LING 101: morphology, exam 2

5 syntactic categories

1. noun

2. verb

3. adj

4. preposition

5. adverb

non lexical functional categories

1. determiners

2. auxiliary verb

3. conjunction

4. degree word

3 methods for determining a word’s category

1. meaning

2. inflection

3. distribution (most reliable) (which words can occur w/ which)

words are

the smallest free form of language

free form

doesn’t have to o cur in fixed position, often can occur in isolation (but not always)

morpheme

most important component of words structure

• smallest unit that carries info

simple words

1 morpheme

complex words

2 or more morphemes

free morphemes

can be a word itself (what is free in English is not always in other langs)

bound morpheme

can be a word by itself

allomorphs

variant pronunciations of a morpheme

• ex: a & an

depends on phonological facts

other term with allomorphs

allomorphic variation

root morphemes

core of word/major component of meaning

• belong to a lexical category

affixes

bound morphemes

• don’t belong to lexical category

base

the form to which an affix is aded

prefix

before the base

suffix

after the base

infixes

affix occurring inside other morphemes

• not just suffix before other suffix

free morphemes can be

lexical or functional

bound morphemes are

derivations or inflectional

nonconcatenative morphology

grammatical meaning showed by changing internal structure of a word

word-based morphology

most complex words built from roots that are free morphemes

• english

derivation

using an affix to build a word w/ meaning and/or category that is distinct from its base

derived words

once formed, become independent lexical items

cranberry morphemes

bound, found usually only in 1 word and don’t always have clear meaning.

• bound roots

systemic sound-meaning correspondence

constraints on derivation

1. blocked by existence of alternative word

   1. sometimes derivational affixes can only attach to bases w/ certain properties

inflection

doesn’t change lexical category or meaning but affects plurality, tense, possession

• gives more info

inflection in english

only 8 inflectional affixes that are only suffixes

what is the most frequent expression of inflection

affixation

what is a stem

a base to which an inflectional affix is added

inflectional vs derivation distribution tests

1. category change

2. order

3. productivity

4. semantic transparency

order in inflection vs derivation

derivational affixes attach first, then inflectional

what is productivity

freedom with which they combine with bases

productivity: inflection vs derivation

inflectional affixes are more productive than derivational

• inflectional affixes are predictable and apply to many nouns, verbs, adjectives

• derivational: only apply to specific sets of words, unpredictable meanings

case inflection

indicates word’s grammatical role in a sentence

agreement

word inflected to match certain grammatical properties

morphology is

how meaning is expressed in language/ who langs create new words

morphemes

not syllables

• carry functional or meaning info

• if subdivided further, lose meaning

inflectional affixes

• many indicate agreement/mirror properties

• others conditioned by morphosyntactic context