The Term Morphology Is a Greek Based Word from the Word Morphe (=Form/Structure) and Logie
Dr. RuxandraVișan
MORPHOLOGY/TENSE, ASPECT, MOOD (T.A.M)
INTRODUCTORY COURSE
What is morphology?
The term “morphology” is a Greek based word from the word morphe (=form/structure) and logie (=account/study). Morphology can apply to any domain of human activity that is concerned with the structure or form of something.
In linguistics, morphology is the sub-discipline that accounts for the internal structure of words. Nowadays morphology is regarded as a synchronicdiscipline focusing on the study of word structure rather than on the evolution of words. (synchronic/diachronic)
The structure of languagecanbeanalysed in terms of levels of representation. For anyutterancethere are:
-a phonologicallevel – strings of phonemes
-a morphologicallevel – morphemesandwords
-a syntacticlevel-phrasesandsentences
-a semantic level – objects, things, processes, activities
- a pragmatic level –meaningisseen as action
Language as an object of study has been approached from different perspectives: traditional, structuralist, generative (language is a body of rules by means of which all the sentences can be obtained)
Morphology deals with the internal structure of words.
There are two types of complexity of word-structure: one is due to the presence of inflections and another due to the presence of derivational elements.
Inflectionalmorphology vs Derivationalmorphology
Morpehme (a structuralist notion)
The smallestmeaningful element in a language.
Types of morphemes
Morphemedistinction A
(i)freemorphemes (-morphemesthatcan stand on theirown)
(ii)boundmorphemes (rootstyp- (typical, un-, able, ness-)
A salientcharacteristic of English – a respect in which English differsfrommanyotherlanguages – isthat a highproportion of complex words are likehelpfulnessandun-Clintonishin thattheyhave a freemorpheme (likehelpandClinton) at theircore (Carstairs 19)
Morphemesandtheirallomorphs
Manymorphemeshavetwo or more differentpronunciations, calledallomorphs, thechoicebetweenthembeingdeterminedbythe context.
The plural morpheme for nouns: -s
-whenthepreceding sound is a sibilant (thekind of ‘hissing’ or ‘hushing’
sound heard at the end of horse, rose, bush, churchandjudge), the [ɪz]
allomorphoccurs
-otherwise, whenthepreceding sound isvoiceless, i.e. producedwith
no vibration of the vocal folds in thelarynx (as in cat, rock, cupor cliff),
the [s] allomorphoccurs
- otherwise (i.e. after a vowel or a voiced consonant, as in dog or day), the
[z] allomorphoccurs.
InflectionversusDerivation
(1) This pianist performs in the local halleveryweek.
(2) Mary toldusthatthis pianist performed in the local halleveryweek.
(3) The performancelastweekwasparticularlyimpressive.
Allthesewordscontain a suffix: perform-s, perform-ed, andperform-ance.
However, thesuffixes-sand-edare dependent on thegrammatical context
in a waythatthesuffix-anceisnot.
(Carstairs 28)
performsandperformed= ‘grammaticallyconditionedvariants’ or ‘inflectedforms’ of ‘the verb perform’.
Lexeme (abstract kind of word)
performs, performedandperformare allinflectedforms of thelexme PERFORM,
a. thirdperson singular presenttense: performs
b. pasttense: performed
c. progressiveparticiple: performing
d. perfect or passiveparticiple: performed
e. basic form (usedeverywhereelse): perform
Word/vs/lexeme
Cat andcatsare differentwords, but forms of the same Iexeme. The idea isthatthey are the same as far as thedictionaryisconcerned: thedifferenceispurelygrammatical. They are coveredunder a single dictionaryentry, and in mostdictionariesthereis no explicit mention of cats. The differencebetweenthevariousforms of a lexeme is a matter of inflection.
Cat andcats, then, are differentinflectionalformsof the same Iexeme - thesingular andplural formsrespectively (HuddlestonandPullum 15)
Morphemedistinction B
(i)lexical morpehmes or lexemes (that denote objects or states of affairs)
(ii)inflectionalmorpehmesthatexpressgrammaticalrelations in sentences
Inflectionencompassesthegrammaticalmarkers for number, gender, case, person, tense, aspect, mood, comparisonandisdefined as “a change in theform of a wordtoexpressitsrelationtootherwords in thesentence”.
Inflectionaloperations do notchangethecategorythey operate on. They are formal markersthathelpusdelimitthe lexical category of a word.
Derivationreferstowordformationprocessessuch as affixation, compoundingandconversion.
