Morphology, Part 1

September 24, 2012

For Starters• The “Turing Test”

• Conceived by the English mathematician/philosopher Alan Turing (1912-1954).

• Turing developed much of the theoretical groundwork for modern-day computing machines.

• He also worked on cracking enemy codes during World War II.

• The Turing Test: don’t ask whether or not a machine can “think”; ask whether or not it can fool someone into thinking it’s human in a natural language conversation.

• Check out ELIZA: http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych101/Eliza.htm

The Last Quick Write!

The Last Quick Write!

Another Explanation• Pronoun Types:

Subjective Objective Reflexive

She Her Herself

He Him Himself

etc.

• If the subject and object of a sentence both refer to the same person/thing, the object pronoun must be reflexive.

• Ex: I like myself.

• Compare:

• She sees herself (in the mirror).

• vs. She sees her (in the mirror).

Another Explanation• The main verb in each sentence determines the subject of the verb “like”:

• For “appear”, the subject of “like” is the subject of the main clause.

• Jen appeared to Mary to like herself.

• Jen appeared to Mary to like her.

• For “appeal”, the subject of “like” is the object of the main clause.

• Jen appealed to Mary to like herself.

• Jen appealed to Mary to like her.

Half of the Story• First: a Simpsons-based Quick Write

• Second: remember what we learned last time…

• Human beings can be creative with language because:

• We know the rules for putting sounds and words together to form sentences.

• Patterns (Sentence = Noun + Verb)

• Patterns of Patterns (Recursive sentences)

• These rules = the grammar of the language we know.

• Q: What else do we need to know to be a competent speaker of a language?

The Rest of the Story• We need to know what units can be put together by the rules of grammar.

• Including: the units of a sentence

• color, green, idea, sleep, furious, brown, dog, odor, bark, angry, large, lizard...

• These units = the lexicon of the language we know

• From Ancient Greek: lexikon “dictionary”

• lexis = “word”

• Remember: language is discrete.

Knowledge of Language

Grammar

RULES

1) Sentence = Noun + Verb

etc.

Lexicon

UNITS

1) ragamuffin (N)

2) rotund (Adj)

3) rutabaga (N)

etc.

What’s in the Lexicon?• Generally speaking, the lexicon contains:

• all the words in the language you know

• the building blocks of grammatical sentences

• Note, however:

• not only do lexical items differ from language to language: (tree, Baum, arbre)

• …but one person’s lexicon might be different from another’s

• It also happens to be a bit tricky to define exactly what a “word” is…

Words, words, words• Here’s a working definition--words are the smallest free form elements of language:

• They do not have to occur in a fixed position with respect to their neighbors.

• Example words:

bird cycle talk happy

birds recycle talked happiness

• Example “non-words”:

“-s” “re-” “-ed” “-ness”

• The “non-words” cannot stand on their own--

• They have to be attached to something else.

Morphemes• Words consist of one or more morphemes.

• Morphemes

• = the smallest meaningful unit of speech

• = a string of sound(s) that carries some information about meaning or function.

• An example (non-word) morpheme: [-s] = plural marker

• Note the pattern:

bird birds

dog dogs

cat cats

cow cows ...etc.

Plural Formation• Plural nouns in English are formed by rule:

Singular noun + [-s] Plural noun

• So: plural nouns contain two morphemes:

• the singular noun (e.g., “bird”)

• the plural marker (e.g., “s”)

• The rule for putting them together is a word-formation rule.

• Q: Are “bird” and “birds” two different words?

• Do we need two different entries for them in the lexicon?

