (form adverb) - ly Suffix (form verb) -ate Mainly added to ( ) Verb (wash) Mainly added to Adjective (slow) Mainly added to Noun (orchestra) Usual meaning can be (done) ( ) Usual meaning in an (adjective) way Usual meaning causative Examples washable Examples slowly Examples orchestrate
Derived words
Derivational Morphology
Derivational morphemes makes new words from old ones (Crystal, p. 90.) Creates new words from existing ones, often with a change in meaning
Inflectional Morphemes
Inflectional morphemes: vary (or "inflect") the form of words in order to express grammatical features, such as singular/plural or past/present tense.
Thus Boy and boys, for example, are two different forms of the "same" word; the choice between them, singular vs. plural, is a matter of grammar and thus the business of inflectional morphology. (Crystal, p. 90.)
Inflectional Morphology
Morphology that interacts with syntax (sentence structure) Some examples are:
person number gender case tense aspect
Grammatical properties
Never change the syntactic categories of the words or morphemes to which they are attached to
peanuts
-ation (organization) -al (facial) -ize (memorize) -ic (alcoholic) ( ) -un (unsure) -ous (victorious)
-s Plural -s Possessive -ed Past -ing Progressive g g -er Comparative -est Superlative
Word Coinage
Invention of totally new terms
Typical sources = invented trade names for commercial products E.g. kleenex, colgate
Can you suggest anymore trade name that has become household use?
Apart from the derivational process, how are new words formed?
Back-Formations
Created by removing an affix from an already existing word, as vacuum clean from vacuum cleaner, or by removing what is mistakenly thought to be an affix, as pea from the earlier English plural pease.
Borrowing
Taking over of words from other languages
Karaoke (Japanese) Tattoo (Tahitian) Yogurt (Turkish) Sarong (Malay)
Compounding
Joining of two separate words to form a single form
Bookcase Fingerprint Sunburn Wallpaper
Blending
Combining two separate forms to present a single new term
Joining the beginning of one word & joining it to the end of other word
Smog (smoke & fog) Motel (motor & hotel) Modem (modulator/demodulator)
Clipping
Reducing to a shorter form a word of more than one syllable
condominium (condo) public house (pub) fanatic (fan) Clipping of names
Conversion
Changing the word function (i.e. category change)
Sit on a chair Chair the meeting
In Summary
Morphemes
Bound
Affix Open Class (content/lexical) Inflectional
Free
Closed Class (function/grammatical)
Derivational
Word formation
Prefix Suffix Suffix
End of Unit 3