Lecture 4: Words Words Words

August 15, 2012

Lecture 4: Words Words Words Last Time Review Questions ‚ What are some of the types of phonological rules that we find in natural language? ‚ What does this phonological rule say? [+consonantal] Ñ [+voice] / [+voice] ‚ Would you expect to find a rule in natural language that affected [n] and [e] only? ‚ How is it that, in English [zb], is OK in [frIzbi] but is bad in [zbir]? § Why is [zb] OK in Italian like [zbalzare]? ‚ Why is it that the /n/ in ‘un’ will sometimes change the way it’s pronounced, as in [2mb@liv@b@l]? § What kind of rule is that? 2 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Last Time Phonology Homework Practice ‚ P.311 #5: Consider some German data § [x] is a velar fricative, [ç] is a palatal fricative [nIçt] “not” [ba:x] “Bach” [re:ç˜@n] “rake” [la:x˜@n] “to laugh” [Slçt] “bad” [kOxt] “cooks” [ri:ç˜@n] “to smell” [fErsu:x˜@n] “to try” [hãImlIç] “sly” [ho:x] “high” [rEçts] “rightward” [SlUxt] “canyon” [kri:ç˜@n] “to crawl” [fErflUxt] “accursed” a. Are [x] and [ç] allophones of the same phoneme, or is each an allophone of a separate phoneme? Give your reasons. b. If you conclude that they are allophones of one phoneme, state the rule that can derive the phonetic allophones. 3

Lecture 4: Words Words Words Today Questions for Today ‚ What are morphemes? § Pairings of sound and meaning that are indivisible ‚ What kinds of morphological units do we find? § Roots/stems, affixes § bound and free morphemes § inflectional and derivational morphemes ‚ What do we do with our morphological knowledge? § segment and categorize § build words out of pieces of words, using rules

5 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Today Questions for Today ‚ What determines the way we pronounce a morpheme? § free variation, nearby morphemes, phonology ‚ What underlies the system of building words? § recursive rules and binary, hierarchical, endocentric structure ‚ How do we account for ambuiguity in words? § binary structure!

Lecture 4: Words Words Words Wrapping Up Phonology Multiple Rules ‚ Sometimes a single word can be subjected to multiple rules § Consider the /aI/Ñ[2I] rule (Canadian Raising) and the Flapping Rule ‚ /aI/ Ñ [2I] / -voiced “ ‰ +alveo. -cons. ‚ »-cont. fiÑ R / V »+syllabicfi –-nasal fl –-stress fl § Now consider the following data: ‘ride-able’ [raIR2b@l] ‘write-able’ [r2IR2b@l] ‘biding’ [baIRIN] ‘biting’ [b2IRIN] ‘insider’ [InsaIR@r] ‘inciter’ [Ins2IR@r] § Does it matter which rule is applied first? ‚ Let’s write out the derivations with both orders for ‘ride-able’ and ‘write-able’ 8 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Wrapping Up Phonology Multiple Rules ‚ Which derivation produces the appropriate results of ‘ride-able’ as [raIR2b@l] & ‘write-able’ as [r2IR2b@l]?

UR /raId2b@l/ /raIt2b@l/ Flapping: raIR2b@l raIR2b@l Canadian Raising: — — SR [raIR2b@l] [raIR2b@l] UR /raId2b@l/ /raIt2b@l/ Canadian Raising: — r2It2b@l Flapping: raIR2b@l r2IR2b@l SR [raIR2b@l] [r2IR2b@l]

‚ Rule-ordering matters!

Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology What is Morphology? ‚ Words are formed from smaller meaningful units called morphemes § Examples of Morphemes: love, -able, un-, super- § Words: love, lovable, unlovable, superlovable ‚ Morphology is... § (as a component of grammar) ...the system of word formation ‚ In other words: How to make words § (as a ﬁeld of study) ...the study of word formation in language

11 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology What are Morphemes? ‚ Let’s deﬁne morphemes more clearly § Morpheme: A pairing of sound/form and meaning, which doesn’t have meaningful subparts § Another way: A linguistic sign, which doesn’t have meaningful subparts ‚ Let’s look at some words: § retry; relearn; redo; replay; revive; reset; relive ‚ All of these words share a chunk of sounds ([ri]) and a chunk of meaning (something like ‘again’) § How do we explain this? Is it just an accident? ‚ No! [/ri/] is a sound sequence paired with a meaning ‚ This is just like a word – but it is not a word ‚ It attaches to something, adds some sounds and meaning, and makes a word 12 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology What are Morphemes? ‚ Some other examples § [kanst@ntin]: a sequences sound that means something ‚ This is a single morpheme – a pretty big one! § [siIN]: a sequence of sound that means something ‚ This is not a morpheme – it is a sequence of two morphemes! ‚ Practice: What are the syllables in the word [kanst@ntin]? § What relationship is there between syllable structure and morphological structure? § None: some morphemes are syllables, some are smaller, some are bigger

13 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Kinds of Morphemes ‚ Notice that “re-”, unlike most of the verbs it combines with, cannot be used on its own: § ˚ I did it re. § I did it again. ‚ This is because “re-” is a bound morpheme § Bound morphemes are never words by themselves § Instead, they need to form words by combining with other morphemes ‚ On the other hand, ‘again’ can be used on its own, because it is a free morpheme § Free morphemes can be entire words by themselves § Sometimes they combine with other morphemes, but they need not 14 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Kinds of Morphemes ‚ Notice that, in the case of a word like “revive”, “vive” is a verb that cannot be used on its own § We see it in several words: e.g., “survive”, “vivacious”, “convivial”, etc. ‚ In these examples, “vive” shows up as the same basic sound sequence and basic shared meaning in all environments (something about living), and therefore it must be a morpheme § Notice! A words like “revive” is formed by two bound morphemes ‚ Not all words have a free-morpheme component

15 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Kinds of Morphemes ‚ Morphemes can also be divided up into two other groups: affixes and roots § Affixes are bound morphemes that can attach onto a morpheme/word ‚ Affixes have different names depending on where they attach when combinding with the morpheme/word § Roots are the indivisible core of a word to which affixes attach ‚ Roots are usually free morphemes (though not always)

16 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Roots, Stems, Bases and Words ‚ A base is the term for either a root or a stem § A root is the core of any word ‚ They generally carry the most meaning ‚ What do you think the root is in ‘unstylistically’? ‚ Any language has far more roots than aﬃxes § A stem is a derived form that hosts the root and at least one other morpheme ‚ Morphologically speaking, a word word can be a root or a combination of morphemes (stem) (stem) (aﬃx)

root (aﬃx)

17 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Roots, Stems, Bases and Words ‚ Remember: just because it’s a root doesn’t mean it can function as a word by itself ‚ Bound Roots: Morphological roots that can’t stand as words by themselves § Frequently, bound roots in English come from Latin ‚ -mit: transmit, commit, submit ‚ -ceive: receive, perceive, deceive § But not always: ‚ overwhelm, *whelm ‚ nonchalant, *chalant ‚ cranberry, *cran

18 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Kinds of Affixes ‚ Prefixes precede the base to which they attach; these are very common § un+lock, pre+paid, post+date, co+sign, non+empty ‚ Suffixes follow the base to which they attach; these are very common § lock+ed, pay+ment, dat+ing, sign+ee, empty+ish

