Introduction to Linguistics, Session 7, Thursday, 2006-11-30

Introduction to Linguistics, Session 7, Thursday, 2006-11-30



MORPHOLOGY- WORD CONSTRUCTION


New word formation

New concepts, objects and inventions require new words/ new vocabulary. New words can be invented or derived from already existing linguistic material.
New words can potentially be invented by everybody. But they are more likely to be spread out within a speech community, if they are invented/ used by people who own political power or enjoy a certain popularity/ celebrity such as scientists, engineers, product branding companies or poets.



Morphological Structure
Branches of Morphology

Morphology deals with:

------------------MORPHOLOGY
------------------↓------------------ ↓
............INFLECTION --------------WORD FORMATION
--------------------------------------↓ ---------------↓
---------------------------DERIVATION ------COMPOUNDING


The process of inflection and derivation have in common that one stem is used and that certain affixes, mainly in form of suffixes, but also in form of prefixes, infixes or circumfixes are added. But the main difference between inflection and derivation is defined by its linguistic valence. While inflection is used in order to expand paradigmatic creativity in the sense of providing the creation of syntagmatic adaptation to the text, the external function of word formation in terms of derivation consists of paradigmatic creativity in terms of inventing new language material and expand vocabulary.

The process of compounding, in contrast, consists of putting two existing stems together and create one new word meaning.



Reminder: What are linguistic SIGNS?


DIALOGUE --→ Intonation → Social relations
↑
TEXT --------→ Intonation → Description
↑
SENTENCE ....→ Accent/ Intonation → State/ Event
↑
WORD -------→ Phonemes/ Stress → Entity/ Prop




Morphology sketch
The function of Inflection

Inflection has got an internal structure and an external function. Its external function is to mark the relation of words to their contend. In this sense it does not provide any change in the basic meaning of words.
The internal structure of morphology is due to the form words can take. Affixes (prefix, suffix, infix) and superfixes can be added to stems. Stems can also underlie a vowel change.

In word formation, morphology has slightly different functions. It aims at creating new words, shifting words within their part of speech or creating new meanings. In principle there is an infinite extendibility of the lexicon.
On the basis of its internal structure, word forms can be created by inventing new roots or morphemes (blending, abbreviation,...). But, inventing new roots or morphology is very difficult and rather unlikely to occur in everyday’s live (unless scientists or companies for instance are searching deliberately). A more common technique is derivation, meaning that a common stem underlies a vowel change or receives a new affix in form of a prefix, suffix or infix.

Compounding is also a very popular mechanism of creating new vocabulary. Two stems are put together, eventually with an interfix or an inflection-like affix.



The internal structure of words

MORPHEMES are the smallest meaningful parts of words!

There are two main morpheme types:
1.) Lexical morphemes (content morphemes, roots) which have got an open set of possible words (f. ex.: girl, boy, car, box, spoon, grass, sky)
2.) Grammatical morphemes (structural morphemes) which can be defined as a closed set of words. There are free grammatical which are independent words (prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs) and bound morphemes which emerge in word formation and inflection (affixes; most often in form of suffixes).


Morphemes and allomorphs
Morphemes can be realised differently in different contexts (environment of the phoneme in question). Variant pronunciations are called ALLOMORPHS.




The function of morphemes

How are words built?

Inflection marks the syntagmatic relation of words to their contexts. Syntactic agreements can therefore be in person, number and case. In English there is only subject- verb agreement, whereas there is subject-verb, determiner- adjective- noun and preposition- nominals agreement in German.
Inflection can also depend on situational contexts. Verbs correlate to time and space. Nominals to quantity and definiteness relations.


The internal structure of words
English words consist of a stem and an inflection. Stems carry a lexical meaning and inflections have got grammatical meanings. Inflections relate words to their syntactic (person, case, number agreement) and semantic (tense/time, quantity, speaker-addressee) context.
For example: cats
------------.-↓ .-↓
------...--stem -inflection

STEMS of English words can be SIMPLE (i.e. ROOTS, lexical morphemes) such as red, table, run, car etc. or COMPLEX. Complex stems can be derivations (a stem and a derivational affix; f.ex.: beauty + ful = beautiful), compounds (the combination of at least two different stems written together or separated by a hyphen; f.ex.: armchair, red-head).
There is also the possibility of using both, a derivation and a stem whose combination is called synthetic compounding (f.ex.: bus-driver, steam-roller).





A hierarchy of words and their parts


-------------------WORDS consist of 1 STEM and an INFLECTION
------------------------ ↓
---------------STEM/ BASE --------------------INFLECTION: affix
------------------------↓ ---------------------------------------prefix
COMPOUND STEM: 2 stems ------------................-------------suffix
------------------------↓ ---------------------------------------infix
DERIVED STEM: 1 stem + affix -------------------....................-circumfix
---------------------------------------------------------------- superfix
ROOT (lexical morpheme) ----------------....................----------ablaut

Remember: Words as signs
.....................................? Phrase semantics
Inflected Words
......................................→ Stress
↑
......................................→ Lexical semantics
Compound Word
......................................→ Stress
↑
......................................→ Lexical semantics
Derived Word
......................................→ Stress
↑
......................................→ Lexical semantics
Morpheme
.....................................→ Phonemes, Stress




WHAT IS...?

A WORD is: a stem + an inflection

An INFLECTION is: a suffix or an ablaut

A STEM is: either a ROOT (lexical morpheme)
....................or a DERIVED STEM (i.e. stem + affix)
....................or a COMPOUND STEM (stem + stem)

A DERIVED STEM is: either a ROOT (zero derivation)
........................................or a DERIVED STEM with an affix

A COMPOUND STEM is: a derived stem/ word + a derived stem/ word
.............................................or a compound stem + a compound stem




Simple and complex words

Simple words are short words consisting of one syllable:
f. ex.: car, star, cat

Complex words can be:
-blends and abbreviations (based on simplex roots consisting of more than one stem):
such as: brunch; NATO

-derivations (based on one root):
f.ex.: unable, impossible, happiness, antidisestablishmentarianism

-compounds (based on more than one root/ stem):
f.ex.: tatpurusa (endocentric): jam-jar, honeypot, harddisk, bus-stop
dvandva (bicentric): whisky-soda, gentleman- farmer
bahavrihi (exocentric): red-head, redskin, blue-stocking




The internal structure of words

Examples:

1.) Bus-driver

.........................................Bus-driver
..........................................↓ ........↓
........................................bus driver
.................................................↓ ...↓
............................................drive -er


2.) Bata- base
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Data- base
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::↓ ::::::::↓
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::data ::::::base


3.) Newspaperman

.......................................Newspaperman
.........................................↓........ ↓ .......↓
....................................news paper man




4.) Newsreader
.......................................Newsreader
.......................................↓ ..............↓
...................................news ......reader
....................................................↓.....↓
................................................read -er


5.) Nevertheless

...................................Nevertheless
......................................↓ ......↓ .....↓
.................................never the less