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Unit 3: Morphology (Analysis of Words)

KMK 1133 Introduction to Linguistics Analysis

What does it mean to KNOW a language?

Recap: Knowing a Language (Linguistic Knowledge)

Have the capacity to produce sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand and interpret sounds produced by others Can speak and be understood by others who know that languageg g

Knowledge of the sound system

Knowledge of words

Creativity of linguistic knowledge Knowledge of sentences & non-sentences

UNCONCIOUS KNOWLEDGE

So what does it mean to know a language?

Knowing a language means knowing the sounds, the words, and the rules for their

combination to express & understand intended

Phonetics & Phonology

Morphology

pmeaning

Syntax SemanticPragmatic

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 sequence of sound is associated with a particular q pmeaning

yAble to segment stream of sounds into individual words: How may words are there in this utterance?

ThefirstassignmentisdueverysoonsoIhopethatyouhavepreparedeverythingthatisrequired )

More on Words

Each word is a sound-meaning unitEach 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

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More on Words

Content Words Function WordsWords that denote concepts (Lexical)

Objects (nouns)Actions (verbs/adverbs)

Words which specify grammatical relations & have little or no semantic content

Attributes (adjectives)Ideas (nouns)

Open classCan add new words to the above classes May change category

(e.g. Google, google)

ConjunctionsPrepositionsArticlesPronouns

Closed classNo addition of new wordsEstimated only 300 words

Are there other examples of ‘new’ words in your first language?

Function Words (Closed Class)

Types Examples

Determiners articles the, a/an, some, lots of, few Auxiliary can, could, shall, should, may, might, must N iNegation no, not Intensifier very, too

Connectors and, or, but (connect two independent clauses) Relations subordinate conjunction while

Preposition in, of Pronouns I, me, mine, he, she, and so on

Recap: Brain & Language

Broca’s Aphasia = Agrammatic AphasiaFrequently lacks articles, prepositions, pronouns & auxiliary verbs (Function Words)Omit inflections (past tense suffix ‘ed’ or third person singular ending ‘s’)ending s )

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: Minimal Units of Meaning?

Smallest unit of linguistic meaning or function (i.e. a unit of meaning)

Morphemes?Most elemental unit of grammatical form (sound-meaning unit)

One morphemeBoy

Words are made up of morphemes

Simple words consistyTwo morphemes

BoyishThree morphemes

BoyishnessFour morphemes

GentlemanlinessMore than four morphemes

Ungentlemanliness

Simple words consist of a single morpheme

Complex words consist of more than one morpheme

(each contributes some meaning to the overall word)

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Reflection Can you identify ALL the morphemes in the following English sentence?

The musicians reconsidered their director’s unusual proposalThe (Grammatical morpheme - definite)

music (root) -ian (indicates person whose works s (plural marker)related to meaning of root)

consider (root) Re (meaning = again) ed (past tense marker)

their (Grammatical morpheme – possession of following noun – plural 3rd person )

direct (root) - or (denotes someone performing action of the verb)

s (possession)

usual (root) un (meaning = not)

propose (root) al (turning root verb into a noun)

More on Words

Content Words Function WordsWords that denote concepts (Lexical)

Objects (nouns)Actions (verbs/adverbs)

Words which specify grammatical relations & have little or no semantic content

Attributes (adjectives)Ideas (nouns)

Open classCan add new words to the above classes May change category

(e.g. Google, google)

ConjunctionsPrepositionsArticlesPronouns

Closed classNo addition of new wordsEstimated only 300 words

Morphemes?Minimal linguistic unit – arbitraryunion of a sound and a meaning that cannot be further analyzedThe decomposition of words into morphemes illustrates a fundamental

f h lproperty of human language –discreteness

box boxes

Inflectional morpheme

Morpheme – Word - MorphologyWords have internal structure, which is rule-governed

• 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

ableunuse usaableunMorphology

(part of our grammatical knowledge of a language)

Morphological Knowledge

Knowledge of the individual morphemes

UnThinkAble

Knowledge of the rules that combine them into complex words

UnablethinkThinkunableAble

Their pronunciationTheir meaningFree (stand alone) or Bound (must be attached to a base morpheme)

AblethinkunUnthinkable

Free & Bound Morphemes?A single morpheme that constitutes a word May constitute words by themselves

Child, Slow, Judge

Morphemes that must be attached to other morphemes (part of word)

AffixationPrefixes (precedes/before)

And, at, betweenNo attachment

Suffixes (follow after)Infixes (inserted) Circumfixes (begin & end)Morphemes – minimal linguistic

signs in ALL languages; however deployment varies from one

language to another

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Free & Bound Morphemes?

