ENGL 3371 Lecture 5: Morphology III

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ENGL 3371Lecture 5 Morphology III

• Dr. Min-Joo Kim

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Mechanisms by which new words or word meanings
are created

• Morphological derivations (and compounding) by
  adding new morphemes or getting rid of them.
• Neologisms by creating entirely new words from
  scratch.
• Meaning change by changing the meaning of a word
  without changing its form.
• This various methodology is a testimony to the
  linguistic creativity of humans.

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Todays agenda

• Morphological derivations continued
• Multiple derivation
• Zero derivation
• Backformation
• Neologisms
• Meaning change

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Multiple Derivation

• Definition a process via which more than one
  affix is added to a root or a word.
• Example re construct ion
• Process I re construct (V) reconstruct (V)
• Process II reconstruct(V) ion reconstruction
  (N)

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Representing the process using a tree diagram

• N
• V
  Suffix
• Prefix V (Root) -ion
• re- construct

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Exercise 1

• Represent the derivational processes of the
  following words using tree diagrams
• dangerous
• hopefulness
• organizational
• geological

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Challenge

• The following underlined words are also derived
  from some words. Can you guess what those
  original words are?
• Also, what kind of process do you think is
  involved in deriving these new words?
• (6) a. I want to butter the bread.
• b. John faxed the document to me.
• c. Mary will fedex the package today.

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Zero derivation

• Words like butter, fax, fedex that are used as
  verbs instantiate zero derivation.
• It is called as such because a new category is
  derived without adding any phonologically
  contentful morpheme.
• That is, it is as if a phonologically null affix
  ? is added.

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Zero derivation Tree diagramming

• V
• N Suffix
• butter ?

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Exercise 2

• Draw tree diagrams of the derivation of the
  following underlined words
• (7)a. John faxed the document to me.
• b. It was an interesting read.
• c. Susie was pleased to see John.

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Backformation

• Definition a phenomenon in which speakers of
  language apply a word formation rule backwards,
  based upon the prevailing pattern existing in the
  language (e.g., nouns are formed by adding
  (t)ion or er or or).
• Examples of prevailing pattern
• Dance (V) ? dancer (N)
• translate (V) ? translation (N)

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Examples of backformation

• Editor ? edit
• Sculptor ? sculpt
• Beggar ? beg
• Swindler ? swindle
• Resurrection ? resurrect
• Preemption ? preempt
• Television ? televise
• Emotion ? emote

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Linguistic significance of backformation

• Backformation is considered extremely important
  in linguistics, because, although it appears to
  stem from language users misanalysis or
  misapplication of a word formation rule, it in
  fact shows that language users are extremely
  creative and also systematic in their language
  use.

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Neologisms

• Acronyms words which consist of the initial
  alphabet letters of different words and which are
  pronounced as if those alphabet letters make up a
  word (e.g., radar, laser, LAN, DOS)
• Alphabetical abbreviations words which consist
  of the initial alphabet letters of different
  words in which each of those alphabet letters is
  pronounced individually (e.g., WWW, IT, FTP,
  HTML, OJ)
• Clippings words that are made up of breaking up
  longer words (e.g., FAX, Memo, Prof., Dr., Photo,
  Remo-con (Japanese))

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Neologisms

• Blends words in which parts of more than one
  word are put together (e.g., informercial,
  brunch, netiquette, bit (binary-digit), netizen)
• Generified words words which started out as
  names of specific brands but became the
  representative of similar products (e.g.,
  Kleenex, zip-lock, Xerox, fedex??)
• Borrowing words borrowed from other languages
  (e.g., sushi, tortillas, tacos, genre, chi)

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Meaning change

• Narrowing words whose meanings got narrowed over
  time and became usable only in some limited
  contexts (e.g., meat (it used to mean any solid
  consumable food).
• Broadening words whose meanings got broader than
  the original meaning and became used in various
  domains without much restriction (e.g., cool, hot)

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Meaning change

• Semantic drift words whose meanings underwent
  some dramatic changes, almost losing their
  original meanings (e.g., lady (it originally
  meant bread kneader (hlaf loaf dighe
  kneader but now it means a woman with grace,
  style, and class)
• Metaphorical extension words which became used
  in domains different from the originally intended
  domains (e.g., sea or ocean related words being
  used for driving or piloting such as surfing on
  the Internet, spaceship, navigating on the road,
  captain, chew on or mull over the idea, stomach
  or digest the idea, wrestle or grapple with an
  idea)

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Next class

• Homework 4
• Phonetics