090918 unit 3 morphology

Ling 201, Sec. C. Fall 2009 Unit 3

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Unit 3. Morphology: The study of the structure and formation

of words1

1 Some questions on word-formation

There are a lot of questions on the structure and formation of words. For example,

redoable has only one meaning („possible to redo‟), but undoable is ambiguous:

„possible to undo‟

undoable

„not possible to do‟

How can we explain this difference?

Is an expression like crystal clear a word or a phrase?

2 Morphemes: Building blocks of words

1. Morphemes

Words are composed from parts, as in trees = tree + s, and redoable = re + do + able.

Let us start our study of word-formation by looking at these building blocks.

Linguists use the term, morpheme, for these parts of words. More precisely speaking,

morpheme := The smallest meaning-bearing unit.

Exercise Divide the following words into morphemes.

(1) (a) untrue (b) owner (c) incompletely

(d) government (e) development (f) rewrite

(g) fewest

2. Free vs. bound morphemes

2-1. Free morpheme

free morpheme := A morpheme that can stand on its own.

Examples the, cat, people

1 Much of the content of this unit was adapted from course materials by Chris Potts, Florian Schwarz, Keir Moulton

and John Kingston.


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We tend to consider free morphemes (or free complex morphemes) words.

Free morphemes can, but need not, have other morphemes attached to them, as in talk-ing,

where talk is a free morpheme.

2-2. Bound morpheme

bound morpheme := A morpheme that can‟t stand on its own.

Examples im-, -ize, -ly

A bound morpheme needs to be a subpart of a larger word.

Exercise Classify the morphemes we have found in the last exercise into free

morphemes and bound ones.

(1) (a) untrue (b) owner (c) incompletely

(d) government (e) development (f) rewrite

(g) fewest

Languages differ in how they divide up the vocabulary into bound and free morphemes.

Here‟s a look at definite articles of two related languages, English and Danish.

(2) (a) the house (English)

(b) huset „the house‟ (Danish)

3. Root: Main morpheme of a word

There are some other useful terms to discuss word-formation.

root := the main morpheme of a word, morphologically and probably semantically, and

one that cannot be decomposed into smaller parts.

In English, roots tend to be free morphemes, but there are some bound ones. For

example,

(1) -fer as in infer and transfer (-fer means „bring‟)

(2) ling- as in linguist and lingual

In Hebrew and Arabic, roots are bound morphemes, realizable on their own only when

combined with other morphemes in a complex way that is characteristic of Semitic

languages. For instance, the Egyptian Arabic root ktb is realized as katab („he wrote‟) and

kaatib („writer‟), among many other forms.


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4. How Morphemes Combine: Base and affix

4-1. Base

base := the part of a word to which another morpheme attaches.

Note that a base is defined relative to an attaching morpheme.

Example. Let‟s take a complex word, mindfulness, for example. It is formed as

follows:

Root of the word: mind

The first step of formation: mind-ful (-ful is attached)

The second step of formation: mind-ful-ness (-ness is attached)

What is the base with respect to the morpheme -ful? __________

What is the base with respect to the morpheme -ness? __________

As can be seen in this example, the base might be just a root, but it could be a

composite of morphemes which contains a root.

4-2. Affix

affix := a morpheme that attaches to others (i.e., to bases).

Types of affixes:

(a) prefix: An affix that goes on the front.

We‟ll signal that a morpheme is a prefix by ending it with a hyphen.

(b) suffix: An affix that goes on the end.

We‟ll signal that a morpheme is a suffix by starting it with a hyphen.

(c) infix: An affix that goes in the middle.

We‟ll signal that a morpheme is an infix by wrapping it with hyphens. A few

examples:

(a) un-friggin-believable

(b) abso-bloody-lutely

(b) takbuh „run‟ tumakbuh „ran‟ (Tagalog; O‟Grady et al. 2001)

(d) circumfix: A morpheme that wraps around its base.

Ex. The Tzotzil definite article, as in: li vaj e „the tortilla‟

Note -ful in mind-ful-ness is NOT an infix! By definition, an infix goes in the middle. If

-ful is an infix, it must have gone in the middle of *mindness, but English does not have

such a word.


