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 g g language 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?

Phonetics & Phonology Morphology

Knowing a language means knowing the sounds, the words, and the rules for their combination to express & understand intended p meaning
Semantic Pragmatic Syntax

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 q p sequence of sound is associated with a particular meaning Able to segment stream of sounds into individual y words: How may words are there in this utterance?

More on Words
Each word is a sound-meaning unit Each 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

ThefirstassignmentisdueverysoonsoIhopethat youhavepreparedeverythingthatisrequired )

More on Words
Content Words
Words that denote concepts (Lexical)
Objects (nouns) Actions (verbs/adverbs) Attributes (adjectives) Ideas (nouns)

Function Words
Words which specify grammatical relations & have little or no semantic content
Conjunctions Prepositions Articles Pronouns

Open class
Can add new words to the above classes May change category (e.g. Google, google)

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

Closed class
No addition of new words Estimated only 300 words

Function Words (Closed Class)

Types Determiners Auxiliary Negation N i Intensifier Connectors Relations Preposition Pronouns Examples articles the, a/an, some, lots of, few can, could, shall, should, may, might, must no, not very, too and, or, but (connect two independent clauses) subordinate conjunction in, of I, me, mine, he, she, and so on while

Recap: Brain & Language

Brocas Aphasia = Agrammatic Aphasia
Frequently lacks articles, prepositions, pronouns & auxiliary verbs (Function Words) Omit inflections (past tense suffix ed or third person singular ending s) 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?
Most elemental unit of grammatical form (sound-meaning unit)
One morpheme Boy y Two morphemes Boyish Three morphemes Boyishness Four morphemes Gentlemanliness More than four morphemes Ungentlemanliness

Words are made up of morphemes Simple words consist of a single morpheme Complex words consist of more than one morpheme (each contributes some meaning to the overall word)

Morphemes: Minimal Units of Meaning?

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

Reflection
Can you identify ALL the morphemes in the following English sentence?
The musicians reconsidered their directors unusual proposal
The (Grammatical morpheme - definite) music (root) consider (root) -ian (indicates person whose works related to meaning of root) Re (meaning = again) s (plural marker) ed (past tense marker) s (possession)

More on Words
Content Words
Words that denote concepts (Lexical)
Objects (nouns) Actions (verbs/adverbs) Attributes (adjectives) Ideas (nouns)

Function Words
Words which specify grammatical relations & have little or no semantic content
Conjunctions Prepositions Articles Pronouns

their (Grammatical morpheme possession of following noun plural 3rd person ) direct (root) usual (root) propose (root) - or (denotes someone performing action of the verb) un (meaning = not) al (turning root verb into a noun)

Open class
Can add new words to the above classes May change category (e.g. Google, google)

Closed class
No addition of new words Estimated only 300 words

Morphemes?
Minimal linguistic unit arbitrary union of a sound and a meaning that cannot be further analyzed The decomposition of words into morphemes illustrates a fundamental property of human l fh language discreteness

Morpheme Word - Morphology

Words have internal structure, which is rulegoverned

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

box

boxes
Inflectional morpheme

ableunuse

usaableun

Morphology (part of our grammatical knowledge of a language)

Morphological Knowledge
Knowledge of the individual morphemes Un Think Able Their pronunciation Their meaning Free (stand alone) or Bound (must be attached to a base morpheme) Knowledge of the rules that combine them into complex words Unablethink Thinkunable Ablethinkun Unthinkable

Free & Bound Morphemes?

A single morpheme that constitutes a word May constitute words by themselves
Child, Slow, Judge And, at, between

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

Affixation
Prefixes (precedes/before) Suffixes (follow after) Infixes (inserted) Circumfixes (begin & end)

No attachment Morphemes minimal linguistic signs in ALL languages; however deployment varies from one language to another

Free & Bound Morphemes?

