1

Introduction to English Linguistics

Kohn, Watts, Winkler

SS06-Part IIIVLS03

2

Assignments

1. Read Radford (2004), Chapter 2 and 3.

2. Register for the web-based assessment test:

http://www.es-courseportal.de

3. Reread Course Notes

Introduction to English Linguistics

3

Introduction to English Linguistics

Words:

Morphology, Grammatical Categories, Features

and the Minimalist Program

Todays Topic:

4

Introduction to English Linguistics

Model of Grammar in The Minimalist Program[Chomsky 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002]

LexiconSyntax

syntactic structure

PF component

PF representation

SPEECH SYSTEMS

semantic component

semantic representation

THOUGHT SYSTEMS

6

Introduction to English Linguistics

Structure of the Lecture

2. Syntactic Evidence

Word Classes: classification of words in grammatical categories1. Morphological Evidence

- inflectional processes- word-formation processes- the structure of words

7

Introduction to English Linguistics

Grammatical categories

semantic properties

morphological properties

syntactic properties

10

Introduction to English Linguistics

Building Words: morphological processes

Morphological Processes

Inflection Word-Formation

Derivation Compounding

11

Introduction to English Linguistics

Morphological criteria for the classification of Nouns/Verbs:

i. inflectional properties- relate to different forms of the same wordcat - cats (by adding the plural inflection s)

ii. derivational properties- relate to the processes by which a different kind of word can be build by e.g. affixation:sad - sadness (by adding the suffix ness)

12

Introduction to English Linguistics

Claim 1:

Q: How many inflectional affixes are there in English?

A systematic account of English inflectional morphology is only possible on the basis of the assumption that words belong to grammatical categories, and that a specific type of inflection attaches only to a specific category of word.

English has 8 inflectional affixes

13

Introduction to English Linguistics

English inflectional affixesNounsplural -s the books

possessive -s John's book

Verbsthird person singular present -s John reads well.

progressive -ing He is sleeping.

past tense -ed He arrived yesterday.

perfect participle -ed/-n He hasn't discussed /seenany book by Chomsky.

14

Introduction to English Linguistics

English inflectional affixes

Adjectives and adverbs

Synthetic (inflectional) comparison:

comparative -er This one is smaller.He arrived earlier.

superlative -est This one is the smallest.He arrived earliest.

Analytic (periphrastic) comparison:

hopeful, more hopeful, most hopeful;

15

Introduction to English Linguistics

What went wrong here?

A: Limits to the freedom of innovation.

A new word cannot be derived if the derived word already exists and means something else.

processed food okay

processed word/sentence okay

processed world ???

"Oftentimes, we live in a processed worldyou know, people focus on the process and not results. G.W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 29, 2003.

16

Introduction to English Linguistics

Building Words: morphological processes

Morphological Processes

Inflection Word-Formation

Derivation Compounding

17

Introduction to English Linguistics

The minimal meaning-bearing unit of language.

Definition of Morphology:

The study of the internal structure of words.

Definition of MORPHEME:

Q: How many morphemes make up the word workers?

work er s

18

Introduction to English Linguistics

Problem: how to determine the category of the base to which an affix is added, e.g work-er

Conclusion: the base with which -er can combine must be a verb rather than a noun.

One searches for similar cases whose category can be unequivocally determined like teach-er (teach: V), writ-er (write: V), sell-er (sell: V)

The base work is sometimes used as V (they work hard) and sometimes as N (this work is time consuming)

note: sale (N) > *saler;

19

Introduction to English Linguistics

The suffix -er added to a verb means "one who does X"

Verb base Resulting noun

teach

write

sing

car

house

teach-er

write-er

sing-er

*car-er

*house-er

General Conclusion: Inflectional and derivational affixes have categorial properties.

