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Lecture 5
Morphology
形态学
Morphology and lexicon
• Morphology is a branch of linguistics,
which studies the formation of words.
• Lexicon is synonymous with “vocabulary”. It
is not a branch of linguistics, but a
component of language. It refers to the
collection of words in a language, including
idioms and collocations.
5.1 What is word?
• 5.1.1 Three senses of “word”
• 5.1.2 Identification of words
• 5.1.3 Classification of words
Three senses of “word”
•
•
•
1. word as a physically definable unit
2. word as the common factor
underlying a set of forms
3. word as a grammatical unit
Word as a physically
definable unit
• a cluster of letters separated by
blanks from others in writing
• a cluster of sounds separated by
pauses from others in speaking
Fallacies of the
definition
• First, physically separated units are not
necessarily words. For example, 蟋 蟀 葡 萄 ,
waiting-room, baby-stroller
• Second, since there is the phenomenon of liaison
( 连 读 ), the phonologically separations are not
necessarily the same as orthographic separations.
For example, at all [tl]
• Third, in English orthographic, there is there is
the phenomenon of contracted form. For example,
it is vs. it’s.
Word as a general term
• boy, boys
• check, checks, checked, checking
• fat, fatter, fattest
Lexeme 词素
• Lexeme refers to word in the general
sense, that is, the abstract unit underlying
the smallest unit in the lexical system of a
language. Thus, “boy” is the lexeme
underlying the two words “boy” and “boys”,
and “check” is the lexeme underlying the
words “check, checks, checked and
checking.”
Word as a grammatical
unit
•
The grammar of a language contains a set of layers, and word is
one of them, as displayed in the following figure.
•
•
•
Each of these is called a RANK; and all the ranks constitute a
hierarchical scale.
5.1.2 Identification of
words
•
•
•
Stability 稳定性
Uninterruptibility 不可中断性
A minimum free form 最小自由形式
Stability 稳定性
• Stability means that the internal
structure of a word is stable. Its
constituents cannot be rearranged.
• word vs. *dorw
• chairperson vs. *personchair
• Jim laughed at John.
• John laughed at Jim.
Uninterruptibility
• By saying the constituents of a word cannot be
interrupted, we mean you cannot insert other
elements into a word, although there may be
several parts of it. For example, disappointment is
composed of dis + appoint + ment, but we cannot
insert any letter between the different parts.
• However, this feature of word is only a relative
notion, and there are words that can be
interrupted. For example, passerby – passersby;
son-in-law – sons-in-low.
A minimum free form 最
小自由形式
• This notion was first proposed by
Leonard
Bloomfield
(1887-1949).
According to Bloomfield, a word is
the smallest unit that can be used on
its own to make a complete utterance.
He calls it “the minimum free form”
and he advocates treating sentences
as “the maximum free form”.
• -- Who is knocking at the door?
• -- Me.
• I could describe your proposal in just
two words: im possible.
•
-- Samuel Goldwyn
5.1.3 Classification of
words
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•
Variable and invariable words 可变类
与不变类
grammatical words and lexical
words语法词与词汇词
Closed-class words and open-class
words 封闭类和开放类
Word classes 词类
Variable and invariable
words 可变类与不变类
• Before we talk about variable and invariable words,
we first have to introduce two terms: inflection
( 屈 折 变 化 ) and inflective endings ( 屈 折 结 尾 ).
Inflection is the manifestation of grammatical
relationships by adding affixes. For example,
English is an inflectional language. We have the
affix –s/-es to indicate the third person singular,
-ing to indicate a progressive aspect, etc. The
suffix that is added to a word to indicate some
grammatical function is then called inflective
ending.
• The distinction between variable and
invariable words depends on whether
a word has inflective forms. Those
having inflective forms are variable
words, those that have not are
invariable.
