ING507 Linguistics The Nature of Language

1. ING507 LinguisticsThe Nature of Language Asst. Prof. Dr. Emrah Görgülü Lecture 7: Morphology

2. Morphology Bambification • Thementalconversion of fleshandbloodlivingcreaturesintocartooncharacterspossessingbourgeoisJudeo-Christianattitudesandmorals. (Coupland, 1991) • What is a wordanyway? • Is it easyto define theconceptword? Is thewordeasilyidentifiable?

3. Morphology (cont’d) What is Morphology? • Morph (form) + ology (science of): the science of word forms • Morphology isthe study of the internal structure of wordsand the rules by which words are formed. • Morphology is a field of linguistics that is concernedwiththe forms and formation of words in a language.

4. Morphology (cont’d) • In many languages, what appear to be single forms actually turn out to contain alarge number of “word-like” elements. • nitakupenda (Swahili, spokenthroughout East Africa) ‘I willloveyou.’ • Isthe Swahili form a singleword? If it is a “word”,then it seems to have anumber of elements whichareseparate “words” in English. • ni-ta-ku-penda I-will-you-love • This Swahili “word” is rather different from what we think of as anEnglish “word”. A betterway of looking at linguisticforms in differentlanguageswould be to use thenotion of“elements”, not words!

5. Morphemes • What wedescribedas “elements” in theform of a linguistic message are technically known as morphemes. What is a morpheme? • A morphemeis a minimal unit of meaning orgrammatical function. • Thepolicereopenedtheinvestigation. • How manymorphemesdoesthewordreopenedhave? • It has threemorphemes. Oneunit of meaning is open, theotherone is re- (meaning “again”) and a minimal unit of grammatical function is -ed(indicating past tense). • How manymorphemesdoesthewordtouristshave?

6. Morphemes (cont’d) • There is oneminimal unit of meaning tour, another minimal unit of meaning -ist(marking “personwho does something”), and a minimal unit of grammatical function -s (indicatingplural). FreeandBoundMorphemes • Morphemes that can stand by themselves assinglewordsarecalledfreemorphemes. • tour, open, stay, cat, mouse, if, I… (they can standalone) • Whataresomeexamples of free morphemesin English? • Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs • table, money, go, swim, old, smart, fast, often, yesterday

7. Morphemes (cont’d) • Bound Morphemes cannot stand alone. They are typicallyattached to another form. Affixes are bound morphemes. • re- , un-, -ist , -ed , -s… (theycan’tstandbythemselves) • When free morphemes are used with bound morphemes, the basicwordform involved is technically known as the stem. • un-dress-ed • undress ed prefix (bound)stem (free) suffix (bound) • care-less-ness • carelessed stem (free) suffix (bound) suffix ( bound )

8. LexicalandFunctionalMorphemes Free morphemes fall into two categories: • Lexical morphemes are nouns,adjectives and verbs which carry the content of message we convey.They are called open class of words, since we can add new lexicalmorphemes to the language. • sad,follow, tiger, break, long, look, man lexical morphemes • Functional morphemes are the functional words in the language suchas conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns. They are calledclosed class of words, since we almost never add new functionalmorphemestothelanguage. • and, in, the, but, on, near, above  functional morphemes

9. DerivetionalandInflectionalMorphemes Bound Morphemes can also be divided into two types: • Derivational morphemes are used toderive new words in the languageand are often used to make words of a different grammatical categoryfromthestem. • good(adjective) good + ness (noun) • care (noun)  care + less(adjective) • create (verb)  creat + ive (adjective) • quiet (adjctive)  quiet + ly(adverb) • happy (adjective)  un + happy (adjective) • do (verb)  re + do (verb)

10. DerivetionalandInflectionalMorphemes (cont’d) • Inflectional morphemes are not used to produce new words in English, but rather to indicate aspects of the grammaticalfunction of a word. • Plural, possessive, tense,comparative/superlative markers are Inf. M. • -s thirdpersonsingularpresentShewait-s at home. • -ed past tense Shewait-ed at home. • -ingprogresiveShe is eat-ingthedonut. • -en pastparticipleShe has eat-enthedonut. • -s pluralSheatethedonut-s. • -’s possessiveSarah’shair is short. • -er comparativeSarah has short-erhairthanSue. • -estsuperlativeSarah has theshort-esthair.

11. DerivetionalandInflectionalMorphemes (cont’d) • Q1: Do inflectional morphemes changes the grammatical category of a word? A1: • Q2: Do derivational morphemes change the grammatical category of aword? A2: • Q3:Aretheboundmorphemes -er in thewordsteacherandyoungeridentical? • teach + er  / young + er 

12. MorphologicalDescription • Whenever there is a derivational suffix and inflectional suffix attachedto the same word, they always appear in the orderbelow. • teach + er + s  stem + derivational + inflectional • Boston + ian + s • Can youfindthefreemorphemes (i.e. lexicalandfunctional) andboundmorphemes (derivationalandinflectional) in thesentencebelow? • The girl’s wildness shocked the teachers.

13. MorphologicalDescription (cont’d) • The (functional), girl (lexical), ‘s (inflectional), wild (lexical), ness (derivational), shock (lexical), -ed(inflectional), the (functional),teach (lexical), -er(derivational),-s (inflectional). • A usefulway to remember all these different types ofmorphemes:

14. Problems in MorphologicalDescription Unidentifiableorinseperableelements: • The inflectional morpheme -s is added to cat and we get theplural cats. What is the inflectional morpheme in thewordssuch as: • a sheep sheep • a man  men, a woman women • go went • Legal  Is it he same morpheme as in national? • Solution : A full description of English morphology will have to takeintoaccount both historical influences and the effect of borrowedelements. • Legal  borrowed from the Latin form of legalis (of the law) • Law  borrowed into old English from old Norse

15. MorphemesandAllomorphs • Justlikephonemes (e.g. /p/) haveallophones (e.g. [pʰ] and [p]), morphemeshavevariantscalledallomorphs. • Past Tense in English / past tense morpheme / /? • Verbsthatend in a voicedsound – /d/: agree-d, drag-ged, play-ed • Verbsthatend in a voicelesssound - /t/: work-ed, miss-ed, tape-d • Verbsthatend in an alveolar stop - /əd/: load-ed, estimate-ed, visit-ed • What is thepluralformationrule in English?

16. MorphemesandAllomorphs (cont’d) • Plural Form (inflection): pluralmorpheme /z/ allomorphs {z, s, əz} • Nounsthatend in a voicedsound /z/: flag-s, game-s, car-s • Nounsthatend in a voicelesssound  /s/: map-s, bank-s, shirt-s • Nounsthatend in a sibilantsound  /əz/: glass-es, watch-es • The English sibilants are /s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/. Sibilantsaresoundsthatareproducedbybringingthe tip, or blade, of the tongue near the roof of the mouth and air is pushed past the tongue to make a hissing sound.