Morphology in Linguistics

Roadmap for Lecture

• What is Morphology?

• Morphemes

• Word Structure: Roots and Affixes

• Derivational Morphology

What is Morphology?

• Definition: Morphology is the component of grammar that deals with words and word formation.

• Words can either be simple or complex.

• Language differences affect how words are constructed.

• New words are created continuously by speakers, meaning no dictionary can remain entirely current.

What is a Word?

• Definition of a Word: A word is defined linguistically as the smallest free form in a language.

• A free form is an element that can be ordered freely and can occur on its own without being attached to another element.

Example of Word Count:

• Sentence: "Dinosaurs are extinct."

• Analysis: The sentence consists of 3 words, specifically the free forms:

  • dinosaurs

  • are

  • extinct

• However, the ending -s in "dinosaurs" is not a free form, as it cannot stand alone and must attach to "dinosaur." It adds meaning by indicating plural.

Morphemes

• Definition: A morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries meaning or serves a function.

• Example:

  • The word dinosaurs contains two morphemes:

    • dinosaur (the root, meaning a prehistoric creature)

    • -s (indicating the plural form; more than one)

• Combination: The morphemes combine to form the single word "dinosaurs."

Counting Morphemes in Words

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• Example words and their morpheme counts:
  

  Word	Number of Morphemes
  build	1
  builder	2
  builders	3
  act	1
  active	2
  activate	3
  reactivate	4
  Simple vs. Complex Words

  • Simple Words: Consist of one morpheme (e.g., build, train, act).

  • Complex Words: Consist of more than one morpheme (e.g., builder, builders, trains, active, activate, reactivate).

  Types of Morphemes

  • Free Morpheme: A morpheme that can stand alone. Example: dinosaur is a free morpheme.

  • Bound Morpheme: A morpheme that must be attached to another element to convey meaning (e.g., -s indicating plural).

  Language Variation in Morphemes

  • Languages differ in which morphemes are classified as free or bound.

  • Example: In the Hare language (an Indigenous language spoken in Canada), body part words require possession and cannot stand alone, making them bound morphemes.

    • Examples of grammatical vs. ungrammatical forms:

      • fí (head) - ungrammatical without possessor

      • sefí (my head) - grammatical with possessor

  Example Summary:

  • Bound Morphemes in Hare:

    • bé (belly)

    • nebé (your belly)

    • dzé (heart)

    • ʔedzé (someone’s heart/a heart)

  Thai Language Morphemes

  • In Thai, the past tense is expressed using a free morpheme, demonstrating the difference from English morphology.

    • Example: "Boon thaan khaaw lɛɛw" (Boon eat rice past) vs. English: "Boon ate rice."

  Allomorphs

  • Definition: Allomorphs are variants of a morpheme.

  • Example of allomorph of the morpheme a /æ/:

    • Possible Variants:

      • [æ] in the environment before a consonant (e.g., a building)

      • [æn] in the environment before a vowel (e.g., an orange).

  English Plural Allomorph /-s/

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  • The plural morpheme /-s/ has multiple allomorphs based on phonological environment:
    

    Word	IPA Transcription of Plural	Environmental Context
    cats	[kæts]	After voiceless consonant
    dogs	[dɔgz]	After voiced consonant
    judges	[dʒʌdʒəz]	After affricate consonant
    hats	[hæts]	After voiceless consonant
    heads	[hɛdz]	After voiced consonant
    Word Structure

    • Complex words typically consist of a root and one or more affixes.

      • Root: The morpheme containing the major component of the word’s meaning that belongs to a lexical category (noun, verb, etc.).

      • Affix: A morpheme that does not belong to a lexical category and is always bound (e.g., prefixes and suffixes).

    Lexical Categories of Roots

    • All roots with substantial meaning belong to a lexical category:

      • Nouns: Refer to people/things. Examples: citizen, tree, intelligence.

      • Verbs: Usually denote actions or states. Examples: depart, teach, melt, remain.

      • Adjectives: Typically refer to properties. Examples: nice, red, tall.

      • Prepositions: Refer to spatial relations. Examples: in, near, under.

    Identifying Roots and Affixes

    • To determine the lexical category of a root, also note the function of the affixes.

      • Example: The verb teach combines with the affix -er to form teacher, indicating someone who teaches.

    Drawing Word Trees

    • Word Trees: Visual representation of word structure, identifying roots and affixes.