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Infixes are very rare in English, so you can normally suppose that every English affix

you encounter is a prefix or a suffix. (The only exceptions are affixes like -friggin- or

-bloody-.)

5. Allomorphs

When a morpheme is realized by more than one sound pattern, we call the variations

allomorphs.

Example: English plural morpheme English plural morpheme –s is realized (pronounced) in three ways:

dogs (dog[z]) cats (cat[s]) judges (judg[ɪz])

-s [z] … an allomorph of the plural morpheme

the plural morpheme -s -s [s] … an allomorph of the plural morpheme

-s [ɪz] … an allomorph of the plural morpheme

To describe this situation, we can say

- English has one plural morpheme, -s.

- English has three allomorphs of the plural morpheme.

Another example: English indefinite article

English has two allomorphs of an indefinite article:

a dog an apple


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3 Exercise: A morphological analysis of Michoacan [mitʃɔɑˈkɑn] Aztec

The following list is taken from Michoacan Aztec.

1. nokali „my house‟ 9. mopelomes „your dogs‟

2. nokalimes „my houses‟ 10. ipelo „his dog‟

3. mokali „your house‟ 11. pelo „dog‟

4. ikali „his house‟ 12. nokwahmili „my cornfield‟

5. kali „house‟ 13. mokwahmili „your cornfield‟

6. kalimes „houses‟ 14. ikwahmili „his cornfield‟

7. nopelo „my dog‟ 15. ikwahmilimes „his cornfields‟

8. mopelo „your dog‟ 16. kwahmili „cornfield‟

Fill in the following chart.

Morpheme English Gloss Root/Affix Free/Bound Prefix/Suffix(1)

pelo „dog‟ root free

„house‟

„cornfield‟

„his‟

„your‟

„my‟

Plural

(1)

If the morpheme is a root, leave the cell under „Prefix/Suffix‟ blank.

4 Syntactic Categories (Parts of Speech)

We can say happiness, but not *happiable. Similarly, sadness is grammatical but

*sad(d)able is not. What is a good generalization about this?

Answer: The suffix -ness can combine with ______ , while the suffix –able can‟t

combine with _______ .

It may seem that the answer is clear, but is it really so? What are adjectives? What are

verbs?

1. Major categories of English

N(oun): dog, book, jelly, sincerity, chaos, . . .

P(reposition): in, on, among, away, atop, under, until, . . .

V(erb): run, play, contemplate, parse, . . .

A(djective): happy, tired, orange, crucial, scared, . . .

Det(erminer): the, every, all, a, most, many, few, . . .


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Adv(erb): happily, tiredly, crucially, often, sometimes, . . .

Aux(iliary verb): can, be (is/am/are/were…), may, will, …

2. The big questions

(i) What distinguishes each of these categories from the others?

(ii) How do these categories combine with each other to form phrases? (→ Unit 4 Syntax)

3. Exploring the big question (i)

You‟ve probably heard definitions for parts of speech like this: “A noun is a person, place,

thing, or idea” or “A verb is an action word.” They looks innocent, but they‟re slippery

definitions – we generally agree that a word like appetite is a noun, but it‟s not really a

person, place, thing, or idea; similarly, seem is a verb, but it‟s not really an action word.

So instead of these meaning-based definitions of parts of speech, linguists use structural

definitions – that is, definitions based on the structure of a word, and/or its position in a

sentence structure.

Linguists don’t use definitions like “a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea”

because of their unreliability.

Below are a number of tests that purport to distinguish each of the above categories from

the others. When using the tests, it is vital to ask:

Does this test uniquely identify the word class in question from all others?

If it does not uniquely identify the word class in question, then which classes does

it distinguish among?

Do all the words in this word class pass the test, or do only some of them pass the

test?

