Morphology

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Morphology

• Lesson 3B

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Structure of Spoken Language (from Crystal 1997)
Use
Pragmatics
Structure
Medium of Transmission
Meaning (semantics)
Grammar
Phonetics
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Lexicon
Discourse
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CLASSIFYING GRAMMAR
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CLASSIFYING MORPHOLOGY
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THE OVERALL PICTURE
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Morphemes

• minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function
• Distinction between free morphemes and bound
  morphemes

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Free morphemes

• can stand by themselves as a single word
• e.g. grace
• Can be lexical (e.g. boy,elephant)
• or functional (e.g. and, but)

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Bound morphemes

• Cannot stand alone but need to be bound to
  another morpheme, e.g. re-, -ful
• Prefixes and suffixes are bound morphemes
• Divided into derivational and inflectional

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BASE FORMS boy, yes, elephant

• No CONSTITUENT PARTS
• also called ROOTS or STEMS

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PREFIXESe.g. un-, de-, super-

• meaningful elements
• come BEFORE base form
• lexical role allow for the construction of a
  large number of new words

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SUFFIXESe.g. ness, -ed, -er

• meaningful elements
• 2 types
• DERIVATIONAL
• INFLECTIONAL

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DEFINING SUFFIXES
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INFLECTION OF PLURAL
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INFLECTION OF VERBS
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black bird vs. blackbird

• BLACK BIRD
• two words
• bird which is black
• meaning is predictable
• classified as a PHRASE (NP)

• BLACKBIRD
• one word
• a particular type of bird (merlo)
• meaning not predictable
• classified as a COMPOUND

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green house vs. greenhouse(like black bird vs.
blackbird)

• GREEN HOUSE
• meaning is predictable
• classified as a PHRASE (NP)

• GREENHOUSE
• meaning not predictable
• classified as a COMPOUND

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white house vs. White House

• white house
• casa bianca
• meaning is predictable
• classified as a PHRASE (NP)

• White House
• Casa Bianca
• meaning not predictable
• classified as a COMPOUND

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Compounds can be single wordsor
combinations of words

• e.g. blackbird
• e.g. White House

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COMPOUNDS

• COMPOUND VERBS
• COMPOUND ADJECTIVES
• COMPOUND NOUNS

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COMPOUND VERBS

• VERB-VERB stir-fry
• NOUN-VERB air-condition
• ADJECTIVE VERB dry-clean
• PREPOSITION VERB underestimate

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COMPOUND ADJECTIVES

• NOUN-ADJECTIVE sky-high
• ADJECTIVE-ADJECTIVE red-hot
• PREPOSITION-ADJECTIVE hyper-active

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COMPOUND NOUNS

• VERB-NOUN swearword
• NOUN-NOUN hairnet
• ADJECTIVE NOUN blackboard
• PREPOSITION-NOUN overcoat

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CV, CN or CA ?

• earthquake
• sightsee
• goldfish
• scarecrow
• postman

• CN (noun-verb)
• CV (noun-verb)
• CN (noun/adj-noun)
• CN (verb-noun)
• CN (noun?-noun)

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CV, CN, or CA?

• birdcage
• sunrise
• maneating
• haircut
• homesick

• CN (noun-noun)
• CN (noun-verb)
• CA (noun-verb)
• CN (noun-noun)
• CA (noun-adj)