Transcript Introduction to Linguistics

Introduction to Linguistics
Unit Four
Morphology, Part One
Dr. Judith Yoel
Morphology: Introduction
• morph – to change
• - ology – the scientific study of….
• Morphology –
_____________________________________
• Morphemes – the smallest unit of meaning (It
can be a stem, prefix, suffix, etc.)
• allomorphs – a unit of meaning with the same
meaning, but that has a different form
Example: vision, station
Words can be divided up into parts
Each word has parts and these parts of certain
types.
Example:
leadership
• lead – free morpheme
• -er – bound morpheme, derivational,
• -ship – bound morpheme, derivational
Words can be divided up into parts
(cont.)
Each part is also a part of speech and has
specific functions.
Example:
leadership
• lead – N / V
• -er – agentive ending, changes V→N
• -ship – changes N→ abstract N
Accounting for the parts of words
• Words can be divided up into 'chunks'. These
chunks are not random. They are the building
blocks of the language. They are made up
derivational morphemes and inflectional
morphemes, bound morphemes and free ones.
• The first stage is to identify the parts of the word
and to indicate how these parts are affixed (prefix
or suffix) – thus, the dashes that are attached to
words are obligatory.
• Next, one has to determine the type of
morpheme.
Homework
• There are a limited number of inflectional
morphemes in English.
• Go home and look up and make a list of all the
inflectional morphemes in English.
• You will need this to differentiate between
inflectional and derivational morphemes.
• What is the main difference between
inflectional and derivational morphemes?
Free and Bound Morphemes
Free morphemes – They stand as words on their
own and can not be broken down into smaller
parts
Examples: green, a, the
Bound morphemes – They can not stand as words
on their own. They are attached to free
morphemes. Bound morphemes are lexical, in
that they often make new words.
Examples pre – prehistory, prerequisite, re –
rewind, replay
Derivational Morphemes
• Derivational morphemes - change the meaning
of the word (i.e., invited, uninvited) or the part of
speech (i.e., comic, comical), or both. They often
create new words.
• There is no finite list of all the possible
derivational morphemes in the language. When
looking at words to be broken down, you have to
base this on your knowledge of the English
language.
Inflectional Morphemes
• To be completed for HW
• Complete this list and provide examples for each.
Nouns
1.
2.
Adjectives
1.
2.
Verbs
1.
2.
3.
4.
Useful Terminology
• The following definitions are useful:
• affix- a morpheme that comes at the beginning
(prefix) or the ending (suffix) of a base
morpheme. Some languages have infixes as well
(i.e., Turkish); English does not. An affix usually is
a morpheme that cannot stand alone, as in –ship,
or -ful, etc. (A few exceptions are able, like and
less).
• prefix- an affix that attaches to the stem of a
word – before the stem, as in unavailable;
likewise the un- in unhappy is a prefix.
Useful Terminology (cont.)
• suffix- an affix that attaches to the stem of a
word – after the stem, as in waste and wasted,
where the –[e]d is a stem. Note that the square
brackets indicate that that this letter appears in
the orthography.
• stem- a morpheme that gives a word its
meaning. This is not the same as a root in
Hebrew, although the general idea is similar. The
base morpheme dog gives the word dogs its
meaning.
Morphology: Practice
Make up a chart, with 3 columns: 1) lexical item
(where you divide it into parts), 2) type of
morpheme (free, bound, derivational,
inflectional) and 3) function, including part of
speech. Be specific regarding changes i.e., from…
to …)
Complete the following chart, with the following
words:
exclaimed / itself / human / houseboat / plumber
/ unlikable / priceless / enjoy
Homework
• Go to the George Yule book, The Study of
Language and read the chapter about
Morphology.
• You are responsible for this material.
• The material from this chapter will appear on
the midterm exam.
• (We will cover the section on word formation
within morphology in the second semester).