Word Division and Clitics PDF

Word Division and Clitics Meeting 5 Three different senses of the word “word.” ‘Word in a dictionary’ A stem, together with all its OR ‘Lexical entry’ inflected forms (i.e., its entire paradigm) Word form’ OR A particular inflected form ‘Fully in...

Word Division and Clitics Meeting 5 Three different senses of the word “word.” ‘Word in a dictionary’ A stem, together with all its OR ‘Lexical entry’ inflected forms (i.e., its entire paradigm) Word form’ OR A particular inflected form ‘Fully inflected word from the paradigm of some word Word in a sentence A string of material in a sentence that forms one of the basic building blocks of the sentence. Finding word boundaries in specific sentence. See the following types of questions: How do we make an analysis of boundaries between words in a sentence? How do we decide if a morpheme is a word or an affix. It is bound or free? How many terminal nodes do we need in a tree? How do we distribute the phonological material of a sentence among them? What do we treat as syntax and what as morphology? Where do we write spaces in a practical orthography? PHONOLOGICAL WORD BOUNDARIES The traditional conception of word boundaries is phonological—a word in sense (1c) is a minimal utterance. Phonological Guidelines #1 No utterance can be shorter than a single word. If native speakers do not recognize a morpheme out of context or would never pronounce it by itself, then it is not a word. If they can, it probably is. For example, the minimal reply to a question is single word, not part of a word. Possible answers: Impossible answers: How many books do you have? “Nineteen” ‘teen’ “Lots” “s” PHONOLOGICAL WORD BOUNDARIES Phonological Guidelines #2 Pauses are only possible at word boundaries. If there is a pause at a certain point in a sentence or if a pause is possible there, then that point is probably a phonological word boundary. For example, consider how an elementary school teacher might speak to the class, pausing for effect between each word, but not within words. a.[boIz… ænd gɜ:lz] (‘boys and girls’) b. *[ boI…z… ænd…gɜ:l…..z] PHONOLOGICAL WORD BOUNDARIES Phonological Guidelines #3 Look for phonological rules that provide information about word boundaries, then use them to help define word boundaries in unclear cases. For example, phonological rules such as assimilation only apply within words, not across word boundaries. In English, when a word ends with a sound like /g/ (voiced) and the next word starts with a /s/ (voiceless), there’s no automatic rule that causes those sounds to blend or assimilate into each other. ‘dogs’ ‘the dog sat’ Input to phonological rules: “dog-s” ðƏ dog sæt Output of phonological rules: “dog-z” ðƏ dog sæt SYNTACTIC WORD BOUNDARIES Our first hypotheses about syntactic word boundaries are based on what we know about phonology. Syntactic guidelines #1 Any phonological word break is generally also a syntactic word break. There is a phonological word boundary before “sat” in “the dog sat.” SYNTACTIC WORD BOUNDARIES Syntactic guidelines #2 Any major constituent break (e.g., the beginning or end of a phase) is also syntactic word break. [NP the [QP two] [AP [DegP very] little] dogs] SYNTACTIC WORD BOUNDARIES Syntactic guidelines #3 Affixes tend to occur next to only a single type of word (their stems) and in a fixed order; words occur more freely in various combination with each other. This means words can often be moved with respect to each other; this is usually not possible for morphemes within a word. a. I see the tiny, little people down on the ground. b. I see the little, tiny people down there on the ground. a. teach-er-s b. *teach-s-er SYNTACTIC WORD BOUNDARIES Syntactic guidelines #4 Morphology often shows great irregularities, while combinations of separate syntactic words do not. For example, there are irregular noun plurals like oxen in place of *oxes, but there are not any irregular combinations of the definite article the with particular nouns. Clitics Clitics Definition: "A clitic is a grammatical element that cannot stand alone and must attach to a nearby word to convey meaning.“ Examples: ⚬ Contracted Form: "'n’t'" as in "couldn’t" or "don’t“ ⚬ Possessive Form: "'s" as in "the cat’s toy“ In some ways (especially by phonological guidelines), clitics are like affixes; in other ways (especially by syntactic guidelines), they are like words. Clitics As examples, consider two homophonous morphemes in English, both of which are spelled ‘s: Contracted ‘s (from is) a. hu-z gɔn who’s gone? b. hwƏt-sðæt what’s that? c. hwit∫-iz jɔ:(r)z which’s yours? Possessive ‘s d. ðƏ mæn-z Ə`pinjƏn the man’s opinion e. ði boi in ðƏ hæt-s Ə`pinjƏn the boy in the hat’s opinion f. ðƏ pit∫-izpit the peach’s pit. Clitics Should we analyze them as affixes or words? Phonological guidelines suggest that both are affixes. 1. They are never pronounced in isolation. 2.They cannot be preceded by pause. 3.They do not contain vowels (at least in some environments), unlike clear cases of words. 4.They undergo devoicing. Clitics Syntactic guidelines suggest that they are separate words 1. Contracted ‘s functions as the verb in a clause (as a contraction of is or has) 2.Possessive ‘s always attached to the end of a noun phrase, not always to the head noun. 3.both can attach to a variety of word types. 4.Contracted ‘s is completely regular; there is no stem suppletion. On the other hand, at least one syntactic guideline suggests that possessive ‘s is an affix. FINDING CLITICS One type of clitic that is easy to spot is one that attaches to a variety of different types of words. An example is the possessive –‘s, as it is used in colloquial spoken English. a. [the woman]’s tennis racket. b. [anyone who likes children]’s ideas about child-rearing c. [the one with red on’]s atrocious behavior d. [the person who work]’s ideas about politeness e. [someone who types quickly]’s job prospects here, -‘s attaches to a head noun, a nonhead noun, a preposition, a verb, and an adverb. Types of Clitics: Proclitics and Enclitics Proclitic: Attaches to the beginning of a word Example: ⚬ (Santa brought me) ‘n apple, ‘n a truck, ‘n a ball …. 'n" in ‘n apple (as a reduced form of 'an’) Enclitic: Attaches to the end of a word Example: ⚬ 's in the girl’s book Find the clitics. Decide whether they’re possessive markers or separate words 1. The boy’s bag’s in the car 2.The girl’s the policeman’s daughter 3.The store’s sold the people’s needs 4.Tina buys her brother’s clothes 5.The president’s policy’s wise. "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." - Rudyard Kipling