• nouns – number: worker, workers;
•
case, cases
• verbs – tense, number:
work/works/worked/working
• adjectives – degree: fat, fatter, fattest
• adverbs – degree: much, more, most;
well, better, best
• pronoun – case: you, your, yours
• Invariable words include mostly conjunctions and
prepositions like through, by, up, etc.
grammatical words and
lexical words语法词与词
汇词
• Words expressing grammatical meanings mainly
work for constructing group, phrase, clause,
clause complex, or even text. They are termed
grammatical words, such as, conjunctions,
prepositions, articles, and pronouns. And words
which have mainly work for referring to substance,
action and quality, such as nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs, are lexical words. Lexical
words are also known as CONTENT WORDS (实义
词) and grammatical ones as FUNCTION WORDS
(功能词）.
Closed-class words and
open-class words 封闭类
和开放类
• According to whether the membership is
limited, words can be classified as closedclass words and open-class words.
• Closed-class words: pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions, articles
• Open-class words: nouns, verbs, adjectives
and many adverbs
Word classes 词类
• Two major defects of “part of speech”
• 1) There is ambiguity when meaning and
function are concerned.
• 2) About 8 or 9 parts of speech are
established in traditional grammar, such as
nouns,
verbs,
adjectives,
adverbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, interjections,
articles, etc. But there may be actually more
part of speech than 8 or 9 in a language.
Particles 小品词
• This class includes
• the infinitive marker “to”: going to do
the negative particle “not” : I do not
speak Italian.
• verbal particles like get on, do up,
break down, pass by
Auxiliaries 助词
• NEGATION
I can't come.
*I wantn't come.
INVERSION
Is he coming?
*Keeps he coming?
CODE
I'll come and so will Bill.
*I intend to come and so intend Bill.
EMPHASIS
He has come.
*He seems to come.
Pro-forms 替代形式
• Pro-adjective
Your pen is red. So is mine.
• Pro-verb
He knows English better than he did.
• Pro-adverb
He hopes he'll win and I hope so too.
• Pro-locative Jame's hiding there, behind the door.
Determiners 限定词
• Determiners refer to all the articles (a/an/the),
demonstratives (this/that/these/those, etc.) and
quantifiers (some/many/most/all) that appear
before the noun and its modifiers. As many as
three determiners may be used in each case and
there is a fixed orders when there is more than
one determiner. According to Quirk, et al. (1985:
253),
there
are
three
sub-classes
of
DETERMINERS: pre-determiners ( 前 限 定 词 ),
central determiners ( 中 限 定 词 ), and postdeterminers (后限定词).
•
• Determiner:
all
the
articles,
demonstratives, and quantifiers that
appear before the noun and its
modifiers.
– As many as three determiners may be
used in each case and there is a fixed
order when there is more than one.
Pre
all
all
Central
her
her
her
Post
many
many
many
all
what a
the
one
a few
both my father’s
Modifier Noun
good
good
good
good
good
good
good
good
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
idea
idea
ideas
parents
• Predeterminers: all, both; half, one-third,
three-quarters …; double, twice, three
times …; such, what (exclamative)
• Central determiners: the; this, these, that,
those; Poss Pron.; we, us; you; which, what
(relative), what (interrogative); a, another,
some, any, no, either, neither; each,
enough, much, more, most, less; a few, a
little
• Postdeterminers: every; many, several, few,
little; one, two, three …; (a) dozen
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*their all trouble
*five the all boys
*all this boy
*all both girls
5.2 The formation of
word
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5.2.1 Morpheme 词素
5.2.2 Types of morphemes
5.2.3 Inflection and word formation
5.2.4 The counterpoint of phonology
and morphology
5.2.1 Morpheme 词素
• The
immediate
concern
of
morphology is morpheme. This is the
smallest meaningful unit in a language.
It is an even smaller unit than word,
which cannot be further divided
without destroying or changing the
meaning. For example, in boys, there
are two morphemes, boy and –s.
5.2.2 Types of morphemes
• 1) Free morpheme and bound
morpheme 自由词素和粘着词素
• 2) Root, affix and stem 词根，词缀和
词干
• 3) Inflectional and derivational
morpheme 屈折词素与衍生词素
1) Free morpheme and
bound morpheme
– Free morphemes: those that may
constitute words by themselves, e.g.
boy, girl, table, nation.
