Transcript word

Chapter 3
Morphology
Aims
To get a general idea of some features of word；
To understand word-formation processes;
To get a general idea of morphology and
morphemes;
To understand morphological description.
Think back how the elementary students or ten-yearold children memorize the following English words?
What about you, a university English major?
sharpeners, legitimate, respectively,
transcription, other-worldly, unsuccessful,
antidisestablishmentariansim
Basic Theories of Morphology
Morphology, as a branch of linguistics,
is the study of the internal structure,
forms and classes of words.
What is Word?
Lexicon-----Vocanbulary----Word
Lexicon in linguistics refers to vocabulary
contrasted with grammar.
Vocabulary is the total number of words that
make up a language.
Three senses of “word”
A physically definable unit : a cluster of
sound segments or letters between two
pauses or blanks, e.g.
– Phonological: [it iz ‵wVndEfEl]
– Orthographic: It is wonderful.
– Three words are recognized.
Three senses of “word”
However, in casual speech or writing, it
often becomes:
– Phonological: [its ‵wVndEfEl]
– Orthographic: It’s wonderful.
– Are they two words or three?
Three senses of “word”
The common factor underlying a set of forms.
walk, walks, walking, walked
Three senses of “word”
A grammatical unit: a comparably abstract
unit to be set up to show how words work in
the grammar of a language
sentence
clause
phrase
word
morpheme
Problem: blackboard
What is Word?
a. Word is the smallest meaningful unit in the
language which can be used independently. (戚雨村，
1999)
b. Word is the unit that unifies the sound, sense and
grammar. It is the basic structural unit of a sentence.
(陆国强，1983)
c. Word is a unit of expression that has universal
intuitive recognition by native speakers, whether it
is expressed in spoken or written form. (胡壮麟)
What is Word?
Every word has a fixed sound form and a certain
meaning. In other words, a word has two aspects: the
external aspect (sound), the internal aspect
(meaning).
A word is a unity of sound and meaning.
A word is a fundamental structure unit of a sentence.
The relation between the meaning of a word and its
sound is arbitrary or conventional.
Identification of Words
Stability
Words are the most stable of all linguistics units,
that is the constituent parts of a complex word have
potential for rearrangement.
Relative uninterruptibility
By uninterruptibility, we mean new elements are not
to be inserted a word even when there are several
parts.
Identification of Words
A minimum free form
This was first suggested by Leonard Bloomfield. He
advocated treating sentence as the maximum free
form and word the minimum free form. Word is the
smallest unit that can constitute, by itself, a complete
utterance. e.g.
—Is Jane coming tonight?
—Possibly.
— Hi.
— Wonderful.
In the grammar course, words can be
classified into A and B.
What’s A?
What’s B?
Classification of Words
Variable and invariable words
Words can be classified according to their variability.
Variable words refer to those having different inflections,
whereas invariable words refer to those having no
inflective forms, e.g.
care
look
before
careful
looks
rarely
careless
looking
always
carefulness
looked
for
carelessness
since
Classification of Words
Grammatical words and lexical words
In terms of meaning expressed by words, they can be
classified into grammatical words and lexical words.
Grammatical words are those express grammatical
meaning, such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles
and pronouns. These words serve to link different
parts together, so they are also known as functional
words.
Classification of Words
Lexical words are those have lexical meanings,
those refer to substance, action and quality, such as
nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. There words
carry the main content of a language, so they are also
known as content words.
Classification of Words
Closed-class words and open-class words
A closed-class word is one whose membership is
fixed or limited.
New members are not regularly added. Conjunctions,
prepositions, articles and pronouns etc., are all
closed items.
Classification of Words
An open-class word is one whose membership is in
principle infinite or unlimited.
With the emergence of new ideas, inventions, new
expressions are continually and constantly being
added to the lexicon. Nouns, verb, adjectives,
adverbs are all open-class items.
