Introduction to Linguistics IReview 2

Instructor: Kiki Nikiforidou

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 1

Morphology

• Morphology studies How words are formed, the internal

composition of words and how it relates to their meaning

• The basic unit in morphology is themorpheme, which is the minimal unit of meaning, the minimal

linguistic sign an arbitrary combination of meaning and

form that cannot be divided any further

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 2

Morphology

• One basic reason for taking the morpheme (and not the word) as our basic unit is that

There are many words which consist of different parts and not all of these parts are words:

feverish fever + -ish

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 3

Morphology

• Free morphemes arewords, they can stand on their own system, on, she, play, strong etc. => simple forms• Bound morphemes are attached to another form -ed, -ness, -ity, -ful, dis-, re- etc.

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 4

Morphology

• One common way of creating words is by joining one free morpheme with one or

more bound morphemes: play –ful –ness -> playfulness in this case the free morpheme is the root of the word

play –ful –ness un- happy –ness=> Root = free, lexical (content)

morphemes that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts

Department of English Studies

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Morphology

• But there are also bound roots (especially in words borrowed from Latin or Greek)

remit permit commit pathology geology

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Introduction to Linguistics I 6

Morphology

• Free morphemes are divided into lexical and functional• Lexical free morphemes are Content words with specific meaning, ordinary

verbs, nouns, adjectives: play, big, small, ball, machine, love, hate• Functional free morphemes are Words with a grammatical/structural role in the

sentence and generally abstract meanings, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, prepositions he, she, a, the, and, but, on, inDepartment of English Studies

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Morphology

Functional morphemes area closed class (do not accept new

members easily) represent a cognitively real category for

speakers

Identify all the lexical (root) and all the functional morphemes in this sentence:

They showed consideration for kids coming from troubled families, mindful of provocation.

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 8

Morphology

• Bound morphemes are divided into derivational and inflectional• Derivational bound morphemes create a different word and can therefore be

class-changing develop + –ment, local + -ity, dis- + charge • Inflectional bound morphemes express a grammatical type (function) of the

same word, are never class-changing play + -ed, sing + -s, ball + -s, small + -er

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 9

Morphology

• Only 8 inflectional morphemes in English

BUT: watch out for homonyms, that is different morphemes with the same form:

small -er vs. sing -er

(am) record -ing vs. (the) record -ing

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 10

Morphology

Identify all the derivational and all the inflectional morphemes in the following sentences:

If you are working 50 hours a week you do not have time to read 10 papers a day nor attempt to declassify governmental archives. Memory is not dependable when it comes to earlier times.

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 11

Morphology

• The allomorphs of a morpheme are each of the variant forms of a morpheme

depending on the (phonological) context

“a” (indefinite article)

a [ə] an [ən] before consonant before vowel

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Introduction to Linguistics I 12

Morphology

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Introduction to Linguistics I 13

• The morphological rules of the language are

regular productive patterns of word formation:

• Verb + -able Adjective ("fit to ‘Verb’ or to be ‘Verbed’"), e.g. accept acceptable

• un- + Adjective Adjective (antonym), e.g. happy unhappy

• Adjective + -en Verb ("to make something "adjective""), e.g. fat fatten

Word formation processes

jeep, aspirin, volt, and sandwich are all examples of Coinage. Coinage isThe creation of new words on the basis of existing product names, trade labels or proper nameslegal, commerce, manage, spaghetti, pathogenic, ad hoc are all examples ofBorrowing. Borrowing is adopting words from another languageLoan translation is direct (word for word, morpheme for morpheme) translation of an expression in another language, φωτοαντίγραφο < photocopy

Department of English Studies

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Word formation processes

verbalization, deportation, unpredictable are all examples of Derivation. Derivation isadding derivational affixes to a stem to create (new) words

telethon, mochaccino, simulcast, infomercial are all examples ofBlending. Blending isjoining the first part of a word to the last part of another (typically)

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 15

Word formation processes

ice-cream, ice-cream cone, dishwasher safe, hard drive, tablecloth, mouse trap are all examples of Compounding. Compounding isjoining at least two words to create a different wordThe different word has a single, possibly unpredictable, meaning and one main stressDVD, ATM, ufo, NYU, UCL are all examples ofAcronyms. Acronyms are the initial letters of a group of words which themselves become words

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 16

Word formation processes

(to) bottle, (to) floor, (to) vacation, (to) up, (to) carpool, (to) dirty, (a) takeover, (a) guess are all examples ofConversion. Conversion iscreating different words by simply changing the function of existing words (=zero derivation)

Ron, Ed, Pam, plane, condo, chem, exam, prof, sci are all examples of Clipping/abbreviation. Clipping is reducing polysyllabic words to shorter forms that become different words

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 17

Word formation processes

(to) emote, (to) liaise, pea, (to) sculpt, (to) backform are all examples ofBackformation. Backformation is the creation of a new word through a (typically incorrect) analysis of an existing word

Which are the processes involved in the following words?

(to) snowball, withdrawal, footballer, (to) shortlist,contrabassist

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 18

Syntax

• The descriptive vs. prescriptive approach distinction has to do with

whether we view linguistic rules as instructions for the “proper” use of

language (= prescriptive approach) or, as general descriptions of how

speakers actually use language at all levels (phonology, morphology, syntax) (=descriptive approach)

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 19

Syntax

The descriptive vs. prescriptive distinction is more important in syntax becausemost of the prescriptive rules of the past were syntactic rules: the rule of the ‘split infinitive’ the rule of ‘preposition stranding’

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 20

Syntax

NP Art (Adj) NNP PluralNNP ProperNVP V NP NPVP V (Adv)S NP VPare some of the basicPhrase structure rules of English Phrase structure rules are dynamic patterns that generate all the well-formed phrases and sentences

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 21

Syntax

Recursion is the property of phrase structure rules to apply more

than once in generating a sentenceWe know that you know that she knows that

linguistics is fun.

Art {a, the}PN {Mary, George,…}V {help, want,…}are some of the Lexical rules of English

Department of English Studies

Introduction to Linguistics I 22

Syntax

Structural ambiguity isA single phrase or a single sentence with two different interpretations which are due totwo different ways of structuring the words

ten boys and girlsWe fried the eggs in the panShe hid the wallet on the shelf

Department of English Studies

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