Summary of English Morphology for Morpho-Syntax Progress Test #1

Progress Test #1_Morpho-Syntax

MORPHO-SYNTAX

INTRODUCTION

§  Morphology is the analysis of word structure.

§  Morphology è Greek word ‘morphe’ (form, shape), is the area of grammar concerned with the structure of words and with relationships between words involving the morphemes that compose them.

§  Morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function.

Example: build (construct) and –er (one who builds).

§  Morpheme is the smallest parts of words.

§  Mono-morphemic is consisting of just one morpheme.

§  Poly-morphemic is consisting of more than one morpheme.

WORDS AND WORD STRUCTURE

§  Free morpheme is a morpheme that can be a word by itself.

§  Free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand alone.

Example: read, hear, listen, and write.

§  Bound morpheme is a morpheme that must be attached to another element.

§  Bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot stand alone.

Example: -ing, -able/-ible, re-, and un-.

§  Allomorphs are the variant forms of a morpheme.

§  Allomorphs are many morphemes have two or more different pronunciations.

Example:

[s] as in cats and lamps.

àwhen the preceding sound is voiceless (produced with no vibration of the vocal folds in the larynx), the [s] allomorph occurs.

[z] as in dogs and days.

àafter a vowel or a voiced consonant, the [z] allomorph occurs.

[ɪz] or [əz] as in horses or judges.

àwhen the preceding sound is a sibilant, the [ɪz] or [əz] allomorphs occur.

§  Root carries the major component of the word’s meaning and belongs to a lexical category – Noun (N), Verb (V), Adjective (A), or Preposition (P).

Example: Nouns (tree, treatment), verbs (treat, teach), adjectives (kind, red), and prepositions (in, near).

§  Root [a core of a word] is to denote the morpheme that makes the most precise and concrete contributions to the word’s meaning.

§  Affix is an extremely common morphological process in language.

§  Affix is an umbrella term for prefixes and suffixes (broadly speaking, for all morphemes that are not roots).

§  Prefixes: en- (enlarge), de- (deactivate), re-(replay), inter- (intermarry), in- (inaccurate).

§  Suffixes: -ly (vividly), -ment (government), -er (hunter, seeker), -ness (kindness, whiteness), -ance (performance), -able (readable), -ant (applicant), -ate (obfuscate), -ity (clarity), -ition (rendition), -ify (magnify), -ence (audience), -ible (legible), -en (darken), -ing (listening).

§  Infixes are type of affix that occurs within a base.

Example: -um-, -in-

§  Bases are the form to which an affix is added. In many cases, the base is also the root.

Example: books = book (base) + s (affix)

§  A morphological process is a linguistic process that creates word forms by applying the morphological rules within a morphological system.

Example(s):

§  A Word Formation Process.

§  A Compounded Word Generation Process.

§  A Lexeme Derivation Rule (with Derivational Morphemes).

§  An Agglutination Process.

§  An Inflected Word Generation Process, e.g. Plural ‘wolf’ = wolves and Past Tense ‘go’ = went.

§  A Word Contraction Process, e.g. ‘let us’ = let’s and ‘Common Era’ = CE.

DERIVATION

§  English derivational affixes

AFFIX	CHANGE	EXAMPLES
Suffixes
-able	V à A	Fix-able, do-able, understand-able
-(at)ion	V à N	Realiz-ation, assert-ion, protect-ion
-er	V à N	Teach-er, work-er
-ing1	V à N	The shoot-ing, the danc-ing
-ing2	V à A	The sleep-ing giant, a blaz-ing fire
-ive	V à A	Assert-ive, impress-ive, restrict-ive
-al	V à N	Refus-al, dispos-al
-ment	V à N	Adjourn-ment, treat-ment, amaze-ment
-ful	N à A	Faith-ful, hope-ful, dread-ful
-(i)al	N à A	President-ial, nation-al, medic-al
-(i)an1	N à A	Arab-ian, Singapore-an, Mali-an
-(i)an2	N à A	Einstein-ian, Newton-ian, Chomsky-an
-ic	N à A	Cub-ic, optimist-ic, moron-ic
-ize1	N à V	Hospital-ize, crystal-ize
-less	N à A	Penni-less, brain-less
-ous	N à A	Poison-ous, lecher-ous
-ate	A à V	Active-ate, captive-ate
-en	A à V	Dead-en, black-en, hard-en
-ity	A à N	Stupid-ity, prior-ity
-ize2	A à V	Modern-ize, familiar-ize
-ly	A à Adv	Quiet-ly, slow-ly, careful-ly
-ness	A àN	Happi-ness, sad-ness
Prefixes
anti-	N à N	Anti-abortion, anti-pollution
de-	V à V	De-activate, de-mystify
dis-	V à V	Dis-continue, dis-obey
ex-	N à N	Ex-president, ex-wife, ex-friend
in-	A à A	In-competent, in-complete
mis-	V à V	Mis-identify, mis-place
un1-	A à A	Un-happy, un-fair, un-intelligent
un2-	V à V	Un-tie, un-lock,un-do
re-	V à V	Re-think, re-do, re-state

§  Complex derivation is derivation which can apply more than once, it is possible to create multiple levels of word structure.

Example: act (V)-ive(Af)-ate(Af)-ion(Af); un(Af)-happy(A)-ness(Af); un(Af)-health(N)-y(Af).

§  Constraints on derivation are derivation which does not apply freely to the members of a given category.

Example:

1.       Suffix -ant can combine only with Latinate bases as is defendant, assailant, contestant, and servant.

2.       Suffix -en can only combine with a monosyllabic base that ends in an obstruent.

ACCEPTABLE	UNACCEPTABLE
Whiten	Abstracten
Soften	Bluen
Madden	Angryen
Quicken	Slowen
Liven	Greenen

Abstract has two syllables and blue does not end in an obstruent.