– Bound morphemes: those that cannot
occur alone, e.g. -s, -ed, dis-, un-.
– compounds: poly-morphemic words
consisting wholly of free morphemes,
e.g., blackboard, pancake.
Root, affix and stem 词根，
词缀和词干
Root: the base form of a word that cannot be
further analyzed without total loss of identity,
eg friend as in unfriendliness.
Roots may be
free: those that can stand by themselves,
eg black+board; nation+-al; or
bound: those that cannot stand by
themselves, eg -ceive in receive, perceive,
conceive.
• Affix: the type of formative that can
be used only when added to another
morpheme. Normally divided into
– prefix impossible, disbelief, unnecessary
– suffix teacher, reasonable, strengthen
– infix geese, teeth
• Stem: a morpheme or combination of
morphemes to which an inflectional affix
may be added, eg friend+-s; write+-ing,
possibility+-es.
• Inflection: grammatical endings, eg
plural, tense, comparative, etc.
• Derivation: combination of a base and an
affix to form a new word, eg friend+-ly
> friendly.
Inflectional and
derivational morpheme 屈折
词素与衍生词素
• This distinction is also referred to as inflectional
and derivational affixes, as it doesn’t apply to
root. It applies to affixes only.
• Inflectional affixes are added to add a delicate
grammatical meaning to the stem. It doesn’t
change the meaning or word class, but produces
different forms of a single word. In contrast,
derivational affixes are added to change the
lexical meaning and in many cases, they also
change the word class of the stem.
•
•
•
•
•
Inflectional affix:
works, worked, working, workers
Derivational affix:
teacher, reasonable, impossible
In English, inflectional affixes are always
suffixes, but derivational affixes can be
either prefixes or suffixes.
5.2.3 Inflection and word
formation
• 1) Inflection
• 2）Word formation
Inflection
• Inflection is sometimes used to refer
to inflectional morphology. It is
concerned with different forms of a
word
as
showing
different
grammatical relations, such as plural,
past tense or case.
• (a) Number:table/tables
apple/apples
car/cars
(b) person, finiteness and aspect:
talk/talks/talking/talked
open/opens/opening/opened
shout/shouts/shouting/shouted
(c) case: boy/boy's
John/John's
university/university's
Word formation
• In the narrow sense, word formation
refers to the formation of new words.
It can be further divided into the
compositional type (合成词) and the
derivational type (派生词).
Compounds
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Compound is the easiest way to form words. In this wordformation process, we use two existing words to form a new word.
N+N, V+V sleepwalk, makebelieve
adj + adj icycold, red-hot
adv + adv moreover, indeed
prep + prep into, through
conj + conj whereas, whenever
pron + pron myself, you-all
num + num two-thirds
N + V sunrise, daybreak
V + N playboy, pickpocket, killjoy
adj + N greenhouse, hotdog, headstrong
V + prep handout, sit-in
adv + N downfall
prep + N update, afterlife
• We distinguish between two kinds of
compounds, endocentric compounds and
exocentric
compounds.
Endocentric
compounds (内向合成词) refers to those
compounds in which one constituent is the
centre and the other is the modifier. The
center, also called the head, is usually
derived from a verb and the modifier is a
participant in the verbal process.
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Nouns
self-control
pain-killer
core meaning
foot-warmer
Adjectives
eye-entertaining
bullet-resistant
virus-sensitive
sun-tanned
• In exocentric compounds (外向合成词), there is
no focal element and the whole refers to
something else rather than what either of the
constituent denotes.
