Word Structure

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Word Structure

• Part 1

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The Structure of Words Morphology

• Fundamental concepts in how words are composed
  out of smaller parts
• The nature of these parts
• The nature of the rules that combine these parts
  into larger units
• What it might mean to be a word

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Today

• Morphemes
• Types of Morphemes
• Putting Morphemes together into larger structures
• Words with internal structure
• Interesting properties of compounds

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I. Morphemes

• Remember that in phonology the basic distinctive
  units of sound are phonemes
• In morphology, the basic unit is the morpheme
• Basic definition A morpheme is a minimal unit
  of sound and meaning
• (this can be modified in various ways see
  below)

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Some Examples

• Many words can be divided into smaller parts,
  where the parts also occur in other words
• dogs walking blackens player-hater
• dog-s walk-ing black-en-s play-er hat-er
• Compare cat-s runn-ing dark-en-s eat-er
• (note in some cases there are spelling changes
  when we add morphemes ignore this)

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Parts, cont.

• The smaller parts occur consistently with many
  words
• -s forms the plural consistently
• -ing forms a noun from a verb
• -en forms a verb meaning become ADJ from an
  adjective ADJ
• -er forms an agentive nominal from a verb, a
  person or thing who does that activity

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Consistent Sound/Meaning

• Notice that this is not the only way we can
  divide up words into smaller parts consider
• Tank, plank, flank, drank, rank, etc.
• In these words, we could easily identify a
  component -ank
• However, this is not a morpheme
• There is no consistent meaning with this -ank
• The leftover pieces t-, pl-, fl-, dr-, r- are
  not morphemes either

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Connections between Sound and Meaning

• Remember that a phoneme sometimes has more than
  one sound form, while being the same abstract
  unit /p/ with p and ph
• A related thing happens with morphemes as well
• In order to see this, we have to look at slightly
  more complex cases

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Morphemes and Allomorphs

• We will say in some cases that a morpheme has
  more than one allomorph
• This happens when the same meaning unit like
  past for past tense or pl for plural has more
  than one sound form
• Past one feature past
• kick / kick-ed
• leave / lef-t
• hit / hit-Ø
• The last example shows a case in which the
  phonological form of the morpheme past is zero,
  i.e. it is not pronounced

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Allomorphy, cont.

• In the case of phonology, we said that the
  different allophones of a phoneme are part of the
  same phoneme, but are found in particular
  contexts
• The same is true of the different allomorphs of a
  morpheme
• Which allomorph of a morpheme is found depends on
  its context in this case, what it is attached
  to
• Example consider pl for English plural. It
  normally has the pronunciation s (i.e. /z/), but
• moose / moose- Ø
• ox / ox-en
• box/box-en/box-es
• So, the special allomorphs depend on the noun

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An Additional Point Regular and Irregular

• In the examples above, the different allomorphs
  have a distinct status. One of them is regular.
• This is the default form that appears when
  speakers are using e.g. new words (one blork,
  two blorks)
• For other allomorphs, speakers simply have to
  memorize the fact that the allomorph is what it
  is
• Example It cannot be predicted from other facts
  that the plural of ox is ox-en
• Demonstration The regular plural is /z/
  consider one box, two box-es.
• Default cases like the /z/ plural are called
  regular. Allomorphs that have to be memorized are
  called irregular.
• Irregular allomorphs block regular allomorphs
  from occurring (ox-en, not ox-es or ox-en-s).

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Two types

• There are in fact two types of allomorphy. Think
  back to phonology
• The Plural morpheme in English has different
  sound-forms dog-s/cat-s/church-es
• These are predictable, based on the phonological
  context
• In the case of Past Tense allomorphy, it is not
  predictable from the phonology which affix
  appears
• We can find verbs with the same (or similar)
  sound form, but with different allomorphs
  break/broke, not stake/stoke
• If you think about this case for a while, though,
  you will notice some patterns more on this later

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II. Morpheme Types

• Well now set out some further distinctions among
  morpheme types
• Our working definition of morpheme was minimal
  unit of sound and meaning
• A further division among morphemes involves
  whether they can occur on their own or not
• No -s in dog-s -ed in kick-ed cran- in
  cran-berry
• Yes dog, kick, berry

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Some Definitions

• Bound Morphemes Those that cannot appear on
  their own
• Free Morphemes Those that can appear on their
  own
• In a complex word
• The root or stem is the basic or core morpheme
• The things added to this are the affixes
• Example in dark-en the root or stem is dark,
  while the affix in this case a suffix is -en

