Introduction to LinguisticsChapter 3: Morphology

Instructor: LIU Hongyong

Review: Phonology vs. Phonetics

Both Phonetics and phonology can be generally described as the study of human speech sounds.

Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced, what their physical properties are, and how they are interpreted by hearers.

Phonology is the study investigating the organization of speech sounds in a particular language.

True or false: Allophones never appear in minimal pairs.

Assignment 2: Phonetics & Phonology(Due date: Oct. 30, 2009)

1. P.31 Exercise 6

2. P.32 Exercise 7

3. Follow the flowchart (p.91), and do the required phonological analyses.

a. Sindhi

b. English

Morphology ( 形态学 )

Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words （词的内部结

构） (morphological structure of words)

& processes/rules of word formation （构词法） (morphological processes of word-formation)

Internal structure of words and rules for word formation

1. Internal structure

disapprove = dis + approve

2. Rules for word formation

disapprove *approvedis

dis+V--> V *V+dis-->V

Classification of words:Open class and closed class

1. Open class words: or content words, to which new words can be regularly added

Nouns, verbs, adjectives , adverbs

2. Closed class words: or “grammatical” or “functional”words, to which new words are not usually added

Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns

Definition

Morphology: the study of the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed.

Morpheme ( 语素） The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of

language. (lexical and grammatical meaning) A morpheme must have a meaning, and it is the

smallest unit of meaning (the smallest sound-meaning union which cannot be further analyzed into smaller units)

Morpheme vs. Phoneme

A phoneme is a phonological unit (normally a sound) with contrastive value, which means replacing one sound with the other in a word can change the word's meaning.

但是 phoneme 本身不具有意义。pit: [p] [i] [t]

bit: [b] [i] [t]

/p/与 /b/是不同的两个 phoneme，因为如果将 pit中的 /p/换成 /b/，那么 pit就变成了 bit，词的意义发生了根本性的改变。但是这并不是说 /p/或者 /b/具有意义。

Morpheme vs. Syllable

The word lady can be divided into two syllables (la.dy), but it consists of just one morpheme, because a syllable has nothing to do with meaning.

The word disagreeable can be divided into five syllables (dis.a.gree.a.ble), but it consists of only three morphemes (dis+agree+able).

The word books contains only one syllable, but it consists of two morphemes (book+s) (Notice: the morpheme –s has a grammatical meaning [Plural])

The internal structure of words

Words can have an internal structure, i.e. they are decomposable into smaller meaningful parts. These smallest meaningful units we call morphemes.

read+er re+read en+able dark+en

Mary+’s print+ed cat+s go+es

Lexical or Grammatical

Genitive casePast tense Plural marker 3rd singular

Present-tense

grammatical/inflectional morpheme

books /-s/pigs /-z/boxes /-iz/

A morph is a physical form representing a certain morpheme in a language.

Sometimes different morphs may represent the same morpheme; i.e., a morpheme may take different forms. If so, they are called allomorphs of that morpheme.

Morpheme, Morph, Allomorph

two different spelling forms ， and three different phonological forms, but these different forms represent the same grammatical meaning [Plural])

Complementary Distribution Allomorphs are morphs in complementary distributioncomplementary distribution; i.e. they they

are never found in identical contexts.are never found in identical contexts. The choice of allomorph used in a given context is normally

based on the properties of the neighboring sounds.

Example: The third person singular verb suffix and the plural nominal suffix –s in English

[s][s] [z][z] [iz][iz]

morpheme

morphmorphmorph

allomorphsallomorphs PLURALPLURAL

Complementary Distribution

morpheme

negative morpheme in-

morph1: im morph2: in morph3: in

impossible indecent incomplete

[imp---] [ind---] [iŋk---]

bbilabialilabialstopstop

vvelarelarnasalnasal

alveolaralveolarstopstop

allomorphsallomorphs

bbilabialilabialnasalnasal

alveolaralveolarstopstop

vvelarelarstopstop

Classification of Morphemes

Morphemes can be classified in various ways.

free or bound

root or affix

inflectional or derivational

Free and Bound Morphemes

We can divide reader into read and –er. However, we cannot split read into smaller morphemes. This means that the word read is itself a single morpheme.

A morpheme which can stand alone as a word is called a free morpheme. By contrast, -er has to combine with other morphemes. So it is a bound morpheme.

