Morphology Cross-linguistic variation Linguistics 200 Spring 2006

Morphology: Cross-linguistic variation Linguistics 200 Spring 2006

Word formation types Ø Ø How are new words created? What is the structure of existing words? Morphology we have discussed so far (sequential) Ø Ø Affixation (prefixation, suffixation) Compounding Reduplication Non-sequential (simultaneous) types of morphology n n n Portmanteau morphemes Consonant or vowel substitution Other simultaneous morphology

Portmanteau morphemes §Single phonological representation contains meanings from two (or more) semantic categories §Textbook equates portmanteau with blend—p. 99 (e. g. smog < smoke + fog) §Grammatical portmanteau morphemes do not have such transparent origins §An example from Tsek’ene (Mc. Leod Lake dialect)

Verbal time categories in Athabaskan languages § § Athabaskan family (includes Tsek’ene, Witsuwit’en)f Tense/aspect/mood categories § § imperfective (aspect) future (tense) optative (“mood”) (similar to subjunctive in Romance languages)

A portmanteau morpheme in Tsek’ene [ ] = voiced velar fricative imperfective optative 1 sg s- «s-ts « w- «s-ts « i 2 sg in-ts « w-in-ts « i «ts « w- «ts « i 3 sg 1 pl ts’- «ts « ts’-uts « i 2 pl 3 pl Ah-ts « - «ts « w-Ahts « i -uts « i [w]/[u]- optative prefix

[è] = low-toned [e] impf/optv 1 sg s- perfective i- its è 2 sg in- ints è 3 sg «ts è 1 pl ts’- ts’Ats è 2 pl Ah- Ahts è 3 pl - Ats è /i/- 1 s perfective: simultaneously marks both person/number and perfective (a portmanteau morpheme) ( /A- allomorphy in this paradigm)

Consonant or vowel substitution n Sahaptin consonant symbolism n larger/more important/more intense/permanent – smaller/less important/less intense/temporary q-k nn–l n -š–s n n č – ts

Related pairs of words n-l mj. A n. Aš ‘child’ mj. A l. As ‘baby’ ? níit ‘house’ ? líit ‘shack, shed’ wj. A An. Akw ‘abandon’ wj. A Al. Akw ‘abandon temporarily’

q – k, X - x n. A q’it ‘boundary, end’ l. A q. Aw. X ‘glow (hot)’ l. A k’it ‘very end, tip’ k. A wx wx ‘shiny, gleaming’

č – ts or š–s č’ m ‘sharp (blade)’ ts’ m kw’ ští- ‘be stubborn, spoiled’ k. Alúw. Aš ‘unfinished bag, basket’ kw’ stí- ‘sharp (point)’ ‘(child) is stubborn, spoiled’ k. Alúw. As ‘unfinished top edge (of basket)’

-s XA j. A ‘sunflower’ XA sj ‘wild celery’ ? A A ‘finger’ ? As. A ‘fingernail’ -š Xw. Aj- ‘Klickitat (Sahaptin) p. Am people of Wind R. area’ Xw. AšXw. Aj ‘blue jay’

Ablaut = Root-internal vowel substitution English present past participle sing sang have sung ring rang have rung drink drank have drunk

Ablaut in Witsuwit’en verb root impf/opt -/qes/ ‘scratch hard’ –[qes] -/q «z/ ‘do with arms’ –[qis] perfective –[qez] –[q «z] Ablaut pattern: / «/ /i/ in the imperfective/optative /e/ / «/ in the future (Also some root-final consonant changes. ) future –[q «s]

Simultaneous morphemes in ASL MOTHER GIRL AUNT WOMAN

FATHER UNCLE BOY MAN

Some ASL morphemes chin (location) ‘female’ forehead (location) ‘male’

Simultaneous morphemes in ASL the morphemes in MOTHER: chin (location) ‘female’ 5 (handshape) ‘parent’

Simultaneous morphemes in Arabic Afro-Asiatic family Berber Chadic Cushitic Egyptian Omotic Semitic Hausa (SIL classification of Afro-Asiatic) Arabic

“Arabic” n ‘Formal’ Classical Arabic n Modern Standard Arabic n n ‘Colloquial’ varieties

Classical Arabic variety spoken 7 th-8 th century A. D. n spoken over wide area of Middle East n used as ‘lingua franca’ (language of communication by speakers of other languages) n

Modern Standard Arabic n n a. k. a. High Arabic, (Modern) Literary Arabic, Educated Spoken Arabic learned at school n experience of speaker from Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) n n grew up speaking Gulf Arabic started learning MSA at age 10 all middle, high school classes taught in MSA what is taught at UW

Modern Standard Arabic n ‘high’ functions, e. g. broadcasting n giving a lecture n associated with religion (Islam) n needed to succeed in government n generally regarded as superior to colloquial n not universally known in Arabic world (varies with literacy rates) n

