MD

Morphology and Syntax Overview

Morphology

Overview

  • Morphology: Study of the structure and formation of words.
  • Morpheme: Smallest unit of meaning in language; indivisible.
  • Examples:
    • Impurity (Im + pure + ity) → 3 morphemes
    • Unmanly (Un + man + ly) → 3 morphemes

Types of Morphemes

  • Lexical Morphemes (content words): Carry meaning. Can stand alone.
  • Examples: talk, cat, beautiful.
  • Free Morphemes: Can stand alone (e.g., capital).
  • Bound Morphemes: Cannot stand alone; must attach to free morphemes.
    • Examples: ism, ion, able.
  • Grammatical Morphemes (function words): Serve grammatical purpose.
  • Free: Prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions (e.g., he, but).
  • Bound: Inflectional and derivational morphemes.
    • Inflectional Morphemes: Modify a word’s tense, number, etc.
    • Noun (plural): -s (e.g., cats).
    • Adjective (comparative): -er (e.g., taller).
    • Derivational Morphemes: Change meaning or category (e.g., teach + er = teacher).

Additional Concepts

  • Morph: Phonetic realization of a morpheme.
  • Allomorphs: Variants of a morpheme; shape and function change.
  • Morphological Processes: Alter words to fit syntactic contexts. Types include:
  • Affixation: Adding prefixes, suffixes, etc.
  • Modification: Altering root forms to fit grammar.
  • Reduplication: Repeating parts of words to create new forms.

Affixes

  • Affix: Bound morpheme attached to a word stem.
  • Prefixes: Added before a root (e.g., anti-, auto-, co-).
  • Suffixes: Added after a root (e.g., -able, -ness).
  • Infixes: Inserted within a root (e.g., spoonful -> spoonsful).
  • Circumfixes: Attached at both ends (e.g., enlighten -> en-, -en).

Modification Processes

  • Vowel Modification: Changing the vowel within a word changes meaning (e.g., leaf → leaves).
  • Consonant Modification: Changing consonant letters changes meaning (e.g., advice → advise).

Reduplication Examples

  • Repetition: bling-bling.
  • Rhyming: nitty-gritty.
  • Ablaut: riff-raff.

Word Formation Processes

  • Word Derivation: Forming new words by adding affixes.
  • Examples: -hood (brotherhood), -ship (friendship).
  • Back-Formation: Creating a new word by removing an affix (e.g., babysitter → babysit).
  • Clipping: Shortening words (e.g., alligator → gator).
  • Coinage: Creating new words from brand names (e.g., Xerox).
  • Blending: Merging parts of words (e.g., slithy from lithe + slimy).
  • Compounding: Creating new words from two root words (e.g., notebook).
  • Conversion: Changing a word's category without an affix (e.g., bottle → to bottle).
  • Acronyms: Forming words from initials (e.g., NASA).
  • Eponyms: Words from proper names (e.g., atlas from Atlas).

Borrowing and Calquing

  • Borrowing: Taking words from other languages (e.g., spaghetti from Italian).
  • Calquing: Translating the components of a borrowed word (e.g., free verse from French).

Syntax Overview

  • Syntax: The arrangement of words in sentences.
  • Nouns: Names of people, places, things, ideas. Types include:
  • Proper Nouns: Specific names.
  • Common Nouns: General names.
  • Concrete & Abstract Nouns: Physical vs. non-physical.
  • Pronouns: Replace nouns (e.g., he, she).
  • Verbs: Indicate actions or states. Types:
  • Main Verbs: carry main meaning (e.g., write).
  • Be-Verbs: are, am, is.
  • Adjectives: Describe nouns (e.g., big).
  • Adverbs: Modify verbs/adjectives (e.g., quickly).
  • Prepositions: Show relationships (e.g., in, at).
  • Conjunctions: Connect elements (e.g., and, but).
  • Interjections: Express emotions (e.g., wow!).

Sentence Structures

  • Types of Sentences: Declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory.
  • Simple Sentence: One subject + verb.
  • Compound Sentence: Two independent clauses connected by a conjunction.
  • Complex Sentence: One independent + one dependent clause.
  • Compound-Complex Sentence: Multiple independent and dependent clauses.

Advanced Concepts

  • Compositionality: Meaning derived from the arrangement of smaller units.
  • Recursion: Ability to embed clauses within sentences.
  • Constituency: Grouping of words into units or phrases.
  • Projection: Expanding a word into a phrase while retaining meaning.
  • Movement: Shifting elements in a sentence without losing grammaticality.
  • Substitution: Replacing elements with pronouns to avoid repetition.