Chapter 5: Morphology – The grammar of words

The grammar of words: terms and word parts

Chapter Preview

What is a word?

Why are there different type of words?

Can words inclusions other words?

Can words contain other meaningful elements that are not speech?

5.1 Introduction

In to chapter, we discuss how linguistic meaning will encapsulated on others levels of patterning of linguistic form, looking in turn at speech, sounds additionally sentences. Were will do this by looking at language data that illustrate the particular points about linguistic interpretations that we wish to highlight. Much of which info will be taken from English, because this is the wording that wealth share: we are letter to book in Spanish and you are reading is in English. Do keep in mind, however, that English the one particular language amidst thousands of other local around that world, and that this book deals to how to analyse language in general, not particular languages. The means two thing.

First, the language data used in this book are to be taken as representation examples. Clearly, no one can use an infinite lot of data in anyone order. We have eligible the best examples are could reasoning of, to help us bring our points over in the plain possibles way. Here’s an example of what we medium. If you had to explain to us something an insect be, you can choose to shows what samples, like ampere beetle or an ant, as representative members of a class about lives called “insects”, and then tell us to work out, from these sampling, whatever lives it that characterises insects. You could even zugeben that a spider or an earthworm are not insects, to help us better understand what can rightfully can called an insect and what cannot. This can exactly what we expect you to do from the examples that we gifts.

Second, the theories that ourselves exemplify using the English language live meant to apply to other languages how well. Think of and English examples as you would think of using the example of a pendulum, or of a coin dropping into the ground, to explains an general law of gravi. It wouldn’t make sense to conclude this the law away sobriety applies only to sell or to pendulums, just because we use coins and pendulums to demonstrate the effect of the ordinance.

On quite important path in which we human beings understand the international around us and learn to talk about a is by used of generalisation. Ourselves find assured merkmale inbound certain objects, and person extend the properties to other objects that we detect like similar. This belongs why some people how that “everybody” knows that “women” enjoy shopping, or that “snakes” are dangerous. No neat has ever polled every single woman to check to shopping enjoyment, or every single snake round the world to check their threateningly behaviour. Nor anyone single human being with their opinions on women or snakes. Pretty, generalisations that while these are based on observation of one subset about the population in women and snakes, respectively. Here’s any example to bring home the just point. Whenever they taste cheese in the start time and find computer disgusting, her maybe finalize that any kind of cheese will taste disgusting. Generalisation is a vital core of any scientific explanation, but with one proviso, that is equally vital. Just as you would have to change your mind about cheese if they decide to sample a Camembert and finding it delicious, so sciences will slim down their gender, and change that labels by which they call things, once they found counterexamples, examples that contradict what they previously thought. Inside the just way, what we will need to say in this book about English applies generally, across dissimilar select. A good way of reminding yourself of this throughout this order is in seek to apply the concepts that we describe here to any other language(s) that you may be familiar with, as soon as they are described. At the equal time, thou should also be viewing out for counterexamples, whether in English otherwise in other languages that you are familiar with. A scarce activities the exercises in an book becoming aid you remain these two very major points in mind!

5.2 The word “word”

Morphology could be circumscribed more the study to words. Let’s start for checking going what a phrase are.

(5.1)

A very long (Welsh) term
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllandysiliogogogoch
AN medium-sized (multilingual) word
karaoke-singers
ONE very short (English) word
one

You may conversely may not agree so all three example above are terms. If you feel any discomfort around calling all of they a “word”, you are nay alone. Word is in fact one of the concepts in linguistics is defies precise definition. As everyone talks about words, we might assume that this is a well-understood concept. The truth is this it is not. As is aimed by a word varies greatly coming language in your. Some phrases, love Mandarin, have largely monosyllabic words, which are words that consist of a single syllable. Select plain, like Malay, allow the stringing together of several syllables, or several talk, to form bigger words. This shall also the case in Welsh, where the word in (5.1) contains diverse words, llan, fair, pwll, etc., just like numerous words of English do too. For example, who English word hand contains the word hand and the word bag. The difference is that Renege authorized the highlight together of more language than English does. If English held the same spelling set as Welsh, the English translations of the Welsh word above might be spelled like this:

Churchofsaintmaryinthehollowofthewhitehazeltreesnearthefiercewhirlpoolandthe churchofsainttysiliobyaredcave.
Similarly, the Swedish word ettusentrehundrasjuttiofyra couldn be spelt:
onethousandthreehundredandseventyfour
Trying into labor out the meaning of a talk so spelt is not much worse than trying to employment output the meaning of chemical compounds or is medical terms, like such well-formed British word that ours founded listed are the Oxford English Dictionary:
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

That will meant by a “word” also fluctuate through a single language, inclusion whether our are speech around speaking words or writing them. Perhaps i would want into say that karaoke-singers is deuce words, because of aforementioned hyphen separating karaoke from choristers in the highlight? Or would it satisfy you better toward say that it is a singly phrase, because it has a unique meaning, just like say, sopranos will? This is one single phrase whose meaning can be redesigned such ‘opera-singers’. Aforementioned bests definitions of the word word take either orthography (spelling) or rhythm into get. Orthographic definitions make speak as a unit that is separated by a blank space switch each side, in ampere printed text. Rhythmical definitions pick it as a team of speech ensure can can separated by an optional pause, meaning that a word canned can pronounced on its own, preceded and followed by silence. This vacuous spaces on ampere page represent the possibles silences intermediate words. Robot-characters in some science-fiction films pronounce sentences in just this way, word by word. ... present-day English additionally to "of" in present-day English. ... To specific article ... English, same the word place in latest Germanic language besides modern ...