Classification of Words
Word Class (PARTS OF SPEECH in
traditional grammar)
PARTICLES:
 the infinitive marker ”to”,
 the negative marker “not”,
 the subordinate unites in phrasal verb, such as “get
by(to continue) ”do up(to fasten) ”...
Classification of Words
AUXILIARIES
AUXILIARIES used to be regarded as verbs
because of their unique properties, nowadays,
linguists tend to define them as separate word
class.
Negation: I can’t come.
Inversion: Is he coming?
Emphasis: He ‘has come
Classification of Words
PRO-FORM
In order to refer collectively to the items in a
sentence which substitute for other items or
constructions, linguists define them as a separate
word class.
Your pen is red. So is hers.(pro-adjective)
He knows English better than he did.(pro-verb)
She hopes her mother will win and I hope so.(proadverb)
Tom is hiding there, behind the door.(pro-locative)
iv. Determiners
The following phrases are incorrect.
Please correct them in pairs.
*their all trouble
*five the all boys
*all this boy
*five all girls
Morpheme
l
Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of
language for grammatical analysis.
l A morpheme is the basic unit in the study of
morphology.
l Every morpheme has meaning, either lexical
or grammatical.
l A single word may consist of one or more
morphemes.
Morpheme
A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning
or grammatical function.
E.g. Tourists: -tour (one minimal unit)
-ist (meaning “person who does
something”)
-s (a third unit of grammatical
function indicating plurality)
Example:
boyish
boy: a young, male human being
-ish: having the quality of
boyish: having the quality of a young, male
human being
n a word over 5 morphemes
Antdisestablishmentarianism
Anti+dis+establish+ment+ari+an+ism
(国家对教会不予承认论, 国教废除论)
n
Morphemes that can stand alone as words are
called Free Morphemes.
Morphemes that must be attached to another
one are called Bound Morphemes.
Now, in the word “boys”
1) which morpheme is free?
2) which one is bound?
Root: the base form of a word that cannot be
further analyzed without total loss of identity,
e.g. friend as in unfriendliness.
Roots may be
– free: those that can stand by themselves, e.g.
black+board; nation+-al; or
– bound: those that cannot stand by
themselves, e.g. -ceive in receive, perceive,
conceive.
Base: a morpheme to which an affix is added, e.g.
– friend
root = base
– friendly
root/base + suffix > base
– unfriendly
prefix + base > base
– unfriendliness prefix + base + suffix > base
Stem: a morpheme or combination of morphemes
to which an inflectional affix may be added, e.g.
friend+-s; write+-ing, possibility+-es.
Inflection: grammatical endings, e.g. plural, tense,
comparative, etc.
Derivation: combination of a base and an affix to
form a new word, e.g. friend+-ly > friendly.
Affix: the type of formative that can be used
only when added to another morpheme.
Normally divided into
– prefix (dis-, un-)
– suffix (-en, -ify).
– Infix (feet)
Bound morphemes can be classified
into two categories:
Derivational morphemes
recite---recitation---recital
Inflectional morphemes
boy’s, toys, walked
Eight inflectional morphemes
–‘s (possessive)
–s (plural)
–s (3rd person present singular)
–ing (present participle)
–ed (past tense)
–ed (past participle)
–en (past participle)
–est and –er (superlative and comparative degree)
Lexical morphemes are called an open class of
words because we can create new lexical
morphemes .
Functional morphemes are called a closed class
of words.
The chart of the different categories
of morphemes
Lexical morphemes (work, house, kind)
Free morphemes
Functional morphemes (and, if, or, but)
Derivational morphemes (-er, -ness, -ly)
Bound morphemes
Inflectional morphemes (-ed, -er, -est)
Morphological rules of word formation
l The ways words are formed are called morphological
rules.
Ex: un + inhabit + able (un + adj = not – adjective)
un + decided (un + adj form derived from a
verb)
l Some morphological rules can be productive but
some are less.