Lexical content morpheme that cannot be analyzed

into smaller parts

DerivationalMorphemes

Inflectional Morphemes

Morphemes added to base which lead to derivation of new

words with new meaning –derived word Morphemes that have strictly

grammatical functions, marking properties – tense,

number, gender, etc

Derivational Morphemes

Prefixes (Bound Morphemes)Prefix Mainly added to Usual meaning Examples

e nouns Electronic, Internet e-book, emailen nouns

adjectiveput in make

endanger, encircleenrich, enable

ill past participles badly ill-advised, ill-expressedp

uni adjective noun

one unilateral, unicycle

over adjectiveverb

too much overconfidentovereat

ultra adjectivenoun

extremebeyond

ultramodernultrasoundultraman

Suffixes (Bound Morphemes)Suffix

(form nouns)Mainly added to Usual meaning Examples

- ess nouns female lioness, waitress, -ology nouns study of sociology, Suffix

(form adjective)Mainly added to Usual meaning Examples

bl b b (d ) h bl-able verb can be (done) washable-ful noun full of useful

Suffix (form adverb)

Mainly added to Usual meaning Examples

- ly adjective in an (adjective) way slowlySuffix

(form verb)Mainly added to Usual meaning Examples

-ate noun causative orchestrate-en adjective make, become ripen, harden

Infixes & Circumfixes (Bound Morphemes) Morphemes that are insertedinto other morphemes

Fikas(strong)

Fumikas(to be strong)

• Morphemes that are attachedto a base morpheme both initially & finallychokma

(he is good)

ikchokmo(he isn’t good)

Kilad(red)

Kumilad(to be red)

Fusul(enemy)

Fumisul(to be an enemy)

good)

palli(it is hot)

ikpallo(it isn’t hot)

lakna(it is

yellow)

iklakno(it isn’t yellow)

The Bontoc Language from the Philippines The Muskogean Language

From Chickasaw, Oklahoma

Roots & Stems (morphologically complex word – root +1≤ affixes)

Root – a lexical content morpheme that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts

E.g. paint, read, ling, ceive Core element of meaning (free morpheme)

Stem – formed/derived when a root morpheme (or stem) is combined with an affix

E.g. paint + er = painterAddition of each new affix –form a new stem & a new wordmorpheme) form a new stem & a new word

E.g. foolishness

a morphological family of words derived from the root port.

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Roots & Stems

Root believe Verb

Stem Believe + able Verb + suffixWord Un+ believe + able Prefix + verb + suffix

Root System noun

Stem system + atic Noun + suffixStem Un + system+ atic Prefix + noun+ suffixStem Un+ system +atic + al Prefix + noun+ suffix +

suffixWord Un+ system +atic + al + ly Prefix + noun+ suffix +

suffix+ suffix

Rules of Word Formation

Derivational Morphology

A new word with a new meaning is derived when bound morpheme (s) are added to the base

Suffix (form adjective)

Mainly added to Usual meaning Examples

-able Verb (wash) can be (done) washable( ) ( )Suffix

(form adverb)Mainly added to Usual meaning Examples

- ly Adjective (slow) in an (adjective) way slowlySuffix

(form verb)Mainly added to Usual meaning Examples

-ate Noun (orchestra) causative orchestrate

Derived words

Hierarchical Structure of WordsTree Diagram – to represent hierarchical organization of words

The adding of morphemes (bound) must be done according to a fixed order

Morphological Rules

Derivational MorphologyDerivational morphemes makes new words from old ones (Crystal, p. 90.) Creates new words from existing ones, often with a change in meaning

Inflectional MorphemesInflectional 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 inflectionalmatter of grammar and thus the business of inflectional morphology. (Crystal, p. 90.)

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Inflectional Morphology

Morphology that interacts with syntax (sentence structure) Some examples are:

person number gendergender case tense aspect

peanuts

Grammatical properties

Never change the syntactic categories of the words or morphemes to which

they are attached to

Person & NumberGrammatical features distinguishing entities referred to in an utterance

First person, second person, third personSubject-verb agreementSingular, plural

Case, Tense, AspectRoles of participants in an event

Subject, object, indirect objectLocating an event in time relative to moment of speaking

Present, pastTemporal characteristic of event

Progressive, perfect (completed)

Recap: Derivational & Inflectional

-ation (organization)-al (facial)-ize (memorize)-ic (alcoholic)

-s Plural-s Possessive-ed Past-ing Progressive( )

-un (unsure)-ous (victorious)

g g-er Comparative-est Superlative

Apart from the derivational process, how are new words formed?

Word CoinageInvention of totally new terms

Typical sources = invented trade names for commercial productsE.g. kleenex, colgate

Can you suggest anymore trade name that has become household use?

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Words from Names (Proper Names)Eponyms = words derived based on the name of real, fictional, mythical person, character or place

Sandwich (Earl of Sandwich)Jeans (from the Italian city, Genoa) Braille (Loius Braille – French teacher, mathematician)Fahrenheit (German scientists)

Back-FormationsCreated 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.

BorrowingTaking over of words from other languages

Karaoke (Japanese)Tattoo (Tahitian)Yogurt (Turkish)Sarong (Malay)

CompoundingJoining of two separate words to form a single form

BookcaseFingerprintSunburnWallpaper

BlendingCombining 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)Modem (modulator/demodulator)

ClippingReducing to a shorter form a word of more than one syllable

condominium (condo)public house (pub)fanatic (fan)Clipping of names

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ConversionChanging the word function (i.e. category change)

Sit on a chairChair the meeting

In Summary

Morphemes

Bound Free

Affix

Derivational

Prefix Suffix

Inflectional

Suffix

Open Class(content/lexical)

Closed Class(function/grammatical)

Word formation

End of Unit 3