Topic 2: MorphologyWu Heping

MA Program in Linguistics and Language teachingNorthwest Normal University

Wuhpnet.googlepages.com/linguisticsGroup.google.com/group/linguistics_nwnu

Lanzhou 2006

Knowledge of words: what do we mean by knowing a word?

Open and closed class

Definitions of key notion

The hierarchical architecture of words

English word formation

Morphology and lexicon

Knowledge of WordsA child of 6 knows 13,000 words. Average high school graduate knows about 60,000 words. Webster’s Third International Dictionary of the English Language has over 450,000 entries.

One can learn thousands of words in a language and still not know the language.

To know a word means to know aspects of a word: sound, meaning, spelling, grammatical properties, collocations, connotations, context, etymology, etc. But what is crucial is to segment from a string of sounds a basic unit of meaning, like Isleptfortenhoursyesterday.

To know a word thus means the ability to map a string of sounds with a particular meaning and specific grammatical properties.

Two classes of wordsOpen class: lexical categories

Closed class: grammatical categories

Definitions of the key notions: Morphology, morpheme, lexicon, inflection, derivation

Types of words: open classLexical categories -"name" things and describe actions and ideas

Noun: word naming a person, place, thing, or idea:

"cat, house, thought, beauty, Mary"

Verb: word expressing action or state of being:

"love, run, seem, be"

Adjective: a word modifying a noun

"green, angry, new"

Adverb: a word modifying a verb or adjective, telling when, where, how

"quickly, angrily, very, soon, presently"

Types of words: closed classGrammatical categories - express relations

Preposition: expresses direction, location, possession

”to, towards, in, on, of"

Conjunction: expresses connection between words, phrases, clauses, sentences

”and, or"

Determiner: directly qualifies noun

Articles: “the, a”

Demonstratives: “this, that”

Quantifiers: “every, each"

Definitions

Morphology: The study of words and the rules for word formation in (a) language.

Central Issue: how people make up and understand words they have never encountered before.

DefinitionsMorpheme: The smallest part of a word that carries meaning.

Lexicon: A dictionary. Speakers have a "mental lexicon" in which the phonological form of a word is represented associated with its lexical category.

Definitions"content" morphemes… words that "name" things and describe actions and ideas ex: "sing, purse, rabbit ...”, or any morpheme we add to a word to change it into a different part of speech “-ly, -er, ...” like “happy (adj.) happily (adv.)”, drive (v.) driver (n.)”

"function" morphemes… grammatical words -- words that help us construct sentences and phrases which join words into ideas, like prepositions ('in', 'of', 'on') articles ('the', 'an'),

Morphemes…the smallest part of a word with independent meaning.

appleheretherehelp

helpedhelpshelpingunhelpful

help + edhelp + shelp + ingun + help + ful

MorphemesProductivityone morpheme: taste

two morphemes: taste+ful

three morphemes: dis+taste+ful

four morphemes: dis+taste+ful+ly

DefinitionsBound morpheme: morphemes that cannot stand alone, but must be attached to other morphemes. They can be further classified according to

1). where they attach, prefixation

suffixation

2). what function they perform

derivational (changes the part of speech and attaches to a root) inflectional (modifies the grammatical form and attaches to a stem)

Free morphemes: morphemes that can occur as an independent word. e.g. careless, lesser, lesson probable, possible

DefinitionsAffix: The general term for morphemes attached to a word. Four kinds of affixes:

Prefix -- beginning of wordInfix -- internal to the wordSuffix -- end of wordCircumfix -- "around" a word (both ends)

Definitions

Root, Stem, or base: the free morpheme to which an affix is attached.-- root: cannot be analyzed into smaller parts

(system, cran, boy, Chomsky)--stem: root combined with a bound, derivational affix

(Chomskyite, believeable)

AffixesPrefixesEnglish: in+, dis+, un+, etc.in+ability dis+ability un+ablein+consistent dis+member un+tanglein+sufficient dis+place un+happy

Isthmus Zapotec: ka+zigi "chin" ka+zigi "chins"zike "shoulder” ka+zige "shoulders"diaga"ear" ka+diaga "ears"

AffixesInfixesTagalog: +um+bili b+um+ili"buy" "to buy"sulat s+um+ulat"write" "to write"kuha k+um+uha

"take” "to take”

Affixes

SuffixesEnglish: +ment, +ly, +stance judg+ment brief+ly clock+wiseestablish+ment happi+ly method+wiseabandon+ment angri+ly

In English, the roles played the prefix and suffix are differentPrefix: change the semantic content of the wordSuffix: change the grammatical category of the word

AffixesCircumfixesChickasaw: ik+…+ochokma ik+chokm+o "he is good” "he isn't good"lakna ik+lakn+o"it is yellow” "it isn't yellow"palli ik+pall+o "it is hot” "it isn't hot” tiwwi ik+tiww+o "he opens (it)” "he doesn't open (it)"

The hierarchical architecture of words

Morphological rules: rules about how a new word is derived.

