Historical Phonology & Morphology

1. Historical Phonology & Morphology How Sound Systems and Word Structures Change over Time

2. Linguistic Structures • Languagesare made up of structured systems • These systems exist at different levels • Languages have • Phonology: sound structures • Morphology: word structures • Syntax: sentence structures

3. Historical Linguistics • When languages change over time, the changes can occur in any of these structured systems • Onetherefore speaksof • Historical phonology • Historical morphology • Historical syntax

4. Historical Phonology • Differenttypes of sound change can happen over time • Question: how individual sound changes affect the phonology of a language; that is, how they effect the number and relations of phonemes

5. Phonological Change Phonological Change • A sound change mighthave • No/littleeffect on thephonological system • Change the allophones of a phoneme • Decrease the number of phonemes • Increase the number of phonemes • If the number of phonemes changes, it will affect minimal pairs

6. No effect on the phonological system # 1 EMidE /t d n/ = dentals >> RETRACTION >> ModE /t d n/ = alveolars #2 Ogerm /*b *d *g/ >> OE /p t k/ = unaspirated ModE /p t k/ + STRESSED SYLLABLE = aspirated

7. Phonological Change • Example 2: English hypothetical • Suppose that we started to pronounce /g/ as [k] (weakening). • E.g. ‘bigger’ /’bıgɘ/ > [’bıkɘ] • The number of phonemes does not change • Bigger and bicker are still a minimal pair • /g/[k] (same phoneme, new allophone) • This change is happening in the Northwest • Ex • Suppose that we started to pronounce /g/ as [k] (weakening). • E.g. ‘bigger’ /’bıgɘ/ > [’bıkɘ] • The number of phonemes does not change • Bigger and bicker are still a minimal pair • /g/ [k] (same phoneme, new allophone) • This change is happening in the Northwest

8. CONDITIONED CHANGES #1 ASSIMILATION (palatalisation + affrication) WGerm * kirka > OE circe = ModEchurch # 2 UMLAUT (distantassimilation) • Back vowels >> fronted • (pre-OEplur.) mūs-i<< OE mīs • (pre-OEplur.) gōs-i << OE gēs #3 MANNER OF ARTICULATION - OE modor >> MidEmother

9. DISSIMILATION #1 LAT tutur >> turtle • sporadic • unstressedsyllables

10. METATHESIS # 1 West & SouthSlaviclanguages • Milk : mleko • Garden : ogród # 2 Germaniclanguages - OE þridda >> ModE third

11. HAPLOLOGY #1

12. LOSS # 1 WORD INITIAL /k/ + /n/ • Knowledge : acknowlwdge # 2 POST-VOCALIC /r/ #3 LOSS + COMPENSATORY LENGTHENING MidEsight /sɪxt/ >> /si:t/ • Apocope (finalvowels) • syncope (medialvowels)

13. Phonemic Merger #1 Cockney English: • Two unconditioned changes: [θ] > [f] and [ð] > [v] - 4phonemes have been reduced to 2 • That:vat were once minimal pairs; now homophones [væt] (Cockney) • Thin:fin were once minimal pairs; now homophones [fɪn](Cockney)

14. Phonemic Split #1 An earlierallophone >> a phoneme (phonemisation) OE /y y:/ >> UNROUNDING >> /i: ɪ/ - sea : see ; made : maid #2 OE /f θs/ >> PHONEMISATION >> Middle English /v ð z/

15. EXCRESCENCE #1 A soundappears /u/ + /x/: • OE brohte >> MidEbroughte • Epenthesis (medial) • Prothesis (initial)

16. Other phonological changes #1 The phonology of a language can change in more drastic ways than just the addition/subtraction of phonemes • SOUND SHIFT = the Great Vowel Shift Long Vowels: Raising/Diphthongising /i:/ & /u:/

17. Regularity of Sound Change • A fundamental principle of historical phonology • Sound change is regular • If sound A changes to sound B in a particular environment in some words, then sound A changes to sound B in all words with that environment.