20

Introduction to English Linguistics

Rootultimate starting point for deriving a word. The root is the most basic morpheme in a word. The root of a word cannot be further decomposed;- teach

Stem/Basethe actual form to which an affix is added; - teach for teach-er; teacher for teacher-s

Affixeach of the bound morphemes is an affix;

21

Introduction to English Linguistics

Ex: John should not leave the country.John will not leave the country.

Free vs. Bound MorphemesFree Morpheme: can constitute a word by itself, e.g. not

Bound morpheme:must be attached to another element, e.g. nt

Ex: John shouldnt leave the country.John wont leave the country.

Q: Question formation

22

Introduction to English Linguistics

Claim 2:

A systematic account of English derivational morphology is only possible on the basis of the assumption that words belong to grammatical categories, and that particular derivational affixes can only be attached to words belonging to particular categories.

23

Introduction to English Linguistics

Q: What went wrong in the following derivational processes?

sad sadly

computer *computerly

accept *acceptly

with *withly

Observation: the adverbialising suffix -ly can only be attached to adjectives not to nouns, not to verbs and not to prepositions.

24

Introduction to English Linguistics

Q: What went wrong in the following derivational processes?sad sadness

boy *boyness

resemble *resembleness

down *downness

Observation: the nominalising (i.e. noun-forming) suffix -ness can be attached only to adjective stems (so giving rise to adjective/noun pairs such as coarse/coarseness), not to nouns, verbs or prepositions.

25

Introduction to English Linguistics

Types of Affixes: defined in terms of their position relative to the stem:Prefix:attached to the front of its stem, e.g. disappear, replay, illegal, inaccurate,

Suffix:attached to the end of its stem, e.g. vividly, government, hunter, distribution,

Infix:occurs between two other mor-phemes, e.g. -um-, -in- in Tagalog(Philippines)

takbuh (run), tumakbuh (ran)lakad (walk), lumakad (walked)

Engl.: absobloodylutely;Massafuckingchusetts

26

Introduction to English Linguistics

Derivational AffixesAffix Example Change Semantic effect

Suffix attached to V-er work ? worker V ? N one who X-ion protect ? protection V ? N the act of Xing

attached to N-ial ? presidential N ? A pertaining to X

attached to A-ly ? quietly A ? Adv in a X manner

27

Introduction to English Linguistics

Derivational Affixes

Prefixin- ? incompetent A ? A not X

re- ? rethink V ? V X again

Affix Example Change Semantic effect

un- ? unhappy A ? A not X

un- ? untie V ? V reverse X

28

Introduction to English Linguistics

The Structure of Words

Labelled bracketing:

[ teach ]V[ N er ] [N s ]

Q: How can we represent the structure of teach er s?

29

Introduction to English Linguistics

V

teach

Af

er

N Af

s

Tree Structure

N

30

Introduction to English Linguistics

V

teach

Af

er

N Af

s

N

Binary Branching Hypothesis:The basic morphological operations are binary.

Definition: In any morphological tree structure, a mother node only has two daughters at most.

Q: Why shouldnt we assume the followingstructure?

V

teach

Af

s

N

Af

er

*

31

Introduction to English Linguistics

Q: And what is wrong with the following structure?

No-Crossing Branches Restriction: Branches cannot cross.

V

teach er

N

s

N*

32

Introduction to English Linguistics

Q: How can we represent the structure of nationalization?

Labelled bracketing:

[ nation ]N[ A al ] [V ize ][N ation ]

33

Introduction to English Linguistics

N

nation

Af

al

A Af

ize

V Af

ation

N

34

Introduction to English Linguistics

Building Words: morphological processes

Morphological Processes

Inflection Word-Formation

Derivation Compounding

35

Introduction to English Linguistics

COMPOUNDING:involves the combination of two words (with or without accompanying affixes)

N - N: mail-box, blackbird, doghouse, doorstopN - A: seaworthy, winedarkN - V: stagemanageA - A: blue-green

In English, compounds can be found in all the major lexical categories - N, A, V, but nouns are by far the most common type of compounds. Verb compounds