Adj+ify=verb

V+ment=noun

Rules can be represented by a tree diagram, which shows the hierarchical structure of a word

Rules can be represented by a tree diagram, which shows the hierarchical structure of a word

V+-tion=N

De-+V=V

Adj+-ize=v

N+-al=adj

…

N

V -tion

V

de

Adj -ize

N al

de nation al ize (a)tion

English word-formationAffixation, derivation: examination, decontextualizeCompounding: green back, green line, green hand, greenhouse Conversion: take a walk, to dog sb, to father a child. Backformation: edit, begClipping: exam, bus Blending: Coinage: Xerox Borrowing: Kungfu, kowtow,

Definitions

Derivational morphemes: morphemes which make or "derive" a new word, sometimes changing the lexical category of the word. (e.g., count+able, re+produce)

Inflectional morphemes: morphemes that indicate grammatical roles, not changing the lexical meaning of the word. (e.g., walk+s, walk+ing)

Inflectional Morphemes

Grammatical markers (tense, number, gender, case)

Always attached to complete words

Inflectional Morphemes

English Inflectional Morphemes-s third person singular present-ed past tense-ing progressive-en past participle-s plural-’s possessive-er comparative-est superlative

Hierarchical Structure of Words

Inflectional Derivational Derivational Inflectional Affix Affix ROOT Affix Affix

STEM

Hierarchical Structure of Words

Derivational affixes:English adjective noun

[happy] Adj + [ness] [happiness]N

[active] Adj + [ity] [activity] N

noun adjective … adverb

[beauty] N + [ful][beautiful] Adj

[[beautiful ] Adj+[ly ][beautifully]Adv

Affixation as a word-formation process

Other word-formation processes:Eponymy: words are derived from proper names (e.g., sandwich, jumbo)Blending: a single word is derived from the combination, with deletion, of two words (smog=smoke+fog)Compounding: a single word is derived by combining two words, without deletion (girlfriend, paperclip)

Affixation as a word-formation process

Other word-formation processes:Acronym: words are derived from the initials of several words (UNESCO = United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)Back-formation: Words are derived from incorrect morphological analysis (enthuse from “enthusiasm”)Abbreviation:Words are shortened forms of longer words (gasoline-->gas)

Morphology problem-solving

1. By finding repeated forms and using the process of elimination, identify and divide up words into morphemes.

2. Determine the meaning of the morphemes isolated in step 1.)

3. Describe rules for allomorph occurrence, if any.

4. Describe the rules for forming nouns, verbs, etc. and the ordering of morphemes.

Example Problem (Isthmus Zapotec)[palu] “stick” [spalube] “his stick” [spalulu] “your stick”

[ku˘ba] “dough” [sku˘babe] “his dough” [sku˘balu] “your dough”

[tapa] “four” [stapabe] “his four” [stapalu] “your four”

[geta] “tortilla” [sketabe] “his tortilla” [sketalu] “your tortilla”

[bere] “chicken” [sperebe] “his chicken” [sperelu] “your chicken”

[do?o] “rope” [sto?obe] “his rope” [sto?olu] “ your rope”

Example Problem (Isthmus Zapotec)[palu] “stick” [spalube] “his stick” [spalulu] “your stick”

[ku˘ba] “dough” [sku˘babe] “his dough” [sku˘balu] “your dough”

[tapa] “four” [stapabe] “his four” [stapalu] “your four”

[geta] “tortilla” [sketabe] “his tortilla” [sketalu] “your tortilla”

[bere] “chicken” [sperebe] “his chicken” [sperelu] “your chicken”

[do?o] “rope” [sto?obe] “his rope” [sto?olu] “ your rope”

1. Isolate Morphemes: s+__, __+be, __+lu, and stems

2. Figure out meanings: s=possion, be=3rd sg., lu=2nd sg.

3. Note allomorphs: geta/s+keta, bere/s+pere, do?o/s+to?o,

4. Describe the phonology: Stem initial voiced stops become voiceles when preceded by [s]

Example Problem (Zoque)

[kenu] “he looked” [kenpa] “he looks” [sihku] “he laughed” [sikpa] “he laughs” [wihtu] “he walked” [witpa] “he walks” [ka?u] “he died” [ka?pa] “he dies” [cihcu] “it tore”* [cicpa] “it tears”[sohsu] “it cooked” [sospa] “it cooks”

* [c] = voiceless palatal stop

Example Problem (Zoque)

