Download essentials of morphology

ESSENTIALS OF MORPHOLOGY
Morphology is concerned with the elements that compose words and the
organization of these elements into hierarchical structures.
A word is an arbitrary pairing of sound and meaning (But see discussion in
Baker & Bobaljik (2000))
THE VOCABULARY
The Vocabulary items:
(1) Identifying index:
Syntactic category:
Meaning:
Syntactic features:
Morphological features:
/perestroika/
Noun
“reorganization,
reconstruction”
[+abstract]
none
/bInd/
Verb
“to make secure
by tying”
[+transitive]
zero inflection
ablaut
Each word belongs to a grammatical/syntactic category. The vocabulary is not simply a
long, random list, but is structured into special subgroups of words identified by the
grammatical/syntactic categories (=the traditional “parts-of-speech”)
The basic parts-of-speech of English:
Nouns=
Class of words whose characteristic role is to be an argument of the verb.
Words denoting concrete entities (dog, tree) and words denoting abstract
concepts (music, anger) belong to this class.
Verbs=
Class of words whose characteristic role in the clause is to determine,
wholly or in part, the other words that its construction may or must have.
Words denoting action or processes (run, make, melt) characteristically
belong to this class.
Adjectives= Class of words whose characteristic role is to be modifiers of nouns (in tall
men, tall is the adjective modifying the noun men).
Adverbs=
Class of words whose characteristic role is to be modifiers of verb or verb
phrases (e.g badly in he wrote it badly).
Prepositions= Class of words whose members typically come before a noun phrase and
which is characterized by ones which basically indicate spatial relations
(behind in behind the sofa)
SIMPLE AND COMPLEX WORDS
Perestroika, Monangahela, dog, boy, bind = Simple words
Complex words:
(2) a.
high school, easy chair, black board, gentleman [A + N]N
b.
un-wise, un-happy, un-natur-al, un-woman-ly
[un + A]A
c.
woman-ly, other-word-ly, heaven-ly, weather-ly
[N + ly]A
d.
black-ness, un-poison-ous-ness, gentlemanli-ness
(3) [[ un [ [ [gentle]A [man]N]N li]A ]A ness]N
[ anti [ [ [ dis [ establish]V ]V ment]N arian ]A ]A ism ]N
[A+ness]N
INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
Two main fields are traditionally recognized within morphology
Inflectional morphology studies the way in which words vary (or ‘inflect’) in order to express
grammatical contrasts in sentences such as singular/plural or past/present tense.
Examples of inflectional morphology:
boy
vs
boy-s
child
vs.
child-r-en
love
vs.
love-s
vs.
go
vs.
goe-s
vs.
love-d
went
Derivational morphology studies the principles governing the constructions of new words,
without reference to the specific grammatical role a word may play in a sentence.
Examples of derivational morphology:
drink
vs.
drink-able
inflect
vs,
dis-infect
THE NOTION OF MORPHEME
Morphemes are the structural units of words (see Appendix I)
MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
In analyzing words into morphemes in a language we know, we often
easily discover the separate parts because we can recall similar words with which to
compare the words under analysis. In working with an unfamiliar language, it is
necessary to have a group of similar forms to compare and from which to extract the
recurring parts.
A form from Kekchi (a Mayan language of Guatemala)
(4)
tinbeq 'I will walk.' (cf. Nida (1949, 6)
To decide on a division of this form into smaller units, or even to know if such a
division is possible, we have to consider other forms of the language.
Comparison with forms such as tatbeq 'you (sg.) will walk' and ninbeq 'I am walking'
show that the form tinbeq is composed of three morphemes: t- 'future' (contrasting
with n- 'present progressive'), -in- 'first person singular subject' (contrasting with -at'second person singular subject') and -beq 'walk.’
(5)
Swahili (East Africa).
1.
ninakusikia
2.
ninamsikia
3.
ninakisikia
4.
ninawasikia
5.
anakusikia
6.
anamsikia
7.
anawasikia
8.
anatusikia
9.
unanisikia
10.
unawasikia
11
tunakisikia
12.
wanakusikia
13.
ninakujibu
14.
nitakujibu
15.
nimekujibu ’
16.
nilikujibu
17.
unamjibu
18.
utamjibu
19.
umemjibu
20.
ulimjibu
21.
mnanisikia
22.
mmewasikia
23.
mtatusikia
24.
mlikisikia
25.
ninamjua
26.
niliwajua
27.
atanisaidia
28.
wamekusaidia
'I hear you'
'I hear him'
'I hear it'
'I hear them’
'he hears you'
'he hears him'
'he hears them'
'he hears us'
'you hear me'
'you hear them'
'we hear it'
'they hear you
'I answer you'
'I will answer you'
I have answered you'
'I answered you'
'you answer him'
'you will answer him'
'you have answered him'
'you answered him'
'you (pl.) hear me'
'you (pl.) have heard them'
'you (pl.) will hear us'
'you (pl.) heard it'
'I know him'
'I knew them'
'he will help me'
'they have helped you'
The order of morphemes:
(6)
subject tense object
prefix
prefix prefix
verb
stem
(7)
subjects
tenses
ni- 'I'
-ta- 'future'
u- 'you'
-na- 'present'
a- 'he'
-me- 'perfect'
tu- 'we' -li- 'past'
-kim- 'you (pl.)'
wa- 'they'
objects
stems
-ni- 'me'
-sikia 'hear'
-ku- 'you'
-jibu 'answer'
-m- 'him'
-jua 'know'
'it'
-saidia 'help'
-tu- 'us'
-wa- 'them'
PROBABLE new words made up of these same morphemes in the correct order.
