Chapter 3 Morphology

Chapter 3 Morphology

Introduction to Linguistics

Instructor: Xia Yun

School of Foreign Languages, Southwest University

Warm-upWarm-up

Read the following passage and pick out the words which you think are composed of more than one part.

Ticketless Travel

My friend’s brother, Cliff, is a very serious, dignified man, so his actions at an airport’s check-in counter were totally unexpected.

It seems that he and his wife were placing their baggage on the conveyor when her purse accidentally fell onto the moving belt. She scrambled after it but it eluded her, so she climbed onto the belt to try to reach it.

Just as she was about to disappear through the doorway with the baggage, Cliff began to wave frantically, “No, no dear!” he shouted. “It’s okay! This time we bought tickets.”

My friend’s brother, Cliff, is a very serious, dignified man, so his actionsactions at an airport’s check-inairport’s check-in counter werewere totally unexpectedunexpected.

It seems that he and his wife werewere placing placing their baggage on the conveyorconveyor when her purse accidentallyaccidentally fell ontoonto the movingmoving belt. She scrambledscrambled after it but it eludedeluded her, so she climbedclimbed ontoonto the belt to try to reach it.

Just as she waswas about to disappeardisappear through the doorwaydoorway with the baggage, Cliff beganbegan to wave franticallyfrantically, “No, no dear!” he shoutedshouted. “It’s okay! This time we boughtbought tickets.”

Key word 1Key word 1

Morphology 形态学

Activity 1

Read the words in Group A and Group B below. What are the features shared by those words? Write your assumptions in the following box.

Activity 1

A rider commander murder leader manufacturer owner producer

B reader miller Londoner gardener prisoner messenger philosopher

Morphology Morphology 形态学形态学

Morphology, as a branch of linguistics, is thus the study of the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed.

Why study morphology

Dictionaries do not list all possible words of a language

new words Google, meth, bedhead

new usages of words to google something, crystal

words derived by productive rules: goes, going unfold, foldable, refold, unfoldable

Morphological competence includes information about how morphemes work, and how they can and can’t fit together.

Key word 2Key word 2

Morpheme

Activity 2

Please divide the underlined words in “Ticketless Travel” into their building parts as far as possible, make sure no part loses its identification of meaning.

unexpectedunexpected

un + expect + edun + expect + ed

↓↓““word-like” elementsword-like” elements

↓↓

most basic elements of meaningmost basic elements of meaning

unexpectedunexpected

① un +② expect +③ ed

→ bound morpheme

→ free morpheme

→ bound morpheme

MorphemesMorphemes

Free morphemes

Bound morphemes

Activity 3

Divide the following morphemes into 2 groups according to whether they can be used as words independently.

Activity 3

-ness the it book -ful happy because -er on if

long re- love but and house Pre- -dis -look and

Free morphemes and bound Free morphemes and bound morphemesmorphemes

book house love look, long happy and but because if on it the Free morphemes stand alone as words

-ness -ful -less -er re- pre- dis-

Bound morphemes cannot normally stand

alone, but function only as parts of words

root forms base for affixes to attach to;

cannot be analyzed into smaller parts

stem formed when a root is combined with an

affix (that other affixes can continue to be attached to)

unexpectedunexpected

expectexpect → root

unexpectedunexpected

① un +② expect +③ ed

→ stem

Roots and stemsRoots and stems

Works

Workers

workshops

a simple stem consisting of only one morpheme, in this case the root and the stem are the same, e.g. in works, work is both the stem and the root;

a root plus a derivational affix, e.g. in workers, work is the root, worker is the stem;

two or more roots, e.g. in workshops, both work and shop are roots, workshop is the stem.