4. Nouns

May follow a determiner, or a determiner and an adjective

Can inflect for number (singular/plural)

Meaningful count/mass distinction

Very open class of lexical items: new nouns appear all the time, and it is possible

to coin new ones whenever we want

5. Verbs

Can inflect for tense

Can inflect for aspect (e.g., the progressive form running, formed with the suffix -

ing)

May follow to (e.g., to play)

Can immediately follow a modal verb (can, could, shall, should, may, might, and

perhaps others)

6. Adjectives

Can be modified by adverbs


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Can be modified by very

Can modify nouns

Can be inflected for the comparative (-er) and the superlative (-est)

Can appear immediately following seem, appear, and become

7. Prepositions

Can be modified by right

Seem to form a closed class (that is, new prepositions emerge relatively rarely,

and it is almost impossible to coin new ones)

Can appear next to the verb journey and head (journey to the store, journey into

work, *journey the store, . . . )

8. Determiners

Can immediately precede phrases such as other poem or other poems

Form a closed class

9. Adverbs

Can modify adjectives

End in -ly

10. Auxiliary verb

Appears before a verb (no more than three auxiliaries may appear before a single

verb)

5 Affixes and categories

1. Selectional property of affixes

Note that affixes can attach only to a restricted set of bases. For example,

(a) read-able, do-able, *happi-able, *dark-able, *dog-able, *beauty-able, …

-able can combine only with ______ .

(b) How about –ness? (i) Let‟s list some words which contains –ness:

Can you make a generalization in the following form?

-ness can combine only with _______ .

2. Category-changing ability of affixes

Next, let‟s check the categories of the root and the resulting word in the following

examples.


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(a) dog + -s dogs

category: ___ ____

(b) play + -ed played

category: ___ _____

(c) people + -’s people’s

category: _____ ______

(d) crystal + -ize crystallize

category: _____ ________

(e) bake + -er baker

category: ___ ____

(f) penny + -less penniless

category: ____ _______

We discover that there are two types of affixes. (Can you classify the affixes (a) ~ (f) into

two types?)

3. Two types of affixes

derivational affix := an affix that produces a meaning change when added to a base.

Derivational affixes often (but not always) produce a syntactic category change as well.

Examples

-er (own-er), -ful (beauti-ful), un- (un-do), etc.

inflectional affix := a purely grammatical affix, which bears little meaning.

Inflectional affixes cannot result in a category change.

Examples -s (tree-s), -est (small-est), etc.


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English inflectional affixes

English has only 8 inflectional affixes. Below is the list of them.

Affix Example Attaches Forming

to a … a …

Plural -s dogs N N

Possessive (genitive) –‟s Bill‟s hat N N

3rd person singular nonpast -s She sings lovely. V V

Progressive -ing She is singing lovely. V V

Past tense –ed He cooked dinner. V V

Past participle –en/-ed He has cooked a meal. V V

Comparative –er cheaper A A

Superlative –est cheapest A A


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Some English derivational affixes

Below is a list of some derivational affixes in English. The table tells you what the affix

means, what it attaches to (what part of speech) and what part of speech it forms once

attached.