Derivationalprocessestypically do induce a change in the lexical category of the item they operate on andeven introduce newmeanings.
The notion of lexical category; identification of parts of speech
LEXICAL CATEGORIES
The traditionalterm 'parts of speech' appliestowhatwecallcategories of wordsandlexemes. The termlexical categorystands for what traditional grammarians called parts of speech. The term itself is built on analogy with the term lexical item and it indicates the part of speech – noun, verb, adjective, adverb etc. – to which a lexical item belongs.
Traditional grammars identified parts of speech on the basis of several criteria: meaning, inflectional variation, syntactic function in sentence. However, they arrived at different classifications. In traditional grammars, parts of speech are identified on the basis of their meaning as well as on the basis of the inflectional endings that characterise them. To these we also add the criterion of syntactic function. The last two criteria are formal. The belief that each part of speech was to be defined by characteristic concepts rested on the assumption that language mirrored the structure of the universe.
However, this is wrong (for example, we say the verb expresses an action and the adjective a quality, but we can express a quality or an action as a thing as well, i.e. by means of a noun: the height of abuilding, the fall of an apple). Besides, language does not convey information about the real world, it conveys information about the projected world (i.e. the experienced or phenomenal world).
Parts of speech as categories (the generative framework).
Returning to the identification of lexical categories, each lexical category has a corresponding syntactic phrase - N → NP. In other words, syntactic phrases are projections of lexical categories.
Categories are described categorially (functionally) and thematically (in terms of properties/features, which may be phonological, semantic or syntactic). First, all parts of speech system sanction the opposition verbal / nominal:
NPAPVPPP
NAVP
[+N][0N][+V][0V]
[0V][0V][-N][-N]
The connection between syntax and morphology: a category is the head of a syntactic phrase.
Clause, word, phrase, head
The most basic kind of clauseconsists of a subjectfollowedby a predicate. In thesimplest case, thesubject (Subj ) is a nounandthe predicate (Pred) is a verb:
Peoplecomplain. //They left.
More often, thesubjectand/or the predicate consist of more thanonewordwhilestillhaving a nounand verb as theirmost important component:
Allthingschange. //Kim left early. // Somepeoplecomplainedabout it.
“Expressionssuch as allthingsandsomepeopleare callednounphrases - phraseswith a noun as theirhead. The head of a phraseis, roughly, themost important element in thephrase, theonethatdefineswhat sort of phrase it is. The other elements are dependents. Similarly, left earlyandcomplainedabout itare verb phrases, phraseswith a verb as head. Again, earlyandabout itare dependents of the verb.
Traditionalgrammarsanddictionariesdefine a phrase as containing more thanoneword. But it'sactually more convenient todropthisrequirement, andgeneralisethecategory 'nounphrase' sothat it coversthings, Kimandpeoplein [2], as well as allthingsandsomepeoplein [3] . There are lots of placesbesidesthesubjectpositionwherealltheseexpressionscanoccur: compare WeneedclientsandWeneedsomeclientsor Thisisgood for clientsandThisisgood for someclients, andso on.
It wouldbetedioustohaveto talk about 'nouns or nounphrases' in allsuchcases. Sowe prefer tosaythat a nounphrase (henceforth NP) normallyconsists of a nounwith or withoutvariousdependents. (In otherwords, theheadisaccompaniedby ZERO OR MORE dependents.)
It'smuchthe same withothercategories of phrase, e.g., verb phrases. Complainedin [2] , just likecomplainedabout it in [3], canberegarded as a verb phrase(VP). Andthe same general pointwillhold for the rest of thecategorieswe introducebelow: althoughthey C A N contain more, theysometimescontain just a headandnothingelse.” (HuddlestonandPullum 13)
VP read a book the head – i.e. read.
Also in the NP destruction of the city the head is destruction.
As a rule the Head is the only obligatory element in a constituent.
