Transcript Inflectional Paradigms

Chapter II
Inflectional Paradigms
Contents
1. The Noun Paradigm
A. Noun Plurals
B. Noun Possessive
2. The Verb Paradigm
A. Suppletion
B. Aspects in The Verb Phrase
C. Mood in the Verb Phrase
D. The Comparable Paradigm
Paradigms
• A paradigm is a set of related forms
having the same stem but different
affixes.
• Ex.
• Head: ahead, behead, header, headlong
• headship, heady, subhead.
• Paradigms are also formed by the
words to which the inflectional affixes
are attached. These are called
inflectional paradigms
Inflectional Paradigms Are of
Three Types
1. Noun Paradigm
• 4 forms: stem – plural – possessive –
Plural Possessive
• Ex.
• Doctor doctors doctor’s doctors’
2. Verb Paradigm
• It has 5 forms
Stem pres. 3rd person sing. Present part. past tense past part.
Show
shows
showing showed showed/n
Ring
rings
ringing
rang
rung
3. Comparable paradigm
•
•
•
•
It has 3 forms
Stem
comparative
Sweet
sweeter
Lively
livelier
superlative
sweetest
liveliest
• In the paradigms above the meaning
of the stem remains constant.
• the suffixes produce the differences
in meaning among the forms of each
paradigm.
• Membership in one of these
inflectional paradigms is one of the
signals that enable us to group
words into 4 of the major parts of
speech—nouns, verbs, adjectives
and adverbs.
Structure Class
• In addition there is a pronoun
paradigm which differs from the
previous three in that it is not a
stem-and-affix group but a small
and closed set of words of fixed
form. Structure class
The Noun Paradigm
Forms
Stem
Inflectional
suffixes
Models
man
Plural
Possessive
Plural+possessive
{-s pl}
{-s ps}
{-s pl ps}
men
man's
Men's
• This four-form paradigm is maximal, and
not all nouns have all the four forms. Many
nouns do not take the possessive forms
because an of structure often takes the
place of the {-s ps} morpheme.
• Ex.
• The ceiling of the room------ the
room's ceiling
• In the spoken language we cannot
always be sure which s morpheme we
are hearing, because the possessive and
the plural have identical forms--/-s/,/-z/,
and /-әz/ except in the case of irregular
plurals.
• Ex. The doctors seminar
Exceptions
1. Tennis, courage, haste (only the form of
the stem)
2. Clothes, trousers, environs (do not have
singular forms)
3. Economics, linguistics, mathematics (do
not have plural forms)
• 4. oats, pliers, suds (can either be singular
or plural)
Noun Plurals
• The ways of distinguishing singular from
plural nouns.
1.A noun is singular if it means one and
plural if it means more than one.
Note“I like your hair”
Physics
Several salmon
There three useful tests for
number in the noun
• 1. a noun is singular if it can take one of
these substitutes: he/him, she/her, it, this
or that. It is plural if it can take one of
these substitutes: they/them, these or
those.
•
White sand—it
•
Phonetics—it
•
Trousers—them
• The number of a noun may be signaled by a
modifier such as several, many, this, that,
these, those, fifteen or by a pronoun
reference such as his/her/its, their.
• Many fish
• Note—
•
The modifier some can be used with
•
a singular or plural noun
•
Ex. some cake—some cakes
• When a noun functions as subject of a
verb, its number is sometimes shown by
the form of the verb
• Ex.
• Measles is a contagious disease
• The fish swims in the pond
• The goods are on the way
• The fish swim in the pond
• If the verb has a form that does not
change for S or P (past tense except for
was and were) one can usually substitute
a present tense form or the present or
past tense of be, ex.
•
The goods came (come) late.
•
The goods came (are) late.
•
The goods came (were) late.
Collective Nouns
• Collective nouns represent a
collection or unit of individuals such
as tribe, family, team, committee
• Collective nouns, may be either S or P
in meaning when they are S in form.
• Speakers use S forms in connection
with such words when thinking of the
unit as a single whole, but they will
use plural forms when intending the
separate individuals within the unit.
• There are three regular plural
allomorphs
• /-s/, /-z/ and /әz/
• cats—fads—kisses
• In addition to the regular –s plural there
are several small groups of irregular
plurals.
• 1. three nouns still retain the –en plural
• 2. another group has a Ø suffixal plural.
• The words in this group are the names
of edible animals, game animals, fish
and birds. Some have both forms.
• 3. seven common nouns form their
plural by a replacive allomorph.
• Man, woman, goose, tooth, louse,
mouse.
• 4. one set of nouns has as the stem of
the plural an allomorph that is different
from the stem of the singular
• Claves, children, knives, mouths
• Some nouns ending in /-f/ or /-θ/ do not
change. Ex. Chiefs—other have 2 forms
• Ex. Youth, youths
Noun possessive
• It has the same phonologically conditioned
allomorphs as the plural: /-s/, /-z/ and /-әz/,
plus a zero allomorph as in students’.
• The term possessive is not satisfactory
label because a variety of different
semantic relationships can exist between
the possessive noun and one that follows
• As shown below:
Relationship
Example
Possession or belongingness
John’s hat
Characterization or description
A cowboy’s walk
Origin
Raphael’s painting
Measure
An hour’s wait
Subject of act
The judge’s decision
Object of act
Eliot’s critics
• A noun possessive is ambiguous when it
expresses more than one of the above
relationships at the same time.
• Ex. His son’s loss grieved him
• In making a choice between the inflected
possessive (student’s) and the
periphrastic of structure (of the student)
there is no guidelines.
• The tendency is to use the inflected form
with animate nouns and the of structure
with inanimate nouns
• Ex. ??