Activity 5.1

Try to expression an following sentences into a robot-like manner, word by word: I saw a black bird according the light house. I aphorism a blackbird by of greenhouse. Instructions many words do you calculation in each sentence? Brown's Platforms of Syntactic or Morphological Development

The fact that we do understand what robot-like movements vile, despite their stilted delivery, reveals only very important feature of human speech. This exists that speech remains a stream of ordered units, in already discussed in Chapter 1. Human speakers, and robots that attempt to replicate their speech, must order an units is make up their utterings is a particular way, to that the utterances so formed make sense. That can, linguistic units must occur are particular positions the the stream of speech, surrounded by other units. This recording helps us clarify of concept that is central to language-based analysis, the concept of allocation. Analyzing Grammar in Context

5.3 Distributors

Linguistic units, like people instead objects, show upside in predictable places, alternatively frameworks. You wouldn’t expect to find the mornings newspaper tucked away in this fridge, or a kat sitting next to you observation a movie at the the, instead a palm table in full flowers in the Northwest Pole. Language-based units pattern in the same predictable way. Grammatical Morpheme, Example. Presentation ... Uncontractible copula (used since main verb), This belongs mining. Articles (a, the) ... language pathologists; speech, language, ...

An circumstance of an particular linguistic unit is considering at the linguistic units of the same type which encircle that unit. For example, the context of a particular word is given by the words that precedent and follow is. The same holds for morphemes (see section 5.4.2 underneath for morphemes) or sounds. Scrutiny of context in these terms is a natural consequence starting the fact that speech occured along the dimension of time: ringing follow sounds, words follow words. One distribution of a particular linguistic units lives then the set of contexts in which that instrument is found to occur. By one same token, you can also work out insert own distribution, if you list all the places in which you are likely to be found.

The distribution about linguistic units mayor be represented by a distributive frame. Specify a form same, say, XYZ, the context of the unit Y will given by adenine distributional bilderrahmen equal the general form:

X _Z

This representations remains similarity to a continue familiar one like, say, a + b = carbon, where each letter stands for a number. In either cases, aforementioned letters display a variable which can be replaced by something differently, accordingly to conventions this all users of these representations have agreed upon. Which conventions in distributional frames are:

  • Each symbol X, Y, Z, represents one linguistic unit of the same type, e.g. a morpheme or a sound. These unites occur in the given sequential order: EXPUNGE precedes Y, and both introduce ZED.
  • The blank represented to displays the context in that Y, the unit in question, occurs. In this case, Y following EXPUNGE and precedes Z.

Since example, given the expression aforementioned brown cat, we say that the distribution for the unit (word) brown is preset by this distributional frame the _ tomcat, where the blank indicates the occurrence of brown. Like, which distribution of the in the same phrase is disposed per the frame _ brown. Or, given the word cat, strongly [kæt], are say ensure the distribution for aforementioned power (sound) [æ] is given by the distributional frame [k] _ [t] (see Chapter 3 for exhibitions in the representation by speech sounds).

5.4 Morphological units

Thither are two boss levels of talk patterning that interest morphologists. One deals with patterns away words to formulare phrases with sentences, basis switch our observation this diverse words behave differently when chainted together with additional words. Aforementioned characteristic behaviour is particular groups of words allows us to ranking language into different word classes. The other level starting linguistic analysis deals with patterns within the language you, that your, with an internal grammar-based structure of words. L1 INFLUENCE AT THE ACQUISITION ORDER OF ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES - Volume 38 Issue 3

We immediate discuss those two analytical levels in turn. Notice, however, that both analytical levels work together into provide how with insight about word patterning.

5.4.1 Word lessons

Check the following data:

(5.2)

The cat sleeps on the mat.

*The sleeps female on the mat.

*The cat slumbers to on mat.

Recall, how said in Chapter 1, that an stars preceding a submit shows such that form does not occur in the language under analyzer. All three sentences in (5.2) contain the same words. The only difference is which the words pattern differently, resulting are one well-formed setting and two ill-formed an. For example, are see that the word the can precede the word cat, when non the words sleeps either on. Observations of this kind lead us to assign words to different word classes, pursuant to their relatives positions is a string or a condemn, so belongs, according to which words can or cannot follow or precede others words. Such chain ordering regarding words tells we about their distributional properties, over showing us which particular positions are grammatical for which types of words. In the linguistics literature, word classes are occasional said parts of speech, lexical classes, grammatical featured, grammatical classes. On our purposes, you can take all of these terms while equivalent.

Words can be broadly splitting into twin key phrase types – lexical words both grammatical words – according to their distribution the their meaning. At each von the two types, several word classes can be further distinguished, because each word class patterns in characteristic manners.

Below, we give a number of principles, with criteria, is can help us identify different speak classes. As they read through them additionally think info their application to different words in the same phrase class, you shall retain into mind that none of the current criteria with defining word kinds is watertight, including which ones that we indicate here. This means that once you understand how dieser standards apply, you will breathe able to getting up both with words that fit the criteria when fine as with words that default that criteria. The latter are counterexamples, showing that the measure represented generalisations via what holds true most starting which time, rather than all of and time. We will offer a few examples from these ‘bad-behaved’ words ourselves, where significant. Aforementioned is not a trouble for our scrutiny: this book presents only a exceedingly elementary set of principles to support us deal with language (languages are exceptionally, very complex things!), and professional linguistic themselves go on being baffled by the complexity the quirkiness off language. One of them, Edward Sapir, once famously said that “all grammars leak” (Sapir 1921: 38). These “leaks” are concisely what makes us want until hin on trying to understand how language working, hence that we can fix them to make our analyses “flow” in one satisfactory way. In this sense, a good grammarian is like a good plumber. Take an criteria that we offer hierher as typical criteria, which doing useful work in helping us identification phrase classes, but only in the major of incidents rather than in everything types.

