1. Introduction to Linguistics Chapter 3: Morphology
Instructor: LIU Hongyong

2. Review: Phonology vs. Phonetics
Both Phonetics and phonology can be generally described as the study of human speech sounds.
Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced, what their physical properties are, and how they are interpreted by hearers.
Phonology is the study investigating the organization of speech sounds in a particular language.
True or false: Allophones never appear in minimal pairs.

3. Assignment 2: Phonetics & Phonology (Due date: Oct. 30, 2009)
1. P.31 Exercise 6
2. P.32 Exercise 7
3. Follow the flowchart (p.91), and do the required phonological analyses.
a. Sindhi
b. English

4. Morphology (形态学) & Morphology is the study of
the internal structure of words（词的内部结构）
(morphological structure of words)
&
processes/rules of word formation （构词法）
(morphological processes of word-formation)

5. Internal structure of words and rules for word formation
disapprove = dis + approve
2. Rules for word formation
disapprove *approvedis
dis+V--> V *V+dis-->V

6. Classification of words: Open class and closed class
1. Open class words: or content words, to which new words can be regularly added
Nouns, verbs, adjectives , adverbs
2. Closed class words: or “grammatical” or “functional”words, to which new words are not usually added
Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns

7. Definition
Morphology: the study of the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed.

8. Morpheme (语素）
The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language. (lexical and grammatical meaning)
A morpheme must have a meaning, and it is the smallest unit of meaning (the smallest sound-meaning union which cannot be further analyzed into smaller units)

9. Morpheme vs. Phoneme
A phoneme is a phonological unit (normally a sound) with contrastive value, which means replacing one sound with the other in a word can change the word's meaning.
但是phoneme本身不具有意义。
pit: [p] [i] [t]
bit: [b] [i] [t]
/p/与/b/是不同的两个phoneme，因为如果将pit中的/p/换成/b/，那么pit就变成了bit，词的意义发生了根本性的改变。但是这并不是说/p/或者/b/具有意义。

10. Morpheme vs. Syllable
The word lady can be divided into two syllables (la.dy), but it consists of just one morpheme, because a syllable has nothing to do with meaning.
The word disagreeable can be divided into five syllables (dis.a.gree.a.ble), but it consists of only three morphemes (dis+agree+able).
The word books contains only one syllable, but it consists of two morphemes (book+s) (Notice: the morpheme –s has a grammatical meaning [Plural])

11. The internal structure of words
Lexical or Grammatical
Words can have an internal structure, i.e. they are decomposable into smaller meaningful parts. These smallest meaningful units we call morphemes.
read+er re+read en+able dark+en
Mary+’s print+ed cat+s go+es
Genitive case
Past tense
Plural marker
3rd singular
Present-tense
grammatical/inflectional morpheme

12. Morpheme, Morph, Allomorph
books /-s/
pigs /-z/
boxes /-iz/
A morph is a physical form representing a certain morpheme in a language.
Sometimes different morphs may represent the same morpheme; i.e., a morpheme may take different forms. If so, they are called allomorphs of that morpheme.
two different spelling forms， and three different phonological forms, but these different forms represent the same grammatical meaning [Plural])

13. Complementary Distribution
Allomorphs are morphs in complementary distribution; i.e. they are never found in identical contexts.
The choice of allomorph used in a given context is normally based on the properties of the neighboring sounds.
Example: The third person singular verb suffix and the plural nominal suffix –s in English
allomorphs
morpheme
PLURAL
[s]
[z]
[iz]
morph
morph
morph

14. Complementary Distribution
allomorphs
morpheme
negative morpheme in-
morph1: im morph2: in morph3: in
impossible indecent incomplete
[imp---] [ind---] [iŋk---]
bilabial
nasal
bilabial
stop
alveolar
stop
alveolar
stop
velar
nasal
velar
stop

15. Classification of Morphemes
Morphemes can be classified in various ways.
free or bound
root or affix
inflectional or derivational

16. Free and Bound Morphemes
We can divide reader into read and –er. However, we cannot split read into smaller morphemes. This means that the word read is itself a single morpheme.
A morpheme which can stand alone as a word is called a free morpheme. By contrast, -er has to combine with other morphemes. So it is a bound morpheme.