•
Nouns
Adjectives
•
scarecrow 稻草人
takehome 实得的
•
playboy 花花公子
lackluster 平凡的
•
cutthroat 凶手
breakneck 非常危险的
•
get-together 聚会
come-hither 诱惑的
•
breakthrough 突破
walk-in 未经预约的
• Written forms of compounds
– Solid: blackboard, teapot, bodyguard
– Hyphenated: wedding-ring, wave-length
– Open: coffee table, washing machine
• Free variation:
– businessman, business-man, business man
– winebottle, wine-bottle, wine bottle
– no one, no-one, noone
Derivation
• Derivation refers to the word formation process
of adding a morpheme to an existing word.
Derivations can make the word class of the
original word wither changed or unchanged.
• Unchanged word class
Changed word-class
•
non-smoker
hospitalize
•
booklet
delightful
•
disobey
worker
•
undo
lengthen
•
illogical
exactly
• Generally speaking, prefixes like bi-, dis-,
ex-, il-, im-, in-, a-, etc. don’t usually
change the word class of the existing word,
with exceptions like a-sleep, be-little, enable, etc.
• In contrast, suffixes like –able, -al, -dom,
-ee, -er, -ish, etc. usually change the word
class of the original word.
• Usually only on inflectional affix can
be added to an existing word at one
time, but a word can take different
derivational affixes, and it may also
take prefixes and suffixes at the
same time.
•
de-nation-al-iza-tion
5.3 Lexical change
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5.3.1 Lexical change proper
5.3.2 Phonological change
5.3.3 Morphological change
5.3.4 Syntactical change
5.3.5 Semantic change
5.3.6 Orthographic change
Lexical change proper
• 1) Invention / Coinage 新创词语
• This refers to the creation of entirely
new words, usually from brand name of
products. For example, Kodak, Xerox,
nylon, diesel, etc.
2) Blending 混合词
•
•
•
•
•
•
initial + final
transfer + resister
→
smoke + fog
motor + hotel
breakfast + lunch
television + broadcast
dance + exercise
advertisement + editorial
education + entertainment
information + commercial
transistor
smog
motel
brunch
telecast
dancercise
advertorial
edutainment
infomercial
•
•
•
•
•
initial + initial
teleprinter + exchange
modulator + demodulator
digital + computer
Fusion
crackup + breakdown
stamp + trample
→
telex
modem
digicom
→
crackdown
strample
3) Abbreviation / clipping
缩略词
•
•
Back-clippings:
ad(vertisement), chimp(anzee),
hippo(potamus), lab(oratory),
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•
Fore-clippings
(ham)burger,
(omni)bus,
(tele)phone,
(heli)copter, (alli)gator, (earth)quake
•
•
Fore-and-aft clippings
Influenza → flu, refrigerator → fridge
exam(inaiton),
Acronym 缩合词/首字母组
合词
• Rador ← radio detecting and ranging
• BASIC ← Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code
• AIDS ← Acquired immune deficiency
syndrome
• dink ← double income no kid
• CD-ROM ← compact disc read-only
memory
•
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Initialism
AI: artificial intelligence
a.s.a.p.: as soon as possible
HIV: human immunodeficiency virus
PC: personal computer
PS: postscript
RSVP: repondez s’il vous plait (please reply)
Back formation (逆向构词法）
• BACK-FORMATION refers
to an unusual type of wordformation where a shorter
word is derived by deleting
an imagined affix from a
longer form already in the
language.
• diagnose < diagnosis
enthuse < enthusiasm
laze
< lazy
liaise
< liaison,
reminisce < reminiscence
statistic < statistics
televise < television
• 1) burgle, commentate, edit, peddle,
scavenge, sculpt, swindle
• 2) air-condition, babysit, brainstorm,
brainwash, browbeat, dry-clean, househunt, housekeep, sightsee, tape-record
• 3) articulate, assassinate, coeducate,
demarcate,
emote,
intuit,
legislate,
marinate, orate, vaccinate, valuate
6) Analogical creation 类
推
• The principle of ANALOGICAL CREATION
can account for the co-existence of two
forms, regular and irregular, in the
combination of some English verbs.
