Morphology, Part 4: Word-Formation Processes + Allomorphy

1. Morphology, Part 4: Word-Formation Processes+ Allomorphy October 4, 2010

2. The Master Plan Discussion of word-formation processes. Talk about allomorphy. Wednesday: work on some more morphology problem sets.

3. Word-Formation Processes • So far we’ve discussed: • Affixation • “Concatenation” of an affix and a root/base • /re-/ + /cycle/ = recycle • prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes… • Compounding • Concatenation of two or more free morphemes • baseball, blackboard, light bulb, etc. • Back Formations • Extraction of a word out of a larger word…

4. Back Formations • Back formations: removal of an (incorrectly perceived) affix to form a new word • Ex: “edit” • “editor” perceived as /edit/ + /-er/ • Other examples: • peddle (from peddler) swindle (from swindler) • burgle (from burglar) pea (from pease) • laze (from lazy) liaise (from liaison) • A “reverse” backformation: • Chinese (from Chinee + /-s/)

5. A Sipid Story of Requited Love • “It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella...when I saw her...She was a descript person...Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way.” • --from “How I Met My Wife”, by Jack Winter • Check out more at: http://www.matefl.org/_mgxroot/page_10679.html • Or consider:

6. Reduplication • Reduplication: repetition of all or part of the stem • Indonesian: (total reduplication) • rumah ‘house’ rumahrumah ‘houses’ • ibu ‘mother’ ibuibu ‘mothers’ • lalat ‘fly’ lalatlalat ‘flies’ • Tagalog: (partial reduplication) • bili ‘buy’ bibili ‘will buy’ • kain ‘eat’ kakain ‘will eat’ • pasok ‘enter’ papasok ‘will enter’

7. Reduplication in English? • There are a few examples of reduplication in English. • Can you think of any? • Individual words/phrases: “bling bling”, “very very”, “teeny weeny”… • There is also one reduplicative process in English… • schm- reduplication: • fancy schmancy • tired schmired • football schmootball • Nobel Prize schmobel prize • ...etc.

8. Internal Change • A (slightly) more common word-formation process in English is internal change. • = changing sounds inside a root creates a new word. • Also known as alternations • sing ~ sang present/past • drive ~ drove present/past • foot ~ feet singular/plural • mouse ~ mice singular/plural • import ~ import noun/verb • present ~ present noun/verb

9. By the way... • Some internal change processes have (limited) productivity in English • What’s the past tense of “sing”? • sang sung • ring? • rang rung • bring? • brang? brung? • brought? brought?

10. Internal Change Quick Write • 72 total responses. • Did you bive? Yes, I…. • bave (1); bove (1) • Did you vake? Yes, I… • voke (5) • Did you slike? Yes, I… • sloke (4); slike (1) • Did you neak? Yes, I… • nuck (2); neak (2); noke (1)

11. Internal Change Quick Write • 5. Did you mide? Yes, I… • mode (13); mid (4); mide (1); mit (1) • 6. Did you strink? Yes, I… • strunk (16); strank (10); stronk (3) • 7. Did you lun? Yes, I… • lan (9); lone (2) • Internal changes are made for the new forms to the extent that they resemble phonologically similar forms already in the language. (ride, drink, run)

12. Roots and Patterns • An extreme form of “internal change” is found in Semitic languages, like Arabic and Hebrew • “Root and pattern morphology” • Arabic: /k-t-b/ root “write” • kitaab ‘a book’ kutub ‘books’ • alkitaab ‘the book’ kaatib ‘author’ • maktab ‘office’ maktaba ‘library’ • kataba ‘to write’ kattaba ‘to make write’ • kaataba ‘to correspond’ ?uktaba ‘to dictate’ • ifkataba ’to make a copy’ kutubii ‘bookseller’ • kuttaab ‘Koranic school’ miktaab ‘typewriter’

