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MORPHOLOGY
by Don L. F. Nilsen
And Alleen Pace Nilsen
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CONTENT WORDS VS.
FUNCTION WORDS
You may have been told that there are eight
Parts of Speech in English.
You may have been told that their names are:
Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs,
Pronouns, Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and
Expletives.
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What your teachers told you is not a lie,
but it is very much an
oversimplification.
These Part-of-Speech Categories need to
be divided into two very different types
of Parts of Speech.
The Content Words carry real-world
meaning.
The Function words carry only
grammatical meaning.
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The Content Words are Nouns, Verbs,
Adjectives and Adverbs.
The Function Words are Articles,
Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives.
The Pronouns belong to neither of these
categories. Pronouns can stand in the
place of Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs,
Prepositional Phrases, or even
Sentences.
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Since Content Words carry real-world
meaning:
Content words can be stressed.
Content words cannot be easily figured
out if they are deleted.
Content words can be inflected.
Content words more readily enter into
compounds.
Content words are an open set; new ones
enter our language daily.
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Pronouns meet some of these criteria but
not others. They carry some real-world
meaning, but not as much as the words
they replace.
They can sometimes be stressed.
They can be figured out if deleted.
They can be inflected.
They don’t enter into compounding.
They are a closed set.
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CATEGORIES VS. FUNCTIONS
“Noun” is a category. “Subject” is a function.
A Noun or a Pronoun can function as a Subject, a
Subject Complement, a Direct Object, an Indirect
Object, an Object Complement or an Object of a
Preposition.
Pronouns functioning as S or SC are in subject form;
those functioning as DO, IO, OC, or OP are in object
form.
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A Verb functions as a Predicate.
An Adjective or an Adverb functions as a
Modifier.
An Adjective answers “which,” “what kind
of,” or “how many” and modifies a
Noun.
An Adverb answers “how,” “when,”
“where” or “how much” and modifies a
Verb, an Adjective, an Adverb or a
Sentence.
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Function Words have only grammatical meaning.
Prepositions relate Nouns to other Nouns (fourth
of July).
Conjunctions relate Sentences to other
Sentences.
Articles mark Nouns.
Auxiliaries mark Verbs.
Expletives mark the place of the Subject so that
the Subject can be postponed.
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OLD AND NEW INFORMATION
The Subject of a sentence gives Old
Information. It provides the “subject”
for the people to talk about.
The Predicate of a sentence gives New
Information. It provides new and
insightful information about the
Subject.
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Subject and Predicate are important
not only to Linguists, but also to
Rhetoricians, Psychologists,
Logicians, etc., but different names
are used in different fields:
Subject vs. Predicate
Topic vs. Comment
Old Information vs. New Information
Theme vs. Rheme
Presupposition vs. Assertion
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Contrast the following
Bound vs. Free Morphemes
Stem vs. Affix
Prefix vs. Suffix vs. Infix
Derivational vs. Inflectional
Content vs. Functional Morphemes
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Analyze the following word
Antidisestablishmentarianism
STEM: stable or establish
Suffixes: -ment, -arian, -ism
Prefixes: dis-, anti14
NOUNS
PLURAL: cats, dogs, horses, deer, data, mice,
alumni
POSSESSIVE: dog’s, its
PLURAL POSSESSIVE: dogs’
NOTE: English used to have four cases:
Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative
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VERBS
THIRD PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT INDICATIVE:
goes
PAST TENSE: buzzed, walked, heated, sang
PAST PARTICIPLE: driven, hit, liked
PRESENT PARTICIPLE: driving
NOTE: English used to have two more forms: driveth,
drivest
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SUPPLETIVE VERBS
• A suppletive form is one which comes from
two different paradigms. These must be
high-frequency words, or they will become
regularized through common use.
• “Go-went” is a suppletive verb, as is “is-be.”
“Go” comes from the “go” paradigm, while
“went” comes from the “wend” paradigm.