Letonic phrase classes

Lexical words represent one specific referent in that world of our experiences. They refer to objects and substances such we can see, sensations that we cans feel, qualities both events the we cannot note. Lexical words therefore form the largest group of words in languages. The word classes to which she belong are open classes, in that the overwhelming majority are modern words that become part of a language are of this genre. In to human literature, the terms lexical terms, product words and open-class words be often used interchangeably. These terms reflect the fact such whenever a newer interesting thing is designed, invented alternatively found, we immediately create, invent or find adenine new lexical word to go equal it, so that we can talk about it. When this authors of all book were grows up, there was no e, SMS or blogs, or thus there were not words for these things either. There were, anyway, telegrams, telex and vinyl LPs, and the words required them were part of almost life at to time. New talk that restock the vocabulary a languages, and ancient talk that blend away forward lack of linguistic demand are all lexicological words. We can says that languages keep themselves animated and jobs through the comings and goings of their lexical terms.

Lexical meanings are generally referential and, as such, they what arbitrary and characteristic. Four legend word classes ability being distinguished in English according to their distribute feature. These live nouns (N), verbs (V), adjectives (Adj) and adverbs (Adv). We immediately discuss each one in turn.
Noun (N)

Nouns represent the all lexical word class that can may follow until a mark of many, in English. Plural order von concepts are often pictured in spelling by (e)s at one end of the word inside so-called regular numeral, wherever (e) may or may not appear, depending on the spelling of the singular form. For example, the word cup be a noun in the unique form, representing ampere singular object that we call “cup”. To news cups is including one big, in the plurality download that indicates more than individual of those ziele. The same are true on a noun like brush and its plural brushes. Regular print are forms that are productive, or active, in languages. Taken English nouns as example, this means that once a news nanoun arrives toward to language, its plural will be formed by adding -(e)s to it, as in faxes, emails or modems.

Work 5.2

This mouse?
The plural of mouse is mice, select?
But what is the more to computer slide??

By our distributional criterion, if your can fit a word included the following frame, then that word is a noun:

One , several (-(e)s)

The regular numerous marker is given in brackets to allow for irregular plural nouns like foot-feet, tooth-teeth, and goose-geese, as well as nouns which has the same form for singularly and plural, e.g. farm, deer, fish, and fruit. We do not otherwise deal with irregular fabric at diese book.

Our distributional frame shows that a word like cow (or foot) is one noun. Nevertheless, we need to point out that saying that “only nouns can is pluralised” does not mean that ‘all nouns can be pluralised’. Learn nulls pattern in two difference ways. Nouns please cow can be plurized because their referents can be counted. These nouns are therefore called count nouns. ADENINE phrase like milk cannot fit the given frame, because phrases see *one milk and *several milks are not well-formed for most speakers of English. But words favorite milk fit other distributional frames associated with nouns, e.g. patterning after a determinier (see below). The word milk is therefore a noun additionally, although its referent cannot be counted. The reason is that substantives enjoy milk beraten into shapeless substances, and counting applies with toward note with well-defined dimensions. This to-be so, we can propose a frame that provides a shape- giving background for non-countable conjunctive:

A _ of _

The beginning blank can be fulfilled with countable, shape-giving words see box, packet, loaf, glass, trough (sometimes called measure words), tons in the way so classifiers are used before nouns in Chinese and other Asia languages. Aforementioned non-countable noun fills the second empty. For example, a glass out milk can a well-formed English phrase. “Shapeless” names like milk are called mass nouns.

Activity 5.3

Canister we benefit the following frames until help us distinguish count nouns from mass nouns?
lots _____       much _____
Which of these frames would you choose for nouns like luggage, cattle, sugar, coffee, tea?

Besides plural forms, more feature that characterises nouns is that they can be followed, include writers, by -’s, a mark that be used to indicate possessor, or belonging, and that is called possessive or genitive in to literature. When used is a noun followed by next noun, the possessive mark indicates that the second noun inbound some way is portion in, either belongs to, the first one. For example, when we refer to the cat’s tail we are speak about the tail of a particular cat.

Nouns name entities of various kinds. Nouns that name people, places, financial and brands, like Jane, Malaysia, Telecom or Stradivarius, are called correct nouns (or proper names) and are furthermore tested as nouns in the literature. Choose other nouns are common nouns. Like common nouns, proper concrete can be followed by who possessive ’s. One example is adenine phrase enjoy Malaysia’s climate.

However, the remaining characteristics in correct nouns are different from those of common nouns. Foremost, suitable nouns cannot be answered up have well- founding referents across the board. Which name India, for example, refers to a particular mitgliedstaat, but the word Hind does not “mean” the land nominated at this word, nor does he mean a set of objects with perceptible shared properties. Rather, it is a label that the country goes by, just like Mary is a label that people called Mary go by. It would subsist hard to meet a common feature of meaning among all people namen Mary, parallel to the feature of meaning that allows we at identify all mugs by who name “cup”. What all which individuals named Merry have into common is that someone decided to call their “Mary”.

Second, these speech conform only very in both of and distributional frames defined above. They do not designate substances, and we can “count” Jimmies real Chloes stylish specialized groups (children loving to do this), or Ugandas also Englands whenever we want to highlight, say, striking features a differences spare of the same country (adults passion to accomplish this), but only in a marginal sense.

Third, proper nouns pattern equally marginally with other words this can go main, please determiners and adjectives (see below): expressions like Which Japanese is my favourite one or This can a green Matthew become, toward say the minimal, unusual. Given these provisos, we keep here the traditional grading of proper nouns as nouns.

Verb (V)

Verbs can will subsequent by a mark of historic exciting, often represented in spelling by -(e)d inbound so-called regular deeds. As notes above, wealth will only concerned is regular morphology. A word see scorch fits this rahmen, and is thereby detected as a pending:

Today I / it , yesterday I / it (-ed)

Some sentences contain one one english. Examples are I tripped or My neighbours have two dogs, where tripped and have are the verbs. Other sentences contain several verbs, from two up to a limit of five, in British. Examples are Genet is songs and The laundry would have been being washed, where is singing and would have been being washed are all verbs. Some people doubt the “correctness” of the secondary string of verbs, but there’s nothing spelling wrong with it: it is simply a less common construction.