•
old
new
work wrought worked
learn learnt
learned
light lit
lighted
7) Borrowing 借用
• Borrowing can be done directly or
indirectly. For instance, the word
feast was borrowed directly from
the Middle French festa, and the
word algebra was borrowed indirectly
from Arabic through Spanish. Many
English words of Greek origin are
borrowed via Latin or French.
• French: administration, parliament,
public, court, crime, judge, army,
enemy, officer, peace, soldier, war,
faith, religion, coat, costume, dress,
fashion, jewel, dinner, feast, fry,
roast, supper, toast, customer, money,
price, art, college, music, poet, prose,
story, study
• Latin: admit, client, conviction, discuss,
equal, index, library, medicine, minor
• Greek: catastrophe, cosmos, criterion,
idiosyncrasy
• Spanish and Portuguese: banana, barbecue,
cafeteria, cargo, chocolate, cigar, cocaine,
cockroach, cocoa, guitar, mosquito, negro,
potato, tank, tobacco, tomato, vanilla
• Italian: aria, bandit, broccoli, casino,
concerto, duet, finale, influenza, mafia,
malaria, paparazzi (singular paparazzo),
piano, pizza, solo, soprano, spaghetti,
studio, umbrella, volcano
• Dutch: boss, brandy, cookie, cruise, deck,
dock, dollar, freight, gin, kit, knapsack,
landscape, luck, sketch, slim, smuggle, snap,
trek, yacht
• Arabic: admiral, alchemy, alcohol, algebra,
alkali, almanac, assassin, candy, hazard,
lemon, magazine, safari, sofa, zero
• Indian: bungalow, cashmere, curry, ginger,
jungle, mango, polo, pyjamas (or pajamas),
shampoo, swastika, thug, yoga
• Chinese: chop suey, chow, chow mein,
ginseng, gung-ho, ketchup (or catchup or
catsup), kung fu, tea, tofu (via Japanese),
typhoon
Loanword 借词
• The borrowing of LOANWORDS is a
process in which both form and
meaning are borrowed with only a
slight change, in some cases, to the
phonological system of the new
language that they enter. For
example, “encore” and “au pair” from
French, “sputnik” from Russian, etc.
Loanblend 混合借词
• LOANBLENDING is a process in which
part of the form is native and the rest has
been borrowed, but the meaning is fully
borrowed. This is more typical with words
in which the root is borrowed while the
native affix is added. For example,
troublesome, colourless, uncertain, etc.
Loanshift 转移借词
•
LOANSHIFT is a process in which the
meaning is borrowed, but the form is
native. Bridge is an English word, but
when it refers to a type of card game,
the meaning was borrowed from the
Italian ponte. The English word artificial
satellite is also a case of loanshit from
the Russian sputnik. All the borrowings in
Chinese are loanshifts.
Loan translation 翻译借词
•
•
This is a special type of borrowing, in which
each morpheme or word is translated in the
equivalent morpheme or word in another
language. For instance, the English word
almighty is a literal translation from the Latin
omnipotens, superman is a literal translation
from the German Ubermensch.
This is also called CALQUE (仿译词), which may
be a word, a phrase, or even a short sentence.
free verse < L verse libre
black humor < Fr humour noir
found object < Fr objet trouvé
5.3.2 Phonological change
• Phonological
change
refers
to
changes in sound leading to changes
in form.
• mus /muːs/ → mouse /maʊs/
hus /huːs/
house /haʊs/
ut /uːt/
out /aʊt/
sup /suːp/
south /saʊθ/
• Loss of sound 脱落
holh /holx/
→ hollow /ˡhɒləʊ/
sorh /sorx/
→ sorrow /ˡsɒrəʊ/
niht /nixt/
→ night /nat/
draugath /druxt/
→ drought /drat/
• Sounds loss may also occur in utterances
at the expense of some unstressed vowels.
• temperature/ˡtempərətʃə/ →/ˡtemprətʃə/
laboratory /ləˡbɒrətri/
/læˡbrətɔri/
cabinet /ˡkæbənit/
/ˡkæbinit/
postscript /ˡpəʊstskript/
/ˡpəʊsskript/
• The pen ‘n pencil 'n the drawer are
better ‘n typewriter to copy 'n easy
thing like this.
