Chapter 4: Morphology
Learning Objectives
⏹ I. Definition of word and word classification
⏹ II. Morphology & morpheme
⏹ III. Word formation rules
I. Words
⏹ Lexicon: the mental dictionary
❑ Cf. Vocabulary
⏹ How many words are there in English?
人工在线客服❑ In Webster’s Third International Dictionary of the English Language, more than 450,000 entries are listed.
What is Word?
银行类型
⏹ A Vague definition:
❑ A unit of expression that has universal intuitive recognition by native speakers, whether it is expresd in spoken or written form.
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⏹ Three ns are involved in defining “word”, none of which is satisfactory.
Three Sens of “Word”
1. A physical unit:
⏹ a cluster of sound gments or letters between two paus or blanks, e.g.
❑ Phonological:
❑ Orthographic: It is wonderful.
❑ Three words are recognized.
⏹ However, in casual speech or writing, it often becomes:
❑ Phonological:
❑ Orthographic: It’s wonderful.
❑ Are they two words or three?
2. A Lexical item or a lexeme
⏹ A lexical item is an entry in a dictionary.
⏹ Problem: A lexeme WRITE includes all of its grammatical forms:
❑ write, writes, writing, wrote, written
3. A grammatical unit:
ntence
clau
phra
word
morpheme
⏹ Problem: love; hate
Identification of Words
1. Stability:
⏹ stable linguistic units.
⏹ chairman, but not *manchair严父
2. Relative uninterruptibility:
⏹ cannot pau and add another component in between, as in *disinterestappointment.
⏹ But we can add another word between words: Paul, (John) and Mary ...
3. A minimum free form:
⏹ the smallest unit that can constitute a complete utterance by itlf, e.g.
⏹ —Is Jane coming tonight?
⏹ —Possibly.
⏹ Hi.
⏹ Wonderful.
Question: Can articles be independent?
Word Classification
1. Variable words vs. invariable words
⏹ Criterion:
❑ with or without inflective changes
⏹ Examples:
❑ follow since
❑ cat when
❑ nice through
2. Content words vs. function words
牛肉锅贴⏹ Content words:
❑ nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
⏹ Function words:
❑ conjunction, preposition, articles, pronouns, etc.
⏹ 三金片的副作用Criterion:
❑ With or without mantic content
3. Clod-class words vs. open-class words
⏹ Criterion:
❑ Whether the membership is fixed or limited
⏹ Question: What are the relationships among the three classifications?
Word Class
⏹ Word class is also known as Parts of Speech in traditional grammar.
❑ Noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, pronoun, conjunction, interjection, article, etc.
⏹ Some new terms in word class:
❑ 1. infinitive to, negative not, subordinate units in phrasal verbs “get by”, “look back”, etc.
❑ 2. do, have, be
❑ 3. can, will, may, must, etc.
❑ 4. Pro-forms: substitutes for other terms.
✧ Pronoun: he, she, I, they, everyone
✧ Pro-adjective: Your car is red. So is his.U盘系统制作
✧ Pro-verb: He speaks English better than he did.
✧ Pro-adverb: He hopes to win and I hope so too.
✧ Pro-locative: He went there.
❑ 5. Determiner: all the articles, demonstratives, and quantifiers that appear before the noun and its modifiers.
✧ As many as three determiners may be ud in each ca and there is a fixed order when there is more than one.
II. Morpheme: the minimal unit of meaning
⏹ A. “They gave it me,” Humpty Dumpty continued, “for an un-birthday prent.”
⏹ B. “I beg your pardon?” Alice said with a puzzled air.
⏹ A. “I am not offended,” said Humpty Dumpty.
⏹ B. “I mean what is an un-birthday prent?”
⏹ A. “A prent given when it isn’t your birthday, of cour.”
——Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking-Glass
A B
⏹ desirable undesirable
⏹ likely unlikely
⏹ inspired uninspired
⏹ developed undeveloped
⏹ “In two words: impossible!” –your comment?
Definition of Morpheme
⏹ Morpheme:
❑ the smallest unit of language in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit that cannot be further divided without destroying or drastically changing the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical.
⏹ In spoken language, morphemes are compod of phonemes, and in written language morphemes are compod of graphemes (字素).
Morphs and Allomorphs
⏹ Morphs:
❑ are the phonological or orthographic forms which realize morphemes, and they are minimal carriers of meaning.秦吉了
⏹ The different morphs of one morpheme are called the morpheme’s allomorphs.
The plural morpheme
⏹ The alternates /-z/, /-s/, /-z/, /--/, /--/, // are all morphs of the same plural morpheme. That is, they are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme.
