REMEMBER 1

Chapter 3 Word formation -phonemes change meaning

-morphemes carry meaning

MORPHOLOGY consists in the study of the structure of words in a language and it considers the individual parts of the word, commonly called MORPHEMES.
MORPHEMES: the smallest units of meaning in the language ex sing-ing the word singing is made up of 2 morphemes (the verb sing and the suffix -ing)
• they usually have an identifiable meaning (ex -like=being similar to) but not always easy to paraphrase, especially bound morphemes are more difficult to pin down
(ex -ing refers to the length of time an action that continues; de- to the undoing of an action).
• morphemes are enclosed in CURLY BRACKETS {--}

There are 2 types of morphemes in all languages

1. Free morphemes: morphemes which can occur without any affixes, are the words of the language with no addition (sing, bright, motive)
2. Bound morphemes: morphemes which cannot stand alone but are necessarily attached to another morpheme SO bound morphemes are affixes
added to free morphemes to alter their grammatical effect e.g the -ed of a past tense verb as changed is a bound morpheme

REMEMBER 2
AFFIXES: general term used for bound morphemes
examine; examin-ation; re-examine; examin-ed
added to free morphemes to make complex words
 these words have a common CORE ELEMENT (examin)which is called the ROOT of the word.
-PREFIXES which occur before the root
The other elements cannot operate as independent words as they are bound elements.
-SUFFIXES which occur after he root
The bound elements can occur only as attachments to a root, they are AFFIXES

ALLOMORPHS are the different forms that a morpheme can take (actual realisation of morphemes usually determined by its phonological context)
eg1 voiced and voiceless -s in plurals eg 2 past tense morpheme -ed
-planes, miles, pictures VOICED PLURAL MORPHEMES -parted /id/
-rocks, steps VOICELESS PLURAL MORPHEMES -passed /t/
-seemed /d/

Process of word formation

Borrowing new words from other languages is not the only way in which the vocabulary of a language may be expanded, a number of linguistic processes
enable speakers to coin new words from those there are already in the vocabulary. We distinguish three different processes of word formation in English:

1. INFLECTION is the process by which the main lexical word classes acquire regular endings to form particular grammatical structures
• English is not a highly inflected language as it has a relatively low number of bound morpheme (vs case-heavy languages such as russian) though there
are some that are regularly attached to the main lexical word classes and are grouped under the heading “inflection”.

• function: inflections are used to give us more information about words (e.g to indicate number singular/plural or tense)

• INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES
• are all suffixes so bound morphemes added to the end of the base word
• do not change the word class and tend to change the word’s meaning in a consistent way

INFLECTED FORMS

THE NOUN CLASS has only 4 forms in English

✓ count nouns (which are countable nouns so nouns with a pl form) have 4 forms
➢ singular base form (=free morpheme) e.g sister
➢ plural form (=base form+ pl morpheme -s) e.g sisters
➢ possessive form for the singular (=possessive morpheme added to singular base form) e.g sister’s
➢ possessive form for the plural (=possessive morpheme added to pl form) e.g sisters’

✓ mass nouns (which are uncountable nouns) have only 2 forms

➢ singular base form (=free morpheme) e.g water
➢ possessive form (=possessive morpheme added to singular form) e.g water’s
➢ though many uncountable nouns have specialised countable uses, so they can be used in the plural with a more specific meaning
e.g waters= the liquid that surrounds a baby inside a womb; papers but when it stays for newspaper=papers
• there are a few pl uncountable nouns: they have a pl ending, go with pl determiners but are uncountable because they have no singular form

there are many nouns that are countable or uncountable in different contexts e.g war

THE VERB CLASS

✓ the uninflected form of the verb is known as the base form of the verb, it is also referred to as infinitive
the base form of the verb may be varied by the addition of regular inflections
✓ -s inflection
✓ -ing inflection
✓ -ed inflection
✓ -ed participle inflection
2. DERIVATION is the process by which new words are created by adding an affix (a suffix or a prefix)
• so a morpheme is added to the base form
• this process implies a change of the word class
• derivational morphemes do not attach to words in a regular way e.g -ist is added to the name of the instrument to produce the player (violin > violinist)
BUT trumpet > trumpeter and drum > drummer

CONVERSION (or zero derivation) is one kind of derivation where there is no affixation so, this process simply change the word class of the free morpheme
e.g a play/to play; to dirty/dirty with 0 derivation it can be difficult to tell which is the more basic form

