Morphology, Part 1 HU2910 Summer 2011

What is morphology? What is a morpheme? “the minimal unit of meaning”

What is morphology? What is a morpheme? “the minimal unit of meaning” Which of these are morphemes? cat -s sen- (as in sentence) un-

Why study morphology? to gain an understanding of where our words come from

Why study morphology? to gain an understanding of where our words come from what the properties of words are

Why study morphology? to gain an understanding of where our words come from what the properties of words are how parts of words add together to form meaningful separate words

Why study morphology? to gain an understanding of where our words come from what the properties of words are how parts of words add together to form meaningful separate words how we build our mental stock of words

Why study morphology? to gain an understanding of where our words come from what the properties of words are how parts of words add together to form meaningful separate words how we build our mental stock of words how dictionaries are formed

Dictionaries Who makes them? How?

Dictionaries Who makes them? How? What do they include? Leave out?

Dictionaries Who makes them? How? What do they include? Leave out? Are morphemes like un- and -ment in your dictionary?

Dictionaries Who makes them? How? What do they include? Leave out? Are morphemes like un- and -ment in your dictionary? Linguists call the “word list” of words and morphemes you know, and their attendant properties, the LEXICON.

Relationships between syllables and morphemes Mississippi - one (long) word, - one morpheme in English, - though two morphemes (big-river) in Ojibwe

Relationships between syllables and morphemes Mississippi - one (long) word, - one morpheme in English, - though two morphemes (big-river) in Ojibwe Compare: Chicago ‘skunk place’ and Wabash ‘it shines white’

tried one (short) word, two morphemes try + ed (with spelling change)

Morphological properties Free or bound? un-disturb-ed disturb un- -ed

Affixation prefix dis-, un-, re- suffix-ly, -ment, -hood = Most common word formation process in English

Affixation infix -damn- Bontoc (Phillipines) takbuh + -um- > t-um-akbuh 'run' (past) 'ran’ circumfix a-com-in(g) I’m acoming to get you (dialectal)

Affixation root/stem (to which you add affixes) tuckun-tuck-ed respect dis-respect-ful-ly spelling changes un- happy -ly > unhappily

Derivational affixes examples: un-, dis-, re-, mis-, in- -ify, -ate, -tion, -ly

Derivational affixes examples: un-, dis-, re-, mis-, in- -ify, -ate, -tion, -ly - frequently change categories or meaning, e.g., N--> V

Derivational affixes examples: un-, dis-, re-, mis-, in- -ify, -ate, -tion, -ly - frequently change categories or meaning, e.g., N--> V - typically affect semantic relations within word

Derivational affixes examples: un-, dis-, re-, mis-, in- -ify, -ate, -tion, -ly - frequently change categories or meaning, e.g., N--> V - typically affect semantic relations within word - typically affect only certain words within a class (unproductive)

Derivational affixes examples: un-, dis-, re-, mis-, in- -ify, -ate, -tion, -ly - frequently change categories or meaning, e.g., N--> V - typically affect semantic relations within word - typically affect only certain words within a class (unproductive) - typically occur before inflectional suffixes (e.g.?)

Inflectional affixes (8 types) - do not change “meaning” or part of speech - typically indicate syntactic or semantic relations between different words in a sentence - typically are very productive - typically occur at margins of words

8 Types of Inflectional Affixes -s pluraldog-s -’s possessiveChris’s -s third singular(she) speak-s -ing progressivewalk-ing -ed past tensewalk-ed -en past participletak-en -er comparativetall-er -est superlativetall-est

Compounds Note how the stress shifts to the first syllable: firetruck fíre + trúck > fíretrùck blue-green blúe + gréen > blúe-grèen wind tunnel wínd + túnnel > wíndtùnnel but: cream cheese créam + chéese? or créam + chèese?

More problematic morphemes -able unconquerable indestructible What is -able (-ible, -ibil…)? A free root (compounded)? A bound root?

Separating morphemes misdirection mis- + direct + ion Free/BoundBF B Inflectional/Deriv.D- D Prefix/Root/SuffixPRS Spelling change---

For next time, try: fingernails maladjusted James incomprehensibility

Open classes Open (usually "content" words) Open to the addition of new items (the “dollar” words): Nounsfax(es) Verbsfax(ed) Adjectivesfax(able) Adverbs?fax(ly?)

Closed classes Closed (usually "function" words) Pronounsshe, they, I, you Conjunctionsand, or, but, | Determinersthe, a, some Prepositionsin, by, from, to

Problematic morphemes cran-berry luke-warm re-ceivere-mit per-ceiveper-mit con-ceivecom-mit de-ceive Bound roots?

Potential problems in morphemic analysis PROBLEM 1: Distinguishing parts of words that look like morphemes from actual morphemes Clues: separable meaning meaning adds to the conglomerate meaning of the whole item

Issues in segmentation E.g.: hippopotamus not: hippo + pot + amus (or hip + po) note that hippo is a clipping of the whole word, not a separate morpheme but: one morph (maybe two, considering hippopotam-i)

Another mis-segmentation problem e.g., standards standard + s not stand + ard + s

Problem #2: distinguishing homomorphs plural of ox: ox+en NOT the same as the past tense of take, take+en un-reliable not the same as understand, nor un+tie