Introduction to Morphology

1. Introduction to Morphology Prof. Julia Nee Comparative Linguistics Spring 2014, LaSalle University

2. Words, Words, Words • Chapter 5 of “The Language Instinct” • Please read Chapter 5 

3. What is morphology? • Study of morphemes • Morphemes = smallest meaningful unit of language • Ex: teachers = teach-er-s • Teach = verb (action of teaching) • -er= derivational morpheme (one who does the action X) • -s = inflectional morpheme (‘plural’)

4. Derivational vs. Inflectional • Derivational morphemes change the part of speech of the word • -er (teach-er, bake-er, sing-er, etc.) • -ness (good-ness, bright-ness, happy-ness, etc.) • Inflectional morphemes add grammatical meaning but do not change the part of speech of the word • -ing (walk-ing, sing-ing, dance-ing, etc.) • -s (dog-s, bike-s, sock-s, etc.)

5. Derivational or inflectional? • From Kivunjo: Näïkí´mlyíïá • N-: Marker indicating that the word is the focus of that point in the conversation • -ä-: A subject agreement marker • -ï-: Present tense • -kí-: Object agreement marker (tells what is being eaten) • -m-: Benefactive marker (indicates for whose benefit the action is taking place) • -lyí-: “to eat” (verb) • -ï-: applicative marker, indicating that there’s one additional player • -á: indicative mood • “He is eating it for her.”

6. Derivational or inflectional? • Learnable • Learn: verb • X-able: quality indicating ability to do X • Unmicrowaveability • Un-X: not X • Microwave: noun • X-able: quality indicating ability to do X • X-ity: noun indicating the quality of X

7. Structure of Words • Morphemes can be added in a structured way • N  NstemNinflection • “A noun can consist of a noun stem followed by a noun inflection.” N NstemNinflection Dog -s

8. Structure of Words • Why is it important to have the concept of Noun = Nounstem + inflection? • We can apply the rule of inflection to all nouns! • Don’t need to memorize 1 cat, 2 cats and 1 dog, 2 dogs, etc. • Memorize 1 nounstem, 2 nounstem +inflection (-s)

9. Compound Nouns • Two nstems can be combined to form a new word: Book Report • Nstem NstemNstem • “A noun stem can consist of a noun stem followed by another noun stem.” • In a compound noun, the first noun is NOT an adjective: • This report is interesting. • *This report is book.

10. Derivational Affixes • New stems can be formed by adding derivational affixes • Astem Stem Astemaffix • -able: adjective stem affix, means “capable of being X’d”, attach me to a verb stem Astem VstemAstemaffix Crunch -able

11. Derivational Affixes • We can figure out the meaning of the word based on the affix: • Crunch-ability means capable of being crunched • Wug-ability means capable of being “wugged” • Words with morphemes have a “head,” which is the main element in the word • In English, the “head” is the rightmost morpheme • Describes the essence of the word

12. Deriving Words • Words can only be derived in certain ways • Smallest part of a word (not a morpheme) = root • Certain morphemes can only attach to a root, like –ism • Darwin-ism • *Darwins-ism

13. Irregularity • Why do some words not take their predicted irregular forms? • Fly out to center field > flied out • Maple Leaf > Maple Leafs • Walkman > Walkmans • …especially when others do? • Snowman > snowmen • Blow him away > blew him away

14. Irregularity • When larger words are created out of smaller words, the new word gets its properties from the head • Compounded words get their meaning from their head: • A snowman is a type of ‘man’  gets its properties from ‘man’ • ‘man’ has an irregular plural ‘men’, so snowman has the same irregular plural form

15. Irregularity • But what about compounded words that don’t have a head? • A Walkman isn’t a type of ‘man’ • It doesn’t inherit the irregularity of ‘man’ > ‘men’

16. Allomorphs • Allomorphs = phonological shapes that a morpheme can have • Ex: /t/, /d/, and /ɪd/ for the “ed” form of English verbs • Usually phonologically, lexically, or grammatically conditioned

17. Allomorphs • Phonologically conditioned: • [-ed] > t / [-voice]_ • [-ed] > d / [+voice]_ • [-ed] > ɪd / (t,d)_ • Lexically conditioned: • Cat > cats • Mouse > mice • Ox > oxen

18. Allomorphs • Grammatically conditioned • La mesa blanca • El sillónblanco • Los tapetesblancos

19. Loss of Allomorphs • Results from: • Sound change • Analogical change • Sound change  makes two allomorphs sound the same • Analogical change  words take on the patters of similar words • Ex: strive : strove : striven > strive : strived : strived, like arrive : arrived : arrived

20. Boundary Changes • Boundary loss = the boundary separating two morphemes disappears so that the two morphemes are seen as one • English ‘a’ meaning ‘on’ as in abroad, alive, aloud, around, aware, away • Boundary shift = the boundary moves • A nuncle > an uncle • An ewte > a newt

21. Boundary Changes • New boundary creation = insert boundaries where there weren’t any before • Usually related to ‘folk etymology’ • Ex: hamburger • Hamburg-er • Ham-burger  cheese-burger, fishburger, burger • Change in type of boundary = independent words can become a clitic or an affix, or vice versa • Ex: ex-girlfriend, ex-husband  ‘ex’

22. “One Form, One Meaning” • Also known as “Humboldt’s Universal” or “Principle of Isomorphism” • Tendency that languages change to maximize the one-to-one relationship between form and meaning • If you have two morphemes that sound the same (-s of plural and ‘s of possessive), the language will differentiate them if possible • If you have multiple allomorphs of a morpheme, they’ll become one allomorph

23. What is a word? • Multiple definitions • “Linguistic object that, even if build out of parts by the rules of morphology, behaves as the indivisible, smallest unit with respect to the rules of syntax.” (pg. 142) • The monster eats mice. What does the monster eat? Mice! • The monster is a mice-eater. What is the monster an –eater? *Mice! • “String of linguistic stuff that is arbitrarily associated with a particular meaning.” (Listeme)