Morphology: The Study of Word Structure

How words are put together out of smaller pieces that linguists call
morphemes, the minimal units of linguistic form and meaning.
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dog, dog+s, bull+dog

walk, walk+s, walk+ed, walk+ing, moon+walk

red, redd+ish, redd+en, redd+en+s, redd+er

pre+pose, post+pose, im+pose, com+pose, de+pose,

trans+pose, contra+pose, ...

pre+Raphael+ite+s, anti+deluv+ian,
sesqui+ped+al+ian, ...
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pre+pose

pre+pos+ition

pre+pos+ition+al

pre+pos+ition+al+ize

pre+pos+ition+al+iz+ation

pre+pos+ition+al+iz+ation+free

Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism
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pre+pose

[pre+pos]+ition

[[[pre+pos]+ition]+al]

[[[[pre+pos]+ition]+al]+ize]

[[[[[pre+pos]+ition]+al]+iz]+ation]

[[[[[[pre+pos]+ition]+al]+iz]+ation]+free]

[[[Pseudo+[pseudo+[hypo+[para+[thyr+oid]]]]]]
+ism]
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All languages have phonology, syntax and semantics...

[t] vs. [t
h
] vs. [d]

English is SVO; Irish is VSO; Japanese is SOV.

[ku]

pigeon sound, government takeover, ...

blow, punch, neck, ...

cow, ...

bank, library, ...

But..... Do all languages have morphology?

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Mandarin
(Sino-Tibetan - 845,500,000 speakers)
na
4
er
5
you
3
gou
3
there have dog
theres a dog (or dogs) there.
na
4
er
5
you
3
ji
3
zhi
1
gou
3
there have several CLASSIFIER dog
there are dogs there.
These languages are called Analytic (or Isolating).
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Synthetic Languages
Have axes (or other bound elements) that get attached to other
morphemes to build words. There are three kinds:

Agglutinating Languages

Fusional Languages

Polysynthetic Languages
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Agglutinating Languages

The morphemes are put together loosely.

The segmentation of individual morphemes is straightforward,

e.g. Hungarian (Uralic - 12,500,000 speakers):
[ha:z-unk] house-our
[ha:z-Od] house-your
[ha:z-unk-bOn] house-our-in
[ha:z-od-bOn] house-your-in
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More Hungarian

[ta:rS] (companion)

[ta:rS + Os (-ial)] = [ta:rSOS] (social)

[ta:rSOS + Sa:g (-ness)] = [ta:rSOSa:g] (society)

[k oz (place) + ta:rSOSa:g] = [k ozta:rSOSa:g] (republic)

[nep (people) + kozta:rSOSa:g] = [nepkozta:rSOSa:g]

(peoples republic)

[nepkozta:rSOSa:g + utsO (street)] = [nepkozta:rSOSa:gutsO]

(The Street of the Peoples Republic)
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Latin: A Fusional Language
(Indo-European - Classical Language of the Roman Empire)
moneo I am advising
mones you(sg) are advising
monet (s)he is advising
monemus we are advising
monetis you(pl) are advising
monent they are advising
[-o] 1st, sg. pres. tense
[-s] 2nd, sg. pres. tense
[-t] 3rd, sg. pres. tense
[-mus] 1st pl. pres. tense
[-tis] 2nd pl. pres. tense
[-nt] 3rd, pl. pres. tense
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Polysynthetic Languages
An example from Chukchi (Chukotko-Kamchatkan 16,000
speakers)
T@meyN@levtp@Gt@rk@n
t-@-meyN-@-levt-p@Gt-@-rk@n
1.SG.SUBJ-great-head-hurt-PRES.1
I have a erce headache. (Skorik 1961: 102)
T@meyN@levtp@Gt@rk@n has a 5:1 morpheme-to-word ratio with 3
incorporated lexical morphemes (meyN great, levt head, p@Gt
ache).
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Polysynthetic Languages
Two words of Sora (Munda (Austro-Asiatic) - 310,000):
pO- poUN- koUN- t- am
stab belly knife non-past you(sg.)
(Someone) will stab you with a knife in (your) belly.
En- @- a- dar- si- @m
I Not receive cooked-rice hand you(sg.)
I will not receive cooked rice from your hands.
Note the words:
si-i hand; kondi knife
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Do all languages with morphology express the same distinctions?
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No Way

For example, kinship terms can vary dramatically.

See:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/kinterms/index.html
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Japanese Honorics
(Japonic - 121,000,000 speakers)

Takao-san

Takao-kun

Takao-chan

Takao-senpai

Takao-sensei

Takao-sama

Takao-shi
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese honorics.
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Morpheme Diversity
Hindi (Indo-European - 181,700,000) Causatives:
b@nna: to be made; b@na:na: to make (something); b@nva:na:
to make (someone) make (something).
p@kna: to be cooking; p@ka:na: to cook (something); p@kva:na:
to make (someone) cook (something).
Sam
.
skr
.
t (IE - Classical language of ancient India) Desideratives:
piba:ti he drinks pi:pa:sati he wants to drink
ji:vati he lives ji:ji:viSati he wants to live
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Noun classes: Swahili
(Bantu (Niger-Congo) - 800,000 native speakers; over 30,000,000 L2 users)
class semantics prex singular gloss plural gloss
1,2 persons m-/mu-, wa- mtu person watu persons
3,4 trees, m-/mu-, mi- mti tree miti trees
natural forces
5,6 groups, aug /ji-, ma- jicho eye macho eyes
7,8 artifacts, dim ki-, vi- kisu knife visu knives
9,10 animals, /n-, /n- ndoto dream ndoto dreams
loanwords, other
11,12 extension u-, /n- ua fence, yard nyua fences
14 abstraction u- utoto childhood
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Noun class prexes mark singular and plural as well. Verbs contain
agreement axes:

watoto wadogo wameanguka

the small children fell.

kitabu kidogo kimeanguka the small book fell.

vitabu vidogo vimeanguka the small books fell.

watoto wadogo wana kitaka kitabu

the small children want the book.
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What about English Morphology?

