Lecture №7: Types of Lexical Information: Morphology (Inflection and Word Formation)

Eighth Session: 05.12.2006

Ninth Session: 12.12.2006

Summary of the session: 05.12 *-*; 12.12 *-*

Homework: 05.12 *-*; 12.12 *-*

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Summary of the session - 05.12.2006:

 

• This session is a continuation of the filling of the microstructure in the lexical entries. This is the first part from the filling of the form/structure from the model of the three types of lexical information. It is about the inner structure of the words or morphology.

• INTRODUCTION: WORD FORMATION

  • Why word formation? - New concepts require new words and word formation is techniques to create new words. Sometimes new words are invented on the spot.

  • Who needs it? - scientists, engineers, product branding company, poets + everybody else

  • Example: Pentium comes form Greek + Latin words; handy comes in German from English with meaning “easy to carry” but in German acquires a new meaning: mobile, cell phone.

• Analysis of Lewis Carroll"s Jabberwocky from “Alice Through the Looking Glass”:

  • chortle=chuckle+snort; galumphing=galloping+triumphant

• MORHOLOGICAL STRUCTURES

  • Morphology has two main branches: inflection and word formation

    • inflection – it is about putting words in sentences and adapt the words for the sentence. It has internal function: syntagmatic – adaptation to context. Its main function is syntagmatic: agreement/congruence/concord.

    • word formation – it is all about the extending of the vocabulary/lexicon. It has external function: paradigmatic – creativity. It is concerned with paradigmatic relations. It consists of derivation and compounding.

    • In inflection and derivation we combine 1 stem + affix(es), and in compounding we combine 2 stems.

    • Paradigmatic relations – relations of similarity and difference (e.g. semantic paradigmatic relations: synonymy is a relation of similarity; in phonology such a relation would be the rhyme).

    • Syntagmatic relations – compositional relations: putting/combining smaller things together to make bigger. In a sentence such a relation would be the relation S-V.

    • anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism

  • Reminder: SIGNS – signs are composed by smaller signs. The meaning of larger signs is composed by the meanings of the smaller signs PLUS something more due to the syntagmatic relation. This is called Compositional Principle of Signs.

  • word (phoneme, stress) > sentence (accent, intonation) > text (intonation) > dialogue (intonation)

• MORHOLOGICY – the study of the structure of words

  • inflection:

    • function (external structure) – 1. marks the relation of words to their contexts 2. no change in the basic meaning of words

    • form (internal structure) – affix (prefix, suffix, infix), superfix, stem vowel change

  • word formation:

    • function (external structure) – 1. creation of new words/POS/meanings 2. in principle infinite extendability of the lexicon

    • form (internal structure) – 1. root/morpheme creation (blending, abbreviation,...) 2. derivation: 1 stem + affix(es) (prefix, suffix, infix), superfix, vowel change 3. compounding: 2 stems, perhaps with interfix or inflection-like affix

• INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF WORDS:

  • morphemes – the smallest meaningful parts of the words. There are two main morpheme types:

    • lexical morpheme (content morpheme or root) – open set: girl, boy, car, grass, spoon, sky

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

  • allomorphs – morphemes are realized in different contexts by allomprhs or variant pronunciation. Examples: Nouns – cats, dogs, horses, oxen, men, women, children; verbs – hits, bids, hisses, buzzes, itches

back to the beginning

Homework - 05.12.2006:

Pronunciation:

The consonants of German which do not occur in English: Я (es-zett), /з/

The consonants of English which do not occur in German: change

The vowels of German which do not occur in English: oe, ue, ae

The vowels of English which do not occur in German: schwa sound

Spelling:

The characters of German which do not occur in English: "sch", "Я"

The characters of English which do not occur in German: "ough"

Five English graphemes containing more than one character: ch, gh, ou, eau, tch

Five German graphemes containing more than one character: sch, tsch, ch, eu, ei

back to the beginning

Summary of the session - 12.12.2006:

• HOW ARE WORDS BUILD?

