Phonetics Fortunately, there is an already established ae baa for the study of. beech segments that has been developed and refined for over a hundred years ands} as the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA. In this chapter, we will look a 7 the symbols of this alphabet can be used to represent both the consonant and voy, sounds of English words and what physical aspects of the human vocal tract ae involved in the production of those sounds. ‘The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds is called phonetics, Oy main interest will bein articulatory phonetics, which is the study of how speech sounds are made, or articulated. Other areas of study are acoustic phonetics, which deals with the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air, and auditory phonetis (or perceptual phonetics), which deals with the perception, via the ear, of speech sounds, Voiced and voiceless sounds In Srticulatory phonetics, we investigate how speech sounds are produced using the fairly complex oral equipment we have. We start with the air pushed out by the lungs up through the trachea (or windpipe) to the larynx. Inside the larynx are your vocal folds (or vocal cords), which take two basic positions. 1 When the vocal folds are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless. 2 When the vocal folds are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced. ‘The distinction can be felt physically if you place a fingertip gently on the top of your ‘Adam’s apple (i.e. that part of your larynx you.can feel in your neck below your chin), then produce sounds such as Z-Z-Z-Z or ‘V-V-V-V. Because these are voiced sounds, you should be able to feel some vibration. Keeping your fingertip in the same position, now. make the sounds $-S-S-S or F-F-F-F. Because these are voiceless sounds, there should be no vibration. Another trick is to put a finger in each ear, not too far, and produce the i voiced sounds (e.g. Z-Z-Z-Z) to hear and feel some vibration, whereas no vibration will be heard or felt if you make voiceless sounds (e.g. $-S-S-S) in the same wey. Once the air has passed through the iarynx, it comes up and out through the mouth and/or the nose. Most consonan: sounds are produced by using the tongue and other parts of the mouth to constrict, in some way, the shape of the oral cavity through which the air is passing. The terms used to describe many sounds are uninnasal cavity palate velum uvula pharynx tongue vocal folds Figure 3.1 denote the place of articulation of the sound: that is, the location inside the mouth at which the constriction takes place. What we need is a slice of head. If you crack a head right down the middle, you will be able to see those parts of the oral cavity that are crucially involved in speech production. In Figure 3.1, in addition to lips and teeth, a number of other physical features are identified. To describe the place of articulation of most consonant sounds, we can start at the front of the mouth and work back. We can also keep the voiced- voiceless distinction in mind and begin using the symbols of the IPA for specific sounds. These symbols will be enclosed within square brackets (]. Consonants Familiar symbols Many of the symbols used to describe consonant sounds will be familia. ae for the consonant in pop, [b] in Bob, and [m] in mom, These are labia) er eet ad made with both lips. We use [f] and [v] for the labiodentals (sing PET lower lip) at the beginning and end of five. Behind the upper | 7 a {s) and [2] alveolar ridge) where we make the alveolar sounds of (t] nol] in £2 in size, and (n] in nun. pene’ ‘Of course, there isn’t always a match between Wr * ink und at the beginning of symbols, as in the pronunciation of the $0 jetters and phonetic photo and the endFre sty of wanguage is produced when the space between the vocal folds (the glottis) is closed completely aaanie ‘hen released. Many speakers produce a glottal stop in the middle of Ut-uh bai rng *no"), when they say the name Harry Potter as ifit didn't have the “H” or the sie er even in the words bottle or butter without pronouncing the “t” pat. IL however, you are someone who pronounces the word butterin away thatis close to budder," you are making a flap. It is represented by (4. This sound is produced by the tongue tip tapping the alveolar ridge briefly. Many American English speakers have a tendency to “flap” [t] and [d] consonants between vowels with the result that the pairs later/ladder, metal/medal and writer/rider do not have distinct middle conson- ants, Those young students who were told about the importance of Plato in class and ‘wrote it in their notes as playdough were clearly victims of a misinterpreted flap. Vowels ‘While the consonant sounds are mostly articulated via closure or obstruction in the vocal tract, vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. They are all typically voiced. To describe vowel sounds, we consider the way in which the tongue influences the shape through which the airflow must pass. To talk about a place of articulation, we think of the space inside the mouth as having a front versus a back and a high versus a Jow area. Thus, in the pronunciation of heat and hit, we talk about “high, front” vowels because the sound is made with the front part of the tongue in a raised position. In contrast, the vowel sound in hat is produced with the tongue in a lower Position and the sound in hot can be described