18. Regularity of Sound Change • Example: Southern American English • [e] > [ɪ] / _ [n] (vowel raising) • Pen and ten are [phɪn] and [thɪn], homophonous with pin and tin. • This sound change is regular • It affects [e] in all words with this environment: when, tennis, Ben, men, glen, etc.

19. Regularity of Sound Change • Regularity of sound change is a very important principle • It will allow us to reconstruct the pronunciation of languages in the distant past, even when we have no written records • We will see how when we do historical reconstruction

20. Historical Morphology • Over time, the morphology of a language changes • The set of morphemes in the language changes • The function and meaning of morphemes changes • Inflectional paradigms change • Derivational rules change

21. Historical Morphology • In extreme cases, languages that were once isolating can develop inflectional morphology • Likewise, languages can lose inflectional morphology and become isolating* • In the last 1500 years, English has lost much of its inflectional morphology

22. Historical Processes • Some common types of morphological change are: • Grammaticalization (Grammaticization) • Analogy • Reanalysis • Folk Etymology • Back Formation • Root Creation • Functional Shift • Commonisation • TabooDeformation • Compounding • Affixation • Acronymy • Abbreviation (Clipping)

23. Historical Processes • Remember: The building blocks of morphology are morphemes, not words • The historical processes described here involve changes to morphemes

24. Grammaticalization • Over time, a free morpheme (i.e. a word) acquires grammatical (i.e. morphological or syntactic) function • Often this process is accompanied by • Phonological reduction (gets shorter) • Fusion (becomes bound) • Semantic bleaching (loses original meaning)

25. Grammaticalization • Example 1: English be going to > be gonna • Original meaning: motion through space • New Function: future tense marker (“I’m gonna take linguistics next quarter.”) • Phonological reduction: 3 syllables > 2 syllables, vowels become schwa • *I’m gonna the store to buy some soap. • Semantic bleaching: sense of motion is lost • I’m gonna stay right here.

26. Grammaticalization • Example 2: English have • Original meaning: possession • Function: auxiliary verb (“I’ve eaten lunch already”) indicating completed action • Phonological reduction: have can be pronounced /v/ only when grammaticalized: • *Do you’ve any money on you? • Semantic bleaching: possession meaning is lost

27. Analogy • A powerful force in morphological change • A morphological rule is extended, or generalized, to forms by analogy with other forms that already fit the rule • Q: Why can we make sentences or derive words that we have never heard before? • A: We have learned the morphological and syntactic rules and can apply them • But rules also have exceptions

28. Analogy • Example: English past tense {-ed} • Children growing up hear present and past tense forms of verbs, and induce an inflectional rule based on them: • walk walked + /t/ • learn learned + /d/ • fade faded + /˙d/ • Rule: Add an allomorph of {-ed} to verb stem to make past tense

29. Analogy • Having learned the rule, the child might make an analogy: • Walk : walked :: go : ______ • Learn: learned :: teach : ______ • By analogy, the child applies the rule and says: “Yesterday we goed to the park” “Bill teached me how to tie my shoes” “I taked some cookies”

30. Analogy • Eventually the child may learn the exceptions to the rule. But sometimes analogical formations stay in the language, and the exceptions are regularized. • In some English dialects today, people say teached and throwed. • Similar changes have happened to many verbs in English, and continue to happen. • What’s the past tense of strive? cleave? dive?

31. Analogy • Analogy often has the effect of reducing the overall number of allomorphs • Example 2: Old English {old} had two allomorphs, /old/ and /eald/:Old - elder - eldest • Today these are obsolete. By analogy withRed - redder - reddest (no change to stem) • We now have only one allomorph:Old - older - oldest

32. Reanalysis • Speakers of a language reinterpret the location of morpheme boundaries • This may create new morphemes, or change the forms of existing morphemes • Example 1: English a napron > an apron • Example 2: English an ewt > a newt • Listeners put the morpheme boundary in a new location, and changed the form of the words napron and ewt.

