Ling 403/603
Introduction to Phonology
REVIEW SLIDES
CESAR KOIRALA
Interaction of Morphology and Phonology
 There are many interactions between phonological forms and
morphological structures.
 Hence, it is very important to know about basic morphology in order to
understand Morphophonemic processes.
Morphology
 The system of categories and rules involved in word formation and
interpretation is called morphology.
Morphology
 The system of categories and rules involved in word formation and
interpretation is called morphology.
 Basic Idea:
- We store morphemes in the brain
- Morphemes are combined or changed via morphological processes
- The output of morphological processes are words
The Morpheme
 The smallest linguistic unit of meaning or function.
cat + s
“A feline”
“Plural”
Morpheme types
Morphemes
Free
Bound
Roots
Affixes
Derivational
Prefix
Suffix
Roots
Inflectional
Infix
Fig: Morpheme types
circumfix
Morphology
 The system of categories and rules involved in word formation and
interpretation is called morphology.
 Basic Idea:
- We store morphemes in the brain
- Morphemes are combined or changed via morphological processes
- The output of morphological processes are words
Morphological Processes
Types of morphological processes
 Affixation
 Compounding
 Reduplication
 Alternations
 Suppletion
Affixation
 Attachment of an affix to a base(root).
1.
2.
3.
4.
Prefix (e.g. inactive)
Suffix (e.g. drinkable)
Infix (e.g. Bontoc(Philippines): fumikas = fikas „strong’ + um ‘to be’)
Circumfix (e.g. samoan: fefinaua?i = finau „to quarrel‟ +
fe- / a?i „reciprocal‟)
Compounding
 Combining two independent words to form a new word:

Girlfriend, textbook, air-conditioner
Reduplication
 Process of forming a word by repeating either an entire word or part of
the word
 Total/full reduplication
 Indonesian(uses full reduplication for forming plurals of nouns):
rumah „house‟  rumah-rumah „houses‟

Partial reduplication
 Tagalog(uses partial reduplication for forming future tense of
verbs):
bili „buy‟  bibili „will buy‟
pasok ‘enter’  papasok „will enter‟
Alternations
 Morpheme internal modifications that make new words or
morphological distinctions
 Hebrew: (Derivational alternations between nouns and verbs)
Verbs
[limed] „he taught‟
[sijem] „he finished‟
Nouns
[limud] „lesson‟
[sijum] „end‟
 English has limited alternations that are somewhat idiosyncratic:


Sink [sɪŋk] vs. sank [sæŋk] vs. sunk [sʌŋk]
Ring vs. rang vs. rung
Suppletion
 A morphological process between forms of a word where wherein one
form cannot be phonologically or morphologically derived from the
other
 „go‟ vs. „went‟
 „is‟ vs. „was‟
Morphological Processes
Types of morphological processes
 Affixation
 Compounding
 Reduplication
 Alternations
 Suppletion
Morphology
 The system of categories and rules involved in word formation and
interpretation is called morphology.
 Basic Idea:
- We store morphemes in the brain
- Morphemes are combined or changed via morphological processes
- The output of morphological processes are words
Morphological Analysis
Procedure of performing morphological analysis

Isolate and compare the forms that are partially similar
[nokali]
[ikali]

‘my house’
‘his house’
[kali] = house
If a single phonetic form has two distinct meanings (functions), it
must be analyzed as representing two different morphemes.
[worker]
[faster]

If the same function and meaning are associated with different
phonetic forms, these different forms all represent the same
morphemes( They are allomorphs of the same morpheme).
Imbalance
Incomplete
Illegible
[Imbæləns]
[Iŋkəmplit]
[IlɛdӡIbl]
Inability
Irresponsible
[InəbIləɾi]
[IrIspansIbl]
Morphological Analysis
Procedure of performing morphological analysis

Isolate and compare the forms that are partially similar
[nokali]
[ikali]

‘my house’
‘his house’
[kali] = house
If a single phonetic form has two distinct meanings (functions), it
must be analyzed as representing two different morphemes.
[worker]
[faster]

If the same function and meaning are associated with different
phonetic forms, these different forms all represent the same
morphemes( They are allomorphs of the same morpheme).
Imbalance
Incomplete
Illegible
[Imbæləns]
[Iŋkəmplit]
[IlɛdӡIbl]
Inability
Irresponsible
[InəbIləɾi]
[IrIspansIbl]
Morphological Aanalysis
Procedure of performing morphological analysis

Isolate and compare the forms that are partially similar
[nokali]
[ikali]

‘my house’
‘his house’
[kali] = house
If a single phonetic form has two distinct meanings (functions), it
must be analyzed as representing two different morphemes.
[worker]
[faster]

If the same function and meaning are associated with different
phonetic forms, these different forms all represent the same
morphemes( They are allomorphs of the same morpheme).
Imbalance
Incomplete
Illegible
[Imbæləns]
[Iŋkəmplit]
[IlɛdӡIbl]
Inability
Irresponsible
[InəbIləɾi]
[IrIspansIbl]
Morphological Analysis
Procedure of performing morphological analysis