Affix Meaning Examples Attaches Forming

to a … a …

ex- former … ex-president, ex-con N N

dis- not … dishonest, disloyal, dissatisfied A A

fore- … before foresee, foreshorten, foreshadow V V

in- not … incompetent, incomplete, intolerable A A

mid- in the middle of … midseason, midweek, midair N N

mis- … in a wrong manner mistake, misunderstand, misspell V V

re- … again rework, rethink, reevaluate, redo V V

un- not … unhappy, untrue, unsure, unconscious A A

un- do the opposite of … untie, unwrap, uncover, undo, unfold V V

-able able to be … ed lovable, fixable, breakable, washable V A

-age the result of … ing breakage, bondage, dosage V N

-(i)al pertaining to … national, musical, presidential N A

-ate make … activate A V

-ation act of … ing relaxation, meditation, realization V N

-dom state of being … wisdom, freedom, boredom A N

-en make … gladden, widen, soften, roughen, redden A V

-er one who … s baker, teacher, owner, wanderer V N

-ful full of … graceful, joyful, playful, hopeful N A

-hood state of being a … sisterhood, childhood, neighborhood N N

-ic pertaining to … organic, atmospheric N A

-ify make (into a) … classify, objectify, solidify N/A V

-ion act or result of … ing protection, compensation, reflection V N

-ish like a … boyish, childish, foolish, sheepish N A

-ity the quality of being … sanity, activity, passivity, masculinity A N

-ive tending to … assertive, comprehensive, reflective V A

-ize make … visualize, unionize, crystallize N/A V

-less without … penniless, priceless, hopeless N A

-ly like a … friendly, womanly, manly, cowardly N A

-ly in a … manner slowly, happily, hurriedly, foolishly A Adv

-ment act or result of … ing adjournment, government, movement V N

-ness quality of being … happiness, firmness, kindness A N

-ous characterized by … famous, poisonous, rancorous N A

-ship state of being (a) … championship, kinship, governorship N N

-y … like mealy, pulpy, mousy, icy, fruity, fiery N A


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4. Shorthand notation for describing rules

In the above tables, the two rightmost columns describe how the morpheme in question

interacts with syntactic category. Linguists have a shorthand notation for describing these

changes:

-able : V A

(This means “-able affixes to a V and produces an A”.)

Here are a few more examples from English:

(a) -ness : A N (b) re- : V V (c) -less: N A

Exercise Using this notation, write affixation rules for the following affixes.

(a) -ment: (b) -ity: (c) ex-:

5. Inflectional affixes in other languages

As we saw above, English is not a highly inflected language. The range and degree of

inflection is language specific. Whereas there are languages with little inflectional

morphology, there are languages with rich inflectional morphology.

Japanese, for example, has inflectional affixes which indicate Case:

Affix Example Attaches Forming

to a … a …

Nominative -ga mizu-ga „water (Subj)‟ N N

Accusative -o mizu-o „water (Obj)‟ N N

Dative -ni Ken-ni „to Ken‟ N N

…

Another difference is found in verbal inflection. English does not distinguish whether the

subject is I, you, we, or you (plural):

(a) He/she/it walk-s

(b) I/you/we/you(pl.)/they walk

On the other hand, in Latin (as its descendants such as Spanish), each kind of subject

selects a different inflectional affix for the verb:

(c) (ego) am-ō „I love ~‟

(d) (tu) am-ās „You love ~‟

(e) (Is/ea/id) am-at „He/she/it loves ~‟


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(f) (nos) am-āmus „We love ~‟

(g) (vos) am-ātis „You(pl.) love ~‟

(h) (ii(ei)/eae/ea) am-ant „They love ~‟

6 A puzzle

The following puzzle is from the Linguistic Olympics, a competition for high school

students in which they try to figure out what‟s going on in a body of linguistic data. (The

puzzles are copyrighted by the Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon.) The

sentences are from the Orkhono-Yeniseyan language. Let‟s assume we know nothing

about beyond sentences (a) – (h). Our goal is to solve part of the puzzle of how the

language works.

(a) Oghuling baliqigh alti. „Your son conquered the city.‟

(b) Baz oghuligh yangilti. „The vassal betrayed the son.‟

(c) Siz baliqimizin buzdingiz. „You all destroyed our city.‟

(d) Qaghanimiz oghulingin yangilti. „Our king betrayed your son.‟

(e) Oghulim barqingin buzdi. „My son destroyed your house.‟

(f) Siz qaghanigh yangiltingiz. „You all betrayed the king.‟

(g) Biz baliqigh altimiz. „We conquered the city.‟

(h) Bazim qaghanimizin yangilti. „My vassal betrayed our king.‟

Our goals for the syntactic analysis:

1. For each sentence, where is the subject?

2. For each sentence, where is the object?

3. For each sentence, where is the verb?

Our goals for the morphological analysis:

1. How does one express „the‟?

2. How does one express „your‟?

3. How does one express „my‟?

4. How does one express „our‟?

5. Where does -in appear?


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7 Internal structure of a word

1. Tree diagrams

Up to this point, we have indicated morpheme boundaries simply by putting a hyphen

between the morphemes.

Example undoable → un-do-able

This notation is convenient, but it has a weakness: it cannot represent how the

morphemes are combined.

