Trad 101: Languages and Cultures of East Asia

Words in East Asian Languages

Morphology

Review

words

A meaningful unit of a language that can stand on its own

Stored in mental lexicon w/ information about its ‘part of speech’ (noun, verb, adj., etc.)

morphemes

The smallest meaning-bearing unit in a language

Morphology

Types of Morphemes

affixes

affixes to the beginning of a stem = prefix

affixes to the end of a stem = suffix

affixes inside a stem = infix

affixes around a stem = circumfix

roots & stems

Morphology

Types of Morphemes

Bound vs. Free morphemes

A free morpheme is a morpheme that can be used by itself

E: cat, is, the, on

� C: chī [ʧi1] 'eat', shuí [ʃueɪ2] 'who'

� J: inu [inɯ] 'dog', isi [iʃi] 'stone'

K: namu 'tree', na 'I'

Morphology

Types of Morphemes

Bound vs. Free morphemes

A bound morpheme is a morpheme that cannot be used by itself; it must be affixed to a root or stem

E: pre-, re-, un-, -s, -ing, -ed

� C: dì- [ti4] '[makes ordinal numbers]', -zi [tsi0] 'child, offspring', -tou [thou̯] '[forms place words]'

J: dai- '[makes ordinal numbers]', -i '[infinitive]', -no '[genitive particle]'

K: ʨɛ- '[makes ordinal numbers]', -a/-ə '[infinitive]', -ta'[verb final]'

Morphology

Types of Morphology

derivational vs. inflectional morphology

Derivational morphology

A process through which a new word is created; aka word formation (we'll come back to types of word formation later)

The part of speech can be changed:

use (v.) + able > usable (adj.)

happy (adj.) + -ness > happiness (n.)

The meaning of a word can be changed:

un- + happy (adj.) > unhappy (adj.)

MorphologyTypes of Morphology

derivational vs. inflectional morphology

Inflectional morphology

The grammatical role is changed, but the meaning is not

3rd per. sg.: -s He walks.

past tense: -ed He walked.

progressive: -ing He is walking.

past participle: -en He has eaten.

plural: -s I have cats.

possessive: -’s cat’s eye

comparative: -er She is older.

superlative: -est She is the oldest.

Note that these morphemes are attached to the same stem:

Walks walked walking

Word FormationTypes of word formation

1. Reduplication

All or part of a word is reduplicated (repeated) in order to create a new word

In English this tends to be “baby talk”: mama, papa, baba

In Chinese reduplication has a number of functions

Soften the degree of action: děng 'wait' > děngdeng 'wait a bit'; cháng'taste'> chángchang 'take a little taste'; xiūxi > xiūxixiuxi 'take a little rest‘

Makes a description more vivid: pàngde 'fat' > pàngpàngde 'pudgy fat'; hóngde 'red' > hónghóngde 'bright red‘

It's a totalizer that adds the meaning of 'every': tiān 'day' > tiāntian'every day'; chù 'place' > chùchu 'every where‘

Forms familiar kinship terms: gēge 'older brother'; dìdi 'younger brother' nǎinai 'grandmother'

Word Formation

Reduplication in Japanese

In Japanese reduplicated words are often onomatopoeic expressions: wanwan 'bark bark'; gatagata 'clattering noise'; mo:mo: 'cow moos'; pikapika 'sparkles brightly‘

In Japanese reduplication can also give the meaning of'various': sima 'island' > simazima 'various islands'; kuni 'country' > kuniguni 'various countries'; hana 'flower' > hanabana 'various flowers'

Note that the consonant of the second member of the compound is voiced

Word FormationReduplication in Korean

Korean has three types of reduplication: complete, transformed, and interposed.

Complete reduplication:

every: ʧip 'house' > ʧipʧip 'every/each house'; nal 'day' > *nalnal > nanal 'every dayemphatic: ole 'long time' > oleole 'a long long time‘Onomatopoeic: khuŋkhuŋ 'bang bang'; ʧuŋəlʧuŋəl 'mumble mumble'

Transformed reduplication: pɨlk- 'be red' > wɨlkɨspɨlkɨs'not only red, but has a mixture of other various colors’

Interposed reduplication involves insertion of either -ti- or -na-: s:ɨta 'be bitter' > s:ɨtis:ɨta 'be as bitter as gall'

Word Formation2. Compounding

A new word is formed from two or more words:

E: earth + quake > earthquake

C: dì + zhèn > dìzhèn

J: zi + sin > zisin

K: ʧi + ʧin > ʧiʧin

3. Clipping

A word is reduced by deleting one or more syllables

facsimile > fax

hamburger > burger

gasoline > gas

advertisement > ad

Word Formation

Clipping in Japanese

A word is reduced by deleting one or more syllables

Japanese

su:pa:ma:keto (supermarket) > su:pa:

gakusei + waribiki (student + discount) > gakuwari

kara + okesutora (empty + orchestra) > karaoke

poketto + monsuta: (pocket + monster) > pokemon

tenpura + donburi (tenpura+ bowl) > tendon

Word Formation

4. Blending

Similar to compounding, but part of the word is deleted, the first part of the first word and the ending of the second word are preserved