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ADJECTIVES
COMPARATIVE: higher, more beautiful, more
friendly
SUPERLATIVE: highest, most beautiful, most
friendly
NOTE: Old English Adjectives used to have
four cases (Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc), agreed with
nouns, and came after nouns
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ADVERBS
COMPARATIVE: faster, more imaginatively
SUPERLATIVE: fastest, most imaginatively
Adverbs usually end in –ly, however there are
FLAT ADVERBS: fast, first
AND –LY ADJECTIVES: friendly
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PERSONAL PRONOUNS
Sing
Nom
Obj
1st
2nd
3rd
I
you
he
she
it
me
you
him
her
it
we
you
they
us
our ours
you
your yours
them their theirs
Plural
1st
2nd
3rd
Pos Substantive
my
your
his
her
its
mine
yours
his
hers
its
Reflexive
myself
yourself
himself
herself
itself
ourselves
yourselves
themselves
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RELATIVE AND
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS
RELATIVE:
when
where
why
how
which
what
that
INTERROGATIVE
when
where
why
how
which
what
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DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
singular:
plural:
close:
this
these
far:
that
those
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Contrast these sentences
When did she arrive? (Int Pro)
I know when she arrived. (Rel Pro)
This is the pen that you borrowed. (Rel
Pro)
Please give me that pen. (Dem Pro)
I know that you wanted to do well. (SC)
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INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
(GO WITH A SINGULAR VERB)
THING:
PLACE:
TIME:
BODY
ANY
anything
anywhere
ever
anybody
NO
nothing
nowhere
never
nobody
SOME-
something
somewhere
sometimes
somebody
EVERY-
everything
everywhere
always
everybody
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ARCHAIC FORMS:
SHAKESPEARE & THE BIBLE
NOMINATIVE:
POSSESSIVE:
SINGULARS:
thou (Nom),
thy, thine (Gen),
PLURALS:
you,
ACCUSATIVE:
thee (Acc)
ye
DUALS:
wit, uncer, unc, git, incer, inc (NOTE: No longer in
Modern English
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MORPHOLOGICAL
HUMOR
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UGLIFICATION
“I never heard of ‘Uglification,’ Alice ventured
to say. ‘What is it?’ The Gryphon lifted up
both its paws in surprise. “never heard of
uglifying!” it exclaimed. “You know what to
beautify is, I suppose?’ ‘Yes,’ said Alice
doubtfully: ‘it means—to make—anythingprettier.’ ‘Well, then,’ the Gryphon went on,
‘if you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a
simpleton.’”
(Carroll, Lewis Alice in Wonderland 128-129)
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The term “uglification” is part of a longer quote in which
Alice is being told about the education system in
Wonderland. Students in Wonderland study “Reeling,
Writhing, Uglification and Derision.”
They call their teacher “Tortoise” because he “taught us.”
Lessons get shorter each day. That’s why they’re called
“lessens.”
In Wonderland, “Latin and Greek” becomes “Laughing and
Grief,” and “drawing, sketching and painting in oils”
becomes “Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.”
(Carroll, Lewis Alice in Wonderland 128-129)
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CLICK AND CLACK
THE TAPPET BROTHERS
On National Public Radio’s “Cartalk,” Click and Clack
are playing with Morphology in their list of credits:
Copyeditor: Adeline Moore
Accounts Payable: Ineeda Czech
Pollution Control: Maury Missions
Purchasing: Lois Bidder
Statistician: Marge Innovera
Russian Chauffeur: Picov Andropov
Legal Firm: Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe.
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BILINGUAL MORPHOLOGICAL WORD PLAY
“Un petit d’un petit
S’étonne aux Halles”
This makes no sense in French, but it makes
perfect sense in English:
“Humpty Dumpty
Sat on a wall”
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NEW DEFINITIONS
Artery: The study of painting
Bacteria: The back door of a cafeteria
Barium: What doctors do when patients
die.
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WATERGATE
The Watergate Hotel is where the break-in of the National
Democratic headquarters occurred.
Today’s dictionaries give more room to the metonymous meaning
of Watergate than to the literal meaning of “a gate controlling
the flow of water.”
“Gate” has now become a suffix meaning “scandal” as in
Irangate, Contragate, Iraqgate, Pearlygate, Rubbergate,
Murphygate, Gennifergate, Nannygate, Monicagate, ad
infinitum.
WATERGATE-GATE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfze1k4jsp8
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Concluding Statements:
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