Morphology PDF

4 Morphology Introduction to English Linguistics – Schleburg 4 Morphology Types of morphs morpheme { } realisation allomorph / / / / // condition after after other a...

4 Morphology Introduction to English Linguistics – Schleburg 4 Morphology Types of morphs morpheme { } realisation allomorph / / / / // condition after after other after other / / voiced sounds voiceless sounds added, hated, characterised, joked, kissed, examples obstructed listened, played touched complementary distribution 4 Morphology Morphological processes The minimum number of morphemes in a word-form is obviously one. The maximum number of morphemes in an English word is … … theoretically unlimited. (Although for practical reasons English words do not get much longer than anti|dis|establish|ment|arian|ism.) Word-formation is recursive (repeatedly applicable): the output of one morphological process can become the base (input) of another. 4 Morphology Morphological processes Starting with the simplest element, this is the morphological ›history‹ of the word-form untouchables: base process result word-class / / = root suffixation / / adjective / / RECURSION! prefixation / / adjective / / RECURSION! conversion / / noun / / = stem inflection / / noun (pl.) The root of a word-form is the free lexical morpheme that remains when all affixes have been removed. It is not further analysable, either in terms of lexical or inflectional morphology. 4 The stem of a word-form is the part that remains when all inflectional affixes Morphology have been removed. It can be simple (consist of one lexical morpheme) or complex (consist of more than one lexical morpheme). Morphological processes By this definition a stem is always a free form (i. e. a word of the language). This works for most of Present Day English morphology: criticises / / minus { } → stem: { } = criticise parents’ / / minus { } → stem: { } = parent In more heavily inflected languages, however, ›what remains after contrastive inflection has been removed‹ typically is not a complete word: Spanish aprender ‘learn’, aprendo, aprendes, aprendan, aprendimos … → common element: aprend- (not a free form) (As a consequence, linguists might want to define the concept of stem differently in describing this type of grammar.) Even English has a few words that do not correspond to stems: criterion / / – criteria / / fungus / hypothesis / / – fungi / /~/ / – hypotheses / / / ? 4 Lexical Morphology Word-formation Being open systems, all languages provide their speakers with productive (synchronically operative) patterns for creating new words based on already existing ones. Word-formation allows language to keep pace with extralinguistic changes and fashions in society, technology, world-picture and contributes to the economy of language: speaker’s perspective: Building on existing vocabulary is less of a burden on the memory than introducing entirely unrelated elements. hearer’s perspective: Words based on familiar material and established patterns can be understood even if never heard before. Every game I play, I get horrifically outrebounded and I have no idea why. it out-Herods Herod, pray you avoyde it (Shakespeare) The three most productive strategies of English word-formation all work with morphemes: 4 Lexical Morphology 1. Derivation (affixation) Prefixation (bound + free): co-author, ex-president, intolerable, minidress, non-smoker, rewrite, unpopular; bewitch, endear, enslave Prefixation is typically (but not invariably) class-maintaining. 4 Lexical Morphology 1. Derivation (affixation) predictability? Suffixation (free + bound): productivity? result → noun → adjective → verb base droplet, duckling, childish, fatherly, noun → kingdom, kinship, environmental, containerise, fishify manhood, Marxism picturesque, wooden freedom, falsehood, activate, blacken, adjective → productiveness, greenish modernise, purify productivity blackmailee, flirtation, verb → infusion, killer, absorbent, drinkable ? management Suffixation is typically (but by no means always) class-changing. 4 Lexical Morphology 1. Derivation (affixation) Prefixation and suffixation are very common in European languages: German: mega-anstrengend, Misswirtschaft, zerreißen; Rohling, skandalös, steinigen Latin ag- ‘drive, act’ → ac-tīv- ‘active’ → ac-tīv-itāt- ‘activity’ → in-ac-tīv-itāt- ‘inactivity’ contrastive But there are two more possibilities of adding bound lexical morphemes. Some languages use … infixation, inserting a morpheme within a base: Arabic rafaʿa ‘lifted up, raised’ → rtafaʿa ‘rose, increased’ circumfixation, adding one part of the bound morpheme at the beginning and the other at the end of a base: German dräng- ‘press, push’ → Ge-dräng-e ‘crowd, jostle’ German Berg ‘mountain’ → Ge-birg-e ‘group of mountains’ 4 Lexical Morphology 2. Compounding (free + free) Endocentric compounding (Determinativkompositum): bath towel, rattlesnake, sunglasses; fast-food, software; childproof, lead-free —> meaning comes from one word, the other determines „what kind“ (usually the head of the compound) snakes rattlesnakes 4 Lexical Morphology 2. Compounding (free + free) Exocentric compounding (Possessivkompositum, Sanskrit Bahuvrīhi): paleface, skinhead, Green Beret; half-wit, tenderfoot; pickpocket, spoilsport —> meaning comes from outside heads skinheads 4 Lexical Morphology 2. Compounding (free + free) Appositional compounding: hunter-gatherer, woman doctor, she-goat, study-bedroom; bitter-sweet, deaf-mute —> both parts are equally important for meaning women —> often 2 mounds merged doctors women doctors 4 Lexical Morphology panties 2. Compounding (free + free) pantyhose hose Copulative compounding (Sanskrit dvandva): Alsace-Lorraine, Kraft Heinz, pantyhose —> two complimentary compunds —> a Vorpommern „balanced partnership“ Mecklenburg Chinese ⽗⺟ contrastive ‘father’ + ‘mother’ = ‘parents’ Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Japanese 寒暑 ‘cold’ + ‘hot’ = ‘temperature’ 4 Lexical Morphology ? ? 2. Compounding (free + free) Neoclassical compounding: aristocrat, autograph, biology, electrophile, genocide, hyperbole, hypothermia, oxygen, synonym This type of ›compounds‹ is special in consisting of an … initial combining form and a … final combining form, i. e. two bound elements: aristocrat What is unusual is not that the elements as such are of Greek or Latin origin but that the very pattern of combining bound bases is imported —> can‘t stand alone from the classical languages.