33. Reanalysis • Example 3: Creation of a new morpheme • Historical morpheme boundary: alcohol-ic • Alcohol: noun; -ic: adjective-forming suffix • Alcoholic: adj (“an alcoholic beverage”) • “An alcoholic person” > alcoholic: noun (“a person addicted to alcohol) • New morpheme boundary: alc-oholic • -oholic/-aholic: derivational suffix: work-aholic, choc-oholic

34. Reanalysis • Example 4: Lollapalooza • Slang: “Something outstanding or amazing” • After the big Lollapalooza music tours, palooza was reanalyzed as a derivational suffix meaning “an event that’s big and exciting” • Country-palooza, Polka-palooza, Metal-palooza, Soap-a-palooza, Polar-palooza, …

35. Folk Etymology • A specific type of re-analysis in which people misunderstand the historical origin of a word (etymology refers to word origins) • Example 1: In some dialects of English, asparagus is now called sparrow-grass. • Example 2: Hamburger derives from the German city Hamburg plus suffix -er. • Speakers assume the word is a compound with first morpheme ham, so conclude that burger is a morpheme too, meaning a type of food patty.

36. Back Formation • A specific type of reanalysis and/or analogy that creates new stems from derived or inflected forms • Happens when language speakers misidentify a word as being composed of a stem and affix, then remove the affix to get back to what they think is the original stem • Child (pointing to plate of cheese): “What’s that?” • Parent: “Cheese” • Child (hearing /z/ and assuming it is a plural suffix): “Can I have a chee?”

37. Back Formation • Consider these verb-noun pairs • compensate compensation • denigrate denigration • operate operation • procrastinate procrastination • delegate delegation • _________ orientation • By analogy, speakers assume the verb stem is orientate (historically it is orient). Orientate is a back-formation.

38. Back Formation • In Old English, the word for pea was pise (singular), pisan (plural) • In Middle English, singular pease was reanalyzed as having a plural {-s} suffix. • A new singular form pea was created by back-formation, and peas was reanalyzed as a plural. • The singular pease is still preserved in the old nursery rhyme: “Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot nine days old.”

39. ROOT CREATION • #1 Words out of nothing GAS NYLON RAYON

40. FUNCTIONAL SHIFT (ZERO-DERIVATION/CONVERSION) A knee >> to knee A shoulder >> to shoulder a burden In and out >> to knowtheins and outs

41. COMMONISATION #1 Propernames, inventors, popularisers, trade names: The 4th Earl of Sandwich >> a sandwich Diesel >> a diesel engile Bowie >> a bowieknife Derringer >> a derringer Echo >> echo Spartan >> spartan A slidingfasterner >> zipper

42. TABOO DEFORMATION GOD-DAMNED >> GOL-DARNED, GOL-DERNED, GOSH DARNED EUPHEMISMS: TO DIE >> TO BE MET ONE’S MAKER, PASS AWAY, LEAVE THE VALE OF TEARS

43. AFFIXATION MORPHEMES ARE FUSED TOGETHER ANTIESTABLISHARIANISM

44. COMPOUNDING #1 NOUN + NOUN OE wīfmann; MidEhūswīfe; ModEschoolboy #2 ADJ. + ADJ. OE wynsum; MidEsnauwhīt; ModE red-hot #3 NOUN + ADJ. watertight, life-long, time-consuming # 4 VERB + NOUN MidEpickepurse; ModEpickpocket, press-button #5 PREP. + NOUN/VERB afterbirth, downfall, output

45. ACRONYMY #1 Theinitialsounds of severalwords • RADAR • LASER

46. BLENDING MOTEL SMOG URINALISYS

47. ABBREVIATING (CLIPPING) TELLY LAB PROF. DOC

48. End