Appunti Inglese - morfosintassi

Greta Pontieri inglese morfosintassi

Morphology is the area of grammar that studies the structure of words.

A word is a single unit of written or spoken language.

In morphology we distinguish: a word and a lexeme.

Friends and friend are two words but one lexeme. (nel dizionario lo troviamo in una singola parola)

A morpheme is the smallest unit of a language that combine both a meaning and/or a grammatical function.

UN-BELIEV-ABLE. Believ: credere. Able: capacity adj. 3 morphemes

FRIEND-S. -S= plural

Friend and friends are two words but one lexeme because they belong to the same word family.

INTER-NATION-AL.

The blue morphemes are inflectional because they carry a grammatical function.

The red morphemes are called derivational morphemes because they change the meaning of the words.

They all are bound morphemes (only FRIEND is a free morpheme) because they have to be attached, linked to free morphemes.

A morpheme has

• Semantic content (for example un- meaning {not} in unhappy) -s
• Grammatical function (for example the final indicating the plural form)

Types of morphemes

• Free morphemes → can stand alone as words
• Bound morphemes → cannot stand alone, need to be attached to a free morpheme.

If morphemes carry semantic meaning they are lexical morphemes

If morphemes carry grammatical meaning they are functional morphemes

Greta Pontieri

Free morphemes

ex. lexical morpheme: Friend, Book. They carry a meaning and they can stand by themselves.

ex. functional/ grammatical morphemes: and, but, or. Words that carry a grammatical function.

They are free morphemes because I don’t have to attached them to another one. They don’t carry a lexical meaning, they have a functional/grammatical rule.

Bound morphemes

Bound because they need to be attached to another word.

ex. Derivational morphemes: un- (unhappy), Inter- (international). They carry a meaning and they change the meaning of the word. for the continuous form…

ex inflectional morphemes: -s (friends), -ed for the past simple, -ing

They normally are in the end of the word. It carries a grammatical meaning.

They don’t change the meaning of that word but they change it grammatically.

Functional (free) and Inflectional (bound) morphemes both carry grammatical meaning.

Bound morpheme

They cannot occur on their own as separate words. I’m changing the

The derivational change the meaning of the word, the word class. If I add -ly word class and often it become an adverb. Commit is a verb, if I add -ment it became a noun.

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don’t change the meaning of that word but they

The inflectional change it grammatically. If I add to a verb I’m not changing the meaning of the word but I’m changing the grammatical function -ed it’s past, otherwise it’s present. of that word, because if I add -ed

Bound morpheme can go at the end of a word or before.

Affixes

Morphemes such as: -s, -ed, -ing, il-, re-, un- are called: they are attached at the beginning or at the end of a word.

There are two types of affixes:

• Prefixes: if they are attached before another morpheme
• Suffixes: if they are attached after another morpheme

It’s

Root

A is the origin of the meaning of a word. Unfriendly → the root of the word is friend. where the meaning of that word lies.

Normally roots are free morphemes but some roots cannot stand on their own, they need to be attached to other morphemes. They are called bound roots.

• E.g. -ceive in receive, conceive, perceive dent- in dentist, dental, dentistry
• Often derived from not always easy to identify. Latin/Greek →
• Some linguists prefer to consider words such as dental, prefer, receive as formed by one morpheme only.

So morphology can be divided into inflectional morphology, that studies the structure of grammatical words and derivational morphology, that studies the production of the words in English.

Grammatical/ Functional morphemes are not productive in English, it’s a close group. I cannot create a new conjunction, a new article, prepositions…

Instead, Derivational/ Lexical morphemes are very productive, we keep creating words.

Inflectional morphology

CLICK-ING CLICK (free lexical morpheme) ING (bound inflectional morpheme)

GIRL-S GIRL (free lexical morpheme) S (bound inflectional morpheme)

TWEET-ED TWEET (free lexical morpheme) ED (bound inflectional morpheme)

Derivational morphology

DE-FRIEND-ED 3 Morphemes: 2 bound and 1 free

De-: derivational, because it changes the meaning

-ed: inflectional

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Morphs vs morphemes

Morphemes: abstract units, the ideas.

Morphs: Physical realization of the morpheme.

Irregular verbs: MADE 2 Morphemes: 2 ideas: MAKE+PAST

1 Morph: MADE

No bound morphemes because it’s irregular

LOUDER 2 Morphemes: 2 ideas: LOUD + COMPARATIVE

2 Morphe: LOUD+ER

BEST 2 Morphemes: 2 ideas: GOOD+SUPERLATIVE

1 Morphe: BEST

Root vs base

A root is the free morpheme which determines the meaning of a word, with no affixes attached to it.