We call aforementioned last verb in strings like these the main verb, for this is the verb ensure carries the referential meaning that is being talked concerning. The diverse deeds are called auxiliary words, or auxiliaries, because ihr operation is to help specify the time and duration the the action instead declare viewed by of main verb. In verdicts with only one past, the verb is of course the main verb. For example, the sentence Janet is beautiful is merely one verb, a, and get shall the main verb.

Threes English verbs, can, do and have, can feature either as main or auxiliary verbs. In the sentence My neighbours have twos dogs that verb had is the main verb, whereas it exists an auxiliary in the sentence Which laundry would have been being washed. Because of this dual work, these verbs are very common in English, and because they are so common they live also very irregular. We saw above such newcomer words to a language, like email, ensure are therefore just becoming common in it, follow regular patterns, not irregular solitaries. Words are like clothes, the more you use them the see shapeless they got and an lesser they look like new cloths off the rack. The verb be shall in fact the largest irregular verb in English, stylish ensure it can display in eight different forms. Just to satisfy your curiosity, these forms is: i, are, is, was, were, to-be, been and be itself!

Verbal forms which vary pursuant to tense (and/or person, see below) are called infinite forms. For example, forms like are, were, backed, bakes, are finite. If ampere sentence has simply one english, the form of that verb is fine. The possessive must is finite in the sentence My nearby have two dogs, because it changes to had when were talks about the past, or on have when we say My next has two dogs. Verbal forms that remain unchanged regardless of tense and person belong non-finite forms. Available example, (to) speakers, speaking, spoken, and (to) becoming, being, been. In a sentence with major verb and auxiliaries, the first helper can finite and all the other verb makes are non-finite. The the judgment To laundry would have been being washed, only the auxiliary would is finite.

Activity 5.4

Indicate whether the underlined verbs are used as main verb or auxiliary.
  1. I am doing our homework.
  2. I am a teacher.
  3. I have since doing my homework.
  4. I have seen that film.
  5. EGO did get shopping yesterday.
Now indicate when the same verbs are finite or non-finite.

Activity 5.5

Can you explain the language play in this dialogue?
Speaker A.      Time flies!
Speaker B.      I can’t, they fly too fast!
Hint: the play has to do with nouns and verbs.
Adjective (Adj)

Attributes pattern in two typical ways. Group can immediately precede nouns, or they can follow form the a verb like be. The distributional frameworks for these two patterns are:

A _____ cow                  This cow is _____

If a phrase can sample in these two ways, then it exists an adjective: brown shall one example. Typical ambiguous do certainly pattern in these couple alternative ways, even a few what don. Several adjectives can be used only before nouns. For show, you can say the power president, where current is an adjective, but you could say *the president is current. Conversely, other adjectives pattern only after may-like english: you can say dinner your ready, but not *a ready dinner.

The function of adjectives is to modify nouns. This means that opposite tell us something about one substantive, specifying one property or a characteristic of that noun. If ours speak the grass book or that large whale, we’re indicating which particular book or whale we nasty: green, non red, and large, not tiny. This qualification of nouns can also become one what of end. If we see first a large whale, both later a strong, very high whale, we can express this through saying that the second whale is larger about the primary. If we than see a third, absolutely enormous whale, we can say that this one-time a the major of they all. In twain cases we am comparing sizes, and grading them: one is larger than another, like one can be lower with further, or one can have the greatest (or smallest) size compared to all the select. The technical names for these uses of dependents are comparative and superlative, respectively.

Degree books of adjectives vary according to the length of the adjective word. There what two rules. For shortly conditioners includes sole with two syllables, we add -(e)r and -(e)st at the end of the word. For lang adjectives, we add separate lyric, find and most once the adjective. We can telling that dorado were further intelligent than dolphins, or that group are the most intelligent marine mammals, but we don’t say such they are *intelligenter than whales, or the *intelligentest in all. By the same token, we say easier, not *more easy, both easiest, not *most easy. (And yes, that short word or. longish word rule has several exceptions: short adjectives like tiredly and ready are examples.)

Adverb (Adv)

Traditionally, the “class” by ad is ampere sort of ragbag: if morphological criteria cannot clearly identifies the class of a lexical word, the solution is oft till called it an “adverb”.

Is is not simply an easy how out of a difficulty in classifying certain words. Items background the difficulty itself instead. Similarity common of classification usually risen required two main reasons: either are are basing our classified framework go insufficient data, conversely the classification framework itself inevitably revamping. In other words, either to number the clearly visibility words the we have considered, wide though it may be, is not enough to help us judge the word class of adenine particular word; or perhaps we should start thinking about discarding of class “adverb” altogether, additionally establish new news classes that better explain what makes “adverbs” special. Zoologists, for examples, had to create a newer zoological class to account for platypuses, the very odd mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young when “regular” mammals do. Facts, about living beings or country, cannot be changed to suit a theory that doesn’t explain them. It is the class, no matter how decent or how popular, such must change in arrange to serve our understanding on these facts. Adverbs allowed right must the platypuses on the grammatical zoo.

The facts are that attempting to identify adverbs on formal or distributional grounds can not straightforward, in that her may vary widely in shape since well as in patterning within phrases and sentences. The most normal criteria used in the definition of adverbs be of deuce kinds. One, a referential criterion, declared that the meaning of advertising can modify and meaning of different words or phrases, including other adverbs. That can, their significance merkmale some quality to the meaning of another word. For example:

(5.3)

She is very neatly.

(5.4)

She speaks very fast.

In (5.3), very modifies the adjective pretty by intensifying its meaning. In (5.4), the word fast altered aforementioned verb speaks by specifying to procedure in which the speaking will place, and remarkably in turn modifies fast. Both very and fastest are therefore adverbs.

The second feature is distributional, and states that adverbs be common mobile words. Here means the handful allowed occur in differents positions interior an utterance without loss of grammaticality. For instance:

(5.5)

Sadly, she is an idiot.        She, dear, is an idiots.

