1. by Don L. F. Nilsen And Alleen Pace Nilsen
MORPHOLOGY
by Don L. F. Nilsen
And Alleen Pace Nilsen

2. 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.
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 78-80)

3. 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.
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 78-80)

4. The Content Words are Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs.
The Function Words are Articles, Auxiliary Verbs and Expletives.
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 78-80)
The Pronouns belong to neither of these categories. Pronouns can stand in the place of Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositional Phrases, or even Sentences.

5. 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.
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 78-80)

6. Pronouns meet some of these criteria but not others
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.
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 78-80)

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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

12. Contrast the following
Bound vs. Free Morphemes
Stem vs. Affix
Prefix vs. Suffix vs. Infix
Derivational vs. Inflectional
Content vs. Functional Morphemes
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 80-93)

13. Analyze the following word
Antidisestablishmentarianism
STEM: stable or establish
Suffixes: -ment, -arian, -ism
Prefixes: dis-, anti-

14. NOUNS PLURAL: cats, dogs, horses, deer, data, mice, alumni
POSSESSIVE: dog’s, its
PLURAL POSSESSIVE: dogs’
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 99, )
NOTE: English used to have four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative

15. VERBS THIRD PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT INDICATIVE: goes
PAST TENSE: buzzed, walked, heated, sang
PAST PARTICIPLE: driven, hit, liked
PRESENT PARTICIPLE: driving
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 99M )
NOTE: English used to have two more forms: driveth, drivest

16. 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.
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 98-99)

17. ADJECTIVES COMPARATIVE: higher, more beautiful, more friendly
SUPERLATIVE: highest, most beautiful, most friendly
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 99, 128, 140)
NOTE: Old English Adjectives used to have four cases (Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc), agreed with nouns, and came after nouns

18. ADVERBS COMPARATIVE: faster, more imaginatively
SUPERLATIVE: fastest, most imaginatively
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams )
Adverbs usually end in –ly, however there are
FLAT ADVERBS: fast, first
AND –LY ADJECTIVES: friendly
(Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams [2011] 128)

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

20. RELATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS
RELATIVE: INTERROGATIVE
when when
where where
why why
how how
which which
what what
that

21. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
singular: plural:
close: this these
far: that those

22. 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)

23. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS (GO WITH A SINGULAR VERB)
THING: PLACE: TIME: BODY
ANY anything anywhere ever anybody
NO nothing nowhere never nobody
SOME- something somewhere sometimes somebody
EVERY- everything everywhere always everybody

24. 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: No longer in Modern English

25. MORPHOLOGICAL HUMOR

26. 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.’”
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 87)
(Carroll )

27. 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 )

28. 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 [2007] 72)

29. 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 [2007] 72)

30. NEW DEFINITIONS Artery: The study of painting
Bacteria: The back door of a cafeteria
Barium: What doctors do when patients die.

31. 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.
WATERGATE-GATE:

32. Concluding Statements:

33. 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, 9th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2011,
Gleason, H. A. Jr. “The Identification of Morphemes” (Clark, ).
Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.