Morphology

1. Morphology Chapter 3 – The grammar of English

2. Morphology inflectional morphology deals with changes in the form of words that have grammatical meaning e.g. -est signals the superlative of adjectives derivational morphology deals with the process of new word formation e.g. happy  unhappiness (see Chapter 4)

3. What is a morpheme? unhappy un-happy cats cat-s • A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning or grammatical function • free: can stand alone as words - lexical e.g. pen, book - functional e.g. if, the • bound: cannot stand alone and must be linked to another morpheme (called base or root) e.g. -ly, un-, -able, -ee - derivationale.g. -ness, -able - inflectionale.g. -s, -ing

4. morphemes and morphs played play-ed {PLAY}+ {past } unhelpful un-help-ful {negative}+ {HELP} + {adjective} impolitelyim-polite-ly {negative}+ {POLITE} + {adverb} words morphs morphemes (concrete) (abstract)

5. Root, base root= the core of the word, the morpheme which determines the meaning of the word e.g. happy is the root of happiness bound root= a root that is not independent e.g. dent- in dentist, dental, dentistry (Latin dens, dentis) base= part of the word to which any affixes are attached (inflectional or derivational) e.g. happy is the base of unhappy; unhappy is the base of unhappiness

6. allomorphs -ed the morph that indicates past tense can be realised phonetically in different ways (allomorphs) depending on the phonological context: e.g. raised [d] looked [t] decided []

7. Exercise 1.1 p. 173 Identify the units (clauses, phrases, words, morphemes) in the following sentences: Example: The young lady bought a pair of very expensive shoes and walked out of the shop. (Sentence) Clauses: the sentence consists of two clauses which are joined by the coordinating conjunction and: the young lady bought a pair of expensive shoes walked out of the shop. Phrases: the young lady (NP), bought (VP), a pair of very expensive shoes (NP), walked (VP), out of the shop (PP). Words: the, young, lady, bought, a, pair, of, very, expensive, shoes, and, walked, out of, shop. Morphemes: the, young, lady, buy, -ed (inflectional morpheme), a, pair, of, very, expense, -ive (derivational morpheme), shoe, -s (bound inflectional morpheme), and, walk, out, of, shop

8. hand+write+ing un+marry+ed un+comfort+able walk+ed volley+ball small+er un+happy+ness employ+ee un+employ+ment black+board pub+s busy+ness+woman head+teach+er+s cheer+ful un+kind+ness un+faith+ful+ness dis+honest sing+er+s Exercise 2 p. 174 Morpheme identificationIdentify the morphemes in the following words:Handwriting, unmarried, uncomfortable, walked, volleyball, smaller, unhappiness, employee, unemployment, blackboard, pubs, businesswoman, headteachers, cheerful, unkindness, unfaithfulness, dishonest, singers.

9. Exercise 2.2 p. 174 E.g. Unthinkable: un- (bound, derivational prefix), think (free, root), -able (bound, derivational suffix)Actors: act (free, root), -or (bound, derivational suffix), -s (bound, inflectional suffix).Computerize: compute (free, root), -er (bound, derivational suffix), -ize (bound, derivational suffix).Unbelievable – incredible - decolonialised Unbelievable: un- (bound, derivational prefix), believe (free root), -able (bound, derivational suffix) Incredible: in- (bound derivational prefix), cred- (bound root), -ible (bound derivational suffix) Decolonialised: de- (bound derivational prefix), colony (free root), -al (bound derivational suffix), -ise (bound derivational suffix), -ed (bound inflectional suffix)

10. PDE regular inflections nouns -s plural, nouns -’s possessive case verbs -s 3rd pers. sing. verbs -ed past tense, verbs -ed past participle verbs -ing gerund adjectives -er comparative adjectives -est superlative

