Tools for Analyzing the Worlds Languages Ch' 10: Inflectional Morphology

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Tools for Analyzing the Worlds Languages Ch.
10 Inflectional Morphology

• LING 3340 - GRAMMAR AND MORPHOLOGY
• Spring 2008 (class 9)

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Morphology Section 2(welcome back!)Ch. 10
Inflectional Morphology
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10.2 Inflection vs. Derivation

• (remember ch. 4)
• 2 Basic questions in Morphology
• What is meaning?
• How is meaning expressed?
• Chapter 10
• One aspect of these two questions is the
  distinction between DERIVATIONAL and INFLECTIONAL
  morphology.
• How can Inflectional morphology (Inf M) be
  integrates with syntax in a formal grammar. (Ch
  11 deals specifically with Derivational
  Morphology Der M)

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Quick intro

• Derivational M
• takes one word and changes it into another
• creating new lexical entries
• In the clearest cases it creates a word of
  another syntactic category
• suffix ness changes Adjs into Abstract Ns.
• dry ness dryness or hotness, playfulness
• suffix er changes Vs into Ns
• teacher, player, farmer

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Quick intro

• Inflectional M
• DOES NOT change words into others and never
  changes syntactic categories
• It produces another FORM of the SAME word
• plural (e)s, past tense (e)d
• (also 3rd person singular agreement)

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Essential Difference

• The question you have to ask your self is
• (not) Do I feel lucky
• Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry
• Does the morpheme create a new word

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Other Differences

• Productivity
• Inf M is VERY productive
• meaning it will work on most of the lexemes in a
  particular word class
• If you borrowed or created a new verb
• to morphix any inflectional morphemes that
  attach to many other verbs should attach to it
  easily
• He morphixes the words in class.
• She morphixed the words to make her poem rhyme.
• Der M is NOT very productive
• its not as easy to add to new cases (though it
  might be possible)
• sameness, weakness vs.
• differentness, strongness,
• NOTE (Some Derivational affixes are more
  productive than others for example er)

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Other Differences

• Meaning
• Inf M generally has GRAMMATICAL meaning
• V to morphix es 3rd person sing agreement
• He morphixes the words in class.
• V to morphix ed PST tense of V
• She morphixed the words to make her poem rhyme.
• Der M generally have LEXICAL meaning
• V to morphix er N one who changes
  morphemes

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Other Differences

• Paradigm (as in pair-a-dime ? .20)
• Inflected forms of a word can generally be
  organized into a PARADIGM chart
• Span andar to walk
• Notice that we are showing both Person Number
• each form is a unique combination of P N

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Other Differences

• Paradigms
• allow us to classify the six forms in a
  systematic way
• they consist of a set of forms wh/
  arecross-classified by means of a set of
  grammatical categories.
• usually characteristic of Inf M but not Der M
• which may work in pairs or possibly triplets
• V slow, Adv slowly,
• N (the) slower (as one who slows something)

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Differences in Review
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10.3 Using Paradigms

• In agglutinative languages (where morphemes are
  arranged in a sequence and easily divided)
  possition class charts can give us a clear
  understanding of the morphemes (e.g. Swahili
  verbs)
• However in other languages (particluarly when a
  language uses IRREGULAR or SUPPLETIVE verb types)
  this isnt as easy so we use paradigms

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10.3 Using Paradigms

• consider the following from Eng
• PRES PST
• sing sang
• think thought
• have had
• see saw
• go went
• is was
• (morphix morphoughx)

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10.3 Using Paradigms

• consider the following from Span
• (it would be nearly impossible to make a
  position class chart for all the endings

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10.3 Using Paradigms

• Advantage
• helps make sense of complex morphological systems
  with irregular verbs or in fusional languages
  (when position class charts are not very helpful)
• Start by setting up the data for Inf M by
  arranging it into paradigms.
• Then determine the grammatical categories involved

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Two Perspectives on Morphology

