Morphology

---

Chapter 3: Morphology: the words of language

Important concepts (these are the concepts you should know after the lectures on Morphology):

Morphology; lexicon; linguistic sign; homonyms; synonyms; grammatical category/syntactic class/part of speech; content words; grammatical/function words; open classes of words; closed classes of words; morpheme; free morpheme; bound morpheme; affixes: prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes/discontinuous morphemes; reduplication; recurrence of morphemes; nonrecurrent (cranberry) morphemes; morphemes which are not meaningful; monomorphemic, morphemically simple words; polymorphemic, morphemically complex words; word formation; accidental gaps; derivational morphemes; derivational rules; hierarchical structure of words; tree diagram; productivity of derivational rules; ways of adding words to a language: derivation, making up new words, borrowing, compounds, acronyms, initialisms, blends, backformation, clipping/abbreviation, eponyms; inflectional morphemes; variant forms of morphemes; suppletion; zero form.

1. I can't bear it any longer.
   
   
2. The top of the hill is completely bare.
   
   
3. I went to see a {film/movie} last night.
   
   
4. His child disappeared.
   
   
5. *He childs frequently.
   
   
6. His smile disappeared.
   
   
7. He smiles frequently.
   
   
8. Content words: woman, table, go, think, tall, quickly
   
   
9. Grammatical/function words:
   
   
   1. Peter and Jane have left.
   2. I've bought a new car.
   3. How much did the car cost?.
   4. this book; that book.
   5. The box is on the table.
   6. The box is under the table.
   7. A: I bought a new car. B: How much did it cost?.
   8. A: I'm hungry. B: So am I
      
      

10. 
    

    phone phonetic phonetician    phonetics phonology

    phonologist phonological    phonic phoneme phonemic

    allophone telephone telephonic euphonious symphony

11. 
    

    happy healthy    kind known

    unhappy unhealthy unkind unknown

12. 
    

    clever happy slow quiet

    cleverly happily slowly quietly

13. un-kind-ly
    
    
14. book, water, run, work, you
    
    
15. a. book-s, water-y, fast-est, work-er
    b. help-less-ness, work-er-s, gentle-man-li-ness, de-nation-al-ise
    
    
16. a. work-er: two morphemes
    b. water: one morpheme
    
    
17. un-[help-ful]; not *un-help-ful
    
    
18. free morphemes: house, bed, run, in
    
    
19. bound morphemes:
    s, as in cat-s
    ish, as in child-ish

Prefixes:

20. a. re-, as in re-write
    b. un-, as in un-kind

21. Mäori
    

    haere      'go' tangi 'emit sound, cry'    mate 'be dead' rongo 'hear'

    whaka-haere 'cause to go, lead' whaka-tangi 'cause to sound' whaka-mate 'put to death' whaka-rongo 'cause to hear, inform'

Suffixes:

22. -ing, as in work-ing
    -s, as in work-s

23. Russian
    

    atom 'atom' baraban 'drum' kalambur    'pun' lom 'scrap'

    atom-shchik 'atom-warmonger' baraban-shchik 'drummer' kalambur-shchik 'punster' lom-shchik 'salvage collector'

    
    
24. 
    

    Isthmus Zapotec (Mexico) English Isthmus Zapotec English

    zigi 'chin' diaga 'ear'

    ka-zigi 'chin-s' ka-diaga 'ear-s'

     

Infixes:

25. Bontoc (Philippines)
    

    fikas 'strong' kilad 'red' fusul 'enemy'

    f-um-ikas 'to be strong' k-um-ilad 'to be red' f-um-usul 'to be an enemy'

    
    
26. abso-fuggin-lute-ly; Kalama-flippin-zoo

Circumfixes:

27. Chickasaw (North America)
    

    affirmative chokma 'he is good'    palli 'it is hot'

    negative ik-chokm-o 'he isn't good' ik-pall-o 'it isn't hot'

Reduplication:

28. Manam (Papua New Guinea)
    

    sapara 'branch' moita 'knife' malabong 'flying fox    (generic)' dara 'blood'

    sapara-para 'having branches' moita-ita 'cone shell' malabong-bong 'species of flying fox' dara-dara 'be red'

    
    
29. Recurrent morphemes:
    work-er, sing-er, speak-er, runn-er, ...
    un-kind, un-healthy, un-imaginative, un-ethical, ...
    
    
30. Nonrecurrent morphemes:
    luke-warm
    cran-berry
    
    
31. re-ceive, de-ceive, con-ceive, per-ceive, …
    re-ceive, re-port, re-duce, re-mit, ...
    de-ceive, de-port, de-duce, ...
    re-mit, trans-mit, per-mit, ...
    
    
32. -er: sing-er, work-er, runn-er...
33. -er: tall-er, heavi-er, smart-er, old-er, ...
    
    
34. a pear; an apple
    
    
35. Monomorphemic, morphemically simple words: house, walk, difficult, ...
    
    
36. Polymorphemic, morphemically complex words: house-s, difficult-y, un-bear-able, work-er-s, ...
    
    
37. pur-ify, simpl-ify, ampl-ify, ugl-ify, ...
    glor-ify, person-ify, object-ify, beaut-ify, ...
    *angr-ify, *thing-ify
    
    
38. 
    

