Morphology and Syntax

Morphology and Syntax Morphology 2 Trương Văn Ánh Trường Đại học Sài Gòn 2 1 Definition A morpheme is a short segment of language that meets three criteria + It is a word or a part of a word that has[.]

Morphology 2

Trương Văn Ánh

Trường Đại học Sài Gòn

1 Definition:

A morpheme is a short segment of language that meets three criteria:

+ It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning

+ It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violation of its meaning or without meaningless remainders

+ It recurs in differing verbal environments with a relatively stable meaning

A morpheme is the smallest unit of language which has

an independent function

Chapter 2

Morpheme

• Word Morpheme Syllable Letter

• A word has at least one morpheme.

• Person > personal > impersonal >

impersonalize > impersonalization >

impersonalizations

• A syllable may be a morpheme Sometimes two syllables may be a morpheme Sometimes more syllables may be a morpheme

• Ex: America + n + s

• A letter is sometimes a morpheme (rarely)

Usually many letters are in one morpheme.

2 Classification:

2.1 Form: Free and Bound morphemes

Regarding to forms, morphemes can be classified as free and bound morphemes.

+ A free morpheme is one that can be uttered alone with meaning.

Free morphemes are monomorphemic words and they can operate freely in the language.

Ex: honest, possess, study, girl, danger

+ A bound morpheme cannot be uttered alone with

meaning It is always annexed to one or more morphemes to form a word

Bound morphemes must combine with other

morphemes

Ex: dishonest = dis (BM) + honest (FM)

2.2 Meaning: Roots (bases) and Affixes

This classification of morphemes put them into two

classes: roots (bases) and affixes

+ Roots (bases): A base morpheme is the part of a word

that has the principal meaning Most of bases in English are free morphemes; but some are bound

A word may contain one base and several affixes

+ Affixes: An affix is a bound morpheme that occurs

before or within or over or after a base Affixes differ from roots (bases) in three ways:

- They do not form words by themselves – they have to

be added to a stem

Ex: er must be attached to a stem “teach”

- Their meaning, in many instances, is not as clear and specific as the meaning of roots, and many of them are almost completely meaningless

Ex: ee in geese replaces the oo in goose.

o in chosen replaces oo in choose.

- Suffixes are bound morphemes that occur after a base Suffixes may pile up to the number of three or four, whereas prefixes are commonly single, except for the negative un- before another prefix

Superfixes are suprasegmental morphemes consisting of stress morphemes.

Ex: objéct (verb), óbjèct (noun)

Circumfixes are bound morphemes that occur both before and after a base.

Ex: In Indonesian:

Root prefix – root – suffix

patut mem - patut – kan (to correct)

Hantu meng – hantu – i (to haunt)

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By function, affixes are of two kinds: derivational and inflectional.

- Derivational affixes are added to stems to form new words

Ex: work (V) + -er  worker (N)

- Inflectional affixes are added to stems to form new grammatical forms.

Ex: work (V) + -ing  working (present

participle) (works, worked)

The following figure summarizes all the types of morphemes.

Morphemes

Roots Affixes

Free Bound Derivational Inflectional

dollar hemi- prefix suffix -s

honor scrib- an ity -ed

nose tele- mis less -ing

3 Inflectional and derivational affixes:

3.1 Inflectional affixes (suffixes):

3.1.1 Inflectional morphemes are bound morphemes which are part of the grammatical system.

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The inflectional affixes are all suffixes as follows:

Stem Inflectional suffix Examples Name

Dog, ox 1 {-s pl.} dogs, oxen N pluralBoy 2 {-s sg ps.} boy’s N sg ps

Boy, men 3 {-s pl ps.} boys’, men’s N pl ps Read 4 {-s 3d.} John reads books Prs 3d sgWork 5 {-ing vb} He is working Prs.P

Work, ride 6 {-d pt} He worked, rode Past

Work, eat 7 {-d pp} He has worked, eaten PPBold, soon 8 {er cp} This is bolder ComparBold, soon 9 {est sp} This is the boldest Superlat

STEM (Thân từ) Happy > Un happy: Prefix + happy

Unhappiness: two stems

Stem 1 impersonalizations

3.1.2 Stems are the words to which these affixes are attached The stems include the base and all the derivational or inflectional affixes

Ex: boys works

boy: stem work: stem

{-s}: inflectional affix {-s}: inflectional affix

3.1.3 Characteristics of inflectional suffixes

- They do not change the part of speech

Ex: book (N) books (N)

want (V) wants (V)

- They come last in a word

Ex: wanted, working, smaller

- They go with all stems of a given part of speech

Ex: He eats, drinks, writes

- They do not pile up Only one ends a word

3.2 Derivational affixes

3.2.1 Derivational morphemes are either prefixes or suffixes that are not inflectional They participate in the formation of new words

3.2.2 Characteristics of derivational suffixes

- The words with which derivational suffixes combine is

an arbitrary matter

Ex: ment for govern, adorn, develop, etc.

- In many cases, but not all, a derivational suffix changes the part of speech of the word to which it is added

Ex: act (N) + -ive  active (Adj)

- Derivational suffixes usually do not close off a word; that is, after a derivational suffix one can sometimes add another derivational suffix and can frequently add an inflectional suffix.

Ex: person + -al  personal + -ity 

personality + -s  personalities

In Vietnamese there is only one kind of homonyms.

