Yun-Pi Yuan1 Morphology I. Parts of Speech II. Basic concepts and terms II. Derivational processes Derivational processes III. Inflection Inflection IV. Function words Function words V. Problems in morphological description Problems in morphological description VI. Interaction between morphology and phonology Interaction between morphology and phonology VII. Collocations Collocations

Parts of Speech  Eight Parts of Speech in English.  Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives. Yun-Pi Yuan2

The Content Words carry real-world meaning. The Function words carry only grammatical meaning. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 78-80) Yun-Pi Yuan3

The Content Words are Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs. The Function Words are Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 78-80) The Pronouns belong to neither of these categories. Pronouns can stand in the place of Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositional Phrases, or even Sentences. Yun-Pi Yuan4

Content words can be stressed. Content words cannot be easily figured out if they are deleted. Content words can be inflected. Content words more readily enter into compounds. Content words are an open set; new ones enter our language daily. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 78-80) Yun-Pi Yuan5

6 Basic Concepts and Terms (1) Morphology:  The study of the structure of words & how words are formed (from morphemes) MorphemeMorpheme:  The smallest unit of language that carries meaning (maybe a word or not a word)  A sound-meaning unit  A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

 Simple words - contain only 1 morpheme  Complex words - contain more than 1 morpheme  Free morpheme - a morpheme that can be a word by itself  Bound morpheme - a morpheme that must be attached to another element Yun-Pi Yuan7

8 Free Morpheme I. Definition: can occur by itself, not attached to other morphemes II. Examples: girl, teach, book, class, the, of, etc. III. Two kinds A. lexical morpheme (open class) 1. definition: has lexical meaning; new examples can be freely added 2. examples: N, Verb, Adj, Adv (content words) B. functional morpheme (closed class) 1. definition: new examples are rarely added (but not impossible to add) 2. examples: Pro, Prep, Conj, Art. (function words)

Yun-Pi Yuan9 Bound Morpheme I. Definition: must be attached to another morpheme II. Derivational morpheme A.may change syntactic class B.to form new words C.examples: -able, un-, re-, etc. III. Inflectional morpheme A.Different forms of the same word B.Not change syntactic class C.Only 8 kinds in English: -’s, -s (plural nouns), -ing, - ed/-en, -est, -er, -s (S-V agreement)

Yun-Pi Yuan10 Basic Concepts and Terms (2) Stem (root, base): the morpheme to which other morphemes are added free (e.g. teacher, dresses, unkind) Stem bound (e.g. inept, unkempt)

Yun-Pi Yuan11 Basic Concepts and Terms (3) Affix: Prefix e.g. Unhappy Infix e.g. Absogoddamlutely (see Nash 56) Suffix e.g. happiness

Yun-Pi Yuan12 Morphemes lexical free (open classes) Morphemes functional (closed classes) bound derivational (affixes) inflectional

Identifying Morphemes  A morpheme can carry info about meaning or function. Haunt cannot be broken down into h + aunt because only aunt has meaning. Bats can be broken down into 2 morphemes: bat + -s (where the 2 nd morpheme means more than one).  The meanings of individual morphemes should contribute to the overall meaning of the word. pumpkin cannot be broken down into pump + kin because the meaning of pumpkin has nothing to do with that. Yun-Pi Yuan13

 A morpheme is not the same thing as a syllable. treat = 1 morpheme and 1 syllable; dracula = 1 morpheme and 3 syllables; -s (PLURAL) in English = 1 morpheme and is not even 1 syllable.  Often during word formation, changes in pronunciation and/or spelling occur. These do not affect a morpheme’s status as a morpheme. scare + -y = scary (root = scare); scary + -er = scarier (root = scare) Yun-Pi Yuan14

Morphology Practice Word# of Morphemes FreeBound eraser2erase-er wicked1 Invalid (A)2validIn- Invalid (N)1invalid walked2walk-ed Jack’s2Jack-s reactivation5actRe-, ive, -ate, -tion Yun-Pi Yuan15

Morphology Practice I  How to solve morphology problems: isolate and identify all the morphemes in the data. To do this, identify recurring strings of sounds and match them with recurring meanings. Yun-Pi Yuan16

Mende (Sierra Leone) Yun-Pi Yuan17

 What is the morpheme meaning ‘the’?  If [sale] means ‘proverb’, what is the form for ‘the proverb’?  If [kpindii] means ‘the night’, what does [kpindi] mean? Yun-Pi Yuan18

Morphology Practice II  How to solve morphology problems: isolate and identify all the morphemes in the data. To do this, identify recurring strings of sounds and match them with recurring meanings. Yun-Pi Yuan19

Turkish slide - What morphemes mean Yun-Pi Yuan20

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 Turkish - What is the order of morphemes Yun-Pi Yuan22 RootPluralPossessivePostposition

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