Riassunto esame Lingua Inglese II, prof. Piotti, libro consigliato The Linguistic Structure of Modern English, Brinton-Brinton

MORPHEME

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit, which is internally indivisible and cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units. Morphemes have internal stability and positional mobility (they're externally transportable).

We distinguish two types of morphemes:

1. LEXICAL MORPHEME: It expresses lexical meaning and can be categorized into word classes - noun, verb, adjective, adverb (content words)
2. GRAMMATICAL MORPHEME: It expresses a limited number of common meanings or relations in a sentence. Grammatical categories can be parts of words (= inflectional affixes) or independent words (= function words), such as prepositions, articles, demonstratives, conjunctions, and auxiliaries.

MORPH

A morph is the concrete realization of a morpheme, its spoken or written form.

A zero morph (Ø) happens when a morpheme exists but has no concrete realization: 'fish' has two morphemes +{fish} but the plural morpheme has no concrete realization. {pl}, - FREE MORPH = can stand

"alone" is a word and is always a root, which carries the principal meaning. It is a BOUND MORPH, meaning it must be attached to another morph. A BOUND ROOT is a foreign borrowing that was free in the source language, but not in English. For example, "vert" in "convert" and "introvert".

An affix is always bound to a root and can be placed at the beginning (prefix), at the end (suffix), or in the middle of the word (infix).

There are two kinds of affixes:

1. DERIVATIONAL AFFIX (a prefix or a suffix): There can be more than one derivational affix per word, always preceding an inflectional affix. It has two functions: to convert one part of speech to another or to change the meaning of the root.
2. INFLECTIONAL AFFIX (always a suffix): Can attach to all members of a word class and always occurs last, following the root and its derivational affixes. Its function is to indicate the grammatical meaning.

Productive inflections attach to any new word entering the language to express a grammatical category, while nonproductive inflections are...

found on some members of a class but are not added to new words.

In Modern English, there are eight productive inflections:

• Plural number -s
• Past participle -ed
• Possessive case -s
• Present participle -ing
• Present tense for the 3rd person sg -s
• Comparative degree -er
• Past tense -ed
• Superlative degree -est

An enclitic is a contraction: a bound form which derives from an independent word and must be attached to the preceding word. There are two kinds of enclitics:

• Contracted auxiliaries = attached to the preceding subject
• Negative contraction -n't = attached to the preceding auxiliary

In reference to morphs and roots, there can be different types of words:

1. SIMPLE WORD = has one free root (hand)
2. COMPLEX WORD = has a free root and one or more bound morphs (handful)
3. COMPOUND WORD = has two free roots (hand)
4. COMPOUND-COMPLEX WORD = has two free roots and bound morphs (handwriting)

MORPHEMIC RULES

Morphemes can be

(reduce reduction)→3. Semantic change (happy happiness)→4. Syntactic change (noun to verb: friend befriend)INFLECTIONInflection is the modification of a word to express grammatical categories such as tense, number, gender, case, etc. It does not change the word class or meaning of the word, but rather indicates its grammatical function in a sentence.→1. Tense (walk walked)→2. Number (cat cats)→3. Gender (actor actress)→4. Case (he him)COMPOUNDINGCompounding is the combination of two or more words to create a new word with a new meaning. The words can be joined together without any changes, or they can undergo phonological or orthographic changes.→1. Without changes (blackboard)→2. With phonological changes (football)→3. With orthographic changes (bookshelf)(deny denial) → 3. Semantic change (emerge emergency) → 4. Change in word class (impress [verb] impression = [noun]) Suffixes change both the meaning and the part of speech of the root: - Nominalizer = a suffix which produces a noun - Verbalizer = a suffix which produces a verb from a noun/adjective - Adjectivalizer = a suffix which produces an adjective from a noun/verb/adjective - Adverbializer (smallest set of class-changing suffixes) Many suffixes only change the nouns' meanings, not their classes: → Diminutive suffixes -ling, -let, -y, -ie → Abstract suffixes -ship, -hood, -ism → Feminine suffixes -ess, -ette, -rix, -ine → Suffixes denoting people –(i)an, -ist, -er REDUPLICATION Reduplication doubles the initial syllable or the entire word to express intensification, diminution or onomatopoeia. There are different processes of reduplication: 1. EXACT REDUPLICATION (papa, mama, fifty-fifty) 2. ABLAUT REDUPLICATION = the vowel

alternates while the consonants stay identical (criss-cross, zig-zag)

RHYME REDUPLICATION = the consonants change while the vowel remains the same (hodge-podge, boogie-woogie)

CONVERSION/FUNCTIONAL SHIFT/ZERO-DERIVATION

This process involves the conversion of one part of speech to another without the addition of a suffix (or adding a zeroderivational suffix).

