Morphology

Seminar, Class 1 Dec 4, 2018

What is morphology; what is a morpheme?

Transparent morphology (systematic, productive, clearly decomposable):

Opaque morphology:

Variation in what is marked morphologically:

Variation in how much morphology there is:

Types of morphemes:
Content or function (inflectional or derivational)?
Free or bound (prefix, suffix, infix, or other)?

Humboldt’s Universal (Vennemann 1972:183): “The function of language---more precisely,
the function of a grammar---is the symbolization of meaning in sound. In a conceptually
ideal human language, the linguistic sign […] is uniform: a single concept is symbolized by a
constant sound image, and the derivation of complex concepts is reflected in a
corresponding derivation in sound (Humboldt 1971, chapter 7, esp. p. 50).”

1
The following examples come from a dialect of Aztec spoken in Veracruz (Mexico).

1. ničoka ‘I cry’
2. ničokaʔ ‘I cried’
3. nimayana ‘I am hungry’
4. nimayanaʔ ‘I was hungry’
5. nimayanaya ‘I was hungry (and may still be hungry)’
6. timayana ‘you (sg.) are hungry’
7. nimayanas ‘I will be hungry’
8. tičoka ‘you (sg.) cry’
9. ničokaya ‘I was crying (and may still be crying)’
10. ničokas ‘I will cry’
11. nitehkawi ‘I climb’
12. titehkawiʔ ‘you (sg.) climbed’
13. nitehkawiya ‘I was climbing (and may still be climbing)’
14. nitehkawis ‘I will climb’
15. nikmayanati ‘I make him hungry’
16. nikmayanatiʔ ‘I made him hungry’
17. nimicmayanatis ‘I will make you (sg.) hungry’

à Identify all the morphemes in this data set
à Where morphemes are stacked on one side of the root, why are they in the order
that they’re in?

Some deviations from Humboldt’s Universal (non-exhaustive list):
• Homophony (bank the financial institution, bank of a river; possessive -z, plural -z)
• Synonymy (funny, humorous, comical)
• Idiomaticity (uncanny, homework)
• Ambiguity (unlockable)
• Blurred morpheme boundaries (celebrate/celebration)
• Non-productivity (guidance, hinderance, *leadance, *hurtance)
• Allomorphy
o Surface allomorphy: plural -s/-z
o Suppletive allomorphy: good/better
o Morphophonological allomorphy: leaf/leaves
• Fusion (Spanish am-o (I love); the -o encodes multiple meaning components,
including 1st person sg, present tense and indicative mood)
• Process morphology, e.g., …
o Reduplication (like like as an intensified version of like)
o Internal change (sing, sang, sung)
• Non-contiguous morphemes, e.g., …
o Templatic morphology (ktb (root: ‘write’) + iaa (noun) = kitaab (‘book’))
o Infixation (absofuckinglutely)
o Circumfixation
• Extended exponence/redundancy (tell/tol-d)
• Syncretism (I am, she is, you are, we are, they are)
• Arbitrary word classes (-er, -ir, -ar verbs in Spanish)

2
Argument structure

Cochabamba Quechua (data from Neil Myler)

2. a. Yaku t’impu-rqa.
water boil-PAST


‘The water boiled.’
b. Wayna yaku-ta t’impu-chi-rqa.
boy water-ACC boil-??-PAST
‘The boy boiled the water.’

3. a. Alqo wayna-ta khani-rqa.
dog boy-ACC bite-PAST


‘The dog bit the boy.’
b. Juan alqo-wan wayna-ta khani-chi-rqa.
Juan dog-INSTR boy-ACC bite-??-PAST
‘Juan made the dog bite the boy.’

6. a. Marya Gladys-man misk’i-ta qo-rqa.
Maria Gladys-DAT sweet-ACC give-PAST


‘Maria gave Gladys a sweet.’
b. Juan Marya-wan Gladys-man misk’i-ta qo-chi-rqa.
Juan Maria-INSTR Gladys-DAT sweet-ACC give-??-PAST
‘Juan made Maria give Gladys a sweet.’

7. a. Wayna qeru-ta p’aki-rqa.
boy glass-ACC break-PAST


‘The boy broke the glass.’
b. Qeru p’aki-ku-rqa.
glass break-??-PAST
‘The glass broke.’

8. a. Noqa phawa-rqa-ni.
I run-PAST-1SG


‘I ran.’
b. Noqa Juan-paq phawa-pu-rqa-ni.
I Juan-BEN run-??-PAST-1SG
‘I ran for Juan.’ (i.e., in his honor/so that he wouldn’t have to)

Japanese

9. a. Yousuke-ga biiru-o non-da.
Yousuke-NOM beer-ACC drink-PAST

‘Yousuke drank beer.’
b. Biiru-ga nom-are-ta.
beer-NOM drink-??-PAST
‘Beer was drunk.’

3
Turkish

11. a.

b.

c.

d.



Observation 1 (above): Changes in morphology correlate with changes in syntax.

à Does the connection go deeper than this?

Let’s consider Chamorro:

à What do the following Chamorro examples show us?