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