Compounds: stringing words together
n Same category: landlady, blue-black, icy-cold
n Category changed keeping the grammatical
category of the final word: head-strong,
pickpocket
n Compounds have different stress patterns from
the noncompounded word sequence, `redcoat,
`greenhouse; red `coat, green `house
The meaning of a compound is not always the
sum of the meanings of its parts. For example,
redcoat (在美国独立战争中服役的英国士兵),
bigwig (有重大影响的人), highbrow, jack-in-abox (a tropical tree), turncoat (a tractor)
Compounding is then a very common and
frequent process for enlarging the vocabulary of
the English language.
Lexical Change
Lexical change proper（特有词汇变化）
Phonological change
Morpho-syntactical change
Semantic change
Give examples of English words are
borrowed from other languages?
Lexical Change
Invention
With the development of economy and science
and technology, new words spring up like
mushrooms, e.g. clone, e-mail, plasma television,
VCD, DVD, DJ, skyscraper, dry-wash, shampoo,
digital watch, digital television, broad band, modem,
basic language, multimedia resource centers,
computer support services, disk, UFO etc.
Lexical Change
Invention/Coinage
– Mostly brand names:
– Kodak, Coke, nylon, Band-aid, Xerox, Lycra
Lexical Change
Blending（拼缀法）
Blending is a relatively complex form of
compounding, in which two words are blended
by joining the initial part of the first word and
the final part of the second word, or by joining
the initial parts of the two words.
Blending
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
transfer+resistor>transistor
smoke+fog>smog
motorist+hotel>motel
breakfast+lunch>brunch
modulator+demodulator>modem
dance+exercise>dancercise
advertisement+editorial>advertorial
education+entertainment>edutainment
information+commercial>infomercial
Lexical Change
Abbreviation:
also called clipping, a new word
is created by
cutting the final part.
advertisement
ad
bicycle
bike
brassiere
bra
delicatessen
deli
professor
prof
television
telly
cutting the initial part
areoplane
plane
helicopter
copter
caravan
van
omnibus
bus
telephone
phone
cutting both the initial and final parts
influenza
flu
refrigerator
fridge
detective
tec
Lexical Change
Acronym（缩略语）
Acronym is made up from the first letters of the
name of an organization, which has a heavily modified
headword. e.g.
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
VOA: Voice of America
GMT: Greenwich Mean time
IOC: International Olympic Committee
ISBN: International Standard Book Number
UN: the United Nations
OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
Lexical Change
n Back-formation: an abnormal type of word-formation
where a shorter word is derived by deleting an imagined
affix from a longer form already in the language, e.g.
1) from nouns
swindler > swindle burglar> bugle
beggar> beg
editor> edit
author> auth
emotion> emote
donation> donate
aggression> aggress
Lexical Change
2) from adjectives, e.g.
peevish> peeve（气恼）gloomy> gloom
cosy> cose/ coze
lazy> laze
greedy> greed
gruesome> grue（因害怕而发抖）
3) from words ending in –ling, e.g.
sidling> sidle（侧身而行）
darkling> darkle（变阴暗）
groveling> grovel（匍匐）
Lexical Change
Borrowing
Greek:
Latin:
French:
Spanish:
Italian:
German:
Chinese:
Japanese:
flokati, apocynthion, electricity, atom
cancer, tumor, injunction, alibi, i.e., e.g., etc
government, country, mortgage, entail
macho, flotilla, grandee, embargo
autostrada, cica, fresco, sonsta
gemutlich, hamburger, dock, thick-milk
taji, chow mien, wok, kung-fu
Jodo
Lexical Change
Borrowing
Loanwords
The borrowing of LOANWORDS is a process in
which both form and meaning are borrowed with only
a slight adoption to the phonological system of the new
language. (tea from Chinese )
Loanblend
This is a process in which part of the form is native
and part is borrowed, but the meaning is fully
borrowed. (coconut from Spanish, Chinatown from
Chinese)
Lexical Change
Loanshift（转移借词）: a process in which the
meaning is borrowed, but the form is native.
bridge (Italian: ponte: a card game); artificial
satellite (Russian: sputnik)
Loan translation（翻译借词）: a special type of
borrowing, in which each morpheme or word is
translated in the equivalent morpheme or word in
another language. This is also called Calque, which
may be a word, a phrase, or even a short sentence.
free verse (Latin: verse libre); black humour( French:
humour noir); found object (French: objet trouve)
Lexical Change
Analogical creation: the principle of Analogical creation
can account for the coexistence of two forms, regular
and irregular in the conjugation of some English verbs.
