1. 311 MORPHOLOGY: Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes and Infixes by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen

2. 312 Michael Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm Smith and Wilhelm have three rules to determine what terms (metalanguage) to teach in a grammar class: 1.The term is so commonly used that teachers, texts, and tests presume that students know it. 2.The term is essential to being able to explain an important issue of style or correctness. 3.The term becomes essential to the work of a class (such as ENG 506). (Smith & Wilhelm 13-14)

3. 313 Parts of Speech: Traditional Definitions A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing. A verb expresses action or state of being. An adjective describes or modifies a noun. An adverb modifies verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

4. 314 A pronoun takes the place of a noun. A preposition shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence. A conjunction joins words or groups of words. An interjection shows excitement or emotion. (Smith & Wilhelm 11)

5. 315 Smith & Wilhelm’s Parts of Speech to Teach Content Classes: Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Content or Grammatical? You Decide Pronouns Grammatical Classes: Prepositions Conjunctions Interjections (Smith & Wilhelm 15)

6. 316 Word Choice Smith & Wilhelm find these Common Confusions in Student Papers Aggravate-annoy Amount-number Can-may Collective-collected Conscience- conscientious-conscious Criterion-*criterions- criteria Definitely-defiantly Disinterested- uninterested Eligible-legible Enumerate-remunerate Etc. (not ect.): et cetera Fewer-less Good-well I-me-myself Illegible-ineligible Imply-infer In-into Incredible-incredulous Lay-lie Media-medium Past-passed Raise-rise Set-sit That-which Use-utilize Woman-women Your-you’re BAD WORD-BREAKING: A lot-a lot Any body-anybody Every day-everyday (Smith & Wilhelm 150-169)

7. 317 Semantic vs. Structural Definitions of Parts of Speech T’was brillig, and the slithy toves Did gire and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogroves, And the mome wraths outgrabe.

8. 318 CONTENT WORDS VS. FUNCTION WORDS You may have been told that there are eight Parts of Speech in English. You may have been told that their names are: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives.

9. 319 What your teachers told you is not a lie, but it is very much an oversimplification. These Part-of-Speech Categories need to be divided into two very different types of Parts of Speech. The Content Words carry real-world meaning. The Function words carry only grammatical meaning.

10. 3110 The Content Words are Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs. The Function Words are Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives. The Pronouns belong to neither of these categories. Pronouns can stand in the place of Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositional Phrases, or even Sentences.

11. 3111 Since Content Words carry real-world meaning: Content words can be stressed. Content words cannot be easily figured out if they are deleted. Content words can be inflected. Content words more readily enter into compounds. Content words are an open set; new ones enter our language daily.

12. 3112 Pronouns meet some of these criteria but not others. They carry some real- world meaning, but not as much as the words they replace. They can sometimes be stressed. They can be figured out if deleted. They can be inflected. They don’t enter into compounding. They are a closed set.

13. 3113 CATEGORIES VS. FUNCTIONS “Noun” is a category. “Subject” is a function. A Noun or a Pronoun can function as a Subject, a Subject Complement, a Direct Object, an Indirect Object, an Object Complement or an Object of a Preposition. Pronouns functioning as S or SC are in subject form; those functioning as DO, IO, OC, or OP are in object form.

14. 3114 A Verb functions as a Predicate. An Adjective or an Adverb functions as a Modifier. An Adjective answers “which,” “what kind of,” or “how many” and modifies a Noun. An Adverb answers “how,” “when,” “where” or “how much” and modifies a Verb, an Adjective, an Adverb or a Sentence.

15. 3115 Function Words have only grammatical meaning. Prepositions relate Nouns to other Nouns (fourth of July). Conjunctions relate Sentences to other Sentences. Articles mark Nouns. Auxiliaries mark Verbs. Expletives mark the place of the Subject so that the Subject can be postponed.

16. 3116 OLD AND NEW INFORMATION The Subject of a sentence gives Old Information. It provides the “subject” for the people to talk about. The Predicate of a sentence gives New Information. It provides new and insightful information about the Subject.

17. 3117 Subject and Predicate are important not only to Linguists, but also to Rhetoricians, Psychologists, Logicians, etc., but different names are used in different fields: Subject vs. Predicate Topic vs. Comment Old Information vs. New Information Theme vs. Rheme Presupposition vs. Assertion

18. 3118 Contrast the following Bound vs. Free Morphemes Stem vs. Affix Prefix vs. Suffix vs. Infix Derivational vs. Inflectional Content vs. Functional Morphemes

19. 3119 Analyze the following word antidisestablishmentarianism –STEM: stable or establish –Suffixes: -ment, -arian, -ism –Prefixes: dis-, anti-

20. 3120 NOUNS PLURAL: cats, dogs, horses, deer, data, mice, alumni POSSESSIVE: dog’s, its PLURAL POSSESSIVE: dogs’ NOTE: English used to have four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative

21. 3121 VERBS THIRD PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT INDICATIVE: goes PAST TENSE: buzzed, walked, heated, sang PAST PARTICIPLE: driven, hit, liked PRESENT PARTICIPLE: driving NOTE: English used to have two more forms: driveth, drivest

22. 3122 SUPPLETIVE VERBS A suppletive form is one which comes from two different paradigms. These must be high-frequency words, or they will become regularized through common use. “Go-went” is a suppletive verb, as is “is-be.” “Go” comes from the “go” paradigm, while “went” comes from the “wend” paradigm.

