Introduction to Morphology
LINGUIST 1
Olek Główka
October 13, 2014
What is morphology?
• Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the internal
shape of words.
What is morphology?
• Morphology studies the systematic changes in shape related to
changes in meaning
(1)
desert
design
fight
paint
twist
deserter
designer
fighter
painter
twister
The mental lexicon
• The goal of morphology is to understand the organization and the
workings of the mental lexicon, the intuitive knowledge that every
speaker has about the words of her language.
The mental lexicon
• Speakers have strong intuitions about what is a possible word in their
native language.
(2)
a. demystify
detoxify
b. * dehappify
* debuildify
The mental lexicon
• However, speakers can still understand the meanings of pseudowords
such as dehappify…
The mental lexicon
…and can coin new ones!
(3)
a.
onion-y
cucumber-y
carrot-y
b.
*celery-y
*pea-y
*broccoli-y
(187,000 Google hits)
(49,900 Google hits)
(227,000 Google hits)
The mental lexicon
• The mental lexicon is a mental store of information about words,
including their structure and meaning.
• it not just a passive list of words; it contains information about
smaller forms along with their meanings and lexical categories (a.k.a.
“parts of speech”), as well as rules on how to legitimately combine
these forms
Form
-er /ɚ/
Meaning
“the entity N that performs an action V”
Rule
V + /ɚ/ → N
What is a morpheme?
• A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit that carries meaning
and/or a grammatical function
(4)
moral-ize-er-s
performative verb
agentive noun
plural noun
Form & Meaning Associations
• 1 morpheme → 1 meaning e.g. -less “without”
(5)
clueless
• 1 morpheme → many meanings, e.g. -s
(6)
a.
speaks
(3 person singular morpheme)
b.
speakers
(plural morpheme)
• many morphemes → 1 meaning, e.g. plural morpheme
(7)
cows
horses
oxen
mice
fish (ø)
allomorphs of plural morpheme
Morphemic Classification: Root vs. Stem
• A word consists of one or more morphemes (cf. moralizers)
• Words consisting of morphemes that cannot be reanalyzed into
smaller chunks are root morphemes.
• When the root morpheme combines with another morpheme, it
forms a stem.
stem of globalization
(8)
stem of globalize
stem of global
root
Morphemic Classification: Free vs. Bound
• Morphemes that can form independent words are called free morphemes.
(9)
happy
speak
(10)
dur
bat
anla
sev
‘to stop’
‘to sink’
‘to understand’
‘to love’
(Turkish)
Morphemic Classification: Free vs. Bound
• Morphemes that cannot stand independently and must be adjoined to other
morphemes are called bound morphemes (a.k.a. “affixes”).
(10)
(11)
unhappy
speaks
dur
bat
anla
sev
‘to stop’
‘to sink’
‘to understand’
‘to love’
prefix
suffix
durak
batak
anlas
sevis
‘stopping place’
‘sinking place/marsh’
‘understand each other’
‘love each other’
(Turkish)
Morphemic Classification: Free vs. Bound
• N.B. Not all roots are free. Bound roots must appear with one or more
affixes.
(13)
inept
nonplussed
• Some roots can be free in some contexts and bound in others.
(14)
a. capable
b. gooseberry
Morphemic Classification: Derivation vs. Inflection
• Suffixes such as –ly, -ness, and -ize are examples of derivational affixes. When they are added,
they change the lexical category of their bases.
(15)
happily
happiness
strategize
Adj + -ly → Adv
Adj + -ness → N
N + -ize → V
• However, some affixes leave the lexical category unchanged.
(16)
neighborhood
undo
intolerant
N + -hood → N
V + -un → V
Adj + -in → Adj
• Derivational affixes change the meanings of their bases.
Morphemic Classification: Derivation vs. Inflection
• Suffixes such as -s and -ed are examples of inflectional affixes.
(17) gardens
parted
N + -s → N (number: singular → plural)
V + -ed → V (tense: present → past)
• Inflectional affixes have a strictly grammatical function. They never
change the meanings or the lexical category of their bases.
Can you think of other allomorphs of
the past tense morpheme?
Morphemic Classification: Derivation vs. Inflection
• Languages use inflectional morphology to varying degrees, e.g.
