Morphology: The Words of Language

Ching-Fen Hsu

2013/9/24

Lecture 2

2013/9/24_2013/9/27

Introduction • Words: important part of linguistic knowledge &

constitute components of mental grammars

• Without words we are unable to convey thoughts through lg or understand others’ thoughts

• Without knowledge of lg, it’s impossible to tell how many words are in utterances

• Knowing a word = knowing a meaning & pronunciation in mental lexicon

• Sound-meaning relation is arbitrary, e.g., homophone (bear vs. bare; 新/心/欣/馨/薪/辛/芯), synonyms (sofa vs. couch; 拍手/鼓掌)

Mental Lexicon • Mental dictionary lists unique phonological

representation, including spelling or

orthography, parts of speech (grammatical

categories, syntactic class)

• We can form grammatical S & distinguish

ill-formed S from well-formed S

Content Words & Function Words

• Content words: N (objects: children), V (actions: build), Adj (attributes: beautiful), Adv (ideas we think about: seldom)

• Open class words: new words are addable, e.g., facebook, blog, online

• Function words: specify grammatical relations & have little or no semantic content, including possession (prepositions: in, of), articles (definite: the, indefinite: a/an), conjunctions (and, or, but), pronouns (it, them)

• Closed class words: hard to add new words

Empirical Evidences • Brain-damaged patients & SLI have difficulty on

function words (in, which) rather than contents words (inn, witch)

• Slips of the tongue has been observed on content words but not function words, e.g., the journal of the editor => the editor of the journal

• Children omit function words in acquisition, e.g., doggie (is) barking

• Content words vs. function words play diff roles

• Content words bear meanings

• Function words connect content words into larger grammatical context

Morphemes • The minimal units of meaning or the most

elemental unit of grammatical form (morpho-/morph- means “form”)

• Morphology: study of internal structures of words & rules by which words are formed (morph- + -ology: branch of knowledge); refers to internal grammatical knowledge concerning word forms

• Un- means “not” (see examples on p.37)

• Phon- means “pertaining to sound” (p. 37)

ㄨph- or pho-

• Words have rule-governed internal structures

e.g., uneaten *eatenun “not eaten”

• Un- must be prefixed, not suffixed, as im-

Formation of Words • A single word may be composed of one or more

morphemes (see p. 38)

• A morpheme could be a single sound, atypical; a single syllable, childish; two syllables, lady; three syllables, crocodile; four syllables, helicopter

• Morpheme: arbitrary union of sound & meaning

• Morpheme: cannot be analyzed into smaller unit

• Linguistic sign: sound vs. meaning

Discreteness of Morphemes • Monomorphemic words: words represent a single

morpheme, finger (ㄨ fing + er)

• Meaning of morphemes are constant

• Identical form represents two morphemes (same form & diff meanings): singer, painter, worker, taller, nicer, prettier

• Two morphemes have same meaning but diff forms: singer, songster, youngster (monster!)

• Discreteness: decomposition of words into morphemes; fundamental properties of human lg; sounds=>morphemes=>words=>phrases=>S; diff from animal communication; important part of linguistic creativity, writable, (un)rewritable

Bound & Free Morphemes • Morphological knowledge = knowledge of

individual morphemes + knowledge of rules to combine them

• Free morpheme: morphemes that can stand alone, boy, desire, gentle, man

• Bound morpheme: morphemes attached to a base morpheme, -ish, -ness, -ly, pre-, un-, trans-

• Affixes: bound morphemes attach at the beginning, the end, in the middle, or both beginning & end

Prefixes & Suffixes • Prefix: affixes precede other morphemes, un-,

pre-, bi-

• Suffix: affixes follow other morphemes, -er, -ist,

-ing, -ly

• Languages differ in how they deploy affixation,

e.g., English plural form: -s, -es (suffix); Isthmus

Zapotec in Maxico: ka- (prefix) (p. 40)

• Languages differ in what meanings they

express through affixation, e.g., verb-to-noun in

English (dance); suffix –ak in Turkish (p. 40);

each other in English, -sh in Turkish (p. 40)p.41

Infixes & Circumfixes • Infixes: morphemes insert into other

morphemes, e.g., Bontoc in Philippines, -um

inserted after 1st consonant (p. 41)

• Circumfixes (discontinuous morphemes):

morphemes are attached to a base morpheme

initially & finally, e.g., Chickasaw in Oklahoma,

ik- + -o to indicate a negative morpheme (p. 42);

German, ge- + -t to mean past participle of

verbs, lieb ‘love’ => geliebt ‘loved’ or ‘beloved’

Roots & Stems • Morphological complex words = root + affix(es)

• Root: may or may not stand alone as a word,

(1) painter, reread, conceive, linguist

(2) the form around which circumfix attaches, ikchokmo

(3) the form into which infix is inserted, fumikas ‘to be strong’

