Lecture 4.

Morphological Operations
https://oer-vlc.de/course/view.php?id=20&section=6

To build words, morphological operations have to manipulate basic forms in various ways. This can
be done by means of adding items or concatenating two or more entities. Further operations concern
the manipulation of the basic form itself, e.g. by means of phonological changes. In the content
section, where you will find one central e-lecture and several micro-lecture videos, we will start with
affixation, will then move on to discuss non-concatenative operations before eventually we will look at
more exotic operations such as suppletion or reduplication.
Carefully study all activities in this topic and - once you have understood the content - tick them off to
document your progress. At the end - once you are confident - answer the ten mastery questions and
obtain the digital badge for this topic (you need 70% or more). And if you don't know where to start,
use the questions below. If you can answer them, fine, if not use the hyperlinks to be led to the
respective activity.
Central Topics
 Affixation
 non-concatenative operations
 further operations
Questions
1. List and discuss at least two morphological operations used to build words. (Overview)
2. What is an affix and what types of affixes do you know?
3. What types of non-concatenative operations are defined in morphology?
4. What are the differences between the two main vocalic changes, ablaut and umlaut?
5. In what ways can tonal changes be used to mark morphological distinctions.
6. Some languages use stress to mark morphological distinctions. In which way?
7. What do you understand by reduplication. List an example on the basis of any language you
know.
8. What is suppletion?

Overview

To build words morphological operations have to manipulate basic forms (roots and
stems) in various ways. This can be done by means of adding items or concatenating
two or more entities or it can be achieved by non-concatenative operations that
somehow modify the base. Further operations range from more complicated affixation
processes to the subtraction of material from the base. The following types of
operations can be defined:

• Affixation
• Non-concatenative operations
• Further operations

Affixation

The simplest and most direct means, perhaps, by which a language can mark a
category is by the addition of some affixal material to the stem to which it applies.
Depending on their position in relation to the base, affixes are called:

• prefixes (before the base):

A prefix is an affix like re-, un-, and in-, attached before the base:

 re-make, re-read
 un-kind, un-tidy
 in-decent, in-accurate

• suffixes (after the base):

A suffix is an affix like -ly, -er, and -ed, attached after the base:
  kind-ly, quick-ly
 wait-er, play-er
 walk-ed, jump-ed

• infixes (within the base):

An infix is an affix inserted into the base (stem).

Infixes are common in the Afroasiatic languages (e.g. in Arabic), but even
contemporary English allows infixation. In expressive language, expletives, such
as bloody etc., may be inserted into existing words:
 kanga-bloody-roo

• circumfixes (around the base):

Circumfixes circumvent the base.

Whereas English does not have circumfixes, they exist in other languages, for
example, in German verbs, such as leg- ('put'):

  Root Past Participle Circumfix

leg- ge-leg-t ge-...-t

It is quite often the case that the morphology of a language is predominately based on
one or another type of affix. English, for example, is primarily suffixing.

Non-Concatenative Operations
The picture of words consisting of a string of morphemes is too simple. Besides
affixation and compounding, there are quite a few other formal operations by which
complex word forms can be derived. These operations are referred to as non-
concatenative since the resulting words cannot easily be segmented into morphemes.
Rather, they are more conveniently described in process terms.
Many languages mark morphological alternation by a phonological operation
performed on the base itself. Such an operation may involve segmental as well as
suprasegmental features. The following base changes can be defined:
• vocalic changes
• consonantal changes
• tonal changes
• stress change

Vocalic Changes
One important type of base modification changes the stem vowel (thus often referred to
as 'vowel alternation'). Two types of vowel change are normally distinguished:

• Ablaut

The term Ablaut refers to a process of root vowel change that gives a word a new
grammatical function. In Indo-European, for example, the common ancestor language,
to most European languages, the vowel of the root would change systematically to
express such differences as singular and plural, present tense and past tense. This
feature is still used in many IE languages:

drink drank

trink- trank-

• Umlaut

The term Umlaut refers to a type of root vowel change where a vowel is influenced by

the vowel of the following syllable. This particular vocalic change is given the distinct
name Umlaut for reasons to do with the historical origin of the words it affects. From a
synchronic point of view, it is simply another type of alternation of vowel quality like
ablaut.