Hardware: software, shareware, vaporware, liveware,
dreamware'.
`men's wear, ladies' wear, underwear, sleepwear,
eyewear, legwear, sportswear, skiwear
妻子？
怎么，不是指
男人的配偶吗？
Semantic Change
There are 3 kinds of semantic changes.
Broadening is a process to extend or elevate the
meaning from its original specific sense to a
relatively general one.
Word
used to be
now means
holiday
holy day
a day for rest
bird
young bird
any kind of
bird
task
tax imposed
a piece of work
(1) Broadening
offend
to strike against
bird
young bird
quarantine forty days
companion a person with whom
you share bread
pile
heap of stone
task
tax imposed
to create or excite anger
any kind of bird
a period of time under
enforced isolation
a person who accompanies
you
a quantity of objects
stacked and thrown
together
a piece of work
Semantic Change
Narrowing: The original meaning of a word can be
narrowed or restricted to specific sense.”Meat” in
17th century means “food’, now it refers to “the
edible flesh of mammals.”
Word
used to be
now means
girl
young person of either sex
young woman
deer
beast
a particular kind of animal
knight youth
a medieval gentleman-soldier
(2) Narrowing
camp
open field
a place where a body of men
are temporarily lodged in
tents
young woman
girl
young person of
either sex
liquid
liquid
an alcoholic beverage by
distillation
orator
one who speaks
hound
dog
a person skilled in the art of
public address
a special kind of dog
Semantic Change
Meaning shift
All semantic changes involves meaning shift.Here it
means the departure from its original domain as a result
of its metaphorical usage.
Class shift
By shifting the word class one can change the meaning
of a word from a concrete entity or notion to a process
or attribution.This process of word formation is known
as zero-derivation, or conversion.
engineer N. a person trained in a branch of engineering.
V.
to act as an engineer
Semantic Change
Folk etymology refers to a change in form of a word or
phrase, resulting from an incorrect popular notion of the
origin or meaning of the term or from the influence of
more familiar terms mistakenly taken to be analogous.
A popular but mistaken account of the origin of a word
or phrase .
– history: Old French < Latin < Greek historia,
meaning 'knowledge through inquiry, record, or
narrative'.
– his story > her story
Morphosyntactic change
Morphological change:
– third person singular present tense:
– -(e)th: do(e)th, goeth, hath, findeth >
-(e)s: does, goes, has, finds
– the campus of the university >
the university’s campus
Morphosyntactic change
Syntactic change:
– He saw you not. > He didn’t see you.
– I know not where to hide my head. > I don’t know
where to hide my head.
Fusion/blending:
– equally good + just as good > equally as good
– It’s no use getting there before nine + There’s no
use in getting there before nine > There’s no use
getting there before nine.
Phonological change
Loss of sound:
– loss of the velar fricative /x/ which existed in
O.E.
– loss of sound in fast speech,
e.g. library, laboratory
– and > ’n in connected speech,
e.g. rock-’n-roll
Phonological change
Addition of sound:
– L. studium > O.F. estudie, Sp. estudio, Port.
estudo
– English: rascal > rapscallion
Metathesis: changing the sequence of sound
– O.E. brid > bird, O.E. ox/ax > ask
Assimilation:
– impossible, immovable
– irregular, irresponsible
– illogical, illegal
Orthographic change
Change of spelling:
– Iesus > Jesus
– sate > sat
– Sunne > Sun