UN-HAPPY-NESS

A base is the form of a word to which any affixes can be attached.

UNHAPPY-NESS

Es. THOSE: that + plural

Pronouns

WE: 1 morphe. 3 Morphemes (ideas): person plural - nominative case (subject) 3 morphemes, 3 ideas - 1st

HIM: 1 morphe. 4 Morphemes: 3rd person singular masculine objective case (object pronoun)

SHE: 1 morphe. 4 Morphemes: 3rd person singular feminine nominative case

ITS: 1 morphe. 4 Morphemes: 3rd person singular neutral possessive case

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Inflectional and derivational morphology

Inflection of English

• Possessive ‘s

Susan’s dog = possession

A hard day’s work = I’m NOT expressing possession

Three months’ leave= I’m NOT expressing possession

The cat’s food = I’m NOT expressing possession

• Irregular verbs

Speak-spoke-spoken:

SPOKEN= diachronic way: vowel mutation + irregular inflection

Synchronic way: 2 morphemes (the idea of speak + past participle) and 1 morphe (spoken is 1 morph)

Derivational morphology: word creation process

• Affixation: suffix
• Compounding
• Shortening
• Blending: cut words and put together (Brad Pitt+ Angelina = Brangelina)
• Semantic Shift
• Conversion or zero derivation

Semantic shift

The change of meaning of existing lexemes

Mail prima aveva un altro significato, ora indica la posta elettronica

Compounding

The combination of 2 or more free morphemes to form a lexeme with a new meaning

Password: is a combination of 2 or more lexemes and if I put the 2 words together, they form a NEW word

Facebook: FACE + BOOK - Le due parole possono avere un in mezzo, avere lo spazio, o essere attaccate.

It’s not always easy to identify the word class because many words in English may be members of different word classes.

You can also combine different word classes (adj+ noun, verb+ noun ecc)

Endocentric compounds = the meaning is inside the word (es. night flight, bedroom)

Exocentric compounds = the meaning is external the word, so you need to know the context (es. paperback)

Copulative compounds = The 2 words both contain the meaning (African-American)

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→ Compounds don’t always have 2 elements, they can have more elements State of the art, Over the top, Made in Italy ARE COMPOUND

Esercizio

Morphology is: the study of the international structure of words

Instagram is the blending of two words. They are instant + photogram

Can a word be= a morpheme? YES →

How many morphemes are there in SPEAKS? 2 (speak+ 3rd person singular present un morfema unico) NO 4 (speak+ 3rd person+ sing+ present). The 2 morphemes so are SPEAK + S (inflectional) = 3rd person singular present (one morpheme)

You separate singular, present … only with PRONOUNS. Ex:

SHE: 1 morphe. 4 Morphemes: 3rd person singular feminine nominative case

Se ci fosse BOOK: non è 2 morpheme (BOOK + SINGULAR.)

È 1 morpheme BOOK, è un free morpheme. Non bisogna mettere book + singular perché non c’è niente. Nel casso fosse BOOKS allora sarebbe BOOK + PLURAL perché si aggiunge l’inflectional morpheme S che indica plurale.

PLAYED: 2 morphs PLAY + ED. 2 morphemes

LOST: 1 morph. 2 morphemes, 2 ideas of LOOSE + PAST SIMPLE

Compounds issues

They can have very syntactic patterns: you can mix nouns, combine a verb + noun, a particle + adj + noun… noun,

Greta Pontieri

Sometimes in English we can confuse phrasal verbs with compounds:

• Cioè che prendi due parole e le mixi insieme e c’è un sotto il punto di vista semantico, nuovo significato, sono simili. Perché con i compounds prendi due free lexemes e li metti insieme e generi un nuovo lessema con un nuovo significato, quindi nel caso dei phrasal verbs prendo un verbo + una particella e si forma un nuovo verbo con un nuovo significato.
• But if I look to internal modification of compounds and phrasal verbs, they differ. → phrasal verbs (some of them) can be separated. Ex. Throw out → you can say I throw it out, and so you put the pronoun it in the middle of throw and out. You CAN’T do this with a compound.

So in this case (Internal modification) Compounds and Phrasal verbs are NOT similar. In terms of semantics they are very similar, because they both generate a new verb with a new meaning.

• Stress: Phrasal verbs X Compounds. (NOT similar)

Compounds: the first part is stressed (Lip stick, White House)

Phrasal verbs: Stressed on the second element (Watch out)

• Syntax: you can separate a phrasal verb from its particle. (burned down → he burned the house down).

