SUMMARY OF O GRADY’S BOOK MORPHOLOGY: THE ANALYSIS OF WORD STRUCTURE
SUMMARY OF O GRADY’S BOOK
MORPHOLOGY: THE ANALYSIS OF WORD STRUCTURE
IFTI LUTHVIANA
1. WORDS AND WORD STRUCTURE
1.1 Morphemes
The smallest unit that carries information about meaning or function.
e.g. The word ‘builder’ consists of two morphemes: ‘build’ and ‘er’.
e.g. The word “demagnetization” has 4 morphemes : de-magnet-iz-ation
Free and bound morphemes
Free : A morpheme whose form can be a word by itself. E.g. boy
Bound : A morpheme that must be attached to another element. E.g. boy added by plural –s become boys
Allomorph
The variant forms of a morpheme
e.g. using plural morpheme –s : cats, dogs, judges
1.2 Representing Word Structure
Roots and affixes
Complex words often consist of a root and one or more affixes. Root constitutes the core of the word and carries the major component of its meaning. The lexical category is usually noun (N), verb (V), and adjective (A). Affixes do not belong to a lexical category and are always bound morphemes.
e.g. tree diagram
Base
The element to which an affix is added. E.g. ‘blackened’, blacken (verbal base) + -ed ‘black’ (root) + suffix –en.
1.3 Some Common Morphological Phenomena
Affixation
An extremely common morphological process in language
Prefix : An affix that is attached to the front of its base. E.g. replay
Suffix : An affix that is attached to the end of its base. E.g. kindness
Infixes : An affix that occurs within a base. E. g. gumuyu
Cliticization
Clitics : short unstressed forms that are pronounced together with another element as if the two were a single unit
Enclitics : clitics that are attached to the end of a preceding word
Proclitics : attach to the beginning of a following word
E.g. ‘m’ for ‘am’, ‘s’ for is, and ‘re’ for ‘are’. The dog's lying on the couch again.
Internal change
Process that substitutes one non-morphemic segment for another to mark a grammatical contrast. E.g. sing-sang, sink-sank.
Ablaut :often used for vowel alternations that mark grammatical contrasts in this way.
Umlaut : which involves the fronting of a vowel under the influence of a front vowel in the following syllable
Suppletion
Process that replaces a morph by an entirely different morph in order to indicate a grammatical contrast. E.g. go – went, be- was, were
Stress and tone placement
A base can undergo a change in the placement of stress or tone to reflect a change in its category. E.g. implant – implant, import – import
Reduplication
Duplicates all or part of the base to which it applies to mark a grammatical or semantic contrast. E.g. anak 'child' - anak anak 'all sorts of children'
Compounding
The combination of lexical categories (nouns, adjectives, verbs, or prepositions) to create a larger word.
Noun+ noun : street light, campsite, bookcase
Adjective + noun : bluebird, happy hour, high chair
Verb + noun : swear word, washcloth,
Preposition + noun : outhouse, overlord, in-group
2. DERIVATION
2.1 English Derivational Affixes
Derivation forms a word with meaning and/or category distinct from that of its base through the addition of an affix. An affix combines with a base of a particular type to give a new word.
e.g.
- able V → A fix-able, do-able, understand-able
- ment V → N adjourn-ment, treat-ment, amaze-ment
dis- V → V dis-continue, dis-obey
in- A → A in-competent, in-complete
others: -ant, -er, -ive, -ment, -ful, -al, -an, -ic, -ize, -less, -ous, -ate, -en, -ity, -ly, -ness,
anti-, de-, dis-, ex-, in-, mis-, re-, un-
2.2 Derivation at Work
Complex derivations
Constraints on derivation
Derivation does not usually apply freely to all members of a given category. For instance, the suffix -ant can combine only with bases in defendant, assailant etc. This is why it cannot occur with bases such as fight and teach become fightant and teachant.
Two classes of derivational affixes (Advanced)
Typical Class 1 affixes : affixes are characterized by the fact that they often trigger changes in the consonant or vowel segments of the base and may affect the assignment of stress. E.g. -ity, -y, -ive, -al, ize, -ious, -ion
Typical Class 2 affixes : affixes tend to be phonologically neutral, having no effect on the segmental makeup of the base or on stress assignment. e.g. -ness, -less, -ful, -ly, -er, -ish
3. COMPOUNDING
3.1 Types of Compounds
Endocentric compounds
Denotes the concept of the head (usually rightmost component).