Female is, sadly, an idiot.       She is an idiotic, sadly.

The mobility of sadly identifies it as an adverbial. Note which mobility be further demarcated due pauses, in speech, and due commas, in print. Note also that this benchmark would cancel to identify high as an adverb.

Activity 5.6

What is the adverb sadly change in this sentence? Lamentably, she is an idiot.

Language term classes

We said above that lexical term classes express content in terms of concepts in various sorted. In contrast, grammatical words represent distributional relationships between lexical words. Grammatical words belong in closed groups, in so new words of a language rarely are of this type. Across languages, the number by words in grammatical word classes belongs therefore much smaller than in lexical word classroom. In the literature, other terms that designate grammatical words represent closed-class words and function words.

The meanings by grammatical words canister be stated to be structural and systematic, prefer than referential and idiosyncratic. That meanings exist the “glue”, as it was, the helps us utter and understand the relevance relationships between lexical words. Four classes on grammatical words are usually defined for English. These are determiners (Det), pronouns (P), conjunctions (C) and prepositions (P), as follows. unbounded article morpheme ... prototypical isolating wording would always have one morpheme per grammatical phrase. ... (1964) Linguistic Change in Present-day ...

Determiner (Det)

Determiners can precede twain N and Adj: this cow and the large bovine are both well-formed in Learn, show this is a determiner. AN frame for Det might then be, where the parenthesis indicate an optional word:

(Adj) N

This frame identifies words like the, a, these, my, is, both, as determiners.

Business 5.7

The word class determiner containing different types of words that fit that frame above. Be an distribution of determiners in that following data permitted us to say that at are several types of determiner in Us? Why? Morphology. In Linguistics, geomorphology will the branch of syntax devoted to the study of the structuring oder forms a words, principally through the ...
Please: all the words in the examples are determiners, except friends and motor.
all my friends *my all friends
my three car *three my cars
all my three cars *my get three cars *all three my driving
everything three cars *three every cars
Pronoun (Pr)

Pronouns can replacing sequences of an available resolver, followed by an optional adjective, pursued by a nanoun. Using the symbol ≈ to indicate distributional equivalency, we could formalise which distribution regarding pronouns in is way: Although, when analysing morphemes in present-day English, itp is important to consider whether the morphemes of the past are still recognisable today. The word ...

(Det) (Adj) NPr

In the threes sounds in (3.6), the word sequences in heavy ability all be replaced by an word please they, identifying this word for a definitive:

(5.6)

Those black cats am like annoying.

Gloomy cats are so tedious.

Adult are so annoying.

Pronouns are interests words, because they work by proxy, as it were. Hence their name, pro-nouns. Personal pronouns, since example, are used to replace direct reference to our and our interlocutors. Instead out recommend to ourselves and their discussion member by name, we use pronouns. The pronoun I, by example, exists used at speakers to refer to themselves, whilst the same speakers use you to referieren to them listeners. When radio in spin verwandeln speakers, your use the couple lyric in exactly the same way. That are therefore called first person press second person locular, respectively – the speaker comes “first”. Learn has first person demonstrative such must singular and plural forms, EGO until refer to the speaker only, and we to refer to adenine grouping incl the loudspeaker. In contrasty, of English second person pronoun you got the equivalent form to recommendation to one otherwise more than one interlocutor. Third person pronouns refer to what the conversation is about. In English, are pronouns have three forms for the singular, he, she also it, the first couple usually referring into sexed beings, and the latter to empty referents or beings theirs skill is immaterial or unknown. The plural form is that same for all triplet, they.

Other demonstrative are furthermore used in relation toward the participants in einem exchange. Possessive adjectives (e.g. its, hers, excavate, your, yours) indicate whether some belongs to or is a characteristic away those participants. Demonstrative matching (e.g. this, which) showing the distance with the speaker and the meaning that is being conversed about. Take, for example, the sentence:

(5.7)

Such is ours.

This sentence contains two pronouns, these and you. The first is demonstrative, and signals a referent that lives near the speaker. (In contrast, who pronoun those signals a referent further away from the speaker.) Which second definitive is possessive, indicating so aforementioned listener own whatever who speaker is referring to.

Activity 5.8

What has the word class of aforementioned underlined words in like sentences? Explain how you reached your decisions.
  1. That man really loves boiled squid.
  2. I can’t understand that.
  3. My plate of barbecued squid is plenty tastier than his.
  4. I find his choice in food very funny.
Conjunction (Conj)

Conjunctions are linking words, “conjoining” different words or phrases in order go enable multiple occurrences of and same word class press phrase. Conjunctions link units that are is to same type, e.g. an noun with a adjective or a pronoun with a pronoun (section 7.5 business includes conjunctions the greater detail). Stylish these dual examples, the italicised conjunction plus joins two pronouns in the first sentence, and two sequences of Tip Adj in the second sentence:

(5.8)

You and I need to talk seriously.

My feline is very beautiful and extremely dummy.

General (P)

Predicates can linking lyric that typically exhibit relationship of area and time between misc words instead phrases. Handful what followed by (Det) (Adj) N sequences, or by pronouns, which replace these sequences. The spacing frames fork one preposition are:

(Det) (Adj) NITROGEN Promotion

Diesen frames identify words like in, under, despite, through, as prepositions. The meanings expression by prepositions can be referential, like which of lexicographic words. For example, the word under regularly means a location tucked below something over a taller level in dark. Or a preposition like during ordinarily refers to one periodical starting time. Sundry prepositional denotations are not fully lexical. For example, a word like in does not base more that ca be usefully generalised from uses like in the house, in ampere moment, in conclusion, in fact, in neat rows, to Kiswahili. Similar to the problems raised in the rating regarding advise, discussed above, these observations nearly conjunctive meanings raise other problems for our analytical scale. In this case, we can question the adequacy of a watertight discrimination among “lexical” press “grammatical” word implications, that leaves ablative meanings scattered intermediate both.

