Mighty Morphin' Morphologies!!!
Jan. 29th, 2009 02:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_kerinaHow the words of a language are put together (use no glue).
So...what is Morphology? - The component of grammar that deals with the internal structure of words.
Morphology consists of morphemes (minimal unit of language), rules for combining them into words, and rules for pronouncing the resulting words.
Knowledge of morphology allows speakers to correctly form words, interpret new words, and pronounce words.
Examples!
Blick is a nonsense word.
What does re-blick mean? To blick again.
What is the word class of re-blick? You can make it "reblicked" Verb--past tense form.
What is the word class of blick? It has got to be a verb because it can become past tense form.
Groosh is another nonsense word.
What does groosh-able mean? Capable of being grooshed.
What is the word class of groosh-able? Able creates adjectives (readable---readable article). Single word between a determiner and a noun - much be an adjective.
What is the word class of groosh? Must be a verb because it was able to bind to ...able.
A morpheme is the minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function in a language.
{book} {from} {of} - this one only has a grammatical function and not a direct, semantic meaning (also - That - intro to a finite subordinate clause).
A morpheme may be a word or less than a word.
{course} {re-} {-ment} - have grammatic function
A morpheme cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units.
Examine the following words:
uninteresting uneventful unlivable
What does {un-} mean in those words? Essentially "not".
Does {un-} mean the same thing in the following words?
untie undress untangle
Try to define {un-} as used above. It's different. "To reverse the process." this time.
Two uns. Two different morpheme uns (different meanings...different morphemes).
Even though two morphemes are pronounced the same, they are distinct morphemes if their meanings are different.
What does {un-} mean in the following words?
unloosen unearth unnerve
In these examples {un-} is not a distinct morpheme, but an inherent part of the word. It doesn't change or do anything to the word.
Word! The Concept of a Word!
A word is a minimal free form in a language. - Used to answer certain questions.
A free form can stand on its own.
What are those? Houses.
Houses is a free form.
Simple words are free forms that consist of only one morpheme (mono-morphemic).
Most function words in English are simple words.
An affix is a bound morpheme that must be attached to a base.
Affixes may be described by their position relative to the base:
prefix (before a base) suffix (bound after) infix (inserted into)
Affixes may be described by their function.
inflectional morpheme
derivational morpheme
Prefix
Prefixes occur before the base.
English has approximately 75 prefixes
{extra-} {marital}
{dis-} {enchanted}
{re-} {think}
{ex} {spouse}
Normally, only one prefix is bound to the base. Exceptions - First is usually [un-] in those cases.
So...a few words may have more then one prefix.
{suppose}
{pre suppos ing}
{un pre suppos ing}
English prefixes are additive not replacive (add not replace). They are simply added on to the base.
Suffixes
Suffixes occur after the base.
A base may take up to four suffixes.
norm
norm al
norm al ize
norm al ize r
norm al ize r s
Suffixes in English are also additive (you do not replace part of the base to put it on).
Infixes
An infix occurs within a base.
Infixes occur in languages such as Bontoc and Tagalog spoken in the Philippines
Example from Tagalog.
takbuh “run” tumakbuh “ran”
lakad “walk” lumakad “walked”
What is the infix?
Where does it occur?
In languages that have infixes, they are quite regular and productive (past tense form is just as regular as the part tense suffix).
Does English have infixes?
man men goose geese foot feet
Nope. Not regular in the vowel change. The changes above are irregularities in the language and not cases of the use of productive infixes.
Derivational Affixes (by grammarical function)
Derivational affixes can derive a word whose word class is different from that of the base.
{pain} (noun) + {-ful} = painful (adjective)
The derivational affix {-ful} derives adjectives from nouns.
Derivational affixes can also derive words whose meaning is quite different from that of the base.
{brother} (noun) + {-hood} = brotherhood (noun)
The word brother means male sibling, but brotherhood has nothing to do with male siblings.
Derivational affixes generally apply to only a small subset of bases in a word class.
verb {-ment}
judge judgment
curtail curtailment
establish establishment
speak *speakment
believe *believement
Derivational affixes carry semantic, not grammatical (change meaning), content.
They create words with new meanings.
{pre-} determine
{un-} successful
{sub} standard
{ex} lawyer
Derivational affixes may be prefixes or suffixes.
{pre-} nominate involve {-ment}
{sub-} human sorrow {-ful}
{ex-} general rapid {-ly}
{re-} invent electric {-ity}
{un-} happy happy {-ness}
Generally, derivational affixes that are prefixes do not derive a word whose class is different from that of the base.