11. number in English nouns • most nouns add -s e.g. girls, toys, cars • some nouns add -es e.g. tomatoes, branches, knives • the pronunciation of the inflectional ending -s/-es depends on the phonetic context, i.e. there are three allomorphs of the plural morpheme -s e.g. cakes = [s] (preceded by the voiceless consonant [k]) beans = [z] (preceded by the voiced consonant [n]) judges=[iz] (preceded by the affricate consonant []

12. some nouns have irregular plural endings e.g. children, teeth, mice, oxen, curricula, sheep (see p. 131) • uncountable nouns: e.g. evidence, advice, equipment, information

13. POSSESSIVE CASE IN ENGLISH NOUNSThe ’s genitive versus the of-form Synthetic versus analytic option Say whether the following examples are all acceptable and discuss the rule of the ’s genitive versus the “of form” • John’s car is fast • The car of John is fast • The students’ protest is still going on • The protest of the students is still going on • The car of the friend who is visiting me was stolen last night • The friend who is visiting me’s car was stolen last night • Yesterday’s newspaper • The newspaper of yesterday • The journey’s end • The end of the journey • The legs of the table • The table’s legs

14. verb inflections most English verbs are regular and have a paradigm of 5 word forms and 4 verb inflections e.g. love / loves / loved / loved / loving there is a smaller number of very frequently used irregular verbs e.g. take, took, taken put, put, put speak, spoke, spoken lose, lost, lost go, went, gone auxiliaries are very irregular, e.g. the verb to be has forms that differ from one another, e.g. am, are, is, was, were, been, being (suppletion) most modal verbs do not inflect and have only two forms, e.g. may, might, can, could

15. gradability of adjectives and adverbs • synthetic comparison: -er ending (comparative) e.g. warmer -est ending (superlative) e.g. finest • analytic comparison more and most e.g. more/ most interesting more quickly • irregular comparison (process of suppletion) e.g. good better best; little, less, least; much, more, most; well, better, best; bad, worse, worst

16. pronoun inflection Pronouns, and personal pronouns in particular, have retained a certain degree of inflection in PDE. e.g. personal pronouns express number, gender and case often through suppletive forms I - me; we - us, you - you, he - him, she - her, it - it, they - them

17. phrase • a unit of syntax made up of one or more words • it contains an obligatory head element and optional modifiers The black labrador (NP) was chewing (VP) a juicy bone (NP) very noisily (AdvP)

18. types of phrases Noun Phrase (NP) Verb Phrase (VP) Adjective Phrase (AdjP) Adverb Phrase (AdvP) Prepositional Phrase (PP) • except for prepositional phrases (PP) phrases can be constituted by a single lexical item • all phrases can be extended by pre-modification or post-modification

19. types of Noun Phrases

20. more Noun Phrases

21. build Noun Phrases

22. ambiguity in NPs • The French history teacher the (det.) French (pre-mod.) history (pre-mod.) teacher (head) [the] [French] [history teacher] (the teacher of history is French) [the] [French history] [teacher] (the teacher teaches French history)

23. tree diagram (the teacher of history is French) NP det. mod. head NP mod. head The French history teacher

24. tree diagram (the teacher teaches French history) NP det. Mod. NP head mod. head The French history teacher

25. TREE DIAGRAM “An interesting government report about air pollution” NP det. mod.(adj.) mod.(n.) head mod.PP head C (NP) mod.(n.) head An interesting government report about air pollution

26. relative clause as a post-modifier of a NPThe man who came to dinner NP det. head (n.) mod. (clause) the man who came to dinner

27. relative clause as a post-modifier of a NPThe man who came to dinner NP det. head (n.) mod. (clause) S:NP P:VP V A:PP h(prep.) C:NP h(pron.) h(v.)h (n.) the man who came to dinner

28. complex post-modification • The proposal for a new building which the committee put forward last week - for a new building (PP) - which the committee put forward last week (relative clause)

29. activity • Analyse the constituent parts of the following NPs illustrating with tree diagrams: • A luxury apartment in the heart of Oxford • A rather disgustingly dirty carpet • A very interesting book about Renaissance art in Italy

