MorphologyDefinitions:

Morphology: A systematic study of morphemes or how morphemes join to form words.

Morpheme: It is the smallest meaningful unit in language, that meets three criteria. 1.It is a word or a part of word that has a meaning. 2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violation of its meaning. 3. It recurs in differing verbal environments with a relatively stable meaning.

Sometimes, a particular morpheme may be represented not by the same morph but by different morphs in different environments. Such different representations of a morpheme are called allomorphs.

What is the morph?The term morph means shape. Any minimal phonetic form that has meaning is morph. Those morphs which belong to the same morpheme are called allomorphs of that morpheme.(Morphs defined as the phonological segments with a particular shape).

Plural morphemes and past morphemes

Plural morpheme:Allomorphs:

/ iz / in the case of words ending in /s/, /z/,/∫ /, /ᶾ/, /t∫/, /dᶾ ./e.g. buses, vases, bushes, churches, judges.

/ s/ in the case of words ending in a voiceless consonant except ( ∫, s, t∫). E.g. cats, caps.

/ z / in the case of words ending in voiced sounds except (z, , d )ᴈ ᴈ. e.g. boys, bags .

Past morpheme:/ t/ after morphs ending in voiceless sounds

except(/t/). E.g. booked, pushed./ d/ after morphs ending in voiced sounds except

(/d/). E.g. loved, bagged./ id/ after morphs ending in /t/ and /d/. E.g.

wanted, wedded.

Morphology Recap*Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in language.

Free morpheme: It is independent words.Bound morpheme: It must attach to a free.

*Derivational morpheme: can change the category of the word it’s attached to. E.g. edit……………… editor .

*Inflectional morpheme: Cannot change the category of the word it attaches to, only adds grammatical information. E.g. goes,

walked, eating .

Ordering rules*A word is not just a sequence of morphemes. Each word has internal

structure.*Morphemes are added in a strict order reflecting a hierarchy within

the word.For example the word “unsystematic”

If we put it together step by step, we could have : Noun + un= Unsystem.

However, this results in a nonexistent word, as the order violates the hierarchy.

”*Unsystematic”: Noun + atic = systematic“un” + adjective = unsystematic.

*The first step attaches a derivational suffix “atic” to the (free) root noun. This forms an adjective.

*Second step takes this adjective and attaches a derivational prefix “un”, creating a new word, with the same category.

Tree structureTree structure of the word “Unsystematic.”

Adjective

Adjective Un Derivational

atic Noun

Derivational system

Exercise: What types of word? We can divide words into two broad types:

Content words and function words.Content words:

*Nouns*Verbs

*Adjectives*Adverbs

Function words:PronounsConjunctionsAuxiliariesPrepositionsetc.

Morphological ClassificationMorphological classification will help you to understand exceptions and different occurrences of morphemes.

1.Homophonous morphemes: sound the same, although their morphological function and visual realization may be different.

2 .Discontinuous morphemes: It does not appear in one continuous string in a word, but is split up into fragments. e.g. “ge-and –t” in the German word “ge-reis-t”. Still, both parts belong together.

3 .A portmanteau morpheme: It is the result of a fusion of two other morphemes. e.g. the French word “au” is a fusion of the

former morphemes “a” and “le.”4 .Unique morphemes: Morphemes that by themselves,

meaningless and gain meaning only in combination with other morphemes. e.g. “mit” in transmit.

Exercise:What do we call the rules that relates words? Words can be related to other words, e.g. “happy”- “unhappy”. The rules that relate such sets of words are called Word Formation Rules.Exercise:

What are the morphemes of the word doors? In the word “doors” there are two morphemes: “door” and “-s”. The morpheme door can be used by itself, so it is called a Free morpheme. But the morpheme “s” cannot be used by itself. Therefore, “-s” is called a Bound morpheme.Exercise:

What are the kinds of affixes? Morphemes added to free forms to make other free forms are called affixes. There are four kinds of affixes:

1.Prefixes (at beginning) “un-” in unable.2 .Suffixes (at end) “-ed” in walked.

3 .Circumfixes (at both ends) “en—en” in enlighten.4 .Infixes (in the middle) “bloody” in in-bloody-credible .

Inflection: There are two kinds of inflection: The declension of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. And the conjugation of verbs. There is a set of morphological rules which we apply in order to form the correct tenses or cases. We combine free morphemes with bound morphemes, the later marking tense, gender, number, case, and so.