{pre-} nominate (verb to a verb)
{sub-} normal (adj to an adj)
{ex-} felon (noun to a noun)
{re-} invent (verb to a verb)
{un-} happy (adjective to an adjective)) - they stay the same word class!
Generally, derivational affixes that are suffixes derive a word whose class is different from that of the base.
involve {-ment} (verb to noun)
sorrow {-ful} (noun to adjective)
rapid {-ly} (adjective to adverb)
electric {-ity} (adjective to noun)
happy {-ness} (adjective to noun) - It changes.
Practice
Identify the word class of each base in the words below and the word class of the derived word. (base to derived)
active (verb to adjective) preregister (both verbs)
manly (noun to adjective) swimmer (verb to noun)
happiness (adjective to noun) logical (noun to adjective)
impossible (adjectives both) readable (verb to adjective)
Inflectional Affixes
English has eight inflectional affixes that co-occur with words of particular classes.
Two inflectional morphemes co-occur with nouns.
the plural - (s)
book books table tables
the possessive - ('s)
Tom Tom’s the man the man’s
Four inflectional affixes co-occur with verbs.
3rd person singular of the present tense - in the present tense and replaceable noun.
run runs
speak speaks
past tense
walk walked
cook cooked
past participle (past tense but is used with auxillary verbs)
repair repaired
kill killed
present participle (-ing form)
swim swimming
read reading
Two inflectional affixes co-occur with gradable adjectives.
comparative
big bigger
smart smarter
superlative
big biggest
smart smartest
Inflectional affixes do not change the word class of the stem that they are bound to.
They bind to stems of given word classes and the resulting word is of the same word class.
A stem is essentially a word to which all desired morphological word building processes have applied other than inflectional affixing (always occur on completed words).
In English, all inflectional affixes are suffixes (never prefixes).
Only one inflectional affix occurs on a stem.
They always occur last on the word.
They are productive in that they apply to nearly all stems in a given word class (IMPORTANT). Nearly all nouns can be pluralized with the plural morpheme, for instance.
However, some stems are irregular and do not take the regular inflectional morphemes.
Suppletion is one type of irregularity. A form in a grammatical paradigm has no resemblance to the base form.
walk walks walking walked - normal
go goes going went - weirdo!!!
Went is a suppletive form for the past tense of go.
A second type of irregularity is the use of ablaut, the replacement of one vowel for another to express an inflectional contrast.
In English ablaut especially occurs in irregular verbs in the past tense:
[brek] [brok] - brake to broke (past tense has a different vowel quality than the present) not braked
[spik] [spok] - speak to spoke not speaked
[lid] [lEd] - lead to led not leaded
Here's a graph - Stems can be regular and irregular (two types - suppletion [weird forms] and ablaut [vowel change for form])
The last feature of inflectional morphemes is that they carry grammatical, not semantic, content (as mentioned before)
Grammatical information relates certain words in sentences to one another.
Nigel speaks Zulu.
The [-s] on the verb merely acts as an agreement marker with the subject. It has no real semantic content (the sentence means the same thing without it).
The Pronunciation of Morphemes
Morphemes are abstractions just as phonemes are.
Allomorphs are the physical realizations of morphemes.
Each morpheme must have one or more allomorphs.
Allomorphs appear in square brackets [].
The presence of each allomorph is triggered by a different phonological environment (different ones in different environments).
The different allomorphs of a given morpheme are usually in complementary distribution (mutually exclusive).
The environments in which the allomorphs appear are mutually exclusive.
Discovery Activity!
What are the allomorphs of the past tense morpheme?
What are the environments that trigger their presence?
Are the allomorphs in complementary distribution?
To answer these questions, you must have a list of regular verbs in the past tense. The base forms of each of these verbs should end in a different sound to determine which allomorph follows each sound.
As a class activity, we will now begin exercise 30 in Exercises in English Phonology and Morphology.
T sound occurs in all voiceless sound ends (save T)
D sound occurs in all voiced sound ends (save D)
Schwa D occurs in sound ends of T and D.
Therefore - all three are in complimentary distribution.
Morphophonemic Rules
The regularities that you have just discovered can be captured in rule.
Rules that account for alternations among allomorphs are called morphophonemic rules.
