Introduction to Linguistics Week 7 02 November 2020

Introduction to Linguistics Week 7 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 1

Morphology Morphemes, Conditioning & Words 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 2

Review l Language is a CODE for thoughts. sound decode meaning speaker encode listener thoughts 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 3

A flea and a fly in a flue Were imprisoned, so what could they do? Said the flea: ‘Let us fly’. Said the fly: ‘Let us flee’. So they flew through a flaw in the flue. 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 4

Word Classes l Content Words → noun, verbs, adjectives, adverbs → “open class” vocabulary l Function Words → pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries, etc → “closed class” vocabulary MY DAUGHTER WENT TO THE CINEMA. 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 5

Word Relation & Morpheme l Words can be related to other words, e. g. happy – unhappy. → fundamental elements: morpheme → rules of combination: Word Formation Rules l Morpheme: the smallest unit that carries information about meaning or function 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 6

MORPHEMES l 1. be identifiable from one word to another l and l 2. contribute in some way to the meaning of the whole word. e. g. attack, stack, tackle and taxi 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 7

MORPHEME l MONOMORPHEMIC Simple words e. g : train single morpheme track l POLYMORPHEMIC Complex words e. g : 02 November 2020 (‘to construct’) builder more than one morpheme build + er intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 8 (Functions as a Noun maker, means ‘one who builds’)

How many morphemes are there in each of the following words? unhappier l happy l happier l unhappy -er l unhappiness un 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 happy 9

cranberry morpheme E. g. l morphemes cran-, huckle- and gorm- in cranberry, huckleberry and gormless l Berry in strawberry, blackberry and blueberry 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 10

Recognition of Morphemes l The dinosaur sniffed arrogantly and plodded forwards. l The dinosaur grunted loudly and edged backwards. 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 11

Bound & Free Morphemes door free morpheme Can be a word by itself doors s bound morpheme Must be attached to another element 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 12

What does –s mean? l There are two doors in the room. l There are no red doors. l I have zero dollars. l It’s negative one degrees outside. l The current is 0. 4 amperes. not one 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 13

Inflectional & Derivational Morphemes clouds l Inflectional cloudy morpheme → provides further information about an existing lexical item e. g : cars jumped l Derivational morpheme → creates an entirely new word 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 14

Derivational Morpheme. . Affixes l morphemes added to free forms to make other free forms l four kinds of affixes: 1. prefixes → unable 2. suffixes → refusal 3. infixes → in-bloody-credible 4. circumfixes → enlighten 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 15

Study the words below adjective verb noun darken singer blacken dancer redden writer whiten computer What word formation rules can we make? 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 16

Zero Morphemes Consider the following words: adjective verb yellow brown clear comb Comb 02 November 2020 The relationship between yellow (adj) - yellow (v) is exactly the same as white – whiten → zero morpheme intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 17

Allomorphs The variant forms of morpheme e. g: a, an Cats, dogs, horses, oxen, sheep, geese l Phonological conditioning → its form is dependent on the adjacent phonemes l Lexical conditioning → its form seems to be a purely accidental one, linked to a particular vocabulary item 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 18

Compounds l l the combination of two free forms In English, the HEAD of a compound is usually the right-hand member The HEAD supplies the category and basic meaning for the whole compounds Compounds can be used with affixation to produce larger words e. g. blackbird, sleepwalker, bookcase, happy hour, etc 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 19

What about the following words: - blackberry - blueberry - strawberry - cranberry - huckleberry 02 November 2020 BOUND ROOTS intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 20

Homophonous Morphemes & Reduplication Homophonous Morphemes l two morphemes having the same pronunciation (form) with different meanings e. g. un-tie-able Reduplication l the copying of a part of a word e. g. the language of the people of Madura in English? 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 21

Other Ways of Forming Words Blends → smoke + fog = smog motor + hotel = motel l Onomatopoeia l bang, buzz Words from names → jumbo, sandwich l Truncation (Clipped words) → gym(nasium), (tele)phone l Acronyms → AIDS 02 November 2020 intro 2 ling/ssn/2007 l 22