LT3216 Chinese Linguistics Week 2 PDF

Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References LT3216 Chinese Linguistics Morphology Week 2, Semester A, 2024/25...

Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References LT3216 Chinese Linguistics Morphology Week 2, Semester A, 2024/25 Instructor: Dr. LEE Tsz Ming (Tommy) [email protected] City University of Hong Kong 12 September, 2024 Week 2 - Morphology 1 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Basic notions 3 Word formation 4 Compounds 5 Word or phrase? 6 Before we go Week 2 - Morphology 2 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Before we start Class presentations 53 students ➜ 14 groups (of four; one group has five) Oct 3 (5 groups), Oct 17 (5 groups), Oct 31 (5 groups) What to do (more instructions follow) 1 By Sept 16, fill in this form. I will coordinate the grouping. 2 At least one week before your presentation, talk to me via email/after class to confirm the chapter you will be presenting. 3 One day before your presentation, upload a handout to Canvas. 4 Be prepared to talk for 25 minutes (plus 5 minutes Q&A). 20% 5 3/2/1 week(s) after your presentation, upload a finalized handout, incorporating comments and replies to questions. 15% Week 2 - Morphology 3 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Basic notions 3 Word formation 4 Compounds 5 Word or phrase? 6 Before we go Week 2 - Morphology 4 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Basic notions In morphology, we pay attention to morphemes. In terms of distribution, we have, Free morphemes (= words) Bound morphemes In terms of content, we have, Content/lexical morphemes Functional morphemes In the structure of a word, we have, Stems (the base of a stem is called root) Affixes inflectional affixes derivational affixes Week 2 - Morphology 5 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Basic notions Some quick reference (Language File 12th ed., 2017) Week 2 - Morphology 6 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References A flowchart for identifying the status of morphemes (try: building) Week 2 - Morphology 7 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Inflectional vs. derivational affixes Common properties: bound morphemes selective to their stem/root Week 2 - Morphology 8 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Inflectional vs. derivational affixes What do you think are the differences between inflectional and derivational affixes? Week 2 - Morphology 9 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Inflectional vs. derivational affixes Very briefly, Inflectional affixes are 1 category preserving 2 productive 3 more “abstract" in meaning Derivational affixes are 1 potentially category changing 2 less productive 3 more “concrete" in meaning Week 2 - Morphology 10 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Basic notions 3 Word formation 4 Compounds 5 Word or phrase? 6 Before we go Week 2 - Morphology 11 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word formation There are different ways to form a (new) word from a word/morpheme. 1 Affixation Adding inflectional affixes to roots Adding derivational affixes to roots 2 Compounding (putting two words together) Question: Do you think these process are possible in Chinese too? Week 2 - Morphology 12 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation: Inflectional affixes Nominal inflectional affixes The plural marker of animate entities (1) N[+human] -men “noun-Plural" Mandarin (not in Cantonese) a. ren-men “person-PL: people" b. laoshi-men “teacher-PL: teachers" c. nan-hai-men “male-child-PL: boys" d. gong-ren-men “work-man-PL: workers" e. wo/ ni/ta-men “I/you/he-PL: we/you/they" f. *niu-men “cow-PL" g. *che-men “car-PL" Week 2 - Morphology 13 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation: Inflectional affixes Chao (1968) notes that certain classifiers can be used as inflectional suffixes to indicate. (2) N+CL “noun-Collective" Mandarin (also in Cantonese) a. zhi-zhang “paper-CL: papers, b. niu-zhi “cow-CL: a herd of cows" c. ma-pi “horse-CL: a herd of horses" d. hua-duo “flower-CL: flowers" e. *ren-ge “person-CL" f. *shou-zhi “hand-CL" Week 2 - Morphology 14 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation: Inflectional affixes Verbal inflectional affixes Various aspectual marking on verbs (3) V-zhe / V-le / V-guo Mandarin A rich system of verbal suffixes in Cantonese (cf. Wikipedia) Delimitative aspect markers: -haa vs. RED (reduplication) (4) V-haa “V for a short while/a little" Cantonese a. hang-haa “walk-walk: walk for a while" b. hok-haa “learn-learn: learn a little/for a while" (5) V-RED “V for a short while/a little" Mandarin a. zou-zou “walk-walk: walk for a while" b. xue-xue “learn-learn: learn a little/for a while" Week 2 - Morphology 15 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation: Inflectional affixes A note on the reduplication rule in Mandarin When the stem is disyllabic, the whole stem is reduplicated. (6) a. [XY]V -RED ➔ X Y - X Y for verbs [qing-song]V -RED ➔ qingsong-qingsong “to relax a little" b. [XY]Adj -RED ➔ XX - YY for adjectives [qing-song]Adj -RED ➔ qing-qing-song-song “quite relaxed" Week 2 - Morphology 16 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation: Derivational affixes Nominal derivational affixes Nominalizers (7) [N/V/A-zi]N (8) [N/V/A-tou]N a. qi-zi “wife-ZI: wife" a. ling-tou “zero-head, small er-zi “son-ZI: son" change" gua-zi “melon-ZI: melon" b. zhuan-tou “earn-head, sheng-zi “rope-ZI: rope" opportunity to