INFLECTION

§  Inflectional morphology (inflection) deals with inflected forms of words that are the kind of variation that words exhibit on the basis of their grammatical context.

§  Regular inflection: suffixing -s is the regular method of forming plurals. Example: performs.

§  Irregular inflection is a kind of idiosyncrasy that dictionaries need to acknowledge by indications.

Example:

1.       Tooth à teeth

2.       Child à children

3.       Man à men

4.       Ox à oxen  

§  Inflection vs. Derivation

è Because inflection and derivation are both marked by affixation, the distinction between the two can be a subtle one and it is sometimes unclear which function a particular affix has. There are 3 criteria are commonly used to help distinguish inflectional and derivational affixes:

1.       Category change

Inflection does not change either the grammatical category or the type of meaning found in the word to which it applies.

Example of the inflection output (there is no change in either the category of the base or the type of meaning it denotes):

·         Book(N) + s(Af) = books(N)

·         Work(V) + ed(Af) = worked(V)

Example of the derivation output (there is a change in the category of the base and/or the type of meaning it denotes):

·         Modern(A) + ize(Af) = modernize(V)

·         Govern(V) + ment(Af) = government(N)

·         Season(N) + al(Af) = seasonal(A)

·         King(N) + dom(Af) = kingdom(N)

2.       Order

Inflectional affixes have to do with the order in which they are combined with a base relative to derivational affixes.

Example of the relative positioning of derivational and inflectional affixes (the derivational affix must be closer to the root):

·         Neighbor(N, Root) + hood(Af, DA) + s(Af, IA) = neighborhoods(N)

·         Neighbor(N, Root) + s(Af, IA) + hood(Af, DA) = neighborshood(N)

3.       Productivity

The relative freedom with which they can combine with bases of the appropriate category.

Example: -ize can combine with only certain adjectives to form a verb

·         Modern-ize

·         Legal-ize

·         Regular-ize

·         Priorit-ize

VERB	WITH -ed	WITH -ment
Confine	Confined	Confinement
Align	Aligned	Alignment
Treat	Treated	Treatment
Arrest	Arrested	Arrestment
Straight	Straightened	Straightenment
Cure	Cured	Curement

§  English inflectional affixes: English is not a highly inflected language.

Nouns
1.   Plural -s	The books
Verbs
2.   3rd person sg non-past –s	John reads well.
3.   Progressive –ing	He is working.
4.   Past tense –ed	He worked.
5.   Past participle -en/-ed	He has eaten/studied.
Adjectives
6.   Comparative –er	The smaller one.
7.   Superlative -est	The smallest one.
8.   -en	Eat, ate, eaten

§  Examples of inflection

1.       Number is the morphological category that expresses contrasts involving countable quantities.

Example: singular (one) and plural (more than one).

2.       Noun class is some languages divide nouns into two or more inflectional classes.

3.       Case is a category that encodes information about an element’s grammatical role (subject, direct object).

COMPOUNDING

§  Compounds are words which consist of free root.

Example: bookcase, motorbike, penknife, truck-driver, greenhouse, blackboard, and wet suit.

§  Types of compounds:

1.       Endocentric

Example: N – N compounds (steamboat, airplane, air hose, air field, fire truck, fire drill, bath tub, bath towel).

2.       Exocentric

Example: maple leafs, sabre tooths, bigfoots, walkmans.

§  Other types of word formation:

1.       Conversion is a process that assigns an already existing word to a new syntactic category. OR the processes available in derivational morphology whereby a lexeme belonging to one class can simply be ‘converted’ to another, without any overt change in shape.

Examples:

V derived from N	N derived from V	V derived from A
Finger (a suspect)	(a building) permit	Dirty (a shirt)
Butter (the bread)	(an exciting) contest	Empty (the box)
Ship (the package)	(a new) survey	Open (a door)
Nail (the door shut)	(a brief) report	Right (a wrong)
Button (the shirt)	( a long) walk	Dry (the clothes)

2.       Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more syllables.

Example:

·         Prof for professor.

·         Phys-ed for physical education.

·         Poli-sci for political science.

·         Burger for hamburger.

·         Doc for document.

·         Lab for laboratory.

·         Zoo for zoological garden.

3.       Blends are words that are created from non-morpheme parts of two already existing items.

Example:

·         Brunch from breakfast and lunch.

·         Smog from smoke and fog.

·         Spam from spiced and ham.

·         Telethon from telephone and marathon.

·         Aerobicise from aerobics and exercise.

·         Chunnel from channel and tunnel.

·         Infomercial from information and commercial.

4.       Backformation is a process that creates a new word by removing a real or supposed affix from another word in the language.

Example:

·         Resurrect from resurrection.

·         Housekeep from housekeeper.

·         Enthuse from enthusiasm.

·         Donate from donation.

·         Orient or orientate from orientation.

5.       Acronyms are formed by taking the initial letters of some or all of the words in a phrase or title and reading them as a word.

Example:

·         UNICEF for United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.

·         NATO for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

·         AIDS for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

·         EFL for English as a Foreign Language.

·         ESL for English as a Second Language.

6.       Onomatopoeia is words whose sound seems to reflect their meaning fairly directly.

Example of words for animal cries: bow-wow, miaow, cheep, cock-a-doodle-doo.

7.       Other sources à word manufactured (coinage) is a word may be created from scratch, sometimes with the help of a computer.

Example: Kodak, Dacron, Orlon, Teflon, Xerox, Tissue.

           References:

Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew. (2002). An Introduction to English Morphology Words and Their Structure. Edinburgh University Press.

O’Grady. W., M. Dobrovolsky and F. Katamba. (1997). Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. London: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.