ling 200 (morphology)

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200

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Linguistics

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Oct 30, 2023

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1 Morphology What’s a morpheme? • Words : hard to define; roughly: the smallest parts that syntax can manipulate • Morphemes : the smallest meaning-bearing elements in a language - Aren’t they the same then? (1) What are the smallest meaningful units in a language? (2) what, are, the, small, est, mean, ing, ful, unit, s, in, a, language How Many Morphemes? 1. reclassify 2. repainters 3. Ready Demagnetizes 3) de + magnet +ize + s magnet . magnet + ize de + magnet + ize de + magnet + ize + s How do we know what the order of word formation is? - * demagnet demagnetize Root : The base of a word, to which affixes are added. Read read er lose er smell y taste d Stem : The form to which an affix is added. read → reread → rereader magnet → magnetize → demagnetize Affix : a general term for morphemes attached to a root (or stem) • prefix : affixed to the beginning of a word

2 • suffix : affixed to the end of a word • infix : affixed inside a word absolutely abso-funkin’-lutely. • circumfix : affixed ‘around’ a word (at both ends) German: geb means ‘give’ and gegeben means ‘given’ [adjective ] + -ify → verb (an adjective plus -ify makes a verb which means ‘to make ’) purify, amplify, simplify, falsify [verb] + -cation → noun (that verb plus -cation makes a noun which means ‘the process of making ’) purification, amplification, simplification, falsification.

3 Morphological Structure: Trees A note on notation Sometimes I draw the tree by labelling affixes as ‘Aff’ and sometimes I abbreviate the labels These are equivalent. We’ll accept either. And you can be really minimal and abbreviate labels and not label affixes. These are equivalent. We’ll accept either.

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4 Notes on structure • How do we know it happened that way? • We have no independent evidence that -ify or -cation can combine with anything other than an adjective (for -ify) or a verb (for -cation). • All legitimate stems (roots + some morpheme(s)) have meaning on their own. -ification does not. Irrefutably • What’s the root word? Refute • What comes next? *irrefute, Xrefutable • What comes next? irrefutable, refutably • Do we have independent evidence that -ly can affix to adjectives? Yup, beautifully • Do we have independent evidence that ir- can affix to adjectives? Yup, irreligious • Do we have independent evidence that ir- can affix to adverbs? Nope, *irrightly

5 Structurally ambiguous words • Independent evidence that un- can take adjectives? Yup, uncool • Independent evidence that un- can take verbs? Yup, untie Part 2: Infixation How does Agta mark the present and past tenses? Present tense : add suffix /-an/ to the verbal root: /gafut + an/ → [gafutan] “grabs” Past tense : add infix /-in/ after the first consonant of the root /-in-/ /g a f u t/→ [ginafut] “grabbed” Morphemes and Allomorphs ❀ Regular Plural Allomorph Creation Rule 1. Insert a schwa if the plural morpheme follows an alveolar or alveo-palatal fricative or affricate. 2. z→s after voiceless consonants