Lexical content morpheme that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts Morphemes added to base Derivational Inflectional which lead to derivation of new Morphemes Morphemes words with new meaning Morphemes that have strictly derived word grammatical functions, marking properties tense, number, gender, etc

Derivational Morphemes

Prefixes (Bound Morphemes)

Prefix e en ill uni over ultra Mainly added to nouns nouns adjective past participles adjective noun adjective verb adjective noun Usual meaning Electronic, Internet put in make badly one too much extreme beyond Examples e-book, email endanger, encircle enrich, enable ill-advised, p ill-expressed unilateral, unicycle overconfident overeat ultramodern ultrasound ultraman

Suffixes (Bound Morphemes)

Suffix (form nouns) - ess -ology Suffix (form adjective) -able bl -ful Suffix (form adverb) - ly Suffix (form verb) -ate -en Mainly added to nouns nouns Mainly added to verb b noun Mainly added to adjective Mainly added to noun adjective Usual meaning female study of Usual meaning can b (d ) be (done) full of Usual meaning in an (adjective) way Usual meaning causative make, become Examples lioness, waitress, sociology, Examples washable h bl useful Examples slowly Examples orchestrate ripen, harden

Infixes & Circumfixes (Bound Morphemes)

Morphemes that are inserted into other morphemes Fikas (strong) Kilad (red) Fusul (enemy) Fumikas (to be strong) Kumilad (to be red) Fumisul (to be an enemy) Morphemes that are attached to a base morpheme both initially & finally chokma (he is good) palli (it is hot) lakna (it is yellow) ikchokmo (he isnt good) ikpallo (it isnt hot) iklakno (it isnt yellow)

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 = painter Addition of each new affix form a new stem & a new word E.g. foolishness

The Bontoc Language from the Philippines

a morphological family of words derived from the root port.

The Muskogean Language From Chickasaw, Oklahoma

Roots & Stems

Root believe Believe + able Un+ believe + able
System system + atic Un + system+ atic Un+ system +atic + al Un+ system +atic + al + ly

Verb Verb + suffix Prefix + verb + suffix

noun Noun + suffix Prefix + noun+ suffix Prefix + noun+ suffix + suffix Prefix + noun+ suffix + suffix+ suffix

Stem Word
Root

Stem Stem Stem Word

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) -able Suffix (form adverb) - ly Suffix (form verb) -ate Mainly added to ( ) Verb (wash) Mainly added to Adjective (slow) Mainly added to Noun (orchestra) Usual meaning can be (done) ( ) Usual meaning in an (adjective) way Usual meaning causative Examples washable Examples slowly Examples orchestrate

Hierarchical Structure of Words

Tree Diagram to represent hierarchical organization of words

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

Morphological Rules

Derived words

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

Inflectional Morphemes
Inflectional 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 inflectional morphology. (Crystal, p. 90.)

Inflectional Morphology
Morphology that interacts with syntax (sentence structure) Some examples are:
person number gender case tense aspect

Person & Number

Grammatical features distinguishing entities referred to in an utterance
First person, second person, third person Subject-verb agreement Singular, plural

Grammatical properties

Never change the syntactic categories of the words or morphemes to which they are attached to
peanuts

Case, Tense, Aspect

Roles of participants in an event
Subject, object, indirect object

Recap: Derivational & Inflectional

Locating an event in time relative to moment of speaking

Present, past

Temporal characteristic of event

Progressive, perfect (completed)

-ation (organization) -al (facial) -ize (memorize) -ic (alcoholic) ( ) -un (unsure) -ous (victorious)

-s Plural -s Possessive -ed Past -ing Progressive g g -er Comparative -est Superlative

Word Coinage
Invention of totally new terms
Typical sources = invented trade names for commercial products E.g. kleenex, colgate

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

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

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-Formations
Created 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.

Borrowing
Taking over of words from other languages
Karaoke (Japanese) Tattoo (Tahitian) Yogurt (Turkish) Sarong (Malay)

Compounding
Joining of two separate words to form a single form
Bookcase Fingerprint Sunburn Wallpaper

Blending
Combining 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)

Clipping
Reducing to a shorter form a word of more than one syllable
condominium (condo) public house (pub) fanatic (fan) Clipping of names

Conversion
Changing the word function (i.e. category change)
Sit on a chair Chair the meeting

In Summary
Morphemes
Bound
Affix Open Class (content/lexical) Inflectional

Free
Closed Class (function/grammatical)

Derivational

Word formation
Prefix Suffix Suffix

End of Unit 3