19 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Kinds of Affixes ‚ Infixes are inserted in the middle of a single morpheme, unlike other affixes § Khmer: /l + b + 1@n/ ‚ /l1@n/ means ‘fast’, adding the /b/ infix makes it a noun (‘speed’) § English: ‚ str + itheg +ong (“gibberish”languagegame) ‚ abso + friggin’ + lutely (expletive infixation) ‚ saxo + ma +phone (HomericInfixation,Yu2004) § Typically, infixes are sensitive to phonological structure ‚ Khmer’s /b/ and English’s gibberish infix are inserted after the onset of the first syllable ‚ The expletive infixes come before the stressed syllable ‚ Homeric -ma- comes after the first foot (group of two syllables) 20 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Kinds of Affixes ‚ Circumfixes surround the base to which they attach § English: em + bold + en ‚ *bold + en, *em + bold § Hungarian: legnagyobb /lEg + naéo + b/ ‚ ‘nagy’ means ‘big’, adding ‘leg-...-bb’ changes it to mean ‘biggest’ § Kabyle: /T + isli + T/ ‚ /isli/ means ‘groom’, adding /T+...+T/ changes it to mean ‘bride’

21 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Derivational and Inﬂectional Aﬃxes

Derivational Inflectional ‚ Plays a lexical ‚ Plays only a (meaningful) role grammatical role § re-run vs. run § runn-ing vs. run ‚ Might change base’s ‚ Does not change base’s category category § runn-er vs. run § run-s vs. run ‚ Tends to not be required ‚ Is usually required by by grammatical rules grammatical rules § They’re (re-)running it. § He runs it. § ˚ He run it. 22 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Derivational and Inflectional Affixes

Derivational Inflectional ‚ Derivational suffixes ‚ Inflectional suffixes precede inflectional follow derivational suffixes suffixes § coloni-al-iz-ation-ist-s § re-volu-tion-iz-er-s ‚ Don’t have to be ‚ The most productive productive affixes § unhappy vs. *unsad § running, jumping, friending, texting, etc.

23 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Inflectional Affixes ‚ English only has a 8... and they’re all suffixes! ‚ Verbal Inflectional Morphemes: § –s 3SG Present Tense ‚ I dance. He dances. § –ed Past Tense ‚ I dance. I danced. § –ing Progressive Participle ‚ I dance. I am dancing. § –en Past/Passive Participle ‚ I eat. I have eaten.

24 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Inflectional Affixes ‚ Nominal Inflectional Morphemes: § –s Plural ‚ My cat. My cats. § ’s Possesssive ‚ The cat. My friend’s cat. ‚ Adjectival Inflectional Morphemes: § –er Comparative ‚ Happy. Happier. § –est Superlative ‚ Happy. Happiest.

25 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Inflectional Affixes ‚ Like other morphological properties of language, the fact there are few inflectional morphemes in English is language specific § Languages vary in the number and types of inflectional (and derivational) morphemes § A language like Russian has many many more inflectional morphemes ‚ There are (at least) 10 inflectional morphemes for just the first declension masculine nouns alone

26 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Practice with morphemes ‚ Let’s review with an example: precooked [prikUkt] § What are the morphemes in this word? ‚ [pri], [kUk], [t] § What are some non-morphemic sequence of sounds in precooked? ‚ [pr]: it’s a sequence of sounds, but it has no meaning ‚ [prikUk]: it’s a sequence of sound and it means something, but it has meaningful subparts § Which is the root? ‚ [kUk] § Which of those is/are bound? Free? ‚ bound: [pri], [t] ‚ free: [kUk] § Which (if any) is/are inflectional? ‚ [t] 27 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphology Practice with morphemes ‚ Identify the underlined part of each word as a root, stem or affix. If it is an affix, say whether it is derivational or inflectional. § lovelier § construct § stowage § prefix § counterattack § lights § reader § beautiful

Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Linguistic Knowledge ‚ Recall what we can do with our knowledge of phonetics and phonology § Phonetic knowledge allows you to identify phones like [ph] and [i] in the speech stream ‚ It also allows you to distinguish [ph] from [p] § Phonological knowledge allows you to identify allophones of the same phoneme ‚ For example, [ph] and [p] as both instantiating /p/ ‚ It also allows you to phonemically contrast [ph] and [b] as /p/ and /b/

