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 linguist’s 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 Adjective

Verb able
un Adjective

un verb
Verb able

lock
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?
1. Retroactive
2. Befriended
3. Televise
4. Margin
5. Psychology
6. Unpalatable
7. Deactivation
8. Airsickness
9. Grandmother
10. Morphemic
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 Can you “tree” the ambiguity?
A: Have you finished your ten-page book report,
Norman?
B: I haven’t even started it.
A: But it’s 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
– Noun+verb=verb, 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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