17. Root, stem & affix nature + al = natural
Affixes: bound morphemes which attach to roots or stems.
un + nature + al = unnatural
Stem: a root plus affixes
Root: the basic morpheme
which provides the central
meaning in a word
Complex Word
simple word
unnatural
naturalistic
natural
naturalist
naturalism
nature

18. Base nature + al = natural
Linguists sometimes use the word “Base” to mean any root or stem to which an affix is attached. In this example, nature, natural, and unnaturally would all be considered bases.
un + nature + al = unnatural
un + nature + al + ly = unnaturally

19. complex word Stem/base Stem/base . affix affix Root/base affix nature
-al
-ist

20. bound root morphemes Free Bound Root dog, cat, run, school…
All mophemes are bound or free. Affixes are bound morphemes. Root morphemes, can be bound or free.
-ceive:
receive;
perceive;
conceive;
deceive
-mit:
permit;
commit;
transmit;
admit;
remit;
submit
ceive was once a word in Latin ‘to take’, but in Modern English, it is no longer a word, so it is not a free morpheme.
Free
Bound
Root
dog, cat, run, school…
(per)ceive, (re)mit, (homo)geneous,…
Affix
(friend)ship, re(do), (sad)ly…

21. Example of bound root revive vitamin vital vivacious vivid
Latin root viv-/vit- meaning “life” or “to live”.
revive
vitamin
vital
vivacious
vivid
re-vive: to live again, to bring back to life
vit-amin: life medicine
vit-al: full of life
viv-acious: full of life
viv-id: having the quality of life

22. Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes
Affixes can be divided into inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes. This reflects two major morphological (word building) processes:
Inflection
Derivation
Helps to ‘wrap’
lexical words for various
grammatical functions
Helps to make new
lexical words

23. Inflectional Morphemes
Inflectional morphemes do not change grammatical category of the base to which they are attached. They do not change the meaning of the base. They only carry relevant grammatical information, e.g. plural. Thus, book and books are both nouns referring to the same kind of entity.
The number of inflectional affixes is small and fixed. NO new ones have been added since 1500.

24. Examples of Inflectional Affixes
Suffix
Stem
Function
Example -s N
plural
book-s V
3rd singular
present tense
sleep-s
-ed
past tense
walk-ed
-ing
progressive
walk-ing
-er
Adj
comparative
tall-er
-est
superlative
tall-est

25. Derivational Morphemes
Derivational morphemes form new words
either by changing the meaning of the base to which they are attached
kind ~ unkind; obey ~ disobey
accurate ~ inaccurate; act ~ react
cigar ~ cigarette; book ~ booklet
or by changing the grammatical category (part of speech) of the base
kind ~ kindly; act ~ active ~ activity
able ~ enable; damp ~ dampen
care ~ careful; dark ~ darkness

26. Examples of Derivational Affixes
Prefix
Grammatical category of base
Grammatical category of output
Example
in-
Adj
inaccurate
un-
unkind V
untie
dis-
dis-like
dishonest
re-
rewrite
ex- N
ex-wife
en-
encourage
Suffix
Grammatical category of base
Grammatical category of output
Example
-hood N
child-hood
-ship
leader-ship
-fy V
beauti-fy
-ic
Adj
poet-ic
-less
power-less
-ful
care-ful
-al
refus-al
-er
read-er

27. Sum: Inflection and Derivation
Derivational morphemes are used to create new lexical items (lexemes).
Inflectional morphemes only contribute to the inflectional paradigm of the lexemes, which lists all the word-forms of the lexeme.
Free
(自由)
free root (自由词根)
morpheme
bound root (粘着词根)
Bound
(粘着)
inflectional affixes (语法性后缀)
affixes
derivational affixes (词汇性后缀)

28. Summary Words are composed of morphemes.
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit.
Morphemes can be classified into free morphemes and bound morphemes, roots and affixes, inflectional and derivational.
The concept of morpheme is important in explaining word-formation processes. In English the most central and productive word-formation processes are compounding and affixation. Compounding refers to the word-formation process of combining two free morphemes, and affixation refers to the word-formation process of adding affixes to roots.