  • inflection:

    • Function (external structure) – marks the syntagmtic relation of words to their contexts: syntactic contexts (agreement in person, number,case) and situational contexts

    • Form (internal structure): STEM + AFFIX (prefix, suffix, circumfix, infix, superfix

• HOW WORDS ARE BUILD: FORM + FUNCTION

  • Root/Morpheme creation:

    • function (external structure): created new POS and meanings

    • form (internal structure): parts of two or more existing stems – brunch, galumph, chortle

  • Derivation:

    • function (external structure): creates new POS and meanings from 1 existing stem

    • form (internal structure): 1 stem + affix – prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix, superfix

  • Compounding:

    • function (external structure): creates meanings (maybe new POS)

    • form (internal structure): from at least two existing stems – lamp-post, whisky-soda, red-head

• INTERNAL STRUCTURE

  • English words consist of:

    • a stem and an inflection: a stem has a lexical meaning (e.g. table, chair, cabbage) and an inflection has a grammatical meaning: it relates a word to its syntactic context (e.g. S-V agreement); it relates a word to its semantic context (e.g. tense/time, speaker/addressee)

  • Inflections of English words are:

    • suffixes (or stem vowel changes) – person, number, case

    • However, inflections in other languages may be: prefixes (in many African languages), suffixes (as in English and German), circumfix (in German), superfixes (in stress languages, tone languages)

  • Stems of English words are:

    • Simple (i.e. Roots, lexical morphemes): red, table, run, car, knit

    • 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 + another stem, e.g. armchair, whisky-soda, red-head

      • both – synthetic compounds – a derivation + a stem, e.g. bus-driver, steam-roller

  • Words as signs:

  • morpheme (phonemes, stress) > derived word (stress) > compound word (stress) > inflected word (stress)

• SOME SIMPLEX AND COMPLEX WORDS:

  • simplex – oh, ah, eh, oo, I, err, owe, ewe; pa, ma, far, car, star

  • complex:

    • blends, abbreviations – simplex roots based on more than one stem: brunch, NATO

    • derivations – based on one root: unable, impossible, happiness; temerity, antidisestablishmentarianism

    • compounds – 1. based on more than one root/stem: endocentric (jam-jar, honeypot, harddisk, bus-stop); 2. bicentric:whisky-soda, gentleman-farmer; 3. exocentric – red-head, redskin, blue-stocking

• For Sherlock Holmes types:

  • tatpurusa (endocentric) – a dependent determinative compound: e.g. A compound XY meaning a type of Y which is related to X in a way corresponding to one of the grammatical cases of X

  • dvandva (bicentric) – it refers to two or more object that could be connected in sense by the conjunction "and"

  • bahuvrihi (exocentric) – it refers to something that is not specified by any of its parts by themselves

back to the beginning

Homework – 12.12.2006:

Define:

morpheme – the smallest meaningful part of the word

lexical morpheme – content morpheme or root, it carries lexical meaning; it is an open set

grammatical morpheme – structural morpheme; it carries grammatical meaning; it is a closed set and is subdivided into two types: free grammatical morphemes (e.g. prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs) and bound grammatical morphemes (e.g. affixes and suffixes)

stem – a stem can be three types: 1. a root (a lexical morpheme), 2. a derived stem: a stem (root) + affix (derivation), 3. a compound stem: a stem + a stem (compounding)

derived stem – it is either 1. a root (zero derivation) or 2. a derived stem + an affix

compound stem – it is either 1. a derived stem or a word + a derived stem or a word or 2. a compound stem + a compound stem

What is the difference between:

inflection and word formation – with inflection we modify the words (or precisely the form of the words) so that they can fit the sentence according all the syntactic rules; we add grammatical morphemes for person, number, etc.; the class of the word is not changed – that is to say, we do not make it another POS

derivation and compounding and other types of word formation – in derivation we have one stem while in compounding we a concerned with two or more derived stems; blending – we blend the beginning of one word with the end of another one like in smog=smoke+fog; with abbreviation we take the first letters of several words in order to create a new word: e.g. NATO, EU, VTU (University of Veliko Turnovo – my home university :) )

Collect 5 longish words and 1. divide them into morphemes; 2. show construction of a word from their stems as tree diagrammes:

1. ungrammatically – un-grammar-tical-ly

ungrammatically (adv.)
- - -	grammatically (adv.)
- - -	grammatical (adj.)	- - -
un	grammar (n.)	tical	ly

2. undoubtedly – un-doubt-ed-ly

undoubtedly (adv.)
- - -	doubtedly (adv.)
- - -	doubted (verb)	- - -
un	doubt (n.)	ed	ly

3. reincarnation – re-incarn-ation

reincarnation (n.)
reincarnate (v.)	- - -
re	incarnate (v.)	ation

4. redoubled – re-double-ed

redoubled (participle)
redouble (v.)	- - -
re	double (v.)	ed

5. betrayals – betray-al-s

betrayals (n. Pl.)
betrayal (n.)	- - -
betray (v.)	al	s

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GO TO THE NEXT LECTURE: Lecture 8 *-*