What is Morphology?
Studies the structure of words and rules for forming words (word-formation rules)
cats (cat + s); rewording (re + word + ing) untrustworthiness (un+trust+worth+i+ness)
Two major areas:
inflectional morphology e.g (ask +s/ing/ed)
word-formation (derivational morphology (read + er) and compounding (horse + shoe)
Goals of Morphological Studies
Provide an elegant description of word structure
Capture significant generalizations concerning word structure in a language (not lists) e.g. a
general rule for plural or past tense formation
Psychologically real descriptions (those that match native speakers tacit morphological
knowledge
Develop a theory of morphology (part of linguistic theory universal grammar)
What is the basic unit of morphology?
The basic unit is the morpheme. A morpheme is the smallest (indivisible) unit with some
meaning or a grammatical function.
The morpheme s in toys or roads has a plural meaning (more than one)
The morpheme s in reads has a grammatical function (third person singular used in
agreement with a third person singular subject) (does it have meaning?)
What is a word?
A unit separated by spaces on a page (but problems with a language like Chinese)
A unit that is positionally mobile but internally stable
(1) a. John met Bill
b. Bill met John
(2) a. Un-charit-able
b. * charit-able-un/*able-charit-un
Word-Form & Lexeme
Difference between a word & a word-form
Are the following different words or different forms of a word?
go, goes, going, went, gone am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been
Lexeme (written in capital letters) to avoid the confusion that arises between the terms word
and word-form, we use the term Lexeme (which is equivalent to a dictionary entry); a
dictionary word is a Lexeme
cook, cooks, cooking & cooked are realisations of the lexeme COOK
go, goes, going, went and gone realise the lexeme GO
A Lexeme is a set of word-forms; an abstract concept
Identifying morphemes: criteria
Meaningfulness (a morpheme is the smallest unit with some meaning) or grammatical
function
un in un-kind = not; ness in happi-ness = state
Recurrence (a morpheme occurs in more than one word)
en in ox-en, childr-en, brethr-en; ing walk-ing, sing-ing, etc.
Interchangeability (a morpheme interchanges with other morphemes)
ed, ing, s are interchangeable (walk-s, walk-ing, walk-ed)
But cran-berry, rasp-berry, bil-berry (types of berries)
Allomorphy
A morpheme can be realized in more than one way (i.e. it can have different morphs)
A morph is a physical realization of a morpheme
A morpheme realized in different ways displays allomorphy (many morphs)
Allomorphy can be phonologically, grammatically or lexically conditioned
Allomorphy (Affixes)
English plural s
cats [s]; dogs [z]; horses [z]
Korean accusative case marker
ton money,
ton-ul money-acc
tali leg,
tali-lul leg-acc
Turkish possessive marker
dil language
dil-im my language
tuz salt
tuz-um my salt
Allomorphy (Roots)
Root allomorphy (2 realizations of a root)
English (change in vowel)
weep [i:] - wept [e]
sleep [i:] - slept [e]
German (change in consonant)
tage [g] days tag [k] day hunde [d] dog hund [t] dog
Allomorphy (Suppletive)
Morpheme realized by morphs that are not at all phonologically similar
Past participle ed/-en in English
take taken but walk walked
Human versus non-human plural in Persian an/ha
geda beggar geday-an beggars
gorbe cat
gorbe-ha cats
Weak & Strong Suppletive Allomorphy
Weak suppletive allomorphy (where some phonological similarity obtains)
buy bought; hold held
Strong suppletive allomorphy (where no phonological similarity obtains)
go went; good better; we us; French aller [ale] to go, vais I go
Allomorphy Conditioning
Phonologically conditioned allomorphy
English plural s cats, dogs & horses
Grammatically conditioned allomorphy
French aller [ale] infinitive; vais [ve] 1ps present and irai [ire] 1ps future
Lexically conditioned allomorphy
past participle ed or en (depends on individual items); plural ox-en/*oxes; sheep-
/*sheeps
Analysis of words
Roots & Affixes
Roots = free (lexical) morphemes (but not all roots are free e.g. dent in dent-al, -ceive in receive)
Affixes = bound (grammatical) morphemes
Affixes can be
- Prefixes (if they precede the root) e.g. re-count
- Suffixes (if they follow the root) e.g. glob-al
- infixes (if they occur inside a root) e.g. kanga-bloody-roo
- Circumfixes (if they precede and follow the root)
Root, Base & Stem
A form without an affix = root
A form with an affix = base
A form with an inflectional affix = stem
e.g. read (root) reader (read is a root & a base) readers (read is a root and a base;
reader is a stem)
Inflectional Affixes
provide grammatical information (-ed means past tense) and is syntactically determined
give different forms of a word (goes is a different form of the word go)
do not alter the class/category of a word
are productive (the plural -s on nouns)
are semantically predictable (the plural -s on nouns means more than one)
cannot co-occur (*goesing)
occupy peripheral position (*readser)
are only suffixes (*ingwalk)