29. Internal structure of a word
The internal structure of a word is hierarchical rather than flat.
unbelievable
un+believe+able
*[[un+believe] +able]
[un + [believe +able]]

30. Morphological Complexity
This tree shows the internal morphological structure of the word
regionalize: region+al+ize
[[[region] al] ize]
regionalizeV
regionalA izeV
regionN alA

31. Morphological Complexity
This tree represents the application of two morphological rules:
re+VV
2. V+ationN
reunification
reunificationN
reunifyV ationN
re unifyV

32. Word structure: which is correct?
Prefix un- can mean ‘to do the reverse of’ and combine with a verb to form a new verb.
unloadableA
unloadV ableA
un loadV
unloadableA
un loadableA
loadV ableA
un+VV
V+ableA
V+ableA
un+AA

33. Major word-formation processes
Affixation (Derivation)
Compounding
Endocentric compounds
Exocentric compounds

34. Affixation
Affixation involves adding affixes to a root morpheme (or a stem) to
- derive a new word
(derivation: teach-er)
- to realize certain grammatical function
(inflection: boy-s)
An affix is a bound morpheme. There are four types of affixes: prefix, suffix, infix, and circumfix.

35. Prefix Mandarin Cantonese English Language Prefix 老友, 老師, 老兄 可怕, 可喜，可愛
老友, 老師, 老兄
可怕, 可喜，可愛
Cantonese
阿嫲，阿Dean, 阿Sir
細佬，細妹
鬼婆，鬼佬
English
re-name, in-correct
un-tidy, co-author

36. Suffix Mandarin Cantonese English Jingpo (景颇语) Nuosu Yi (诺苏彝语)
Language
Suffix
Mandarin 桌子 石頭 花兒
Cantonese 我哋 碗仔
香港仔
English
kindly
test-ed
Jingpo (景颇语)
ning31-shi31 “small knife”
knife-suffix
Nuosu Yi (诺苏彝语)
si21-du33: knowledge
mu33-du33: task

37. Infix Mandarin Cantonese English Jingpo Nuosu Yi Language Infix
吃得飽
吃不完
Cantonese
邊鬼度
擔咩心
好咩鬼鷄
English
im-frigging-possible
Jingpo
mu33-mi33-mu33 “all the delicious food”
Nuosu Yi
no21-a21-bo21 “not working”

38. Circumfix
In some cases, a prefix and a suffix act together to surround a base. The two realize a single morpheme, and they are classed together as a circumfix.
Data from German
film.en ‘to film’ ge.film.t ‘filmed’
frag.en ‘to ask’ ge.frag.t ‘asked’
The circumfix ge…t is taken to be a single affix, and it is a discontinuous morph.

39. Inflection and Derivation
If derivation and inflection co-occurs, derivations are inner, closer to the stem, and inflections are outer, furthest from the stem.
Example
Base
+Derivation
+Inflection
frightened
fright
-en
-ed
activating
act
-ate
-ing
payments
pay
-ment -s
resignations
resign
-ation
payment-s
pays-ment

40. Review: Word structure of derived words Affixation is ordered
happiness
happiness N
The suffix determines
grammatical category
of the newly derived
word. So it serves as
head of the word. A
Aff
(N) [ [
happy ]
-ness ]

41. unhappiness N head of the newly derived word unhappiness un-happy N A
Aff A [ [
un- [
happy ] ]
-ness ]
It selects an adjective word. It does not change the grammatical category of the root.

42. * [ un - [ [ happy ] - ness ]]]
No relation can be established to form one structural unit (constituent). The affix “un-” selects an adjectival (A) root/base, but not a nominal (N) one.
Aff N A
Aff (N)
* [
un- [
happy
-ness ] ]

43. Compounding
Compounding is a word-formation process consisting of combining two or more roots to form a compound .
airmail air force air-conditioner
flowerpot flower pot flower-pot
airline air line air-line
girlfriend girl friend girl-friend
Spelling is not a reliable criterion to determine the compound status.

44. Endocentric Compounds
向心複合詞
Semantically, an endocentric compound indicates a sub-grouping within the class of entities that the head denotes. Thus, a schoolboy is a kind of boy,
a bedroom is a kind of room, and
a teapot is a kind of pot.
The first root in each case functions as a modifier of the head
which specifies the meaning of the head more precisely.
Head 心

45. Examples of Endocentric Compound
N N
A N
V N　　　　　　　ＮＶ（＋affix）
arm-chair
high-court　　　　　　　　　　
swearword house-keeper 　　　　　　　
bookcase
blackboard　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　 baby-sitter 　　　　　　　　
motor-car
　　　　　　　　　pencil sharpener　　　　　　　　　
skyline 地板 白菜
飛船　　　　　　　飛機駕駛員 毛筆 青天
抽屜　　　　　　　食品儲藏櫃
火車站 大腦
插圖　　　　　　　服裝設計師

46. Exocentric Compounds
異心複合詞
Compounds need not always contain a head. Such compounds are called exocentric compounds.
The meaning of an exocentric compound is opaque. It is impossible to work out what an exocentric compound means from the sum of the meanings of its parts.

