Donnerstag, 17. Januar 2008

Introduction to Linguistics - Lecture 6


Lecture Six, 21st of November 2007

Morphology - word construction



1. Introduction
2. Learner's Diary
3. Tasks and Quizzes
4. Evaluation
5. References


1. Introduction

The topic of the lesson were the morphology studies, the internal structure of words and about an other topic of Mr. Trippel's presentation, words and their parts.


2. Learner's Diary

Morphology describes the anatomy of a word. Therefore it is necessary to describe the word word.


A word is

- the smallest unit of a sentence.
- a string of letters separated by a space.
- a string of speech sounds separated by a pause.
- one or more morphemes which can stand alone.

- words make up sentences, which is referred to as syntax
- pronunciation with speech sounds - phonemes
- meaningful (sub)structure of words - morphology


Morphology


Morphology is the study of the formation of words, morpheme are the smallest units of a language that carry meaning. A word can be comprised of one or more morpheme.

- try = attempt to do something
- try + “in the past” = tried
- try + “at the moment” = trying


Distinction

A simple word consists of only one morpheme. (boy, man, radio, book, paper) A complex word contains more than one morpheme (computer, boys, radio-recorder,
bookshelf, magnetize) In addition there is a differentiation between free morphemes and bound morphemes. A free morpheme can occur as a simple word, e.g. boy, radio, man. A bound morpheme can only occur in connection with other morphemes, e.g. -s, -ion, un-, -ize. Allomorphs are variant forms of a morpheme, e.g. the -s at the end of a plural word.



The English word

English words consist of a stem and an inflection. The stem carries a lexical meaning and the inflection a grammatical meaning.

A stem has lexical meaning, e.g. table, chair, wonderful, happiness. An inflection has grammatical meaning and relates a word to its syntactic context and relates a word to its semantic context.


Inflexions of English words are

suffixes (or stem vowel changes):
- person
- number
- case

inflexions in other languages may be
- prefixes (many African languages)
- suffixes (as in English and German)
- circumfixes (German)
- superfixes (stress languages; tone languages)
- infix: affix which is inserted within a root (linking two words into a compound)
- circumfix: affix that is placed around a morpheme; only occurs in German

Stems of English words are

simple (roots, lexical morphemes)

complex, i.e. at least one of the following:

derivations (a stem and a derivational affix, e.g.)
- red+ish = reddish
- beauty + ful = beautiful

Compounds (a stem plus another stem, e.g.)
- armchair
- whisky-soda
- red-head

both synthetic compounds (a derivation plus a stem, e.g.)
- bus-driver
- steam-roller




Definitions of words and their parts (abstract)




Some simplex and complex words

simplex:
- oh, ah, eh, oo, I, err, owe, ewe
- pa, ma, far, car, star
complex:

derivations (based on one root):
- unable, impossible, happiness, temerity
- temerity, antidisestablishmentarianism

compounds (based on more than one root/stem):
- endocentric: jam-jar, honeypot, harddisk, bus-stop
- bicentric: whisky-soda, gentleman-farmer
- exocentric: red-head, redskin, blue-stocking



Roots and affixes are morphemes

Morphemes are smallest meaningful parts of words

Two types of morphemes


lexical morpheme (content morpheme, root):
- open set: girl, boy, car, box, spoon, grass, sky

grammatical morpheme (structural morpheme):
- closed set
free: prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs
bound: affixes, suffixes (in word formation and inflection


Morphemes and allomorphs


Morphemes are realised in different contexts by
- allomorphs
- variant pronunciations

Examples
Nouns: cats, dogs, horses, oxen, men, women, children
Verbs: hits, bids, hisses, buzzes, itches




3. Tasks and Quizzes


Find at least 20 simple words

ball, stone, tree, money, ball, nut, fruit, blood, head, pillow, book, bottle, rose, flower, word, face, oven, fish, water, ring


Find at least 20 complex words

ice-cream, bathroom, disappearance, enforcement, bookstore, attention, separation, breakfast, possibility, laptop, boyfriend, football, characteristics, afternoon, picture, opportunist, compromise, architecture, symphony, criminal

Which of them are similar?

bathroom, bookstore, afternoon, laptop

Can you describe the similarity?

consist of two words

Can you find a relation between some of your simple words and complex words?

Some of the simple words are part of a complex word, e.g. ball in football


Make a list of 20 free morphemes

boy, mouth, ball, cat, ship, beauty, social, pencil, frost, love, clock, door, friend, cream, power, sister, father, folder, shoe, tie


Find bound morphemes

-s, -ion, -ize, un-, de-, anti-, -ed, im-, -ful, -ing,


Complete the sentences

Every word contains a base.
A morpheme that is also a word is called a free morpheme.
A morpheme that needs a root to make up a word is called a bound morpheme.
An affix in front of a base is called a prefix behind a base it is called a suffix.
Both, simple words and complex words can be the base for a more complex word.
Every root,(suffix, prefix) is a (base, suffix), but not every (base, suffix) is a root,(suffix, prefix)


Find other compounds in English with a head that is a

noun - football, bookstore, ice-cold

verb - highlight, cold-blooded

adjectives - slowcoach, free time


Find other compounds in English with a modifier that is a

noun – asparagus bed, violin bow

verb – go-ahead, try-on

adjectives – green card, hot dog

prepositions – outside, inside, downstairs


Select of the following parts of speech 3 each and derive as many words as possible from them!

Verbs
fight fighting, fight back, rooster fight, pillow fight, fighter, fight bomber
believe believer, believes, make-believe, believing, believable,
sleep sleeper, sleeping, sleep-in, sleepiness, sleep disturbance, sleepy

Nouns
child childish, childhood, children, childbirth, child care, childless, childishness, childlike, child minder, child prodigy
construct construction, constructional, constructive, constructor,
home homeless, homemade, homeliness, homelike, homely, homemaker,
homeward,

Adjectives
smooth smoothie, smoothness, smooth-tongued, smooth away
flat flat, flat-rate, flatbread, flat out, B flat, flatlet, flatly, flatness, flatten

4. Evaluation

The lesson today was easy to understand, a little bit difficult was the fact, that there were two presentations.


5. References


http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/~gibbon/Classes/Classes2007WS/ITL/index.html

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