Introduction to Linguistics II Ling 2121C, group b

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Introduction to Linguistics II Ling 2-121C,
group b

• Eleni Miltsakaki
• AUTH
• Spring 2006

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Course outline

• Morphology
• Content words and function words
• Bound and free morphemes
• Word formation processes
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Historical Linguistics

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What is morphology?

• The study of the structure of words
• Words are part of our linguistic knowledge
• Words are part of our mental grammars

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Basic questions for morphology

• What are words and how are they formed?
• How are complex words formed from simpler parts?
• What are the basic building blocks in the
  formation of complex words?
• How is the meaning of the complex word related to
  the meaning of its parts?
• How are individual words of a language related to
  other words of the language?

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What do we know when we know a word?

• Phonological info How it is pronounced
• Morphological info Its internal structure
• Syntactic info Part of speech
• Semantic info What it means
• Pragmatic info How we use it

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What is a word?

• Video-show
• An arbitrary pairing of sound and meaning
• E.g. house, casa, maison etc

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Content and function words

• Content words
• They denote concepts
• They are open class
• They are nouns, adjectives, adverbs
• Function words
• They have a grammatical function
• They are closed class
• They are conjunctions, prepositions, articles,
  demonstratives, pronouns

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Simple and complex words

• Simple words
• Minimal unit
• Cannot be further analyzed
• E.g. tree
• Complex words
• Made of more than one part
• E.g. trees
• ? We need a name for the parts which combine to
  make complex words

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Morphemes

• Morphemes are the building blocks of complex
  words
• Trees base morpheme plural morpheme
• Types of morphemes
• Free independent words
• Bound affixes

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Types of affixes

• Prefixes They are attached to the beginning of
  another morpheme
• E.g. rewrite, rethink
• Suffixes They are attached to the end of another
  morpheme
• E.g. modernize, centralize
• Infixes They are attached within another
  morpheme (less common but certain languages do
  have infixes)
• E.g. kayu wood
• -in- product of a completed
  action
• kinayu gathered wood

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How are new words created?

• Word formation rules (derivations)
• Coining
• Compounding
• Blending
• Acronyms
• Clippings
• Backformation
• Conversion

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Derivational morphology

• Bound morphemes added to a root morpheme to form
  a new word with new meaning are called
  derivational morphemes.
• E.g. -ify, -cation
• pure ? purify ? purification
• to make pure the process of making
  pure
• pouzy ? pouzify ? pouzification
• The form that results from the addition of a
  derivational morpheme is called derived word

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The hierarchical structure of words

• Morphemes are added in a fixed order according to
  the morphological rules of a language
• E.g. system ? systematic ? unsystematic

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Tree diagrams

• The hierarchical organization of words can be
  represented in a tree diagram
• Adjective
• Un Adjective
• Noun atic
• system

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• Adverb
• Adjective ly
• Adjective al
• un Adjective
• Noun atic
• system
• 
  unsystem

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More about trees

• Tree diagrams are the linguists hypothesis of
  how speakers represent the internal structure of
  words
• Take a look at ambiguous cases such as unlockable

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Not able to be locked
Able to be unlocked

• Adjective
• Verb able
• un verb
• lock

• Adjective
• un Adjective
• Verb able
• lock

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• If words were only strings of morphemes without
  any internal organization, we could not explain
  the ambiguity of words like unlockable

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Inflectional morphology

• Inflectional morphology indicates grammatical
  aspects of a word
• Plurality (boy boys)
• Tense (walk walked)
• Person (walk walks)
• In English all inflectional morphemes are suffixes

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How many morphemes?

• Retroactive
• Befriended
• Televise
• Margin
• Psychology
• Unpalatable
• Deactivation
• Airsickness
• Grandmother
• Morphemic

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Can you tree the ambiguity?

• A Have you finished your ten-page book report,
  Norman?
• B I havent even started it.
• A But its due tomorrow! I started mine a month
  ago! Why did you wait until last minute??
• B Perhaps I have more confidence in my
  intellectual abilities that you have in yours!
  Besides, how long could it possibly take to read
  a ten-page book?

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Coining

• Speakers invent (coin) new words to describe
  previously non-existent objects
• E.g., xerox, fax, nylon, vaseline etc

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Compounding

• When two or more words are combined to form a new
  word
• E.g., bittersweet, homework, spoonfeed, sleepwalk
  etc.
• In English the rightmost of a compound is the
  head of the compound
• Nounverbverb, e.g., spoonfeed

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Meaning of compounds

• The meaning of compounds is not always the sum of
  its parts
• E.g. a blackboard maybe green or white
• Also
• A boathouse is a house for boats but a cathouse
  is not a house for cats (slang for whorehouse)
• A jumping bean is a bean that jumps, a falling
  star is a star that falls but a looking glass is
  not a glass that looks
• Peanut oil and olive oil but baby oil?

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Pronunciation of compounds

• In a compound the first word is usually stressed
• Compare REDcoat (slang for British soldier) with
  red COAT

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Blending

• The combination of two separate forms to produce
  a single new term
• Smoke fog smog
• Breakfast lunch brunch
• Motor hotel motel

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Acronyms

• Acronyms are words derived from the initials of
  several words
• NASA, from National Aeronautics and Space Agency
• UNESCO, from United Nations Educational,
  Scientific, and Cultural Organization
• Radar, from radio detecting and ranging
• Laser, from light amplification by stimulated
  emission of radiation
• Scuba, from self-contained underwater breathing
  apparatus
• RAM, random access memory

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Backformation

• A new word may enter the language because of an
  incorrect morphological analysis
• beggar ? beg
• editor ? edit
• Enthusiasm ? enthuse

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Abbreviation

• Abbreviations of longer words may be lexicalized
• Fax ? facsimile
• Telly ? television
• Gym ? gymnasium

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Eponyms

• Eponyms are words derived from proper names
• Sandwich named for the fourth Earl of Sandwich
  who put his food between two slices of bread so
  that he could eat while he gambled

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Clipping

• Clipping occurs when a word of more than one
  syllable is reduced to a shorter form
• Fan ? fanatic
• Plane ? airplane
• Pro ? professional
• Lab ? laboratory
• Gas ? gasoline

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Conversion

• Conversion is a change in the function of a word
• Verbs ? nouns (guess, must, spy, etc.)
• Adjectives ? verbs (dirty, empty, total, etc.)
• Particles ? verbs (up, down)

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