ESSENTIALS OF MORPHOLOGY Morphology is concerned with the

ESSENTIALS OF MORPHOLOGY Morphology is concerned with the elements that compose words and the organization of these elements into hierarchical structures. A word is an arbitrary pairing of sound and meaning (But see discussion in Baker & Bobaljik (2000))

THE VOCABULARY The Vocabulary items: (1) Identifying index: Syntactic category: Meaning: Syntactic features: Morphological features: /perestroika/ Noun “reorganization, reconstruction” [+abstract] none /b. Ind/ Verb “to make secure by tying” [+transitive] zero inflection ablaut

SIMPLE AND COMPLEX WORDS Perestroika, Monangahela, dog, boy, bind = Simple words Complex words: (2) a. high school, easy chair, black board, gentleman [A + N]N b. un-wise, un-happy, un-natur-al, un-woman-ly c. woman-ly, other-word-ly, heaven-ly, weather-ly [N + ly]A d. black-ness, un-poison-ous-ness, gentlemanli-ness (3) [[ un [ [ [gentle]A [man]N]N li]A ]A ness]N [ anti [ [ [ dis [ establish]V ]V ment]N arian ]A ]A ism ]N [un + A]A [A+ness]N

INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY Two main fields are traditionally recognized within morphology Inflectional morphology studies the way in which words vary (or ‘inflect’) in order to express grammatical contrasts in sentences such as singular/plural or past/present tense. Examples of inflectional morphology: boy vs boy-s child vs. child-r-en love vs. love-s vs. goe-s vs. love-d went Derivational morphology studies the principles governing the constructions of new words, without reference to the specific grammatical role a word may play in a sentence. Examples of derivational morphology: drink vs. drink-able inflect vs, dis-infect

THE NOTION OF MORPHEME Morphemes are the structural units of words (see Appendix I) MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS In analyzing words into morphemes in a language we know, we often easily discover the separate parts because we can recall similar words with which to compare the words under analysis. In working with an unfamiliar language, it is necessary to have a group of similar forms to compare and from which to extract the recurring parts. A form from Kekchi (a Mayan language of Guatemala) (4) tinbeq 'I will walk. ' (cf. Nida (1949, 6) To decide on a division of this form into smaller units, or even to know if such a division is possible, we have to consider other forms of the language. Comparison with forms such as tatbeq 'you (sg. ) will walk' and ninbeq 'I am walking' show that the form tinbeq is composed of three morphemes: t- 'future' (contrasting with n- 'present progressive'), -in- 'first person singular subject' (contrasting with -at- 'second person singular subject') and -beq 'walk. ’

(5) Swahili (East Africa). 1. ninakusikia 2. ninamsikia 3. ninakisikia 4. ninawasikia 5. anakusikia 6. anamsikia 7. anawasikia 8. anatusikia 9. unanisikia 10. unawasikia 11 tunakisikia 12. wanakusikia 13. ninakujibu 14. nitakujibu 15. nimekujibu ’ 16. nilikujibu 17. unamjibu 18. utamjibu 19. umemjibu 20. ulimjibu 21. mnanisikia 22. mmewasikia 23. mtatusikia 24. mlikisikia 25. ninamjua 26. niliwajua 27. atanisaidia 28. wamekusaidia 'I hear you' 'I hear him' 'I hear it' 'I hear them’ 'he hears you' 'he hears him' 'he hears them' 'he hears us' 'you hear me' 'you hear them' 'we hear it' 'they hear you 'I answer you' 'I will answer you' I have answered you' 'I answered you' 'you answer him' 'you will answer him' 'you have answered him' 'you (pl. ) hear me' 'you (pl. ) have heard them' 'you (pl. ) will hear us' 'you (pl. ) heard it' 'I know him' 'I knew them' 'he will help me' 'they have helped you'

The order of morphemes: (6) subject prefix tense prefix object prefix verb stem (7) subjects tenses stems ni- 'I' -ta- 'future' sikia 'hear' u- 'you' -na- 'present' 'answer' a- 'he' -me- 'perfect' jua 'know' tu- 'we' -li- 'past' 'help' m- 'you (pl. )' objects -ni- 'me' -ku- 'you' -ki- 'it' wa- 'they' - -jibu -m- 'him' - -saidia -tu- 'us' -wa- 'them' PROBABLE new words made up of these same morphemes in the correct order. (8) atamsikia walitujibu tumekijua nimemsaidia But we can never absolutely certain that a given form is correct unless we learn