E.g. airplane - 'a conveyance that travels through the air'
Plural involves making plural of head, even it is irregular
e.g. policeman – policemen
Exocentric compounds
Denotes something else.
e.g. redneck - (not a red neck, but a type of person)
redhead - (not a red head, but a person with red hair)
Walkman -
Plural usually involves standard ‘s’ plural marker on the end of the entire word.
e.g. Walkman ≠ type of men, but a type of portable radio
plural ‘mans’ rather than *walkmen
4. OTHER TYPES OF WORD FORMATION
4.1 Conversion
Process that assigns an already existing word to a new syntactic category. Even though it does not add an affix, conversion is often considered to be a type of derivation because of the change in category and meaning that it brings about.
e.g.
V derived from N→ ship (the package)
N derived from V → (a new) survey
V derived from A → better (the old record)
4.2 Clipping
Process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more syllables.
e.g. prof for professor, phys-ed for physical education, poli-sci for political science, and burger for hamburger.
4.3 Blends
Created from nonmorphemic parts of two already existing items.
E.g. brunch from breakfast and lunch
smog form smoke and fog
spam from spiced and ham
telethon from telephone and marathon
4.4 Backformation
Process that creates a new word b y removing a real or supposed affix from another word in the language.
e.g. resurrect from resurrection
housekeep from housekeeper
enthuse from enthusiasm
4.5 Acronyms
Formed by taking the initial letters of the words in a phrase or title and pronouncing them as a word.
e.g. UNICEF for United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund
NASA for National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NATO for North Atlantic Treaty Organization
4.6 Onomatopoeia
Words that have been created to sound like the thing that they name.
e.g. English → cock-a doodle-doo
Japanese → kokekokko
Tagalog → kukaok
4.7 Manufacture or coinage
This phenomenon is especially common in cases where industry requires a new and attractive name for a product.
e.g. Kodak, Dacron, Orion, and Teflon
5. INFLECTION
Morphology used to indicate the grammatical subclass to which it belongs. The base to which an inflectional affix is added is sometimes called a stem.
5.1 Inflection versus Derivation
Category change : Inflection does not change either the grammatical category or the type of meaning found in the word to which it applies.
Derivational suffixes change the category and/or the type of meaning of the form to which they apply and create a new word.
Order : A derivational affix must combine with the base before an inflectional affix does. The derivational affix must be closer to the root, and inflection takes place after derivation.
Productivity : the relative freedom with which they can combine with bases of the appropriate category. Inflectional affixes typically have relatively few exceptions. Derivational affixes characteristically apply to restricted classes of bases.
5.2 English Inflectional Affixes
Noun Examples
Plural -s the books
Possessive -'s John’s book
Verbs
3rd person sing. nonpast -s John reads well.
Progressive -ing He is working.
Past tense –ed He worked
Past participle -en/-ed He has eaten/finished
Adjectives
Comparative –er the smaller one
Superlative –est the smallest one
Regular
· Response time is independent of frequency.
· No need to ‘look up’ the mental dictionary and all verbs can be handled with equal speed
Irregular
· There is a correlation between response time and frequency of the verb.
· It takes less time to give the past form of frequent verbs because it takes longer to locate in frequently used forms in one’s memory.
6. FURTHER EXAMPLES OF INFLECTION
6.1 Number
Number is the morphological category that expresses contrasts involving countable quantities. The simplest number contrast consists of a two-way distinction between singular (one) and plural (more than one).
6.2 Noun Class
Some languages divide nouns into two o r more inflectional classes, based on shared
phonological and/or semantic properties. Noun class can be marked in a variety of ways. In some languages, the determiner is inflected to indicate the class of the noun. For example, singular nouns in French take the definite determiner le if masculine but la if feminine.
6.3 Case
A category that encodes information about an element's grammatical role (subject, direct object, and so on). In Modern English, this information is expressed largely through word order and the use of prepositions.
Ergative case marking
Ergative : The case associated with the subject of the transitive verb
Absolutive : The case associated with the direct object
English nouns and pronouns
Neither nouns nor determiners are inflected to distinguish grammatical relations such as subject and direct object. Pronouns exhibit a more elaborate set of contrasts, distinguishing a nominative (I, they, he), an accusative (me, them, him), and a genitive (my, their, his).
6.4 Person and Number Agreement
Person : a category that typically distinguishes among the first person (the speaker), the second person (the addressee), and the third person (anyone else).
In many languages, the verb is marked for both the person and number (singular or plural) of the subject. When one category is inflected for properties (such as person and number) of another, the first category is said to agree with the second.
6.5 Tense
The category that encodes the time of an event with reference to the moment of speaking.
Tenses in English makes two-way contrast between past (marked by the inflectional suffix -ed in regular verbs) and the nonpast (unmarked). Nonpast consists of future and present.