A short introduction

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwwyhndrobwllllantysiligogogoch (a town name in Wales)

How is it that we can use and understand words in our language that we have never encountered before? Morphology: Background and Basic Terms

Morphology : the component of a grammar that deals with the internal structure of words. Morphology: Background and Basic Terms (2)

Adjectives are abstract; they are not real forms. The real forms that represents them (in-,-s, and –ful) are therefore usually called morphs. (Hocket,1947) Morphology: Background and Basic Terms (3) WordsMorphsMorphemes watchedwatch-edWATCH+PAST penspen-sPEN+PLURAL unhelpfulun-help-fulNEGATIVE+HELP+ ADJECTIVE

Type of investigation which analyzes all those basic “elements” which are used in language elements= linguistic message (morphemes). (Yule:1985) The study of forms of words (Matthews:1979) While syntax is concerned with how words arrange themselves into constructions, morphology is concerned with the forms of words themselves. (Malmkjaer:1991) Definition

A word need not have any special phonetic properties: some words bear stress but others do not, some words set off by intonational signals but others are not. a door - adore The Minimal Meaningful Units of Language (Words Versus Morphemes)

Tone languages: a language is said to have tone when differences in word meaning are signaled by differences in pitch H [ma] ‘mother’High tone H [ma] ‘hemp’Low rise [ma] ‘horse’Fall rise [ma] ‘scold’High fall L H L M LH

(a) The hunters pursued the bear. (b) The bear was pursued by the hunters. A word is a minimal free form Words, though they may be definable as minimal free forms, are not minimal meaningful units of language. The word hunters can stand alone (a free form), nonetheless consists of three meaningful parts : hunt, er, and s. (Morphemes). The minimal meaningful units of language ARE NOT words, but arbitrary signs or MORPHEMES.

A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function (Yule:1985) The smallest linguistic unit that has meaning (Johnson & Johnson:1999) The elementary particle of lexicogrammar, the thing out of which words are built (Halliday:2004). The smallest meaningful unit in a language. A morpheme cannot be divided without altering or destroying its meaning. For example, the English word kind is a morpheme. If the d is removed, it changes to kin, which has a different meaning. (Richard & Schmidt:2002) Morpheme

One Morpheme TwoThreeMore than three and boyboy-s hunthunt-erhunt-er-s hospitalhospital- ize hospital-iz- ation Hospital-iz- ation-s gentlegentle- man gentle-man- ly gentle- man-li-ness

Morphological Description: Elements of Morphology (Yule) Morphemes free bound lexical functional derivational inflectional Yule:1985

Free: A form which can be used on its own : Betty, horse, red, write, love, drive Bound: a linguistic form (a MORPHEME) which is never used alone but must be used with another morpheme, e.g. as an AFFIX or COMBINING FORM. For example, the English suffix -ing must be used with a verb stem: writing, loving, driving. (Richard & Schmidt:2002) Free and Bound Morphemes

Bound Morphemes : Derivational Morphemes used to make new words in the language and different grammatical category from the stem. The derivational morphemes -ness changes the adjective good to the noun goodness. [[good](Adj) ness] N

Bound Morphemes : Inflectional Morphemes are not used to make new words in the language, but rather to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word Plural/Singular, tense, comparative/possessive form English : All inflectional morphemes are suffixes.

Bound Morphemes Bound Derivational Inflectional Suffix and prefix Suffix Plural/Singular, tense, comparative/possessive form New words

Free Morphemes Free lexical functional Ordinary nouns, adjectives, verbs Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns.

Theboy-’swild-ness (functional)(lexical)(inflectional)(Lexical) (derivational) shock-edtheteach-er-s (Lexical)(inflecti onal) (functional)(Lexical)(derivational)(inflectio nal) The elements of morphology: The boy’s wildness shocked the teachers.

Morphological Description: Elements of Morphology (Bauer) Morphology inflection word- formation derivation composition/ compounding Bauer:1983

Two or more words combine into a morphological unit (Marchand:1969) The combination of two free forms or words that have an otherwise independent existence. (Adams:1979) Word-formation: Composition/ Compounding N+NV+NN+VAdjective + N Particle + N V + Particle Phrase compounds footballpickpocket, killjoy nosebleed, moonshine software, slowcoach in-crowd, aftertaste clawback, dropout gin-and- tonic, forget-me- not

Backformation: occurs when suffix is removed from a complex word (liaison – to liaise) Blend: where normally initial and terminal segments of two words are joined together to create a new word: brunch (breakfast +lunch), chunnel (channel+tunnel), fantabulous (fantastic+fabulous). Acronyms : words formed from the initial letters of a fixed phrase or title : SALT (strategic arms limitation talks), misty (more ideologically sound than you). Word-formation: Other word-formation types

Any of the different forms of a MORPHEME For example, in English the plural morpheme is often shown in writing by adding -s to the end of a word, e.g. cat /kæt/ – cats /kæts/. Sometimes this plural morpheme is pronounced /z/, e.g. dog /dig/ – dogs /digz/, and sometimes it is pronounced /Iz/, e.g. class /kleNs/ – classes /`kleNsız/. /s/, /z/, and /Iz/ all have the same grammatical function in these examples, they all show plural; they are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme. Allomorph

The structure of the entire word may be represented by means of either a set of labeled brackets or a tree diagram. Word Structure [[[hospital] N ize]ed] VV V V Af N hospital iz ed

1. Draw the appropriate tree structure for each of these words: a) unhappiness c) fearlessly b) denationalization d) pre-viewer 2. What are the functional morphemes in the following sentences: The old man sat on a chair and told them tales of the woe 3. What are the inflectional morphemes in the following phrases: a) the teacher’s books b) the newest model Discussion