  
*fo#ti (OE)   *fu#ti (OHG)
feet   Füße
o_i ==> e   u_i ==> ü

Consonantal

Grammatical categories marked by vowel alternations are quite common, but in some
languages this purpose is served by consonantal alternations as well. In Fula, a Niger-
Congo language spoken in West-Africa, for example, nouns are represented in three
so-called grades (example: 'man')
wor- grade 1: continuant
gor- grade 2: plosive
ngor- grade 3: nasal

The difference among the grades concerns the initial consonant. The choice of a
particular grade is determined by the class to be expressed. For example, the singular
non-diminuitive form is gor-ko, the plural form, which belongs to a different class,
is wor-dhe.

Tonal
Pitch variations that affect the meaning of a word are called tones. A language that
uses this technique to distinguish one word from another is referred to as tone
language.
The simplest kind of tone language uses two possible tones, high and low. Languages
which involve no gliding tones are called register tone languages. Well-known
examples of this type are the Bantu languages of Africa, for example, Medumba.
More complex tone systems use contour tones, i.e. tones involving gliding movements.
The most well-known tone language is Mandarin Chinese. See how it uses tones.

Stress
Many languages mark grammatical categories with suprasegmental features, such as,
stress and tone.

'hab-lo (I) speak hab-'lo (He) spoke segmental identity

window
ak'no window 'okna segmental change
(+plural)

In Spanish verbs, for example, the location of stress is often correlated with tense,
other languages use tonal patterns to distinguish certain grammatical categories from
one another. In Russian, the change from singular to plural may be realized by means
of stress shift plus segmental change.

Further Operations
In addition to the main morphological operations on bases there are further types of
morphological alternation. They range from the addition of parts of the base to the
complete replacement of a form by another:
• reduplication
• suppletion
In some languages, e.g. Japanese, morpho-syntactic information is often expressed by
separate particles, such as {ga}, {wa} for syntactic functions, etc. These almost have
the character of words rather than of bound morphemes and are referred to as clitics.
Clitic
In linguistics, a clitic is an element that cannot stand alone as a separate word, but instead attaches to a
neighboring word, typically a noun or verb, to form a single grammatical unit. Clitics are similar to affixes,
but they behave differently in terms of phonology and syntax. Thus, a clitic is an obligatorily bound morph
which is intermediate between an affix and a word.
Clitics are typically unstressed, and often written together with the word they attach to. Examples (clitics
marked in boldface):
 We'll be on our way soon.
 She's very lonely.
 French:  "en" in "j'en veux

Reduplication

One means of marking morphological alternation is a technique where part or all of the
affected base, perhaps modified in some systematic fashion, is copied. This process is
known as reduplication.
English makes use of reduplication only very sporadically, e.g. as in higglety-
pigglety, hocus-pocus, etc.
However, other languages make frequent use of this technique, for example, in order
to make plurals or to build tenses:
Indonesian uses total reduplication to form the plural of nouns:

Singular Plural
rumrah house rumrahrumrah house-s
ibu mother ibuibu mother-s
lalat fly lalatlalat fly-s (flies)

An example of partial reduplication comes from Tagalog (a major language of the

Philippines):

Verb Stem Future Tense

bili buy bibili will buy
kain eat kakain will eat
pasok enter papasok will enter

Suppletion

The most extreme form of base modification is the complete replacement of one base
by another. This is most frequently encountered in the closed classes of the grammar:
pronouns, the copula, etc.

go went

am was

Suppletion is thus a morphological operation that expresses no systematic similarity

between the forms of a paradigm.

Mastery Test - Morphological Operations

https://oer-vlc.de/mod/quiz/view.php?id=2800&forceview=1

In-Class Activities

1. How could one describe the process of past tense formation on the basis of the following word-
forms?
- baked - hated - sank - took - went -
2. Take the respective stem given and build the relevant word-form with the morphemes below:
believe {past participle}, take {past}, be {3rd person sing.}, swim {past participle}
3. Work out the basic phonological forms of the following words:
makes - lets - goes - does - has - is
4. What effect does the process of past tense formation have on the following verb stems?
hate - hit - sink - love - go