Transcript Chapter 2 Words & Paradigms

Chapter 2
Words & Paradigms
Morphology
Lane 333
What is a word?
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It’s used in more than one way
There is a major ambiguity in the term
The same vocabulary (lexeme) is not always
represented by the same form (map, maps)
Lexeme is written in capital letters: MAP
Grammatical word-form: italics: map, maps
A lexeme falls into classes: noun, verb,
preposition etc
Exercises
1.
How many formally different grammatical
word-froms does a typical English noun like
ROOM or GILRL have?
2.
How many different grammatical word-forms
does a typical English verb like PLAY or
SEEM have?
A paradigm
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A paradigm: when
various grammatical
forms of any given
lexeme are grouped
together and organized
Singular number
Plural number
Non-possessive
Girl
Girls
Possessive
Girl’s
Girls’
A paradigm
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Paradigm of PLAY
present simple
present 3rd person singular
infinitive/imperative
past simple
present participle
past/passive participle
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How do you fit BEAT in the paradigm above?
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play
plays
play
played
playing
played
Paradigms
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Paradigms may vary from lexical category to lexical
category & from language to language
e.g: Italian verbs have at least 51 forms
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Regular paradigm: a paradigm that fall into patterns with
clear constructional principles & many lexemes follow
the same pattern
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Irregular Paradigm: the constructional principles are
obscure & a smaller number of lexemes follow it (BE
paradigm)
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Subregular paradigms: a lexeme might have some
different patterns
Morphological Class
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Morphological Class: different paradigms within a
particular lexical category
e.g: we have different noun classes in Italian
Citation-from: the one with no other morphemes
attached ‘
e.g, TO STRECH
Being identical in sound, spelling or both doesn’t
indicate that two words represent the same lexeme
E.g, SMELL (noun)
TO SMELL (verb)