Morphology, Part 1

1. Morphology, Part 1 September 24, 2010

2. For Starters • The “Turing Test” • Conceived by the English mathematician/philosopher Alan Turing (1912-1954). • Turing developed much of the theoretical groundwork for modern-day computing machines. • He also worked on cracking enemy codes during World War II. • The Turing Test: don’t ask whether or not a machine can “think”; ask whether or not it can fool someone into thinking it’s human in a natural language conversation. • Check out ELIZA: http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych101/Eliza.htm

3. Moving On… • First: a Simpsons-based Quick Write • Second: review of concepts from last time… • The set of rules that we know for creating sentences in a language is the grammar of that language. • The rules of grammar that we know are very abstract. (patterns of patterns) • Strings of words which do not adhere to these rules are ungrammatical. • Q: If these rules are so abstract, how did we figure out what they are? • How do we learn language?

4. Beneath the Surface • Note: we learn the language that we hear as we grow up, but… • We never hear the rules. • We can only learn from examples. • Our knowledge of language is sub-conscious. • Analogy: driving a car. • This knowledge is difficult to characterize. • (It is not explicitly taught to us.)

5. How is that possible? • Theory: language acquisition is so hard that we can’t do it by just observing other language users. • (we need help) • (Chomsky) Claim: every human being has a “Language Acquisition Device” (LAD) • LAD = innate knowledge of language. • The LAD helps us learn language as we grow up. • Interacts with experience.

6. Predictions • The LAD theory makes some important predictions. • Universal Grammar (UG) • All languages should share certain features in common • …due to the workings of LAD. • A basic example: • All languages have nouns and verbs. 2. Poverty of the Stimulus • There should be properties of language that people “know” without ever having experienced them.

7. An Impoverished Example • How do you turn the following sentence into a yes/no question? • The boy who is sleeping is dreaming of a new car. • = Is the boy who is sleeping dreaming of a new car? • Not: *Is the boy who sleeping is dreaming of a new car? • “The boy” is linked to the second “is”. • Kids understand this connection without ever being taught about the link. • They never form the question the wrong way. • Think: baby turtles crawling towards the ocean.

8. Half of the Story • Recall that we can be creative with language because: • We know the rules for putting sounds and words together to form sentences. • Patterns (Sentence = Noun + Verb) • Patterns of Patterns (Recursive sentences) • These rules = the grammar of the language we know. • Q: What else do we need to know to be a competent speaker of a language?

9. The Rest of the Story • We need to know what units can be put together by the rules of grammar. • Including: the units of a sentence • color, green, idea, sleep, furious, brown, dog, odor, bark, angry, large, lizard... • These units = the lexicon of the language we know • From Ancient Greek: lexikon “dictionary” • lexis = “word” • Remember: language is discrete.

10. Knowledge of Language Lexicon UNITS ragamuffin (N) rotund (Adj) rutabaga (N) etc. Grammar RULES 1) Sentence = Noun + Verb etc.

11. What’s in the Lexicon? • Generally speaking, the lexicon contains: • all the words in the language you know • the building blocks of grammatical sentences • Note, however: • not only do lexical items differ from language to language: (tree, Baum, arbre) • …but one person’s lexicon might be different from another’s • It also happens to be a bit tricky to define exactly what a “word” is…

12. Words, words, words • Here’s a working definition--words are the smallest free form elements of language: • They do not have to occur in a fixed position with respect to their neighbors. • Example words: • bird cycle talk happy • birds recycle talked happiness • Example “non-words”: • “-s” “re-” “-ed” “-ness” • The “non-words” cannot stand on their own-- • They have to be attached to something else.

13. Morphemes • Words consist of one or more morphemes. • Morphemes • = the smallest meaningful unit of speech • = a string of sound(s) that carries some information about meaning or function. • An example (non-word) morpheme: [-s] = plural marker • Note the pattern: • bird birds • dog dogs • cat cats • cow cows ...etc.

14. Plural Formation • Plural nouns in English are formed by rule: • Singular noun + [-s]  Plural noun • So: plural nouns contain two morphemes: • the singular noun (e.g., “bird”) • the plural marker (e.g., “s”) • The rule for putting them together is a word-formation rule. • Q: Are “bird” and “birds” two different words? • Do we need two different entries for them in the lexicon?

15. Language Model, version 2.0 Grammar RULES Lexicon MORPHEMES [bird] [-s] Word-formation rules Singular N+ /-s/  Plural N

16. Morpheme Types • Free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand on its own • bird toast • cycle happy • Bound morpheme: a morpheme that must attach to another morpheme • -s -er • re- -ness • Another distinction: • simple words contain only one morpheme • complex words contain more than one morpheme

17. Simple and Complex simple complex

18. Language Model, version 3.0 Grammar RULES Lexicon MORPHEMES [-s] [bird] [re-] [cycle] Bound Free Word-formation rules Singular N+ /-s/  Plural N

19. Roots and Affixes • Bound morphemes are also known as affixes • Affixes attach to roots in word-formation rules • Ex. 1: “birds” • root = [bird] + affix = [-s] • Ex. 2: “recycle” • affix = [re-] + root = [cycle] • Affixes which precede the root are known as prefixes • Affixes which follow the root are known as suffixes

20. Infixes • When affixes are inserted into the middle of a root, they are known as infixes. • Bontoc (Phillippines): • fikas “strong” fumikas “to be strong” • kilad “red” kumilad “to be red” • fusul “enemy” fumusul “to be an enemy” • Can this sort of thing happen in English? • Abso-freakin’-lutely! • (but it’s not particularly common)

21. Circumfixes • In some languages, there are even circumfixes. • Circumfixes attach to both sides the root. • Chokma (Oklahoma) • chokma “he is good” ikchokmo “he isn’t good” • lakna “it is yellow” iklakno “it isn’t yellow” • palli “it is hot” ikpallo “it isn’t hot” • German • lieb- “love” (root) geliebt “loved” • frag- “ask” (root) gefragt “asked”

22. Hand in Hand • Note: affixes are always bound morphemes. • In English, roots tend to be free morphemes. • However, this is not always the case-- • For instance: blueberry, blackberry… • but: cranberry, huckleberry, raspberry. • What do [cran-], [huckle-] and [rasp-] mean? • Bound roots in English are called cranberry morphemes • (technical term)

23. Cranberry Morphemes • Cranberry morphemes are bound root morphemes. • They have no independent meaning. • They also have no parts of speech • Some more examples: • perceive, receive, deceive • -ceive? • infer, refer, defer • -fer? • commit, permit, submit • -mit? • Also: the liberation of cran?