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Further points

• In some cases, works will use root and stem in
  slightly different ways
• Affixes are divided into prefixes and suffixes
  depending on whether they occur before or after
  the thing they attach to. Infixes-- middle of a
  word (e.g. fan-fing-tastic)
• For the most part, prefixes and suffixes are
  always bound, except for isolated instances

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Content and Function Words

• Another distinction
• Content Morphemes morphemes that have a
  referential function that is independent of
  grammatical structure e.g. dog, kick, etc.
• Sometimes these are called open-class because
  speakers can add to this class at will
• Function morphemes morphemes that are bits of
  syntactic structure e.g. prepositions, or
  morphemes that express grammatical notions like
  past for past tense.
• Sometimes called closed-class because speakers
  cannot add to this class

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Cross-Classification

• The bound/free and content/function distinctions
  are not the same. Some examples
• Content Function
• Bound cran- -ed
• Free dog the

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Aside Non-Affixal Morphology

• In the cases above, we have seen many affixes
  associated with some morphological function
• In other cases, there are additional changes
  e.g., changes to the stem vowel
• sing/sang
• goose/geese
• Examples of this type are not obviously affixal,
  as there is no (overt) added piece (prefix or
  suffix). Rather, the phonology of the stem/root
  has changed

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Some examples

• Stem changing
• Present Past Participle
• sing sang sung
• begin began begun
• sit sat sat
• come came come

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Another pattern

• While in many cases the stem change does not
  co-occur with an affix, in some cases it does
• Examples
• break broke brok-en
• tell tol-d tol-d
• freeze froze froz-en

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Use of stem changing patterns

• In some languages, stem-changing is much more
  important than it is in e.g. English
• In Semitic languages, extensive use is made of
  different templatic patterns, that is, abstract
  patterns of consonants and vowels
• Arabic noun plurals
• kitaab book kutub books
• nafs soul nufus souls

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III. Internal structure of words

• Words have an internal structure that requires
  analysis into constituents (much like syntactic
  structure does)
• For example
• Unusable contains three pieces un-, use, -able
• Question If we are thinking about the
  procedures for building words, is the order
• derive use-able, then add un- or
• derive un-use, then add -able

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Word Structure

• Possibilities
• Structure 1 Structure 2
• un use able un use able

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Word Structure, Cont.

• Consider
• With able, we create adjectives meaning capable
  of being V-ed, from verbs V
• Break/break-able kick/kick-able
• There is no verb un-use
• This is an argument that Structure 1 is correct
• un use able
• This analysis fits well with what the word means
  as well not capable of being used. Structure
  two would mean some thing like capable of not
  being used

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Another example

• Consider another word (from the first class)
  unlockable. Focus on un-
• Note that in addition to applying to adjectives
  (clear/unclear) to give a contrary meaning, un-
  applies to some verbs to give a kind of undoing
  or reversing meaning
• do, undo
• zip, unzip
• tie, untie
• Note now that unlockable has two meanings

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The Unlockable example

• Two meanings
• Not capable of being locked
• Capable of being unlocked
• These meanings correspond to distinct structures
• 1) 2)
• un lock able un lock
  able

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Unlockable, cont.

• The second structure is one in which able
  applies to the verb unlock
• This verb is itself created from un- and lock
• The meaning goes with this capable of being
  unlocked
• In structure 1, there is no verb unlock
• So the meaning is not capable of being locked

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Some General Points

• The system for analyzing words applies in many
  cases that are created on the fly
• Complex words and their meanings are not simply
  stored rather, the parts are assembled to create
  complex meanings
• Another example of the same principle applies in
  the process of compounding

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Introduction to Compounding

• A compound is a complex word that is formed out
  of a combination of stems (as opposed to stem
  affix)
• These function in a certain sense as one word,
  and have distinctive phonological patterns
• Examples
• olive oil
• shop talk
• shoe polish
• truck driver
• Note that the different elements in these
  compounds relate to each other in different
  ways...

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Internal structure

• Like with other complex words, the internal
  structure of compounds is crucial
• There are cases of ambiguities like that with
  unlockable
• Example obscure document shredder
• Person who shreds obscure documents
• obscure document shredder
• Obscure person who shreds documents
• obscure document shredder

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Compounding, cont.

• An interesting property of compounds is that
  although they are words, they form a productive
  system, without limits (as far as grammar is
  concerned, not memory).
• Note also that compounds have special accentual
  (stress) properties
• judge
• trial judge
• murder trial judge
• murder trial judge reporter
• murder trial judge reporter killer
• murder trial judge reporter killer catcher
• murder trial judge reporter killer catcher
  biographer
• murder trial judge reporter killer catcher
  biographer pencil set