as a “low, back” vowel. The next time you're facing the bathroom mirror, try saying the words heat, hit, hat, hot. For the first two, your mouth will stay fairly closed, but for the last two, your tongue will move lower and cause your mouth to open wider. (The sounds of relaxation and pleasure ‘typically contain lower vowels.) ‘We can use a vowel chart, like Table 3.3 (based on Ladefoged and Johnson, 2011), to help classify the most common vowel sounds in English. Table 3.3 onl agraion to tose lions of diferent individual vocal acs each individual wil not nce the word me in a Physically identical manner on every occasion. Obvious Bropotpes occur when that individual s shouting, oF has just woken from a deep sleep, on vag romabad cold ors trying to ask for a sixth marin, or any combination of these. Given this vast range of potential ces inthe a physical production Sages ae (always in the same position in the word), then we have a inimal sete example ne minimal set based on the vowel phonemes of English set. 7 a aa include feat, fit, fat, fate, fought, foot, ant a minimal set based on consonant phonemes could have big, Pig, "8 fig, dig, wis- Phonotactics ) ‘This type of exercise involving minimal sets also allows us to see that there are definite pattems in the types of sound combinations permitted in a language. In English, the minimal set we have just listed does not include forms such as lig or vig. According to my dictionary, these are not English words, but they could be viewed as possible English words. That is, our phonological knowledge of the pattern of sounds in English words would allow us to treat these forms as acceptable if, at some future time, they came into use. They might, for example, begin as invented abbrevi- ations (I think Bubba is one very ignorant guy. ~ Yeah, he's a big vig!). Until then, they represent “accidental” gaps in the vocabulary of English. It is, however, no accident that forms such as [fsig] or (rmug] do not exist or are unlikely ever to exist. They have been formed without obeying some constraints on the sequence or position of English phonemes. Such constraints are called the phonotactics (i.e. permitted arrangements of sounds) in a language and are obvi- ously part of every speaker’s phonological knowledge. Because these constraints operate on a unit that is larger than the single segment or phoneme, we have to move abe consideration of the basic structure of that larger phonological unit called the syllable. |ae nucious Coda consonant) vowel cconsonant(e} Figure 41 like green (CCVO), eggs (VCC), and (VCC), ham (CVC), 1 (V), do jin English words like (CVC), them (CVC), Sam (CVC), I (V), am (VC) is shown in in (cv), not (CVC)» Figure 4.1. | Consonant ust et and the coda can consist of more than one consonant, also known as a ster. The combination /st/ is a consonant cluster (CC) used as onset in the word stop, and as coda in the word post. There are many CC onset combinations permitted in English phonotactics, asin black, bread, tick, twin, fat and throw. Noe that liquids (/1/, /1/) and a glide (/w/) are ‘used in second position. ‘mnglish ean actually have larger onset clusters, as inthe words stress and splat, consisting of three initial consonants (CCC). The phonotactics of these larger onset consonant clusters is not too difficult to describe. The first consonant must always be /s/, followed by one of the voiceless stops (/P/> /¥/> /X/) and a liquid or glide (Ai, [t, /w/). You can check if tis description is adequate for the combinations in splash, spring, strong, scream and square. Does the description also cover the Second syllable in the pronunciation of exclaim How about (/skeskleum/? Remember that it is the onset of the syllable that is being described, not the beginning ofthe word. Coarticulation effects sters of the type just It i quite unusual for languages to have lange consonant cli dlerbed, Indeed, the sylale stuctare of many IBEW an a tnglish that large cOnSOmAN Geof dominantly CV. It is also noticeable in ae reduced in castal conversational speech, particularly f aa used CS word. This is just one example of @ process that is Us : coarticulation effects: hing pee sounds ing discussion, we have been des ‘and deuberate> In much of the preceding ed exe a ad if they are always promo! ‘ly ou is fast syllables and words as ey ‘aly U that. Most oho hes almost in slow motion. Speech is? t aoe 8 from one 80 spontaneous, and it requires OUT articulat oth the ons consonant clusElision in the last example, illustrating the normal sound of the word and was not included in ieee of You and me, the (4 ‘usually pronounced in this phrase. In the environment of a m, Tha’s because tan following nasal (m}, we simply don’t devote speech nae {n} and a sound (a). This isn’t laziness, it’s efficiency. 