MORPHOLOGY & ITS RELATED THEORIES

Lec: 1

Morphology (chapter 1)
By:
Dr Riaz-ud-Din
INTRODUCTION
Working Definition: The study of the internal
structure of words.
Synonymous with grammar (Panini)
Specialist term syntax
Classical languages (morphologically complex
against Europeans)
Ignored area
Nineteenth century term
Revised definition
Meeting Points: Phonology & semantics
Phonological segments (phonemes:
differentiating words e.g. cat & bat
Co-variation: bats & cats (formal variation)
Lapse & box (final segment; no plurality)
Non-words: bok & lap
Words like: bats & cats are thus called complex
words on the basis of identical partial
resmblances
Cont….
Def: Morphology is the study of systematic co-
variation in the form and meaning of words.
Consistency not accidental: ear/hear &
elbow/helbow
Identification of smallest significant parts of
words: constituents/morphemes
Morphology thus is the study of combination of
morphemes to yields words.
Confusion with syntax
MORPHOLOGY ACROSS LANGUAGES
Single words: English (nights, books etc)
More than one: Yaruba ( okunrin– the man, awon
okunrin – the men)
Implicit
Morphologically rich vs poor ( English vs Yruba,
even richer Sumerian & Greek & Sumerian).
The problem of split infinitive
Cont…
Isolating (Yaruba & Vietnamese)
Analytic (English)
Synthetic (rich use of morphology)
Polysythetic (West Greenlandic)
See table 1.1 (p: 6)
Circle & Movement
GOALS OF Morphological Theory
Elegant description (Generality)
Cognitively realistic description (psychological
adequacy)
Gold/Plato’s problem
System external explanation (the why of a rule),
Cross linguistic /Universals (animate vs
inanimate nouns)
Mentalists vs Functionalists
Cont…
Restrictive architecture (Economy)
Cross-domain (Interfaces).