30 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Linguistic Knowledge ‚ Morphological knowledge allows you to identify words and morphemes in the incoming speech stream § [DIsph2z@lIzfInISt] Ñ this, puzzle, is, ﬁnish, -ed § We use a plus sign ‘+’ to demarkate morphemes § [DIs # ph2z@l # Iz # fInIS + t] ‚ Just like with every one of our linguistic abilities, sometimes we do things wrong § “an apron” = [@n + epr@n] § But it used to be “a napron” = [@ + nepr@n] § Our grammar is still perfectly systematic, even though there are these performance errors

31 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Linguistic Knowledge ‚ Your morphological knowledge also helps you distinguish when the same sound sequences is a diﬀerent morpheme (or not a morpheme at all) § [straNg@r] Ñ [straNg + @r] Ñ strong, -er ‚ This [@r] means ‘more’ § [sIN@r] Ñ [sIN + @r] Ñ sing, -er ‚ This [@r] means ‘person’ § [fINg@r] Ñ [fINg@r] Ñ ﬁnger ‚ This [@r] has no meaning and is not a morpheme

32 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Linguistic Knowledge ‚ Morphological knowledge tells you that “the” is a function word and “cat” is a content word § More on these types of words next week! ‚ Knowledge of what the grammatical categories of morphemes are § /l2v/ (’love’) – verb ‚ can be marked for tense ‚ something you can do § /2b@l/ (’able’) – adjective § a property

33 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Linguistic Knowledge ‚ Knowledge of how to put the morphemes together § /l2v/ (’love’) ‚ a root, something you can attach morphemes to § /2b@l/ (’able’) ‚ a suﬃx, something you can attach to the end of other morphemes § /l2v2b@l/ (’lovable’) ‚ a word composed of a root plus a suﬃx ‚ Knowledge of how to interpret the words that they build and hear, based on the rules for putting them together and their individual meaning § /l2v2b@l/ (’lovable’) ‚ having the property of being something you can love

34 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Grammar ‚ Morphological rules govern how morphemes/words combine with other morphemes/words § They also inform a speaker how to build up words and assign them grammatical categories ‚ These rules rely upon morphological knowledge from the lexicon about the grammatical category (e.g. noun, verb) of morphemes § The lexicon also stores phonological form, meaning, and type of morpheme (root, preﬁx, suﬃx, etc.)

35 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Grammar ‚ Example: ‘-less’ (as in ‘senseless’) § Lexical Information: ‚ Phonological form: /lEs/ ‚ Meaning: ‘without’ ‚ Grammatical category: adjective ‚ Morpheme type: suﬃx § Rule: Noun + ‘less’ Ñ Adjective Adjective

Noun ‘less’

36 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Grammar ‚ Example: ‘pre-’ (as in ‘predetermine’) § Lexical Information: ‚ Phonological form: /pri/ ‚ Meaning: ‘before, in advance’ ‚ Grammatical category: verb ‚ Morpheme type: preﬁx § Rule: ‘pre’ + Verb Ñ Verb Verb

‘pre’ Verb

37 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Grammar

‚ Example: ‘un1-’ (as in ‘unhappy’) § Lexical Information: ‚ Phonological form: /2n/ ‚ Meaning: ‘opposite of’ ‚ Grammatical category: adjective ‚ Morpheme type: preﬁx

§ Rule: ‘un1’ + Adj Ñ Adj Adj

‘un’ Adj

38 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Morphological Grammar

‚ Example: ‘un2-’ (as in ‘undo’) § Lexical Information: ‚ Phonological form: /2n/ ‚ Meaning: ‘reverse the action’ ‚ Grammatical category: verb ‚ Morpheme type: preﬁx

§ Rule: ‘un2’ + Verb Ñ Verb Verb

‘un’ Verb

39 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Grammar and Productivity ‚ The bases that an aﬃx can combine with is variable § Some aﬃxes can combine with a great many bases – these are productive morphemes ‚ e.g. ‘re-’ can combine with a great many bases that are verbs ‚ re-think, re-transmit, re-untwist, re-disenfranchise, etc. § Others are more restricted ‚ e.g. ‘-ity’ can only combine with a subset of adjectives ‚ sanity, *awarity, profanity, *irreverentity, etc.