• Our knowledge of the noun paradigm
helps us single out nouns.
• A word is a noun if it has two or more
forms and not a noun according to this
paradigm if it has only one form.
• Ex. Bravery—together--daughter
The verb paradigm
• Verbs have three, four or five forms.
• Those with four are the most common
Stem pres. 3rd person sing. Present part. past tense past part.
Show
shows
showing showed showed/n
Ring
rings
ringing
rang
rung
• Each of these 5 forms has its own uses:
• 1. the first form is the stem. It occurs after
to, after aux. such as can and will and in
the present tense except for 3rd person
singular
• Ex. ?
• 2. the 3rd person sing. Is the form used
with the pronouns he, she and it or with
sing. Words or word groups for which
these pronouns will substitute.
• Ex. ?
• The morpheme {-s 3d} has the same
allomorphs as the plural and possessive
• 3. the present participle {-ing vb} is not
actually a present tense form. The label is
misleading.
• It combines with 7 of the 8 forms of be to
make verb phrases. Ex. They were writing
• It is also used as a subjectless verbal
when it is not the main verb and does not
have a subject.
• Ex. His passion used to be playing golf
• A few verbs referring to mental activities
are seldom heard in the {-ing vb}
• Ex. * she was not knowing what to say
• But they are common as subjectless
verbals
• Ex. Not knowing what to say, Jane
maintained silence.
• 4. the past tense takes on numerous
forms. The most usual ones end in the
allomorphs /-t/, /-d/ and /-әd/
• 5. the term past participle is also
misleading because it is not used to
convey a past tense notion.
• The most usual form of the past participle
ends in /-t/, /-d/ and /-әd/ Here they are
allomorphs of the {-D pp}. It is used with
have, has and had to form verbal phrases
and with the forms of be to from the
passive.
• Ex. ?
• Most verbs has the first three forms, with
exceptions like does, says which have
replacive allomorphs in the stem.
• Analogical forms
• ex,. *Knowed, *runned
suppletion
•
•
•
•
In the paradigm of the verb go we find:
Go goes going went gone
The form went seems out of place
The entire stem has been replaced by
another stem. This total change within
a paradigm is called suppletion.
• The verb be is unique
• The verb cut has three forms of the
paradigm and could also fit into the
noun paradigm
Aspect in the verb phrase
• Aspect is the expression of meanings
concerned with the continuity or
distribution of events in time. Here are
a few such meanings:
• 1. Beginning of event
• He began..
• 2. end of event
• He stopped..
• 3. Frequency of action
• She sang often
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
4. Repetition of event
Jim pounded on the door
5. Habitual performance of event
They used to …
6. Single occurrence of event in time
I ate my lunch
7. Progression or duration of event in time
I was eating my lunch
8. Completion of event
I have eaten my lunch
• In English aspectual meaning may be
implicit in the meaning of the verb itself
• Ex.
Consider
• Strike (6)
• Beat (7, 4)
• Aspectual meaning may also be
determined by the context. The use of
adverbials that answer the questions
“when” and “how long”
• Ex. He wrote a letter (6)
• She wrote all morning (7)
•
•
•
•
•
English is said to have only two aspects
Progressive and perfective
Progressive or durative
Be+verb+ing
The event is thought of as
progressing, going on, without any
indication of an end.
• Sth going on over a period in which
other events happen,
• Verbs of the progressive aspect are
those whose meaning is capable of
noticeable extension in time, verbs
of activity and process, such as
walk, throw, change.
• Verbs of mental activity such as
know, remember or nonaction verbs
(ex. seem., own) are not used with
this aspect.
• They may be sleeping
• *She is knowing everything
Perfective Aspect
• Have+pp (present perfect)
• It has 2 interpretations
• 1. the event began in the past and has been
completed.
• 2. the event continues up to the present
• An adverbial of duration (answering the Q
“how long?”)is usually used with this aspect.
Ex. She has attended college since last Sep.
• adverbials of definite time (answering the Q
“when?”)are not usually used with this
aspect. Ex. *She has attended college last
year
•
•
•
•
The perfective has other forms:
Past perfect__they had studied
Future perfect__ they will have studied
Each of these bears a sense of
completion
• The perfective aspect combines with the
progressive (compound aspect) as in,
• He has been working
• HOW??
MOOD
IN
PHRASE
THE
VERB
• The attitude of the speaker in relation to
what has been said.
• There are thee moods:
• Indicative
• Imperative
• Subjunctive
1. The indicative (indicating a state of
factuality and reality): "A cat sits on the
stove." Most sentences in English are in
the indicative mood. It simply states a
fact of some sort, or describes what
happens, or gives details about reality.
2. The imperative (indicating a state of
command): "Give me back my money."
One marker of the imperative is that
frequently the subject does not appear
in the sentence, but is only implied:
"(You) Give me back my money."
3. other, rarer mood is the subjunctive mood
(indicating a hypothetical state, a state
contrary to reality, such as a wish, a desire,
or an imaginary situation).
subjunctive verbs show up a. when you state
something that is contrary to fact. b. They
may also express indirect commands,
requests, and wishes or following verbs
such as ask, request or adjectives such as
necessary or essential
Ex.
She suggested that I be the cook.
I wish I were in Italy
the comparable paradigm
This paradigm includes words of these
groups:
1.Nearly all one-syllable adjectives, e.g.
small
2.Some two-syllable adjectives, especially
those ending in –ly or –y such as, lovely
3.A few adverbials of one or two syllables.
E.g. fast
4.One preposition, near as in,
she sat nearest to the door
• Other adjectives and adverbs usually take
more or most
• A few adjectives have suppletive and
irregular forms in the comparative and
superlative, such as good
• Good better best