English Linguistics 1

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4. Meaningful building blocks: morphology 4.1 Morphological analysis4.2 Typology of morphemes4.3 Word formation

10.11.2010

4.3 Word formation

4.3.1 New meanings in new forms4.3.1.1 Coinage, invention4.3.1.2 Borrowing

4.3.2 Old meanings in new forms4.3.2.1 Clipping4.3.2.2 Acronyming4.3.2.3 Blending

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4.3.3 New meanings in old forms4.3.3.1 Derivation4.3.3.2 Zero derivation4.3.3.3 Backformation4.3.3.4 Compounding

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4. Meaningful building blocks: morphology

• morphology - originally coined by Goethe for 'form and structure of living organisms'

• in linguistics: internal structure of words and the various processes for producing new words

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the basic unit of morphology is not the word, the morpheme (G Morphem)

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singers - one word, - ? morphemes

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Questions: two different words ? singers - singer singer - sing

form ….reference to … …. lexical concepts

grammatical info … ….belong to …paradigm

….

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difficulties of defining 'word'

intuitive feel for the words of the language

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suggestions: • orthographic: what occurs between spaces in

writing• semantic: a unified semantic concept,

conceptual unity, minimum free form• phonological: what occurs between potential

pauses in speaking, one primary stress• morphological/syntactical: a word is

indivisible by other units, may be modified only externally by suffixes or prefixes

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grapefruittravel agencygood-for-nothingson-in-lawmoney-hungrylook overpassion fruitcannotwill not

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ice ageicebreakerbus conductorbus stopofitifcouldto kick the bucketput a sock in it

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discussion:criterion of orthography

~ phonology of, it,

travel agencygood-for-nothingson-in-law

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~ semantics

~ morphology two good-for-nothingstwo sons-in-lawson-in-law's

(behaves as a phrase and a word)

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look over qualities of a phrase

look the information over + ….semantic criterion ….

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4.1 Morphological analysis

How can we identify morphemes?

2 procedures(1) segmentation and (2) classification

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The cats are chasing the dogs. segmenting into concrete entities on the basis of comparing similar utterances

....

morphconcrete realization of a morpheme, not yet classified...

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step (2) classification:cat, dog, chas- internally indivisible lexical units with identifiable and separate meanings= morphemes

notational convention:{cat} {dog} {chas-} { } between curly braces{-ing} signals progressive aspect

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-[s], -[z]: different phonetic forms – two morphemes? .........

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very often: morpheme – one phonological form

possibility of variation: e.g. plural morpheme [s, z, Iz] – phonologically conditioned, dependent on the adjacent sound

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goose – geese, sheep – sheep, ox – oxen

lexically conditionedform seems to be purely accidental, linked to a lexical item

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homonymic morphssame sound structure - different functions[remember 'homonymy' ch. 3.5][-s]

G [-] <-er>

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4.2 Typology of morphemesTry to classify the following morphemes. {run}{skirt} {-ly}{he} {-ist} {but} {-ian}{un-}

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How can you classify them?c. according to:

- meaning/function- form

Which categories come to your mind?

typology

(1) based on meaning / function

lexical morphemesgrammatical morphemes

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lexical morphemes

• content / lexical words - {sing} {cat} ...N, V, Adj., Adv.

• derivational affixes (suffixes, prefixes), for producing new wordse.g. {-er} ...

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{-ize, -ment, -able, -ity ... } common charcteristic?......

{in-} ...

{re-, dis-, ultra- ... }{de-, trans- ... }

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grammatical morphemesalso functional morphemes - express grammatical relationships ('abstract meanings')function words - {if, and, the, to, she ... }....

inflectional morphemes / affixes...

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(2) types according to form• free morpheme - may stand alone as a word

contains lexical and grammatical ms.e.g. dog, albatross, the, whether

• bound morpheme - must be attached to another morpheme

contains lexical and grammatical ms.e.g. un-happy, hunt-er; hunt-s;

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Special cases • root morphemes / bound roots / Wurzelm.:

often foreign borrowings, free in the source language, not free in E.

e.g. convert, revert, subvert, pervertconceive, perceive, receive, deceivecontain, pertain, maintain

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intuitive identification of the roots: ...

but: ...

-

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• unique morphemes / unikale Morphemecranberry – ...

cran-

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because -berry is morpheme - not monomorphematic

cran- = unique m. - exists only in one word[G .... ]

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• suppletive morphemes / Suppletive M.

not possible to show a morphological relationship between two elements of a paradigm, substitution by a formally different unit (different roots)

good – betterbe – is – was ...go – went

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Summary:

• morph - • morpheme - • allomorph -

• homonymic morphs -

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• lexical – grammatical / functional morphemes• free – bound ms.• root m. -• unique m. - • suppletive m. -

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Now try to classify the following morphemes according to the categories discussed. {run}{skirt} {-ly}{he} {-ist} {but} {-ian} {un-}

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4.3 Word formation how do languages cope with new meanings (new ideas, tools, products, events ...) several ways of creating new morphemes and new words

remember – morphemes / words are relationships of form and meaning new words – not usually all new

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three senses in which a morpheme / word may be new

new morpheme / word may have:

1. 2. 3.

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4.3.1 New meanings in new forms

4.3.1.1 Coinage, invention / Wortschöpfungword completely new

Kodak – coined according to phonotactic constraints,

....

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geek - ...snob - ...sometimes boundary between 'invented' and 'unknown origin' unclear rare process

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4.3.1.2 Borrowing / Entlehnungfrom foreign languages – loanwords, G Lehnwort

karaoke -

bistro, bidet, croissant ...

pizza, pasta, minestrone ...

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phonetic adaptations, e.g. ['pi:/ItsK, 'pA:/æstK, mInI'strKuni]

Some more loan words in English

from Latin and Greekappropriate, conspicuous, expensive, obstruction, virus, relaxation, temperature, crisis, disability, exaggerate

from or via Frenchbattery, chocolate, detail, invite, passport, probability, shock, tomato, muscle, entrance

from or via Italiandesign, lottery, rocket, volcano, ballot, trill, fuse, stanza, violin, carnival

from or via Spanish and Portugueseapricot, banana, canoe, cockroach, guitar, hurricane, negro, potato, tank, tobacco

From other languagestry to pair languages and words (given order is incorrect)

bamboo bazaar caravancoffee cruise curry easelflannel guru harem ketchup

HindiDutch Persian Tamil Malay Welsh TurkishPersianMalay Dutch Arabic

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kiosk landscape pariah raccoonrouble sago shekel troll trousers turbanwampum yacht yoghurt

Dutch Malay Turkish Turkish Hebrew Irish GaelicAlgonquianDutchTamil RussianAlgonquianPersianNorwegian 10.11.2010 Session 5 46

see e.g. The COD (Concise Oxford Dictionary) for the origins of the words

history of English = a history of loanwords ( ~ 60%)

nativization – adaptation of the borrowed words, especially in pronunciationtobacco – Sp. tobacoskunk – AmInd. segankwtomato – Sp. tomate – Mex. tomatl

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