40 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Grammar and Productivity ‚ The fact that morphemes can be productive makes ’the longest word’ really hard to deﬁne § I can take long words and make them longer ‚ ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ ‚ ‘non-antidisestablishmentarianistically’ § I can make up words, and add productive suﬃxes to them ‚ ‘gymble’ (“...ye slythy toves did gyre and gymble...” Jabberwocky) ‚ ‘re-gymbling’ ‚ It can also make scrabble and spell-check frustrating

41 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Productivity and Blocking ‚ However, productive affixes may sometimes fail to be usable § The plural suffix -s is very productive ‚ You’ll use it on a made-up word very quickly § But the plural suffix -s is blocked if there is an exception to the rule that has been memorized in the lexicon ‚ You memorized the word ‘children’ as the plural of ‘child’ ‚ So the application of the normal pluralization rule is not available, due to blocking § This is the case for pretty much any word that has ‘irregular’ forms (e.g. all the forms of ‘be’)

42 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Language-Specific Morphology ‚ All of this knowledge is language-specific § The morphemes and the rules of putting them together are language-specific § There are also universal properties of morphology, which come from universal grammar, and which we’ll come back to ‚ To show how this is language specific § What is an prefix in language X will not necessarily also be a prefix in language Y ‚ Take, for example, the past participle morpheme, as in the English suffix “–en” /@n/ ‚ e.g., John has eat-en it. English: eat+en /it + @n/ (suffix) Malay: di+makan /di + makan/ (prefix) German: geg+ess+en /g@g + Es + @n/ (circumfix) 43 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Language-Specific Morphology ‚ What is a bound morpheme in language X may be a free morpheme in language Y, or may not even be pronounced in language Y § English marks past tense by using a bound morpheme, “-ed” (like most Western European languages, Arabic, and Zulu) ‚ katab -ta write.PAST-you(M) ‘You wrote’ Arabic ‚ si- hamb-a You(pl)-go -PAST ‘You went’ Zulu

44 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Language-Speciﬁc Morphology ‚ Some languages have an entirely separate word to mark past tense § Austronesian languages (Tongan, Hawaiian, etc), Hausa ‚ na’a nau foo PAST they fall ‘They fell’ Tongan ‚ ka dawo you-PAST return ‘You returned’ Hausa

45 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Language-Speciﬁc Morphology ‚ Some languages don’t have a pronounced past tense morpheme at all § Most SE Asian languages, some W African languages, Inuit languages ‚ gúa chhì kâu I feed dog ‘I feed/fed the dog’ Taiwanese ‚ aggir -puq come-he ‘Heis/wascoming’ Greenlandic § (These languages can still express that something happened in the past, they just have to use more words – languages only diﬀer in what they must convey, not what they may convey)

Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge One Morpheme, Multiple Allomorphs ‚ Remember allophones? § [skrim] vs. [khrim] ‚ Well, there are allomorphs too – different sound sequences with the same core identity § Allomorphy can apply to any morpheme, both root morphemes and affixes § Root allomorphy: ‚ [thrænskraIb] vs. [thrænskrIp + S@n] ‚ [OR@m] vs. [Oth2mn + @l] § Affix allomorphy: ‚ [alu + Z@n], [salu + S@n], [campoz + IS@n] ‚ [bæg + d], [bæt + @d], [bæk + t]