13. Just So You Know • Note: if a word does not change form when you’d expect a particular inflectional affix to attach to it… • It is said to be formed with a null morpheme. • (also called a zero morpheme) • Examples: • moose (singular) moose (plural) • sheep (singular) sheep (plural) • hit (present tense V) hit (past tense V)

14. Conversion • Conversion = usage of an existing word in a new lexical category. • English makes use of this process a lot. • Examples: • to butter to nail (N  V) • a report a call (V  N) • to right (a wrong) to total (a car) (A  V)

15. Awkwardizations? • Football Announcer-ese: • “Sanders defensed the pass.” (noun to verb) • “Urlacher lost weakside contain.” (verb to noun) • Corporate speak? • During Hurricane Katrina: • "We heard that there was a gentleman who was stuck in his boat just downstream from us so we are efforting to help rescue agencies to find him".

16. Conversion • Just to be clear: • Conversion is a type of derivation • A null morpheme is a type of inflection

17. Suppletion • Suppletion occurs when inflected forms of a word have different roots. • In English, this is rare: • go ~ went • be ~ were • compare with: walk ~ walked; cook ~ cooked • Portuguese: • ir “to go” comer “to eat” • vou “I go” como “I eat” • fui “I went” comi “I ate” • ia “I was going” comia “I was eating”

18. Child Verb Morphology • Patterns like the following are frequently found in child language acquisition: • PresentPast • Stage 1: go went • Stage 2: go goed • Stage 3: go went • What’s going on here? • What is the child doing, as a language learner?

19. Clipping • Clipping = shortening of an existing word. • demo from “demonstration” • condo from “condominium” • fax from “facsimile” • deli from “delicatessen” • lab from “laboratory” • blog from “web log” • taxicab from “taximeter cabriolet” • (cabriolet = horse-drawn carriage)

20. Blends • Blending = melding together parts of two different words. • brunch from breakfast and lunch • smog from smoke and fog • spam from spiced and ham • telethon from television and marathon • chortle from chuckle and snort • motel from motor and hotel • chillax from chill and relax • bankster from banker and gangster • bricked from brilliant and wicked

21. The Remainders • Coinage • = completely making a new word up. • Example: nylon, vaseline, xerox, (dog), (chap) • Eponyms • = naming words after people • ex: boycott, sandwich, jumbo, crapper, sideburns • Acronyms • Creating a word out of an abbreviation. • ex: scuba, radar, laser

22. Last but not least • Sometimes an affix changes form, depending on what kind of root it attaches to. • Consider English /in-/ • combines with adjectives to form adjectives • means “the opposite of” • Examples: • /in-/ + accurate = inaccurate • /in-/ + tolerant = intolerant • /in-/ + direct = indirect

23. Allomorphy • What’s going on in these cases? • /in-/ + legible = illegible • /in-/ + regular = irregular • /in-/ + legal = illegal • There are two new forms of the affix: /il-/ and /ir-/ • These are called allomorphs. • Allomorphs = “different forms”

24. Allomorphy • What’s going on here? • /in-/ + probable = improbable • /in-/ + mobile = immobile • /in-/ + possible = impossible • /in-/ changes to /im-/ before both /p/ and /m/. • /p/ and /m/ are both produced with the lips. • To explain patterns like this, we’re going to need to know something about how we actually produce the sounds of English. • We have to study Phonetics!

25. Allomorphy • Another English example: • a dog an owl • a noise an orange • a strawberry an apple • Here’s another: • walked invited • sprayed needed • stopped hated • fired landed • What’s the pattern?

26. Allomorphy • One last pattern: • cats matches • judges dogs • chairs passes • When do we add an extra syllable? • How does the pattern compare to the formation of third person singular verbs? • waits, loves, shows, finds… • watches, hatches, kisses, spazzes… • The pattern is based entirely on the sounds involved; • not on the meaning of the morphemes.

27. Allomorphy • Italian Quick Write • Finally: Morphology homework due on Friday!