Isolate and compare the forms that are partially similar
[nokali]
[ikali]

‘my house’
‘his house’
[kali] = house
If a single phonetic form has two distinct meanings (functions), it
must be analyzed as representing two different morphemes.
[worker]
[faster]

If the same function and meaning are associated with different
phonetic forms, these different forms all represent the same
morphemes( They are allomorphs of the same morpheme).
Imbalance
Incomplete
Illegible
[Imbæləns]
[Iŋkəmplit]
[IlɛdӡIbl]
Inability
Irresponsible
[InəbIləɾi]
[IrIspansIbl]
Interaction of Morphology and Phonology
 There are many interactions between phonological forms and
morphological structures.
 Hence, it is very important to know about basic morphology in order to
understand Morphophonemic processes.
An example of interaction
 Consider the following data from an African language Maninka:
[bugo] hit
[dila]
repair
[don]
come in
[dumu] eat
[gwen] chase
[bugoli]
[dilali]
[donni]
[dumuni]
[gwenni]
hitting
repairing
coming in
eating
chasing
How do you represent “ing” in Maninka?
2. Can you predict which phonetic from will appear? If so, state the rule.
1.
Q. How do we write these morphological rules??
Morphological Structures
How are the words put together?
 Words with two morphemes: Simply by adding the two morphemes.
in+active=inactive
drink+able=drinkable
desk + lamp=desk lamp
The structure can be depicted using the tree
notation commonly used in syntax.
N
N
N
desk
lamp
Morphological Structures
How are the words put together?
 What about words with more than two morphemes?
un+use+able=unusable
Which affix gets attached first?
Morphological Structures
1.
The stems with which a given affix may combine (its input) normally
belongs to the same part of speech class.
For e.g „able‟ attaches to verbs but not to adjectives or nouns.
verbs
adjust + able
debate + able
adjectives
asleep + able
happy + able
nouns
anger + able
student + able
Morphological Structures
2. The words that are formed when an affix attaches to the stem (its
output) also normally belong to the same class.
verbs
adjust + able
debate + able
adjectives
adjustable
debatable
Morphological Structures

What is the order for reusable?
use: stem
able: an affix that attaches to verbs and forms adjectives
re: (meaning: do again)attaches to verbs and creates verbs
1. re + usable
2. reuse + able
Morphological Structures

What is the order for reusable?
use: stem
able: an affix that attaches to verbs and forms adjectives
re: (meaning: do again)attaches to verbs and creates verbs
1. re + usable (usable is an adjective. re cannot attach to it)
2. reuse + able
Morphological Structures
Adj
Conclusions:
verb
re
use(verb)
able
1. Morphological structures can be
depicted using tree structures.
2. The order in which the morphemes
combine is clearly captured by the
tree structures.
3. The different groupings of the
morphemes can produce
differences in the meanings
Rules for derivation


Lets take the example of the same suffix „able‟ . We saw it in the
words: usable, adjustable, debatable and lockable.
We concluded that it can attach to verbs (its input) and form
adjectives (its output). So, the morphological structure for Washable
can be shown as follows.
Adjective
Verb
əbəl
wɔʃ

-able affixation
Verb + əbəl  Adjective
Verb + əbəl means “able to be Verbed”
[[wɔʃ]Verb əbəl]Adj
wɔʃ - əbəl
The basic concept…
Morphemes (stored in the lexicon/constant pronunciation)
Morphological rules (combine morphemes/rearrange the phonological environments
of the phonemes)
Phonological rules (generate the surface forms)
(The cases of English plural formation and Chimwiini illustrated that the order in which rules apply is
important)
Morphophonemic Analysis
 The purpose of Morphophonemic Analysis is to discover a set of
underlying forms and ordered rules that is consistent with the data.
 Procedure of Morphophonemic Analysis:
Morphophonemic Analysis
 Assignment 5
 Only one rule and so ordering didn‟t matter
More on rule orderings…
Feeding
So we say that Apocope feeds Cluster Reduction.
Bleeding
So we say that /w/ epenthesis bleeds Vowel Deletion.
Counterfeeding
 It is useful to think of “counterfeed” as fails to feed or arrives too late to feed.
 Here, Non-Apical Deletion counterfeeds Final Lowering.
Counterbleeding
 This shows that if Vowel Deletion had applied first it would have bled /w/
epenthesis.
 So we say that Vowel Deletion counterbleeds /w/ epenthesis.
Morphophonemic Analysis
 The purpose of Morphophonemic Analysis is to discover a set of
underlying forms and ordered rules that is consistent with the data.
 Procedure of Morphophonemic Analysis:
English Plural morphemes
1.
2.
3.
4.
Account for the 3 allomorphs.
Give the derivations of [piz] and [mits]
Give the derivation of [glasiz].
Does the ordering of rules matter?
Good luck on your test!