How morphemes are combined and pronounced depends on both morphology (past tense morpheme binds to only regular verbs) and phonology (final sound of a verb determines which of the allomorphs will be pronounced...see just above)
Mojo Jojo Section - Say What We Just Said...All Over Again
Morphophonemic rules take into account that certain types of morphemes co-occur with each other. For example, the past tense morpheme co-occurs with regular verbs and only regular verbs.
The allomorphs are phonologically conditioned because the final sound of the verb then determines which allomorph will be bound to the stem..
To capture the behavior of the regular past tense in English two rules are necessary.
Devoicing Rule - D (base allomorph) turns into T. Devoice D when D follows a voiceless sound.
Vowel Epenthesis Rule - vowel between two alveolar stops. Insert shwa between the allomorph D and the final sound of the verb if it is T or D.
Before we can construct these rules, we need to determine the base allomorph, the one from which the others will be derived.
Testing -
Chat (base allomorph D) - Vowel Epenthesis (shwa D)
Kiss (---D) - Devoicing (T)
Hug (---D) - takes base past tense
More Discovery!
Now discover the allomorphs of the plural morpheme.
What are the environments that trigger their presence?
Are the allomorphs in complementary distribution?
What are the rules?
The plural, possessive, and the third person singular of the present tense all have sets of allomorphs which sound identical to one another and which are triggered by the same phonological environments.
Why don’t speakers of English confuse these different morphemes if they all sound the same? Plural regular count nouns. 3rd person singular to verbs. Possessive nouns (become possessive with different syntactic position).
So...what is Morphology? - The component of grammar that deals with the internal structure of words.
Morphology consists of morphemes (minimal unit of language), rules for combining them into words, and rules for pronouncing the resulting words.
Knowledge of morphology allows speakers to correctly form words, interpret new words, and pronounce words.
Examples!
Blick is a nonsense word.
What does re-blick mean? To blick again.
What is the word class of re-blick? You can make it "reblicked" Verb--past tense form.
What is the word class of blick? It has got to be a verb because it can become past tense form.
Groosh is another nonsense word.
What does groosh-able mean? Capable of being grooshed.
What is the word class of groosh-able? Able creates adjectives (readable---readable article). Single word between a determiner and a noun - much be an adjective.
What is the word class of groosh? Must be a verb because it was able to bind to ...able.
A morpheme is the minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function in a language.
{book} {from} {of} - this one only has a grammatical function and not a direct, semantic meaning (also - That - intro to a finite subordinate clause).
A morpheme may be a word or less than a word.
{course} {re-} {-ment} - have grammatic function
A morpheme cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units.
Examine the following words:
uninteresting uneventful unlivable
What does {un-} mean in those words? Essentially "not".
Does {un-} mean the same thing in the following words?
untie undress untangle
Try to define {un-} as used above. It's different. "To reverse the process." this time.
Two uns. Two different morpheme uns (different meanings...different morphemes).
Even though two morphemes are pronounced the same, they are distinct morphemes if their meanings are different.
What does {un-} mean in the following words?
unloosen unearth unnerve
In these examples {un-} is not a distinct morpheme, but an inherent part of the word. It doesn't change or do anything to the word.
Word! The Concept of a Word!
A word is a minimal free form in a language. - Used to answer certain questions.
A free form can stand on its own.
What are those? Houses.
Houses is a free form.
Simple words are free forms that consist of only one morpheme (mono-morphemic).
Most function words in English are simple words.
- Prepositions: in at on for from
- Determiners: a an the this
- Conjunctions: and but or because
- Degree Adverbs: very so quite too
Complex words consist of more than one morpheme.
quickness = {quick} {-ness} (2)
runners = {run} {-er} {-s} (3)
undeniably = {un-} {deny} {able} {ly} (4)
Morphology is much more concerned with complex words than with simple words.
Practice - (thank you, Latin)
Find the morphemes in the words below.
artichoke - [artichoke] (1)
establishments [establish] [-ment] [-s] (3)
shrewish - [shrew] [-ish] (2)
creativity - [creat] [-tiv] [-ity] (3)
unfriendly - [un-] [friend] [-ly] (3)
Some Types of Morphones
Free morphemes
A free morpheme can stand on its own.
It has a self contained meaning independent of that of all other morphemes.
All simple words are free morphemes.
Bound morphemes
A bound morpheme cannot stand on its own.
Its inherent meaning is manifest only when it is attached to another morpheme.
{-er}
{-ly}
Roots
A root is that morpheme which carries the principal meaning in a word.
cats: cat is the root
childish: child is the root
It is also that part of a word that remains after all affixes have been removed.
