Morphology - UZH · 4. Productivity What is productivity? (Lieber 2009)-ness attaches to...

Morphology

Class 10 & 11

Derivation & Inflection

FS 2014

Rik van Gijn

You will learn

√ About derivation and inflection

√ About criteria to distinguish them

√ Approaches to morphology that hinge on the distinction infl-der

√ About a more refined subdivision between inherent and contextual

inflection

√ Another typological parameter: locus of marking

Goal of this class

Derivation

Ideal picture

Inflection

Provides new

lexemes

Provides forms

of lexemes

Lexicon Syntax

Derivation

More realistic picture?

Inflection

Provides new

lexemes

Provides forms

of lexemes

Lexicon Syntax

LexemePhonologicalwordGrammaticalword

Types of words

Lexical integrityDomain

phonological and prosodic rules

Distinction derivation and

inflection

Criteria for the distinction between derivation and inflection

1. Meaning

2. Change of category

3. Regularity of meaning

4. Productivity

5. Position in the template

6. Obligatoriness

7. Relevance to syntax


1. Meaning

Inflectional feature values

Derivational meanings

-

+

Semantic content


1. Meaning

Inflectional features and their values

Haspelmath & Sims 2010


1. Meaning

Inflectional features and their values


HonorificsComparativeVoicePolarityDependent verb forms


1. Meaning

Derivational meanings


Diverse group.

Some meanings are common cross-linguistically (e.g. agent noun,

quality noun) but some are highly specific.

Big Nambas

dui ‘man’ dui-et ‘sacred man’

navanel ‘road’ navanel-et ‘sacred road’

French

pomme ‘apple’ pomm-ier ‘apple tree’

poire ‘pear’ poir-ier ‘pear tree’


1. Meaning

The criterion of meaning is a useful starting point, but as a decisive

criterion, it has at least the following problems

1. It is rather difficult to decide on a cut-off point of semantic content

in an objective way

2. For some languages it makes sense to call, say, voice morphology

derivational; for other languages it may be more useful to call voice

morphology inflectional see also number



One characteristic that one often encounters in derivational affixes, is that they

change the lexical class category of the base they attach to. Inflectional affixes

do not do this.



Some common derivational meanings




However, derivation does not necessarily lead to other lexical classes.




But: What is a category?

Bauer:

If we define category at the coarse level of noun, verb, adjective, then the criterion isolates some derivational affixes but fails to distinguish between the other derivational affixes and inflectional ones. If we work with an extremely delicate notion of category, it is not clear that the criterion will work at all.



The interpretation of inflectional markers is regular, that of derivational markers

often is not



- Derivational markers with regular meaning, especially very productive ones,

like -er and -able


often is not



- How do we determine meaning?


often is not

Bauer (96):

beaver-etteflannel-ettemaison-ettekitchen-ettesuffrag-etteusher-ette





often is not

Bauer (96):


Three meaningsi. small (as in kitchenette, maisonette),ii. female (as in suffragette, usherette) andiii. mock material (as in beaverette, flannelette).





often is not

Bauer (96):


Three meaningsi. small (as in kitchenette, maisonette),ii. female (as in suffragette, usherette) andiii. mock material (as in beaverette, flannelette).

One meaningDiminutive = 'small in size' but can, in our society, imply one of two things:i. delicacy (as with women) orii. inferior quality (as with the materials and - possibly - with the women).


4. Productivity

What is productivity?

Inflection is productive, derivation is semi-productive


4. Productivity

What is productivity? (Lieber 2009)

-ness attaches to adjectives, and creates nouns. For a base meaning ‘X’, the derived noun means ‘the state of being X’.

modern modernitypure purity

-th attaches to adjectives, and creates nouns. For a base meaning ‘X’, the derived noun means ‘the state of being X’.

-ity attaches to adjectives, and creates nouns. For a base meaning ‘X’, the derived noun means ‘the state of being X’.

warm warmthtrue truth

happy happinessdark darkness


4. Productivity

What is productivity? (Lieber 2009)

lovelycoolcrudeevilgoogleablerusticmustyinconsequentialfelinetoxicbovine


4. Productivity


A morphological pattern or rule is productive if it can be applied to

new bases to create new words

- Productivity is a relative notion

- Productivity is a synchronic notion

- Productivity ≠ Frequency

- Productivity ≠ Analyzability


4. Productivity


A morphological pattern or rule is productive if it can be applied to

new bases to create new words

- Productivity is a relative notion

- Productivity is a synchronic notion

- Productivity ≠ Frequency

- Productivity ≠ Analyzability

Comparative % of first citations of -dom per Century (Lieber 2009)


4. Productivity

Lieber 2009: 61

Factors contributing to productivity

segmentabilitycompositionality

restrictions on base- categorial- other

the (cultural-historical) needs of a society

Semantic restrictions e.g. * Bäum-in is nonsensicale.g. -tum restricted to nouns denoting people


4. Productivity

Phonological restrictions

Examples of restrictions

Etymological restrictions



4. Productivity

- Some derivational affixes (like -able) are very productive

- Some inflectional affixes are not fully productive (e.g. deponent verbs -

see for instance modal verbs in English which do not take -s or -ing)

- But base definition is generally simpler (i.e. in terms of categorial

restrictions) for inflection than for derivation



4. Productivity

- Some derivational affixes (like -able) are very productive

- Some inflectional affixes are not fully productive (e.g. deponent verbs -

see for instance modal verbs in English which do not take -s or -ing)

- But base definition is generally simpler (i.e. in terms of categorial

restrictions) for inflection than for derivation


The definition of the base is more likely to be just

categorial for inflection than for derivation; derivation

is more likely to require further specification.