48 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Non-Phonologically Determined Allomorphy ‚ Some allomorphs are in free variation with each other § Present Participle ‘-ing’ has two forms: [IN] and [In] ‚ [siNIN], [siNIn] [r2nIN], [r2nIn] [tiDIN], [tiDIn] [d@mInISIN], [d@mInISIn] § Grammatically speaking, these are in free variation ‚ However, the [In] allomorph is considered more casual ‚ Some allomorphy is due to nearby morphemes § ‘-ceive’ /siv/ has an allomorph [sEp] that occurs before ‘-tion’ § This kind of allomorphy is especially common with (Latinate) root allomorphy ‚ ‘-mit’ /mIt/ Ñ [mIS] / ‘-tion’ ‚ ‘-scribe’ /skraIb/ Ñ [skrIp] / ‘-tion’ 49 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Phonologically Conditioned Allomorphy ‚ Often times the surrounding phonological material can condition which allomorph is used § For example, Korean has two allomorphs for the suffix that indicates the subject: /i/ and /ka/ ‚ so -ka saRaÙj2tta cow-SUBJ disappeared ‘The cow dissappeared’ ‚ mul -i saRaÙj2tta water-SUBJ disappeared ‘The water dissappeared’ § [i] and [ka] are not phonologically related (no phonological rule could change i to ka) but this allomorphy is conditioned by phonological environment ‚ /i/ Ñ [ka] / V ***or*** /ka/ Ñ [i] / C ‚ “/ V ” and “/ C ” are phonologicalenvironments 50 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Phonologically Determined Allomorphy ‚ Sometimes the allomorphy is phonologically derived – a rule changes (part of) the morpheme according to phonological properties and environment § For example, the English prefix /In-/ (meaning ‘not’) ‚ [In]: insecure, inadvertant ‚ [Im]: imperfect, imfamous ‚ [IN]: incongruous, inconsiderat § In this case, the place of the final consonant of the prefix assimilates to the place of the following consonant (if there is one) § The change in the morpheme is a phonological one, and it is due to the phonological environment ‚ This phonological rule does not apply to all English /n/s § It is a morpheme-specific rule, which applies to ‘in-’ /In/ but not to (say) ‘non-’ /nan/ 51 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Rule Ordering and Allomorphy ‚ Remember rule ordering? It’s important in determining the allomorph of English’s plural marker ‘kits’ [kIts] ‘laughs’ [læfs] [s]: ‘bucks’ [b2ks] ‘broths’ [braTs] ‘steaks’ [steks] ‘goofs’ [gufs] ‘kids’ [kIdz] ‘lavs’ [lævz] [z]: ‘buns’ [b2nz] ‘bros’ [broz] ‘stairs’ [sterz] ‘goos’ [guz] ‘kisses’ [kIs@z] ‘latches’ [læÙ@z] [@z]: ‘buzzes’ [b2z@z] ‘bridges’ [brIÃ@z] ‘stashes’ [stæS@z] ‘gooses’ [gus@z]

§ What is the underlying allomorph? ‚ /z/ – it occurs after (non-sibilant) voiced consonants and vowels – the other allomorphs are more restricted § What are the two rules? 52 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Knowledge Rule Ordering and Allomorphy ‚ The rules are a devoicing rule and an insertion rule § Devoicing: /z/ Ñ [-voiced] / [-voiced] § Insertion: Ø Ñ [@] / [+sibilant] z ‚ What order do these rules occur in? UR /gufz/ /gusz/ Devoicing: gufs guss Insertion: — gus@s SR [gufs] [gus@s] UR /gufz/ /gusz/ Insertion: — gus@z Devoicing: gufs — SR [gufs] [gus@z]

Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Compounds ‚ Sometimes morphology puts together whole words and creates a compound § lecture notes, ice-cold, toothbrush ‚ Compounds are incredibly common in English, and are found in every language ‚ Don’t worry about whether or not you write them with a hyphen or a space or as a single word § They’re all compounds in the same way

55 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure (Some) Compound Examples ‚ Adjective-Adjective: blue-green, bittersweet ‚ Adjective-Noun: blackboard, poorhouse, greenhouse ‚ Adjective-Verb: whitewash ‚ Noun-Adjective: headstrong, car sick, trigger-happy ‚ Noun-Noun: homework, computer desk, couch potato ‚ Noun-Verb: spoon-feed, browbeat, honey-suckle