Most roots in English are free morphemes - simple morphological system.
Bases
Bases are morphological structures to which affixes may be bound.
Bases may consist of more than one morpheme - example (Judgments) - [Judge] (judge is the base) [-ment] [-s]
All roots are also bases, but not all bases are roots.
Examine the following set of words:
child
childish
childishly
Child is both the root and base of childish.
Childish is the base of childishly, but child is still the root. Root is smaller than base sometimes then...I guess?
English has a word based morphology:
Words are built from other free forms. Free forms that are bases are free bases (they can stand on their own).
Bound morphemes that are bases are bound bases.
Example - dental: dent is a bound base
A bound base must have at least one affix attached to it to form a legitimate word.
An affix is a bound morpheme that must be attached to a base.
Affixes may be described by their position relative to the base:
prefix (before a base) suffix (bound after) infix (inserted into)
Affixes may be described by their function.
inflectional morpheme
derivational morpheme
Prefix
Prefixes occur before the base.
English has approximately 75 prefixes
{extra-} {marital}
{dis-} {enchanted}
{re-} {think}
{ex} {spouse}
Normally, only one prefix is bound to the base. Exceptions - First is usually [un-] in those cases.
So...a few words may have more then one prefix.
{suppose}
{pre suppos ing}
{un pre suppos ing}
English prefixes are additive not replacive (add not replace). They are simply added on to the base.
Suffixes
Suffixes occur after the base.
A base may take up to four suffixes.
norm
norm al
norm al ize
norm al ize r
norm al ize r s
Suffixes in English are also additive (you do not replace part of the base to put it on).
Infixes
An infix occurs within a base.
Infixes occur in languages such as Bontoc and Tagalog spoken in the Philippines
Example from Tagalog.
takbuh “run” tumakbuh “ran”
lakad “walk” lumakad “walked”
What is the infix?
Where does it occur?
In languages that have infixes, they are quite regular and productive (past tense form is just as regular as the part tense suffix).
Does English have infixes?
man men goose geese foot feet
Nope. Not regular in the vowel change. The changes above are irregularities in the language and not cases of the use of productive infixes.
Derivational Affixes (by grammarical function)
Derivational affixes can derive a word whose word class is different from that of the base.
{pain} (noun) + {-ful} = painful (adjective)
The derivational affix {-ful} derives adjectives from nouns.
Derivational affixes can also derive words whose meaning is quite different from that of the base.
{brother} (noun) + {-hood} = brotherhood (noun)
The word brother means male sibling, but brotherhood has nothing to do with male siblings.
Derivational affixes generally apply to only a small subset of bases in a word class.
verb {-ment}
judge judgment
curtail curtailment
establish establishment
speak *speakment
believe *believement
Derivational affixes carry semantic, not grammatical (change meaning), content.
They create words with new meanings.
{pre-} determine
{un-} successful
{sub} standard
{ex} lawyer
Derivational affixes may be prefixes or suffixes.
{pre-} nominate involve {-ment}
{sub-} human sorrow {-ful}
{ex-} general rapid {-ly}
{re-} invent electric {-ity}
{un-} happy happy {-ness}
Generally, derivational affixes that are prefixes do not derive a word whose class is different from that of the base.
{pre-} nominate (verb to a verb)
{sub-} normal (adj to an adj)
{ex-} felon (noun to a noun)
{re-} invent (verb to a verb)
{un-} happy (adjective to an adjective)) - they stay the same word class!
Generally, derivational affixes that are suffixes derive a word whose class is different from that of the base.
involve {-ment} (verb to noun)
sorrow {-ful} (noun to adjective)
rapid {-ly} (adjective to adverb)
electric {-ity} (adjective to noun)
happy {-ness} (adjective to noun) - It changes.
Practice
Identify the word class of each base in the words below and the word class of the derived word. (base to derived)
active (verb to adjective) preregister (both verbs)
manly (noun to adjective) swimmer (verb to noun)
happiness (adjective to noun) logical (noun to adjective)
impossible (adjectives both) readable (verb to adjective)
Inflectional Affixes
English has eight inflectional affixes that co-occur with words of particular classes.
Two inflectional morphemes co-occur with nouns.
the plural - (s)
book books table tables
the possessive - ('s)
Tom Tom’s the man the man’s
Four inflectional affixes co-occur with verbs.
