Introduction to Morphology Prof. Julia Nee Comparative Linguistics Spring 2014, LaSalle University Words, Words, Words • Chapter 5 of “The Language Instinct” • Please read Chapter 5 What is morphology? • Study of morphemes • Morphemes = smallest meaningful unit of language • Ex: teachers = teach-er-s – Teach = verb (action of teaching) – -er = derivational morpheme (one who does the action X) – -s = inflectional morpheme (‘plural’) Derivational vs. Inflectional • Derivational morphemes change the part of speech of the word – -er (teach-er, bake-er, sing-er, etc.) – -ness (good-ness, bright-ness, happy-ness, etc.) • Inflectional morphemes add grammatical meaning but do not change the part of speech of the word – -ing (walk-ing, sing-ing, dance-ing, etc.) – -s (dog-s, bike-s, sock-s, etc.) Derivational or inflectional? • From Kivunjo: Näïkí´mlyíïá – N-: Marker indicating that the word is the focus of that point in the conversation – -ä-: A subject agreement marker – -ï-: Present tense – -kí-: Object agreement marker (tells what is being eaten) – -m-: Benefactive marker (indicates for whose benefit the action is taking place) – -lyí-: “to eat” (verb) – -ï-: applicative marker, indicating that there’s one additional player – -á: indicative mood • “He is eating it for her.” Derivational or inflectional? • Learnable – Learn: verb – X-able: quality indicating ability to do X • Unmicrowaveability – Un-X: not X – Microwave: noun – X-able: quality indicating ability to do X – X-ity: noun indicating the quality of X Structure of Words • Morphemes can be added in a structured way N Nstem Ninflection Dog -s • N Nstem Ninflection • “A noun can consist of a noun stem followed by a noun inflection.” Structure of Words • Why is it important to have the concept of Noun = Nounstem + inflection? • We can apply the rule of inflection to all nouns! • Don’t need to memorize 1 cat, 2 cats and 1 dog, 2 dogs, etc. • Memorize 1 nounstem, 2 nounstem + inflection (-s) Compound Nouns • Two nstems can be combined to form a new word: Book Report • Nstem Nstem Nstem • “A noun stem can consist of a noun stem followed by another noun stem.” • In a compound noun, the first noun is NOT an adjective: – This report is interesting. – *This report is book. Derivational Affixes • New stems can be formed by adding derivational affixes • Astem Stem Astemaffix • -able: adjective stem affix, means “capable of being X’d”, attach me to a verb stem Astem Vstem Crunch Astemaffix -able Derivational Affixes • We can figure out the meaning of the word based on the affix: – Crunch-ability means capable of being crunched – Wug-ability means capable of being “wugged” • Words with morphemes have a “head,” which is the main element in the word – In English, the “head” is the rightmost morpheme – Describes the essence of the word Deriving Words • Words can only be derived in certain ways • Smallest part of a word (not a morpheme) = root • Certain morphemes can only attach to a root, like –ism – Darwin-ism – *Darwins-ism Irregularity • Why do some words not take their predicted irregular forms? – Fly out to center field > flied out – Maple Leaf > Maple Leafs – Walkman > Walkmans • …especially when others do? – Snowman > snowmen – Blow him away > blew him away Irregularity • When larger words are created out of smaller words, the new word gets its properties from the head • Compounded words get their meaning from their head: – A snowman is a type of ‘man’ gets its properties from ‘man’ – ‘man’ has an irregular plural ‘men’, so snowman has the same irregular plural form Irregularity • But what about compounded words that don’t have a head? – A Walkman isn’t a type of ‘man’ – It doesn’t inherit the irregularity of ‘man’ > ‘men’ Allomorphs • Allomorphs = phonological shapes that a morpheme can have • Ex: /t/, /d/, and /ɪd/ for the “ed” form of English verbs • Usually phonologically, lexically, or grammatically conditioned Allomorphs • Phonologically conditioned: – [-ed] > t / [-voice]_ – [-ed] > d / [+voice]_ – [-ed] > ɪd / (t,d)_ • Lexically conditioned: – Cat > cats – Mouse > mice – Ox > oxen Allomorphs • Grammatically conditioned – La mesa blanca – El sillón blanco – Los tapetes blancos Loss of Allomorphs • Results from: – Sound change – Analogical change • Sound change makes two allomorphs sound the same • Analogical change words take on the patters of similar words – Ex: strive : strove : striven > strive : strived : strived, like arrive : arrived : arrived Boundary Changes • Boundary loss = the boundary separating two morphemes disappears so that the two morphemes are seen as one – English ‘a’ meaning ‘on’ as in abroad, alive, aloud, around, aware, away • Boundary shift = the boundary moves – A nuncle > an uncle – An ewte > a newt Boundary Changes • New boundary creation = insert boundaries where there weren’t any before – Usually related to ‘folk etymology’ – Ex: hamburger • Hamburg-er • Ham-burger cheese-burger, fishburger, burger • Change in type of boundary = independent words can become a clitic or an affix, or vice versa – Ex: ex-girlfriend, ex-husband ‘ex’ “One Form, One Meaning” • Also known as “Humboldt’s Universal” or “Principle of Isomorphism” • Tendency that languages change to maximize the one-to-one relationship between form and meaning • If you have two morphemes that sound the same (-s of plural and ‘s of possessive), the language will differentiate them if possible • If you have multiple allomorphs of a morpheme, they’ll become one allomorph What is a word? • Multiple definitions – “Linguistic object that, even if build out of parts by the rules of morphology, behaves as the indivisible, smallest unit with respect to the rules of syntax.” (pg. 142) • The monster eats mice. What does the monster eat? Mice! • The monster is a mice-eater. What is the monster an – eater? *Mice! – “String of linguistic stuff that is arbitrarily associated with a particular meaning.” (Listeme)