• one
• ITEM and ARRANGEMENT
• looks at morph by focusing on individual
  morphemes
• like beads on a string
• (think position class charts)
• two
• WORDS and PARADIGM
• looks at morph by focusing on grammatical
  categories and paradigms
• useful for inflectional morphology in all types
  of languages (particularly fusional or when there
  is a lot of irregularity)

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10.4 Grammatical categories and Infletional
features

• Word and Paradigm approach looks mostly at
  Grammatical categories
• i.e. person, number, tense
• Grammatical categories are sets of abstract
  elements which are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
• Each Gram Cat has only a small and fixed number
  of elements they are closed classes.
• A GC is a small, closed class of mutually
  exclusive grammatical properties. B. p. 117

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Features

• we use FEATURES to implement grammatical
  categories of morphology into our formal grammar
• For instance singular gt -plural
• 3rd person gt 3person
• The names of the feature are plural or person
• the values are - or 3
• (weve also talked about nominal features like
  /- common )

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Features

• many features are Binary
• meaning that the morpheme either has it or does
  not have it.
• Singular -plural
• Present -PST, -FUT
• At other times we may want to use multi valued
  features
• number Sg (only 1), Dual (exactly 2), or
  Plural (3)
• Tense PST, PRS, or FUT
• Which ever you decide BE CONSISTANT

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Features

• One of the tasks in the morphological analysis of
  a language is
• Making a PRECISE hypothesis about the
  grammatical categories involved by choosing an
  APPROPRIATE set of features
• So how does it fit with Syntax???

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Remember The BASE COMP?
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Morphology and Base

• The Base componentbuilds trees with PSRsthen
  fills in the terminal nodes from the lexicon
• Morphology fits into the model by providing
  details about the terminal nodes
• We assume that the grammar builds sentences in
  two phases (syntax Inf M).

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10.5 Inf M in Formal Grammar

• The inf M is represented in trees produced by the
  base solely by inflectional features on
  preterminal nodes.
• (Out put from Base)

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10.5 Inf M in Formal Grammar

• The only phonological material at the terminal
  nodes belongs to the stems, exactly as they are
  listed in the lexicon
• Also known as DEEP STRUCTURE

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10.5 Inf M in Formal Grammar

• After the inflectional features are added or the
  spell out rules are applied we get what is
  called the Surface Structure
• The Surf. Structure Tree matches the actual
  sentence we are trying to produce.

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Inflectional Spellout Rules

• The rules that tell us how to add affixes to get
  from the Deep structure to the Surface structure
  are called ISRs.
• ISRs convert the terminal nodes from one form to
  the other
• For English plurals Eng. PST
• N V
• plural pst
• X ? Xz X ? Xd
• left side is Input right side is output

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Inflectional Spellout Rules

• How to ISRs help us?
• they allow us to refine our lexicon such that we
  do not have to represent every form of a word
  lexically.
• i.e. the lexicon does not have to contain the
  whole paradigm of a word (or all its inflected
  forms)
• but instead it only needs to contain the stems.
• The stem is what is inserted into the tree by the
  Base component
• The lexicon also does not have to include all the
  affixes as these will be defined by the ISRs
• Thus, the lexicon is now primarily a list of just
  stems.
• DOESNT that take a load off your mind

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Now that weve made some space

• Lets consider how the features are assigned.
• we have to back track a little here since we
  already had features when we used our ISRs to go
  from the DStr to the SStr

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Feature Assignment Rules

• Some features like /- PST apply to all members
  of a particular word class.
• In English all verbs have both Present and Past
  forms so they much be labeled
• We need a special type of phrase structure rule
  or a Feature Assignment Rule which puts the
  feature PST on all verbs
• V ? /- PST

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Feature Assignment Rules

• V ? /- PST
• FARs are also part of the BASE component and
  work together with the other phrase structure
  rules and the lexicon to build the trees.
• This rule says to add either PST or -PST to
  a V node when building a tree