The most common functional shifts are:

1. V > N An action is treated as an object, the result of the action, the person performing the action, the time or place of the action, the range (a) run, drive, cut, look, bite, bruise
2. N > V The noun can denote the object moved to or from a location, the location to or from something is moved, or the instrument used to perform an action (to) head, shoulder, telephone, contact, ship, mail
3. A > V It gives the inchoative meaning (to become something) or the causative meaning (to cause to become something) (to) better, empty, dirty, quiet, tame, lower
4. A > N

(a) double, private, red, commercial, older, formal→5. Prt > V (to) down, up, out

(a) double, private, red, commercial, older, formal→5. Prt > V (to) down, up, out

It is often difficult to know which is the original form and which the converted one, but there are some ways to distinguish the ship toast the two words. For example, when the noun is primary, the verb includes its meaning (to anchor, to butter), and converted forms always take the regular inflection (highlight highlighted = the verb must be derived from the noun).

COMMONIZATION

A kind of functional shift, in which a proper noun is converted into a common word with no phonological change (cashmere, odyssey, valentine, bourbon).

In some cases, a derivational suffix is added to convert the noun into the part of speech marionette, panic, mesmerize, → spartan, Machiavellian

COMPOUNDING

A compound is the combination of two or more free roots, plus their associated affixes. They can be written as a single word (hyphenated) or as two words. Compounds are externally modified, so the plural of manhole is

manholes notmenhole (while the plural of the phrase man-of-war is men-of-war).

Stress is the most reliable mean of distinguishing a compound from a phrase: a compound carries only one primary stress (bréakdown), while a group of words carries more than one primary stress (bréak dówn).

on down over

Modern English favours verbs followed by postverbal particles (as in lead, put, run). However, the meaning of the combination of verb and particle in the phrasal verb may not be predictable from the meaning of the parts.

Unlike compounds, phrasal verbs show internal modification, carry two primary stresses and behave like phrases, since the particle can move after the object (he burned down the house = he burned the house down).

A further problem is represented by phrase compounds, which are formed from entire phrases (lady-in-waiting, whiskey-and-soda, son-in-law) but are hyphenated, like compounds, and have semantic unity. Many of these are externally modified.

<p>(whiskey-and-sodas rather than whiskies-and-soda) but some are internally modified, like a phrase (sons-in-law).</p> <h2>AMALGAMATED COMPOUNDS</h2> <p>These words are compounds in origin but have fused and can no longer be separated into two distinct parts. Since they are no longer recognizable as compounds, they are considered single morphemes neighbor = neah ("near") + gebur("dweller").</p> <h2>BLENDING</h2> <p>Blends involve two processes of word formation: compounding and clipping. Two free words are combined and blended by clipping off the end of the first word and the beginning of the second word.</p> <p>Sm(oke) + (f)og = smog<br> Mo(tor) + (ho)tel = motel<br> Film + (bio)graphy = filmography<br> Info(rmation) + (com)mercial = infomercial</p> <h2>BACK FORMATION</h2> <p>Speakers derive a simple word from a form which they analyse as a complex word, on the basis of derivational and inflectional patterns. For example, the agentive suffix -er is added to a verb to produce a noun (singer = sing +

Without knowledge of the history of an individual word, it is impossible to know if related forms result from derivation or back formation: in many cases a presumed affix is removed, even though it is not truly an affix, but part of the root.

For example: editor ⎼ (-er) = edit ; babysitter ⎼ (-er) = babysit

SHORTENING (acronyms, initialisms, clipped forms)

Through shortening, speakers delete sound segments without respecting morphological boundaries:

1. CLIPPING

   The result of dropping part of a word, its end or its beginning, while retaining the same meaning and word class:

   • advertisement = ad/advert
   • refrigerator = fridge
   • telephone = phone
   • influenza = flu
2. ACRONYMS

   The initial letters of words are pronounced as a single word:

   • NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organization
   • radar = ra(dio) d(etecting) a(nd) r(anging)
3. INITIALISM

   The initial letters of words in a phrase are pronounced as distinct letters:

   • Okay = o.k.
   • Emcee = m.c.

ROOT

CREATION

Root creation is the rarest word formation process: it involves the creation of an entirely new root morpheme. This is the case of brand names, which are often based on existing words or names (Levis from Levi Strauss, McDonald's from Maurice and Richard McDonald) or follow patterns of shortening and blending (IBM = International Business Machines, coke = Coca-cola).

IDIOM

An idiom is a sequence of words which functions as a single unit, is fixed and is semantically conventionalized (steal the show, hit the road, hold your horses). Little to no variation is allowed in the words that constitute the phrase: you cannot say "bite the dirt" instead of "bite the dust" or "spill the rice".