3rd person singular of the present tense - in the present tense and replaceable noun.
run runs
speak speaks
past tense
walk walked
cook cooked
past participle (past tense but is used with auxillary verbs)
repair repaired
kill killed
present participle (-ing form)
swim swimming
read reading
Two inflectional affixes co-occur with gradable adjectives.
comparative
big bigger
smart smarter
superlative
big biggest
smart smartest
Inflectional affixes do not change the word class of the stem that they are bound to.
They bind to stems of given word classes and the resulting word is of the same word class.
A stem is essentially a word to which all desired morphological word building processes have applied other than inflectional affixing (always occur on completed words).
In English, all inflectional affixes are suffixes (never prefixes).
Only one inflectional affix occurs on a stem.
They always occur last on the word.
They are productive in that they apply to nearly all stems in a given word class (IMPORTANT). Nearly all nouns can be pluralized with the plural morpheme, for instance.
However, some stems are irregular and do not take the regular inflectional morphemes.
Suppletion is one type of irregularity. A form in a grammatical paradigm has no resemblance to the base form.
walk walks walking walked - normal
go goes going went - weirdo!!!
Went is a suppletive form for the past tense of go.
A second type of irregularity is the use of ablaut, the replacement of one vowel for another to express an inflectional contrast.
In English ablaut especially occurs in irregular verbs in the past tense:
[brek] [brok] - brake to broke (past tense has a different vowel quality than the present) not braked
[spik] [spok] - speak to spoke not speaked
[lid] [lEd] - lead to led not leaded
Here's a graph - Stems can be regular and irregular (two types - suppletion [weird forms] and ablaut [vowel change for form])
The last feature of inflectional morphemes is that they carry grammatical, not semantic, content (as mentioned before)
Grammatical information relates certain words in sentences to one another.
Nigel speaks Zulu.
The [-s] on the verb merely acts as an agreement marker with the subject. It has no real semantic content (the sentence means the same thing without it).
The Pronunciation of Morphemes
Morphemes are abstractions just as phonemes are.
Allomorphs are the physical realizations of morphemes.
Each morpheme must have one or more allomorphs.
Allomorphs appear in square brackets [].
The presence of each allomorph is triggered by a different phonological environment (different ones in different environments).
The different allomorphs of a given morpheme are usually in complementary distribution (mutually exclusive).
The environments in which the allomorphs appear are mutually exclusive.
Discovery Activity!
What are the allomorphs of the past tense morpheme?
What are the environments that trigger their presence?
Are the allomorphs in complementary distribution?
To answer these questions, you must have a list of regular verbs in the past tense. The base forms of each of these verbs should end in a different sound to determine which allomorph follows each sound.
As a class activity, we will now begin exercise 30 in Exercises in English Phonology and Morphology.
T sound occurs in all voiceless sound ends (save T)
D sound occurs in all voiced sound ends (save D)
Schwa D occurs in sound ends of T and D.
Therefore - all three are in complimentary distribution.
Morphophonemic Rules
The regularities that you have just discovered can be captured in rule.
Rules that account for alternations among allomorphs are called morphophonemic rules.
How morphemes are combined and pronounced depends on both morphology (past tense morpheme binds to only regular verbs) and phonology (final sound of a verb determines which of the allomorphs will be pronounced...see just above)
Mojo Jojo Section - Say What We Just Said...All Over Again
Morphophonemic rules take into account that certain types of morphemes co-occur with each other. For example, the past tense morpheme co-occurs with regular verbs and only regular verbs.
The allomorphs are phonologically conditioned because the final sound of the verb then determines which allomorph will be bound to the stem..
To capture the behavior of the regular past tense in English two rules are necessary.
Devoicing Rule - D (base allomorph) turns into T. Devoice D when D follows a voiceless sound.
Vowel Epenthesis Rule - vowel between two alveolar stops. Insert shwa between the allomorph D and the final sound of the verb if it is T or D.
Before we can construct these rules, we need to determine the base allomorph, the one from which the others will be derived.
Testing -
Chat (base allomorph D) - Vowel Epenthesis (shwa D)
Kiss (---D) - Devoicing (T)
Hug (---D) - takes base past tense
More Discovery!
Now discover the allomorphs of the plural morpheme.
What are the environments that trigger their presence?
Are the allomorphs in complementary distribution?
What are the rules?
The plural, possessive, and the third person singular of the present tense all have sets of allomorphs which sound identical to one another and which are triggered by the same phonological environments.
Why don’t speakers of English confuse these different morphemes if they all sound the same? Plural regular count nouns. 3rd person singular to verbs. Possessive nouns (become possessive with different syntactic position).