Word formation: Word formation can be divided into sections: Derivation, Compounding and other process of word formation.

1.Derivation: There are morphemes in English that allow us to change words. These are derivational morphemes: new words are derived in the process. Derivational morphemes are affixes. If affixes are added to the front of a word, called prefixes like in-, a-. If they are attached to the end of the word, they are called suffixes, such as –able, -ish. By changing one element, new classes of words can be produced.Noun to adjective:

Boy + ish = boyish. Virtu + ous= virtuous. Elizabeth + an= Elizabethan. Alcohol + ic = alcoholic .

Verb to Noun:Acquitt + al = acquittal. Clear + ance = clearance. Confer + ence = conference. Predict + ion =prediction.Adjective to adverb:Exact + ly = exactly. Quiet + ly = quietly.Noun to Verb:Moral + ize = moralize. Vaccin + ate = vaccinate. Brand + ish = brandish.No change in classes:

a + moral = amoral. Mono + theism monotheism. ex + wife = ex-wife. sub + minimal = sub minimal.

2.Compounding: We may also create new words by combining two free morphemes are called compound.

The initial morpheme is called the head of the compound, the following is called the body. e.g, black + bird = a black bird.There are various possible combinations of English compounds:

Adjective + Adjective:bitter + sweet = bitter sweet .

Noun + Adjective:Head + strong = head strong.

Adjective + Noun:Poor + house = poor house.Noun + Noun:Rain + bow = rain bow.Verb + Adjective:Carry + all = carry all.Adjective + Verb:High + born = high born.Verb + Noun:Pick + pocket = pick pocket.Noun + Verb:Spoon + feed = spoon feed.Verb + Verb:Sleep + walk = sleep walk.

3 .Other process of word formation: There are also other ways f creating new words.Invention: e.g, xerox, exxon.Acronym: NATO, Unicef, Ilo.Reduplication: zigzag, chitchat.Blending: smog, brunch.Clipping: bus, auto, flu.

Exercise: Write what you know about forming some English words.The following are pairs of English words:Verb Adjectivedarken Dark

blacken blackredish red

Noun Verbsinger sing

dancer dance

computer compute

Verb Adjective

yellow yellow

brown brown

green green

Word Classes and Sentence Functions:Traditional grammars often begin with a classification of word classes. There are following classes including examples:

1.nouns: communicator, captain.2 .Pronouns: I, you, he, which.3 .Adjectives: fast, deep, many.

4 .Verbs: see, retire, laugh.5 .Prepositions: on, in, at.

6 .Conjunctions: and, but, because.7 .Adverbs: much, deservedly, partly.

8 .Interjections: oh, ah.9 .Articles: the, a.

10 .Numerals: one, two, three.

Exercise: What we call the combination of two morphemes?

The combination of two free forms is called a compound:Adjective + Noun = noun. Black + bird = black bird.Meaning: a particular kind of bird.Verb + Verb =Noun. Sleep + walk =sleep walk.

Meaning: someone who walks and sleeps at the same time.

Noun + Noun = noun. Window + painter = window painter.Meaning: Someone who paints windows.

Some ReferencesAnderson, S, 1992: A- Morphology. Cambridge.

Aronoff, M, 1979. Word Formation Generative Grammar. MIT press.

Carstairs – MacCarthy, A, 1992. Current Morphology. Routledge.Katamba, F, 1993, MacMillan.

. . .Keelin@ling ed ac uk ,2012 .Morphology and Syntax .

SYNTAX

Syntax: Syntax deals with the sentence structure. E.g., word order within the sentence. Syntax and morphology together make grammar.Branches of Syntax:

1.Descriptive syntax: Some linguists look at language as a human behavior that should be described as it is through observation first and analysis then, this called descriptive syntax.

2 .Prescriptive syntax: In contrast, some other linguists insist that their role is not merely to describe syntax as it is, but to describe it as it should be.

3 .Historical syntax: Like other braches of linguistics, syntax may be historical if it traces the development of syntax along a certain era.

4 .Comparative syntax: It may be comparative if it deals with syntactic comparison of two languages or more. Syntax may be general if it deals with languages in general or may be special if it deals with one specific language.

Types of Sentence ClassificationThere are several ways to sentence classification. First, the classification may be based on the speaker’s motive and intention, this called psychological classification. Second, the classification may be based on sentence structure, this called structural classification. Third, the sentence may be classified according to its beginning, this called initial classification.