Free morphemesFree morphemes

Lexical morphemes

Functional morphemes

Free morphemesFree morphemes

Lexical morphemes

open class of words

book house love look long happy

Functional morphemes

closed class of words

and but because if on it the

Bound MorphemesBound Morphemes

Derivational morphemes

Inflectional morphemes

Bound MorphemesBound Morphemes

Derivational morphemes

make new words in the language

make words of a different grammatical category from the stem

-ness -ful -less -er re- pre- dis-

Inflectional morphemes

not used to produce new words

show aspects of the grammatical function of a word

indicate whether a word is singular or plural

indicate whether it is in the past tense or present tense

indicate whether it is a possessive or comparative form

Reading the following sentences and point Reading the following sentences and point out the inflectional morphemes.out the inflectional morphemes.

1. If a man’s wife is beautiful, two eyes are not enough for him.

2. Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

3. The writer liked joking and has taken things seriously.

4. One is the loudest person in the house and the other is quieter than a mouse.

1. If a man’s wife is beautiful, two eyes are not enough for him.

2. Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

3. The writer liked joking and has taken things seriously.

4. One is the loudest person in the house and the other is quieter than a mouse.

noun + -’s/s’, -s worker’s/workers’, workers

verb + -s, -ing, -ed, -en arrive, arrives, arriving, arrived

adjective + -er, -est loud, louder, loudest

Difference between Difference between Derivational and Derivational and Inflectional MorphemesInflectional Morphemes

a derivational morpheme can change the grammatical category of a word, creating entirely new words

sing (v.) + -er = singer (n.)

an inflectional morpheme never alters the grammatical category of a word

quick → quicker (adjective)

morphemes

free morpheme

morphemes

bound morpheme free morpheme

morphemes

bound morpheme free morpheme

morphemes

Iexical morpheme

bound morpheme free morpheme

morphemes

Iexical morpheme

functional morpheme

bound morpheme free morpheme

morphemes

Iexical morpheme

functional morpheme

derivational morpheme

bound morpheme free morpheme

morphemes

Iexical morpheme

functional morpheme

derivational morpheme

inflectional morpheme

Key word 3Key word 3

Morphs and Allomorphs

Activity 4

Change the following nouns into plural forms.

meaning map watch mouse foot deer

WordsWords

meaningmeaning meaningsmeanings /-z//-z/

map map mapsmaps /-s//-s/

watch watch watcheswatches /-iz//-iz/

mouse mouse micemice /-ai-//-ai-/

foot foot feetfeet /-i//-i/

deerdeer deerdeer /Ø/ /Ø/ (zero (zero change)change)

WordsWords Orthographic Orthographic formform

meaningmeaning meaningsmeanings /-z//-z/

map map mapsmaps /-s//-s/

watch watch watcheswatches /-iz//-iz/

mouse mouse micemice /-ai-//-ai-/

foot foot feetfeet /-i//-i/

deerdeer deerdeer /Ø/ /Ø/ (zero (zero change)change)

WordsWords Orthographic Orthographic formform

Phonological form

meaningmeaning meaningsmeanings /-z//-z/

map map mapsmaps /-s//-s/

watch watch watcheswatches /-iz//-iz/

mouse mouse micemice /-ai-//-ai-/

foot foot feetfeet /-i//-i/

deerdeer deerdeer /Ø/ /Ø/ (zero (zero change)change)