English vs. Polish present tense paradigm of verb ‘to eat’
Singular
Plural
1
/jɛ-m/
/jɛ-mɨ/
eat
2
/jɛ-ʃ/
/jɛ-ʨɛ/
eat
3
/jɛ/-ø
/jɛ-ʤɔ̃/
Singular
Plural
1
eat
eat
2
eat
3
eat-s
Morphemic Classification: Derivation vs. Inflection
How does English make up for its poor inflectional paradigm?
• Overt person pronouns:
Singular
Plural
1
I eat
we eat
2
you eat
you eat
3
she eats
they eat
• Fixed word order:
John
Subject
Reliance on context
eats
Verb
meat.
Object
• A language can express a given grammatical relation either inflectionally
(morphologically) or syntactically (as part of sentence structure).
Morphological processes: Affixation
• The same morphological processes are systematically employed by typologically different
languages
• Circumfixation: a prefix and a suffix act together to surround a base
(18)
frag-en ‘to ask’
lob-en ‘to praise’
zeig-en ‘to show’
ge-frag-t‘asked’
ge-lob-t ‘praised’
ge-zeig-t ‘shown’
(German)
• Infixation: an affix is inserted inside a base creating a discontinuous morph
(19)
sulat
s-um-ulat
s-in-ulat
‘to write’
‘wrote’
‘was written’
(Tagalog)
Morphological Processes: Compounding
• Compounding forms new words by means of independent words rather than affixes
(20)
puku -aroha
belly love
‘sympathetic’
(Maori)
• In some cases, compounds retain internal inflections
(21)
ny -t
-aar
new NEUT -year
‘new year’
(Danish)
• In English, when the compound has the same word order as the corresponding phrase,
primary stress is usually placed on the first member of the compound
(22)
BLACKboard
(cf. black BOARD)
Morphological typology: Analytic vs. Synthetic
• Languages vary in the degree to which they use morphology
• Analytic languages very little to no morphology: each word consists of a single
morpheme
(23)
Hai đú.ɑ
boˀ
nhau
lɑ̒̒ tɑ̣
giɑ-đinh
two individual leave each.other be because.of family
thɑng chông.
guy
husband
(Vietnamese)
Morphological typology: Analytic vs. Synthetic
• Synthetic languages have words consisting of multiple morphemes
• Polysynthetic languages are an extreme example of synthetic languages, with an
extraordinary amount of morphology
• Characterized by compounding multiple stems
• Often expressed by incorporating nouns, adjectives, and adverbs into the verb
(24)
Pɑɑsi-nngil-luinnar-para
ilɑɑ-jumɑ-sutit.
understand.not.completely-1SG.SUBJ.3SG.OBJ.IND
come.want-2SG.PTCP
‘I didn’t understand at all that you wanted to come along.’
(Greenlandic Eskimo)
Morphological typology: Analytic vs. Synthetic
• The distinction between analytic and synthetic languages is not a bipartition but a
continuum from the most analytic to the most polysynthetic.
• The degree of synthesis of selected languages (Haspelmath, 2002: 5)
Language
Ratio of morphemes per word
Greenlandic Eskimo
3.72
Sanskrit
2.59
Swahili
2.55
Old English
2.12
Lezgian
1.93
German
1.92
Modern English
1.68
Vietnamese
1.06
Morphological analysis: Isthmus Zapotec
a. [palu]
b. [kuːba]
c. [tapa]
d. [ɡeta]
e. [bere]
f. [doɁo]
‘stick’
‘dough’
‘four’
‘tortilla’
‘chicken’
‘rope’
g. [spalube]
h. [skuːbabe]
i. [stapabe]
j. [sketabe]
k. [sperebe]
l. [stoɁobe]
‘his stick’
‘his dough’
‘his four’
‘his tortilla’
‘his chicken’
‘his rope’
m. [spalulu]
n. [s kuːbalu]
o. [stapalu]
p. [sketalu]
q. [sperelu]
r. [stoɁolu]
‘your stick’
‘your dough’
‘your four’
‘your tortilla’
‘your chicken’
‘your rope’
i. indicate all bound and free morphemes in ‘your stick’
ii. Isolate the morphemes that encode the following grammatical functions:
possession (genitive), third person singular, second person plural
iii. List the allomorphs for the following translations: ‘tortilla’, ‘chicken’, ‘rope’
iv. What phonological environment triggers the alternation between these allomorphs?
(adapted from Mihalicek & Wilson, 2011)