English 301 Language and Linguistics Lisa Brunetti WORD STRUCTURE (1) unsystematic

Spring 2005 Wed. March 9th, 2005

The word unlockable has two meanings that correspond to two different structures. (4) unlockable : not able to be locked Adjective un Verb Adjective able

system: noun; systematic: adjective; unsystematic: adjective Adjective un Noun system Noun + atic Adjective un + Adjective Adjective N.B.!! : un- is attached to systematic, NOT to system. (2) * unsystem un Adjective atic

lock (5) unlockable : able to be unlocked Adjective Verb Verb lock able

Derivational morphemes
HIERARCHICAL language.
STRUCTURE

is a universal property of human

Derivational morphemes derive one word from another. They have the following properties: They affect the meaning of the morpheme that they attach to. E.g. re- means to redo the process, de- means to undo the process, un- means not. - They can change the grammatical category of the word they attach to. E.g. noun becomes adjective, adjective becomes verb, etc. - They can be used to create new words, such as debug, reboot, unbirthday, etc. 1 -

When we speak, we put morphemes together sequentially as in un+system+atic. In our MENTAL REPRESENTATION of words, however, morphemes are put together in a hierarchical structure. The hierarchical organization of words is most clearly shown by structurally ambiguous words, words that have more than one meaning by virtue of having more than one structure. (3) unlockable

Inflectional morphemes
Inflectional morphemes do not affect the meaning of the morpheme they are attached to. They have a grammatical function. (6) English Inflectional Morphemes -s -ed -ing -en -s -s -er -est eats talked talking spoken books Johns taller tallest 3rd person sing. present past tense progressive past participle plural possessive comparative superlative

San Lucas Quiavin Zapotec (southeast of Oaxaca City, Mexico) (10) rdidy gives bdidy gave ydidy will give cadidy is giving sdidy will certainly give (11) becw dog - rabecw dogs

Inflectional morphemes can be free or bound. Some languages prefer to use free inflectional morphemes. E.g. English. Free inflectional morphemes are called FUNCTION words. (12) will : function word indicating future Other languages prefer to use bound inflectional morphemes. E.g. Spanish. (13) hablar to speak - hablar I will speak -ar : bound inflectional morpheme indicating future

Compared to many languages, English has very little inflectional morphology. Spanish: (7) hablar to speak present indicative: hablo hablas habla hablamos hablais hablan (8) lindo beautiful, lindo linda lindos lindas Swahili (a Bantu language spoken in eastern and central Africa). (9) pik to cook ha-tu-ta-wa-pik-i-sh-i-a we will not have made him cook for them In all the examples above, inflectional morphemes are suffixes. Other languages have inflectional morphemes that are prefixes.

Homework assignments Chapter 3: Study pp. 69-87, 99-108 and do exx. 4 and 6.