Running head: MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Morphological Analysis
Avdula Deskaj
Salt Lake Community Collage
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Running head: MORPHOLOGIC ANALYISIS
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Abstract
For my linguistic final project, I decided to do the morphologic analysis portion. The
purpose of this assignment was to analyze an individual’s dialectical usage of ten words.
Morphology is the study of patterns of word formation in a given language, including derivation,
inflection, and composition (Dictionary.com). The first step was to find someone to interview.
The next step was to skip that step and instead pick a relative from Albania I had already
interviewed named Ganimete Grajcevci. Finally, I was to tree the words and groups of words
uttered in the interview that could not be found in a standard American dictionary. I found that
my expectations of geographical morphology particular to Albania did not reflect in my
interview with Ganimete, nor did she seem to derive many new words particular to the role
playing nerd population. Often times the new word formations were more particular to literature
and publishing demographics.
Running head: MORPHOLOGIC ANALYISIS
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Introduction
For this project the sample I chose comes from a Recorded Tape I had originally
conducted. I chose this sample because I wanted a pure sample. I also chose it because of the
uniqueness of the sample. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction notes that ―geographical
location is probably the most studied social factor affecting variation and that ―natural barriers,
such as mountain ranges, have helped limit inter-dialect contact and encouraged dialects to
develop along their own distinctive paths I wanted to explore and either disprove or verify this
theory first-hand, paying particularly close attention to morphology and lexicon. I supposed that
having lived in a country for about twenty-two years and stuck to speaking within her own
social class would make Ganimete a perfect candidate to prove my hypothesis. I hypothesized
that Ganimete would show an increased number of morphemes unique to Albania (because she
was born and raised there.)
Participant
My participant was Ganimete Grajcevci, born in Kosovo, raised in Prishtina, Kosovo.
She went to school to study history.
Tools
I used my laptop, the internet, I phone, Camera, I used Merriam Webster Online as my
American dictionary. Honestly, it can be a bit difficult to determine which dictionary is just
American these days, so I used my judgment and googled words that had potential Albanian
origins.
Running head: MORPHOLOGIC ANALYISIS
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Strategy
I emailed Ganimete asking if I could interview her for a school project. She told me that I
could do an interview with her. We met together at my house and I interviewed her.
I listened to and transcribed morphological words that were either not found in an American
dictionary or words that I thought were ―non standard regardless of whether they were
Albanian. I reviewed the Tape multiple times and treed the morphological processes of my
transcribed words.
Results
The morphological trees that I did are at the bottom of the page. The following is a list of words
used by Ganimete in my interview along with their respective definitions, contexts, and
commentaries:
Gonna : contraction. gonna is another way of saying going to. "We're gonna win this game"
Query:
Verb. Sending a request letter to a publisher for manuscript approval.
Craft
Noun. Creating stories. It becomes more about studying craft rather than enjoying books for
their own sake.
Twists
Noun. Reduction of plot twist to just twist. ―If you as an author doesn’t know the twist is
coming, the chance that the reader knows it’s gonna come is even slimmer.
Good fun:
Noun. Very fun. Typically don’t see this construction in the U.S. ―Good fun.
Running head: MORPHOLOGIC ANALYISIS
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Feb (February) Noun. (Not typically used in speech. She used to say February.
Flappiness : Noun. Something or someone of a flappy nature or quality.
Cup-o-tea [stuff]: Adjective. Probably ―cup of tea. Denoting a sense of high-class British, tea
and crumpets with the Queen of England type of setting. (Here, due to the hyphenated nature of
the word, the noun phrase ―cup of tea has become an adjective to modify ―stuff. Cup-o-tea, in
this sense, could not stand on its own without the word ―stuff to modify—it just wouldn’t make
much sense.)
Kinda: contraction. Adjective: kinda is another way of saying kind of. "I think it's kinda funny"
Messing about : Verb. Horse playing. Messing around (sometimes out and about town).
Running head: MORPHOLOGIC ANALYISIS
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Running head: MORPHOLOGIC ANALYISIS
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Conclusion
Unfortunately Ganimete didn’t use nearly as many terms with Albanian as I had
originally presumed she would; she actually used more constructions associated with the
publishing world. This could have been due to a number of reasons, which I will illustrate in this
section. Firstly, Ganimete has implied a certain animosity to where she was raised.
Fleeing at her earliest convenience is hardly indicative of a positive relationship to where she
was raised. I’ve had many friends who resented their origins and this resentment pushed many of
them to adopt another dialect in order to create or step into a different speech community.
It seems like there would be a great deal of pressure to speak and write in ―standard ways rather
than produce Albanianism, which are often stigmatized. Her exposure to both literature and
higher education has painted her morphological and lexical usage with a more academic pattern.
or created errors like formative to indicate former, but this is a fairly common occurrence with
even the most educated of individuals. As Ganimete is an educated individual, I’m sure she was
also aware of her audience, and by extension what Contemporary Linguistics dubs code
switching, or the ability to switch between two or more speech communities by adopting their
particular dialects. And lastly, the interview felt more like an interrogation than a natural
conversation, even though there were apparent (failed) attempts on my part to make it more
conversational. I think the point here is that I couldn’t rely on adherence to a stereotype to
govern my expectations. Yes, I’m admitting I had false expectations or biases prior to this
research project. After all, I’d had much experience with English speakers from Albania, so my
brain constructed expectations for me based on what little exposure I did have.
Running head: MORPHOLOGIC ANALYISIS
References
John Thayer Jensen , (1990). Morphology: Word Structure in Generative Grammar
books.google.com/books?isbn=9027235678
http://www.translate-albanian.com/en/dictionary-english-albanian/slang
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/kid(2014 Merriam-Webster)
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/morphology(2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company)
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