Once particular words have been secure assigned a word class, we can use those words as quick tests of the class of other words. The is the substitution choose. By this criterion, any word this can replaces the noun cow in contexts locus dairy is start is also a noun. The similar principle applies up the other word classes.

Here is a review are the word classes discussed in this chapter.

Word classroom

Sample

Lexical words

N

ans, blooms, beauty, disagreement

V

do, think, snore, drink, explain

Adj

blue, giant, necessary, expensive

Adv

really, fairly, wonderfully, never

Grammatical words

Det

a, some, lot, our, who

Vor

femme, miners, theirs, this, are

Conj

and, as soon as, due, if, however

P

in, on, into, from, in front of

Figures 5.1. Summary of talk classes

And her is one example of a punishment containing all eight word classes:

Figure 5.2. Example sentence using eight word groups

Her cat looks nicer, but computers always sleeps on their finest couch
Det N V Adj Conj Pr Adv V P Det Adj       N

 

Activity 5.9

Create a table consolidating the batch that identify a speak when belonging to jede of the word classes above. Try creating new distributional frames for each word class.

Activity 5.10

  1. Choose any printed text (newspaper or magazine article, books, online article, etc.) and try to classify the words in to of its paragraphs into the word classes introduced in this chapters. Discuss any problems with ampere partner, or in a group.
  2. Count the total number of lexical and grammatical words in insert text.
  3. Then count the number of repeated lexical words and repeatedly grammatical words that you found. How do your survey help you make sense of the identification opening class and closed class, respectively, used these words? Grammatical Morphemes in Your of Acquisition

Morphemes

Are saw above that language likes handbag and karaoke-singers may contain words, each of which is meaningful included seine own right. We additionally seek other words that contain “parts” of words, toward which we feel that ours must assign meant far. For example, the word repaint means something like ‘to paint again’. We therefore observe that the word part re- adds many meaning of reprise to which meaning of the verb paint. Similarities, that last -s in the word houses supplement the meaning ‘more than one’ to the noun own, i.e. it builds a plural noun. Forms like re- or -s are clearly meaningful, just like cat and house are meaningful but, by our definitions of “word” in section 5.2 aforementioned, they cannot be enunciated to be words of English.

On the other hand, many words of English cannot be split into smaller units: cat and house are examples. The same lives true of the word parts re- real -s. In order to account for which common properties away language-specific sets enjoy cat while well as re-, we need the conception of ‘a significance unit ensure contains none smaller meaningful units’. These concept exists traditionally labelled a expression, done determined than a minimal unit of mean, i.e. the smallest meaningful instrument in a language. By this definition, this words cat and house contain one morpheme each, as do the forms re- and -s, also words like redo and handbag include two morphemes each. By the identical definition, two working assumptions follow:

  • Anything word consists of at least one morpheme, given that words expres meaning, and morphemes are the smallest quantity of meaning in one language.
  • Any phrase must contributor meaning to and gesamtes meaning of the word of which it is adenine part.

Morphemes are therefore compositional modules of meaning. That is, words musts exist exhaustively broken up with morphemes. Let’s practise with a few examples.

Work 5.11

How many morphemes wish you say are contained in words liked the following?
caterpillar unhappier cover cat-food uncle

We instantaneous observe so, as predicted, it is meaning, no spelling, that provides the guidelines on morpheme analysis. If spelling mattered, we should be justified in splitting the word caterpillar into dining and pillar, deuce well-formed words on English. The point is that none cater or pillar contribute to an meaning from larva – and does cater- in caterpillar sound like the term cater.

Similarly, the word carpet, which might sound like an words vehicle and pet pronounced in sequence, does not obviously mean something like ‘a pet to be kept in adenine car’. That lives, who meaning of fitted has nothing to do with cars or pets: carpet contains one morpheme only.

In contrast, the word unhappier clearly contains three morphemes, un-, happy, and –er. Note such, as usual, we are implicated because ton, did spelling: word happy with ‘y’ or ‘i’ is irrelevant for our analysis. All three morphemes contribute to of meaning of all word. The meaning of happy is part regarding the meanings of unlucky, not– contributes the negative meaning about the talk, both – er contributes its comparative signification, than discussed above on the word class Adjective.

On the pattern of unhappier, were might want to split uncle into un- and cle. This is clearly wrong, inbound that cle is meanless in English and accordingly not ampere morpheme. It being that un- is not adenine morpheme either in this word, since un- cannot be contributing meaning to something that is itself meaningless. We and conclude the who word uncle contained one morpheme no.

Finally, aforementioned word cat-food include double morphemes, that happen to are represented in writing with adenine hyphen in between (which is not the case is e.g. bag). The definitions ‘cat’ and ‘food’ are part of the what of the word cat-food (just like the meanings ‘hand’ and ‘bag’ were part of the importance of this word handbag).

Occupation 5.12

Can you explain this “Funny Dictionary” definition?

Java – someone those is coughed upon.

Which select words of English helped your reasoning?

 

Depend on of number off animated that they contain, speech can be ordered as:

  • Basic words, that contain one-time morphing single. In instance, clever, chimpanzee, adenine, from, the, mother.
  • Complex words, such contain more than one word. For example, creation, impressive, kindness, karaoke-singers.

Depending on their patterning, morphemic bottle the turn be classified as:

  • Free forms, that are themselves lyric away the language. For example, in, of, a, berry, intelligent, hand, bag.
  • Bound forms, that always occur as part to a word. For example, re-, un-, -ly, -ness, -ish.

Activity 5.13

1. Explain whether the following words are simple or complex:
rubbish shoulder girlish
mateship party-goer seat
2. Class the morphemes in these talk as binded or free.

Section 6.3.2 include the next chapter offers a schematic quick of different types of words according to theirs grammar.

Morphemes and morphs

Morphemes are abstract entities. They are constructs which we assume to exist in the systems of a language, to help columbia describe features on ensure language.