English doesnt have nearly as much morphology as many

other languages...

but it still has enough to illustrate the basic concepts of

morphological theory and analysis.
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Two Perspectives:

Morphemes, allomorphs, and their distribution

Morpheme sequences (underlying representations) and their

realization
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Allomorphs: The English Noun Plural Morpheme
CONTEXT ALLOMORPH
baby, bag, hood, eye, hive z
book, cat, caps, proof s
crutch, garage, glass, buzz @z
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Phonological Rules:
The English Noun Plural Morpheme
/bebi+z/ /bUk+z/ /gls+z/
Voicing Assimilation [bUk+s]
@-Epenthesis [gls+@z]
[bebi+z] [bUk+s] [gls+@z]
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Exceptions
SINGULAR PLURAL
man men
woman women
child children
ox oxen
tooth teeth
foot feet
sheep sheep
deer deer
sh sh
Organizing Principle:
Exceptions (apavada) block General Rule (utsarga)
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Other Concepts from Ancient India

Root: The most basic morpheme in a word or family of

related words, consisting of an irreducible, arbitrary
sound-meaning pairing: electricity, electrical, electric, electrify,
electron.

Stem: The main portion of a word, the one that prexes and
suxes are attached to. Associated with the root electr- are
stems like electrify and electron, to which we can add further
endings to get electries and electrons

A root is normally a single morpheme, but a stem might

contain two or more, e.g. noun-noun compounds

Ax: Prex, Sux,...

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Beyond Concatenation

fan-ta-stic

fan-freakin-tastic
*fantas-freakin-tic

Mis-sis-sip-pi

Missi-freakin-ssippi
*Mis-freakin-sissippi
*Mississip-freakin-pi
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Bound Morphemes: cannot occur on their own as full words

(-s in dogs; de- in detoxify; -ness in happiness; cran- in
cranberry)

Free Morphemes: can occur as separate words (dog; walk;

berry; yes)
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Zero Derivation (Conversion): Building a dierent word

(stem) without changing the phonology.

ADJ NOUN

NOUN VERB

More Examples??
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How many words does English have?
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An Innity

missile: ICBM

anti-tank-missile: missile targetting tanks

anti-aircraft-missile: missile targetting aircraft

anti-missile-missile: missile targetting ICBMs

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Morphological Rules

Rule: Anti-X-missile is a missile targetting Xs.

What kind of missile targets anti-missile-missiles?

anti-anti-missile-missile-missile

anti-anti-anti-missile-missile-missile-missile:
missile targetting anti-anti-missile-missile-missiles

Meaning and structure go hand-in-hand.

Other examples?
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Morphological Rules

X = great + Y
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Ambiguity

unusable

prex un-

verb stem use

sux -able

[un + [use + able]] (*unuse)

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Dont store your money in that box, its unlockable.

[un + [lock + able]]

Now that we have the right key, the box is nally unlockable.
[[un + lock] + able]
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Morphological Vowel Mutation

swim swam swum

drink / drank / drunk

begin / began / begun

sit/sat; win/won; come/came; run/ran;

shine/shone; nd/found...

wear / wore / worn (combination)

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A small number of English noun plurals also have internal

changes: foot/feet; mouse/mice; man/men

Nonconcatenative Morphology
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Arabic
FORM MEANING PATTERN
kataba to write CaCaCa
Paktaba to cause to write PaCCaCa
kaatib writing CaaCiC
kitaab a book CiCaaC
kutub boo CuCuC
kitaabah writing profession CiCaaCah
kattaab author CaCCaaC
miktaab writing instrument miCCaaC
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Arabic
FORM MEANING PATTERN
kataba he wrote CaCaCa
katabna we wrote CaCaCna
katabuu they wrote CaCaCuu
yaktubu he writes yaCCuCu
naktubu we write naCCuCu
yaktabuuna they write yaCCaCuuna
sayaktubu he will write sayaCCuCu
sanaktubu we will write sanaCCuCu
sayaktabuuna they will write sayaCCaCuuna
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Lexical vs. Grammatical Morphemes

Content (Lexical) Morphemes: express general referential

or informational content, a meaning that is essentially
independent of the grammatical system of a particular
language.

Functional (Grammatical) Morphemes: other morphemes

are heavily tied to a grammatical function, expressing
syntactic relationships between units in a sentence, or
obligatorily marked categories such as number or tense.
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Open-class vs. Closed-Class Morphemes
Content morphemes are also often called open-class
morphemes, because they belong to categories that are open
to the addition of arbitrary new items. People are always
making up or borrowing new morphemes in these categories:
smurf, nuke, byte, grok, chalupa, baathist.
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By contrast, the following are typically functional

(closed-class) morphemes:

prepositions: to, by, from, with

articles: the, a

pronouns: she, his, my

conjunctions: and, but, although

axes: re-, -ness, -ly

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Such morphemes either serve to tie elements together

grammatically (hit by a truck, Pat and Chris), or

to express morphological features such as deniteness that

may be required in a particular language (She found a/the
table vs. *She found table.

Function morphemes are also called closed-class categories

essentially closed to invention or borrowing.
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