56 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure (Some) Compound Examples ‚ Verb-Noun: pickpocket, washing machine, killjoy ‚ Verb-Verb: sleepwalk, freeze-dry ‚ Verb-Preposition: comeback, check-up, drive-thru ‚ Verb-Adjective: feel-good ‚ Preposition-Verb: upstage, intake, outgoing ‚ Preposition-Noun: inmate, thruway, upbeat

57 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Properties of Compounds ‚ Compounds tend to have a particular stress pattern that is distinctive from the stress pattern in normal phrases § The White House = where the president lives § the white house = the house that is white § a blueberry = a speciﬁc kind of berry, that has a bluish/purpish tone § a blue berry = any kind of berry that happens to be blue

58 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Properties of Compounds ‚ The meaning of compounds is not always transparent in the same way as phrases § There tends to be either extra meaning that isn’t overt... ‚ notes from lecture; cold as ice; brush for teeth ‚ aTVad=anad on TV? an ad for a TV? § ...or sometimes the meaning is even noncompositional (meaning of the whole does not come from the meaning of the parts) ‚ couch potatoes don’t really have anything to do with ‘potatoes’ § Phrases, on the other hand, tend to have complete and compositional meaning ‚ a yellow potato = a potato that is yellow ‚ Exception: idioms ‚ We will return to phrases when we look at syntax 59 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Compounds and UG ‚ Most striking is that compound words behave as words, but are composed of words § ‘toothbrush’ is a single word, but ‘tooth’ is a single word and ‘brush’ is a single word § word + word = word ‚ word

word word § Recursion! UG!

60 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Compounds and UG ‚ Compounds also reveal other properties of abstract linguistic structure § The first is a notion called binarity ‚ In forming a compound, it must be the case that the words come together two at a time § Consider the possible meanings of the three-word compound “night vampire lover” ‚ ‘a lover of night vampires’ (night modifies vampire) ‚ ‘a lover of vampires at night’ (night modifies vampire lover) § It can’t mean ‘a lover of night who is a vampire’ (night modifies lover) ‚ If all three words combined at once, this should be possible § Because it is not, we have reason to believe words in compounds come together two at a time 61 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Compounds and UG ‚ “night vampire lover” can be organized as: § either [night [vampire lover]] or [[night vampire] lover] ‚ The notion of some meaningful units are combined into units to make new units is called constituency § Constituency yields hierarchy, and trees show hierarchy visually: Noun Noun

Noun Noun Noun Noun

night lover Noun Noun Noun Noun

vampire lover night vampire § And because there are two ways of hierarchically organizing this string, we call this string ambiguous 62 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Compounds and UG ‚ Also, the grammatical category of the compound must be the same as one of the words that makes it up – this is called endocentricity § Across languages, a compound made up of a Noun and a Verb will always itself be a Noun or a Verb § N V V N Adj N V N V V N V N V N ‚ The word that determines the grammatical properties of the compound is called the head § This include grammatical properties like grammatical category, pluralization, gender, etc. § In English, the head is always the rightmost word § If the rightmost word is plural the whole compound is plural, but not the other way around: ‘a glasses-case’, ‘some glass-cases’ 63 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Compounds and UG ‚ Moreover, every compound that is made requires that every constituent is a possible word § That is, ‘home toothbrush’ only has one (probable) hierarchical structure (left) N N

N N N N

home brush N N N N

tooth brush home tooth § Because the alternate structure (right) creates a contituent that is not a probable word: ‘home tooth’

64 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Morphological Structure Below the Word Level ‚ As we saw earlier, morphological rules govern the way that languages take morphemes and put them together § Morphological rules in your grammar tell you how to attach morphemes to make stems and words ‚ Languages vary in the number and types of morphemes that they have § Morphological processes, however, show evidence of universal grammar. § “Hey, Hungarian, you can have whatever morphemes you want, but the structures you make you better be built like they are in English and every other language!”