Orthographic form

Phonological form

↓ Morphs 词素

Orthographic variations

Phonological variations

↓ Allomorphs 词素变体

AllomorphsAllomorphs

Allomorphs of the morpheme of past tense: {-ed}

Orthographic realizations -d -ed other forms correspondent to irregular verbs

Phonological realizations /-t/ /-d/ /-id/ other forms

Morphemes

Morphology

Morphemes • Free Morphemes• Bound Morphemes

Morphology

Morphs

Morphemes • Free Morphemes• Bound Morphemes

Morphology

Morphs

Morphemes • Free Morphemes• Bound Morphemes

•Phonological (spoken) realizations•Orthographic (written) realizations

Morphology

Allomorphs

Morphs

Morphemes • Free Morphemes• Bound Morphemes

•Phonological (spoken) realizations•Orthographic (written) realizations

Morphology

Allomorphs

Morphs

Morphemes • Free Morphemes• Bound Morphemes

•Phonological (spoken) realizations•Orthographic (written) realizations

Morphology

• Phonological variants• Orthographic variants

Allomorphs

Morphs

Morphemes

Words

• Free Morphemes• Bound Morphemes

•Phonological (spoken) realizations•Orthographic (written) realizations

Morphology

• Phonological variants• Orthographic variants

Allomorphs

Morphs

Morphemes

Words

• Free Morphemes• Bound Morphemes

• Word-formation

•Phonological (spoken) realizations•Orthographic (written) realizations

Morphology

• Phonological variants• Orthographic variants

Key word 4Key word 4

Word-formation

① Ss’ oral presentation of different types of word-formation

② Class discussion on the most important morphological phenomena: compounding and derivation

① Ss’ oral presentation of different types of word-formation

Word-formation

Compounding

Word-formation

Compounding

DerivationWord-

formation

Compounding

Derivation

Conversion

Word-formation

Compounding

Derivation

Conversion

Backformation

Word-formation

Clipping

Compounding

Derivation

Conversion

Backformation

Word-formation

Blending

Clipping

Compounding

Derivation

Conversion

Backformation

Word-formation

Acronym

Blending

Clipping

Compounding

Derivation

Conversion

Backformation

Word-formation

Initialism

Acronym

Blending

Clipping

Compounding

Derivation

Conversion

Backformation

Word-formation

② Class discussion on the most important morphological phenomena: compounding and derivation

CompoundingCompounding

Compounding

What is compounding? What are the Orthographical

features of compounds? How to decide the part of speech

of compounds? How to decide the main stress of a

compound?

What is compounding?

two free morphemes are combined to form a compound

typewriter workshop tractor-driver

What are the Orthographical features of compounds?

Activity 4 Step 1 Divide the following compounds

into three groups. Step 2 Summarize the orthographical

features of compounds based on the examples given.

You-know-who, bedtime, sleeping, reading comprehension, armchair, tax-free, kick-off, touch-me-not, playboy

Activity 5

How to decide the part of speech of compounds?

Activity 5 Step 1 Decide the parts of speech of

the following words, consult your dictionary if necessary.

Step 2 Summarize the rules used to determine the part of speech of compounds.

Activity 6

playboy, fall-down, dress-design, telephone call, warm-up, crackdown,

house-keep, birth-control, self-control, duty-free, kick-off

How to decide the main stress of a compound?

Activity 6 Step 1 Decide the main stress of the

following compounds. Step 2 Summarize the rules of main

stress of compounds.

Activity 7

blackberry, blackguard, black-current, blackboard, black bird, running dog, dancing girl

DerivationDerivation

Derivation

What is derivation? What derivational process can do to a

word? What are the meanings of frequently

used prefixes and suffixes ?

What is derivation?

adding affixes to other words or morphemes

at least a free morpheme and a bound morpheme (a derivational morpheme or affix)

What derivational process can do to a word?

adding affixes to other words or morphemes

at least a free morpheme and a bound morpheme (a derivational morpheme or affix)

may change the grammatical potential of a word and involves a change of form

What are the meanings of frequently used prefixes and suffixes ?

Activity 8 State the morphological rules that

govern the use of the given derivational affixes

Activity 8

--ant, --ment, sub-, --en, --ee, --ful, --some, --wise, un-

Relevant Websites

Prefixsuffix.com (http://www.prefixsuffix.com/rootchart.php)

Morphological Process (http://www.cycfoundation.org/concepts/MorphologicalProcess)

Branches of Morphology

Inflectional Morphology （曲折形态学 ) Lexical Morphology （词汇形态学）

Assignments and Assignments and HomeworkHomework

Exercises of Chapter 3 (p. 63)

Thank Thank you!you!