Psychological Classification: According to the psychological classification of sentences, we may have the following types:

1.Informative sentence: Here the speaker wants to tell someone something, give information, or express his opinions, feelings, attitudes: e.g.

His father left yesterday.(information)I do care for you.(feelings)You had better postpone the game.(opinion)The Arabs must unite themselves.(attitude)

2.Interrogative sentence: Here the sentence producer asks about someone, time, place, instrument, reason, manner, or anything else:

Who did it?(person)When did he arrive? (time)Where is he? (place)What did you write with? (Instrument)Why is he late? (reason)How did she swim? (manner)

3 .Exclamatory sentence: Here the sentence producer expresses his surprise or admiration. E.g.What a car this is?

4 .Imperative sentence: Here the speaker or the writer offers a request or gives a command depending on the speaker-hearer relationship: e.g.

Open the door, please. (request)Do it now. (command).

Structural Classification: Structurally, English sentences may be classified as follows:

1.Simple sentence: It is a sentence with one subject and one predicate. E.g.John is a clever boy.

2 .Compound sentence: It is a sentence which consists of two simple sentences or more conjoined with a coordinating conjunction. E.g.He studied hard, but he could not pass.

3 .Complex sentence: It is a sentence of a main clause and one subordinate clause or more, which may be a noun clause, adjective clause, or adverb clause: e.g.

He knows why they are late. (noun clause)This is the driver whose car was stolen. (adjective clause)He phoned when he arrived. (adverb clause)

Initial Classification: According to the initial word of the sentence, sentences are of two different types:

1.Verbal sentences: If they start with a verb. Such sentences do not exist in all languages and certainly

not in English. Arabic has such verbal sentences. 2 .Nominal sentences: If they start with a noun,

which is the case with all English sentences in their deep structure. E.g.

The teacher has come early .

Sentence CorrectnessThere are two different concepts related to sentence correctness. The first, is syntactic correctness(SC): the sentence is to be syntactically correct regardless of its content. The second is information trueness(IT): the content is to be real and actual regardless of syntax. Examples:

1.The capital of France is Paris.2 .The capital of France is Rome.

3 * .The capital of France are Paris.4 * .The capital of France are Rome.

Sentence (1) obviously has both syntactic correctness and information trueness. Sentence (2) is syntactically correct, but informationally false (IF). Sentence (3) is syntactically wrong(SW), but informationally true. Sentence (4) is both syntactically wrong and informationally false.

Therefore, sentences may be one of these types with regard to correctness and trueness:

1.SC + IT 2 .SC + IF3 .SW + IT4 .SW + IF

Syntactic PatternsA pattern is the syntactic design which underlies a sentence. Every sentence has one pattern behind it, but every pattern can show itself through billions of different sentences.Look at these patterns:

1.Subject(S) + Verb(V) + Object(O) Tom + ate + the apple.

2 .S + V + O + O He + told + me + a story.

3 .S + V The child + is sleeping.

4 .S + V + Adverb of place. John + was + there.

5 .S + V + Subject Complement(Cs) John + seems + happy.

6 .S + V + O + Object Complement(Co) They + found + him + guilty.

The above six patterns are called basic patterns or kernel patterns, from which we may derive hundreds of secondary patterns such as:

1.Auxiliary(Aux) + S + V.… + Can + he + do + it?

2 .S + Aux + NOT + V… + He + can + not + do + it.

Meaning of the SentenceThere are two meaning of the sentence:

(A ) : Lexical meaning The lexical meaning determined by the words of the sentence.

(B ) : Grammatical meaning The grammatical meaning consists of these four factors:

1 .Word order. E.g. John hit Tom and Tom hit John are two sentences with the same words, but in two different orders.

2 .Function words. Such as: articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliaries.

3 .Intonation: The sentence John lost his key, may be pronounced as a statement with a /↘/ intonation pattern or as a yes-no question with a /↗/ intonation pattern.

4 .Suffixes. Suffixes help the receiver understand the words by giving clues about the word class and word function in the sentence.

Ambiguity of meaning: The sentence meaning may be ambiguous for two reasons:

(A ) .Lexical ambiguity A word may have two meanings ormore.