• Hebrew & Arabic vary patterns of vowels & syllables on nouns & verbs, e.g., infixing vowels in ktb ‘write’ (p. 42)

• Stem = root + affix (p. 42)

• Base = any root or stem to which an affix is attached, system, systematic, unsystematic, unsystematical vs. unsystematically

Bound Roots • Do not occur in isolation

• Acquire meaning only in combination with other morphemes, receive, perceive, deceive, conceive; permit, submit, admit, transmit

• For English speakers, Latinate morphemes have no independent meaning

• Their meaning depends on entire words in which they occur

• Prefix + bound root morpheme: nonplussed, discern

• Bound morphemes convey meaning only in combination, huckleberry (small, round, purplish blue), lukewarm (somewhat)

Rules of Word Formation • Pure + ify = purify

• Simple + ify = simplify

• False + ify = falsify

• Adjective + ify = Verb

‘to make adjective”

• Purify + cation = purification

• Simplify + cation = simplification

• Falsify + cation = falsification

• Verb +cation = Noun

‘the process of making adjective”

• How about ugly?

• Ugly + ify = uglify?

• Uglify + cation = uglification?

• Morphological rules of English in combining words

Exercise 4: P. 67 Write the one proper description

from the list under B for the

italicized part of each world in A

Derivational Morphology • When bound morphemes are attached to a base, a

new word with a new meaning is derived

e.g., pure + ify = purify ‘to make pure’

purify + cation = purification ‘the process of making pure’

• In mental lexicon, derivational morphemes & rules determine how we add to roots or stems

• Derived words: forms resulted from addition of derivational morphemes, pouzy + ify = pouzify + cation = pouzification (static electricity on hair)

• Derivational morphemes have clear semantic contents & may result in different grammatical classes

Derivational Affixes • Desire + able = desirable (V to A)

• Dark + en = darken (A to V)

• Sweet + ie = sweetie (A to N) (p. 45)

• Application of morphological rules may be blocked

when a new word enters lexicon, e.g., communist

ㄨcommuian (grammarian) or communite

(Trotskyite); Chomskyan, Chomskyist, Chomskyite

(followers of Chomsky’s views of linguistics);

semanticist, semanticianㄨsemantite

• Two classes of derivational affixes: (1) trigger

sound change in pronunciation (-ity, -ive, -ize), (2)

without affecting pronunciation (-ness, -er) p. 46

Inflectional Morphology • Bound morphemes for grammatical function,

e.g., tense, person, number

• Never change grammatical category of stems to which they are attached, e.g., sail, sails, sailed, has sailed (require syntactic rules), is sailing

• Inflectional morphemes does not add lexical meaning; closely connected to syntax & semantics of S

• Eight bound inflectional affixes in Modern English (p. 47)

• Derivational morpheme + inflectional morpheme, commit + ment + s

Inflectional Morphemes • Apply freely to every appropriate base, very

productive, plural –s (unlike derivational

morphemes, idolize *picturize

• English has relatively little inflectional

morphology vs. Swahili in eastern Africa,

European lgs, Romans lgs from Latin (p. 47)

• Case morphology: grammatical relation of

nouns (case of nouns), Russian has rich

system of inflectional suffixes for grammatical

relations of nouns (p. 48)

Rich Inflectional Processes

• German circumfixes: geliebt, ‘loved’ ‘beloved’

• Arabic infixes: kitáab ‘book’, kútub ‘books’

• Samoan reduplication: savali ‘he travels’,

savavali, ‘they travel’

• Malay reduplication: orang, ‘person’,

orangorang ‘people’

• Finnish have extraordinarily complex case

morphology; Chinese lack it entirely

• Distinctions bet inflectional vs. derivational(p.48)

Exercise 2: P. 66 Divide the following words by

placing a + between their

morphemes

Hierarchical Structure of Words

• Morphemes added in fixed orders reflect hierarchical organization of words

• Hierarchical structure is essential property of human lg

• Words & Ss relate to each other in specific & rule-governed ways

• Words have internal structures but not simple sequences

• Representations in tree diagrams, e.g., unsystematic (p. 49) + morphological rules

• -atic is closer than un- to system,ㄨunsystem

Morphological Rules • Adjective + al = adjective (p. 50)

egotistical + al = egotistical

fantastical + al = fantastical

astronomic + astronomical

• Adjective + ly = adverb

happy + ly = happily

lazy + ly = lazily

hopeful + ly = hopefully

unsystematically (p. 50)

• Un- + noun = adjective (p . 51) unemployment, unacceptance, *uncola!

• Part of linguistic

competence

includes ability to

recognize possible

vs. impossible words

Tree Diagrams • Make explicit way that speakers represent

internal structure of morphologically complex

words in lgs

• Tree diagrams show that mental representation

of words is hierarchical & linear

• Inflectional morphemes are equally well

represented, refinalizes (p. 51)

• Ambiguous words show two clear hierarchical

structures based on meanings, unlockable (p.