65 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Morphological Structure Below the Word Level ‚ Morphemes are not just string together like beads on a string ‚ In fact, the way you build words from morphemes with rules exhibits the same properties as compound structures: § It builds recursive, binary, hierarchical, endocentric consitutency structures that can lead to ambiguity, where each morphological combination is a possible word § And those structures can be represented in tree diagrams

66 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Morphological Structure and Morphological Rules ‚ Our structures are reﬂections of the rules we generated § If you have a rule that says ‘re-’ only combines with verbs, make sure you don’t violate that! § Let’s look at the example of ‘reseller’ reseller reseller Noun Noun

Verb Noun Adv Noun

Adv Verb er re Verb Noun

re sell sell er

67 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Ambiguity Below the Word Level ‚ The hierarchical, binary organization of morphological structure explains why some words are ambiguous § Just like we saw for compounds § Is an unlockable door one that can be unlocked? or one that cannot be locked? ‚ If you have to form pairs of morphemes, sometimes there’s more than one way to form the pairs § un + lockable Ñ door you can’t lock § unlock + able Ñ door you can unlock ‚ Don’t forget that there are diﬀerent rules/meanings for diﬀerent /2n/s!

§ “opposite of”: ‘un1’ + Adj Ñ Adj

§ “reverse action”: ‘un2’ + Verb Ñ Verb 68 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Ambiguity Below the Word Level ‚ Our structures are reﬂections of the rules we generated

Door You Can’t Lock Door You Can Unlock Adj Adj

Adj Adj Adj Adj

un1 Verb Adj Verb Verb able

lock able un2 lock

69 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Tips for Building Morphological Trees ‚ Every morphological tree has to have a root morpheme in it § Identify the root morpheme first, deterine (based on meaning) which morpheme it first combines with, and keep building up from there ‚ Morphological trees are hierarchical and binary § Only put things together two things at a time ‚ Every pair formed should be a legitimate word § They should have a grammatical category – label them! ‚ Do not violate the rules for a given morpheme § Each morpheme can only combine with certain grammatical categories! 70 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Practice ‚ Let’s identify the kind of morphological unit (e.g., compound, root plus derivational suffix, etc.) § cat food § nonfood § grey cat § cats § catish § my cat

71 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Morphological Structure Practice ‚ Let’s determine the morphological tree structures for § unhappiness § wallpaper holders § redialing § child teaching experts

Lecture 4: Words Words Words Today Review ‚ Phonological rules can be sequentially ordered ‚ Morphemes are sound-meaning pairs (linguistic signs!) with no meaningful subparts § Morphemes can be free or bound § Free morphemes are always roots ‚ (But as we just saw, roots are not always free) § Bound morphemes may be roots or affixes ‚ Words can be broken up... § ...phonologically, into onsets, rimes, nuclei, codas, syllables § ...morphologically, into morphemes, stems, affixes and words 74 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Today Review ‚ Morphological and phonological structures are not always the same § Morphemes can be syllables (‘pre-’), smaller than syllables (‘-s’) or bigger than syllables (‘sample’) ‚ Affixes can be derivational or inflectional § Derivational morphemes fundamentally change the base they attach to § Inflectional morphemes only serve grammatical functions (and there are only 8 of them in English) ‚ The following information gets stored (in the lexicon) for each morpheme: § Phonological form, meaning, grammatical category, morpheme type, rule 75 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Today Review ‚ Morphemes can be more or less productive ‚ Morphemes have allomorphs, which can be (i) in free variation, (ii) morphologically conditioned, (iii) phonologically conditioned, or (iv) phonologically determined. ‚ Words can be formed by combining words § Compounds – special stress patterns, sometimes non-compositional § This is recursion!

76 Lecture 4: Words Words Words Today Review ‚ Morphological constituency... § is built by (recursive) rules, and can be represented by using morphological trees ‚ Rules look like this: Noun + ize Ñ Verb ‚ Rules are always binary, hierarchical, and endocentric § is binary, hierarchical, and endocentric § is organized such that every constituent is a possible word § may give rise to ambiguity ‚ Due to binarity: the order in which you add units together can change the meaning ‚ Is ‘un+lock’ a unit ﬁrst, or is ‘lock+able’ a unit ﬁrst?