Example undoable can be formed in two ways:

(i) un- + do un-do

↓

un-do + -able un-do-able

The meaning: „possible to undo‟

(ii) do + -able do-able

↓

un- + do-able un-do-able

The meaning: „not doable (i.e., not possible to do)‟

The simple notation, un-do-able, can‟t tell us whether –able attached to un-do or un-

attached to do-able. To represent the order of combination, linguists usually use tree

notation. Trees are a very useful tool in linguistic analysis, as they allow us to visually

represent the structural and hierachical relations between parts of expressions.

Ex. A simplified tree for undo

un-do

un- + do un-do can be represented as

un- do

Ex2. A simplified tree for undoable

un-do-able

un- + do un-do, and

un-do + -able un-do-able can be represented as un-do -able

un- do


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The trees on the last page are simplified for ease of illustration. Usually, linguistic trees

are decorated with category labels of each morpheme and category labels of composites

of morphemes. Because affixes do not belong to any category, they are labeled “Af”.

Additionally, the products themselves (undo and undoable in the previous trees) are

normally omitted because they are obvious.

Ex. A fully labeled tree for undo un- is an Af, do is a V, and the composite un-do is also a V. So it is represented as

V

Af V

| |

un do

This tree can be read as follows:

“un-, an Af, and do, a V, are combined into a V (undo).”

Exercise: Draw a fully labeled tree diagram for the following bimorphic words.

1. fastest 2. untie 3. payment 4. ageless

2. Disambiguation and category-selection

So far, it is plain to draw trees. Things get much more interesting once we begin

considering more complex words that involve 3 or more morphemes.

First, let‟s draw trees for undoable. It is the simplest case.

Exercise: Draw all the fully labeled tree diagrams for undoable.


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Next, let‟s consider a complex word, unchildish. The first step of drawing trees for it

would be as follows.

Tree (a) (halfway): First, un- and child are combined.

Af N Af

| | |

unchild -ish

Tree (b) (halfway): First, child and –ish are combined.

Af N Af

| | |

unchild -ish

However, (as you probably have already noticed,) un- and child can‟t be combined: You

know unconsciously that unchild is not grammatical. So Tree (a) should be discarded.

There is only one tree for unchildish:

Tree (b), completed: First, child and –ish are combined. Then un- is attached.

A

Af A

|

un- N Af

| |

child -ish

Finally, let‟s consider a complex word, unhappiness. Are the following two trees okay?

Tree (a): un- and happy are combined first. Then, -ness is attached.

N

A Af

|

Af A -ness

| |

un- happy


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Tree (b): happy and –ness are combined first. Then, un- is attached.

N

Af N

|

un- A Af

| |

happy -ness

In this case, both un-happy and happi-ness are grammatical, so the first step of word-

formation is legitimate for each tree. However, Tree (b) is not legitimate! Why? It is

because un- cannot attach to a N. (Ex. *un-child. Or see the above table of affixes.) So,

actually, the second step of word-formation in Tree (b) is impossible. Therefore, Tree (a)

is the only legitimate structure for unhappiness.

Note In Tree (a), the attachment of -ness to un-happy is legitimate because -ness selects

(i.e., combines with) an A.

In Sum ● Complex words that involve 3 or more morphemes may have two trees or only one

tree.

● What we need to do to find possible trees is very simple: In each step of word-

formation (i.e., in each combination, ) we only need to check whether the

combination is possible or not.

Exercise: Check that the two trees for un-do-able are both legitimate.

Exercise: Draw fully labeled tree diagrams for the following words

1. unhappily 2. rehospitalize


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Exercise (cont.): 3. carelessness 4. ungracefully

Now can you answer to the question at the beginning of this Unit? I.e., can you explain

why undoable is ambiguous whereas redoable is not ambiguous?

Your answer:

3. Order of affixation and derivational/inflectional distinction

Attachment of derivational affixes cannot occur after attachment of an inflectional affix

occurs.

Evidence

Let‟s take a derivational affix –ion and an inflectional affix –s for illustration.

(a) construct + -ion construct-ion, and construct-ion + -s construct-ion-s

(b) construct + -s construct-s, but construct-s + -ion *construct-s-ion

Using this, we can often construct an argument that an English prefix is derivational.