23. 3123 ADJECTIVES COMPARATIVE: higher, more beautiful, more friendly SUPERLATIVE: highest, most beautiful, most friendly NOTE: Old English Adjectives used to have four cases (Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc), agreed with nouns, and came after nouns

24. 3124 ADVERBS COMPARATIVE: faster, more imaginatively SUPERLATIVE: fastest, most imaginatively (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 98-101) Adverbs usually end in –ly, however there are –FLAT ADVERBS: fast, first –AND –LY ADJECTIVES: friendly

25. 3125 PERSONAL PRONOUNS Sing Nom Obj PosSubstantive Reflexive 1 st I me my mine myself 2 nd you you your yours yourself 3 rd he him his his himself she her her hers herself it it its its itself Plural 1 st we us our ours ourselves 2 nd you you your yours yourselves 3 rd they them their theirs themselves

26. 3126 RELATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS RELATIVE:INTERROGATIVE whenwhen wherewhere whywhy howhow whichwhich whatwhat that

27. 3127 DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS singular: plural: close: thisthese far:thatthose

28. 3128 Contrast these sentences When did she arrive? (Int Pro) I know when she arrived. (Rel Pro) This is the pen that you borrowed. (Rel Pro) Please give me that pen. (Dem Pro) I know that you wanted to do well. (SC)

29. 3129 INDEFINITE PRONOUNS (GO WITH A SINGULAR VERB) THING:PLACE:TIME:BODY ANY anythinganywhereeveranybody NO nothingnowherenevernobody SOME-somethingsomewheresometimessomebody EVERY-everythingeverywherealwayseverybody

30. 3130 ARCHAIC FORMS: SHAKESPEARE & THE BIBLE NOMINATIVE:POSSESSIVE:ACCUSATIVE: SINGULARS: thou (Nom), thy, thine (Gen), thee (Acc) PLURALS: you, ye DUALS: wit, uncer, unc, git, incer, inc (NOTE: In Old English, but not in Middle English nor in Modern English

31. 31 !MORPHOLOGICAL HUMOR

32. 3132 UGLIFICATION “I never heard of ‘Uglification,’ Alice ventured to say. ‘What is it?’ The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. “never heard of uglifying!” it exclaimed. “You know what to beautify is, I suppose?’ ‘Yes,’ said Alice doubtfully: ‘it means—to make— anything-prettier.’ ‘Well, then,’ the Gryphon went on, ‘if you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.’” (Carroll 128-129)

33. 3133 The term “uglification” is part of a longer quote in which Alice is being told about the education system in Wonderland. Students in Wonderland study “Reeling, Writhing, Uglification and Derision.” They call their teacher “Tortoise” because he “taught us.” Lessons get shorter each day. That’s why they’re called “lessens.” In Wonderland, “Latin and Greek” becomes “Laughing and Grief,” and “drawing, sketching and painting in oils” becomes “Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.” (Carroll 128-129)

34. 3134 CLICK AND CLACK THE TAPPET BROTHERS On National Public Radio’s “Cartalk,” Click and Clack are playing with Morphology in their list of credits: –Copyeditor: Adeline Moore –Accounts Payable: Ineeda Czech –Pollution Control: Maury Missions –Purchasing: Lois Bidder –Statistician: Marge Innovera –Russian Chauffeur: Picov Andropov –Legal Firm: Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 72)

35. 3135 !BILINGUAL MORPHOLOGICAL WORD PLAY “Un petit d’un petit S’étonne aux Halles” This makes no sense in French, but it makes perfect sense in English: “Humpty Dumpty Sat on a wall” (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 72)

36. 3136 !!WATERGATE The Watergate Hotel is where the break-in of the National Democratic headquarters occurred. Today’s dictionaries give more room to the metonymous meaning of Watergate than to the literal meaning of “a gate controlling the flow of water.” “Gate” has now become a suffix meaning “scandal” as in Irangate, Contragate, Iraqgate, Pearlygate, Rubbergate, Murphygate, Gennifergate, Nannygate, Monicagate, ad infinitum. (Nilsen & Nilsen 180)

37. 3137 !!!NEW DEFINITIONS Artery: The study of paintingArtery: The study of painting Bacteria: The back door of a cafeteriaBacteria: The back door of a cafeteria Barium: What doctors do when patients die.Barium: What doctors do when patients die. Nilsen & Nilsen 177)

38. 3138 References: Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York, NY: Random House, 1960. Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa. Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th Edition. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. “Morphology: The Words of Language.” An Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, 71-114. Gleason, H. A. Jr. “The Identification of Morphemes” (Clark, 144- 153). Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000. Smith, Michael W., and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Getting It Right: Fresh Approaches to Teaching Grammar, Usage and Correctness. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2007.