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Morphological processes

Holger Diessel

holger.diessel@uni-jena.de

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The lexeme

Lexeme Word form

go goes

car carcars

gonewent

be bebeen

beingisareamwas

were

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Derivation - Inflection

Words with derivational morphemes are new words (which you would expect

to find in a comprehension dictionary).

Words with inflectional morphemes are conjugated or declined words(which you would not expect to find in a dictionary).

Criteria for distinguishing inflectional from derivational morphemes:

change of category

productivity

consistency in meaning

position

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Change of category

Derivational morphemes can change the grammatical category of the base:

to act nominalizationactoraction

free freedom

hospital to hospitalize verbalization

false to falsify

to count countable adjectivization

quick quickly adverbialization

to hope hopeful

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Productivity

Inflectional morphemes tend to be more productive than derivational

morphemes. But the productivity of derivational morphemes is a continuum:

Productive derivationalmorphemes:

Unproductive derivationalmorphemes:

-er

-less-ation

-hood (e.g. motherhood)

-dom (e.g. freedom)-fold (e.g. twofold)

un-mis-non-

en- (e.g. enslave)a- (e.g. atypical)

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Productivity

What determines the productivity of a morpheme?

Blocking go - wentsteal - thief

Phonological / morphological idiosyncracies

*goed*stealer

waiter wait-ressactor act-resslion lion-ess

Semantic: *road-ess

*police-ess

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Semantic consistency

Derivational morphemes are semantically less consistent than inflectional

morphemes.

(1) cars more than one car more than onetables more than one table more than one

(2) computerise put into a computer put into Xmodernise make (more) modern make more Xregularise make (more) regular make more X

brotherise provide with a brother provide with X

cottages more than one cottage more than one

(3) interest interchange interdict interplay

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Position

In English, inflectional morphemes are always suffixes, whereas derivational

morphemes are both suffixes and prefixes:

Inflectional morphemes:-s cats

Derivational suffixes:-tion action

Derivational prefixes:dis- disbelieve

-s walks-ed walked-ing walking-er hotter-est warmest

-

-hood motherhood-ize brutalize-en weaken-ify falsify-ive generative

-ish foolish

-

un- undonon- non-smokerinter- interchangemis- misinterpretco- coactive

de- derail

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Word formation

Word formation strategies:

affixation

compounding

conversion

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Compounding

Orthography:

Stress:

armchair, pain-free, dinner table

the white house (over there) The White House

armchairdinner tableseasickpain-freeto fine-tune

skinheadpickpockethandoutafternoonunderground

N-NN-NN-ADJN-ADJADJ-V

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Conversion

N > V to bridge, to mail, to mushroom, to data-bank

V > N a command, a dump, a guess, a kiss

ADJ > V to open, to better, to dirty, to empty

ADJ > N the poor, a daily (rather rare)

CLOSED CL no buts to u to down the hereafter

history

semantic complexity/abstractness

frequency

Which one is basic?

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Shortenings

Bicycle > bikeGasoline > gasAdvertisement > adDelicatessen > deliFacsimile > fax

Clippings

Smoke + fog > smokeMotor + hotel > motelBreakfast + lunch > brunch

Channel + tunnel > chunnel

Blends

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Shortenings

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome > AIDSNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization > NATORadio detecting and ranging > radar

Acronyms

United States of America > USAPretty damm quick > PDQJean Pierre > JP

Initialism

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Short review

Holger Diessel

holger.diessel@uni-jena.de

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Important terms

Explain the following terms and provide examples:

morpheme affix

allomorph

content morpheme

base vs. root

zero morpheme

post traumaticpostpone

posterior

Comment on the morpheme post in the following words:

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Exercise

Consider the following past tense forms. How many allomorphs

does the (regular) past tense morpheme have?

called pattedwalked claimedkissed kickeddared lovedargued dreaded

Explain why the past tense alternation is a morphological process.Why is this not a case of allophonic variation?

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Tree diagrams

(1) manliness

(2) irreplaceability

ADJ

N

man ly ness ir re place able ityN

ADV

V

V

ADJ

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Tree diagrams

(1) unlockable a. is locked, but cannot be unlocked

b. can in principle be locked, but this one cannot be unlocked

un lock ableV

V

un lock able

ADJ

V

nicht aufschliebar nicht verschliebar