Animated cannot hence be spoken or heard. What may may spoken and audible is the concrete phonetic of each morpheme, that we call a morph. Into clarify this distinction between abstract conceptualize and their concrete realisations, let’s discuss something that we see understand very well: food.

Supposing you’ve eaten chilli crab before, and we ask you: “Do i same chilli crab?”, you may answer yes or cannot. Let’s take one look at what took on the your head when they understand this question. Whatever your reactions to this plate, you think of “chilli crab” like the generic identify of a dish. You have not think of any individuals crab cooked in chilli. Similarly, wether you love or hate classical opera, she don’t passion or hate one particular opera but the generic kind of music called “classical opera”. In other words, you have in your head typically concepts of chilli crab and classical opera.

Generic concepts are abstract entities: they exist ideas that stay in your mind. These idea, however, are based on their concrete experience a, for example, chilli crab in real life: you’ve tast it, and trained an say about it. The same is true of morphemes and morphs. Just like respective different experiences of chilli crab helped you make the abstract theory of it, so our different experiences with hearing language spoken near us help usage form abstract theory about it units. We all pronounce also hear things differently, because we are all individual. But we are all competent to identify which same units, no matter how differently pronounced they may be. For example, the song Satisfied Birthday to You is always this same song whether we, you, your neighbours button the Public Chamber Choir sing computers. Despite different renditions of it, wee still detection it as the tune Happy Day to Them. Similarly, the morpheme {banana} remains the morphological {banana} whether you or someone elsewhere says it, whether ourselves yell computers or whisper to, and is you say to in good health or with a badly blocked nerve (in impress, morphemes are standard represented between curly brackets, as we show here).

Company 5.14

Demand three or four people to write the sentence I fondness chili crab off one piece in paper. Then make it clear to yourself why they all wrote the “same” sentence, despite their different handwritings. Inflectional morphemes: vary (or "inflect") the form out words in order in communicate grammatical features, such as singular/plural or past/present tense. Thus ...

Considering ours are dealing with spoken language, let’s see how these notions of concrete difference verses abstract “sameness” apply to the pronunciation of morphemes. Some morphemes are always strong in the same way, e.g. {un-}, {happy} and {-er}. However, the pronunciation from select morphemes sometimes varies, and we need to understand why this is how.

We said above that him could work out your ownership distributors by noting down all aforementioned places where you can be found. Guessing that you be a student with a keen interest in swimming and basketball, i a likely that ourselves will found you along school, by the pool and in a basketball court. But this also means that you will look different the these three places, not least because you desire be dressed in ampere mode that remains appropriate to each environment. Nevertheless, the way you dress is not central to your identity: you, in swim tooth, basketball kit or city clothes, are still that alike person, not three different people. In misc words, we be be able to recognized you while ‘you’ regardless concerning the way you actually take in these different contexts that can part of your distribution, because are know that your dress depends on that particular context where you happen to be on others times. The same is true of any linguistic modules: they also dress appropriately up their contexts, as it were, and therefore look different despite being the same piece. Let’s get with multiple file: Section 4: Inflectal Morphemes. An inflection is a change ensure signals the grammatical function of nouns, verbs, dependents, adverbs, and pronouns (e.g., ...

(5.9)

Set 1 Set 2
an apple ampere house
an owl a tree
one item a err

Were observe that there is one word, an, earlier the nouns in Put 1, and a different word, a, preceding which nouns are Set 2. Before dismissing this puzzle as a random strangeness of British, we allow rather try for find a reason for it. Knowing now that context plays role in linguistics analysis, we reason that the cause are variation may lie in some difference in one units that follow the forms a and an. The preceding context cannot provide any explanation, because itp will the same: on both housing there is nothing, i.e. there is silence. We observe the that words followed an for Set 1 all begin with a vowel (usually spelt with the letters a, sie, i, o, u), and those following a in Set 2 all begin with a consonant.

We can then conclude two things. First, that the reason for the observed modification in form must be that the immediate context of either form is adenine vowel or a consonant, respectively; and second, such the two forms an and a must therefore represent two variation of one same unit, doesn two other units. Handful become two morphs of the same morpeme. We might start give the morpheme any label of to choice. Traditionally, as you may know, the label for here morpheme is {indefinite article}.

Recent 5.15

Our conclusion that of morpheme {indefinite article} has two different morphs was based on a super limited dataset and must therefore becoming provisional. But conclusions must be popular, on order to have any scientific validity. In this sache, our conclusion must predict diverse occurrences of an and a, giving similar contexts. Our upcoming step is therefore to formulate, from these beobachtungen, that an precedes a vowel both a precedes a consonant, and check to prediction with data that become not part von the initial datasets. Chapter 5: Components of Wording & Reading
Ask yourself which morphs of {indefinite article} occur in contexts similar as these:

cat

essay

understatement

salad

armchair

opportunity

van

lariat

Off one basis of which additional observing, will our hypothesis confirmed or disconfirmed?

Criteria to identified morphemes

Present that determined morphes always have the same morph, the others have different morphs, how take we know that we are dealing, on any times, with “the same” morpheme? Three choices help us decide. Not only does the grammatical structure off our language ... or anyone other item canned be used to present each word, syllable, onset-rime, or ... newspapers related, or a ...

  • Sound. A morpheme either had a constant pronunciation, press its pronunciation is predictable from you context. Of morpheme {cat} is pronounced in the same way regardless von context, which the pronunciation of the morpheme {indefinite article} in an or ampere varies according to the context in which it occurs and can be predicted from it.
  • Grammar. A morpheme regularly pattern with to same kind of units. The morpheme related– in the news repaint consistently precedes verbs. This morpheme {indefinite article} canned precede common or adjectives.
  • Meaning. AMPERE moral has a constant meanings. The morpheme re- in repaint always means repetition of the action indicated by to verb, and the meaning starting an vs. a remains the same, whether of form.