8Y to Including the stp “There is also typically no (4) sound included in the ev nn word like friendship [frenfip]. This process of not ronouning aaa a might be present in the deliberately careful pronunciation of a word eae described as elision, In consonant clusters, especially in coda aes ae ‘common casualty in this process, as in the typical pronunciation planer ung or in {himasbi) Oar sara he mat be, We ca, of couse, slow and deer pronounce each part ofthe phrase we asked him, but the process of sion (fk) a casual conversation is likely to produce (wisestam). Vowels also disappea, asin [ei for ever, {mtnst) for interest, (kabnot) for enbinet, (karo fr enmera, (prana]for prisoner and [spovz] for suppose. Normal speech Tose wo procesis of assimilation and elsion ocr in evenenes 9 aa be egies some ype of ioppnessrieines DAS 1 ‘assimilation and elision used i 2 ing talk. The point of investing i 5 language these phonol repowcsves nok wave at aet oft TE a a soerstandingorerepie i actual use of sounds in langvaseore wworker/eamed J. Murray iectric suction sweeper. This device led an re pme known as a spangler. People have betgnt even have spanglered ther 7 eye ype of person who droned on el Mi ‘a whole style of behavior ah Instead, Mr. Spangler sold his 7 ee wilam H. Hoover, whose Hoover je iS aan ohio, a department's ~~ round 1900, 7 Jer invente eventually pecame very PO! could have been spanglering rugs and curtains. The use could } ‘and on (and really sucked), descr called spanglerism. However, none i local businessman © 3 “Hoover.” Not only new a to edna produced the first machine called a Suction Sweeper ili cleaner all ro! familiar as vacuum. it ital letter) become as is the word hoover (without a capit ancl ain seen the vvord, but in Britain, people still talk about hoovering (am spanglering) op although we had never heard of Mr. Spangler ‘The point of this small tale is that, ; tel ffi i new words: spangler, spanglerish, before, we really had no difficulty coping with the ae it is can very qui spanglerism, spanglering or spanglered. That is, we a new word, a neologism, and accept the use of different forms of that new word in the language. This ability must derive in part from the fact that there is a lot of regularity in the word-formation processes in a language. In this chapter, we will explore some of the basic processes by which new words are created. yuld have extel ibed as spangle Etymology ) a The study of the origin and history of a word is known as its etymology, a term which, like many of our technical words, comes to us through Latin, but has its origins in Greek (étymon “original form” + logia “study of"), and is not to be confused with entomology, also from Greek (éntomon “insect”). When we look closely at the etymologies of less technical words, we soon discover that there are ‘many different ways in which new words can enter the language. We should keep in mind that these processes have been at work in the language for some time and a lot of words in daly use today were, at one time, considered barbaric misuses of the language. It is difficult now to understand the views expressed in the early eee ore elvan innovation” of a word like handbook, or the aper in 1909 over # can cause similar outcries as they come into 7 5 i ime Rather than act as if the language is being debased, we might prefer to © constant evolution of new words and new uses of old words as a Teassuring sign of Vitality and cre; in fee ativeness in the way a language is shaped by —a Tt 52 g: ae My \3 “ys 7 <7 weoS a : ied earlier, one of the most common = af Bryson served in the quotation present¢ r ease ; hn is the process simply labeled borrowing, that is, the sources of new words in Englis! ‘ ee f words from other languages. (Technically, it's more than just paebe: ecause English doesn’t give them back.) Throughout its history, the English language has adopted a vast nugpber of words from other languages, inch ing these examples: 2 9 > pot ¥P dope (Dutch) piano (italian) _ § tattoo (Tahitian) — yy 4, (French) _ pretzel (German}f 7 tycogn (Japanese) °F iy ski (Norwegian) | yogurt (Turkish) (Persian) —_ sofa (Arabic) ‘zebra (Bantu), Jomer languages, of course, borrow terms from English, as in the Japanese use of suupaa or suupaamaaketto (“supermarket”) and taipuraitaa (“typewriter”). We can also hear of people in Finland using a Sekki (“check”) to pay their bills, Hungarians talking about sport, klub and futbal, or the French discussing problems of le stress, over a glass of le whisky, during le weekend. In Brazilian Portuguese, the English words up and nerd have been borrowed and turned into verbs for the new activities )) upar (“to upload”) and nerdear (“to surf the internet”). In some cases, the borrowed of words may be used with quite novel meanings, as in the contemporary German use of the English words partner and look in the phrase im Partnerlook to describe two people who are together and wearing similar clothing. There is no equivalent use of eee in English (so far). Loan-transiation A special type of borrowing is described as loan-translation or calque (/kalk/). In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. Interesting examples are the French term gratte-ciel, which literally translates as “scrape-sky,” the Dutch wolkenkrabber (“cloud scratcher") or the German Wolkenkratzer (“cloud scraper"), all of which were calques for the English skyscraper. The English word superman is thought to be a joan-transation of the German Ubermensch, and the term loanword itself is believed to have come from the German Lehnwort. The English expression of truth is believed to be a calque from the Spanish phrase el momento dA\a verdad, though not Festricted to the original use as.the final thrust.of the s\ to end a bullfight. Nowadays, some Spanish speakers eat perros calientes (literally “dogs hot") or hot dogs. The American concept of “boyfriend” was borrowed, with sound change, ‘into Japanese as boyifurendo, but as a calque into Chinese as “male friend” or nan pengyu. e-soy or aie Compounding