Derivation:

39. 
    

    Affix -ish -al -er -ly -ness    -ise

    Input noun noun verb adjective adjective  noun or adjective

    Output adjective    adjective noun adverb noun verb

    Example child-ish norm-al sing-er quick-ly clever-ness symbol-ise, form-al-ise

    
    
40. 
    

    Affix -ship    re- un-

    Input noun verb {adjective    {verb

    Output noun verb adjective    verb

    Example member-ship re-write un-kind un-tie

    
    
41. Made-up words: googol, nylon, qwerty keyboard
    
    
42. Borrowings:
    from other languages into English: kindergarten (German), rouge (French), vodka (Russian), karaoke (Japanese), yogurt (Turkish), safari (Arabic)
    
    from Mäori into New Zealand English: kiwi, rimu, tui, pohutukawa, haka, marae, kumara
    
    from English into other languages: week-end in French and víkend in Czech for 'weekend', haspataal in Hindi for 'hospital', shäfä in Mandarin for 'sofa', kappu in Japanese for 'cup, trophy'
    
    from English into Mäori: äporo 'apple', huka 'sugar', pëpi 'baby'

Compounding:

43. blackbird, pickpocket, laptop, boyfriend, greenhouse, birth-control, smoke screen;
    peanut butter, computer keyboard, adventure playground;
    stone age cave dweller
    
    
44. 
    

    adjective + adjective    adjective + noun noun + adjective noun + noun verb + noun noun + verb

    bittersweet blackbird tax-free bedroom pickpocket sun-rise

    
    
45. 
    

    preposition + verb preposition + noun noun + preposition    verb + preposition

    overtake afterbirth hanger-on sit-in

    
    
46. 
    

    French Fijian German

    perce-bois ('pierce'-'wood') waqa-vuka ('canoe'-'fly (verb)') Handschuh (Hand 'hand', schuh 'shoe')

    'wood-borer' (insect) 'airplane' 'glove'

    
    
47. Acronyms:
    

    radar scuba quango    dink WASP HART ANZAC RAM

    (radio detecting and ranging) (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) (quasi-autonomous non-govermental organisation) (double income, no kids) (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) (halt all racist tours) (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) (random access memory)

    
    
48. Initialisms (acronyms):
    

    NHL  UN GT

    (National Hockey League) (United Nations) (gin-and-tonic)

    
    
49. Blends:
    

    brunch motel telethon ginormous

    (breakfast + lunch) (motor + hotel) (telephone + marathon) (gigantic + enormous)

    
    Czech: beton 'k.o. mixed drink which consists of Becher brandy and tonic water' (cf. beton 'concrete' (noun))
    
    jazzercise, slimnastics
    
50. Backformations:
    peddle <- peddler
    pea <- pease
    *earwack <- earwax
    
    
51. Clippings:
    phone <- telephone
    prof <- professor
    
    
52. Eponyms:
    sandwich (after the fourth Earl of Sandwich)
    jumbo (after a circus elephant)
    denim (from French de Nîmes 'from Nimes' (a city from which the material was originally imported))

Grammatical morphemes:

53. Jane and Peter
    I want to go.
    I will go.
    
    
54. The police arrested him.
    He was arrested by the police.
    
    
55. She is reading a magazine.
    
    
56. Is it raining?

Inflectional morphemes:

57. They work-ed hard.
    They work hard.
    
    
58. book-s
    book
    
    
59. English inflectional morphemes
    added to verbs:
    

    -s third-person singular present tense    -ed past tense -ing progressive aspect -en past participle added to nouns: -s plural added to adjectives: -er comparative -est superlative

    She work-s hard. She work-ed hard. He is eat-ing. He has eat-en his dinner. They have five dog-s. I'm old-er than you. She is my young-est child.

    
    
60. Inflectional morphemes in other languages:
    

    Isthmus Zapotec (Mexico): ka- plural Turkish: -de locative ('in', 'on' 'at') Turkish: -m first person singular possessive ('my')

    ka-diaga 'ears' ev-de 'in the house' baba-m 'my father'

Variant forms of morphemes:

61. 
    

    noun plural:

    [s] [z] [z]

    books magazines judges

62. 
    

    past tense:

    [t] [d] [d]

    walked paid wanted

Exceptions:

63. child, children; *childs
    goose, geese; *gooses
    
    
64. take, took; *taked
    sing, sang; *singed
    
    
65. Suppletive forms:
    go, went (*go-ed) (cf. play, play-ed)
    good, better (*good-er) (cf. tall, tall-er)
    
    
66. I work hard.
    She work-s hard.
    
    
67. This question is harder than the other one.
    This question is more difficult than the other one.
    
    
68. Turkish
    
    go-FUTURE-I
    'I will go.'
    
    
69. Fore (Papua New Guinea)
    

    kayne kayga kaywa    pine piga piwa

    'my clothes' 'your clothes'    'his clothes' 'my shell' 'your shell' 'his shell'

    awne awga awwa    kone koga kowa

    'my eye' 'your eye' 'his eye' 'my trap' 'your trap' 'his trap'