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.