isa joining of two es reson tte xan eae ST ye ae COMBINE 0 soggy, Thus, , 1 words to produce 2 single eid ‘process, technically ba 7 much less comes Peper Lehnwor in German, This COO g German and Enh 9 ands are book ‘ sl i a is very common in languages ‘4 Spanish. Common English co} eae Kase, Tanguages such as rend ont ot nook, wallpaper wastebae (ood tant a Ls jjecti Ll doorknob, fingerprint, ave ‘an also create compound rao J le fae these examples are nouns, xe Gast) plus noun. Uf = low paid) and compoun ; a hee ae of new terms has been well documenta in Fag This very productive s« din totally unrelated languages, such 25 Hmong and German, but can als0| ee combines tj pot”) and kais (“spout”) to (apoken in South-East Asia), i ons are pa) plus kus (“flower” + “corn”) produce huis "ele". Recent creations aF6 PH Tm paper") for for pajkws (“popcorn”) and hnab + ran knabrauntawv (“schoolbag”). Blending ‘The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in the process called blending. However, in blending, we typically take only the beginning of one word and join it to the end of the other word. To talk about the combined effects of smoke and fog, we can use the word smog. In places where they have a lot of this stuff, they can jokingly make a distinction between smog, smaze (smoke + haze) and smurk (smoke + murk). In Hawaii, near the active volcano, they have problems with vog. Some other commonly used examples of blending are bit (binary/digit), brunch (breakfast/lunch), motel (motor/hotel), telecast (television/broadcast) and the Chunnel (Channel/tunnel), connecting Engl: and France, _ ase activity of fund-ratsing on television that feels like a marathon is typically a telethon, while infotainment (information/entertainm imuulcast (simultaneous/broadcast) are other blend: fo ele : ; B her new blends from life with televisi caibe the mixing of languages, television. To——Fpe study of Language mms Clipping ‘The element of reduction that is noticeable in ble the process described as clipping. This occurs beet etek pihdedraiades syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a shorter form (fax), usually feria _ one speech. The term gasoline is sul used, but most people talk about ane qhipped form, Other common examples are ad (advertisement), bra (hasten) eat (cabriolet), condo (condominium), fan (fanatic), flu (influenza), perm wee) cab wave), phone, plane and pub (public house). English speakers also like opened Miner's names, as in Al, Ed, Liz, Mike, Ron, Sam, Sue and Tom. There ae bee Something about educational environments that encourages clipping because 7 reany words get reduced, as in chem, exam, gym, lab, math, phys-ed, poly-s, ola alee and typo. Hypocorisms {A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English, produces forms technically known as hypocorisms. In this process, a longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or ~ie is added to the end. This is the process that results in movie (“moving pictures”) and telly (“television”). It has also produced Aussie (“australian”), barbie (“barbecue”), bickie (“biscuit”), bookie (“bookmaker”), brekky (‘breakfast’), hankie ("handkerchief") and toastie (“toasted sandwich"). You can probably guess what Chrissy pressies are. By now, you may be ready to take a sickie (a day of sick leave from work, whether for real sickness or not"). Backformation iss is known as backformation. ‘Ypically, a .ed to form a word of another type (usually a the process whereby the noun television ‘Avery specialized type of reduction proce word of one type (usually a noun) is reduc verb). A good example of backformation is first came into use and then the verb televise was created from it. Other examples of words created by this process are: donate (from donation”), emote (from “emotion”), enthuse (from “enthusiasm”), liaise (from ‘“jaison”) and babysit (from “pabysitter”)- Indeed, when we use the verb backform (Did you Know that “opt” was bacl from “option”?), we are using a backformation. ‘One very regular source of packformed verbs in English is based on the common *patiern worker - work. The sagsuinption seems to have been that if there is a ae ending in -er (or something close in sound), then we can create a verb for es noun-er does. Hence, an editor will edit, a sculptor will sculpt and burglars, and swindlers will burgle, peddle and swindle.a 5 Conversion ple when a NOUN COMES to be seg eal a word, as for exe” renown as conversion. Other jay a word, oe ‘Achange in the A an is generally change” and “functional hig, _eo as a verb (without any T “category and vacation have come to 7 cine nome-brew last Night; Haye a . ‘A number of nouns jerbs: We bouts meetings TheY'Te Vacationing, sion, as V! ir tl 7 used, through omens has to chair Or» conversions, such as the Doug buttered the toast?; .d, but some : cals dily accepted, cople’s se o) Florida. These forms as = eat some Dl verb, seem mi th impact used as a pas = ae eee is very Prodi O paceiling nouns, with Bae foul aversion can involve verbs Donne th ey, ‘occurring frequently. The co an cae. pe : take over) : deneineaio ld rintout atakeover). One complex verb combination ; 2 i He isn’t in the group, he’s just a wannabe (want to be) has become a new noun, as in le Some other examples of conversion are listed here. Verb Verb > Noun i ol Did you dust the living room? to cheat Hesag aoe give ‘have togiue it together. todoubt_ ©—They have s . tohand out I didn’t get a handout, ill referee the game? a 7 We have two new hires. water Would you water my plants? _to hire Verbs (see through, stand up) can also become adjectives, as in see-through material or astand-up comedian. A number of adjectives, as in a dirty floor, an empty room, some {7127 ideas and those nasty people, have become the verbs to dirty and to empty, or the ‘nouns a crazy and the nasty. ‘Some compound nouns have assumed other functions, ark appearing in a ball-park figure an estimate of the cost (as a verb). Other oe and ee which are also used as verbs now. Other forms, such as » can also become verbs, ag in They're S0ing to up the Price of oil or We souned a few beers at the Chimes inn tis worth noting that so; *t Some words can shi ally j i Uwough converse The vb denne ws Substantially in Meaning when they associated with the source Roun a doctor. a nee ae Se neeaneman similar ki wont 7 NOUN total and the verb Mad ofr . However, jj COMPANY gives yoy the * If You total (= Degative, unaround (= ‘analysis of meaning is round, which do not hav ne verb) Your Cat, and your insurance ” You will have a double sense of the‘the invention and general use of totally new terms, or colnage, is not very common in ngish Typical sources are trade names for commercial products that become gen- ral terms (usually without capital letters) for any version of that product. Older etigples ae asprin, non, vaseline and zipper; more recent ‘examples are granola, cram tefon and xerox. 1 maybe that there Is an obscure technieal orn (eg. te (wa)-f1(uor)-on) for some of these invented terms, but after their first coinage, they tna to become everyday words in the language. The most salient contemporary rRample of coinage is the word google. Originally a misspelling for the word googol {the number 1 followed by 100 zeros) in the creation of the word Googleplex, which Iuter became the name of a company (Google), the term google (without a capital fetes) has become a widely used expression meaning “to use the internet to find information.” New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. When wettalked about a hoover (or even a spangler), we were using an eponym. We use the eponyais teddy bear, derived from US president Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, and jeans (from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made). Another eponym dates from 1762 when John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, insisted on having his salt beef between two slices of toasted bread while gambling. Apparently his friends started to ask “to have the same as Sandwich.” Acronyms Acronyms are new words formed from. the initial letters of a set of other words. These «an be forms such as CD (“compact disk") or SPCA (‘Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals") where the promunciation consists of saying each separate lettet More typically, acronyms are pronounced as new single words, as in NATO, NASA or UNESCO, These examples have kept thelr capital letters, Put many acronyms simply pecome everyday terms such as laser ("light amplification Py stimulated emission of radiation”), radar (“radio detecting and ranging”), scuba (‘self-contained underwater breathing apparatus”) and zip (“zone tmprovement plan”) code. You might even hear have its origins in “situation normal, al fouled talk of a snafu, which is reputed to Ne up,” though there is some dispute about the appropriate ‘verb in there. Names for organizations are often designed to have their acronym represent a2 appropriate term, as in “mothers against drunk driving” against rape” (WAR). Many speakers do no Innovations such as the ATM (“automatic tel (“personal identification number”) are 1 repeated, as in I sometimes forget myeee py far 86 MOH COMMON yoy what ee English words. This proce, ee "00 - ih yt we number of t dea duc of a large of smay hi ave nt Te pro means etlaicelah tah ee nour pes 0 1 a usual aes. some familiar exampjq, {ion that are scribed a! f mation 7 -ness which appear is called dere angusee ay des vish, -ism and ih, terrorism a,. asf te is” are BE ful, “ess ul, careless, boyish, mang Ten A Miss Paya, Joy fr rent 7 presents are the te sre words Ht sadness. suffoos can see that some affixes profess nd words, we : he prceing rou? Of mis). These are called prefixes mete ging fe ECE) ad are cle utc, bio tbe word (€-8- ) : ner afes are added tothe endo swational process have either prefixes or sulin, ‘Al) English words formed by this Se ageatal has both a prefix and a suffix, ang dead has a prefix, disrespectful or both. Thus, mis! foolishness has two suffixes. infixes Theres hid ye of affix, not nomally used in English, but found in some other inguages. This is called an infix and, as the term suggests, it . an affix that is incorporated inside another word. It is possible to see the general principle at work in certain expressions, occasionally used in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by emotionally aroused English speakers: Hallebloodylujah!, Absogoddamlutely! and Unfackinbelievable!. We could view these “inserted” forms as a special version of infixing in English. However, a much better set of examples can be provided from “Gama (r Kamm), a language spoken in Laos, South-East Asia. ae se Verb Noun 7 oa se sme (“a dri”) (to eat with a fh rah (ag chisel”) (tote) a a heniip (my spoon”) From th ™ noom a thing with which to tie”) theres a regular Pattern whereby the infix -mt- 8 10 form ; koow that the uns. If this.is a ga OU the a ae aralis the Rhmu ide ae Pattern in the Tanguage and we a (2003), ye 8 VE 1 “Dea omament,” then we can work 2 “to ), the source Put an orp, 7 Source of these ampies ite in the ear» Accor ding to Mertifeld ? NAS sal.