1. Isolate Morphemes: __+u, __+pa, and stems

2. Figure out meanings: u=3rd. sg. past, pa=3rd sg.pres

3. Allomorphs:cihc+u/cic+pa, sihk+u/sik+pa, sohs+u / sos+pa,...

4. Describe the phonology: [h] is deleted when [pa] is added (cluster simplification through deletion).

[kenu] “he looked” [kenpa] “he looks” [sihku] “he laughed” [sikpa] “he laughs” [wihtu] “he walked” [witpa] “he walks” [ka?u] “he died” [ka?pa] “he dies” [cihcu] “it tore”* [cicpa] “it tears”[sohsu] “it cooked” [sospa] “it cooks”

Example Problem (Samoan)

Reduplication in Samoan verbsma.na.o "he wishes” ma.na.na.o "they wish"ma.tu.a "he is old " ma.tu.tu.a "they are old"ma.lo.si"he is strong" ma.lo.lo.si "they are

strong"pu.no.u "he bends" pu.no.no.u "they bend"a.ta.ma.ki "he is wise” a.ta.ma.ma.ki "they’re

wise"sa.va.li "he travels" pe.pe.se "they sing"la.ga "he weaves"

Example Problem (Samoan)

1.) What is Samoan for: a.) "they weave", b.) "they travel", "he sings"?

2.) What kind of morpheme is the reduplicated form?

bound/free

derivational/inflectional

3.) What is the morphological rule for forming the plural verb form from the singular verb form?

Morphology and LexiconMental Lexicon: how are words represented in the mind.

The role of phonologyThe role of word meaningLocalist and distributed representationLexical neighboursLexical categoriesLexical variables

Mental Lexicon: how are words represented in the mind.

Morphology and mental lexiconThe role of phonology

The role of word meaning

Localist and distributed representation

Lexical neighbours

Lexical categories

Lexical variables

The role of phonology The phonological form of words determines the functional structure of the mental lexicon.

Evidence: in malapropisms the target word (e.g. monotony) and its erroneous substitute (e.g. monogamy) tend to resemble each other in their initial segments, number of syllables and stress pattern.

Based on this evidence, it can be inferred that there is a single mental lexicon organised for speech perception and “cross-

wired” for production.

The role of word meaningCategory specific impairments, in which the processing of a particular semantic class of words such as tools, furniture, or fruit may be disproportionately impaired

evidence concerning the organisation of

the lexical and conceptual knowledge.

Localist and distributed representation

Localist lexical representations: a word was stored at an individual address or node. The lexicon has also been modelled in terms of distributed mappings between orthographic, phonological and semantic representations. Such connectionist models involve superpositional storage: all the lexical information of a particular type is stored across the same representational substrate. In this sense, an individual word’s role in the lexicon is constrained by all of the rest of the words in the lexicon.

Orthographic Phonological syntactic-semanticaccess file access file access file

master file

pig /pig/ PIG

cow pig

Lexical neighboursWords in close relationships are more likely to be interfered, such as might exist by changing one segment in a spoken word or one letter in a written word. Sometimes these neighbours have shared a rime, a word beginning, or a sequence of segments representing the whole of the smaller word, but the two words in each relationship have typically sounded similar in a clear, intuitive sense.

Lexical categoriesThe lexical categories fall into two broader types:

function words content words. function words and content words may be differentially impaired, as in Broca’s aphasia, and differentially processed in normal speaking and listening and reading. Such differences may partly depend on physical distinctions between the two word types

in English, function words tend to be shorter, more frequent and less acoustically prominent than content words.However, function words are also seen as being more closely involved in the articulation of syntactic structure, and seem to be better processed in the left hemisphere.

Significant distinctions in typical phonological form have also been observed between different types of content word: for instance, in English, nouns tend to contain more nasals than verbs, whereas verbs tend to contain more front vowels than nouns.

All of these differences between lexical categories suggest possible large-scale distinctions in the functional and even the physical architecture of the mental lexicon.

Cohort Model ( 交股模型）Marslen-WilsonProposed for autditory word recognition

Recognition speed and recognition pointHypothesis

1st stage: auditory/phonetic information activates words similar: bottom-up processing2nd stage: all information effective in excluding words3rd stage: selected item integrated

Development Word frequency into consideration Marslen-Wilson: activation level

Advantages: more sensitive to the left-to-right nature of speech

Automatic activation

TURN

sport figure

sing door carry

turf turtle gold

turk turkey

water turn

turbo turquoiseturnip turmoil

Lateral inhibition

TURN

sport figure

sing door carry

turf turtle gold

turk turkey

water turn turbo turquoise

turnip turmoil

M350 = 1st component sensitive to lexical factors but not affected by competition

time

leve

l of

activ

atio

n

resting level

TURN

TURNIP

TURFTURTLE

Activation Competition Selection/RecognitionM350

Stimulus: TURN