Morphology
Peter Ackema
packema@ling.ed.ac.uk
Word classes
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“Verbs express an action, process or state”
“Nouns are the name of a person, place, or
thing”
“Adjectives are words which express a property”
But...
Jane was upset because an unexpected problem with the
manual’s availability implied that the risk in case of a
fire was very high.
upset = a state, but not a verb
availability = not a ‘person, place or thing’, but is a noun
implied = not an ‘action, process or state’, but is a verb
fire = process or state, but not a verb
etc.
Lexical Categories and Functional
Categories
A builder claimed that the houses of those people
are almost crumbling.
Builder claimed houses people almost crumbling.
A that the of those are.
Functional categories form a closed class.
What are the determiners of English?
the (definite), a/an (indefinite), this, that, these, those
(demonstrative) (plus a few others)
Lexical categories form an open class.
What are the verbs or nouns of English?
impossible to make a complete list (despite dictionaries)
Verbs
Finite verb: indicates tense of the sentence.
Paula dreams of a nice holiday.
That woman always plays a Ligeti cd on her
birthday.
Yesterday I walked home.
Past tense forms for the verb pléno ‘to wash’ in
modern Greek:
1sg é-plen-a
2sg é-plen-es
3sg é-plen-e
1pl
2pl
3pl
plén-ame
plén-ate
é-plen-an
Absence of an ending can also give information
about tense/person/number on a finite verb.
I dream of a nice holiday as well.
You never play the piano on your birthday, do you?
Today they all walk home, I believe.
When something fits into a frame like the following, it will
be a finite verb.
When I come home, the dogs usually ___ .
The dogs ___ it.
Mary ___ her dog yesterday.
But not vice versa:
??When I come home the dogs usually sing.
The infinitive
Harry wants to leave the country.
The shop expects to deliver the goods on Friday.
Luckily the weather seems to improve.
In the future tense, accompanied by auxiliary verb will:
Gerald will go to Paris tomorrow.
Davina would dance the tango.
The past participle
She has never travelled for so long before.
He has gone.
Our cat has never slept for so long.
That soprano has never sung in a Verdi opera.
The present participle
The train is leaving the station.
Laura is reading a book.
Larry was feeding the cats when Laura came in.
Complete sentences in English need a verb, even if this
has to be a ‘dummy’ verb: the copula.
She is a dentist.
He is ill.
Clark Kent is Superman.
Compare with main verb be:
I think therefore I am.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
The need for a copula is not universal:
Vasja poxož na otca.
Vasja alike to father
‘Vasja looks like his father.’
(Russian)
Takie predrassudki očen’ rasprostraneny.
such prejudices
very spread
‘Such prejudices are very widespread.’
Nouns
Pluralization indicates that a word is a noun
house – houses
chair – chairs
cat – cats
street – streets
iguana – iguanas
Mass nouns do not readily pluralize
water – ?waters
sand – ?sands
gold – ?golds
glue – ?glues
coffee – ?coffees
But it is possible to pluralize even mass nouns
when you ‘individuate’ them:
The ship sank in the territorial waters of Ireland.
The caravan crossed the sands of the desert.
Britain won three golds and five silvers at the event.
I tried three different glues and it still won’t stick.
After she drank six coffees she started shaking.
Abstract nouns do not always readily pluralize either
luck - ?lucks, hate – ?hates, anger - ?angers
But:
One of my pet hates is the litter in the street.
This psychotherapeutic theory distinguishes between two
different angers, the suppressed one and the
demonstrative one.
Nouns can be combined with a determiner
the cat
a house
the water
that street
this sand
those tables
the anger
Proper nouns do not always combine with a determiner
?the Jane, ?the Edinburgh, ?a France, ?this Merlin
But:
She is no longer the Jane I knew.
The Edinburgh of the 15th century was very dirty.
In this book the author describes a France that tourists do not often
see.
Let me tell you a story about a sorcerer called Merlin. This Merlin...
Verbs can combine directly with nouns:
Jane examines patients.
Alaric destroyed Rome.
Nouns cannot directly combine with other nouns:
*Jane examination patients
Jane’s examination of patients
*Alaric destruction Rome
Alaric’s destruction of Rome
Are there functional nouns? Maybe: pronouns
Personal pronouns: I, me, you, he, him, she, her,...
Possessive pronouns: my, your, her, his, our, ...
Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, herself, ...
Reciprocal pronoun: each other
Impersonal pronoun: one
Adjectives
Adjectives have a comparative and a superlative form
cold – colder – coldest
strange – stranger – strangest
dry – drier – driest
enthusiastic
*enthusiasticer / *enthusiasticest
more enthusiastic / most enthusiastic
flabbergasted
*flabbergasteder / *flabbergastedest
more flabbergasted / most flabbergasted
The comparative or superlative can be semantically
anomalous:
pregnant *pregnanter *pregnantest
dead *deader *deadest
locked *lockeder *lockedest
closed *closeder *closedest
Adjectives can be used predicatively
John is ill.
Mary is pregnant.
That painting is beautiful.
The door is locked.
or attributively
an ill person
a pregnant woman
a beautiful painting
the locked door
Some adjectives can only be used as attributive
adjectives:
the alleged offender
*This offender is only alleged.
a former president
*This president is former.
Adverbs are much like attributive adjectives, but
modify a verb rather than a noun.
They can distinguish themselves by a special
adverbial ending.
Susan walked quickly to the store.
Frank hastily scribbled it down.
She probably left.
Not all adverbs show special adverbial morphology:
Harry often talks about music.
The baby is eating well.
een snel spel
a quick game
een grappig gezicht
a funny face
(Dutch)
Ze schrijft heel snel.
she writes very quickly
De baby lachte grappig.
the baby smiled funnily
Prepositions
in Amsterdam
with Mary
to France
after dinner
before noon
off the wall
Some languages have postpositions rather than
prepositions.
larki ko
girl to
‘to the girl’
(Hindi)
larki se
girl from
‘from the girl’
larki par
girl after
‘after the girl’