Morphology

1. Morphology Chapter 2: Words, sentences and dictionaries

2. 2.1. Words as meaningful building –blocks of language What are words? …basic units of language Two basic meanings of words: 1. They are unpredictable and must be listed in the dictionary. (meaningful units) 2. They are building-blocks out of which phrases and sentences are formed.

3. 2.2. Words as types and words as tokens Sawson goes to Abha next week, and she intends going to Mecca next month. How many words in the following sentence? ? or less ? To 2x; next 2x Distinct tokens of a single type.. E.g. 3 sections of Morphology course building blocks (tokens); meaningful units (types)

4. 2.3. Words with predictable meanings Onomatopoeic -- bow-wow, miaow, cheep, cock-a-doodle-doo Convention – cock-crow in German kikeriki, dog bark in French is ouahouah (wahwah) Words with independently identifiable parts, where the meaning of the parts is sufficient to determine the meaning of the whole word.

5. Cont… E.g. Dioecious Having female and male flowers on a separate plants Ginkgo trees reproduce dioeciously. Do you need to use the dictionary for this word now that you know the meaning of dioecious?

6. Cont.. So the author argues that: … words are unpredictable and must be listed in dictionaries… is not totally general, not applicable to all words. Thus not every word can be listed in a dictionary even in the fullest dictionary imaginable.

7. 2.4. Non-words with unpredictable meanings Something that is clearly larger than a word (two or more words) may have a meaning that is not entirely predictable from the meanings of the words that compose it. E.g. a) I keep notes on all of my expenditure. b) I keep tabs on all of my expenditure. Keep tabs on is an idiom Take a shine to, raise Cain, have a chip on one’s shoulder; kick the bucket

8. Cont… The interrogation took a long time because the suspect kept introducing irrelevant arguments. The interrogation took a long time because the suspect kept introducing red herrings. White elephant (unwanted object); dark horse (competitor whose strength is unknown); Aunt Sally ( target of mockery)

9. Cont… Tabs, shine, bucket, elephant have literal or non-idiomatic meaning in other contexts. Take pains, take part, take offence, in cahoots with are all idioms whose whole phrase deserves to be lexically listed, as an idiom Collocation ally restricted meanings: -- white wine, white coffee, white noise, white man

10. Cont… Are there linguistic items with unpredictable meanings that are larger than phrases? Yes—Proverbs Too many cooks spoil the broth A stitch in time saves nine It’s no use crying over spilt milk Metaphorical extension of the literal meaning

11. Conclusion: words vs. lexical items Words have two characteristics that do not always go together. For this reason, we must use distinct terms: Lexical item for characteristic 1 Words for characteristic 2. Some words are not lexical items and there are some lexical items that are not words.

12. Exercises Break, read and punish (lexical items) Breaking and punishing (predictable) Reading is either or Today’s reading is taken from the Al-Jazirah newspaper. Readable and punishable are idiosyncratic. Breakage (breach) and punishment are lexical items Must be listed (conceive, perceive,receive) Receptive and perceptive must be listed Receivables (outstanding debts); abstract nouns I –tionnot predictable