‘although we have concentrated on each of these word-form: tion, it is possible to trace the operation of more than one creation of a particular word. For example, the term det s Process at workin the fommon American English expression via a process of fist bors ge” moO 2 (trom German) and then clipping that borrowed form. Ifsomeme eee with the project have snowballed, the final word can be analyzed compounding in which snow and ball were combined to form the sagt which was then turned into a verb through conversion, Forms thatbegnae snowball, can also go through other processes, as in the use of lase as a verb oo packformation from laser. In the expression waspish attitudes, the acon ance (‘white Anglo-Saxon Protestant”) has lost its capital letters and gained a tare in the derivation process. rh) ‘An acronym that never seems to have had capital letters comes from “young ‘urban professional,” plus the ~e suffix, as in hypocorism, to produce the word yupie (Girst recorded in 1984). The formation of this new word, however, was helped by 2 quite different process, known simply as analogy, whereby new words are formed to be similar in some way to existing words. Yuppie was made possible as anew word by analogy with the earlier word hippie and another short-lived analogy yippie. The word yippie also had an acronym basis (“youth intemational party”) and was used forsome students in the USA who were protesting against the war in Vietnam, One joe hasit that yippies just grew up to be yuppies. And the process continues. Another analogy: with the word yap ("to make shrill noises”), helped label some of te nals oot professionals as yappies. Many of these new words can, of course, have a ahaa ina language's et generally accepted test of the “arrival” ofrecenty formed w : published appearance in a dictionary. However, ive voices, a protests from some conservative voices, a words ke 7 dictionary, published in 1806, was cs eset as verbs, and for including such “vulea* eo ites of which De word seem that Noah had a keener sense than his criti language were going to last. ation processes in iso}. MeONE Says that problemse Ped onym a neologis™: ‘ of 2 1 When is an eP airs contains an example of calque? How Ye ng P = 2 which of the following, ‘ (aapanese).~ gre the other(s)? football (English) ES ining (English) jan) - raining ( us ; Looney) mining boa anigh “moon of honey”) ~ honeymoon (English) Cd safe) tae derants (French “garden of children") ~ Kindergaren (, jardin — (d) M ‘ al4 uo “culdren garden’) formation processes involved ; tify the different word-fon : ee words in these sentences? inderlined wi each of the underline ight get AIDS? Oy Gron, F worry that they might get AIDS: 7 «(@) Don't they ever chine? fe J Do you have a Xerox mae CO er al da ies ‘Shiel still parties every San Gotrs() Te esas rm CAD} 10. When Tm il Twat to see: - (g) The Tay Prods, 1 she'd like a toastie for brékkey, Ee : aise IPS Sor DEI ine vin 0) You don’t need to button it because it’s got velcro inside. wm TF identify the prefixes and suffixes used in these words: “misfortune, terrorism, carelessness. disagreement, ine Prepackaged, biodegradable, reinic 5 In Khu, the word Kap means for “tongs”? ffective, unfaithful, Wi Aatiox, decent clization “to grasp with tongs”, What ‘would be the wot sent @ Are you stin Usi rarer eee (8) can arrest o ee (0 Me tnday? ©) Vetcome, ae (9 eons 7 Mokenisht at Debba’s Bar end Grili! © Ikrov there ore vin she mall 0 be sure to hemver the bac cp! yy (indo temp forg iad © the grep, but it’s tot a aisficult sys Wate yore © before I coe y real je 4 Pree @ deca itee a tn many languages, what appear tobe single forms actualy tum out to contain a large umber of *wordlike” elements. For example, in Swahili (spoken throughout East ‘atrica), the form ritakupenda conveys what, in English, would have to be repre- sented as something like Iwill love you. Now, is the Swahili form a single word? fits j sword,” then it seems to consist of a number of elements that, in English, turn up as separate “words.” A rough correspondence can be presented in the following way: ne te = ka pend “| will you love” tt would seem that this Swahili “word” is rather different from what we think of as an English “word.” Yet there clearly is some similarity between the languages, in that similar elements of the whole message can be found in both. Perhaps a better way of, ooking at linguistic forms in different languages would be to use this notion of “elements” in the message, rather than depend on identifying only “words.” ‘The type of exercise we have just performed is an example of investigating basic forms in language, generally known as morphology. This term, which literally means “the study of forms,” was originally used in biology, but since the middle of the nineteenth century has also been used to describe the type of investigation that analyzes all those basic “elements” used in a language. What we have been describing as “elements” in the form of a linguistic message are technically known as “morphemes.” Morphemes ‘We do not actually have to go to other languages such as Swahili to