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

2. Problem Set Review
Esperanto
Swahili
Cree

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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)

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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)

13. 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

14. 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?…

15. Check This Out FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC
STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
You might want to read through it again.

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

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

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

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

20. Find out more at:

21. 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.

22. 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”

23. 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…

24. 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/)

25. A Sipid Story of Requited Love
“It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella...when I saw her...She was a descript person...Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way.”
--from “How I Met My Wife”, by Jack Winter
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