Ex: đường (sugar) >< đường (way/road)

In English, there are homonyms:

Ex 1: row (line) >< row (move a boat)

4 Suffixal homophones/homonyms

Homophones are words which sound alike, but are written differently and often have different meanings Homonyms are the words (parts of the words) that have the same sound and spelling, but different meanings

Some suffixes, both inflectional and derivational, have homophonous (homonymous) forms

4.1 The inflectional morpheme {-er} comparative of adjective has two homophones (homonyms):

a) -er: derivational suffix can be attached to verbs to form nouns This suffix conveys the meaning of “that which performs the action of the verb stem” (Ex: worker, teacher)

b) –er: derivational suffix This conveys the meaning of

repetition

Ex: chatter, mutter, glitter

c) –er: Inflectional suffix It is added to an adjective to

make it comparative degree Ex: tall - taller

4.2 The verbal inflectional suffix {-ing} (IS, present

participle) has three homophones (homonyms)

a) The nominal derivational suffix –ing {-ing nm) as in meeting, wedding, reading

b) The adjectival morpheme {-ing aj} as in charming, burning

c) The gerund morpheme {-ing gr} as in Swimming is good for health

4.3 The verbal inflectional {-ed pp} (IS/ past participle) has a homophone/homonym: the adjectival

derivational {-ed aj} (DS/Adjectival)

Ex: She was excited about the film.

She was a devoted mother.

Past simple: work – worked – worked

Past simple Past participle

He worked hard >< He has worked hard.

4.4 The adverbial derivational suffix {-ly av} (DS/Adverbial) has a homophone (homonym): the adjectival derivational suffix {-ly aj} (DS/ Adjectival) and the nominal derivational suffix {-ly n} (DS/ nominal)

Ex: daily (adj), daily (n), daily (adv)

5 Immediate constituents (IC)

Immediate constituents are any of the two meaningful parts forming a larger meaningful unit (Immediate constituents are any of the two morphemes standing next to each other) Four sorts of morphemes – bases, prefixes, infixes, and suffixes are put together to build words When we analyze a word, we usually divide a word into two parts of which it seems

to have been composed.

Ex: un gentle man ly un gentle man ly

IC division:

+ If a word ends in an inflectional/derivational suffix, the first cut is between this suffix and the rest of the word

Ex: works worker

+ One of the ICs should be, if possible, a free morpheme A free morpheme is one that can be uttered alone with meaning

Ex: enlarge ment NOT en largement

in dependent NOT independ ent

+ The meanings of the ICs should be replaced to the

meaning of the word

Ex: teach er NOT tea cher

The ultimate constituents are the morphemes of

which the word is composed

- After /t/ or /d/ the sound is /id/

- After a voiced consonant other than /d/ it is

pronounced as /d/

- After a voiceless consonant other than /t/ it is

pronounced like /t/

These three phonemic forms of {-ed pt.} are not

interchangeable  They are in complementary

6.2 Kinds of allomorphs

Allomorphs are of two kinds: phonologically

conditioned and morphologically conditioned allomorphs

6.2.1 Phonologically conditioned allomorphs

- When the distribution was determined by the preceding sounds, we say that the selection of allomorphs is phonologically conditioned

- When the related forms of a set, like the three forms

of {-ed pt.}, have the same meaning and are in complementary distribution, they are called allomorphs and belong to the same morpheme So, the morpheme {-ed pt.} has three allomorphs /id/, /t/ and /d/ This can be expressed in the formula:

{-d pt.} = /-id/ ~ /-t/ ~ /-d/

Tilde ~ means “in alternation with”

{-s pl} = /-iz/ ~ /-z/ ~ /-s/

6.2.2 Morphologically conditioned allomorphs:

- This distribution was determined by the morphological environment We say that the selection of allomorphs is morphologically conditioned

{-s pl.} has other allomorphs such as /en/ in ox –oxen

of /Ø/ (zero) in sheep –sheep

{-s pl.} = /-iz/ ~ /-z/ ~ /-s/ ∞ /-en/ ∞ /Ø/ ∞ /a/ ∞ /i/, etc The symbol is ∞ (the infinity)

6.2.3 Classification of morphologically conditioned

allomorphs

The zero allomorph

There is no change in the shape of a word though

some difference in meaning is identified

The symbol is {Ø} (NIL)

Ex: The allomorph {Ø} of {-s pl.} in sheep – sheep fish – fish

The allomorph {Ø} of {-ed pt.} in put – put

cut – cut

Types of Morphemes:

1 Accoding to the internal composition:

Morphemes may be composed of:

- Segmental morpheme: re-, un-, -ish, -less

- Supersegmental morphemes: stress

morphemes, intonation morphemes.

2 According to the shapes and sizes of

morphemes:

- Morpheme C (consonant): s

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- Morpheme VC (vowel-consonant): un-

- Morpheme CVC (consonant - consonant): man

vowel-3 According to the structural relationships of morphemes to each other:

- Additive morphemes (roots + affixes)

We form new grammatical forms by adding

something, for example, en or ren which are the

plural markers.

Ex: ox – oxen child – children

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- Replacive morphemes:

To signify some difference in meaning, a sound

is used to replace another sound in a word

For example, the /I/ in drink is replaced by

the /æ/ in drank to signal the simple past This

4 According to the distribution:

- Free morphemes and bound morphemes.

- Roots and affixes

- Segmental morphemes

- Supersegmental morphemes

Ex: The morpheme {book} consists of the

segmental /b/ /u/ /k/, supersegmental /’/

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5 According to the function:

- Lexical morphemes:

prefixes prefixes + root: lex mor.

Affixes roots + der suf.: lex mor

Good luck!