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Morphological Characteristics
1. What is Morphology?
There is a linguistic unit that is smaller than word called morpheme.
Antidisestablishmentarianism
Anti-dis-establish-ment-ari-an-ism
a wug
two ______
Morpheme:
o
o
the smallest meaningful unit of which words consist.
Root: a morpheme to which other morphemes attach.
e.g., wug, dog, cat, eat, and sleep.
Bound morpheme: a morpheme that must attach to a root or stem (i.e., root + affix(es)).
 Inflectional morphemes: e.g., –s attaches to a noun to make a plural form.
 Derivational morphemes: e.g., anti-, dis-, -ment, etc.
1.1 Inflectional morphemes
Inflectional morphemes attach to a stem and create a new form.
FRENCH: person, number, and gender agreement on verbs
Vous parlez.
“You talk.”
Nous parlons.
“We talk.”
ICELANDIC: Case inflection
strákarnir
strákana
“the boys (Subject)”
“the boys (Object)”
1.2 Derivational morphemes
Derivational morphemes attach to a word and create a new word.
A.
Exercise 1
happy
kind
friendly
sick
happiness
kindness
friendliness
sickness
B.
happy
important
employed
known
unhappy
unimportant
unemployed
unknown
Breakdown the following words into morphemes.
nationalistic
reusable
computerization
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2. Inflectional Morphemes in Polynesian
As noted in the early grammars, inflectional morphemes are extremely limited, almost non-existent in
Polynesian languages.
Agreement
Generally, verbs do not agree with the subject in person, number, or gender.
TONGAN
a.
‘Oku nofo ‘a e tamasi’i.
PRS stay SUBJ the boy
‘The boy stays.’
b.
‘Oku nofo ‘a e tamaiki.
PRS stay SUBJ the children
‘The children stays.’
There are few exceptions: some verbs show number agreement.
TONGAN
a.
Na‘e ‘alu ‘a e tamasi’i.
PRS go SUBJ the boy
‘The boy went.’
b.
Na‘e ō ‘a
e tamaiki.
PRS go-pl SUBJ the children
‘The children went.’
Reduplication
TON
SAM
tu’u
kata
milo
taa
‘to stand’
‘to laugh’
‘to twist’
‘to strike’
tutu’u
kakata
mimilo
tataa
Consonant gemination
NUK
TUV
seni
huge
kai
paakaalaga
Tense
sseni
hhuge
kkai
paakaallaga
Verbs do not inflect for tense. (Tense is indicated by an independent lexical item.)
TONGAN
Number
‘to sleep’
‘to open’
‘to eat’
‘to shout’
a.
‘Oku nofo ‘a e tamasi’i.
PRS stay SUBJ the boy
‘The boy stays.’
b.
Na’e nofo ‘a e tamasi’i.
PST stay SUBJ the boy
‘The boy stayed.’
Nouns do not inflect for number. (Plurality is indicated by an independent lexical item.)
HAWAIIAN
a.
he
puke
book
‘a book’
INDEF
b.
he
mau puke
book
‘books’
INDEF PL
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Case
Nouns do not inflect for Case. (Case is indicated by an independent lexical item.)
MAORI
a.
I
kai te wahine.
the woman
‘The woman ate.’
PST eat
b.
Kua whai koe i te wahine.
PST chase you OBJ the woman
‘You chased the woman’
–Cia is seemingly productive in Eastern Polynesian languages (C = consonant).
Passive
TAHITIAN
inu
‘to drink’
vavahi ‘to split’
taparahi ‘to kill’
HAWAIIAN
inu
ku‘i
hopu
‘to drink’
‘to hit, punch’
‘to catch’
inuhia
vavahia
taparahia
‘to be drunk’
‘to be split’
‘to be killed’
inuhia
ku‘ia
hopuhia
‘to be drunk’
‘to be hit’
‘to be caught’
3. Derivational morphemes in Polynesian
 Reciprocal prefix: *feTONGAN
‘ofa
‘to love’
tokoni ‘to help’
talanoa ‘to talk’
fe‘ofa‘aki
fetokoni‘aki
fetalanoa‘aki
‘to love each other’
‘to help each other’
‘to talk to each other’
NUKUORO
ilō
dae
‘to know’
‘to arrive at’
heilō
hedae
‘to know each other’
‘to meet up with’
 Resultative prefix: *maNIUEAN
fuke
fuli
haku
‘to open’
‘to turn over’
‘to scratch’
mafuke
mafuli
mafaku
‘opened’
‘overturned’
‘scratched’
TONGAN
hae
hua
foa
‘to tear’
‘to pour out’
‘to break’
mahae
mahua
mafoa
‘torn’
‘spilt’
‘broken’
 Nominalization: *-anga
TUVALUAN
aafu
inu
lii
‘misty’
‘to drink’
‘to bind’
afusaga
inumaga
liitaga
‘steam, vapour’
‘casual bush refreshment’
‘bandage’
SAMOAN
nofo
tupu
galue
‘to sit’
‘to grow’
‘to work’
nofoaga
tuupulaga
galuega
‘place to sit’
‘generation’
‘work, labour’
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 Adjectives: *-ngata‘a, *-ngofua
TONGAN
TUVALUAN
tala
‘to tell’
fai
‘to do’
konaa ‘drunk’
inu
‘to drink’
kau
‘to partake’
talangata‘a
talangofua
faingata‘a
faingofua
‘disobedient’
‘obedient’
‘difficult’
‘easy’
konaagofie
inugataa
kaugataa
kaugoofie
‘get easily drunk’
‘undrinkable’
‘disobedient’
‘obedient’
 Desiderative: *fiaMAORI
inu
kai
moe
‘to drink’
‘to eat’
‘to sleep’
hiainu
hiakai
hiamoe
‘thirsty’
‘hungry’
‘sleepy’
SAMOAN
moe
poto
sili
‘sleep’
‘smart’
‘best’
fiamoe
fiapoto
fiasili
‘sleepy’
‘want to be smart’
‘to be proud’
KAPINGA
gai
mada
tobo
‘to eat’
‘to look’
‘to lick’
hiigai
hiimada
hiitobo
‘hungry’
‘want to look’
‘want to lick (things)’
4. Reduplication
Reduplication: a process whereby all or part of a word is repeated and that repetition
carries with it a grammatical function or some semantic information.
Complete reduplication
MĀORI
paki
kimo
‘to pat’
‘to wink’
pakipaki
kimokimo
‘to clap’
‘to blink, wink repeatedly’
TAHITIAN
hi‘o
parau
‘to look at’
‘to converse’
hi‘ohi‘o
parauparau
‘to stare at’
‘to talk a lot’
SAMOAN
‘ai
tū
galue
‘eat’
‘stand’
‘work’
‘a‘ai
tutū
galulue
‘eat (pl)’
‘stand (pl)’
‘work (pl)
TONGAN
havili ‘strong wind’
nofo ‘to stay’
havilivili
nonofo
‘gentle wind, breeze’
‘to cohabit’
Partial reduplication
Exercise 2
The function of reduplication varies from language to language and even within the
same language. What is the function of reduplication in the above examples?
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