Language Model, version 2.0Grammar

RULES

Lexicon

MORPHEMES

[bird]

[-s]Word-formation rules

Singular N+ /-s/ Plural N

Morpheme Types• Free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand on its own

• bird toast

• cycle happy

• Bound morpheme: a morpheme that must attach to another morpheme

• -s -er

• re- -ness

• Another distinction:

• simple words contain only one morpheme

• complex words contain more than one morpheme

Simple and Complex

simple

complex

Language Model, version 3.0Grammar

RULES

Lexicon

MORPHEMES

[-s][bird]

[re-] [cycle]

Bound Free

Word-formation rules

Singular N+ /-s/ Plural N

Roots and Affixes• Bound morphemes are also known as affixes

• Affixes attach to roots in word-formation rules

• Ex. 1: “birds”

• root = [bird] + affix = [-s]

• Ex. 2: “recycle”

• affix = [re-] + root = [cycle]

• Affixes which precede the root are known as prefixes

• Affixes which follow the root are known as suffixes

Infixes• When affixes are inserted into the middle of a root, they are known as infixes.

Bontoc (Phillippines):

fikas “strong” fumikas “to be strong”

kilad “red” kumilad “to be red”

fusul “enemy” fumusul “to be an enemy”

• Can this sort of thing happen in English?

• Abso-freakin’-lutely!

• (but it’s not particularly common)

Circumfixes• In some languages, there are even circumfixes.

• Circumfixes attach both before and after the root.

Chokma (Oklahoma)

chokma “he is good” ikchokmo “he isn’t good”

lakna “it is yellow” iklakno “it isn’t yellow”

palli “it is hot” ikpallo“it isn’t hot”

German

lieb- “love” (root) geliebt “loved”

frag- “ask” (root) gefragt “asked”

Hand in Hand• Note: affixes are always bound morphemes.

• In English, roots tend to be free morphemes.

• However, this is not always the case--

• For instance: blueberry, blackberry…

• but: cranberry, huckleberry, raspberry.

• What do [cran-], [huckle-] and [rasp-] mean?

• Bound roots in English are called cranberry morphemes

• (technical term)

Cranberry Morphemes• Cranberry morphemes are bound root morphemes.

• They have no independent meaning.

• They also have no parts of speech

• Some deceiving examples:

• perceive, receive, deceive

• -ceive?

• infer, refer, defer

• -fer?

• commit, permit, submit

• -mit?

• Also: the liberation of cran?

Conjugation• In many languages verbs are conjugated by adding affixes specifying person and number to a bound root form.

• Italian: parlare “to speak”

Singular Plural

1st Io parlo “I speak” Noi parliamo “We speak”

2nd Tu parli “You speak” Voi parlate “Y’all speak”

3rd Lui parla “He speaks” Loro parlano “They speak”

Lei parla “She speaks”

• Note: the root form /parl-/ never appears on its own, without an ending.

Bases (or Stems)• Once an affix has attached to a root morpheme, it forms a base…

• to which other affixes may attach.

• Example:

• boy (root) + -ish (suffix) = boyish

• Round two:

• boyish (base) + -ness (suffix) = boyishness

• Another example: black (root) + -en = blacken

• Round two: blacken (base) + -ed = blackened

• In some linguistic circles, bases are called stems.

Lexical Categories• Important: we know that word-building takes place in

stages because specific affixes are particular about what kinds of words they can attach to.

• A quick and dirty review of lexical categories (parts of speech):

1. Nouns

• semantically = people, places, things

• dog, cat, bike, person, planet, ball, etc.

2. Verbs

• semantically = actions, sensations, states

• run, kick, scratch, scream, bite, walk, be, have, etc.

Lexical Categories, reviewed3. Adjectives

• semantically = properties or qualities

• happy, sad, angry, funny, clear, fuzzy, ugly, etc.

4. Prepositions

• semantically = spatial relationships (pre + position)

• to, for, of, with, out, in, above, below, etc.

5. Adverbs

• semantically = properties or qualities of verbs and adjectives

• often, seldom, rarely, purely, frequently, etc.

• We’ll talk about these again when we get to syntax…

Quiz Time• Which affixes are being attached in the following

sets of words?

• Which lexical categories do those affixes attach to?

• Which lexical categories are formed by adding the affix?

1. uncertain, unhappy, untrue

2. exactly, profoundly, deeply

3. moralize, vandalize, sermonize

4. deconstruct, decode, derail