Root, stem & affix

naturenatural naturalist

naturalistic

naturalism

unnatural

Stem: a root plus affixes

Affixes: bound morphemes which attach to roots or stems.

Root: the basic morpheme which provides the central meaning in a word

simple word

Complex Word

nature + al = natural

un + nature + al = unnatural

Base

Linguists sometimes use the word “Base” to mean any root or stem to which an affix is attached. In this example, nature, natural, and unnaturally would all be considered bases.

nature + al = natural

un + nature + al = unnatural

un + nature + al + ly = unnaturally

Root/base affix

Stem/base

complex word

Stem/base

affix

..

..

..

..

nature -al -ist

affix

bound root morphemes

-ceive: receive; perceive; conceive; deceive

-mit: permit; commit; transmit; admit; remit; submit

All mophemes are bound or free. Affixes are bound morphemes. Root morphemes, can be bound or free.

Free Bound

Root dog, cat, run, school…

(per)ceive, (re)mit, (homo)geneous,…

Affix (friend)ship, re(do), (sad)ly…

ceive was once a word in Latin ‘to take’, but in Modern English, it is no longer a word, so it is not a free morpheme.

Example of bound root

revive

vitamin

vital

vivacious

vivid viv-id: having the quality of life

re-vive: to live again, to bring back to life

vit-amin: life medicine

Latin root viv-/vit- meaning “life” or “to live”.

vit-al: full of life

viv-acious: full of life

Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes

Affixes can be divided into inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes. This reflects two major morphological (word building) processes:

DerivationDerivationInflectionInflection

Helps to make new lexical words

Helps to ‘wrap’ lexical words for various

grammatical functions

Inflectional Morphemes

Inflectional morphemes do not change grammatical category of the base to which they are attached. They do not change the meaning of the base. They only carry relevant grammatical information, e.g. plural. Thus, book and books are both nouns referring to the same kind of entity.

The number of inflectional affixes is small and fixed. NO new ones have been added since 1500.

Examples of Inflectional Affixes

Suffix Stem Function Example

-s N plural book-s

-s V 3rd singular

present tense

sleep-s

-ed V past tense walk-ed

-ing V progressive walk-ing

-er Adj comparative tall-er

-est Adj superlative tall-est

Derivational Morphemes

Derivational morphemes form new words either by changing the meaning of the base to which they

are attached

kind ~ unkind; obey ~ disobey

accurate ~ inaccurate; act ~ react

cigar ~ cigarette; book ~ booklet or by changing the grammatical category (part of speech) of

the base

kind ~ kindly; act ~ active ~ activity

able ~ enable; damp ~ dampen

care ~ careful; dark ~ darkness

Examples of Derivational Affixes

Prefix Grammatical category of base

Grammatical category of output

Example

in- Adj Adj inaccurate

un- Adj Adj unkind

un- V V untie

dis- V V dis-like

dis- Adj Adj dishonest

re- V V rewrite

ex- N N ex-wife

en- N V encourage

Suffix Grammatical category of base

Grammatical category of output

Example

-hood N N child-hood

-ship N N leader-ship

-fy N V beauti-fy

-ic N Adj poet-ic

-less N Adj power-less

-ful N Adj care-ful

-al V N refus-al

-er V N read-er

Sum: Inflection and Derivation

Derivational morphemes are used to create new lexical items (lexemes).

Inflectional morphemes only contribute to the inflectional paradigm of the lexemes, which lists all the word-forms of the lexeme.

morpheme

Free

( 自由 )

free root ( 自由词根 )

Bound

( 粘着 )

bound root ( 粘着词根 )

inflectional affixes ( 语法性后缀 )

derivational affixes ( 词汇性后缀 )

affixes

Summary Words are composed of morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit. Morphemes can be classified into free morphemes an

d bound morphemes, roots and affixes, inflectional and derivational.

The concept of morpheme is important in explaining word-formation processes. In English the most central and productive word-formation processes are compounding and affixation. Compounding refers to the word-formation process of combining two free morphemes, and affixation refers to the word-formation process of adding affixes to roots.