3. COMPOUNDING is the process whereby a word is formed from two equally free morphemes and becomes a compound word

COMPOUNDS
• are pronounced as a single word
• have a main stress (usually on the first element)
• are lexically and grammatically single words (cannot be interrupted)
• belong as a whole to a single word class: the grammatical category of compounds in English is always the one of the last free morpheme
e.g check (verb) + list (noun) = checklist (noun)
• this process implies a change of the word class but also of the meaning: the meaning of a compound is not always derived from that of its constituents
e.g blackbird refers to a specific type of bird, there are many black birds in the world that are not blackbirds
e.g2 highbrow is not a brow that is high but refers to an intellectual
e.g3 a red-coat refers to a soldier of the british army
• in dictionaries are entered as either headwords or derivates
compounds contribute to the creation of new words e.g compounds with rage: 1) road rage= angry behaviour by a driver; 2) alarm rage= refers to annoying car alarm
compounds are interpreted as short-cuts for longer and more elaborate phrase structures e.g ash-tray= tray for ashes; arm-chair= chair with arms

ORTOGRAPHIC TREATMENT: compounds can be written as

• one word (milkshake)
• one word but hyphenated (car-wash)
• 2 (or more) distinct words (video game)
• Complex structures (sell-by date)

• Compound or derivation? Sometimes it is difficult to decide whether a lexeme is a compound or a derivation

e.g householder (= household + -er OR house+holder ?)

MINOR WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES

BLENDING: when new words are created by the fusion of the forms and meaning of 2 lexemes
e.g smog < smoke+fog; brunch < breakfast+lunch; telethon < tv+ marathon
Blends are especially popular in commercial and advertising contexts and television

CLIPPING: the shortening of a word that was longer, often reduced to 1 syllable
e.g examination= exam; laboratory= lab; refrigerator= fridge; celebrity= celeb
• APHAERESIS = cut of the first part e.g omnibusbus
• APOCOPE = cut of the last part e.g public housepub
• we may keep the central part e.g influenzaflu
many examples are very informal/slang e.g brotherbro
names can me clipped e.g AlexanderAl; ThomasTom; ElizabethLiz

BACK FORMATION: when a shorter word is derived from a longer one by deleting an affix
e.g editor > to edit; babysitter >to babysit; television > to televise

ACRONYMS: are composed of the initial letters of the words of a phrase, pronounced as single words
Some acronyms ae initialism, spoken as individual words (BBC, VID)

+ NEOCLASSICAL COMPOUNDS (quaderno)

Word classes: we distinguish 2 different classes of word
1. LEXICAL WORDS: those which contain the main semantic information in a text
• open class which means that this word class is growing in number as new words are continually invented
• generally the words stressed the most in speech
• have a fairly invented meaning

a) NOUNS make up one of the largest word classes in english

they can be
• PROPER: have a unique reference and therefore are never pluralized or preceded by a determiner
• COMMON
o countable: occur in combination with number and the indefinite article (a, an)
▪ concrete (bun)
▪ abstract (difficulty)
o uncountable: don’t occur with number or the indefinite article and cannot be pluralized (e.g air, water, furniture, information)

b) LEXICAL VERBS: words which express actions/events/states/processes and show the relationship between the participants in what is referred to by the verb
OPEN CLASS as new verbs are always created
• REGULAR: the vast majority of English verbs, so called because if we know the base form we can predict the 3 other forms by rule
plus new words tend to adopt regular pattern
inflections
o Base form: identical for the infinitive and the present tense
o Inflected forms
-present= one inflectional morpheme -s can be used to modify the verb
-past tense= the morpheme -ed is added

• IRREGULAR: usually verbs derived from old English, most of them are irregular in the past tense and in the past participle
irregular verbs can be classified in 5 groups
o ZERO MORPH: when there’s no change (no inflectional affix) e.g cut, hurt
o VOWEL MUTUATION: the vowel of the root changes e.g comecamecome
o VOWEL MUTUATION+IRREGULAR INFLECTION -EN for the past participle form e.g break, speak, take…
o REPLACIVE MORPHS: past tense= past participle formed irregularly through the replacement of one or more phonemes with other
ones e.g keepkeptkept
o SUPPLETION: past tense and past participle obtained with suppletion, they seem unrelated (phonetically) e.g gowentgone

c) ADJECTIVES: lexical words which describe qualities, properties of people, things, states
divided in
• GRADABLE: can be modified in terms of a scale e.g large-very large-the largest…
• NON-GRADABLE e.g dead/alive *extremely dead/quite married

main 2 functions
• Premodifier to the head noun e.g a brilliant artist
• Complement after an intransitive verb e.g he’s brilliant

