BBI3212 Syntax and Morphology Lecture 1 Overview

Overview What is morphology? What is syntax? What is the relation between morphology and syntax? ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

What is morphology? Morphology is the study of the structure and classification of words and the units that make up words. Morphology is the study of how words are constructed out of morphemes. Morphology is the study of the rules governing the internal structure of words. ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

What is a WORD? Let’s take a test. Which of the following are words? cat bang up un ahh.. huh oh owe choo-choo bling-bling blik blak blok bluk ing supercalafrajilisticexpealladocious er cats batman camping hot dog dog hot pow-wow oink-oink wow-wow uncat unseen teachable dogable How do you decide? What criteria did you use in this Lexical Decision Task ? ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Possible Criteria used to identify words Previous knowledge or use : meaning of the word e.g. cat up Past experience: heard it before e.g. pow-wow bling-bling bang Guessing: sounds possible e.g. blak blok Suitability of use depending on the context or the user e.g. choo-choo wow-wow ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Would you choose these as words? un Ing er Why not? Because they can’t stand alone. ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

What about these ones? Are these words? ahh.. huh Oh supercalafrazilisticexpeallodocious ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

How do we identify words? Sound sequences (pronunciation) Letter sequences (spelling) Meaning or Function Possible combination of morphemes (rules and internal structure) Ability to stand alone (the concept of Bound or Free) ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Morphemes and Words Morphemes are the smallest recurrent meaningful units of a language. Why smallest? Because you cannot break down the meaning any further. For example: Cats = cat + s (plural) There are two units of meaning in cats. But the word cat cannot be broken down any further. Why recurrent? Because the meaning is consistent in other occurrences. Cat has the same meaning regardless of the context in which you use it. And the plural marker consistently pluralizes any nouns it is affixed to. ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Classification of morphemes Based on shape: free or bound Based on class: lexical categories (open class) functional or grammatical categories - (closed class) Based on function derivational morphemes inflectional morphemes ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Types of morphemes (based on shape) Free morphemes e.g. cat bang woman Bound morphemes (affixes which may be prefixes or suffixes) e.g prefixes un- unhappy, unable dis- dismantle, disable suffixes -ness happiness, sadness -ity humanity, ability -s cats, dogs -ing driving, testing ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Types of free morphemes (based on class) Open class morphemes: lexical morphemes You can always add members in this class Lexical categories within this class includes: nouns: blog twitter facebook verbs : google blogging twit adverbs slowly adjectives “smart” ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Types of free morphemes (based on class) Closed class morphemes: Functional or grammatical categories The membership is determined by the language. You cannot easily add items into this class. E.g. pronouns: Singular Plural first person pronouns I we second person pronouns you you third person pronouns he, she, it they But it can happen. Even in such cases, it’s not an addition, it’s just a substitution. Example: the use of ‘You’ in Malay instead of kamu ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Other functional or grammatical categories Auxiliaries – is, may, have, could Intensifiers/qualifiers – very, quite, pretty, more, too, rather, ever so, maybe, often, hardly, perhaps, quite Prepositions – above, behind, in, for, of, under Conjunctions – and, or, so, as, but ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Types of bound morphemes (based on function) Derivational morphemes Bound morphemes that are used in the derivation process (a word formation process) where new words are generated in the language Change the meaning or lexical category (parts of speech) of the word Inflectional morphemes bound morphemes that do not change the essential meaning or lexical category of the word. It changes the grammatical function. ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Examples of derivational morphemes in English Un unhappy dis- disable ness happiness, sadness -ity humanity, ability ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

ENGLISH INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES Plural -s/-en the books, the oxen 3rd person sg. non-past -s John reads well. Progressive -ing He is working. Past tense -ed He worked. Past participle -en/-ed He has eaten/studied. Comparative -er the smaller one Superlative -est the smallest one Possessive ‘s (a clitic) Johan’s book cmy/july/2009

Internal structure of words How do we know words have internal structure? It helps addresses ambiguity that should arise in meaning or interpretation of multimorphemic words. It helps explain regularity in word derivations if rules govern the formation of words and these rules determine possible word structure in a language ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Let’s study a simple example: helpfulness This word consists of three morphemes: help + ful + ness There are two possible structures A) (help+ful) + ness – characteristics of being helpful B) help + (ful + ness) - ??? If both structures are possible, there should be two possible meanings/interpretation for this word, but it is difficult to interpret the meaning for B. In fact, we only have the meaning available in A. This suggests that the structure for this word must be as shown in the diagram below. ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

helpfulness N Word Formation Rules: Adj Af Adjective + ness  Noun V Af Help ful ness Word Formation Rules: Adjective + ness  Noun Verb + ful  Adjective ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Word formation rules in English Adjective + ness  Noun e.g. happiness laziness sadness fulness tiredness sleepyness Verb + ful  Adjective e.g. helpful playful ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

*help(fulness) Word Formation Rules: Adj *Verb + Noun  Adj V N Adj Af Note: the asterisk sign is used to indicate ungrammaticality Word Formation Rules: *Verb + Noun  Adj It is difficult to find evidence that this word formation rule exists in English. Adjective + ness  N ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Summary: What is morphology? Morphology is the study of the structure and classification of words and the units that make up words. Morphology is the study of how words are constructed out of morphemes. Morphology is the study of the rules governing the internal structure of words. ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

What is syntax? Syntax is the study of how words, phrases and clauses are put together to form sentences. Phrase structure rules and constituency tests Lexical categories Heads and modifiers Syntax is also the study of subconscious rules and categories that are part of each person’s linguistic competence that contraints or governs how statements, questions, commands and other types of utterances are constructed. Lexical selection: subcategorisation Movement Rules and constraints on movement ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Words and Sentences S Noun Sentences have structure too. Words have structure. Sentences have structure too. S NP VP N V NP George drove Det N the car Noun Verb Af Adjective Af White en er Question : How are the two structures different?