Functionsandcategories
In ourexampleSomepeoplecomplainedabout it wehavesaidthatsomepeopleissubjectandthat it is an NP. These are twoquitedifferentkinds of concept.Subjectis a function, while NP is a category. Functionis a relational concept: whenwesaythatsomepeopleissubjectwe are describingtherelationbetween it andcomplained, or between it andthewholeclause. It isTHE SUBJECT OF THE CLAUSE,
notsimply a subject. A category, by contrast, is a class of expressionswhich are grammaticallyalike. An NP is (settingaside a narrowrange of exceptions) simply a phrasewith a noun as head (it'snotthe NP of anything, it's just an NP). The class of NPsthusincludes an indefinitely large set of expressionslikethefollowing (whereunderliningmarkstheheadnoun): somepeople, allthings, Kim, people(as used in Peoplecomplained), thepeoplenextdoor, thewayhome, andso on. The reasonweneedtodistinguishsocarefullybetweenfunctionsandcategoriesisthatthecorrespondencebetweenthemisoftensubtleand complex. Eventhoughthere are cleartendencies (likethat the subject of a clauseisveryoften an NP), a single functionmaybefilled b y expressionsbelongingtodifferentcategories, and
expressionsbelongingto a single categorymayoccur in differentfunctions. Wecan
seethis in thefollowingexamples :
His guiltwasobvious. // Thathewasguiltywasobvious. (onefunction, differentcategories)
Somecustomerscomplained.// Kim offendedsomecustomers (onecategory, differentfunctions)
(Huddleston and Pullum 14-15)
FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES
A second opposition, which is universally acknowledged, is that between lexical and functional categories. This opposition is in part the same as the structural distinction between open classes (N, V, A etc.) and closed classes (Determiner, Inflection, Complementiseretc) of items. The open classes are defined as classes containing indefinitely many items and which allow conscious coining, borrowing etc. On the other hand, functional categories form a closed set of items which
I D Deg C
0N +N 0N +N
+V -V 0V 0V
-never occur alone,
-have a unique Complement,
-lack descriptive semantic content,
-act as operators placing the Complement in time, in the world,
-are heads of lexical categories.
Inflectional variation
Somewords (lexemes) have more thanonewordform, depending on thegrammatical context or on choicesthatgrammarforcesustomake (for example, in nouns, between singular and plural). Thiskind of word-formationiscalled ‘inflectional’. In so far as grammaraffectsallwordsalike, theexistence of inflectedwordformsdoesnothavetobenoted in
thedictionary; however, thewordformsthemselves must belistedifthey
are irregular. Inflectionaffectsnouns, verbs, adjectivesand a fewadverbs, as well
as some of the functional categories (the closed classes). (Carstairs 42)
Nouns are characterised by the functional categories of case, number, gender, and determination.
Verbs are characterised by the functional categories of tense, aspect, mood, number and person.
Pronouns are characterised by the functional categories of person, number and – some – gender.
Adjectives and adverbs are characterised by the functional category of comparison.
Inherent vs. contextual categories
Several categories overlap, characterising more than one part of speech. However, there are differences between them. For instance:
They are running in the field now.
He is running home now.
They – 3rd person plural – information contained in the lexical meaning of they. Hence – inherent.
Are running vs. is running is contextual information provided by the context in which the verb is used and triggered by the presence of an agreement between the subject and the verb.
Gender for nouns is inherent. E.g. queen.
Case for nouns is contextual (triggered by the type of verb – double transitive as in asksomebody a question or a verb with dative and accusative as in lend money to someone).
Inherent: Number with nouns and pronouns
Person for pronouns
Gender in nouns
Contextual: Number in verbs
Person in verbs
Case in nouns
COURSE BIBLIOGRAPHY (Selections)
Lectures
Avram, L. 2007. TAM. Course.
Baciu, I. 1999. English Morphology. Course.
Drăgan, R. 2005. English Morphology, Course.
Books
Baciu, I. 2004. FunctionalCategories in English. Bucharest University Press
Baciu, I. 1998, English Morphology: Word Formation. Bucharest University Press
Carstairs-McCarthy , A. 2002, An Introductionto English Morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Drăgan, Ruxandra. 2005. English Morphology. București: Credis.
Huddleston, Rodney, Pullum, Geoffrey. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Huddleston, Rodney, Pullum, Geoffrey. 2005. A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar,
Kortman, B., Traugott, E. C. 2006. The Grammar of the English Verb Phrase, vol. 1, Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Cornilescu, A. 1995, Concepts of Modern Grammar. Bucharest University Press
Matthews, P. 1991, Morphology. 2ndedn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stefanescu, I. 1987, Lectures in English Morphology, Bucharest University Press
Stefanescu, I. 1984, English Morphology. Word Structure, Bucharest University Press
Vișan, R., Daria Protopopescu, Nadina Vișan. 2014. New Perspectives on English Grammar. Iași: Institutul European.
Vișan, Nadina, Vișan, Ruxandra. 2013. English for AdvancedLearners – A Text-BasedApproach, Iași: Editura Polirom