d) ADVERBS: lexical words which carry out several functions

comment on an adj by expressing degree (e.g extremely lucky, totally wrong)= INTENSIFIERS
accompany another adv (e.g quite strangely)
give information regarding circumstances of an action/event e.g yesterday, inside, there, well, soon…= ADJUNCTS
info about
✓ How= adv of manner
✓ Where= adv of place
✓ When= adv of time
✓ to what extent= adv of degree e.g she found her job particularly difficult

there are whole phrases in English that have a similar function of adverbs, these are PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
e.g On Saturday we went to the theatre
eg In a flash they have disappeared
they can be replaced by adverbs, though they will not always be as specific as the phrases:
-Then we went there
-Suddenly, they have disappeared
2. GRAMMATICAL WORDS: those whose main function is to relate the lexical words to each other and make standard links to the ctxt
Signal links between different words or linguistic units
• closed class unlike the lexical words they are very slow to change and rarely do so (e.g thou, thee, thy)
• generally unstressed
• not identifiable meaning but rather indicate meaning relationship

a) PRONOUN: grammatical words whose function is to substitute for more complex nouns and noun phrases in order to make the language more
efficient and avoid repetition SO we use pronouns to refer back “anaphorically” and sometimes forward “cataphorically” to people and things that
has been mentioned before or can be deduced from the context
• although a grammatical class they function syntactically in similar ways to the noun class because they can be subj, obj and complements
.

TYPES
1) PERSONAL express the grammatical category of number, gender, case PRONOUNS
2) POSSESSIVE
3) DEMONSTRATIVE
Subject object possessive
4) REFLEXIVE
5) RECIPROCAL I me mine
6) INDEFINITE
7) RELATIVE

there isn’t variation between the subject and the object form of some pronouns
e.g Luca will see you (=obj) now VS You (subj) should come
e.g2 Mine is a book VS This is mine

b) PREPOSITION: grammatical words that link words or syntactical elements and express the relationship (in t or s) between 2 people/events/things
e.g In a garden ; In a day or so…

• Huge number in English, their meanings are rather slippery

• Close to lexical class (think of phrasal verbs)
• Always introduces a phrase that consists of itself and a noun phrase

TYPES
1) SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS (in, at, for, with, to, after, before, by, of, under)
2) COMPLEX PREPOSITIONS are made up of 2 or more words (next to, in front of, thanks to, due to, because of, according to…)

some prepositions and adverbials have the same form but a preposition is always followed by a NP (the adv can stand alone)
e.g I run [through (PP) the park (NP)] VS Will you take me through (ADV)?
HEAD

c) DETERMINER: Grammatical words that are used before a noun to indicate the type of reference the noun has

• usually introduce noun phrases and it defines them

• 3 SUBCLASSES
➢ ARTICLES: the English article system is very simple in form but not in usage
-definite article THE: used for referents that are either very clearly part of the ctxt of the situation or that have been mentioned earlier
-indefinite article A(N): used for singular countable nouns that have not been introduced earlier in the txt and aren’t
expected/evident from the ctxt

➢ DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES (this, these, that, those) they have deictic meaning which shifts according to the location of the
speaker and the referent
-proximal demonstratives (this, these): refer to things/ppl/so on that are physically or emotionally close to the speaker
-distal demonstratives (that, those): “ distant from the speaker

➢ POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES (my, your, her, its, his, our, their similar in form to the possessive pronouns): do not replace the noun
head but combine with it in the way that other determiners do

d) AUXILIARY VERBS: (have, be + modal verbs like can and may) a small class of verbs which occur before the lexical verb and carries general meanings
such as tense, person, modality, aspect (perfective, continuous or both), voice (active or passive)  CANNOT OCCUR ALONE

TYPES
• PRIMARY AUXILIARY VERBS (be, have, do): they can function both as auxiliaries and as lexical verbs e.g She is tall VS She is singing
• MODAL AUXILIARIES (can, will, shall, might, must): they are used to express degrees of certainly necessity, suggestion, possibility or probability

DUMMY OPERATOR is the auxiliary verb “do” which has the same functions as other auxiliaries in forming questions (who did you say?), emphasising
(I did go) and negation (she didn’t arrive) but has no separate meaning of its own.

e) CONJUCTION: grammatical words that link other grammatical units and structures (words, phrases, clauses) together + post it coordination/subordination
TYPES
-coordinating conj (and, but, or, yet, so): they join elements that have equal grammatical status
-subordinating conj (if, although, which, lwhen, because, since…): they join clauses where one is subordinated to the other