Morphology - Appunti

WORD FORMATION

We are very capable of understanding a neologism, and accept the use of different forms of it, in part because of the regularity in the word-formation processes in languages.

The study of the origin/history of a word is called ETYMOLOGY

The invention of totally new words is called COINAGE and it's quite rare, and usually it happens for commercial products, that then become general terms ("kleenex", to say "tissue"), ("to google", to say "to search for info on the internet").

New words, based on a person/place are called EPONYMS (fahrenheit from Gabriel Fahrenheit), (jeans from Genoa)

BORROWING when a language borrows a term from another language "croissant", "piano", "pretzel", "email", "weekend"

There's also a "social" type of borrowing where the words are translated like "grattacielo" → "skyscraper" CALLED "LOAN-TRANSLATION".

WORD FORMATION

We are very capable of understanding a neologism, and accept the use of different forms of it, in part because of the regularity in the word-formation processes in languages.

The study of the origin/history of a word is called ETYMOLOGY.

The invention of totally new words is called COINAGE and it's quite rare, and usually it happens for commercial products, that then become general terms (Kleenex, to say "tissue"), ("to google", to say "to search for info on the internet").

New words, based on a person/place are called EPONYMS (fahrenheit, from Gabriel Fahrenheit) (jeans from Genoa).

BORROWING when a language borrows a term from another language. "croissant", "piano", "pretzel", "e-mail", "weekend".

There's also a "social" type of borrowing where the words are translated like "grattacielo" → "skyscraper" called "LOAN-TRANSLATION".

Compounding

the joining of 2 different words to produce a single word.

• "bookcase", "fingerprint", "doorknob", "textbook", "waterbed" — NOUNS
• "good-looking", "low-paid", "fast-food", "full-time", "ill-fitting" — ADJECTIVES

Blending

the combination of 2 forms.

• "smoke" + "fog" = "smog" / "television" + "broadcast" = "telecast"

Clipping

reduction of a word into less syllables

• "ad" (advertisement), "perm" (permanent wave), "fan" (fanatic)

(very used in first names & educational subjects) e.g., Al, Bob, chem, P.E.

Reductions often have -y or -ie added to them e.g., "telly" (television), "movie" (moving pictures)

Backformation

a word of 1 type (noun) is reduced to a word from another type (verb) e.g., babysitter → babysit, donation → to donate

Conversion

A type of word (noun) used as a verb (w/o reductions)

• butter → to butter (a toast) / impact → to impact
• NOUN → VERB
• to print out → a printout / to work out → workout
• VERB → NOUN
• to see through → see-through material / to stand up → stand-up comedy
• V → ADJ.
• to dirty → to dirty / An empty → to empty
• ADJ → VERB
• a crazy idea → the crazy / nasty thing → the nasty
• ADJ → NOUN

Acronyms

Words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.

• NATO, NASA, C.D., U.N.E.S.C.O., A.T.H., P.I.N., M.I.L.F.

Derivation

w/ prefixes - suffixes

• mis-, dis-, un-,
• -ful, -less, -ish
• -ism, -ness

Infixes

absolutely

MORPHOLOGY

"Morphology is the study of forms" (investigation that analyzes all those basic elements used in language.

MORPHEMES

a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

EX. "the police reopened the case"

• 3 MORPHEMES
• RE (again)
• OPEN
• ED (past tense)

From these examples we can see that there are two types of MORPHEMES; the "FREE MORPHEMES" & the "BOUND MORPHEMES".

EX. "tourists"

• 3 MORPHEMES
• TOUR
• IST
• S

• FREE: that can stand (and have a meaning) by themselves; "tour", "open".

BOUND: forms that can't stand alone (normally affixes & suffixes).

The free morphemes also can be divided into 2 categories.

LEXICAL M.: (nouns, adjectives, verbs) WORDS THAT CARRY CONTENT

FUNCTIONAL M.: (conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns) "and, but, when, if because, them, that, in, the, on, near, above..."

Bound M. can also be further divided into 2 types:

DERIVATIONAL M.: used to make new words or words of a different grammatical category from the stem (when added to it) "ness, -ful, -ish, -ly, -ment, re-, pre-, ex-, mis-, co-, un-..."

INFECTIONAL M.: used to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. (singular/plural, past tense/not, comparative/possessive) "Jim's, likes, taken, loudest, laughing".

The difference btwn "derivational m." & "inflectional m." is that inflectionals never change the grammatical category of a word.

Morphemes

• Free
  • Lexical (content words)
  • Functional ("linking" words)
• Bound
  • Derivational (changes the gram. category/meaning)
  • Inflectional (ind. gram. function)

Ex. "The child's wildness shocked the teachers" Reader

Morphemes

• Free
  • Lexical (child, teach)
  • Functional (and, the)
• Bound
  • Derivational (re-, -ness)
  • Inflectional (-'s, -ed)

What is a word?

1. Lexeme: a unit that is an uninflected abstract form (particular word form)
   • Ex. TAKE - takes, taken, taking, took
2. Syntactic word: inflected variant of a lexeme
   • Ex. take, taken, taking, took

   A whole set of synt. w. are called "paradigm"!

3. Orthographic word: a set of letters with no space btwn them.
   • Ex. "life insurance"→ 2 ort. words
   • "I'm" → 2 lexemes/1 ort. w

MORPHEMES

• BOUND
  • AFFIX
    • INFLECT.
    • DERIVATION.
  • ROOT
• FREE
  • OPEN CLASS
  • CLOSED CLASS

existing words become NEW WORDS

W ENG. there are only 8 INFL. AFFIXES:

How to make trees?

Adj

• Af
  • Un
• Adj
  • kind

V

• Af
  • de
• V
  • activate

PREFIXES

Adverb

• Adj
  • vivia
• Af
  • ly

Adj

• N
  • clue
• Aff
  • less

SUFFIXES

V

• V
• Adj
  • Black
• Af
  • en
• Af
  • ed

EXAMPLE

• V
  • sing
• Af
  • er

from V ➔ N

DERIVATIONAL

• changes meaning or grammatical category

• V
  • laugh
• Af
  • ing

V ➔ V

INFLECTIONAL

• indicates the grammatical aspects/functions of a word

As we can see, in some of the examples above, some affixes are actually able to change the meaning of the finished word, and some other affixes can't. This is because of the difference btwn derivational & inflectional morphemes.