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Word Structure
Word Structure
Part 1
Today
I.
Morphemes
II.
Types of Morphemes
I. Morphemes
Remember that in phonology the basic
distinctive units of sound are phonemes
In morphology, the basic unit is the
morpheme
Basic definition: A morpheme is a minimal
unit of sound and meaning
(this can be modified in various ways; see
below)
Some Examples
Many words can be divided into smaller parts,
where the parts also occur in other words:
dogs
walking
blackens
player-hater
dog-s
walk-ing
black-en-s
play-er hat-er
Parts, cont.
The smaller parts occur consistently with
many words:
-s: forms the plural consistently
-ing: forms a noun from a verb
-en: forms a verb meaning become ADJ from an
adjective ADJ
-er: forms an agentive nominal from a verb, a
person or thing who does that activity
Consistent Sound/Meaning
Notice that this is not the only way we can
divide up words into smaller parts; consider
Tank, plank, flank, drank, rank, etc.
kick / kick-ed
leave / lef-t
hit / hit-
The last example shows a case in which the
phonological form of the morpheme past is zero, i.e.
it is not pronounced
Allomorphy, cont.
In the case of phonology, we said that the different
allophones of a phoneme are part of the same phoneme,
but are found in particular contexts
The same is true of the different allomorphs of a
morpheme
Which allomorph of a morpheme is found depends on its
context; in this case, what it is attached to:
Example: consider [pl] for English plural. It normally has the
pronunciation s (i.e. /z/), but
moose / moose-
ox / ox-en
box/*box-en/box-es
So, the special allomorphs depend on the noun
Two types
There are in fact two types of allomorphy. Think
back to phonology
The Plural morpheme in English has different soundforms: dog-s/cat-s/church-es
These are predictable, based on the phonological
context
In the case of Past Tense allomorphy, it is not
predictable from the phonology which affix appears
We can find verbs with the same (or similar)
sound form, but with different allomorphs:
break/broke, not stake/*stoke
If you think about this case for a while, though,
you will notice some patterns; more on this later
Some Definitions
Bound Morphemes: Those that cannot
appear on their own
Free Morphemes: Those that can appear on
their own
In a complex word:
The root or stem is the basic or core morpheme
The things added to this are the affixes
Example: in dark-en the root or stem is dark,
while the affix in this case a suffix is -en
Further points
In some cases, works will use root and stem
in slightly different ways
Affixes are divided into prefixes and suffixes
depending on whether they occur before or
after the thing they attach to. Infixes-- middle
of a word (e.g. fan-f*ing-tastic)
For the most part, prefixes and suffixes are
always bound, except for isolated instances
Cross-Classification
The bound/free and content/function
distinctions are not the same. Some
examples:
Content
Function
Bound
cran-
-ed
Free
dog
the
Some examples
Stem changing:
Present
Past
Participle
sing
sang
sung
begin
began
begun
sit
sat
sat
come
came
come
Another pattern
While in many cases the stem change does
not co-occur with an affix, in some cases it
does:
Examples:
break
broke
brok-en
tell
tol-d
tol-d
freeze
froze
froz-en
Word Structure
Possibilities:
Structure 1
Structure 2
un use able
un use able
Break/break-able; kick/kick-able
There is no verb un-use
This is an argument that Structure 1 is correct:
Another example
Consider another word (from the first class):
unlockable. Focus on un Note that in addition to applying to adjectives
(clear/unclear) to give a contrary meaning, unapplies to some verbs to give a kind of undoing or
reversing meaning:
do, undo
zip, unzip
tie, untie
Note now that unlockable has two meanings
Two meanings:
1)
2)
1) 2)
un lock
able
un lock able
Unlockable, cont.
The second structure is one in which able
applies to the verb unlock
This verb is itself created from un- and lock
The meaning goes with this: capable of being
unlocked
In structure 1, there is no verb unlock
So the meaning is not capable of being
locked
Introduction to Compounding
A compound is a complex word that is formed out of a
combination of stems (as opposed to stem + affix)
These function in a certain sense as one word, and
have distinctive phonological patterns
Examples:
olive oil
shop talk
shoe polish
truck driver
Note that the different elements in these compounds
relate to each other in different ways...
Internal structure
Compounding, cont.
judge
trial judge
murder trial judge
murder trial judge reporter
murder trial judge reporter killer
murder trial judge reporter killer catcher
murder trial judge reporter killer catcher biographer
murder trial judge reporter killer catcher biographer pencil set