Systemic Linguistics:
Core Linguistics
• words are signs
• signifier = form = morphology (phonology)
• signified = meaning = semantics
(pragmatics)
• combination of words = sentence structure =
syntax
Morphology: language types
• analytic languages signal grammatical
relationships by word position in the
sentence (= word order)
• synthetic languages signal grammatical
relationships by the shape of the words
(=inflectional endings)
• 1500 years ago, English was much more
synthetic than it is today. It has changed
into a more analytic language
Morphology
• definition: morphology studies the smallest
meaningful units, called 'morphemes'
• morpheme ≠ phoneme (pit vs. bit)
• morpheme ≠ word (blueberry, autobus)
• morpheme ≠ syllable (mo-ther)
• types of morphemes:
• a) free morphemes: may occur on their
own and are used freely according to the
rules of sentence structure, for example
'boy', 'tree', 'church', 'go', 'leave', 'love'.
• b) bound morphemes (affixes): cannot
usually stand alone but are attached to a
free morpheme (= 'base'), e.g 're-', '-ed', 's'.
• types of bound morphemes:
•
•
•
•
- prefixes (in-, re-)
- suffixes (-dom, -ship)
- infixes (heim-ge-kommen)
- circumfixes (heim-ge-kehr-t)
• morpheme, morph and allomorph
• morphemes are ideal abstract units,
whereas the corresponding morphs can
show some variation
• morphs are concrete manifestations of a
morphome
• allomorphs are variations of morphemes
• /z/ in "dogs, beds"
• /s/ in "cats"
• /iz/ in "garages"
overview of the discipline
Morphology
Inflection
Word-Formation
Derivation
Compounding
• types of inflection
• a) declension of nouns, adjectives, and
pronouns
• b) conjugation of verbs.
• derivational morphemes (affixes) are
used for word formation
Word formation
• word formation processes
• a) derivation
• definition: a combination of a free and
bound morpheme(s)
- by far the most common word formation
process in the production of new words
• examples of derivation:
derivation: exceptions
• Cranberry morph(eme)s are bound
morphemes which occur in only one
derivation (or compound) but nowhere
else: e.g. cranberry, inane, umpteen
• similar words (strawberry, inactive,
thirteen) suggest that they are indeed
morphemes
• cranberry morphs are relics of words
which have died out in other uses
• b) compounding
• definition: a combination two or more
free morphemes
• German is notorious for long words (e.g.
Weihnachtsbaumschmuckvertriebsorganis
ationshandbuchverkäufer), compounds in
English do not usually exceed two units
• examples of compounding:
• Endocentric compounds: the compound
is an instance of the thing denoted by the
last constituent (e.g. houseboat is a type
of boat, boathouse is a type of house; a
person who is seasick is sick)
• Exocentric compounds: the compound
does not refer to an entity denoted by
either constituent (a paleface is not a type
of face, but a person who has a pale face)
• examples of exocentric compounds:
paleface, redskin, redneck, skinhead,
bigfoot, pickpocket
• Copulative compounds: both
constituents refer to the entity denoted by
the whole compound. An owner-builder is
both an owner of a house and its builder.
• e.g. singer-songwriter, bittersweet, deafmute
• compounds need to be defined on several
linguistic levels
• morphology (free morphemes)
• phonology (stress on the first element)
• semantics (unity)
minor word formation processes
• c) coinage: means the invention of totally
new terms
• the most typical cases are invented trade
names for a company’s product which
become general terms for any version of
that product (without initial capital letters)
e.g. 'xerox', 'kleenex' or 'aspirin'
• d) conversion: involves a change in the
function of a word, e.g. when a noun
comes to be used as a verb (without any
reduction or change)
• E.g. ‘to paper a wall’ (paper) or ‘a must’
(from the verb ‘must')
•
•
e) acronymy: acronyms are formed from
the initial letters of a set of other words
acronyms are pronounced as single
words, e.g. 'NATO', 'RADAR', 'LASER'
(unlike in the case of 'CD', which is an
initialism)
• f) backformation: means a special type of
reduction process: a word of one type
(usually a noun) is reduced to form
another word of a different type (usually a
verb)
• E.g. ‘donate’ (from donation), ‘babysit’
(from babysitter) and ‘televise’ (from
television)
• g) blending: means a combination of two
separate forms to produce a single new
term. Blending usually involves taking the
beginning of one word and joining it to the
end of the other word
• E.g. ‘smog’, ‘brunch’ and ‘modem’
• h) clipping: means that a word of more
than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to
a shorter form
• E.g. ‘bus’, ‘ad’ and ‘bra’
• i) borrowing: refers to the taking over of
words from other languages
• English has adopted a great number of
loan-words throughout its history
• E.g. ‘yogurt’ (Turkish) and ‘alcohol’
(Arabic)