1. Morphology, Part 2 January 26, 2012

2. In Our Last Episode Words and morphemes (meaningful “word parts”) Free and bound morphemes Simple and complex words Affixes and roots Word-formation rules Affixes attach to a root (or base) of a particular lexical category… and create a new word.

3. Layers of Words Words that are formed through the addition of multiple affixes have a layered, or hierarchical structure. One (ugly) way to represent this structure is through bracket notation: [root][construct] [[affix] + [root]][[re-] + [construct]](=base) [[base] + [affix]][[[re-] + [construct]] + [-ion]] WORDreconstruction

4. Tree Structures In this class, we’ll primarily stick with tree diagrams to represent word structure. (because they look better and are easier to read) reconstructionundesire able Tree terminology: branches nodes: where two branches meet nodes represent constituents of the word

5. Building the Perfect Beasts To accurately capture all of the facts of word formation… tree structures should represent the lexical categories of all constituents at each node in the tree. Noun Adj Verb Adj AffVerbAffAffVerb Aff [re-][construct][-ion][un-][desire] [-able]

6. Ambiguity Some complex words can have more than one interpretation Different derivations can result in different interpretations Example: “unlockable” Note: [un-] can attach to both adjectives and verbs [-able] attaches to verbs and creatives adjectives

7. Unlockable, part 1 Adj AffVerbAff [un-][lock][-able] = not able to be locked

8. Unlockable, part 2 Adj Verb AffVerbAff [un-][lock][-able] = able to be unlocked

9. Inflections vs. Derivations Linguists draw another distinction among affixes: 1.Inflectional affixes: mark grammatical properties (person, number, gender, tense, aspect) don’t change other aspects of meaning are required by rules of sentence structure create a new “word form” 2.Derivational affixes: change meaning create a new word (typically) have clear semantic content may change the lexical category of the word

10. Inflectional Affixes There are precisely eight inflectional affixes in English: 1.-s3rd personwait --> waits 2.-ingprogressivewait --> waiting 3.-edpast tensewait --> waited 4.-enpast participleeat --> eaten 5.-spluralcard --> cards 6.-’spossessivedad --> dad’s 7.-ercomparativetall --> taller 8.-estsuperlativeweak --> weakest All of these are suffixes.

11. Inflectional Affixes Other languages can have a lot more inflectional affixes. Examples from French: parler “to speak” 1st person, plural: parlons“We speak” 2nd person, plural: parlez“You guys speak” Past tense: 1st person, singular: parlais“I spoke” 1st person, plural: parlions“We spoke” 2nd person, plural: parliez“You guys spoke” Plus many, many more.

12. Derivational Affixes In contrast to inflectional affixes, derivational affixes: Create new words when they’re attached to roots Examples: re-cycle --> recycle de-code --> decode -yfish --> fishy -izevandal --> vandalize Also: English has far more derivational affixes than inflectional affixes.

13. A Note on Word Forms Morphologists use the term lexeme to refer to a group of related word forms. wait, waits, waited, waiting, etc. The canonical form of the lexeme is called the lemma. = the “headword” in a dictionary. Inflectional affixes relate a lexeme to its various forms. Derivational affixes relate one lexeme to another lexeme. lemma word forms different lexeme

14. The Class System In English, there are two types of derivational affixes: 1. Class 1 (or Level 1) Often cause phonological (sound) changes in the root Also cause more profound semantic (meaning) changes to the root Can combine with bound roots, too. Ex: -ity, -y, -ion For instance: Electric  electricity; stupid  stupidity democrat  democracy; nation

15. The Class System Class 2 (or Level 2) Don’t cause phonological (sound) changes in root. Less of a semantic (meaning) effect, too. Ex: -ness, -less, -er, -ish Normally, Class 1 affixes attach to the root before Class 2 affixes. relational-ion (1), -al (1) divisiveness-ive (1), -ness (2) *fearlessity-less (2), -ity (1) fearlessness-less (2), -ness (2)

16. Productivity Productivity = the extent to which a word-formation rule can be applied to new morphemes, to form new words Class 2 affixes tend to be more productive than Class 1 affixes. -ness vs. -ity both attach to: adjectives both form: nouns both mean: the quality of the adjective blindnessstupidity happinessvalidity goodnesscomplexity

17. Productiveness -ness is very productive, so it can expand its reach to other words: stupidness, validness, complexness The same is not true of -ity: *blindity, *happity, *goodity -ness is so productive, it can also be affixed to new words: truthy + -ness  truthiness chair + -ness  chairness productive + -ness  productiveness

18. Unproductivity -able is another very productive morpheme: make-fun-of-able Other morphemes are not so lucky: -th:warm + -th=warmth wide + -th=width deep + -th=depth cool + -th=*coolth -en:moist + -en=moisten red + -en=redden cute + -en=?cuten abstract + -en =*abstracten

19. An Intermediate Case -ify attaches to adjectives to form verbs just + -ify=justify pure + -ify=purify quick + -ify=?quickify smart + -ify=?smartify An anecdotal case busy + -ify=busify ugly + -ify=uglify -ify has limited productivity

20. Blocking Productivity can sometimes be limited by the existence of other words intelligent + -ness=*intelligentness “intelligence” gets in the way it blocks intelligentness from existence true + -ness = *trueness(truth) inhabit + -er=*inhabiter(inhabitant) guide + -er=*guider(guide) In other cases, a new word gets created anyway: pride + -ful =prideful(proud)

21. Content and Function Words One last distinction: there are both content and function words. Content words = have some semantic content (meaning) nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs ex: politics, baseball, socks, green, create Function words = specify grammatical relations have little or no semantic content prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions

22. Content and Function Words Content words are an “open class”-- we can add new members anytime we want. Function words are a “closed class”-- it’s not easy (or possible?) to add new members. When was the last time you heard a new pronoun? Or new preposition? (thoughts on the quick write?) Our minds also process function words differently from content words.