Appunti lingua inglese

Morphology

focuses on the anatomy of words — the way words are formed (internal structure, rules, neologism (new words) creation)

What is a word? They can be defined from many viewpoints

• Orthographic
• Phonological
• Lexical item/Lexeme

by leaving space one from the other

Grammatical word form

Semantic words

Content Words vs Function Words

give infoex: where

grammatical functionex: articles

Word-forms

or grammatical words

Lexemes

abstract unit

Types and Tokens

“The students borrowed the books from the library”

Content Words

Function Words

Types —> the abstract elements —> the, students, borrowed, books, from, library

Tokens —> types repeated more times = 8

MORPHOLOGY

focuses on the anatomy of words → the way words are formed (internal structure, rules, neologism (new words) creation)

what is a word? they can be defined from many viewpoints

• ORTOGRAPHIC
• PHONOLOGICAL
• LEXICAL ITEM/LEXEME

by leaving space one from the other

GRAMMATICAL WORD FORM

abstract idea, found in dictionary

SEMANTIC WORDS

the lexicon in a dictionary is: give, not gave

CONTENT WORDS vs FUNCTION WORDS

give info → grammatical function

ex: where → ex: articles

WORD-FORMS → or grammatical words

LEXEMES → abstract unit

• TYPES AND TOKENS

"The students borrowed the books from the library"

CONTENT WORDS → FUNCTION WORDS

TYPES → the abstract elements → the, students, borrowed, books, from, library

TOKENS → types repeated more times = 8

MORPHEMES

the smallest meaning-bearing unit, they are like lego bricks that can be put together.

each has both FORM and MEANING.

Some words can be analyzed into smaller parts.

ex: students

borrowed

books

FREE BOUND

a free morpheme is also a word

it is never a word alone, they can't stand alone.

happiness = HAPPY NESS

Morphemes and words are not necessarily the same

EXCEPTION: CRANBERRY → UNIQUE MORPHEME

can't stand alone, it's not a word, it doesn't exist alone

Simplex vs Complex Words

• formed by one morpheme
• formed by more than one morpheme

• dog
• doggy

Morphology vs Etymology

• sustain, contain, pertain → "tain" comes from Latin "tenere" = to hold
• reduce, deduce, seduce → "duc" from Latin = lead
• pedal, pedestrian, biped → "ped" from Latin = foot

Nowadays people aren't aware of the Latin origins so they're simplex even though they should be complex

Morphemes vs Syllables

• a unit of meaning
• a unit of sound

E.g. cats = two morphemes in one syllable

The number of morphemes may not correspond to the number of syllables. Syllables may divide a morpheme

• pregnant
• 3 morphemes
• 2 syllables
• pre- -gn- -ent
• preg- -nant

Morphemes:

• they add meaning to a word
• they cannot be subdivided
• they can have any number of syllables
• they can appear in many different words

TRICKY CASES (1)

• two different meanings via the same arrangement of sounds
• • IN → NOT in words like incapable, insufficient
  • INTO, WITHIN as in invade, include
• • GON → BIRTH TYPE ORIGIN as in gonorrhea
  • KNEE, ANGLE as in diagonal

TRICKY CASES (2)

• two different forms have the same meaning
• • 2 FORMS ONE MEANING = 2 MORPHEMES
  • different from one another
  • ANDR → MAN, MALE as in android
  • VIR → MAN, MALE as in virile

TRICKY CASES (3)

• the forms may be the same but from different historical pathways
• • IN → INTO, WITHIN as a prefix English borrowed from Latin
  • IN → INTO, WITHIN as native English preposition

Tricky Cases (4)

two (or more forms), one meaning = ONE MORPHEME

alternate forms of the same morpheme

a/an → different forms of a Greek morpheme meaning "not, without"

The alternate forms of a single morpheme are ALLOMORPHS

can organise single form, adapted its beginning or ending sound

to the sounds found in other morphemes it's combined with

a cat an apple

different realizations of the same morpheme

un- elegant im- polite il- legal ir- regular

different realizations of the morpheme {-1plur}: