1. introduction

• most high schoolers only know 60k words out of 400k+ words in the world

• knowing a lot of words does not mean you know a language

• saying we know words is when saying we usually know how to combine sounds to make a particular meaning

• out understanding of what a word is comes from mental grammar

• knowing a word is much more then being able to sound it out

• morphology: a sector of linguistics looking at word and systems of rules to create words

→ the study of the system of rules underlying our knowledge of word structures

• the word morphology comes from greek

• morphology is closely related to the study of lexicon/mental dictionary

• mental dictionary: stores information and rules about words

• signs are the building blocks of communication systems

• relationship between the form/shape/sound and its meaning is obvious or arbitrary

→ obvious: iconic

→ arbitrary: non-iconic

• sounds have no visual or symbolic connection

• most words are non-iconic

→ except onomatopoeia words

• words have meanings but certain parts of a word have meanings too

→ ex. -ing, -s, pre-

• we cant define rules of a language and words properly

• morphemes: smallest meaningful part of a word

• we can identify words along with the smaller units of meaning called morphemes

• word is an element that has a flexible position based on surrounding words

• elephants ← this word is made out of two elements:

  • elephant

  • s ← attaches to nouns

• words have their own structure

• words are not always the smallest unit of meaning

• a word is the smallest free-standing unit

→ it is a free form that can be stand alone (not attached to an element) and make sense

→ in linguistics

• non-stand alone terms have an *

2. morphemes

• nonce words: made up words

• syntactic category: words that share grammatical characteristics

• position, form, suffix and prefix help define a syntactic category for a word

• syntactic categories are a set of words that share a significant amount of set characteristics to one another

• syntactic categories/parts of speech are broken into:

  • nouns

  • verbs

  • adjectives

  • adverbs

  • prepositions

  • more

• morphemes can be:

  • words (free standing morphemes)

  • other meaningful parts of a word (morphemes that cannot stand on their own)

• words = free standing morphemes and non free standing morphemes

• words that are one morpheme = simple words

• words that are two or more morphemes = complex words

• morpheme cannot be broken down

• figuring out what kind of elements attach to words can tell us:

  • a words syntactic category

  • whether the word is singular or plural

  • and more information

• morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning, carrying information about function or meaning

→ morphemes cannot be broken down further

• we unconsciously know what morphemes are and what combinations of morphemes are meaningful

2.1 allomorphs

• allomorphs: variations of a morpheme

→ not completely different but slightly different → depends on surrounding environment

• morphemes may vary because of pronunciation → creating allomorphs

→ pronunciation differs based on context

• ex. of allomorphs:

  • booked - end with a “t” sound

  • begged - end with a “d” sound

  • stated - “ end with a “ed” sounds

→ all use “-ed” but diff sounds ← allomorphs!

→ meaning is the same!!

• “s” ending words also follow allomorphs

2.2 word classes

• classes of english grammar teach there are 8 parts of speech:

  • nouns

  • adjectives

  • verbs

  • adverbs

  • prepositions

  • conjunctions

  • articles

  • interjections

  → linguists further categorize

• linguists divide categories of words to distinguish functions by syntactic categories such as:

  • noun

  • verb

  • adjective

  • adverb

  • preposition

  • auxiliary verb

  • determiner

  • degree word

• syntactic catergories can be divided into 2 classes:

  • content words

  • function words

2.2.1 content words

• content words: words that have lexical meanings (and in some cases prepositions)/can be looked up in a dictionary

• examples of content words:

  • nouns

  • verbs

  • adjectives

  • adverbs

  • prepositions (do not readily accept new words)

• content words = open class words

→ because of how many words join the category of content words

• open class words: a category of words that are allowed to be added

• we frequently use nouns and verbs

→ syntactic categories that have new additions every year

2.2.2 function words

• function words: have a grammatical/functional meaning

• examples of function words:

  • determiners

  • auxiliary verbs

  • degree words

• function words do not have lexical meanings

• function words serve a grammatical purpose in a sentence

• ex. a and an are determiners

→ can’t really define “a” → no lexical meaning

• describes function of the sentence

• function words = closed class

• closed class: category of words that are not readily added

• pronouns are also not readily added

• hard to create new auxiliary verbs and determiners

2.3 free and bound morphemes

• morphemes are either:

  • free

  • bound

• free morpheme: single morpheme that is a word

• free morphemes do not need to attach other words to it in a sentence

• free morphemes are free standing words

• bound: a morpheme that needs to attach to another morpheme/word

• bound morphemes = affixes

• affixes: a type of bound morpheme that includes:

  • prefixes

  • suffixes

  • infixes

  • circumfixes

→ have no lexical meanings as well/not contentful

• affixation: affixes attaching to morphemes

• different languages uses morphemes differently

2.4 affixes

• affixes are not words → affixes cannot be stand alone

• affixes are not in lexical categories

• affixes are always going to be bound morphemes

• examples:

2.4.1 types of affixes

• affixes can be classified based on their placement based on the attached morpheme

→ this morpheme is called a base

• prefix: front attaching affix

→ pre means before → is in front of the word

• suffix: back attaching affix

• infix: affix in a morpheme

• prefixes and suffixes attach to morpheme boundaries/outside

• infix breaks apart morpheme

• expletive infixation: morpheme added into another morpheme for emphasis

→ english only allows this, other languages use infixation more

• circumfix: surrounds morpheme (front and end)

→ none in english, some in german

• circumfix is not a prefix and suffix because circumfix comes with both, prefix/suffix is either or

2.5 roots

• root: core meaning of a word, cannot be broken down

→ are simple words and have a syntactic category

• complex words are made up of a root and 1+ affixes

• root = base to where affixes attach

• root brings core meaning

• root is in a lexical category

→ like noun, verb, adjective, preposition, adverb

• roots are free roots

→ can standalone

• roots can be bounded

• bound roots: much attach to another element to complete meaning

→ this course mainly focuses on free roots

2.6 bases

• base: a unit of 1+ morphemes a affix can attach to

→ related to affixation

• sometimes bases is just a root

• sometimes bases can be made up of 2 or more morphemes

• all roots can be bases → not all bases are roots

• number of bases match the number of affixes

2.7 derivation and inflection

• affixes can be sorted based on position on base

• affixes are classified based on respect to function

• derivational affixes: affixes that change the meaning of a word/syntactic category

• some derivational affixes change meaning but not lexical category

• prefixes usually do not change syntactic category of a base

→ ex. un-, re-, dis-

• inflectional affixation: affixes that add grammatical info to a word

→ does not change syntactic category or meaning of the word

• inflection is noticed by affixation

• english has 8 inflectional affixes:

  • -s (plural) → nouns

  • -’s (possessive) → nouns

  • -s (3rd person singular) → verbs

  • -ing (progressive/continuous) → verbs

  • -ed (past tense) → verbs

  • -en/ed (past principle) → verbs

  • -er (comparative) → adjectives

  • -est (superlative) → adjectives

→ all are suffixes