• Addition of sound 添加
• Sounds may also be added to the
original sound sequence. This is
usually the result of borrowing.
• Latin
studium
→ O.F.
estudie
→ Spanish → Portugese
estudio
estudo
• Metathesis 换位
• METATHESIS is a process involving a
change in the sequence of sounds.
Metathesis
had
been
originally
a
performance error, which was overlooked
and accepted by the speech community.
• Spoonerism” (首字母换位)
the queer old Dean → the dear old Queen
Is the bean dizzy? → Is the dean busy?
• Assimilation 同化
• ASSIMILATION refers to the change of a sound
by the influence of an adjacent sound, which is
more specifically called “contact” or “contiguous”
assimilation. The assimilation processes at work
could be explained by the “theory of least effort”;
that is, in speaking we tend to use as little effort
as possible so that we do not want to vary too
often the places of articulation in uttering a
sequence of sounds.
• Assimilation takes place in quick speech very
often. For instance, in expressions such as
immobile, irrevocable, impolite, illegal, the
negative prefixes im-, il-, or ir- should be inetymologically.
5.3.3 Morphological
change
• do(e)th > does, goeth > goes, hath > has,
findeth > finds, hopeth > hopes
• do(e)st > do ， playest > play ， hearest >
hear， speakest > speak
• the campus of the university > the
university’s campus
5.3.4 Syntactical change
• Syntax also changes in time, but it changes more
slowly.
• In the 15cc, there were double comparatives or
superlatives in English, but today there are not.
more gladder > more glad, more lower > lower,
most royalest – most royal
• In old English ，the negative particle “not” was
usually put in front of the verb or at the end of a
sentence, but today it comes after the finite verb.
It not belongs to you. > It doesn’t belong to you.
We saw you not. > We didn’t see you.
• Fusion or blending is also used in making new
phrasal and sentential structures.
Rarely + hardly even → rarely even
Ever and anon + now and then → every now and
then
Equally good + just as good → equally as good
It's no use getting there before nine + There's no
use in getting there before nine.→ There's no
use getting there before nine.
5.3.5 Semantic change
• Broadening 词义扩大
Broading is a process to extend or elevate
the meaning from its originally specific
sense to a relatively general one.
holiday - holy day > any day for rest
bird – young bird > any kind of bird
pigeon – young pigeon > the whole species
task – tax > any piece of work you have to do
• Narrowing 词义狭窄
Narrowing is contrary to broadening: the original
meaning of a word can be narrowed or restricted
to a specific sense.
fowl – birds in general > domestic birds
meat – any food you eat > edible flesh of the
mammals
deer – any beast > a particular kind of beast
girl – young children of both sex > young female
starve – die in any way > die of hunger
Meaning shift
•
Here MEANING SHIFT is understood in its narrow sense, that is,
the change of meaning has nothing to do with generalization or
restriction as mentioned above. What makes the meaning of a word
different is its departure from its original domain as a result of
its metaphorical usage. Sometimes the meaning changes so much
that you can’t see any connection between the new meaning and
the original one.
bead – prayer > the prayer bead > small, ball-shaped piece of glass,
metal or wood
pay – livestock > payment
crafty – skilled in making handcrafts > cunning
knave – boy > boy servant > rascal, dishonest person
silly – (OE) happy > (ME) naïve > foolish
nice – ignorant > foolishly particular about small things > to be
precise of refined taste
• Class shift 词类转变
•
By shifting the word class one can change the
meaning of a word from a concrete entity or
notion to a process or attribution. This process of
word formation is also known as ZERODERIVATION, or CONVERSION.
