Download Morphology – second lecture

Morphology – second lecture
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Words and morphemes
Bound and free morphemes
What are morphs and allomorphs
Phonaesthemes and onomatopoeia
Agglutinating, isolating, inflecting and polysynthetic languages
1. As already mentioned in the previous lecture, a word is a minimal free unit of speech whereas a
morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of speech. The difference between the two is that words
can be broken down into smaller units which carry meaning while this cannot be done with
morphemes.
For instance,
black¦board
cat¦s
living¦room
un¦kind
___________
____________
2 morphemes
2 morphemes
both free
1 free & 1 bound
2. This brings us two our second topic, free and bound morphemes. The basic definition of free
morphemes would be that all simple words in English are free morphemes. Bound morphemes, on
the other hand, have meanings only in combination with other morphemes.
For instance,
pet
home¦s
cover
dis¦respect
real
real¦ly
In order to determine a certain structure and thus make it easier to identify it, it is helpful to devise
certain criteria according to which the structure can be labelled. Therefore, since the classical
definition says that a morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of grammatical structure, it is clear
that a morpheme does not have to fulfil the criterion of standing alone. However, there are three
other criteria according to which we can make sure that a morpheme is a morpheme.
Criterion 1 – that it is a part of a word with a meaning
In order to be a morpheme, that unit must be a part of a word or a word on its own which has its
own individual meaning.
Criterion 2 – that it cannot be broken down into smaller units with meaning
If the unit cannot be broken down into smaller segments carrying meaning, it is a single
independent morpheme.
Criterion 3 – that it has a relatively stable meaning
If the unit can appear in different contexts preserving its relatively stable meaning, it is a single
independent morpheme.
For instance,
un¦happi¦ness
un¦kind
un¦believ¦able
respect
dis¦respect
dis¦respect¦ful
According to the number of morphemes words consist of, words can be:
monomorphemic – consisting of one morpheme only and
polymorphemic – consisting of two or more morphemes.
For instance,
real
real¦it¦y
anti¦dis¦establish¦ment¦arian¦ism
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The basic unit, or morpheme that is used to form larger structures or word forms is called the root.
Thus the root can be defined as the carrier of a meaning and the nucleus of a word. That root can be
expanded into larger structures by adding affixes to it. There are two types of affixes:
- prefixes – added to the front of the word and
- suffixes – added to the end of the word and they can be inflectional and derivational.
Generally speaking, affixes are bound morphemes which can either precede or follow a root or
larger structures consisting of one or more morphemes.
For instance,
friend¦s = friend is the root and –s is a suffix
Another term to define is stem which is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which a
suffix can be added.
For instance,
friend¦s = friend is the root and the stem and –s is the suffix
But: friend¦ship¦s = friend is the root, friendship is the stem and –s is the suffix.
root_
stem__
word_
The word friendship is not a root because it consists of two morphemes and thus it is a stem. Some
stems consist of two or more roots in which case they are compound stems.
Whenever we divide a word into smaller units we actually try to determine its constituent parts
which can be called immediate constituents.
For instance,
en¦large¦ment
1
2
un¦accapt¦able
2
1
in¦depend¦ent
2
1
un¦gentle¦man¦ly
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1 2
3. When a morpheme is physically realized, i.e. given a physical form it is called a morph. A
morph can carry meaning and it can have grammatical function. However, we must not confuse
morphs with syllables because only sounds that have meaning or a grammatical function can be
called morphs whereas syllables are parts of words without meaning and without a grammatical
function. We divide words into syllables to make their pronunciation easier. Therefore, not every
morpheme is a syllable.
For instance,
dog¦s = there are two morphemes but only one syllable
ta-ble = there are two syllables but only one morpheme
Therefore, the relationship between sounds and morphemes is not that simple. We usually
assume that morphemes can be divided into smaller units called phonemes. So dog, the four-leggedwith-one-tail-hairy animal would be /dog/ in phonetic representation which might lead us to the
conclusion that every written representation has its equivalent phonetic representation (as is the case
with the Serbian language). In English it is not like that because one morpheme can have several
different phonetic or orthographic realizations, i.e. it can appear in the form of different morphs.
