Morphology, Part 3: Word-Formation Processes October 1, 2010

Problem Set Review Esperanto Swahili Cree

The Relationship A: Derivational affixes will always attach before inflectional affixes do. Remember: derivational affixes create new words; Inflectional affixes just create new word forms. Examples: blackened, governments, *neighborshood Verb Noun Verb Noun Adj DAff. IAff. Verb DAff. IAff. black -en -ed govern -ment -s

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. lemma word forms different lexeme Inflectional affixes relate a lexeme to its various forms. Derivational affixes relate one lexeme to another lexeme.

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

The Class System Class 2 (or Level 2) Don’t cause phonological changes in root. Less of a semantic 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)

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 blindness stupidity happiness validity goodness complexity

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 Stick-to-it-ive-ness Re-take (the lead)

Finiteness Note that “finitude” is the (awkward?) alternative. Another (formerly?) productive affix: -age wordage, sleepage, etc.

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

An Intermediate Case -ify attached 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

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)

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

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 a new preposition? Our minds also process function words differently from content words. For instance, how many ‘F’s are in the following passage?…

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Gender-Free Quick Write Is it feasible for speakers of English to create gender-free pronouns?

Gender-Free Quick Write Is it feasible for speakers of English to create gender-free pronouns?

Gender-Free Quick Write Is it feasible for speakers of English to create gender-free pronouns?

Gender-Free Quick Write Is it feasible for speakers of English to create gender-free pronouns?

Find out more at: http://www.bignewsday.com/story.asp?code=BZ345203T&news=yo_being_used_as_gender-neutral_pronoun

More Word Formation Processes So far, we’ve only looked at one type of word-formation process: affixation = concatenating morphemes in a row Prefixation, suffixation, infixation, circumfixation… There are many different ways to make new words without concatenating morphemes together. compounding internal change reduplication blending, etc.

Compounding In compounding, two or more free morphemes combine to make a new word Ex: baseball, blackboard, lightbulb, podcast Compounding is very common in the world’s languages. German is particularly fond of compounding: Donaudampfschiffahrtgesellschaft Donau “danube” Dampf “steam” Schiff “ship” Fahrt “excursion” Gesellschaft “company”

Compounding Tests Stress Shifts blackbird vs. black bird lightbulb vs. light bulb Adverbs can’t modify compound nouns: *extremely gentleman vs. extremely gentle man *the very White House vs. the very white house Note: it’s also possible to form verb and adjective compounds: Verbs: dropkick, spoonfeed, whitewash… Adjectives: nationwide, redhot…

Back Formations Back formations: removal of an (incorrectly perceived) affix to form a new word Ex: “edit” “editor” perceived as /edit/ + /-er/ Other examples: peddle (from peddler) swindle (from swindler) burgle (from burglar) pea (from pease) laze (from lazy) liaise (from liaison) A “reverse” backformation: Chinese (from Chinee + /-s/)

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