    • Example structures for words:

      • unkind → un-kind (Af-A)

      • blacken → black-en (root + Af)

      • books → book-s (root + Af)

      • destroyed → destroy-ed (root + Af)

    Bases in Affixation

    • Definition of Base: The form to which an affix is added. For words with two morphemes, the base is equivalent to the root.

      • Example: black-en, where black is the base for -en.

    • When more than two morphemes are involved, the base can consist of the root plus any previous morphemes added.

      • Example: blacken-ed, where blacken is the base for -ed.

    Types of Affixes

    • Prefixes: Affixes added to the front of the base. Example: re-, in-.

    • Suffixes: Affixes added to the end of the base. Example: -ful, -ment.

    • Infixes: Affixes inserted within another morpheme. These are rarer in English. Example: expletive infixation in fan-f***ing-tastic.

    Infixation in Other Languages

    • In Tagalog, the infix -in- indicates completed events, unlike English where infixation is much less common.

    • Example:

      • Base: bili (buy) → binili (bought).

      • Base: basa (read) → binasa (read in past tense).

    Non-Concatenative Morphology

    • Non-concatenative morphology is a pattern where words are not constructed linearly by adding prefixes and/or suffixes.

    • In contrast, concatenative morphology is typical in English and involves constructing words by combining roots with prefixes and suffixes.

    Morpheme-Based vs. Word-Based Languages

    • Word-Based Languages: Most complex words are built from free morphemes that can stand alone (e.g., English).

    • Morpheme-Based Languages: Require morphemes to be bound, even roots. Examples include Spanish and Japanese, where verb roots must have affixes to be used as words.

      • Spanish Examples:

        • camin-ó (walk-PAST)

        • escuch-ó (listen-PAST)

        • limpi-ó (wipe-PAST)

      • Japanese Examples:

        • arui-ta (walk-PAST)

        • kii-ta (listen-PAST)

    Special Cases in English Morphology

    • Some English roots behave like bound morphemes and require affixes to be pronounced as words:

      • unkempt, inept do not stand alone as independent words.

      • Roots can arise through language change, like kempt which was once a free root in older forms of English.

    Non-Transparent Morphology

    • Words that do not have transparent morphology and must be analyzed as single morphemes:

      • Examples: receive, deceive, conceive, perceive; permit, submit, commit

    • These words were borrowed from Latin/French, making their morphology non-transparent in English.

    Derivation

    • Definition: Derivation occurs when the addition of an affix changes the meaning and/or lexical category of the base.

      • Examples illustrating verbal bases to noun derivatives:

        • sell → seller (one who sells)

        • write → writer (one who writes)

        • teach → teacher (one who teaches)

        • sing → singer (one who sings)

        • think → thinker (one who thinks)

    Additional Examples of Derivation

    • Examples of words formed through derivation:

      • treatment (noun from verb treat)

      • unwise (adjective from wise)

      • seasonal (adjective from season)

      • modernize (verb from modern)

    Drawing Tree Structures for Derived Words

    • Tree structures illustrate how each derived word is composed of its morphemes.

      • For example:

        • treat→ ment:

          • Derived noun treatment.

        • un→ wise:

          • Derived adjective unwise.

        • season→ al:

          • Derived adjective seasonal.

        • modern→ ize:

          • Derived verb modernize.

    Constraints and Restrictions in Derivation

    • Sometimes derivation is constrained by the origin of the word. Some suffixes can only combine with Latin-derived bases, e.g., –ant in words like assistant and combatant.

    • Avoidance of new derivations of existing words is called blocking. Examples include:

      • cooker is blocked by cook.

      • famosity is blocked by fame.

    Phonological Constraints on Derivation

    • Suffixes such as -en have specific phonological rules defining their compatibility with base words.

      • The base must typically be:

        • Monosyllabic

        • Ending with consonants other than /l, r, m, n, ŋ/

      • Acceptable Examples:

        • whiten

        • soften

        • madden

        • quicken

      • Unacceptable Examples:

        • abstracten (base is 2 syllables)

        • angryen (base ends in a vowel)

    Summary

    • Morphology encompasses the study of words and word structure.

    • Words can be categorized as simple or complex and breakdown into smaller units known as morphemes.

    • Certain morphemes are classified as free, while others are bound; language variation affects these classifications.

    • Complex words comprise a root alongside one or more affixes (prefixes, suffixes, and infixes).

    • Roots possess substantial meanings and adhere to specific lexical categories.

    • Derivational processes can alter the meaning or category of the base and are subject to various constraints.