(B ) .Grammatical ambiguity , A sentence may be ambiguous because its grammatical structure has two possible explanation

or analyses. The following sentences grammatically ambiguous, with the two possible

meanings:1 .She made him a cake.

a. She made a cake for him to eat. b. He himself became a cake.

2 .Tom saw the woman with a telescope. a. He used a telescope to see her.

b. She was carrying a telescope when he saw her.3 .Visiting professors may be useful.

a. To visit professors is useful. b. Professor who visit universities are useful.

Definitions of Word classesWe need definition based on the function of words within a sentence.

*Verbs: Finite verbs are verbs which indicate the tense, person, number of an element in the sentence.

e.g. She dreams of retirement. I walked home yesterday.

*We also have verb forms which don’t express tense – infinitive.

e.g. Harry wants to leave the country.•In the future tense, we also use the infinitive form,

but without “to”. e.g. Keelin will eat the chocolate cake

Verbs (V):Keelin will eat the chocolate cake later.

*Here, we have two verbs – what’s going on? The “will” is known as an auxiliary verb.

“ Will” is telling us information about the tense, but “eat” is the main verb. *English is an SVO ( subject verb object) language, so if we have a declarative

sentence, the verb can usually be found directly after the subject ( which tends to be an NP).Nouns (N):

We have multiple kinds of nouns, with multiple distinctions *A noun that can take a plural is known as a count noun e.g. house – houses,

cat - cats *Nouns cannot be pluralised uncountable nouns e.g. water, gold.

*Abstract nouns e.g. luck, love, hate, justice *Concrete nouns e.g. bottle, apple

*Proper nuns e.g. Fahad, Ali, tree *Mass nouns e.g. team, group

Adjective(Adj): Adjectives qualify a noun or noun phrase. *One way to test for adjectives is superlatives. e.g. cold-colder-

coldest, big-bigger-biggest *Some adjectives are irregular: good-better-best

*Some adjectives add more and most: more interesting, the most interesting.

*There are two kinds of adjectives:1 .Predicative adjective. e.g. John is ill, keelin is blonde, Chrissy

2 .Attributive adjective. e.g. a tall man, a blonde woman, an ill man.Adverbs(Adv): Adverbs qualify a verb.e.g. Saeed quickly ate all the cake.

*Some exceptions:Chrissy often laughs. Simon presented well.

Prepositions(P): Prepositions can express ideas of place (in, on), time (during, throughout), direction (towards). Preposition usually combine with a noun. e.g. John ate cake in London.

Phrase Structure: We have rules about Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Prepositional Phrase.

Np → (Det) NPP → P NPVP → V NPAP → A NP

Phrase Trees :

NP PP

Det N P N

The cat on table

Sentence Structure: This allows us to build up sentences from phrases.If I want to analyse the sentence, “the cat sat on the mat”, I look at the internal phrases

→The cat sat on the mat Det N V P Det N

*NP VP PP NpConstituency: A sentence is divided into groups of words. The connections between words in one group is closer than between words belonging to different groups.

*A group of words that cling together is called a constituent. *To test whether a group of words is a constituent, we have three tests:

1 .Replacement/Substitution: a constituent can be replaced by a single word.

2 .Movement: a constituent as a whole, can be placed in a different position in a sentence.

3 .Clefting: Change sentences to “it was”.…

Constituency testsReplacement tests: We can use slightly different tests to test the constituency of different phrase types.

*NPs can be replaced by pronouns *PPs can be replaced by adverbs

*Adj Ps can be replaced by “so” *VPs can be replaced by “do so”

Examples:If I want to check whether “a car” is a constituent of “bought” in the sentence “Keelin bought a car” I use:

*Replacement: “Keelin bought it” *Movement: “A car, keelin bought”

*Clefting: “It was a car that keelin bought” All of these new sentences are grammatical. This means that “a

car” is a constituent of “bought”

Examples:I want to test whether “over the hill” is a constituent

of the verb in the sentence “She went over the hill ” *Replacement: “She went there”

*Movement: “Over the hill she went” *Clefting: “It was over the hill she went”

All of these sentences are grammatical, and so I know that “over the hill” is a constituent of the verb

“went.”She went over the hill

[NP[ ] { }VP PP]

MORPHOLOGY and SYNTAX 423LEVEL SEVEN

Prepared by: Dr. Ahmed Benyo

References1 .Morphology and syntax.

Keelin@ling.ed.ac.uk2 .An Introduction to Linguistics. Pushpindal.

New Delhi