Introduction to Linguistics I Review 2 Instructor: Kiki Nikiforidou Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I1

Morphology Morphology studies  How words are formed, the internal composition of words and how it relates to their meaning The basic unit in morphology is the  morpheme, which is  the minimal unit of meaning, the minimal linguistic sign  an arbitrary combination of meaning and form that cannot be divided any further Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I2

Morphology One basic reason for taking the morpheme (and not the word) as our basic unit is that There are many words which consist of different parts and not all of these parts are words: feverish fever + -ish Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I3

Morphology Free morphemes are  words, they can stand on their own system, on, she, play, strong etc. => simple forms Bound morphemes are  attached to another form -ed, -ness, -ity, -ful, dis-, re- etc. Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I4

Morphology One common way of creating words is  by joining one free morpheme with one or more bound morphemes: play –ful –ness -> playfulness  in this case the free morpheme is  the root of the word play –ful –ness un- happy –ness => Root = free, lexical (content) morphemes that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I5

Morphology But there are also bound roots (especially in words borrowed from Latin or Greek) remit permit commit pathology geology Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I6

Morphology Free morphemes are divided into  lexical and  functional Lexical free morphemes are  Content words with specific meaning, ordinary verbs, nouns, adjectives: play, big, small, ball, machine, love, hate Functional free morphemes are  Words with a grammatical/structural role in the sentence and generally abstract meanings, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, prepositions he, she, a, the, and, but, on, in Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I7

Morphology Functional morphemes are  a closed class (do not accept new members easily)  represent a cognitively real category for speakers Identify all the lexical (root) and all the functional morphemes in this sentence: They showed consideration for kids coming from troubled families, mindful of provocation. Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I8

Morphology Bound morphemes are divided into  derivational and  inflectional Derivational bound morphemes  create a different word and can therefore be class-changing develop + –ment, local + -ity, dis- + charge Inflectional bound morphemes  express a grammatical type (function) of the same word, are never class-changing play + -ed, sing + -s, ball + -s, small + -er Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I9

Morphology Only 8 inflectional morphemes in English BUT: watch out for homonyms, that is different morphemes with the same form: small -er vs. sing -er (am) record -ing vs. (the) record -ing Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I10

Morphology Identify all the derivational and all the inflectional morphemes in the following sentences: If you are working 50 hours a week you do not have time to read 10 papers a day nor attempt to declassify governmental archives. Memory is not dependable when it comes to earlier times. Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I11

Morphology The allomorphs of a morpheme are  each of the variant forms of a morpheme depending on the (phonological) context “a” (indefinite article) a [ ə ] an [ ə n] before consonant before vowel Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I12

Morphology Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I13 The morphological rules of the language are regular productive patterns of word formation: Verb + -able  Adjective ("fit to ‘Verb’ or to be ‘Verbed’"), e.g. accept  acceptable un- + Adjective  Adjective (antonym), e.g. happy  unhappy Adjective + -en  Verb ("to make something "adjective""), e.g. fat  fatten

Word formation processes jeep, aspirin, volt, and sandwich are all examples of  Coinage. Coinage is  The creation of new words on the basis of existing product names, trade labels or proper names legal, commerce, manage, spaghetti, pathogenic, ad hoc are all examples of  Borrowing. Borrowing is  adopting words from another language  Loan translation is direct (word for word, morpheme for morpheme) translation of an expression in another language, φωτοαντίγραφο < photocopy Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I14

Word formation processes verbalization, deportation, unpredictable are all examples of  Derivation. Derivation is  adding derivational affixes to a stem to create (new) words telethon, mochaccino, simulcast, infomercial are all examples of  Blending. Blending is  joining the first part of a word to the last part of another (typically) Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I15

Word formation processes ice-cream, ice-cream cone, dishwasher safe, hard drive, tablecloth, mouse trap are all examples of  Compounding. Compounding is  joining at least two words to create a different word  The different word has a single, possibly unpredictable, meaning and one main stress DVD, ATM, ufo, NYU, UCL are all examples of  Acronyms. Acronyms are the initial letters of a group of words which themselves become words Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I16

Word formation processes (to) bottle, (to) floor, (to) vacation, (to) up, (to) carpool, (to) dirty, (a) takeover, (a) guess are all examples of  Conversion. Conversion is  creating different words by simply changing the function of existing words (=zero derivation) Ron, Ed, Pam, plane, condo, chem, exam, prof, sci are all examples of  Clipping/abbreviation. Clipping is reducing polysyllabic words to shorter forms that become different words Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I17

Word formation processes (to) emote, (to) liaise, pea, (to) sculpt, (to) backform are all examples of  Backformation. Backformation is the creation of a new word through a (typically incorrect) analysis of an existing word Which are the processes involved in the following words? (to) snowball, withdrawal, footballer, (to) shortlist, contrabassist Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I18

Syntax The descriptive vs. prescriptive approach distinction has to do with whether we view linguistic rules  as instructions for the “proper” use of language (= prescriptive approach)  or, as general descriptions of how speakers actually use language at all levels (phonology, morphology, syntax) (=descriptive approach ) Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I19

Syntax The descriptive vs. prescriptive distinction is more important in syntax because  most of the prescriptive rules of the past were syntactic rules: the rule of the ‘split infinitive’ the rule of ‘preposition stranding’ Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I20

Syntax NP  Art (Adj) N NP  PluralN NP  ProperN VP  V NP NP VP  V (Adv) S  NP VP are some of the basic  Phrase structure rules of English  Phrase structure rules are dynamic patterns that generate all the well-formed phrases and sentences Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I21

Syntax  Recursion is the property of phrase structure rules to apply more than once in generating a sentence We know that you know that she knows that linguistics is fun. Art  {a, the} PN  {Mary, George,…} V  {help, want,…} are some of the  Lexical rules of English Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I22

Syntax Structural ambiguity is A single phrase or a single sentence with two different interpretations which are due to two different ways of structuring the words ten boys and girls We fried the eggs in the pan She hid the wallet on the shelf Department of English Studies Introduction to Linguistics I23