Internal structure of a word

The internal structure of a word is hierarchical rather than flat.

unbelievable un+believe+able

*[[un+believe] +able]

[un + [believe +able]]

Morphological Complexity

regionalize: region+al+ize

[[[region] al] ize]

regionalizeV

regionalA izeV

regionN alA

This tree shows the internal morphological structure of the word

Morphological Complexity

reunification

reunificationN

reunifyV ationN

re unifyV

This tree represents the application of two morphological rules:

1. re+VV2. V+ationN

Word structure: which is correct?

Prefix un- can mean ‘to do the reverse of’ and combine with a verb to form a new verb.

unloadableA

unloadV ableA

un loadV

unloadableA

un loadableA

loadV ableA

1. un+VV

2. V+ableA

1. V+ableA

2. un+AA

Major word-formation processes

Affixation (Derivation) Compounding

Endocentric compounds Exocentric compounds

Affixation

Affixation involves adding affixes to a root morpheme (or a stem) to- derive a new word

(derivation: teach-er)- to realize certain grammatical function

(inflection: boy-s)

An affix is a bound morpheme. There are four types of affixes: prefix, suffix, infix, and circumfix.

Prefix

Language Prefix

Mandarin 老友 , 老師 , 老兄可怕 , 可喜，可愛

Cantonese 阿嫲，阿 Dean, 阿 Sir

細佬，細妹鬼婆，鬼佬

English re-name, in-correct

un-tidy, co-author

Suffix Language Suffix

Mandarin 桌子石頭花兒

Cantonese 我哋碗仔香港仔

English kindly

test-ed

Jingpo ( 景颇语 ) ning31-shi31 “small knife”

knife-suffix

Nuosu Yi ( 诺苏彝语 )

si21-du33: knowledge

mu33-du33: task

Infix

Language Infix

Mandarin 吃得飽吃不完

Cantonese 邊鬼度擔咩心好咩鬼鷄

English im-frigging-possible

Jingpo mu33-mi33-mu33 “all the delicious food”

Nuosu Yi no21-a21-bo21 “not working”

Circumfix

In some cases, a prefix and a suffix act together to surround a base. The two realize a single morpheme, and they are classed together as a circumfix.

Data from German

film.en ‘to film’ ge.film.t ‘filmed’frag.en ‘to ask’ ge.frag.t ‘asked’ The circumfix ge…t is taken to be a single affix, and it is a

discontinuous morph.

Inflection and Derivation

If derivation and inflection co-occurs, derivations are inner, closer to the stem, and inflections are outer, furthest from the stem.

Example Base +Derivation +Inflection

frightened fright -en -ed

activating act -ate -ing

payments pay -ment -s

resignations resign -ation -s

pays-mentpayment-s

Review: Word structure of derived Review: Word structure of derived words words Affixation is orderedhappinesshappiness

happy -ness

A Aff

happiness

NThe suffix determines grammatical category of the newly derivedword. So it serves as head of the word.

(N)

[[[[ ]] ]]

unhappinessunhappiness

Aff A

un-happy

A

un- happy -ness

N

N

It selects an adjective word. It does not change the grammatical category of the root.

head of the newly derived word

unhappiness

[ ][ ][ ]

** [ unun - [ [[ [ happy happy ] - nessness ]]]

happy -ness

A Aff (N)

N

un-

Aff

No relation can be established to form one structural unit (constituent). The affix “un-” selects an adjectival (A) root/base, but not a nominal (N) one.

[ ]* [ ]

Compounding

Compounding is a word-formation process consisting of combining two or more roots to form a compound .

airmail air force air-conditioner

flowerpot flower pot flower-pot

airline air line air-line

girlfriend girl friend girl-friend

Spelling is not a reliable criterion to determine the compound status.

Endocentric Compounds

Semantically, an endocentric compound indicates a sub-grouping within the class of entities that the head denotes. Thus, a schoolboy is a kind of boy,

a bedroom is a kind of room, and

a teapot is a kind of pot.

The first root in each case functions as a modifier of the head

which specifies the meaning of the head more precisely.

向心複合詞向心複合詞

HeadHead心心

Examples of Endocentric Compound

N N A N V N 　　　　　　　ＮＶ（＋ affix ）arm-chair high-court 　

　　　　　　　　　

swearword house-keeper 　　　　　　　

bookcase blackboard　　　　　　　　　

　　　　　　　　 baby-sitter 　　　　　　　　

motor-car 　　　　　　　　　 pencil sharpener 　　　　　　　　　

skyline 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

地板 白菜 飛船　　　　　　　飛機駕駛員毛筆 青天 抽屜　　　　　　　食品儲藏櫃火車站 大腦 插圖　　　　　　　服裝設計師

Exocentric Compounds

Compounds need not always contain a head. Such compounds are called exocentric compounds.