English:

motor + hotel > motorhotel > motel

breakfast + lunch > breakfastlunch > brunch

spiced + ham > spicedham > spam

Word Formation5. Acronyms

National Aeronautics and Space Agency > NASA

Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus > SCUBA

6. Abbreviations

Like acronyms, but not pronounced as a word: UA, UCLA, ATM, AKA,lol (?), rotflmao

7. Borrowing

A new word is borrowed from another langauge

C: dì + zhèn > dìzhèn

J: zi + sin > zisin

K: ʧi + ʧin > ʧiʧin

Word Formation

Borrowing

Use the closest pronunciation possible. The phonotactics of the borrowing language determine the shape of the borrowed word.

Japanese cannot have CVC structure (unless the final C is a nasal), so Japanese adds vowels when borrowing words

McDonald’s > /makudonarudo/

loanwords

LoanwordsWhen the English word 'bus' is borrowed into CJK languages, some sound changes occur.

None of the CJK languages can have [s] in final position, so they all add a vowel at the end of the word.

CJK languages cannot have [s] in final position, so they all add a vowel at the end of the word.

Korean words cannot begin with a voiced stop, so [b] > [p]

Chinese will add tones to loanwords. There really is no rule as to what tone will be used for a loanword. The tone is determined by the characters used to write the word.

C: 巴士 băshì [ba3ʃi4]J: バス basuK: 버스 pəsɨ

Loanwords

The following words were borrowed into Chinese from English:

bǎolíngqiú (qiú = sphere)

báilándì

qiǎo kè lì

kěkě

dísīkě

shālā

shāfā

Loanwords

The following words were borrowed into Chinese from English:

bǎolíngqiú : bowling ball

báilándì : brandy

Qiǎo kèlì : chocolate

kěkě : cocoa

dísīkě : disco

shālā : salad

shāfā : sofa

Loanwords

The following words were borrowed into Japanese from English:

apa:to

ba:gen

bata:

biru

bi:ru

daburu

Loanwords

The following words were borrowed into Japanese from English:

apa:to apartment

ba:gen bargain

bata: butter

biru building

bi:ru beer

daburu double

Loanwords

The following words were borrowed into Korean from English:

təithɨ

kolphu

kasip

phiʧa

phathi

khəmphjuthə

Loanwords

The following words were borrowed into Korean from English:

təithɨ date

kolphu golf

kasip gossip

phiʧa pizza

phathi party

khəmphjuthə computer

Loanwords

It is estimated that at least 60% of words in Japanese and Korean are of Chinese origin.

These words were typically borrowed as nouns, and can be made into verbs by adding the verb to do (Japanese suru and Korean hata):

J: benkyo 'study (n.)' benkyo (wo) suru 'study (v.)'

K: koŋpu 'study (n.)' koŋpu (lɨl) hata 'study (v.)'

Loanwords

Both Japanese and Korean have borrowed numbers from Chinese, resulting in both native and non-native numbers in both languages.

Loanwords

Both Chinese and Korean have borrowed words from Japanese.

電話 “electric speech”J C K

denwa dianhua ʧənhoa 'telephone'

Loanwords

Japanese has also acquired many words from Portuguese, Dutch, German, etc.

tenpura 'tempura' (Port.)

pan 'bread' (Port.)

tabako 'tobacco' (Port.)

mesu 'scalpel' (Dutch 'knife')

arubaito 'work, part time job' (German 'work')

Loanwords

Japanese has also acquired many words from Portuguese, Dutch, German, etc.

Some of these words were borrowed into Korean from Japanese.

J K

pan p:aŋ 'bread' (Port.)

arubaito alpaithɨ 'work' (German 'work')

Other types of new words

New words are created all the time

2007 word of the year

American Dialect Society: subprime

Merriam-Webster: w00t

How do we create new words?

brand names (+ verbal suffix)

�I netflixed that yesterday.

�You should youtube that. (facebook, myspace)

�I just googled that.

Other types of new words

� In Japanese and Korean, borrowed nouns can become verbs by adding suru (J) or hata (K).

J: benkyo: suru “to study”

− K: koŋpu hada “to study”

� In Japanese the suffix -ru can be added to words to make verbs too:

takuru

deniru

makuru

Other types of new words

� In Japanese and Korean, borrowed nouns can become verbs by adding suru (J) or hata (K).

J: benkyo: suru “to study”

− K: koŋpu hada “to study”

� In Japanese the suffix -ru can be added to words to make verbs too:

takuru > takusi

deniru > denizu

makuru > makudonarudo

Other types of new words

� In Japanese and Korean, borrowed nouns can become verbs by adding suru (J) or hata (K).

J: benkyo: suru “to study”

− K: koŋpu hada “to study”

� In Japanese the suffix -ru can be added to words to make verbs too:

takuru > takusi > to call a taxi

deniru > denizu > to go to Denny's

makuru > makudonarudo > to go to McDonald's