1. LIN1300
What is language?
Dr Marie-Claude Tremblay 1

2. Monday, October 1st Last class Today Phonology Bibliographic research2
Monday, October 1st
Last class
Phonology
Bibliographic research
Today
Yoruba exercise
Morphology

3. Exercise – Yoruba: Answers3
Exercise – Yoruba: Answers
Data
a) [ʃi] c) [eso] e) [ʃe] g) [si]
b) [se] d) [ɑʃɑ] f) [oʃu] h) [ɑso]
Can you find minimal pairs? If yes, give an example.
Yes
E.g. [ʃi] ~ [si]
[ʃe] ~ [se]

4. Exercise – Yoruba: Answers4
Exercise – Yoruba: Answers
Data
a) [ʃi] c) [eso] e) [ʃe] g) [si]
b) [se] d) [ɑʃɑ] f) [oʃu] h) [ɑso]
Are the 2 sounds in free variation? Why (not)?
No, they are not in free variation because if you change [ʃ] for [s] as in [ʃi] for [si] you get 2 different words with 2 different meanings

5. Exercise – Yoruba: Answers5
Exercise – Yoruba: Answers
Data
a) [ʃi] c) [eso] e) [ʃe] g) [si]
b) [se] d) [ɑʃɑ] f) [oʃu] h) [ɑso]
Are the 2 sounds in complementary distribution? Why (not)? No
Because they appear in the same environment.
E.g. Both [ʃ] and [s] appear word initially and they both appear before the same vowels.

6. Exercise – Yoruba: Answers6
Exercise – Yoruba: Answers
Data
a) [ʃi] c) [eso] e) [ʃe] g) [si]
b) [se] d) [ɑʃɑ] f) [oʃu] h) [ɑso]
Based on the answers you provided, are [ s ] and [ ʃ ] 2 different phonemes or are they allophones of the same phoneme? Why?
Different phonemes
Because we can find minimal pairs so substituting one sound for the other changes the meaning of the word.

7. Representation of the sounds7
Representation of the sounds
Which representation (a or b) reflects the structure of the phonological system in Yoruba for [ s ] and [ ʃ ]?
(a) / s / / ʃ / (b)
[ s ] [ ʃ ]
/ s /
[ s ] [ ʃ ]

8. Representation of the sounds8
Representation of the sounds
Which representation (a or b) reflects the structure of the phonological system in Yoruba for [ s ] and [ ʃ ]?
(a) / s / / ʃ / (b)
[ s ] [ ʃ ]
Different
phonemes
/ s /
[ s ] [ ʃ ]

9. Morphology Languages combine “elements” to form meaning E.g.
English I will love you
Swahili ni- ta- ku- penda
French je -erai aim t’ (je t’aimerai)
The concept of ‘word’ differs cross-linguistically 9

10. Morphology “The analysis of the structure of words.” Morpheme10
Morphology
“The analysis of the structure of words.”
Morpheme
“Minimal unit of grammatical function”
(Yule, 67)
building blocs used to form meaning
Words, sentences

11. Minimal grammatical unit11
Morphemes vs words
Morpheme
Word
Minimal grammatical unit
Lexical unit
Cannot be broken down in further
May contain only one morpheme
Monomorphemic word
May contain several morphemes
Morphologically complex word
Table
Water
The
s (as in tables)
ed (as in walked)
- ing (as in sleeping)
Sleep
Walk+ed
Sleep+ing
Table+s
May contain only 1 morpheme
Monomorphemic word
May contain several morphemes
morphologically complex word

12. Identifying morphemes12
Identifying morphemes
Is a word monomorphemic or morphologically complex?
Questions to ask:
Can the word be broken down any further into smaller meaning and grammatical functions?
Are some parts of the word found in other contexts with a similar form and meaning?

13. Identifying morphemes13
Identifying morphemes
E.g. “singer”
Meanings
Sing
to utter a series of words or sounds in musical tones
-er
someone who...
Forms found in other contexts
e.g. sing, singer, singing
e.g. dancer, writer, teacher

14. Identifying morphemes14
Identifying morphemes
E.g. “quickly”
Meanings
quick
with speed
-ly
manner, way of being
Forms found in other contexts
quick, quicker, quickest
slowly, plainly, openly

15. Identifying morphemes15
Identifying morphemes
Is it really a morpheme?
The same string of letters can be a morpheme in one word and not in another
Identify the word in each column that is NOT morphologically complex
(1) (2)
Redo darker
Rewrite slower
Regret later
Repay flower
≠ gret again
≠ more flow

16. Types of morphemes Bound Free Must be bound to another morpheme16
Types of morphemes
Bound
Free
Must be bound to another morpheme
Can stand on its own
“affix”
- prefix (before): reread
- suffix (after): singer
“lexeme”
noun, verbs, adjectives, etc.
Closed class
- Small number
- New ones rarely added
Open class
Large number
New ones often added
E.g. -ly, -ness, -er, re-, un-
E.g. flower, door, sun

17. Types of morphemes Root vs. stem Care + less + ness E.g. Stem Root
free bound
(Yule, p.68) 17

18. Bound and free morphemes18
Bound and free morphemes
Identify the morphemes
Say what kind? (bound or free/stem)
Walked
Impatient
fastest
rereading
Free/root stem bound
walk -ed
patient im-
fast -est
read reread re-, -ing
(reading)

19. Free morphemes Content words Grammatical words
Lexical
Functional
Content words
Grammatical words
verbs, nouns, adjectives
Conjunctions, articles, prepositions, pronouns
E.g. car, pretty, write, cold
E.g. And, because, in, the
Open class
Large number
New ones often added
Closed class
- Small number
- New ones rarely added 19

20. Bound morphemes Derivational morphemes Inflectional morphemes
Creates new words
Inflectional morphemes
Adds grammatical information to the same word 20

21. Derivational morphemes
Creates new words
May involves a change of word class:
E.g.
adjective → noun soft – softness;
noun → adjective taste – tasteless; love – lovely
verb → noun pay – payment; teach - teacher
No change
E.g. legal – illegal; do – undo; wife – ex-wife; etc.
Prefix
Re-, pre-, ex-, co-, un-, etc.
Suffix
-ly, -ness, -ful, -ment, -less, -ish, er, etc. 21

22. Inflectional morphemes
Adds grammatical information to a word
Does not change the category
8 inflectional morphemes in English
Plural books; churches;
Possessive John’s
Present participle playing
3rd person singular she plays
Past played
Past participle (have) taken, (have) played
Comparative faster
Superlative fastest 22

23. Derivational vs. inflectional23
Derivational vs. inflectional
Are the underlined morphemes derivational or inflectional morphemes?
Hint does it create a new word (deriv.) or does it add grammatical information (inflect.)
Julie’s
teacher
tallest
prepay
basically
inflectional
derivational
Inflectional

24. Combining morphemes
Words containing a derivational and an inflectional morpheme
Derivational before inflectional
E.g. Root?
Stem?
teach + er + s
Teach
teacher 24

25. Summary
(Yule, p.70) 25

26. Special cases E.g. It is sometimes difficult to identify morphemes26
Special cases
It is sometimes difficult to identify morphemes
E.g.
Plurals nouns
Tooth → teeth
Man → men
Mouse → mice
Fish → fish
Verbs in the past tense
Swim → swam
Put → put

27. Next class... Syntax To do for next class
Read Yule Ch.7-8 (up to p.103)
Practice exercise – morphology
See virtual campus 27