Lecture 2

LEXICAL UNITS: STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION

WORD IDENTIFICATION AND DEFINITION- Difficulties in arriving at a consistent use of the term

WORD:

a) Due to word identification – decisions over word boundaries: e.g. bee sting – 1 word or 2 words?

- decisions over the status: e.g. is the/a a word in the same sense as mother?

b) Due to word definition – a major problem of linguistic theory

Definitions of the term word

• A unit of expression which has universal intuitive recognition by native speakers;

• A linguistic form that can meaningfully be spoken in isolation;

• An element of human speech, to which meaning is attached, apt to be used grammatically; it can be understood by a human collectivity constituted in a historical community.

Three main senses of the term word

(a) Word – a physically definable unit encountered

-in a stretch of writing (separated by space) – orthographic word

- in a stretch of speech (bounded by pauses) – phonological word

A neutral term that covers both: WORD FORM

(b) Word (in a more abstract sense) – the common factor underlying a set of forms (i.e. variants of the same unit)

e.g. talk, talks, talking, talked, talker have TALK as a common factor or lexeme = an abstract entity found in a dictionary that has a certain meaning

(c) Word: an abstract unit to be set up to show how words work in GRAMMAR. Thus, word = a grammatical unit of the same kind as the morpheme.

Morpheme= the smallest unit that has meaning or that serves a grammatical function

TALK (lexeme)talks, talking, talker, talked (word forms of TALK){talk}, {-s}, {-ing}, {-er}, {-ed} (morphemes)

Classification of morphemes (I)

• Lexical

(semantic/derivational)

-denote extralinguistic objects

-open set

-precede grammatical morphemes (in Gm. lgs)

-combination with other lexical morphemes often restricted

-result of combination=new lexemes

-change either the word-class or meaning of the root they are attached to

WORD FORMATION

• Grammatical(functional/inflectional)-denote grammatical functions and

syntactic relations-closed set-follow lexical morphemes-combination with other morphemes

relatively unrestricted-result of combination=new word

forms-they don’t change the meaning or the

word-class of the root

INFLECTION

Classification of morphemes (II)

• FreeContent words (nouns,

verbs, adjectives)vs.

Function words (prepositions, conjunctions, articles)

• Bound

Suffixes

Prefixes

Infixes

Bound bases (-ceive,

-duce, -sist, -tain)

Bound roots (sanct-, tox-)

Blocked morphemes (Fri -, cran-)

Classification of morphemes

Lexical Grammatical

Free Bound Free Bound

(roots/stems) (function words) (inflections)

{GIRL} {THE} -s (plural)

{TELL} {AND} -ed

{YELLOW} {TO} -ing

prefixes suffixes bound blocked

bases morphemes

{IN-} {-NESS} {-TAIN} {FRI-}

{RE-} {-LY} {-DUCE} {CRAN-}

L+L=WORD-FORMATION L+G= INFLECTION

Roots, stems, bases, and affixes

• Root = basic part of a lexeme; can not be further analysed either in terms of derivational or inflectional morphology; part of a word-form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed

e.g. underprivileged

Stem: of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology; it is that part of the word-form which remains when all inflectional affixes have been removede.g. the undefeatables

Base: any form to which affixes of any kind can be addedBoth roots and stems can be bases, but not all bases are roots and stems;e.g. undefeatables

Affixes: bound morphs that always appear with a base:prefixes and suffixes

Some remarks on morphemes

• 1. morphemes are distinct from syllables: e.g. in-dus-try →3 syllables, 1 morpheme;

hats → one syllable, 2 morphemes.

• 2. the same spelling does not necessarily indicate identical morphemes → two different types of morphemes may be rendered by identical spelling.

e.g. teacher vs. happier Differences?

• 3. mis-identification morphemes:e.g. hamburger = {Hamburg} + {er} (‘originating from’, as in

Southerner). Nowadays: {ham} = ‘ham’ + {burger}= ‘hot patty served on a round

bun’. Proof: {burger} combined with any substance that could be eaten (e.g. cheeseburger, shrimp burger, veggie burger); it can be a free morpheme, as in ‘a burger and fries’.

EXERCISES

1) Divide the following words into the component morphemes. Use hyphens and the traditional spelling, according to the model:

MODEL: enlighten en - light - en

a) impoverish i) utilitarianism

b) anticipative j) catchword

c) anticlimatical k) impermeability

d) dishearten l) vertebrally

e) burlesquely m) downtowner

f) dishonestly n) telescopic

g) undeceivable o) sanitize

h) wholesaler p) volubility

2) Divide the words into their constituent morphemes, specifying the nature of each morpheme, according to the model.

MODEL: impersonalism: im- = prefix, person = noun stem, -al = suffix, -ism = suffix

a) foolishly i) glove makerb) multinational j) trans-Europeanc) deepen k) vulgarismd) rosy l) non-didactice) beautify m) preconceivablef) industrialization n) post-modernismg) ex-president o) overdoneh) impressionism p) underestimated

3. Consider carefully the words in (a -c). To what extent do the words in a given list contain the same morpheme?a) analysis, anabasis, anachronism, analogy, anaconda, anabaptist, anarchy, anorak.b) nominal, nominate, gnomic, nomic, nomenclature, noun.c) pedal, peduncle, pediform, p(a)ederast, p(a)edagogue, peddle, pedant.