(8)
atamsikia
walitujibu
tumekijua
nimemsaidia
But we can never absolutely certain that a given form is correct unless we learn
the language as well as a native speaker knows it. There may always be
irregularities for which we have not yet seen evidence.
See Appendix II
ROOTS AND STEMS
Roots
The root is generally the principle carrier of the lexical meaning of a word, while
affixes generally carry grammatical meanings. For example, in cats, the root
cat carries the basic meaning Felis domesticus, while -s carries the
grammatical information 'plural.'
In some languages, roots characteristically occur in a particular position.
In Turkish and Eskimo, the root occupies the first position in a word.
Stems
In addition to roots, we also distinguish stems. A stem may be also a root,
as cat in cats. Often, a stem consists of a root plus something else. The
present tense of the Latin verb amo@ 'love' is formed from the root am- plus
the theme vowel -a@ plus the person-number suffixes.
BOUND AND FREE MORPHEMES:
Bound morphemes do not occur in isolation.
Root that may constitute words by themselves:
(9)
gentle, usurp, difficult, dog, man
Bound stems/roots (cf Aronoff (1976):
(10)
-ceive
-port
im-port
re-ceive re-port
-here
in-here
ad-here
-mit
re-mit
ad-mit
AFFIXES:
Prefixes = a ff. + X and Suffixes = X + aff.
Affixes commonly determine the lexical category of the word that they form:
ex.:a word formed with the suffix -ion is a noun
a word formed with the suffix -ize is a verb
Affixes are not freely combinable:
(11)
seren-ity
*shop-ity *
proverb-ity
*machin-ity
regular-ize
scandal-ize
*usurp-ize
*develop-ize
Reason: -ity is added to adjectives, but not to nouns or verbs
-ize is added to adjectives and nouns, but not to verbs
Bound morphemes may be assigned morphological templates like the following:
(12)
ii.
i.
[ [ X ] A + ness] N : gentleness, grammaticalness, uneasiness
[ un+ [ X ]A ]A : ungrammatical, unaware, unconscious
iii.
[ [ X ]A +ity ]N : serenity, grammaticality, electricity
iv.
[ [X]N +ly]A : godly, gentlemanly, husbandly, daily
v.
[ [ X]A +th]N : truth, width, breadth, depth
vi.
[ per + stemLat.]A: permit, pertain, perform
vii.
[###]Stem: -mit, -tain, -sist, -form
Open and closed classes of morphems:
A count of the morphemes in any language will reveal many more root
morphemes than affixes. The set of affixes is closed and can only rarely gain
or lose members. The set of roots is open, and a normal speaker of a
language adds new roots to his lexicon throughout his life.
TYPES OF AFFIXES
1.
PREFIXES:
a.
Prespecified (English)
work
re-work
likely
un-likely
like
dis-like
b.
2.
Reduplicated (Tagalog)
bili 'buy'
bi-bili 'will buy'
kuha 'get'
ku-kuha 'will get'
punta 'go'
pu-punta 'will go'
sulat 'write'
su-sulat 'will write'
tawa 'laugh'
ta-tawa 'will laugh'
SUFFIXES:
work
likely
bake
work-ed
likeli-ness
bak-er
3.
4.
5.
INFIXES
Tagalog
bili
kuha
sulat
punta
tawa
'buy'
'get'
'write'
'go'
'laugh'
CIRCUMFIXES
em-bold-en
b-um-ili
k-um-uha
s-um-ulat
p-um-unta
t-um-awa
en-light-en
NULL MORPHOLOGY
Noun/Adjective
Verb
a frame
to frame
dry
to dry
a run
to run
'to buy'
'to get'
'to write'
'to go'
'to laugh'
STEM CHANGES
I.
Ablaut:
strike
teach
drive
ring
struck
taught
drove
rang
struck
taught
driven
rung
Stem Changes
II.
RESYLLABIFICATION: The Semitic binyans.
Arabic root /ktb/
katab
‘write’
kutib
'was written’
aktub
'is writing’
uktab
'was being written’
perfective active
perfective passive
imperfective active
imperfective passive
Hebrew root /gdr/
Active
gadar
goder
yi-gdor
gdor
li-gdor
'enclosed’
'encloses’
'will enclose’
'enclose!’
'to enclose’
Passive
ni-gdar
ni-gdar
yi-gader
hi-gader
le-hi-gader
'was enclosed’
'is enclosed'
'will be enclosed'
'be enclosed!'
'to be enclosed'