Therefore, morphs which realize the same morpheme are called allomorphs of that morpheme.
For instance, the plural form morpheme:
There are several allomorphs of the plural –s
dogs oxen buses
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Or the indefinite article. There are two allomorphs, a and an. As already said, one
morpheme (one morph) – one meaning and/ or one grammatical function. Thus different allomorphs
of one and the same morpheme have one and the same meaning and/ or same grammatical function
but they are phonologically distinguishable.
The plural –s differs phonologically in the following examples:
cats /s/
dogs /z/
buses /iz/
Different allomorphs of one and the same morpheme are said to be in complementary
distribution which means that only one allomorph can appear in one context and they cannot
substitute each other.
For instance,
There were fewer buses this morning than usual.
We could not say:
*There were fewer busen this morning than usual.
Or,
It was an extraordinary evening, wasn’t it?
Similarly we could not say:
*It was a extraordinary evening, wasn’t it?
So there are certain rules referring to the meaning and the grammatical function of a morpheme that
determine which allomorph we are supposed to use.
The bottom line is that the distribution of allomorphs is the total set of distinct linguistic
contexts in which a given form appears. So the indefinite article has the following distribution:
a in front of words beginning with a consonant and
an in front of words beginning with a vowel.
Let us compare the situation with allomorphs to the situation in a hospital. There all kinds of
surgeons in a hospital and they are all skilled to perform certain kinds of operations, that is have one
particular position in the operational room, such as brain surgeons, cardiologists, those who perform
only simple operations (appendix removal) etc. They are all surgeons – one and the same morpheme
– but they cannot substitute each other – a cardiologist cannot perform a brain surgery – one
allomorph cannot do the job of another allomorph.
4. An important fact about the relationship between sound and meaning in most words is that that
relationship is arbitrary, that is, it is not made on purpose. You would never know how to answer
the following question:
What does /k/ in cat mean?
Or,
What does /s/ in strong mean?
However, sometimes the principle of arbitrary relationship between sound and meaning is not
applicable. These exceptions are called phonaesthemes and onomatopoeia.
For instance, most words denoting bad articulation in the act of speaking have the consonant /m/
followed or preceded by the short vowel //:
mumble, mutter, grumble
Or, the ending –ump often appears in words denoting heaviness and clumsiness:
clump, dump, bump
In these cases the recurring sounds are associated with a certain meaning and they are referred to as
phonaesthemes. Yet, this is not to be accepted as a rule but as a tendency.
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In addition to phonaesthemes, we can identify onomatopoeic words which symbolize or reflect
some aspect of the meaning of the word that they represent. Therefore, there is a direct association
between the sound and the meaning.
For instance, the words denoting the sounds animals produce, such as:
bow-wow, miaow, moo, neigh, cock-a-doodle-doo, buzz, etc.
We can see that although the words when pronounced are supposed to imitate the actual sounds that
the animals produce, the words look and sound different in different languages. It almost seems that
animals living in different countries speak different languages. Anyway, the words are
onomatopoeia and therefore iconic to some degree.
However, there are also words denoting other kinds of sounds and they are also onomatopoeia, such
as:
tinkle, chime, hiss, thud, pop, squeak, rattle, click, beep, etc.
6. Agglutinating, isolating, inflecting and polysynthetic languages
(refer to first lecture)
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Exercises:
1. Divide the following words into their constituent morphemes and underline the root in each:
shoplifter
speaker
greater
unkind
tallest
motherly
mother’s
opened
rainy
weaker
liver
reuse
man
manner
manly
mannish
rubbish
greenish
discover
nonintellectual
outrun
befriend
hopelessness
rainbow
transfer
mountaineering
unbearably
reality
activated
teapots
perfection
announcements
unbelievably
enlargement
transport
unselfishness
failure
disorganise
terrible
liar
beggar
textual
manual
illegible
famous
marriage
purest
purist
2. Determine the constituent elements of the following words and show the ultimate constituents:
arrival
resistance
restatement
crystal
invariably
inequality
familiarity
unpredictably
fertilizers
simplified
hopelessness
irrepressible
incomprehensible
incompletely irresponsibility
institutionalized
typically
computerization
distrustfully
undesirability
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