47. Examples of Exocentric Compounds (English)
Pickpocket: it is not a pocket, but a person who picks things out of other’s pocket illegally.
Blue collar: it is not a collar, but a person who wears blue-collared uniform at work.
Laptop: it is not the top of one’s lap, but rather the portable computer.
Blockhead: it is neither a kind of block nor a kind of head but rather an idiot.
Turncoat: it is not a kind of coat but a renegade.

48. Minor word-formation processes
Initialism and acronyms
Clipping
Blending
Back formation
Words from proper names
Reduplication

49. Initialisms
Initialism is the making of a new word by using the first letters of words, and the new word is called an initialism.
When initialisms are pronounced with the names of the letters of the alphabet, they may be called alphabetisms.
When initialisms are pronounced like independent lexical items, they are called acronyms.

50. BBC VIP CIA ISBN ROM WTO BO VD MIT SCNU AI VOA UFO IMF
British Broadcasting Corporation
VIP
very important person
CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
ISBN
International Standard Book Number
ROM
read-only-memory
WTO
World Trade Organization BO
body odor VD
venereal disease
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SCNU
South China Normal University AI
artificial intelligence
VOA
Voice of America
UFO
Unidentified flying object
IMF
International monetary fund

51. More examples of acronyms
laser
lightwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
TEFL
Teaching English as a foreign language
TSSL
Teaching English as a second language
TOEFL
Test of English as a foreign language
TESOL
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
OPEC
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
SARS
Severe acute respiratory syndrome
NATO
North Altlantic Treaty Organization
UNESCO
United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization
DINK
dual income no kid

52. Clipping
Clipping involves the type of word-formation device in which only part of the stem is retained. The beginning may be retained as in lab (from laboratory), the end as in phone (from telephone), the middle as in flu (from influenza).

53. More examples of Clipping
dorm
(dormitory)
photo
(photograph)
demo
(demonstration)
memo
(memorandum)
exam
(examination)
bus
(omnibus)
fridge
(refrigerator)
maths
(mathematics)
bike
(bicycle)
auto
(automobile) ad
(advertisement)
copter
(helicopter)
gym
(gymnasium)
prof
(professor)

54. Blending
A blend may be defined as a new lexeme built from parts of two (or more) words or a word plus a part of another word, for example, brunch (breakfast + lunch); smog (smoke + mog).
Words formed in this way are called ‘blends’.
Blending = clipping + compounding.

55. More examples of blending
smoke + fog  smog
Oxford + Cambridge  Oxbridge
motor + hotel  motel
slang + language  slanguage
American + Indian  Amerind
slim + gynmastics  slimnastics

56. Back-formation Which word is older? Which word do we have first?
donate
donation
edit
editor
ept
inept
daydream
daydreamer

57. But how can I judge which is right?
Back-formation
Back-formation is the making of a new word from an older word which is mistakenly thought to be its derivative.
It involves the shortening of a longer word by cutting away an imagined/supposed derivational suffix.
But how can I judge which is right?
editoredit
edit + or  edit

58. The word edit is often cited as an example of back-formation
The word edit is often cited as an example of back-formation. In other words, edit is not the source of editor, as dive is not the source of diver, which is the expected derivational pattern; rather, the opposite is the case.
Edit in the sense “to prepare for publication,” first recorded in 1793, comes from editor, first recorded in 1712 in the sense “one who edits.”
Diachronic evidence (历时证据):
editor: first recoded in 1712
edit: first recoded in 1793, almost a hundred years later.

59. More examples of back-formation
peddle
peddler
televise
 television
baby-sit
baby-sitter
housekeep
housekeeper
daydream
daydreamer
mass-produce
 mass-production
greed
greedy
ept
inept
vaccum-clean
 vaccum-cleaner
eavesdrop
eavesdropper
donate
donation
typewrite
typewriter

60. Words from Proper Names
Another minor word-formation process is the creation of new words from proper names. The transition from proper names to common nouns is a gradual one.
Proper names
People’s name
Name of places
Book names

61. A good example: sandwich
It originates from John Montagu ( ), Fourth Earl of Sandwich. He was so fond of gambling that he would not leave the gambling table to have a proper meal. He was said to eat while playing. Later,
people used his name to refer to all similar food.