form a small and closed set (see list above)
Derivational Affixes
provide semantic information (un- means not, re- means 'again)
give different words with different meanings
can alter the class of a word (happy (A) + -ness happiness (N))
are only partially productive (-dom with king-, earl- but not *queendom or
*barondom)
are not semantically predictable (cf. '-age in vicarage, orphanage and coinage)
can occupy non-peripheral position (writers, politicians) can co-occur (govern+ment+al',
direct + ion + al)
can be prefixes or suffixes (dis+respect, respect+ful)
form a large and potentially open set (see list )
Meaning of prefixes
Position
Category
Meaning
Prefix
un-/in-/dis-
+A
not
un-/dis-
+V
reversive
dis-
+V
not
re-
+V
again
en-
+N
put in
Meaning of derivational suffixes
Position
Category
Meaning
Suffix
- hood
+N
status/state
- ship
+N
state/condition
- ness
+A
quality/state/condition
- ity
+N
state/condition
- ment
+V
result of carrying out action denoted by V
- less
+N
without
- ful
+N
having
- ic/-al
+N
pertaining to
- al
+V
pertaining to
- er
+V
agent
- ly
+A
manner
Summary
Morphology is the study of words and word structures
The basic unit of morphology is the morpheme
Morphemes can be free or bound
Morphemes can occupy different positions in relation to a root
Bound morphemes (affixes) are inflectional or derivational
Morpheme & Morph
A morpheme is the smallest unit with some meaning or grammatical function
A morph is a realisation of a morpheme
A morpheme can be realised by more than one morph (allomorphy)
Allomorphy can be phonologically, grammatically and lexically conditioned
Allomorphy
Phonologically-conditioned allomorphy
Plural s in English in cats (s), dogs (z) and horses (is)
Accusative marker in Korean ul/-lul
Grammatically-conditioned allomorphy
definite and indefinite article in French
le soleil (the sun), la lune (the moon) and un chapeau(a hat), une chemise (a shirt)
Lexically-conditioned allomorphy
plural of infant infants (with s plural), child children (en plural), and sheep (zero
morpheme plural)
Plural in Persian -an for human nouns, -ha for nonhuman nouns e.g geda
geday-an (beggar); gorbe gorbe-ha (cat)
Structure of words
Words, like sentences, have internal structures if they are bimorphemic or multimorphemic
Note that in each case the affix determines the word class. Affix=head?
Head of a word
A word has a head just as a phrase.
A phrase like the little girl is a NP because its head is the noun girl
The affix -er in teacher function as the head of the word teacher because it determines the
class/category of the word.
How morphemes are combined
In multimorphemic words like uneventful or denationalisation, the
constituent morphemes are said to combine according to certain rules.
Word-formation processes
Two word-formation processes operate in English (and other languages)
Derivation
A derivational affix yields a new word when affixed to a root e.g. book ish ->
bookish
Compounding
Two or more free morphemes combine to yield a new word e.g. book + shop ->
bookshop; black + mail -> blackmail; house + hunt -> househunt
Compounds & Spelling
Compounds spelt as separate words E.g. take away, fun fair, pen knife
Compounds spelt as single words E.g. blackboard, textbook, cheeseplant
Compounds spelt as hyphenated words E.g. stir-fry, post-war, short-sighted
Tests for Wordhood
a green house versus a greenhouse
(a) Integrity- one of the elements cannot modified in isolation.
a greener house not *a greenerhouse
(b) Whole compound modification- the whole compound can has to be modified.
expensive tea set not *tea expensive set (impossible to reach inside compound)
(c) Stress- falls on different part in the word.
a green house but a greenhouse
(d) Spelling- if its one word hyphenated or otherwise.
(e) Will fit into a suitable grammatical slot i.e. noun in noun slot
I want a take(v) away(n) (take is not a single word as its in the slot of a noun.
Types of compound
N + N/V/A/P
Teapot, price check, headstrong, chin-up
V + V/N/A/P
Stir-fry, swearword, speakeasy, turnoff
A + A/N/V/P
White-hot, high school, dry-clean, blackout
P + P/A/N/V
Within, under-ripe, outdoor, overthrow
Characteristics of compounds
Consist mostly of open class words
Endocentric (have semantic head) one member is felt more important than the other, e.g.
handbag, bookshelf (non-lexicalised compounds)
Head is rightmost (determines category & meaning of word)
Exocentric (no semantic head) neither member is felt to be more important than the other,
e.g. without, breakthrough, pickpocket (head is outside of compound); red-eye (Result)
Compounding is a binary process
Compounds can never have more than two constituents (doesnt mean they cant have more
than one word) e.g. [[nuclear physics] expert]
The process of compounding is binary (only two constituents can combine), e.g.dog food
box
Bracketing Paradox
Problem with working out the hierarchical structure of compound lexemes
e.g. transformational grammarian (one who studies transformational grammar)
(a) [transformational [grammar ian]] On the basis of Form
i.