Colloquial Arabic n ‘low’ functions, e. g. n n n language of home used among friends large number of dialects. major dialect areas: n n n Arabian peninsula, Persian Gulf, Jordan Mesopotamia (Iraq, except south) Syria-Lebanon-Palestine-Cyprus (‘Levantine’) Egypt, Sudan Maghrib (Maghrebi) (west of Egypt) n n eastern (E. Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Malta) western (Morocco, W. Algeria) Chad varieties at geographical extremes may be mutually unintelligible

Some predominantly Arabic speaking nations Malta Cyprus Israel Syria Iraq Morocco Algeria Tunisia Libya Egypt Yemen Saudia Arabic UAE

Consonant inventory generalized colloquial Arabic inventory lab stop labdent interdent b fric f Tð ð dent alv š c aff nasal n lat l trill glide r w j vel uvu kg td t d sz s z pal q X phar glot ? h

upper articulator lower articulator pharyngeal

Phonetic descriptions of some Arabic consonants [ ] = voiceless pharyngeal fricative n [ ] = voiced pharyngeal fricative n [t ] = pharyngealized voiceless alveolar stop n

Pharyngeal fricatives Gulf Arabic speaker n [ ] = voiceless pharyngeal fricative n [ abb] ‘to kiss’ n [s a an] ‘plate’ n n cf. [h] = voiceless glottal fricative [habb] ‘to blow’ n [sahal] ‘meadow’ n

Pharyngeal fricatives n [ ] = voiced pharyngeal fricative [ a: f] ‘to feel disgust’ n [ka ab] ‘heel’ n n cf. [? ] = glottal stop n [? akal] ‘(he) ate’

Pharyngealized consonants ]) ([C Syrian Arabic speaker n Plain vs. pharyngealized consonants: n [ti: n] ‘figs’ n [dal] ‘he pointed’ n [tal] ‘hill’ n [su: s] ‘licorice’ n [t i: n] ‘mud’ [d al] ‘he stayed’ [t al ] ‘he peeped’ [s u: s ] ‘chick’

Arabic verbal morphology forms of ‘write’ perfective imperfective participle active passive I katab kutib aktub uktab kaatib maktuub II kattab kuttib ukattab mukattib mukattab III kaatab kuutib ukaatab mukaatib mukaatab IV ? aktab ? uktib u? aktab mu? aktib mu? aktab V takattab tukuttib atakattab utakattab mutakattib mutakattab VI takaatab tukuutib atakaatab utakaatab mutakaatib mutakaatab VII nkatab nkutib ankatib unkatab munkatib munkatab

perfective imperfective participle active passive VIII ktatab ktutib uktatab muktatib muktatab IX ktabab aktabib muktabib X staktab stuktib astaktib ustaktab mustaktib XI ktaabab aktaabib muktaabib XII ktawtab aktawtib muktawtib XIII ktawwab aktawwib muktawwib XIV ktanbab aktanbib muktanbib XV ktanbay aktanbiy muktanbiy aktatib mustaktab

Morphemes Each Arabic verb contains 3 intercalated morphemes: phonological component semantic component 1. consonants verb root: lexical verb meaning 2. vowels (portmanteau tense (aspect) morphemes) (imperfective, perfective)/ voice (active, passive)/ participle or non-participle 3. syllable structure (al-)awzaan: causative, (arrangement of reciprocal, reflexive, etc. consonants and vowels)

Simultaneous morphology Morphological structure of [kuutib] ‘was corresponded with’ ui perfective passive CVVCVC III wazn: ‘to direct, strive to, act in conjunction with’ ktb ‘write’

Verb root (consonants) # of Cs 3 2 4 1 example /ktb/ /ksb/ / lm/ /sm/ /d r / /j/ ‘to write’ ‘to earn’ ‘to know’ ‘to poison’ ‘to roll’ ‘to write the letter y’ [ ] = voiceless pharyngeal fricative; [ ] = voiced pharyngeal fricative

Tense/voice/participle (vowels) /a/ /u i/ /a/-, /a i/, /a u/, /a/ /u/-, /a/ perfective active perfective passive imperfective active imperfective passive

Sample awzaan causative, reciprocal, reflexive, etc. /ktb/ I II CVCVC CVCCVC ‘write’ ‘to do frequently or intensively, to ‘cause to consider somebody as. . . ’ (causative) write’ (frequently overlaps with Form IV) III CVVCVC ‘to direct, strive to, act in ‘correspond’ conjunction with. . . ’ IV ? VCCVC ‘to shape into. . . , induce, cause to ‘cause to do. . . ’ (causative) write’ V t. VCVCCVC ‘to become. . . , to do to oneself, to claim to be. . . ’

Morphology summary n Morphological competence. Native speakers know n n Morphological analysis n n n which words are well-formed meanings of multi-morphemic words other properties of words (e. g. lexical category) proceeds by comparing related words Various strategies forming words in different languages Types of morphology (word formation) n sequential Ø n affixation simultaneous