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Feature Assignment Rules

• Other rules are more specific
• For instance the feature plural can only be
  applied to count nouns.
• mass nouns can not have a plural feature
  applied because it is intrinsic in the word
  itself
• Contrast Ncount N-count
  computer software hardware
  computers softwares hardwares
• Thus we get rules like the following
• Ncount ? /-plural N-count ? -plural

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Inflectional Morph and the BASE
DEEP STRUCTURE(trees with bare stems and
inflectional features only)
INFLECTIONAL SPELLOUT RULES
SURFACE STRUCTURE(trees with Phonological
material of inflectional affixes included)
Bickford p. 123
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What to do? (also see p. 127 33)

• 1st decide on a set of features both what
  features to use and how many values there are for
  each
• 2nd Incorporate these assumptions into feature
  assignment rules as a formal hypothesis about the
  grammatical categories
• 3rd Write Inflectional Spellout Rules to add the
  phonological material for each affix
• 4th State which order the rules need to apply to
  be consistent with the data.

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Going From Pos Class Chart

• see Bickford pp. 123-125
• for data and logic behind the following rules

1,2,3 person pst, pres, fut tense V ? sg,
dl, pl number /- interrogative V pst ? /-
recent
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10.7 Irregular inflection

• when you encounter words that are INFLECTED
  IRREGULARLY you need to list those forms in the
  lexicon (see Bick p. 127 34).
• For instance remember our discussion on words
  like foot / feet, tooth / teeth, goose / geese
• At one point in the history of the language this
  was a correct way to make plurals, how ever
  since it is NO LONGER PRODUCTIVE (we dont get
  moose / meese, or roof / reef we want to consider
  them individual lexical items.
• These types of forms are no longer predictable in
  Eng. and must be learned as exceptions.

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10.8 Case Marking on PNs

• Many languages have case marking on Pronouns
• Three common cases markings on PNs are
• nominative (subject)
• objective (used for more than one type of obj)
• genitive (possessor)
• English (Nom) I, we, you, he, she, it, they
• (Objective) me, us, you, him, her, it, them
• (Gen) my, our, your, his, her, its, their

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10.9 SUMMARY!

• be sure to read this section and try to remember
  how we came up with the rules. If you cant you
  may need to do some review. p.129
• Pay particular attention to the Lexicon and
  Inflectional Spellout rules.

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10.12 10.14

• Read through the Sample Description
• Look at the Infelctional Categories chart on
  pp.133 (nouns), 134 (verbs)

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Tools for Analyzing the Worlds Languages Ch.
11 Derivational Morphology

• LING 3340 - GRAMMAR AND MORPHOLOGY
• Spring 2008 (class 10)

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(Review from ch4)Stems/Roots and Affixes

• stem
• kick -er -s
• Root Derivational Inflectional
• Suffix Suffix
• stem
• view point (Compound Stem)
• Root Root

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(Review from ch4)Stems/Roots and Affixes

• the base (or part of the word to which affixes
  are attached) of a word is called either a STEM
  or a ROOT.
• Root (p. 136)
• Is any single morpheme which is not an affix.
• may be identical to the STEM
• (Haspelmath 2002 p.274) a base that cannot be
  analysed further i.e. a base that consist of a
  single morpheme

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(Review from ch4)Stems/Roots and Affixes

• STEM (p. 136)
• Can be an inflected word
• i.e. can contain multiple morphemes
• May be identical to the root
• May consist of multiple roots
• may contain more than one derivational affix
• (p 137 inter-line-ar-ize-r)
• Der Prefix root Der Sufixes
• (Haspelmath 2002 p.274) the base of an inflected
  word-form

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(Review from ch4)Stems/Roots and Affixes

• the base (or part of the word to which affixes
  are attached) of a word is called either a STEM
  or a ROOT.
• Affix
• morphemes that are used to modify the base of the
  word.
• (Haspelmath 2002 p.265) a short morpheme with an
  abstract meaning

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More Difference b/t Inf and Der