51, 52), i.e., structure is important to

determining meaning

Rule Productivity I • Some morphological rules are productive, e.g.,

verb + able = ‘able to be’, acceptable, laughable, passable, changeable, breathable, adaptable, downloadable, faxable

• Un- derives opposite meaning, unafraid, unfit, un-American

• un-Rule is productive for adjectives derived from verbs, unbelievable, unpickupable, unsimplified, unauthorized, undistinguished

• Most un- words have polysyllabic bases, unfit, uncool, unread, unclean, unhappy, uncrowdly; most unacceptable un-forms are monosyllabic stems, *unsad, *ungreat, *unred

Rule Productivity II • Verb + -er = ‘one who does’, examiner, analyzer,

hunter; comparative –er ‘more’, greedier, nicer, prettier, more beautiful

• Other productivity rules: sincere + ity = sincerity, curious + ity = curiosity; warm + th = warmth, wide + th = width; moist + en = moisten, ripe + en = ripen

• Meanings can be predicted by attached prefixes, unhappy ‘not happy’, acceptable ‘fit to be accepted’; some are unpredictable (p. 53)

• Unpredictable words are listed individually in the mental lexicon

Exceptions & Suppletions • Children learn regular rules first, plural rule, past

tense rule

• Irregular rules (suppletions) are learned later, child

(children), man (men), foot (feet), mouse (mice),

go (went), sing (sang), bring (brought), run (run),

know (knew)

• Children’s speech errors in acquisition evidenced

existence of regular rules, goed, mans

• Suppletive forms are treated separately in

grammar, went, worse

• Regular forms + rules are listed in mental lexicon,

walked, taller

Zero Phonological Shape • Hit + past tense = hit, Yesterday you hit the ball

• Sheep + plural form = sheep, The sheep are in the meadow

• Derived verbs from nouns apply regular rules, ring (encircle), The police ringed the bank with armed menㄨrang; flied out (from fly ball),ㄨflew out

• Nouns lose meanings in compounds, flatfoot ‘cop’, flatfoots,ㄨflatfeet

• Mothers-in-law, mother-in-law’s; courts-martial, attorneys-general (legal setting)/ attorney-generals (popular call); rightmost acts, footman, footmen,

ㄨfeetman, feetmen, footmans

Lexical Gaps • Accidental caps = well-formed non-existing

words

• Words are not presented but could be added in lexicon with permissible sound sequence, *blick, *slarm, *krobe

• Phonotactic constraints should be considered, *bnick for impossible English initials

• Mental grammar with morphological components make us create & understand new words & recognize possible & impossible words, *magnificenter, more magnificent; *disobvious, nonobvious

Back-Formations • New words enter lg because of incorrect

morphological analyses, peddler => peddle

(p.56)

• Delibrately miscast back-formations, bikini (two)

from Marshall islands => monokini (one,

topless), tankini (tank top); martini (wine) =>

appletini, chocotini, mintini; action => act,

revision = > revise, television => televise,

resurrection => resurrect

• Lgs can be adaptable & changeable but not

corrupted

Compounds • Flexible combinations in English (p. 57)

• When two words in same grammatical category, compound will be in this category

noun + noun = noun, boyfriend, mailman

adj. + adj. = adj., icy-cold, red-hot, wordly-wise

• Compound head: the part of a word or phrase that determines grammatical category of compounds

noun + adj. = adj., headstrong

verb + noun = noun, pickpocket

• Prepositions can be in compounds, overtake, sundown

• No compounding limit, four-dimensional space-time (p.58)

• Compounds have internal structures, tophatrack (p. 58)

Meaning of Compounds • Is not always sum of its parts, blackboard (green?

white?), Redcoat (English soldiers? red coat)

• Jumping beans, falling star, magnifying glass, but

how about looking glass? eating apple?

• Peanut oil, olive oil, how about baby oil?

• Horse meat (meat from horses), dog meat (meat

for dogs)

• Opaque compounds are unrelated to meanings of

parts, jack-in-a-box, turncoat, highbrow, bigwig,

egghead, flatfoot

• Stressed the first syllables of compounds

Universality of Compounding

• Common & frequent process enlarging

vocabulary of all lgs, French, German, Russian,

Spanish, Native American lg Tohono, Twi (p.

59), Thai (p. 60)

• Pullet Surprises? Pulitzer Prizes?

• Errors reveal knowledge of morphology

longevity, ‘being very tall’

homogeneous, ‘devoted to home life’

Exercise 3: P. 67 Match each expression under

A with the one statement

under B that characterizes it

Morphological Analysis

• Case study 1: English (p. 61)

• Case study 2: Paku (p. 62)

• Case study 3: Michoacan Aztec (p. 63)

• Case study 4: Slavic examples (p. 63)

Exercise 5: P. 67 Part One + Part Two

Question?

Homework Hand-in next week