Affixes dont attach to phrases
ii.
-ian is lexically determined (-ian with grammar, music, etc; -ist with physic-, art-)
(b)[ [transformational grammar] ian]]
On the basis of meaning: one who studies transformational grammar
Summary
Bimorphemic and multimorphemic words have internal structure
Morphemes are combined in a binary manner
Compounding is a word-formation process
There are different types of compound
Linguistic Typology
Linguistic typology is a subfield of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their
structural features. Its aim is to describe and explain the common properties and the structural
diversity of the world's languages.
Linguistic typology based on morphology
Linguistic typology based on syntax (e.g. word order patterns)
Observations on morphology across languages
Languages with little or no morphology at all (e.g. Chinese; Creoles)
(1) wo bu chang kan dianying
I not often see movies
Languages with considerable morphology (e.g. Eskimo)
(2) nigizuksaugaluaktuna I ought to eat.
Languages with some morphology (e.g. English, Turkish)
(3) el-
ler- im- de
in English hand(plu)-my-in in my hands
Parameters: Index of Synthesis & Index of Fusion
1. Index of Synthesis (how much morphology is made use of)
The following continuum appears to exist:
Isolating languages <--- Synthetic languages
(Chinese & creoles)
(Oneida American Indian, Wisconsin)
2. Index of Fusion(how easy it is to identify morphemes with morphs in a particular language)
The following continuum exists
Agglutinating------------------- Fusional
(Turkish)
(Nahuatl:)
(Greek)
(Aztec)
e.g. of fusion he writes ( this s carries the meaning of person, plurality and tense)
Language Typology
5 different types of language morphological types
Isolating or Analytic languages (Mandarin Chinese)
Agglutinating languages (Turkish, Swahili, Japanese)
Synthetic/Fusional languages (Greek, Sanskrit, Latin)
Polysynthetic or Incorporating languages (Greenlandic Eskimo, Tiwi (Australia))
Infixing languages (Semitic languages, Tagalog)
Morphological Properties of Isolating languages
each morpheme is a word
have complex tone systems
tend to use serial constructions
Strict word order
E.g of serial construction
me nya be edzo (Ewe Niger Congo)
I
know say(has the force of a complimentize) he-left
I know he left.
Morphological Properties of Synthetic languages
Words usually consist of several morphemes
Morpheme boundaries not always easy to determine
Commonly employ affixation to mark morphosyntactic categories (agreement, voice, tense,
aspect, mood, valence(how many arguments))
e.g. Latin
Mens- the tables (nominative & plural)
Mens- the tables (genitive & plural)
Morphological Properties of Polysynthetic languages
Have polymorphemic words instead of sentences
Ti-khwian-mu-ban (Southern Tiwa-US)
1s-dog-
see-pst I saw the dog
Have single words with two roots (incorporation)
men-mukhin-tuwi-ban
2Dual-hat-buy-PST
You two bought a hat.
Have complex agreement systems
(1)U-ide tow-keuap- wia ban
child-A 1s:C:A-shoe- give-PST I gave the child the shoes (Class (intimate,
inanimate and other classifications)
(2) U-ide tam-musa-wia-ban
child-A 1s:B:A-cat-give-PST I gave the child the cat.
Morphological Properties of Agglutinating languages
Morphemes are easily segmentable (clear morpheme boundaries)
(1) El-ler-im-de (Turkish)
hand-PLU-my-in
In my hands
(2) No-kali-mes (Nahuatl)
my-house-PLU
my houses
Morphological Properties of Infixing languages
Have affixes inside roots (i.e. infixes)
(the Semitic languages Arabic & Hebrew are typical infixing languages)
(1) kitab book
(2) bato stone
katib writer
Bontok (Philippines)
bumato is turning to stone
Implicational Universals: A few generalizations
If a language has inflection, it always has derivation (Greenberg Universal 29)
If a word has both inflectional and derivational affixes, then the latter are closer to the root
than the former
play-er-s but not * play-s-er
If a language has only suffixes, it will also have postposition (i.e. preposition after noun)
Ahmet Ayse icin kitab-i
aldi (Turkish)
Ahmet Ayse for book-ACC bought
Ahmet bought a book for Ayse
Relationship between morphological types
Languages can shift from one type to another.
e.g. Isolating
Agglutinating
Fusional
Isolating
Summary
Languages can be said to belong to different morphological types.
Five types are said to exist
Isolating or Analytic (Chinese)
Synthetic or Inflectional (Greek)
Polysynthetic (Greenlandic Eskimo)
Agglutinating (Turkish)
Infixing (Arabic)
