Morphology:%20%20Lexical%20category

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Morphology Lexical category

• Linguistics 200
• Spring 2006

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Lexical category

• part of speech, grammatical category
• What are the lexical categories?
• of a given language?
• across languages?
• Why this is important in linguistics
• Words of different lexical categories have
  different properties
• Can combine with certain affixes (e.g.) to form
  words
• Can combine with certain words (e.g.) to form
  sentences
• (Imagine a dictionary which didnt include
  lexical category)

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Determining lexical category

• Morphological tests what kinds of bound
  morphemes can be added to morphemes in category
  X?
• Syntactic tests what kinds of words can be
  juxtaposed?
• Typical lg description
• nouns X, Y, Z characteristics (in lg. P)
• verbs A, B, C characteristics (in lg. Q)
• adjectives

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Verbs

• Meanings denote actions, events, states
• But meaning is not always a reliable guide
• hungry is an adjective in English
• ?AnA?wi be hungry is a verb in Sahaptin
• Some Sahaptin verbs
• s??nwi talk
• pA?ju be sick, hurt
• kA?Am miss
• pnú sleep

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Characteristics of Sahaptin verbs

• Can be affixed with tense/aspect suffixes
• šA imperfective (unless irregular)
• -(n)XA habitual
• -tA future
• Can be affixed with person/number affixes
• ?i- 3sg
• pA- 3pl
• -k 2sg imperative, etc.

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Nouns

• Typically refer to objects, classes of objects,
  concepts
• Some Sahaptin nouns
• ?A??A crow
• ??w??nš man
• tiinA?wit culture, tradition
• Morphological test
• cannot be affixed with tense/aspect suffixes
• Syntactic test (frame) for nouns
• ___ verb or verb ___
• ?ipnúšA hes sleeping
• ?ipnúšA ??w??nš or ??w??nš ?ipnúšA the man is
  sleeping

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A noun-forming affix

• Some affixes change lexical category
  (category-changing)
• E.g. /tA?wAAs/ instrument V __ N
• (attaches to verbs, forms nouns)
• ?qíwiV tA?wAAsN
• N(oun)
• V(erb)
• ?qíwi play tA?wAAs
• Phonology applies to word after morphemes joined
  together ?qiwitA?wAAs toy

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A verb forming affix

• -i do with N N ___ V
• tA?AtpAs shirt, dress (noun)
• tA?AtpAsi wear, put on shirt, dress (verb)
• tA?AtpAsik put on your shirt (-k 2sg
  imperative)
• ?Ajn iron (noun)
• ?A?jni iron, press (verb)
• ?A?jnik iron it

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More morphological properties of nouns

• Cannot occur with verb affixes
• Can occur with case suffixes (next week)
• Nouns have dual and plural forms, but 2 types of
  nouns
• Animate, independently mobile
• -in dual, -ma plural
• Inanimate or immobile
• dual/plural formed via reduplication

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Animate nouns

• Animate and independently mobile nouns
• Form plurals with -mA
• ?A??A crow, ?A??AmA crows
• ?Apúus cat, ?ApúusmA cats
• ?A?jAt woman, ?A?jAtmA women
• ?cA?cA ghost, ?cA?cAmA ghosts

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Inanimate nouns

• Inanimate or not independently mobile
• Form plural via reduplication (copy all or part
  of morpheme)
• Inanimate
• pšwA? rock, pšwA?pšwA rocks
• ??t??t tooth, ??t??t??t?t teeth
• wA?lA creek, wAlAwA?lA creeks (Walla Walla)
• Immobile animate (e.g. plants)
• lAtít flower, lAtítlAtit flowers

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Adjectives

• Have dual and plural forms, like nouns
• Syntactic tests
• ___ noun
• cilwít bad tkwA?tAt food
• ___ verb or verb ___ , except
• wA- be
• ?iwA? it is, he is, she is (note irregular
  imperfective form without šA)
• pAwA? they are

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Verbs vs. adjectives

• ?A?tAw valuable, important (adjective)
• ?A?tAw iwA? its valuable
• ?i?A?tAwšA
• (?A?tAwi love, like, value (verb)
• ?i?A?tAwiša he likes)
• ?AnA?wi be hungry (verb)
• ?i?AnA?wišA hes hungry
• ?AnA?wi iwA?

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Summary

• Sahaptin lexical categories include noun, verb,
  adjective
• Used in different syntactic and morphological
  contexts
• Subcategories of lexical categories may also need
  to be distinguished may have different
  morphological or syntactic characteristics
• Change in lexical category can be accomplished
  with the addition of certain affixes