Morphology

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Morphology

• Peter Ackema
• packema_at_ling.ed.ac.uk

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Word classes

• Verbs express an action, process or state
• Nouns are the name of a person, place, or thing
• Adjectives are words which express a property
• But...

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• Jane was upset because an unexpected problem with
  the manuals availability implied that the risk
  in case of a fire was very high.
• upset a state, but not a verb
• availability not a person, place or thing,
  but is a noun
• implied not an action, process or state, but
  is a verb
• fire process or state, but not a verb
• etc.

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Lexical Categories and Functional Categories

• A builder claimed that the houses of those people
  are almost crumbling.
• Builder claimed houses people almost crumbling.
• A that the of those are.

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• Functional categories form a closed class.
• What are the determiners of English?
• the (definite), a/an (indefinite), this, that,
  these, those (demonstrative) (plus a few others)
• Lexical categories form an open class.
• What are the verbs or nouns of English?
• impossible to make a complete list (despite
  dictionaries)

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Verbs

• Finite verb indicates tense of the sentence.
• Paula dreams of a nice holiday.
• That woman always plays a Ligeti cd on her
  birthday.
• Yesterday I walked home.

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• Past tense forms for the verb pléno to wash in
  modern Greek
• 1sg é-plen-a 1pl plén-ame
• 2sg é-plen-es 2pl plén-ate
• 3sg é-plen-e 3pl é-plen-an

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• Absence of an ending can also give information
  about tense/person/number on a finite verb.
• I dream of a nice holiday as well.
• You never play the piano on your birthday, do
  you?
• Today they all walk home, I believe.

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• When something fits into a frame like the
  following, it will be a finite verb.
• When I come home, the dogs usually ___ .
• The dogs ___ it.
• Mary ___ her dog yesterday.
• But not vice versa
• ??When I come home the dogs usually sing.

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• The infinitive
• Harry wants to leave the country.
• The shop expects to deliver the goods on Friday.
• Luckily the weather seems to improve.
• In the future tense, accompanied by auxiliary
  verb will
• Gerald will go to Paris tomorrow.
• Davina would dance the tango.

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• The past participle
• She has never travelled for so long before.
• He has gone.
• Our cat has never slept for so long.
• That soprano has never sung in a Verdi opera.

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• The present participle
• The train is leaving the station.
• Laura is reading a book.
• Larry was feeding the cats when Laura came in.

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• Complete sentences in English need a verb, even
  if this has to be a dummy verb the copula.
• She is a dentist.
• He is ill.
• Clark Kent is Superman.
• Compare with main verb be
• I think therefore I am.
• To be or not to be, that is the question.

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• The need for a copula is not universal
• Vasja poxož na otca. (Russian)
• Vasja alike to father
• Vasja looks like his father.
• Takie predrassudki ocen rasprostraneny.
• such prejudices very spread
• Such prejudices are very widespread.

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Nouns

• Pluralization indicates that a word is a noun
• house houses
• chair chairs
• cat cats
• street streets
• iguana iguanas

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• Mass nouns do not readily pluralize
• water ?waters
• sand ?sands
• gold ?golds
• glue ?glues
• coffee ?coffees

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• But it is possible to pluralize even mass nouns
  when you individuate them
• The ship sank in the territorial waters of
  Ireland.
• The caravan crossed the sands of the desert.
• Britain won three golds and five silvers at the
  event.
• I tried three different glues and it still wont
  stick.
• After she drank six coffees she started shaking.

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• Abstract nouns do not always readily pluralize
  either
• luck - ?lucks, hate ?hates, anger - ?angers
• But
• One of my pet hates is the litter in the street.
• This psychotherapeutic theory distinguishes
  between two different angers, the suppressed one
  and the demonstrative one.

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• Nouns can be combined with a determiner
• the cat
• a house
• the water
• that street
• this sand
• those tables
• the anger

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• Proper nouns do not always combine with a
  determiner
• ?the Jane, ?the Edinburgh, ?a France, ?this
  Merlin
• But
• She is no longer the Jane I knew.
• The Edinburgh of the 15th century was very dirty.
• In this book the author describes a France that
  tourists do not often see.
• Let me tell you a story about a sorcerer called
  Merlin. This Merlin...

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• Verbs can combine directly with nouns
• Jane examines patients.
• Alaric destroyed Rome.
• Nouns cannot directly combine with other nouns
• Jane examination patients
• Janes examination of patients
• Alaric destruction Rome
• Alarics destruction of Rome

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• Are there functional nouns? Maybe pronouns
• Personal pronouns I, me, you, he, him, she,
  her,...
• Possessive pronouns my, your, her, his, our, ...
• Reflexive pronouns myself, yourself, herself,
  ...
• Reciprocal pronoun each other
• Impersonal pronoun one

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Adjectives

• Adjectives have a comparative and a superlative
  form
• cold colder coldest
• strange stranger strangest
• dry drier driest

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• enthusiastic
• enthusiasticer / enthusiasticest
• more enthusiastic / most enthusiastic
• flabbergasted
• flabbergasteder / flabbergastedest
• more flabbergasted / most flabbergasted

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• The comparative or superlative can be
  semantically anomalous
• pregnant pregnanter pregnantest
• dead deader deadest
• locked lockeder lockedest
• closed closeder closedest

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• Adjectives can be used predicatively
• John is ill.
• Mary is pregnant.
• That painting is beautiful.
• The door is locked.
• or attributively
• an ill person
• a pregnant woman
• a beautiful painting
• the locked door

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• Some adjectives can only be used as attributive
  adjectives
• the alleged offender
• This offender is only alleged.
• a former president
• This president is former.

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• Adverbs are much like attributive adjectives, but
  modify a verb rather than a noun.
• They can distinguish themselves by a special
  adverbial ending.
• Susan walked quickly to the store.
• Frank hastily scribbled it down.
• She probably left.

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• Not all adverbs show special adverbial
  morphology
• Harry often talks about music.
• The baby is eating well.
• een snel spel een grappig gezicht (Dutch)
• a quick game a funny face
• Ze schrijft heel snel . De baby lachte
  grappig.
• she writes very quickly the baby smiled funnily

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Prepositions

• in Amsterdam
• with Mary
• to France
• after dinner
• before noon
• off the wall

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• Some languages have postpositions rather than
  prepositions.
• larki ko larki se larki par
• girl to girl from girl after
• to the girl from the girl after the girl
• (Hindi)