5. Position in template

1. Statistical tendency not criterial (one needs an apriori decision about

what is derivational and inflectional)

2. Counterexamples:

interest·ed·lyexaggerate·d·lyreport·ed·lyaccord ·ing·lylov·ing·nessbound ·ed ·nessfor·giv·ing·nessstartl-ing·ness

derivation is closer to the root than inflection

Bauer 2003


6. Monomorphemic replacability

Derivational constructions can be replaced by monomorphemic forms inflected

forms can’t

Patriot-ism is good for a nation

Oil is good for a nation

Lee always arrives at noon

*Lee always come at noon

Bauer 2003



Relates to obligatoriness

Inflectional features are obligatorily expressed on all applicable word-forms.

Derivational meanings are not obligatorily expressed


forms can’t



- Fails in inflectional languages

- Optionality of inflection (e.g. optional case marking)


forms can’t



Inflection is relevant to syntax, derivation is not.

Government: the situation where a word (typically a verb or adposition)

requires another word to have a particular inflectional value.

Agreement





Agreement: Some systematic covariation between a semantic or formal

property of one element and a formal property of another. Steele (1978:610).

the system works

controller target

feature: number

value: singular

domain

Corbett 2008:5




Agreement: Some systematic covariation between a semantic or formal

property of one element and a formal property of another. Steele (1978:610).




What about tense, aspect, mood, etc.?

Consecutio temporum

I want to buy a car

He said that he wanted to buy a car

Inflection versus derivation

What to do?

Give up the distinction

Dichotomy approach

Accept gradience


What to do?

Give up the distinction

This has enormous consequences for how morphology is approached. It

would mean giving up the notion of lexeme (in spite of its rather intuitive

appeal).

It would also mean that we can no longer account for the different tendencies

associated with inflection and derivation.

It also has consequences for how you deal with the architecture of language.

You would have to argue for either treating all of morphology as lexical (listed)

information or all of morphology as abstract processes. It may therefore mean

that we should give up the distinction between morphology and syntax or

between morphology and the lexicon.


What to do?

The dichotomy approach

Proponents of a dichotomy approach to the distinction between derivation and

inflection usually emphasize relevance to syntax as the all-important criterion,

and often also obligatoriness and generalized application.

These scholars are usually proponents of the split-morphology view, in which

derivation and compounding takes place in the lexicon, and inflection only

after syntax.

Derivation & compounding Syntax Inflection


What to do?

Accept gradience

This may be closer to the truth, but it is rather hard to work with. If you want to

look at certain inflectional properties, you want to be able to either include or

exclude a marker in a particular language, not only for a little bit.

Like so many linguistic phenomena, we simply say that there is a prototypical

or canonical notion of both derivation and inflection, and accept that they

phade into each other in the middle.


Inherent versus contextual inflection

Inherent inflection: inflection that is relevant to the syntax, but which conveys

some independent information as well (e.g. tense, aspect, number on nouns,

some peripheral case markers)

Contextual inflection: required by the syntactic context (government and

agreement)


Inherent versus contextual inflection

DERIVATION INHERENT CONTEXTUAL

INFLECTION INFLECTION

Another typological parameter for contextual inflection

Locus of marking

Syntactic head

- Contains the crucial semantic information: it determines the meaning

and class of the entire constituent

-Has the same distribution as the entire constituent

-Can normally not be left out

-Selects dependents


Locus of marking

Head Dependent

adposition object NP

verb arguments

Possessed NP Possessor NP

Noun Adjective

The question to answer for Locus of Marking is: if there is any morphological marking (contextual inflection) indicating the relation between head and dependent (case, agreement), where does it appear?


Locus of marking: where does contextual information appear?

head-marking: on the

head

dependent-marking:

on the dependent

double marking: on

both

no marking: there is

no contextual

inflection for the

relation


Locus of marking: subject-verb, object-verb

Tzutujil (Guatemala)

nuuyon x-ø-in-b’an ja jaay

I.alone tense-3sg-1sg-make the house

‘I alone built the house.’

Eastern Pomo (California)

bu:ráqal-là: mí:p-al ša:k’-a

beer-SUBJ 3s-OBJ kill-INDIC

‘A bear killed him.’


Locus of marking: subject-verb, object-verb

Yup’ik (Alaska)

qikmigh-ma negh-aa kayu-ø

dog-ERG.1S eat-IND3S-3S fish-ABS

‘My dog ate the fish.’

Eastern Kayah (Thailand, Burma)

?a chu ?a thwi

3S stab 3S hond

‘He stabbed his (own) dog.’

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Morphology - UZH · 4. Productivity What is productivity? (Lieber 2009)-ness attaches to...

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