TS 08 Morphology PDF

5 Lexicology Etymology and folk etymology Some word stories are quite surprising … nice meant ‘trivial’ or ‘wanton’ in Shakespeare and ultimately comes from diachronic Latin nescius ‘ignorant’ (which means it is related to scien...

5 Lexicology Etymology and folk etymology Some word stories are quite surprising … nice meant ‘trivial’ or ‘wanton’ in Shakespeare and ultimately comes from diachronic Latin nescius ‘ignorant’ (which means it is related to science) glamour and grammar are historically the same word (doublets) travel and travail ‘labour of childbirth’ are the same word and go back, via French, to the name of an instrument of torture (Late Latin trepalium) In the course of time, morphological transparency may be lost through phonological and lexicological change (obscured compounds): Old English wīf-mann ‘female human’ > woman Middle English cuppe-bord > cupboard /ˈkʌbəd/ Obscure words are sometimes given new ›transparency‹ by speakers through popular association (folk etymology): Old English brȳd-guma ‘bride-man’ > bridegroom (← groom ‘male servant’) Old French crevice → crayfish (← fish) 6 Even more Morphology Introduction to English Linguistics – Schleburg 6 Grammatical Morphology Marking grammatical information Where and how is grammatical (systematic) information expressed in the following sentence? At last Jimmy’s father handed me a bottle of wine. meaning form strategy type ›belonging to‹ inflection past inflection synthetic object I → me suppletion Jimmy’s father – me – subject vs. objects a bottle of wine position indefiniteness a function word analytic ›belonging to‹ of function word 6 meaning form strategy type ›belonging to‹ inflection past inflection synthetic object I → me suppletion Jimmy’s father – me – subject vs. objects a bottle of wine position indefiniteness a function word analytic ›belonging to‹ of function word Synthetic strategies express lexical and grammatical information within one word-form, typically using bound grammatical morphemes (inflection). A special case is suppletion where a form is replaced with an entirely unrelated one (e. g. I – me). Analytic strategies separate grammatical information from lexical information, using either free grammatical morphemes (function words) or constituent order to express contrasts. 6 Grammatical Morphology The arbitrariness of grammar again Any human language can express any contrast its speakers want to express. All languages express most of the content in the open system of vocabulary, and all languages express a few contrasts more systematically in the closed systems of grammar. But the kinds and numbers of grammatical oppositions, as well as the relation between content and form, are arbitrary: semantic role ‘location in’ (›world‹) expression English Japanese Finnish (language) preposition postposition case suffix in the house ie ni talo-ssa lexical grammatical 6 Grammatical Morphology »English has six cases« – or may be forty-seven? Adversative against the house Locative in the house Collateral next to the house Subessive under the house Causative because of the house Concessive in spite of the house … Appellative hey house! Condemnative bloody house! Admirative what a house! … The prepositions and particles of English do not form the kind of closed system we expect from a grammatical category of the noun. 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 1 girl – girl’s category exponents part of speech type common case – noun: synthetic possessive girl – girl’s (analytic rival: of) CASE personal pronoun: subject case – we – our – us possessive – relative / interrog. synthetic object case pronoun: who – whose – whom Nominal case systems: Ø Chinese – 2 Old French – 3 Romanian – contrastive 4 German – 5 Ancient Greek – 6 Latin, Russian – 7 Czech – 8 Sanskrit … 15 Finnish 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 2 girl – girls category exponents part of speech type noun: girl – girls singular – pronoun: NUMBER plural synthetic she – they verb: was – were No grammatical number distinction: contrastive Chinese nǚhái ‘girl(s)’ – qī gè nǚhái ‘seven instance [of] girl’ More than two grammatical numbers: Arabic fatāh ‘ girl’ – fatātān ‘ girls’ (dual) – fatayāt ‘[≥3] girls’ 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 2 Within a grammatical category, not all exponents have equal status. We often observe that one exponent is somehow ›more basic‹ than another. In the number systems of human languages, e. g. the singular is less marked than the plural, and the plural is less marked than the dual. This means: On the whole, the singular is formally less complex than the plural: English book – books, Turkish kitap – kitaplar The singular is more differentiated (shows less homophony) than the plural (and the