• generally DER is closer to the root
• may appear to be done first
• tends to have lexical meaning
• often has rich and complex meaning
• the meaning of the derived word is often not
  fully predictable from the meaning of the
  morphemes involved
• computer/calculator twister
• (in semantics when the meaning is not fully
  predictable from the meaning of its parts the
  meaning may be CONVENTIONALIZED

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Differences in Review
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Exceptions

• The previous chart should not be applied
  rigidly but rather used as a guideline.
• view point compound noun consisting of two
  nouns (while view and point could both also be
  verbs we would consider them different lexical
  entries)
• un as in unkind
• changes Adj kind ? Adj unkind
• These are derivational processes that make a new
  word that has a different (Conventionalized)
  LEXICAL meaning but the SYNTAXTIC category has
  not been changed.
• Consider Swahili Causatives (that change intrans
  Vs to trans Vs. (p. 139. 12).

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REMEMBER

• sometimes derivational morphology is highly
  productive, and its meaning is very predictable
  from its parts.
• Sometimes inflectional morphology is highly
  irregular
• Therefore In deciding whether something is
  inflectional or derivational, think about the
  full range of characteristics listed in the chart
• Dont rely on JUST ONE characteristic wh/ may be
  misleading with considered by itself.
• B. p. 139

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In Simplest Terms

• INFLECTINAL morphology is
• What is relevant to the syntax.
• So what does that mean?
• Inflectional Morphology is sensitive to the
  larger syntactic context in wh/ it occurs.
• Derivational Morphology is not sensitive to the
  larger context.

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Other forms of Inflectional morphology

• Agreement
• in order to choose the right form of the verb you
  have to look else where in the sentence.
• Case
• grammatical relations that show the inherent
  parts of the language
• (English Pronouns)
• Tense (in many languages is sensitive to the
  larger context.

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Der Morph in Formal Grammar

• Recall that we use Feature Assignment Rules
  (FARs) in Inflectional Morph.
• FARs help show the morphology in the Grammar
  (i.e. in the trees).
• Because we use separate lexical entries the
  Derivational Morphology does not explicitly
  appear in the Grammar.
• It takes place in the lexicon.
• When a derived word is inserted in a tree, it is
  handled exactly like a simple word
• (p. 145) Once the new lexical enry is created,
  it takes on a life of its own independent of the
  rule and may change further in ways that are
  inconsistent with the rule.

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Remember the Lexicon

• as you remember from Ch 10
• the inflectional morphemes are not considered to
  occur in the lexicon (except for some words see
  p. 127 go/went)
• (because they are built by separate rules)
• Derivational Morphemes are just included with the
  derived word in the lexicon.
• the new stems are considered as lexical entries
  and can contain multiple morphemes

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Word Formation Rules

• using a similar process as Inflectional Spellout
  Rules (ISRs)
• we now show derivations using WFRs
• Xv a
• X? N an agent or instrument
  associated with a
• Rule says taking any verb X add the suffix ?
  derives a noun that is an agent or instrument
  that does or is associated with verb X

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WFRs

• Word Formation Rules are not needed to generate
  individual sentences.
• they are important for 2 reasons
• Expressing the generalizations that native
  speakers (NS) know about the relationships b/t
  words in the lexicon
• accounting for NSs ability to create new words
  following the same pattern

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After the rule is applied

• like we said
• after the rule is applied the word (new lexical
  item) can take on a life of its own
• some rules are no longer productive, however the
  effects of the rule are still visible.
• see Bickford p. 145-146
• Historical use of th in English

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Inflectional Morph and the BASE
BASE COMPONENT
LEXICON (incl. Defining subcategories) e.g. /-
count
Word Formation Rules
PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES (incl. FARs)
DEEP STRUCTURE(trees with bare stems and
inflectional features only)
INFLECTIONAL SPELLOUT RULES
SURFACE STRUCTURE(trees with Phonological
material of inflectional affixes included)
Bickford p. 123
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REVIEW

• see B. p. 148 36
• The differences b/t ISRs and WFRs
• Questions for analysis.