You can’t separate a compound (you can’t separate lipstick)

→ SO PHRASAL VERBS ARE NOT COMPOUNDS. (They only share similarities in terms of semantics)

[Se siamo confuse se sia un compound o phrasal verbs chiediamoci, si possono separare i due elementi?]

Affixation

Affixation= putting a prefix or suffix to a free lexeme

When I add a prefix to a word, I maintain the class. I change the meaning of the word but I’m not changing the class.

Ex. Appear (V) → Dis+ Appear (V)

→ Prefixes are class-maintaining

Whereas if I add a suffix, I often change the class.

Ex. Sad (Adj) → Sad + ly (Adverb)

→ Most suffixes are class-changing

New Affixes →

• -holic is used to indicates something referred to alcoholic → Shopaholic
• -thon to indicate marathon → Telethon
• -gate to indicate scandals → Catergate

Conversion or zero derivation

The process of changing the class of a word without changing the form. La stessa identica parola cambia di classe.

Ex. Google was a noun and now we have To google, E-mail (N) → To E-mail (V), Dry (Adj) → To dry (V); Post → To post; Chat → To chat;

→ In poche parole è il processo di trasformazione di tutte quelle parole che vengono trasformate in verbo. They are verbing everything.

Backformation

Backformation → The opposite of affixation I remove an affix (usually a suffix) to change the word class

ex. Editor → to edit; Babysitter (N) → Babysitt (V)

SPESSO UN NOME CHE DIVENTA UN VERBO

Shortening

Shortening - Acronyms and Initialism = you short a word and use the initials (RAM: Random Access Memory, NATO…).

Acronyms: you read the initials as one word

You read the word as a normally word, not making the spelling (you say fluently NATO not EN EI TI O, you say RAM not ER, AI, EM making the spelling)

Initialism: you read the word with the single letter separated, as you are making the spelling (NIMBY -not in my backyard, you read it EN, I, EM, BI, UAI; USA; WWF)

Clipping

When you cut a part of a word (the bottom or the end).

Ex. Prof (instead of Professor), Gym (Gymnasium), Ad (Advertisement), Bike (Bicycle)

Blending

You first cut the words and then you put them together

Grammatical morphemes

Greta Pontieri

Grammatical morphemes

When I talk about grammatical morphemes I’ve got either - free morphemes (free functional words es. The article THE) or I’ve got - Bound morphemes (inflectional affixes es. -ED of the past simple, -S for the plural…).

Grammatical categories= Grammar notions expressed by grammatical morphemes (the idea behind the grammatical morphemes Ex. In the -ed of played the idea behind, the grammatical notion is the tense; behind the -s in books I’m expressing plural)

• Nominal categories normally express: number, gender, person, degree
• Verbal categories express tense, aspect, mood, voice

Word classes

A word class is a group of words which behave in the same way.

• They are the same morphologically (=use the same endings)
• Verbs: -ing/ -s/ -ed. I know that every verb on the 3rd person goes with the -s…
• Nouns: -hood/ -ment
• Adjectives: -ing/ -ful
• They are the same syntactically (= occupies the same positions in the sentence)

Generally, there are 8 word classes:

• 1. Nouns
• 2. Adjectives
• 3. Verbs
• 4. Adverbs
• 5. Pronouns
• 6. Prepositions
• 7. Conjunctions
• 8. Articles

From 1 to 4 are Open Classes. From 5 to 8 are Close Classes.

→ You have VERBS in both Open and Close Class. OPEN= LEXICAL VERBS (I can create a new lexical verb). CLOSE= AUXILIARY VERBS (I cannot create a new auxiliary verb).

Open class: where you can create and new words of that class

Close class: I can’t create new words of that class

Open word class

NOUN: common and proper, count and non-count, concrete and abstract nouns

LEXICAL VERBS: dynamic and stative verbs/ copular

ADJECTIVES: attributive and predicative, descriptors and classifiers

ADVERBS: circumstance, stance, linking

Closed word classes

PRONOUNS: personal, possessive, reflexive, indefinite,..

AUXILIARY VERBS: primary and modals (will, would, have) → verbs that support the lexical verb (have eaten: have is auxiliary; eaten is lexical)

PREPOSITIONS: simple and complex, time, place, causa

CONJUNCTIONS:

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DETERMINERS: articles, possessives, demonstrative, numerals → they limit the word they are followed by. (EX. THE red dog is in the garden = I used the THE determiner that limits, determinates the noun; MY best friend is American = MY determiner, I’m limiting, it’s MY best friend; THAT t-shirt is cool)

A determiner comes before a noun

Nouns

What they refer to: (proper nouns → capital letter)

Proper vs Common

Concrete vs Abstract

Their inflectional behaviour:

→ singular vs plural