dual): English (regular noun) English (regular verb, present) Sanskrit (a-stem masculine noun) singular plural singular plural singular plural dual , 2 > 1 , 2 > 1 8 > 6 > 3 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 2 Where number is neutralised the singular will be used rather than the plural (or the dual): This (*these) cutlery is (*are) so dirty. That (*those) music was (*were) horrible! In a given language, the singular occurs more frequently than the plural (and the dual). The singular is acquired earlier by learners than the plural (and the dual). In the world, more languages have a the plural than have a dual. There is no language that has a dual without having a plural too. Dual forms will not be more irregular than plural forms: Standard Arabic has dozens of largely unpredictable plural patterns for nouns but only one way of forming the dual for all nouns. 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 3 he – she – it category exponents part of speech type 3rd person singular masculine – pronoun: GENDER feminine – he – she – it synthetic neuter himself – herself – itself Grammatical gender in German: contrastive Stuhl → der, er → it Sitzgelegenheit → die, sie Möbelstück → das, es 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 4 we – you – they category exponents part of speech type pronoun: 1st – we – you – they PERSON 2nd – synthetic 3rd verb: am – are – is The category of person grammatically encodes pragmatic roles: speaker(’s party) – addressee(’s party) – rest of the world contrastive Exclusive vs. inclusive first person plural: Tok Pisin mipela ‘me + others’ – yumipela ‘you + me + others’ 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 5 God saves the King – God save the King category exponents part of speech type verb: indicative – she leaves – MOOD subjunctive – I insist that he leave synthetic imperative – leave! The subjunctive used to be frequent in both main and subordinate clauses: diachronic A burning divell take them (SHAKESPEARE) if money goe before, all waies doe lye open (SHAKESPEARE) In many of its functions mood has been replaced by analytic means: The reasonably closed system of modality, expressed by auxiliaries like can, may, must, shall, will, has become part of English grammar, too. 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 6 walk – walked category exponents part of speech type present – verb: synthetic TENSE past walk – walked Tense grammatically encodes the position of a situation on the timeline in reference to the moment of speaking: walked walks departs, are meeting, is going to rain, will meet, will be meeting, may walk, is on the point of … past time future time moment of speaking English of course has a number of different ways of referring to future time but no single set of forms that express futurity alone (›future tense‹). 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 6 Grammatical categories do not reflect extralinguistic reality directly or completely. There is obviously no 1-to-1 relation between physical or psychological time and linguistic tenses: time is continuous and can be divided infinitely, tense is discrete and expressed in a closed system. The fact that we call the two choices of tense in English ›present‹ and ›past‹ reflects the primary meaning we tend to think of first: the position of a situation on the timeline. But the forms have other meanings too … tense primary meaning secondary meanings And now Campbell passes the ball to Sánchez, and Sánchez dashes forward … The sun rises in the east. present Holmes is still on his way … oooh, what’s There is a solar eclipse next Tuesday. that, he is stopped rudely by Jenkins! By 2020 the management knew very well I wish I knew the answer! past what was going on. If only I knew the answer! 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 7 walks – is walking, walks – has walked category exponents part of speech type simple – verb: be + analytic progressive present participle ASPECT (non-perfect) – verb: have + perfect past participle analytic Aspect grammatically encodes different ways of ›looking at‹ a situation: walks had walked time point of reference is walking 6 Grammatical Morphology Grammatical categories of English words 8 saves – is saved category exponents part of speech type active – verb: be + VOICE analytic passive past participle Transformation: A saves B. → B is saved (by A). – If the two mean the same, why should a passive ever be needed? Subject of active sentence obvious, unknown or irrelevant: Some poor decisions were taken. My bike was stolen a week ago. Passengers are requested to report to the transfer desk. Information structuring: Over the course of five years we collected more than 20,000 datasets. Half of these were collected by volunteer helpers.