Lecture 3.

Morphological processes
https://oer-vlc.de/course/view.php?id=20&section=5

This unit discusses the basic morphological processes, inflection and word-formation, it looks at the
main inflectional categories and lists the central differences between inflection and word-formation. In
the content section, where you will find one central e-lecture, we will look at inflection and word-
formation in detail. This includes the central criteria that distinguish inflection from word-formation as
well as the discussion of the central inflectional categories.

Carefully study all activities in this topic and - once you have understood the content - tick them off to
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activity.

Central Topics

 morphological-processes defined

 inflection

 word-formation

Questions

1. Name the fundamental morphological processes and provide at least one example of each.
(Overview)

2. What are the basic differences between inflection and word-formation? (Overview)

3. What is inflection and what is an inflectional paradigm?

4. What do you understand by declension and conjugation? (Inflection)

5. Which inflectional categories do you know and which ones are used in PDE?

6. What is derivation? List and discuss at least three examples.

7. What is compounding?

8. Why is compounding a recursive process?

Overview

This unit on morphology describes the basic morphological processes: inflection, derivation,

and compounding.

1. Inflection

Inflection, sometimes spelled inflexion, produces from a basic form, the stem, all those variants which
occur in syntactically determined environments. Traditionally, inflection can be subdivided into
declension = noun/adjective inflection, and conjugation = verb inflection. The set of inflectional variants
of a word is referred to as an (inflectional) paradigm.

The following criteria have been put forward to distinguish inflection from other morphological
processes:

 Productivity
A morphological process is fully productive if it applies to all members of a specific class,
irrespective of the type of morphological realization (prefixing, suffixing, vowel change, etc.).
Inflectional processes are highly productive.
 PST :  VRB+{-er} PL : N + {-s} CMP : ADJ + {-er}

 Stability of word-class
Inflectional processes do not change the word class of the stem, irrespective of the type of
morphological realization (prefixing, suffixing, vowel change, etc.)

vrb [walk] > vrb[walked]; n[woman] > n[women]; adj[long] > adj[longer]

 Stability of stress pattern

Inflection does not involve a change of the stress pattern of the stem, irrespective of the type of
morphological realization (prefixing, suffixing, vowel change, etc.)

NAvigate ==> NAvigat(e)-ed; MIcrophone ==> MIcrophone-s; LONG ==> LONG-er

 Semantic transparency
Inflection does not involve a change of meaning of the stem, irrespective of the type of
morphological realization (prefixing, suffixing, vowel change, etc.).

These criteria are primarily based on PDE. In some languages, the criterion "stability" of stress pattern
does not work. Here is an example from Welsh (Cymraeg), a Celtic language:

'aval (engl. apple)
a'valaj (engl. apple-s)

Cross-linguistically there are several ways of inflecting words (some of these may also be used in
word-formation) and several inflectional categories.

Categories
The different inflectional formations are referred to as inflectional categories. For example, English
verbs have the inflectional categories 'present tense' and 'past tense'. Together, these categories
constitute the dimension 'tense'.

Cross-linguistically, the following dimensions (green) and categories (yellow) can be found:
 Nominal (N) Verbal (V) Other (N, V, A, P)
Number Tense Agreement
singular, plural, number, case, person,
present, past, future
dual gender
Case Aspect
nominative,
genitive, dative, (im)perfective, habitual
accusative ...
Mood
indicative, subjunctive,
imperative

English only uses a subset of these options:

Dimensions Nouns Personal Pronouns

Singular, Plural: Singular, Plural:
Number
table, table-s I, we
Genitive, Oblique: Nominative, Genitive, Objective:
Case
table-'s, table I, my, me

Dimensions Verbs
Present, Past:
Tense
watch, watch-ed

Dimensions Adjectives
Comparative, Superlative
gradation
long-er, long-est
All other categories are either non-inflectional (e.g. -er, -less, etc.), or they are formed periphrastcally,
e.g. perfective: have + verb. There is disagreement among morphologists as to whether adjectival
gradation is inflectional or not. Cross-linguistically, it is clearly an exceptional property, in English,
however, it is normally defined as inflection.

Word-Formation
Word-formation processes involve a basic form and one or more affixes (derivation) or one or more
basic forms (compounding). The form and meaning of the resulting word-form cannot always be
predicted from its component parts, thus the word should be listed in the lexicon. For this reason, some
linguists use the term lexical morphology instead:

Some linguists argue that the term word-formation is too restricted, since all morphological processes,
including inflection, somehow form words. They suggest using the term lexical morphology instead.
The argument for using this term is quite simple: lexical processes are to some extent non-productive
and the resulting word forms must be listed in the lexicon (the human word store).

There are two main types of word-formation processes:

 Derivation

 Compounding

2. Derivation

Derivation is a word-formation process that involves a basic form and one or more affixes. The
resulting derivative can again undergo morphological processes. Hence the process of derivation is
recursive.

Derivation can be distinguished from inflection by the following criteria:

 Lack of productivity
A morphological process is fully productive if it applies to all members of a specific class,
irrespective of the type of morphological realization (prefixing, suffixing, vowel change, etc.).
Word-formation processes are not fully productive depending on the type of process applied.

 Instability of word-class
Word-formation processes may change the word class of the base, irrespective of the type of
morphological realization (prefixing, suffixing, vowel change, etc.)

 Instability of stress pattern

Word-formation processes often change the stress pattern of the base as soon as an affix is
added. There are two types of affixes:
 o stress maintaining affixes (e.g. -ize, -less)

o stress changing affixes (e.g. -esque, -ity)

 Semantic non-transparency
The meaning of the affixes involved in word-formation processes is in many cases not clearly
definable, i.e. the affixes cannot be straightforwardly associated with a fixed meaning. Unlike
inflectional affixes they are semantically non-transparent.

The options for building derivatives in English are summarized below using one affix per
derivational process:

  Derived Form (Derivative)

Basic Form Noun Verb Adjective
Noun child-hood standard-ize point-less
Verb walk-er re-write move-able
Adjective good-ness quick-en un-happy

Compounding

Compounding (also referred to as composition) is a word-formation process that involves at least two
basic forms (lexemes). Since any compound (at least those that consist of noun-noun combinations in
English) can serve as a basis for further compounds, compounding is recursive, i.e. theoretically there
is no limit concerning the number of lexemes to be compounded. Depending on the predictability of
their meaning there are two types of compounds:

 Endocentric compounds

 Exocentric compounds

In endocentric compounds we can clearly define a semantic head.

Mastery Test - Morphological Processes:
https://oer-vlc.de/mod/quiz/view.php?id=2824&forceview=1