ROOTS AND STEMS Roots The root is generally the principle carrier of the lexical meaning of a word, while affixes generally carry grammatical meanings. For example, in cats, the root carries the basic meaning Felis domesticus, while -s carries the grammatical information 'plural. ' In some languages, roots characteristically occur in a particular position. In Turkish and Eskimo, the root occupies the first position in a word. Stems In addition to roots, we also distinguish stems. A stem may be also a root, as cat in cats. Often, a stem consists of a root plus something else. The present tense of the Latin verb amo@ 'love' is formed from the root am- plus theme vowel -a@ plus the person-number suffixes.

BOUND AND FREE MORPHEMES: Bound morphemes do not occur in isolation. Root that may constitute words by themselves: (9) gentle, usurp, difficult, dog, man Bound stems/roots (cf Aronoff (1976): (10) -ceive -port im-port re-ceive re-port -here -mit in-here ad-here re-mit ad-mit

AFFIXES: Prefixes = a ff. + X and Suffixes = X + aff. Affixes commonly determine the lexical category of the word that they form: ex. : a word formed with the suffix -ion is a noun a word formed with the suffix -ize is a verb Affixes are not freely combinable: (11) seren-ity *shop-ity * proverb-ity *machin-ity regular-ize scandal-ize *usurp-ize *develop-ize Reason: -ity is added to adjectives, but not to nouns or verbs -ize is added to adjectives and nouns, but not to verbs

Bound morphemes may be assigned morphological templates like the following: (12) ii. i. [ [ X ] A + ness] N : gentleness, grammaticalness, uneasiness [ un+ [ X ]A ]A : ungrammatical, unaware, unconscious iii. [ [ X ]A +ity ]N : serenity, grammaticality, electricity iv. [ [X]N +ly]A : godly, gentlemanly, husbandly, daily v. [ [ X]A +th]N : truth, width, breadth, depth vi. [ per + stem. Lat. ]A: permit, pertain, perform vii. [###]Stem: -mit, -tain, -sist, -form

Open and closed classes of morphems: A count of the morphemes in any language will reveal many more root morphemes than affixes. The set of affixes is closed and can only rarely gain or lose members. The set of roots is open, and a normal speaker of a language adds new roots to his lexicon throughout his life.

TYPES OF AFFIXES 1. PREFIXES: a. Prespecified (English) work re-work likely un-likely like dis-like b. 2. Reduplicated (Tagalog) bili 'buy' bi-bili 'will buy' kuha 'get' ku-kuha 'will get' punta 'go' pu-punta 'will go' sulat 'write' su-sulat 'will write' tawa 'laugh' ta-tawa 'will laugh' SUFFIXES: work likely bake work-ed likeli-ness bak-er

3. INFIXES Tagalog bili kuha sulat punta tawa 'buy' 'get' 'write' 'go' 'laugh' 4. CIRCUMFIXES em-bold-en 5. b-um-ili k-um-uha s-um-ulat p-um-unta t-um-awa en-light-en NULL MORPHOLOGY Noun/Adjective Verb a frame to frame dry to dry a run to run 'to buy' 'to get' 'to write' 'to go' 'to laugh'

STEM CHANGES I. Ablaut: strike teach drive ring struck taught drove rang struck taught driven rung

Stem Changes II. RESYLLABIFICATION: The Semitic binyans. Arabic root /ktb/ ktb katab ‘write’ kutib 'was written’ aktub 'is writing’ uktab 'was being written’ perfective active perfective passive imperfective active imperfective passive Hebrew root /gdr/ Active gadar goder yi-gdor li-gdor 'enclosed’ 'encloses’ 'will enclose’ 'enclose!’ 'to enclose’ Passive ni-gdar yi-gader hi-gader le-hi-gader 'was enclosed’ 'is enclosed' 'will be enclosed' 'be enclosed!' 'to be enclosed'