discover that “word forms” may consist of a number of elements. We can recognize that English word forms such as talks, talker, talked and talking must consist of one element talk, and the other four elements -s, -er, -ed and -ing. All these elements are described as morphemes. The definition of a morpheme is “a minimal unit of meaning or gram- ‘matical function.” Units of grammatical function include forms used to indicate past tense or plural, for example. So, the word renewed consists of one minimal unit of meaning (new), another unit of meaning (re- = “again”) and a unit of grammatical function -ed (= past tense). The word tourists has two ‘units of meaning (tour and -ist) plus a unit of grammatical function -s (= plural). “Free.and bound morphemes From these examples, we can make a broad distinction between two types of mor hemes, that is, morphemes that can stand by themselves phemes. There are free morp! " as single words, for example, new and tour. There are also bound morphemes, whichare those forms that cannot normally stand alone and are typically attached to anothe, i ist, ed, °S- These forms were described in Chapter 5 ee a affixes (Orefines and suffixes) in English are ie morphemes. The free morphemes can generally be identified as a set of separate English word forms such as basic nouns adjectives and verbs. When they are useq with bound morphemes attached, the pasic word forms are technically known as stems. For example: undressed carelessness un- dress -ed care -less -ness prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix (bound) (free) (bound) (free) (bound) (bound) We should note that this type of description is a partial simplification of the morpho- logical facts of English. There are a number of English words in which the element treated as the stem is not, in fact, a free morpheme. In words such as receive, reduce and repeat, we can identify the bound morpheme re- at the beginning, but the elements -ceive, -duce and -peat are not separate word forms and hence cannot be free morphemes. These types of forms are sometimes described as “bound stems.” Lexical and functional morphemes What we have described as free morphemes fall into two categories. The first category is that set of ordinary nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that we think of as the ‘words that carry the “content” of the messages we convey. These free morphemes are called lexical morphemes and some examples are: girl, man, house, tiger, sad, long, yellow, sincere, open, look, follow, break. We can add new lexical morphemes to the Tanguage rather easily, so they are treated as an “open” class of words, Tee Other types of free morphemes are called functional morphemes. Exampl and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, that, it, them, This ri es are: largely of the functional words in the language such as conjunctions, pre consists anicles and pronouns, Because we almost never add new functional moran to8S the language, they are described as a “closed” class of words, ™Morphemes to Darivational morphemss ee ‘The set of affixes tnat mai up the category of bound morphemes ie iro two types. One type is deseribed in su or ent ‘These are the derivaticnal morp"s interms of the : We use these boun, new words or to make words of ¢ different grammatical cat : ©: : sample, the addition of the desivadonal morgheme -ness ch te the noun goodness, , ne nova ccre can become the adjeos, the addition of the derivaional morphemes -ful or “eseives__— rss) ea oe auto sufiaes, such as the ish in foolish, the -b tn quick, and the ment 4 vent, and prefixes, Such a8 re, pre-, ex-, mis-, co-, un-. in Morphological description payme | morphemes rhe second set of Bound morphemes contains what are caled inflectional mo (or “inflections”). These are not used to produce new words ar to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a or a rmorphemes are used to show ifa word is plural or singular, past tens of nor aeaey itis comparative or possessive fom. English has only eight in ectional morpheras all suffixes, as shown here. i Jim's two sisters are really different. One likes to have fun and is always laughing. The other liked to read as a child and has always taken things seriously, One is the loudest person in the house and the other is quieter than a mouse. In the first sentence, both infletions ("s,-s)aré attached to nouns, one marking possessive and the other marking plural. Note that ~s here is a possessive inflection and different from the ~’s used as an abbreviation for is or has (eg she's singing, i's ‘happened again). There are four inflections attached to verbs, -s (3rd person singular, present tense), -ing (present participle), -ed (past tense) and-en (past participle), There are two inflections attached to adjectives: er (comparative) and -et (superlative), Noun + “s,-8 Verb + 5 -ing, -ed, -en Adjective+ er, -est There is some variation in the form of these inflectional morphemes. For example, the possessive sometimes appears as a plural form -s° (those boys" bags) and the past participle is often ~ed (they have finished). es is worth emphasiz~ The difference between derivational and inflectional morp ing. An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical category of a word. For example, both old and older are adjectives. The -er inflection here (from Old English -ra) simply creates a different version of the adjective. However, a