profit" b. pai-zi “stroke-ZI: racket" shua-zi “brush-ZI: brush" xiang-tou “think-head, pian-zi “cheat-ZI: cheater" idea/hope" c. lao-zi “old-ZI: father" c. lao-tou “old-head, old xiao-zi “small-ZI: kid" people" feng-zi “crazy-ZI: lunatic" Week 2 - Morphology 17 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation: Derivational affixes The prefix lao- “lit. old" (9) lao-N a. lao-hu “old-tiger, tiger" b. lao-shu “old-mouse, mouse" c. lao-shi “old- teacher, teacher" d. lao-po “old-wife, wife" e. lao-ban “old-board, boss" f. lao-xiong “old-brother, buddy" What does it mean? Is it also a nominalizer? Week 2 - Morphology 18 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation: Derivational affixes Verbal derivational affixes Verbalizers are limited in number, but productive (10) a. N-hua ➔ V [gong-ye]-hua “labor-industry-HUA: industrialize" [ji-xie]-hua “machine-machine-HUA: mechanize" b. A-hua ➔ V ruo-hua “weak-HUA: weaken" qiang-hua “strong-HUA: strengthen" huo-hua “active-HUA: activate" zi-dong-hua “self-move-HUA: automatize" Week 2 - Morphology 19 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation: Derivational affixes Adjectival derivational affixes Adjectivizer (11) ke-V ➔ Adj a. ke-ai “able-love: lovable" b. ke-hen “able-hate: detestable" c. ke-xiao “able- laugh: laughable" d. ke-lian “able-pity: pitiable" e. ke-shi “able-eat: edible" f. ke-gui “able-expensive: valuable" Week 2 - Morphology 20 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Affixation Chinese is said to be an isolating language which has less morphology than agglutinating and polysynthetic languages But, there are a range of inflectional and derivational affixes with varying productivity, though. It supports the suggestion that the distinction between isolating, agglutinating, and polysynthetic languages may be gradient, instead of categorical. Week 2 - Morphology 21 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Monomorphemic disyllabic words In Chinese, one characters often correspond to one morpheme.... but not always. (12) Examples of verbs (13) Examples of nouns a. feilou ‘fail’ a. pinfuk ‘bat’ b. haaihau ‘encounter’ b. wudip ‘butterfly’ c. pisen ‘present’ c. zizyu ‘spider’ Week 2 - Morphology 22 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Basic notions 3 Word formation 4 Compounds 5 Word or phrase? 6 Before we go Week 2 - Morphology 23 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds Compounds are especially rich in Chinese. Compounds involve more than one morpheme in a word. Special attention is paid to the semantic relations between the two morphemes. We will see why this is particularly important soon. Week 2 - Morphology 24 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds Week 2 - Morphology 25 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds Week 2 - Morphology 26 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds Week 2 - Morphology 27 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds Week 2 - Morphology 28 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Larger compounds are possible Week 2 - Morphology 29 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds Heads of compounds The head of a compound determines the properties the compound Endocentric compounds: headed compounds Exocentric compounds: head-less compounds (14) a. hau-zuk “hand-foot: friend" Cantonese b. hoi-gwan “open-close: switch" Cantonese (also Mandarin) c. wu-se “item-color: choose from" Mandarin (also Cantonese) d.... more examples? Double-headed compounds: two heads Week 2 - Morphology 30 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Discussions Link to form Think of an example of each of the five types of compounds and the head of the word FYR: Jyutping romanization Week 2 - Morphology 31 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds English compounds are generally endocentric and right-headed. Based on the what we have obtained here: Link to result , Is there any kind of headedness rule applies consistently within Chinese compounds? View 1: It’s all random. No rule. View 2: If the compound is a V, then it is left-headed. If the compound is a N, then it is right-headed. View 3: ??? Week 2 - Morphology 32 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds Incorporating the notion of semantic content in compounds The classification of compounds into five types is based onthe semantic relation between morphemes. Week 2 - Morphology 33 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds The headedness of compounds is isomorphic to that of their syntactic, phrasal counterparts. Morphology as Syntax?! a recent paper by Collins and Kayne (2023) Week 2 - Morphology 34 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Compounds To take a step back, What we obtained is an argument for incorporating morphology into syntax. It could be just a deep connection behind syntax and morphology in certain ways (but not necessarily equivalence). Also, there are arguments for distinguishing morphology from syntax. The big issue is how/whether our grammar is divided into different components.... which is still under debate. Week 2 - Morphology 35 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Basic notions 3 Word formation 4 Compounds 5 Word or phrase? 6 Before we go Week 2 - Morphology 36 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? Recall VO-compounds Can they be a verb phrase that consist of a verb and an object? (15) Aaming tingjat jit-fan laa3. Cantonese Aaming tomorrow tie-wedding sfp ‘Aaming will get married tomorrow.’ Week 2 - Morphology 37 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? Structurally, how are VO-compunds different from VO-phrases? (16) TP (17) TP Aaming TP Aaming TP tingjat VP tingjat VP V V NP jit-fan jit fan 1 Intransitive VP vs. transitive VP 2 Accessibility to the subparts of jit-fan Week 2 - Morphology 38 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? The traditional wisdom has it that words display an important difference from phrases. ➔ The opacity of the morphological component (18) Lexical Integrity Hypothesis (LIH) Syntactic transformations are not applicable to word-internal structures. Let us assume LIH holds in Chinese. What do we expect to see? Examples of syntactic transformations Syntactic coordination Syntactic modification Syntactic movement Compounds fail these tests, whereas phrases pass these tests. Week 2 - Morphology 39 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? 1. syntactic coordination (19) a. 他們就是我們學校的中文老師和英文老師。 b. 他們就是我們學校的中文和英文老師。 If two elements can be coordinated, then they are: If two elements cannot be coordinated, then they are: Week 2 - Morphology 40 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? 2. syntactic modification If an element can be modified, then they are: If an element cannot be modified, then they are: Week 2 - Morphology 41 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? 3. syntactic movement If two elements can be separated due to movement, then they are: If two elements cannot be separated due to movement, then they are: Week 2 - Morphology 42 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? We obtained evidence for LIH in nominal compounds. But these examples adopt different nominal compounds. These best paradigms would be illustrated by the same compound (and its related forms), so that we know we are not cherry-picking. Try to come up with example sentences using 白免、白色的免、黑色的免、很白的免、很黑的兔, etc. Back to our questions, how about verbal compounds, especially, VO-compounds? Week 2 - Morphology 43 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? 1. syntactic coordination (20) a. *張三想同時結婚和業。 b. 張三想同時結婚和結業。 Given what we learnt about nominal compounds, 結婚 should be: Week 2 - Morphology 44 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? 2. syntactic modification Given what we learnt about nominal compounds, 結婚 should be: Week 2 - Morphology 45 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? 3. syntactic movement Given what we learnt about nominal compounds, 結婚 should be: Week 2 - Morphology 46 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? There is no strict parallels between nominal and verbal compounds. Even for the same VO-element, the tests give conflicting results. Before we reject everything we have come up with so far, let’s extend our reach a bit, to tests that are specifically applicable to verbs. Verbal suffixation Object-taking ability Week 2 - Morphology 47 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? Assume that verb, but not verb phrase, can take verbal suffix. Verbal suffixation: If a VO string can take the form VO-suffix, it is: If a VO string cannot do so, then it is probably: (21) a. ??張三去年結婚過。 b. ??張三去年住院過。 (22) a. 我已經移⺠過了。 blog post b. 他曾經出軌過。 Week 2 - Morphology 48 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? Assume that transitive verb, but not transitive verb phrase, can take objects. Object-taking ability: If a VO string cannot take the form VO-O, it is: If a VO string can take the form VO-O, it is: (23) a. ??張三希望結婚小麗。 cf. 張三希望跟小麗結婚。 b. ??張三希望住院這個診所。 (24) a. 張三希望移⺠美國。 b. （他）出軌了一个不可能有結果的人。 forum Week 2 - Morphology 49 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? Summarizing the properties of 結婚 結婚 Coordination test compound Modification test phrase Movement test phrase Suffixation test phrase Object test phrase The remaining tasks: If 結婚 is a compound, then how can we explain the other four properties? If 結婚 is a phrase, then how can we explain the ban on coordination? How about all other VO-compounds? Week 2 - Morphology 50 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Word or phrase? Compounding is an important way for word formation in Chinese. But the distinction between compounds and phrases is not always clear-cut. Indirect evidence from diagnostic tests is at best suggestive, begging further qualifications. No satisfactory answer so far, but it doesn’t mean we made no progress. Questions are more important the answers; They invite more (creative) answers. More concrete proposals are discussed in HLS (2014), chapter 2, p.19-22. Week 2 - Morphology 51 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Appendix A second-thought on separability: mono-morphemic words can be separated but they do not have internal structure. More on the separability of monomorphemic words: My 2022 talk at LT Research Forum, see also Chan, Lee, and Yip (2022) Week 2 - Morphology 52 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Basic notions 3 Word formation 4 Compounds 5 Word or phrase? 6 Before we go Week 2 - Morphology 53 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References Before we go Questions Comments Read for next time: Huang, Li and Simpson (2014), Chapter 5, Topic and Focus. Week 2 - Morphology 54 / 55 Introduction Basic notions Word formation Compounds Word or phrase? Before we go References References I Chan, Sheila Shu-Laam, Tommy Tsz-Ming Lee, and Ka-Fai Yip. 2022. “Discontinuous predicates as partial deletion in Cantonese.” In UPenn Working Paper in Linguistics, vol. 28. 1. Week 2 - Morphology 55 / 55