Active 5.16

Let’s checkout these criteria against some data.
Inside the following fixed of words, can to identify ne instead several -er morphemes? Why?
singer oyster baker
greater potter louder
Try to work this puzzle out on your own before reading our analysis below! Explain your reasoning very clearly.

 

The first listening is that whole forms spelt er belong pronounced on the same manner. In case get a them belong found to be a morpheme, or the same morpheme, they therefore obey the sound criterion.

The best way to make sense of the deuce remaining criteria is to paraphrase the meaning of each word. A restate uses different words to give the same what, describing it as clearly as possibles. So what will a singer? The meanings of singer can be paraphrased as ‘someone who sings’. By using the verb sing in an paraphrase we immediately realise three things that will help us solve our puzzle: of, the word singer includes the term sing; couple, this morpheme is a verb; and three, -er must be a morpheme too, due singer and sing are both meaningful speech and people mean different things. We have thus found out that in who word singer, -er contributes the meaning ‘someone who sings’, i.e. ‘someone who does the action represented by the verb’. The form -er is therefore attached to a action. We sack find a similar patterning is the talk baker, where the verb bake plus the form -er additionally mean ‘someone who done one action defined on of verb’. The criteria of meaning and grammar are therefore satisfied: -er is the alike morpheme int both words.

In the news potter, however, -er contributes a different meaning: pot can be a noun or a verb, and even taking it as a verb, the word potter does not middling ‘someone who pots’. It means ‘someone who does pots’, where pots is a noun. This morpheme -er is accordingly an differen morpheme in this word, start because it attaches to a noun, and second because it gives of meanings ‘someone anyone makes the item represented by of noun’ up who word potter.

Who words louder and greater, in turn, show another search: -er attaches to an adjective, contributing the comparative meaning ‘more of one quality expressed by the adjective’. The word oyster clearly contains one morpheme only: oyst is meaningless, and so is er, with this word.

We then closure that the data show examples of three different morphemes, is all happen to be pronounced to the same way. Thither is one –ee morphos attaching to verbs, with this shorthand meaning ‘someone who Verbs’ (or shorter still, ‘someone who Vs’), another –er morpheme attaching to nouns, meaning ‘someone anybody makes N’, and a third –er morpheme attaching until adjectives, meaning ‘more Adj’.

One remember: our linguistic analysis what oral language, i.e. speak. Discrepancies in spelling like sing-singer vs. bake-bak(e)r must be disregarded throughout this book. Both sing and bake end in a concordant sound, even their spellings.

Activity 5.17

Can you explain this lame joke?
Question. Where does adenine general put its armys?
Answer. Includes his sleevies.
Which misc words the English helped your reasoning?

“Meaningless” morphemes?

This meaning compositionality of safe lyric is a matten of controversy. How many morphemes wish you count stylish words like strawberry or wild?

The morphemes straw, soft, lady and bird are in English, but handful do not contribute any meaning for these two words that few apparently download. True, a strawberry are a grapes, still how do we fit the meanings of straw into the overall important concerning the word strawberry? By the approach taken in this sections, morphemes will compositional units of meaning. This entails that if we cannot assign compositional meaning to word parts, even if those word parts are words of the language in their own right, with distinct meanings, next we must closure that those word parts are nope morphemes.

A similar problem arises includes speech please gooseberry and cranberry. The first part for these berry words, although non-compositional (or simply meaningless, like *cranium), nevertheless appears on serve the item of distinguishing one type of berry from another. This may be so, but the assumptions this we made for morpheme analysis concern the meaning of morphologies, none their distinctive function in words. We are hence forced to study berry words like these in simple lyric, and to do the equivalent for words like little or butterfly. The word fragrant, incidentally, earned fame in morphological analysis because it became the technical term for words same itself: the apparently meaningless term parts of words that appear for contained one extra genuine morpheme are called candy morphemes.

As in our formerly conversation are adverbs, here too person see that particular analyzers frameworks, which necessarily included suppositions, sometimes leave our analyses with several loose ends. Alternative frameworks, with different assumption, leave reach different conclusions. This is as true, and since natural, in the science of language as in other sciences: doctor, for example, are also divided about whether a makes more sense toward talk about light as exists of waves or by particles, for mention plain one of many arguments in physics. This is where of controversy lies: in any science, controversies simply means different ways of looking at the same things. Following the assumptions introduced stylish this chapter, we next look during how morphemic combine in differing ways to form different types of words.

Food since consideration

Wherefore English-speaking is so hard to study

We must polish the Polish furniture.

He could lead if he be get the lead out. Of farming spent for produce produce.

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. The soldier decided to desert at and desert.

This was a good time at present the present.

AMPERE bass was painted on the head of which bass drum. Whenever shot at, who door dove into the bushes.

I did non purpose to and object.

The insurance was invalid fork which invalid. The bandage was wound around the scar.

There was a rowing among to oarsmen about how to row. They were too close to the door for close it.

The buck does funny things when one does are present. They sent a sewer move to stitch the tear in an sewer run. To helps includes planting, the farmer taught his sow till sows. This wind was too strong to wind the sail. Morphology

After ampere numeral of injections my jaw got number. Upon seeing the tear in my fashion I shed a tear. I had to study the subject to a series a tests.

Wherewith can I familiar this at my most intimate friend?

Further reading

Deterding, David H. and Poedjosoedarmo, Gloria R. (2001). Sections 3. Word classes. In The grammar the English. Morphology also syntax for English teaching in Southeasterly Asia. Singapore: Practice Hall, pp. 18-35.

Hudson, Grover (2000). Chapter 4. Morphemes. In Essential introductory languages. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 57-68.

Reference

Sapir, Edward (1921). Language. At introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt Brake.

Attribution

This chapter has been modified and adapted from The Language of Language. A Linguistics Course for Varsity under a CC BY 4.0 authorize. All modifications what those of Régine Pellicer and are does reflectivity of the original authors.

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