Nature of Lang Quiz 6 - Morphology

Suffixes that create verbs

-ate, -en, -ize/-ise, -ify From nouns (Americanize) From adjectives (simplify)

Suffixes that create nouns

-ity, -ness, -al, -ation, -ment, -er, -age From adjectives (coolness, modernity, drinkability) From verbs (worker, consideration)

Suffixes that create adjectives

-less, -ish, -able, -ive, -ly, -ful From nouns (motherly, beautiful), From adjectives (blueish,) From verbs (drinkable, attractive)

derivational prefixes that change grammatical class

/a-/ -stride, -board (verb to adjective), /be-/ -friend, - witch (noun to verb) /en-/ -flame, -danger (noun to verb)

inflectional morphemes verbs

3rd person singular present tense she walks Progressive -ing she is walking Past tense - ed she walked Past participle -ed/en she has walked/ridden

open class

Can add new 'members': blog, truthiness, podcast... Can add affixes to make complex words: rerun, gratefulness .... Grammatical information can be added - adding bound inflectional (grammatical) morphemes - inflections (always at end - suffixes) The 'class' of the word can be changed - adding bound derivational morphemes

inflectional morphemes adjectives

Comparative - er nicer, faster Superlative - est nicest, fastest

The hierarchical structure of complex words

Derivational affixes (prefixes and suffixes) ALWAYS attach BEFORE inflectional affixes there will never be more than ONE inflectional affix in any word there may be several derivational affixes

Functions of bound affixes

Inflectional (grammatical) Derivational (lexical)

Order of affixation

Inflectional affixes always come AFTER any derivational affixes that have been added

Examples of derivational prefixes

Negation Reversal Disparaging Size or degree Orientation Location and distance Time and order Number

What's in a word?

One or more 'morphemes'

inflectional morphemes nouns

Plural - s the many walkers Possessive - s the walker's legs

Bound affixes

Prefix Suffix Infix

Phonological Changes when affixes are added

Stress patterns may change: Infest + ation, re + distribute + ion Phonological form may change: In + perfect..... Imperfect

What is a morpheme?

The smallest 'meaningful' unit in the structure of a language

Morphology

The study of the structure of words and how they are created

morphophonemic changes

There can be different phonological realizations of a morpheme Morphemes take on different phonological forms depending on the environment

Closed class

These words are invariant, fixed elements - they generally do not change form and new forms are NOT added Cannot add new 'members' to this group Cannot add affixes Serve important grammatical functions - making clear the relationship between words in a sentence

Ablaut

a change in the vowel sound to create different tenses and class Fall/fell, take/took, ride/rode, song/sing Sometimes the term partial suppletion is used it is more than just the vowel but not complete suppletion: Buy/bought, seek/sought, teach/taught, leave/left

Inflectional

a grammatical role (always suffixes) Showing how the word functions in the grammatical sentence (adding key types of information: number (to nouns), tense (to verbs), possession (to nouns), comparison (to adjectives)

Derivational

a lexical role (prefix or suffix) Change the part of speech (word class) or the meaning of the word

Free (independent)

a morpheme that can stand alone: two types 1) Open class (lexical) 2) Closed class (functional)

Bound (dependent)

a morpheme that cannot stand alone - must be attached to another morpheme: three types. 1) Inflectional 2) Derivational 3) Bound root (mentioned as bound stem in text)

Allomorph

a variation of a morpheme

Negation

a-, in-, dis-, non-, un-

inflectional morphemes

all are suffixes 8 in English never changes the class of the word or the basic meaning of the word

Orientation

anti-, counter-, contra-

stem

any form to which an additional morpheme is added

derivational prefixes

attach before the root These can change the lexical meaning of the root - redo, miscarry preload, illegitimate, unhealthy Most prefixes do not change the grammatical class of the word (e.g. words stays a verb or an adjective)

Derivational suffixes

attach to the end of the base often change the WORD CLASS create nouns create verbs create adjectives

complex words

created when we add bound morphemes to free lexical morphemes maybe one bound morpheme added, or several may be inflectional only, derivational only, or both devastate ... devastation, devastations, devastating, devastating, devastatingly

Reversal

de-, dis-, un-

Number

demi-, bi-, semi-, multi-, di-, mono-, tri-

Time and order

ex-, neo-, pre-, re-, fore-

Location and distance

fore-, intra-, inter-, trans-

Size or degree

hyper-, sub-, super-, vice-, mini

simple words

lexical (open class) words of one morpheme furniture, destroy, earth, sad, devastate

Disparaging

mal-, pseudo-

Both open (lexical) and closed (functional) can be

short or long One syllable: in, at, I (functional); eye, see, eat (lexical) Many syllables: under, between (functional); elephant (lexical)

root

the base form before any other morphemes are added on

Suffix

the bound morpheme comes after the root/stem. Two types: derivational -ness, -ly, -able .... inflectional -ed, -ing, -s, -er, -est.....

prefix

the bound morpheme comes before the root/stem: English prefixes are always derivational (lexical) morphemes e.g. pre-, re-, in/un-...

Infix

the morpheme comes in the middle of a base form - not common in English Sometimes used in pluralizing blended words Cupful...cupsful, passersby mostly used in slang/informal speech as an intensifier: ('abso .....lutely')

Suppletion

words that are not similar to their root or stem when 'past', 'number' or 'comparative' morphemes are added Past tense to a verb: go/went, Plural to a noun: person / people Comparative/superlative to an adjective: good/ better/best, bad / worse /worst