Staff Site Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta

Introduction to
Linguistics
Week 7

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

1

Morphology
Morphemes, Conditioning &
Words

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

2

Review

 Language

is a CODE for thoughts.
sound

decode

meaning

speaker

encode
listener

thoughts

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007


3

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they
do?
Said the flea: ‘Let us fly’.
Said the fly: ‘Let us flee’.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

4

Word Classes
 Content

Words
→ noun, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

→ “open class” vocabulary

 Function

Words
→ pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries, etc
→ “closed class” vocabulary
MY DAUGHTER WENT TO THE CINEMA.
September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

5

Word Relation & Morpheme
 Words

can be related to other words , e.g.
happy – unhappy.
→ fundamental elements: morpheme

→ rules of combination: Word Formation
Rules

 Morpheme:

the smallest unit that carries
information about meaning or function

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

6

MORPHEMES
 1.

be identifiable from one word to
another
 and

 2. contribute in some way to the
meaning of the whole word.
e.g. attack, stack, tackle and taxi

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

7

MORPHEME
 MONOMORPHEMIC

Simple words
e.g :
train
track

single morpheme


 POLYMORPHEMIC

Complex words
e.g :

builder

(‘to construct’)

September 5, 2017

more than one morpheme

build + er

(Functions as a Noun maker, means ‘one who builds’)

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

8


How many morphemes are there
in each of the following words?
unhappier

 happy
 happier
 unhappy

unhappy

-er

 unhappier
 unhappine

ss

September 5, 2017


unintro 2 ling/ssn/2007

happy
9

cranberry morpheme
E.g.
 morphemes cran-, huckle- and gormin cranberry, huckleberry and
gormless
 Berry in strawberry, blackberry and
blueberry

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

10

Recognition of Morphemes
 The


dinosaur sniffed arrogantly and
plodded forwards.

 The

dinosaur grunted loudly and
edged backwards.

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

11

Bound & Free Morphemes
door

free morpheme


s

bound morpheme

doors

Can be a word by
itself

Must be attached to another
element

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

12

What does –s mean?
 There


are two doors in the room.
 There are no red doors.
 I have zero dollars.
 It’s negative one degrees outside.
 The current is 0.4 amperes.
not one
September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

13

Inflectional & Derivational
Morphemes
clouds
 Inflectional

cloudy

morpheme

→ provides further information about an existing lexical
item
e.g : car
cars
jump
jumped

 Derivational

morpheme

→ creates an entirely new word

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

14

Derivational Morpheme . . . .

Affixes
 morphemes

added to free forms to
make other free forms

 four

kinds of affixes:
1. prefixes
→ unable
2. suffixes
→ refusal
3. infixes
→ in-bloody-credible
4. circumfixes → enlighten

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

15

Study the words below
adjectiv
e
dark

verb

verb

noun

darken

sing

singer

black

blacken

dance

dancer

red

redden

write

writer

white

whiten

compute compute
r

What word formation rules can we make?
September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

16

Zero Morphemes
Consider the
following words:
adjectiv verb
e
yellow yellow

brown

brown

clear

clear

comb

Comb

September 5, 2017

The relationship
between yellow
(adj) - yellow (v) is
exactly the same
as white – whiten
→ zero morpheme

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

17

Allomorphs
The variant forms of morpheme
e.g: a, an
Cats, dogs, horses, oxen, sheep,
geese


Phonological conditioning
→ its form is dependent on the adjacent
phonemes
 Lexical conditioning
→ its form seems to be a purely accidental
one, linked to a particular vocabulary item

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

18

Compounds
 the

combination of two free forms
 In English, the HEAD of a compound is
usually the right-hand member
 The HEAD supplies the category and basic
meaning for the whole compounds
 Compounds can be used with affixation to
produce larger words
e.g. blackbird, sleepwalker, bookcase, happy hour,
etc

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

19

What about the following words:
- blackberry
- blueberry
- strawberry
- cranberry
- huckleberry
September 5, 2017

BOUND ROOTS

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

20

Homophonous Morphemes &
Reduplication
Homophonous Morphemes
 two morphemes having the same
pronunciation (form) with different
meanings
e.g. un-tie-able
Reduplication
 the copying of a part of a word
e.g. the language of the people of Madura
in English?

September 5, 2017

intro 2 ling/ssn/2007

21

Other Ways of Forming Words
Blends
→ smoke + fog = smog
motor + hotel = motel
 Onomatopoeia
bang, buzz
 Words from names
→ jumbo, sandwich
 Truncation (Clipped words)
→ gym(nasium), (tele)phone
 Acronyms
→ AIDS
September 5, 2017
intro 2 ling/ssn/2007


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