Example: A word like redoable is evidence that re- is derivational, not inflectional!

We can claim this by using proof by contradiction.

If re- was inflectional, the attachment of re- must have occurred after do and -able

were combined. In other words, re- must have attached to do-able. It is, however,

impossible! That is because do-able is an adjective while re- selects a V (see the

table).

Therefore, the underlined assumption must be wrong. That is, re- can‟t be

inflectional.

Exercise: Find out a word or words which can be used to argue that the prefix mis- is not

an inflectional affix.


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4. Some terms on the tree notation

Tree diagrams are excellent for representing not only the internal structure of words but

also the constituent structure of sentences. We will use tree diagrams extensively

throughout this course. The following are some characteristic properties and definitions

of some important terms on the tree notation.

Immediate dominance A node M immediately dominates another node N just in case

M is above N and M is directly connected to N.

Examples (a) M (b) M

|

N P N

Dominance A node M dominates another node N just in case N can be reached from M

by travelling along a path of immediate dominance relations.

Examples (c) M (d) M (e) M (f) M

| |

N P Q N R S

|

N T N

Daughters The daughters of a node M are the nodes that M immediately dominates.

Mothers The mother of a node N is the node that immediately dominates N. A node can

have at most one mother.

Examples (g) M (h) M ← mother

|

A B C ← daughter

Sisters Two nodes are sisters just in case they have the same mother.

Example (i) M

D E …. D is a sister of E, and vice versa.


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8 Compounds

1. Words or phrases?

Is fire truck a word? Or is it a phrase? Our orthography does not reliably distinguish

words from phrases. But we have other techniques.

I. Stress

In adjective–noun compounds, the main stress falls on the adjective; in the string-

identical phrases, the noun generally receives main stress.

(i) wétsuit vs. wet súit

(ii) Whíte House vs. white hóuse

II. Inflection

Only in a very few cases can the first element in a compound be inflected:

(i) He [drop kick]ed the ball.

(ii) *He [dropped kick] the ball.

(i) [fire truck]s

(ii) * (a) [fires truck]

Exceptions: passers-by, courts-martial, itsy-bitsy (maybe), parks commissioner, …

III. Modification

In adjective–noun compounds, the adjective cannot be modified by an adverb.

(i) That‟s an extremely white hóuse.

(ii) *That‟s an extremely Whíte House.

IV. Pronominalization

In adjective–noun compounds, the noun cannot be turned into a pronoun.

(i) Ed saw the white hóuse, and I saw the green one.

(ii) *Ed saw the Whíte House, and I saw the green one.

V. Compositionality

The meaning of a compound can drift from the meaning of its parts, whereas the

corresponding phrases have predictable meanings:

(i) #The white hóuse isn‟t painted white.

(ii) The Whíte House isn‟t painted white.

So we can say that fire truck, drop kick, etc. are words for sure.


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2. Two types of word-formation: affixation and compounding

There is a difference between words like unhappiness and words like fire truck:

In the case of un-happi-ness, un- and -ness are affixes.

In the case of fire truck, there is no affix: fire is a free morpheme, and truck is also

a free morpheme.

We call the former type of word-formation affixation and the latter type of word-

formation compounding. Compounding is a morphological process whereby two or more

words are combined to form a new word.

3. Head of a compound

A compound word obtains its syntactic category from one of the words that make it up.

For example, the compound ice-cold is made up of the noun ice combined with the

adjective cold and it is an adjective as a whole. We call the morpheme which determines

the category of a compound the head (of the compound).

Example: nationwide

A

N A

| |

nation wide

(a) A nationwide program was established.

(b) *A nationwide exists.

Exercise: Draw a full labeled tree diagram for fire-engine red.

In English, as can be expected from the above examples, the rightmost member of a

compound is its head. It is known as the right-hand head rule.

The right-hand head rule The head of a compound is the rightmost member of the compound.

090918 unit 3 morphology

Documents

hand head rule

white huse

rightmost member

whte house

syntactic category

morphological analysis

drop kick

building blocks