Scribd
Upload
141 views

Principles of Linguistics: Morphology

The document discusses morphology and the internal structure of words. It covers several key topics: 1. Words are the fundamental building blocks of language and can be simple, consisting of a single morpheme, or complex, consisting of multiple morphemes. 2. Morphemes are the smallest units of language that carry meaning or function. They can be free, standing alone as words, or bound, only occurring attached to other elements. 3. Allomorphs are variant forms of morphemes that are distributed based on phonological rules, such as the 'a' and 'an' allomorphs in English.

Uploaded by

irmarahmawatisakul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
141 views

Principles of Linguistics: Morphology

The document discusses morphology and the internal structure of words. It covers several key topics: 1. Words are the fundamental building blocks of language and can be simple, consisting of a single morpheme, or complex, consisting of multiple morphemes. 2. Morphemes are the smallest units of language that carry meaning or function. They can be free, standing alone as words, or bound, only occurring attached to other elements. 3. Allomorphs are variant forms of morphemes that are distributed based on phonological rules, such as the 'a' and 'an' allomorphs in English.

Uploaded by

irmarahmawatisakul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 21

Morphology and words

The internal structure of words


Morphemes and allomorphs
Principles of Linguistics
Morphology
Simona Herdan
September 29, 2005/ PoL
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Outline
1
Morphology and words
2
The internal structure of words
3
Morphemes and allomorphs
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Words in the mind
permanently stored up in a speakers mental lexicon
fundamental building blocks of communication
basic words - whose meaning cannot be predicted
Example
sing, read, book, Fido
derived words - obtained by the application of general rules
to basic words
Example
fax faxed, faxable
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Morphology
the part of the grammar that deals with words and word
formation
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Dening words
First pass
the unit between two white spaces on the paper
Problem
hyphenated phrases
compounds
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Dening words
First pass
the unit between two white spaces on the paper
Problem
hyphenated phrases
compounds
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Dening words
A linguists denition
the smallest free form found in language
free form = an element that does not have to occur in a xed
position with respect to neighboring elements; it can even
appear in isolation in many cases
Example
dinosaur+s=dinosaurs
dinosaur = free form word
s = not a free form not a word
dinosaurs = free form; not smallest though derived word
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Dening words
A linguists denition
the smallest free form found in language
free form = an element that does not have to occur in a xed
position with respect to neighboring elements; it can even
appear in isolation in many cases
Example
dinosaur+s=dinosaurs
dinosaur = free form word
s = not a free form not a word
dinosaurs = free form; not smallest though derived word
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Dening words
A linguists denition
the smallest free form found in language
free form = an element that does not have to occur in a xed
position with respect to neighboring elements; it can even
appear in isolation in many cases
Example
dinosaur+s=dinosaurs
dinosaur = free form word
s = not a free form not a word
dinosaurs = free form; not smallest though derived word
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Outline
1
Morphology and words
2
The internal structure of words
3
Morphemes and allomorphs
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Morphemes
morpheme = smallest unit of language that carries information
about meaning or function
Example
-ed - contains the information "past tense"
I - contains the information "speaker"
cat - contains the information " "
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Words and morphemes
simple words = words made up of only one morpheme
Example
and, boy, cat, child
complex words = words which contain two or more
morphemes
Example
boy-s, work-er, re-organ-ize
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Words and morphemes
free morpheme = a morpheme that can be a word by itself
Example
all simple words are also free morphemes: fun, computer,
linguistics, run
bound morpheme = a morpheme that must be attached to
another element
Example
-s, -ize, re-
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Outline
1
Morphology and words
2
The internal structure of words
3
Morphemes and allomorphs
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Morphemes and allomorphs
allomorphs = variant forms of a morpheme; cf. allophones
allomorphs never appear in the same environment
the allomorph with the widest distribution is the underlying
form/morpheme
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Distribution of allomorphs
allomorphic distribution is rule-governed (like allophony)
Example
the indenite article a/an: an appears before a word that begins
with vowel ([-consonantal, +syllabic]), a appears elsewhere
Exercise on allomorphy
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Types of morphemes
roots - belong to a lexical category (N, V, A, P)
afxes - do not belong to a lexical category and are always
bound morphemes
base - the form to which an afx is added; in many cases
the base = the root
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Types of afxes
prex: an afx that is attached to the front of the base
sufx: an afx that is attached to the end of the base
inx: an afx that occurs inside another morpheme
Simona Herdan P of L
Morphology and words
The internal structure of words
Morphemes and allomorphs
Problematic cases
most English roots are free morphemes: word-based
morphology
some bound roots
Example
un-kempt - kempt cannot be used by itself
re-ceive, con-ceive - ceive is a bound morpheme as well
Simona Herdan P of L
Practice with allomorphy
Outline
4
Practice with allomorphy
Simona Herdan P of L
Practice with allomorphy
Plural allomorphy in English
[s]
cats
roof
caps
racks
[z]
beds
eves
cabs
kegs
mamas
halos
[@z]
judges
watches
buses
buzzes
bushes
rouges
Simona Herdan P of L

You might also like