The meaning of an exocentric compound is opaque. It is impossible to work out what an exocentric compound means from the sum of the meanings of its parts.

異心複合詞異心複合詞

Examples of Exocentric Compounds (English)

Pickpocket: it is not a pocket, but a person who picks things out of other’s pocket illegally.

Blue collar: it is not a collar, but a person who wears blue-collared uniform at work.

Laptop: it is not the top of one’s lap, but rather the portable computer.

Blockhead: it is neither a kind of block nor a kind of head but rather an idiot.

Turncoat: it is not a kind of coat but a renegade.

Minor word-formation processes

Initialism and acronyms Clipping Blending Back formation Words from proper names Reduplication

Initialisms

Initialism is the making of a new word by using the first letters of words, and the new word is called an initialism.

When initialisms are pronounced with the names of the letters of the alphabet, they may be called alphabetisms.

When initialisms are pronounced like independent lexical items, they are called acronyms.

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

VIP very important person

CIA Central Intelligence Agency

ISBN International Standard Book Number

ROM read-only-memory

WTO World Trade Organization

BO body odor

VD venereal disease

MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SCNU South China Normal University

AI artificial intelligence

VOA Voice of America

UFO Unidentified flying object

IMF International monetary fund

laser lightwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation

AIDS Acquired immune deficiency syndrome

TEFL Teaching English as a foreign language

TSSL Teaching English as a second language

TOEFL Test of English as a foreign language

TESOL Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

SARS Severe acute respiratory syndrome

NATO North Altlantic Treaty Organization

UNESCO United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization

DINK dual income no kid

More examples of acronyms

Clipping

Clipping involves the type of word-formation device in which only part of the stem is retained. The beginning may be retained as in lab (from laboratory), the end as in phone (from telephone), the middle as in flu (from influenza).

More examples of Clipping

dorm (dormitory) photo (photograph)

demo (demonstration) memo (memorandum)

exam (examination) bus (omnibus)

fridge (refrigerator) maths (mathematics)

bike (bicycle) auto (automobile)

ad (advertisement) copter (helicopter)

gym (gymnasium) prof (professor)

Blending

A blend may be defined as a new lexeme built from parts of two (or more) words or a word plus a part of another word, for example, brunch (breakfast + lunch); smog (smoke + mog).

Words formed in this way are called ‘blends’. Blending = clipping + compounding.

More examples of blending

smoke + fog smog

Oxford + Cambridge Oxbridge

motor + hotel motel

slang + language slanguage

American + Indian Amerind

slim + gynmastics slimnastics

Back-formation

donate donation

edit editor

ept inept

daydream daydreamer

Which word is older? Which word do we have first?

Back-formation

Back-formation is the making of a new word from an older word which is mistakenly thought to be its derivative.

It involves the shortening of a longer word by cutting away an imagined/supposed derivational suffix.

editoredit edit + or edit

But how can I judge which is

right?

The word edit is often cited as an example of back-formation. In other words, edit is not the source of editor, as dive is not the source of diver, which is the expected derivational pattern; rather, the opposite is the case.

Edit in the sense “to prepare for publication,” first recorded in 1793, comes from editor, first recorded in 1712 in the sense “one who edits.”

Diachronic evidence ( 历时证据 ):

editor: first recoded in 1712

edit: first recoded in 1793, almost a hundred years later.

More examples of back-formation

peddle peddler televise television

baby-sit baby-sitter housekeep housekeeper

daydream daydreamer mass-produce mass-production

greed greedy ept inept

vaccum-clean

vaccum-cleaner eavesdrop eavesdropper

donate donation typewrite typewriter

Words from Proper Names

Another minor word-formation process is the creation of new words from proper names. The transition from proper names to common nouns is a gradual one.

Proper names People’s name Name of places Book names

A good example: sandwich

It originates from John Montagu (1718-92), Fourth Earl of Sandwich. He was so fond of gambling that he would not leave the gambling table to have a proper meal. He was said to eat while playing. Later,

people used his name to refer to all similar food.