Linguistics 105 * Words and Sounds

Lecture Number Seven

Introduction to Morphology

1. The Nature of Morphemes
   1. The Morpheme

      A MORPHEME is the minimal meaningful linguistic sound

      1. A MORPHEME consists of a sound + meaning pairing defined in terms of
         1. the category of the base to which it attaches
         2. the category of the derivative it produces and
         3. whether it is a prefix, suffix, circumfix, infix, etc.
            
            
      2. Lexical versus Grammatical Morphemes. This sometimes parallels the bound/free distinction, but is of linguistic relevance only in some languages. More important is the distinction between LEXEMES and GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES, both of which come in bound and free variants.

         Table 1: Bound and Free Lexemes and Morphemes
         Lexical Morphemes		Grammatical Morphemes
         free	bound	free	bound
         cat	fel-(ine)	of	-'s (mother's)
         tooth	dent-(-al)	are	-'re (we're)
         dog	can-(ine)	not	-n't (have-n't)
         eye	ocul-(ar)	will	'll (I'll)

         
         
         There are four properties which distinguish lexemes from (grammatical) morphemes.

         Table 2: Lexemes and Morphemes
         Lexical Morphemes	Grammatical Morphemes
         1. Lexical categories have meaning	1. Grammatical categories, function
         2. Become inflected and derived	2. Inflectional, derivational markers
         3. Prespecified phonological formant	3. Null & empty variants
         4. Never contract, affix or cliticize	4. Contract, affix, cliticize

         
         

   2. Exercises: Morphological Analysis

   3. Types of Morphemes

   1. Prefixes
      1. Prespecified

         work	re-work
         likely	un-likely
         like	dis-like

      2. Reduplicated

         bili 'buy'	bi-bili 'will buy'
         kuha 'get'	ku-kuha 'will get'
         punta 'go'	pu-punta 'will go'
         sulat 'write'	su-sulat 'will write'
         tawa 'laugh'	ta-tawa 'will laugh'

   2. Suffixes

      work	work-ed
      likely	likeli-ness
      bake	bak-er

   3. Infixes

      Tagalog Infixes
      bili 'buy'	b-um-ili 'to buy'
      kuha 'get'	k-um-uha 'to get'
      sulat 'write'	s-um-ulat 'to write'
      punta 'go'	p-um-unta 'to go'
      tawa 'laugh'	t-um-awa 'to laugh'

   4. Circumfixes

      em-bold-en

      en-light-en

   5. Prosodic morphemes

      rejõct	rõject
      suspõct	sáspect
      survõy	sárvey
      rerán	rõrun

   6. Stem mutation

      strike	struck	struck
      teach	taught	taught
      drive	drove	driven
      ring	rang	rung

   7. Revowelling –– The Semitic Binyans

      Table 3: The Arabic Stem *ktb-
      katab 'write'	perfective active
      kutib 'was written'	perfective passive
      aktub 'is writing'	imperfective active
      uktab 'was being written'	imperfective passive

      Table 4: The Hebrew Stem *gdr-
      Active	Passive
      gadar 'enclosed'	ni-gdar 'was enclosed'
      goder 'encloses'	ni-gdar 'is enclosed'
      yi-gdor 'will enclose'	yi-gader 'will be enclosed'
      gdor 'enclose!'	hi-gader 'be enclosed!'
      li-gdor 'to enclose'	le-hi-gader 'to be enclosed'

   8. Null morphology (Conversion) ––

      frame	to frame
      dry	to dry
      to run	a run

   
   

2. Conclusion
   The morpheme is the minimal meaningful element of language. There are two kinds of these: (a) lexical (the lexeme) and (b) the grammatical morpheme. The former belong to an open class and refer to the real world, always have a prespecified phonological element which never contracts or cliticizes, and undergo lexical derivation and inflection. The latter belong to closed classes and refer to grammatical categories; they need not contain a prespecified phonological element and, if they do, it may contract and cliticize.

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