derivational * morpheme can change the grammatical category of a word. The verb teach becomes the noun teacher if we add the derivational morpheme-er (from Old English lee the suffix -er in Modern English can be an inflectional morpheme as pa of an adjective and also a distinct derivational morpheme as part of a noun. Just they look the same (er) doesn't mean they do the same kind of work.Sy __ testeat red meters eh . — anevanonat vere Ne ee {fix used togethe, 4 an inflectional su ; getvations! (er) is attached 0 teach, ther "armed with all these terms for on : ish apart eet pi pile take most sentences ‘of English apart ang creme en er he = a wild -ness shock derivational lexical Rowe 6.1 Whenever there is a derivational sul they always appear tn that order. Firat Ne s parent -S caostent focal ‘oie inflectional lexical inflectional ‘A woeful way to remember all these different types of morphemes is in the chart presented in Figure 6.1. Problems in morphological description The rather neat chart presented here conceals a number of outstanding problems in the analysis of English morphology. The inflectional morpheme -s is added to cat and ‘we get the plural cats. What is the inflectional morpheme that makes sheep the plural of sheep, or men the plural of man? These two words are clearly exceptions to the ‘general pattern and have to be treated as special cases. plural"). The Morpbeme and pile Consists of two'morphs (ous + -e) ional morpheme ent morphs (.- nal mozpheme DIU”), So there are at ene ee Cast two differ- \\_H \\. ar 7 tence? a the following 8 4 ue 4 What are the functional morph sa sia epithe tat eray 2 ce = em she mated tin the room (BE 7 are is: ), happier, misleads, 2(0 Us the bound mmogphemes in these words: fearlessly, vappte? sy * nreconstructed 7 WS ree nee weds «consist, deceive, introduce, repear eo wiieh of these words has a bound stem: (Ai) Which of these words contains an ‘allomorph of the morpheme “past tense; are, have, mug, sitting, waits? ‘ What are the inflectional morphemes in these expressions? (a) Have you eaten yet? : * : (0) Do you know how long I've been waiting? * : {€) She's younggz than me and always dresses in the latest style. = _(@) We looked through my grandmother's old photo albums. ‘ 2 (© My parents’ parents were all from Scotland. o1 Won are be of the morpheme “plural” i this set of English words? Fetter, dogs, oxen, deer, judges, stimuli Oe adges, sttmmult. 7s Indonesian, the singular form translating “child” is anak and the lal form” (eben) is anakanak. What isthe term used to describe this relationship? 3 6 Provide squivalei forms in the languages listed, for she 5 co the ight a, he language listed, forthe English translations zt ‘Cand omuloggo (“twin ! logge (“twin”) ~ (“twing” ; a towtéwa (“windows”) -( ms ) ae on a " ‘window’) (Held) SOL Kanes rambsji sweet a) Topalog ty Couyry ness) ~ Csweet’) Eee Tagalog — hain en ~ Cwil buy) - ie ~ (“Eat¥f those lost skill, like darning socks OF playing the : it was introduced in an 1877 text called Highs, ; one Diagramming sentences is When that no one seems to miss. When : lesen mith by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg, it swept sect ike neaes embed by teachers as the way to reform students who were t in (to take Henry Higgins slightly out of context) "the cold-blooded murder of engaged through American pube the English tongue.” Florey (2006) We have already looked at two levels of description used in the study of language We have described linguistic expressions as sequences of sounds that can be ‘represented in the phonetic alphabet and described in terms of their features. Thats, we can identify a voiced fricative /8/, a voiceless stop /k/ and a diphthong /oy/ as Segments in the transcription of a phrase such as /Belakiborz/, We can take the same expression and describe it as a sequence of morphemes. the luck Yy boy s functional —_exical derivational lexical inflectional tao descriptions, we could characterize all the words: and Phrases of a ge tars of thelr Phonology and morphology,=>) eee np NP An ON An ; [Chunnaic} | {en} ‘an ten) Yeu} ea Figure 7.6 One obvious difference between the structure of this Gaelic sentence and its English Senseter alibi ee ie vt comes ak tix a-ha eg feature is that, when an adjective is used, it goes after the noun and not before it. We can represent these structural observations in a labeled and bracketed diagram (Figure 7.6). The diagram in Figure 7.6 makes it clear that this Gaelic sentence is organized with a V NP NP structure, which is rather different from the NP V NP structure we found in the English sentence analyzed earlier. Why study grammar? It is not, of course, the aim of this type of complicated-looking diagrams in order to explicit, via the diagram, what we believe to be the structure of grammatical sen- vences ia the language. It also enables us to describe clearly how English enn 6° put together as combinations of phrases that, in turn, are combinations of words. We can then look at similar descriptions of sentences in other languages such as Gaelic, eae gpunish and ee clay what suc afeents 6 1) practical level, it may help us Jeamer of English to understand why @ Spanish ‘i produoes phrases lke ste wine red (instead ofthe ed using a structur wine), organization of constituents that analysis that we should be able to draw impress our friends, The aim is to make is possible in spanish, but not in English.