• Verb – noun: smell, taste, walk
• Adj. – verb: dirty, empty, lower
• Noun – verb: head, table, chair, nose
• Conj. – verb: But me no buts.
folk etymology 民间词源
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
FOLK ETYMOLOGY refers to the change of the
form of a word or phrase, resulting from an
incorrect popular notion of the origin or meaning
of the term, or from the influence of more
familiar terms mistakenly taken to be analogous.
history – his story > herstory
Fake etymology: a kind of folk etymology,
humorous play of words
Manhattan: man with hat on
MBA: married but available
PhD: perhaps have divorced
golf: Gentlemen Only; Ladies Forbidden
5.3.6 Orthographic
change
• This refers to the change of spelling. Since writing is a
recording of the sound system in English, phonological
changes will no doubt set off graphetic changes.
•
Iesus > Jesus, sate > sat, Sunne > Sun
• The two letters “u” and “v” exchanged their position in Old
English.
Exercises
• Define the following terms:
• Morpheme, compound, inflection, affix,
derivation, root, allomorph, stem, bound
morpheme, free morpheme, lexeme,
lexicon, grammatical word, lexical word,
closed-class, open-class, blending, loanword,
loanblend, loanshift, acronym, loss, backformation, assimilation, folk etymology
• Discuss the following questions:
• 1) Discuss the different types of
morphemes.
• 2) Discuss whether morpheme is a
grammatical concept or a semantic concept.
What is its relationship to phoneme? Can a
morpheme and a phoneme form an organic
whole?
5.2.4 The counterpoint of
phonology and morphology
• MORPHOPHONOLOGY is a branch of
linguistics that refers to the analysis and
classification of the phonological factors
that affect the morpheme forms, and,
correspondingly, the grammatical factors
that affect the phoneme forms. It studies
the interrelationship between phonology
and morphology.
• A single phoneme vs. a single
morpheme
• A single morpheme vs. multiple
phoneme
• Allomorph 词素变体
• Morphemic conditions
A single phoneme vs. a
single morpheme
• A single phoneme may represent a
single morpheme, but they are not
identical.
• (a) boys
/bɔɪz/
(b) boy's
/bɔɪz/
(c) raise
/reɪz/
A single morpheme vs.
multiple phoneme
• Morphemes may also be represented
by phonological structures other than
a single phoneme.
• Monophonemic
dogs
/dɒgz/
Monosyllabic
love + ly
/ˡlʌv + li/
Polysyllabic
tobacco
/tə + ˡbæ + kəʊ/
Allomorph 词素变体
Some morphemes have a single form in all
contexts ， but in other instances, a morpheme
may have different shapes or phonetic forms.
•
map
–
maps
/mæps/
dog
–
dogs
/dɒgz/
watch
–
watches
/wɒtʃɪz/
mouse
–
mice
/maɪs/
ox
–
oxen
/ˡɒksn/
tooth
–
teeth
/ti:θ/
sheep – sheep
/ʃi:p/
•
• Thus, morpheme, like phoneme, may
have different realizations in different
contexts. In morphemic transcription,
morphemes are put between braces like
{ }. The plural morpheme can be
expressed in the form of {-s～-z～-ɪz～
-aɪ～-i:～-n～-θ}.
• Some
morphemic
forms
represent
different morphemes and thus have
different meanings.
• For example, the morpheme –s can express
plurality (e.g. tables, apples, and cars),
person/finiteness (e.g. talks, opens, and
shouts),
case (e.g. boy's, John's, and university's).
Morphemic conditions
• (a) Phonologically conditioned
•
injustice
imperfect
inefficient
impenetrable
infirm
impossible
• The ASSIMILATION of /n/ is said to be
conditioned by /p/. Similarly, /n/ is
assimilated
into
/r/
in
irregular,
irresistible, and into /l/ in illogical and
illegal.
•
•
(b) Morphologically conditioned
Three requirements:
First, all the allomorphs should have the same meaning, for
instance, the plural morpheme {-s～-z～-ɪz～-aɪ～-i:～-n～-θ}.
Second, all the allomorphs should be in complementary
distribution.
Third, allomorphs that have the same meaning should occur in
parallel formation.
Singular
ox /ɒks/
cow /kau/
oxen /ˡɒksn/
cows /kauz/
Plural