30. frequency of NPs in English • pre-modification is more common than post-modification in all registers • complex pre- and post-modification is typical of some registers such as written academic prose and newspaper headlines

31. English / Italian NPs Translate these noun phrases into Italian and notice the differences between the two languages 1.The Los Angeles Police Department Il Dipartimento di Polizia di Los Angeles 2. Air pollution L’inquinamento dell’aria 3. The Birmingham train Il treno per/da /di (?) Birmingham 4. Stansted airport L’aeroporto di Stansted 5. The proposal of a national curriculum La proposta di un curricolo nazionale 6. The country’s leading expert on youth culture Il maggior esperto del paese sulla cultura giovanile

32. Italian versus English NPs English favours premodification (to the left of the head). NPs are concise and at times ambiguous • The Los Angeles Police Department Italian favours postmodification (to the right of the head) and the use of prepositions. NPs are longer and more explicit • Il Dipartimento di Polizia di Los Angeles

33. Verb Phrases : finite/ non-finite • finite verbs or VPs: marked by tense e.g. John plays the guitar I enjoyed the concert • non-finite verbs or VPs: not marked by tense, person or number e.g. To arrive on time was their objective She travelled accompanied by her father She broke her leg while skiing

34. Verb Phrases: tense versus time • tense: property allowing the verb to differentiate between present and past e.g. Jane likesmusic / Jane likedmusic • Unlike in Italian, there is no morphologically marked form to express future time in English (but a range of forms such as will/shall+ infinitive, going to, simple present, present progressive etc. see 148-149)

35. Verb Phrase: aspect property allowing the verb to give information about the state or the action • Progressive (or continuous) : the action is in progress Sarah is helping her sister • perfect: the action is complete, that is it occurred at an earlier time and continues to the time of utterance or is relevant to it Sarah has helped her sister to take her degree • perfect+progressive: (often called ‘duration form’) stresses continuity in the past and includes the time of utterance Sarah has been helping her sister since she was 12

36. Translate into Italian and identify the main differences between the two languages • Sarah helps her sister every Thursday • Sarah is helping her sister a lot • Sarah has helped her sister to recover from illness • Sarah helped her sister one year ago when she was ill • Sarah has been helping her sister since last May

37. Translate from Italian into English • Sono andata a Londra molte volte • Vivo a Londra • Vado a Londra ogni anno • Vivo a Londra da 5 anni e ne sono felice • Ho vissuto a Londra per cinque anni prima di tornare in Italia • Vivevo a Londra quando ho incontrato John

38. verb phrase : voice • The singer performed the song • The song was performed by the singer • NP1+VP+ NP2 NP2 +be+VPed+ by+NP1 • The singer was performing the song • The song was being performed by the singer

39. functions of the passive • the agent is unknown or irrelevant Mr Constable has been murdered • the focus is on the process to convey objectivity, especially in academic prose The results of the tests have been checked several times • to disclaim responsibility He is said to be a womanizer More frequent in scientific writing and in the press

40. Discuss the concepts of “tense” and “aspect” in the English verb and illustrate with examples.  Tense and aspect are grammatical categories of verbs. Tense refers to the distinction between present and past forms of verbs (I think vs I thought), while aspect refers to the state of the action (progressive or perfect). In English we may distinguish between progressive and perfect aspects: I’m reading a book describes an action in progress and still incomplete, while I’ve read an interesting book describes a completed action which is still relevant to the time of the utterance.

41. In English it is also possible to combine the progressive and the perfective aspect in sentences like I’ve been living in London for five years/ I’ve been living in London since 2007. Unlike Italian, English does not have a morphologically marked future tense. To express future events the most common forms are will+verb, be+ going to+verb or the present progressive form, eg We are going to buy a new car. Tense does not coincide with time. In fact, it is possible to say The games start next week.