SIMILIARITIES: Evidence for hierarchical structure (structural ambiguity) Ambiguity in words un(lockable)  not possible to lock (unlock)able  possible to unlock Ambiguity in phrases english (history teacher) (english history) teacher big (cats and dogs) (big cats) and dogs

DIFFERENCES Basic unit for words are morphemes Basic unit for sentences are words Larger groupings are phrases and clauses Larger groupings can be analysed as heads and modifiers Word formation rules govern word internal structure Phrase structure rules and movement rules govern sentence structure.

Constituency Tests: Identifying the natural groupings of words Wh-questions and Stand Alone as answers: Constituents can be substituted with a wh-word. Constituents can stand alone. Who drove the car ? George (NP) What did George drive? The car (NP) *car *the What did George do? Drive the car (VP) George drove the car (S)

Another constituency test: Substitution with Pronouns Pronouns can substitute constituents He drove the car He = George (NP) George drove it it = the car (NP) *George drove the it *it = car George drove the car and Bill did too. did = drove the car (VP) *George drove the car and Bill did the car too. *did = drove

More constituency tests Movement Test: Constituents can be moved. It was the car that George drove. *It was the car that George drove the car *It was car that George drove the Coordination Test: Consituents can be coordinated George drove the car and the van. (NP and NP) George drove the car and fixed the van. (VP and VP) *George drove the car and van (NP and N)

Let’s use the constituency tests 1. My uncle went out the door 2. My uncle threw out the door Questions: Where does ‘out’ belong? Does it belong to the same grouping in both cases? Prove it using constituency tests.

Applying the constituency test Wh-question test 1. Where did my uncle go? OK 2. Where did my uncle throw? Bad What does this suggest? 1. My uncle went (out the door) good 2. My uncle threw (out the door) bad

Applying the constituency test Stand Alone test 1. Where did my uncle go? Out the door 2. What did my uncle throw out? *Out the door the door = ok What does this suggest? 1. My uncle went (out the door) good 2. My uncle threw out (the door) out and the door cannot form a natural group in sentence 2.

Applying the constituency test Stand Alone test 1. My uncle went out where ? The door 2. My uncle threw out what? The door What does this suggest? 1. My uncle went out (the door) good 2. My uncle threw out (the door) good

Applying the constituency test Coordination test 1. My uncle went out the door and into the garden. 2. *My uncle threw out the door and into the garden. Movement test 1. It was out the door that my uncle went. 2. *It was out the door that my uncle threw. 3. It was the door that my uncle threw out.

What are the structures of these sentences? Draw the tree structures My uncle went out the door. My uncle went out the door went out the door out the door

Adding syntactic categories to the tree My uncle went out the door. = S My uncle = NP went out the door = VP went out the door = PP out the door = NP

Adding syntactic categories to the tree NP VP Det N V PP my uncle P NP went out Det N the door

Adding syntactic categories to the tree for sentence 2 NP VP Det N V Part NP my uncle went out Det N the door

Structure of Words Word Formation Rules Adjective Adjective er Un Adjective happy Adj + er  Adj un + ADJ  Adj

What are the rules for combining words? Phrase Structure Rules S = Sentence NP = noun phrase VP = verb phrase V = verb N = noun Det = determiner S NP VP N V NP George drove Det N the car S  NP VP VP  V NP NP  Det N ( )

More Phrase Structure Rules NP VP Det N V PP P NP my uncle went out Det N the door VP  V PP PP  P PP

Economy in Phrase Structure Rules S  NP VP VP  V NP NP  (Det) N VP  V PP PP  P NP VP  V (NP) (PP) He sang. He sang a song at the club. *He sang at the club a song With just a few rules, we can generate many sentences. Our language system is very economical.

What is the relation between morphology and syntax? READ chapter 5 of the text book ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Homework 1 (20 %) Part 1 (10 marks) Write a two page essay on the following Why study morphology and syntax? How can you apply this knowledge to the real world? Be sure to provide specific examples of ideas from morphology or syntax in your essay. Part 2 (15 marks) Answer questions provided in the handout on identifying lexical categories Part 3 (15%) Draw tree diagrams and write out the word formation rules involved for the following words (See next slide for the list of words). ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Part 3 ownership untouchable reappearance unremarkable recolonizations ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Guide to mid term exam Chapter 1-5 of textbook Handout chapter on morphology (email me for the softcopy) Types of questions Multiple choice questions Structured questions Tree drawing for word internal structure HINT: do exercises at the end of each chapter ntyap@upm.edu.my 11/8/2018

Sample structured question Which of the following is correct (in English)? How did you know? Oldest Bestest Cleverest Spoonest Soonest cmy/fbmk/july 2009

Sample structured question Identify the word categories (syntactic categories) of the words in RED. What clues did you use to help you determine the categories of these novel words. T’was brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe All mimsy were the borogoves And the mome raths outgrabe (Lewis Carrol, “Through the Looking Glass”) cmy/fbmk/july 2009