Morphology is concerned with the elements that compose words and the organization of these elements into hierarchical structures

• 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

• The Vocabulary items:

• (1) Identifying index: /perestroika/ /bInd/

• Syntactic category: Noun Verb

• Meaning: “reorganization, “to make secure

• reconstruction” by tying”

• Syntactic features: [+abstract] [+transitive]

• Morphological features: none zero inflection

• ablaut

SIMPLE AND COMPLEX WORDS

• 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 [A+ness]N

• (3) [[ un [ [ [gentle]A [man]N]N li]A ]A ness]N

• [ anti [ [ [ dis [ establish]V ]V ment]N arian ]A ]A ism ]N

INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY

• 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. love-d

• go vs. goe-s vs. 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

• 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).

• (5) Swahili (East Africa).
• 1. ninakusikia 'I hear you'
• 2. ninamsikia 'I hear him'
• 3. ninakisikia 'I hear it'
• 4. ninawasikia 'I hear them’
• 5. anakusikia 'he hears you'
• 6. anamsikia 'he hears him'
• 7. anawasikia 'he hears them'
• 8. anatusikia 'he hears us'
• 9. unanisikia 'you hear me'
• 10. unawasikia 'you hear them'
• 11 tunakisikia 'we hear it'
• 12. wanakusikia 'they hear you
• 13. ninakujibu 'I answer you'
• 14. nitakujibu 'I will answer you'
• 15. nimekujibu ’ I have answered you'
• 16. nilikujibu 'I answered you'
• 17. unamjibu 'you answer him'
• 18. utamjibu 'you will answer him'
• 19. umemjibu 'you have answered him'
• 20. ulimjibu 'you answered him'
• 21. mnanisikia 'you (pl.) hear me'
• 22. mmewasikia 'you (pl.) have heard them'
• 23. mtatusikia 'you (pl.) will hear us'
• 24. mlikisikia 'you (pl.) heard it'
• 25. ninamjua 'I know him'
• 26. niliwajua 'I knew them'
• 27. atanisaidia 'he will help me'
• 28. wamekusaidia 'they have helped you'

The order of morphemes:

• The order of morphemes:
• (6) subject tense object verb
• prefix prefix prefix stem
• (7) subjects tenses objects stems
• ni- 'I' -ta- 'future' -ni- 'me' -sikia 'hear'
• u- 'you' -na- 'present' -ku- 'you' -jibu 'answer'
• a- 'he' -me- 'perfect' -m- 'him' -jua 'know'
• tu- 'we' -li- 'past' -ki- 'it' -saidia 'help'
• m- 'you (pl.)' -tu- 'us'
• wa- 'they' -wa- 'them'
• PROBABLE new words made up of these same morphemes in the correct order.
• (8) atamsikia tumekijua
• walitujibu 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 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 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 -here -mit

• im-port in-here

• re-ceive re-port re-mit

• ad-here ad-mit

AFFIXES:

• 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:

• Bound morphemes may be assigned morphological templates like the following:

• (12) i. [ [ X ] A + ness] N : gentleness, grammaticalness, uneasiness

• ii. [ 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

• TYPES OF AFFIXES

• 1. PREFIXES:
• a. Prespecified (English)
•    work re-work
•    likely un-likely
• like dis-like
• b. 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'
• 2. SUFFIXES:
• work work-ed
• likely likeli-ness
• bake bak-er

INFIXES

• INFIXES
• Tagalog
• bili 'buy' b-um-ili 'to buy'
• kuha 'get' k-um-uha 'to get'
• sulat 'write' s-um-ulat 'to write'
• punta 'go'   p-um-unta 'to go'
• tawa 'laugh'   t-um-awa 'to laugh'
• 4. CIRCUMFIXES
•   em-bold-en en-light-en
• 5. NULL MORPHOLOGY
• Noun/Adjective Verb
• a frame to frame
•   dry to dry
•   a run to run

STEM CHANGES

• STEM CHANGES
• Ablaut:
•   strike struck struck
• teach taught taught
• drive drove driven
• ring rang rung

• Stem Changes
• II. RESYLLABIFICATION: The Semitic binyans.
• Arabic root /ktb/
• katab ‘write’ perfective active
• kutib 'was written’ perfective passive
• aktub 'is writing’ imperfective active
• uktab 'was being written’ imperfective passive

• Hebrew root /gdr/

•   Active Passive

• gadar 'enclosed’ ni-gdar 'was enclosed’
•  goder 'encloses’   ni-gdar 'is enclosed'
• yi-gdor 'will enclose’ yi-gader 'will be enclosed'
•  gdor 'enclose!’  hi-gader 'be enclosed!'
• li-gdor 'to enclose’   le-hi-gader 'to be enclosed'