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Morphology

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Title: Morphology


1
Morphology
  • Peter Ackema
  • packema_at_ling.ed.ac.uk

2
Word classes
  • Verbs express an action, process or state
  • Nouns are the name of a person, place, or thing
  • Adjectives are words which express a property
  • But...

3
  • Jane was upset because an unexpected problem with
    the manuals availability implied that the risk
    in case of a fire was very high.
  • upset a state, but not a verb
  • availability not a person, place or thing,
    but is a noun
  • implied not an action, process or state, but
    is a verb
  • fire process or state, but not a verb
  • etc.

4
Lexical Categories and Functional Categories
  • A builder claimed that the houses of those people
    are almost crumbling.
  • Builder claimed houses people almost crumbling.
  • A that the of those are.

5
  • Functional categories form a closed class.
  • What are the determiners of English?
  • the (definite), a/an (indefinite), this, that,
    these, those (demonstrative) (plus a few others)
  • Lexical categories form an open class.
  • What are the verbs or nouns of English?
  • impossible to make a complete list (despite
    dictionaries)

6
Verbs
  • Finite verb indicates tense of the sentence.
  • Paula dreams of a nice holiday.
  • That woman always plays a Ligeti cd on her
    birthday.
  • Yesterday I walked home.

7
  • Past tense forms for the verb pléno to wash in
    modern Greek
  • 1sg é-plen-a 1pl plén-ame
  • 2sg é-plen-es 2pl plén-ate
  • 3sg é-plen-e 3pl é-plen-an

8
  • Absence of an ending can also give information
    about tense/person/number on a finite verb.
  • I dream of a nice holiday as well.
  • You never play the piano on your birthday, do
    you?
  • Today they all walk home, I believe.

9
  • When something fits into a frame like the
    following, it will be a finite verb.
  • When I come home, the dogs usually ___ .
  • The dogs ___ it.
  • Mary ___ her dog yesterday.
  • But not vice versa
  • ??When I come home the dogs usually sing.

10
  • The infinitive
  • Harry wants to leave the country.
  • The shop expects to deliver the goods on Friday.
  • Luckily the weather seems to improve.
  • In the future tense, accompanied by auxiliary
    verb will
  • Gerald will go to Paris tomorrow.
  • Davina would dance the tango.

11
  • The past participle
  • She has never travelled for so long before.
  • He has gone.
  • Our cat has never slept for so long.
  • That soprano has never sung in a Verdi opera.

12
  • The present participle
  • The train is leaving the station.
  • Laura is reading a book.
  • Larry was feeding the cats when Laura came in.

13
  • Complete sentences in English need a verb, even
    if this has to be a dummy verb the copula.
  • She is a dentist.
  • He is ill.
  • Clark Kent is Superman.
  • Compare with main verb be
  • I think therefore I am.
  • To be or not to be, that is the question.

14
  • The need for a copula is not universal
  • Vasja poxož na otca. (Russian)
  • Vasja alike to father
  • Vasja looks like his father.
  • Takie predrassudki ocen rasprostraneny.
  • such prejudices very spread
  • Such prejudices are very widespread.

15
Nouns
  • Pluralization indicates that a word is a noun
  • house houses
  • chair chairs
  • cat cats
  • street streets
  • iguana iguanas

16
  • Mass nouns do not readily pluralize
  • water ?waters
  • sand ?sands
  • gold ?golds
  • glue ?glues
  • coffee ?coffees

17
  • But it is possible to pluralize even mass nouns
    when you individuate them
  • The ship sank in the territorial waters of
    Ireland.
  • The caravan crossed the sands of the desert.
  • Britain won three golds and five silvers at the
    event.
  • I tried three different glues and it still wont
    stick.
  • After she drank six coffees she started shaking.

18
  • Abstract nouns do not always readily pluralize
    either
  • luck - ?lucks, hate ?hates, anger - ?angers
  • But
  • One of my pet hates is the litter in the street.
  • This psychotherapeutic theory distinguishes
    between two different angers, the suppressed one
    and the demonstrative one.

19
  • Nouns can be combined with a determiner
  • the cat
  • a house
  • the water
  • that street
  • this sand
  • those tables
  • the anger

20
  • Proper nouns do not always combine with a
    determiner
  • ?the Jane, ?the Edinburgh, ?a France, ?this
    Merlin
  • But
  • She is no longer the Jane I knew.
  • The Edinburgh of the 15th century was very dirty.
  • In this book the author describes a France that
    tourists do not often see.
  • Let me tell you a story about a sorcerer called
    Merlin. This Merlin...

21
  • Verbs can combine directly with nouns
  • Jane examines patients.
  • Alaric destroyed Rome.
  • Nouns cannot directly combine with other nouns
  • Jane examination patients
  • Janes examination of patients
  • Alaric destruction Rome
  • Alarics destruction of Rome

22
  • Are there functional nouns? Maybe pronouns
  • Personal pronouns I, me, you, he, him, she,
    her,...
  • Possessive pronouns my, your, her, his, our, ...
  • Reflexive pronouns myself, yourself, herself,
    ...
  • Reciprocal pronoun each other
  • Impersonal pronoun one

23
Adjectives
  • Adjectives have a comparative and a superlative
    form
  • cold colder coldest
  • strange stranger strangest
  • dry drier driest

24
  • enthusiastic
  • enthusiasticer / enthusiasticest
  • more enthusiastic / most enthusiastic
  • flabbergasted
  • flabbergasteder / flabbergastedest
  • more flabbergasted / most flabbergasted

25
  • The comparative or superlative can be
    semantically anomalous
  • pregnant pregnanter pregnantest
  • dead deader deadest
  • locked lockeder lockedest
  • closed closeder closedest

26
  • Adjectives can be used predicatively
  • John is ill.
  • Mary is pregnant.
  • That painting is beautiful.
  • The door is locked.
  • or attributively
  • an ill person
  • a pregnant woman
  • a beautiful painting
  • the locked door

27
  • Some adjectives can only be used as attributive
    adjectives
  • the alleged offender
  • This offender is only alleged.
  • a former president
  • This president is former.

28
  • Adverbs are much like attributive adjectives, but
    modify a verb rather than a noun.
  • They can distinguish themselves by a special
    adverbial ending.
  • Susan walked quickly to the store.
  • Frank hastily scribbled it down.
  • She probably left.

29
  • Not all adverbs show special adverbial
    morphology
  • Harry often talks about music.
  • The baby is eating well.
  • een snel spel een grappig gezicht (Dutch)
  • a quick game a funny face
  • Ze schrijft heel snel . De baby lachte
    grappig.
  • she writes very quickly the baby smiled funnily

30
Prepositions
  • in Amsterdam
  • with Mary
  • to France
  • after dinner
  • before noon
  • off the wall

31
  • Some languages have postpositions rather than
    prepositions.
  • larki ko larki se larki par
  • girl to girl from girl after
  • to the girl from the girl after the girl
  • (Hindi)
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