Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. It examines how words are formed through the combination of morphemes, which are the smallest units of meaning. There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes that can stand alone as words, and bound morphemes that must be attached to other morphemes. Words can be made up of multiple morphemes arranged in a hierarchical structure. Languages have morphological rules for word formation using prefixes, suffixes, and compounding. While morphological rules are productive, there are also exceptions in the form of irregular words.

1. Morphology: The
Words of Language
Ching-Fen Hsu
2013/9/24
Lecture 2
2013/9/24_2013/9/27

2. Introduction
• Words: important part of linguistic knowledge &
constitute components of mental grammars
• Without words we are unable to convey
thoughts through lg or understand others’
thoughts
• Without knowledge of lg, it’s impossible to tell
how many words are in utterances
• Knowing a word = knowing a meaning &
pronunciation in mental lexicon
• Sound-meaning relation is arbitrary, e.g.,
homophone (bear vs. bare; 新/心/欣/馨/薪/辛/
芯), synonyms (sofa vs. couch; 拍手/鼓掌)

3. Mental Lexicon
• Mental dictionary lists unique phonological
representation, including spelling or
orthography, parts of speech (grammatical
categories, syntactic class)
• We can form grammatical S & distinguish
ill-formed S from well-formed S

4. Content Words &
Function Words
• Content words: N (objects: children), V (actions:
build), Adj (attributes: beautiful), Adv (ideas we
think about: seldom)
• Open class words: new words are addable, e.g.,
facebook, blog, online
• Function words: specify grammatical relations &
have little or no semantic content, including
possession (prepositions: in, of), articles (definite:
the, indefinite: a/an), conjunctions (and, or, but),
pronouns (it, them)
• Closed class words: hard to add new words

5. Empirical Evidences
• Brain-damaged patients & SLI have difficulty on
function words (in, which) rather than contents
words (inn, witch)
• Slips of the tongue has been observed on content
words but not function words, e.g., the journal of
the editor => the editor of the journal
• Children omit function words in acquisition, e.g.,
doggie (is) barking
• Content words vs. function words play diff roles
• Content words bear meanings
• Function words connect content words into larger
grammatical context

6. Morphemes
• The minimal units of meaning or the most
elemental unit of grammatical form (morpho-
/morph- means “form”)
• Morphology: study of internal structures of words &
rules by which words are formed (morph- + -ology:
branch of knowledge); refers to internal
grammatical knowledge concerning word forms
• Un- means “not” (see examples on p.37)
• Phon- means “pertaining to sound” (p. 37)
ㄨph- or pho-
• Words have rule-governed internal structures
e.g., uneaten *eatenun “not eaten”
• Un- must be prefixed, not suffixed, as im-

7. Formation of Words
• A single word may be composed of one or more
morphemes (see p. 38)
• A morpheme could be a single sound, atypical;
a single syllable, childish; two syllables, lady;
three syllables, crocodile; four syllables,
helicopter
• Morpheme: arbitrary union of sound & meaning
• Morpheme: cannot be analyzed into smaller
unit
• Linguistic sign: sound vs. meaning

8. Discreteness of Morphemes
• Monomorphemic words: words represent a single
morpheme, finger (ㄨ fing + er)
• Meaning of morphemes are constant
• Identical form represents two morphemes (same
form & diff meanings): singer, painter, worker, taller,
nicer, prettier
• Two morphemes have same meaning but diff
forms: singer, songster, youngster (monster!)
• Discreteness: decomposition of words into
morphemes; fundamental properties of human lg;
sounds=>morphemes=>words=>phrases=>S; diff
from animal communication; important part of
linguistic creativity, writable, (un)rewritable

9. Bound & Free Morphemes
• Morphological knowledge = knowledge of
individual morphemes + knowledge of rules
to combine them
• Free morpheme: morphemes that can stand
alone, boy, desire, gentle, man
• Bound morpheme: morphemes attached to a
base morpheme, -ish, -ness, -ly, pre-, un-,
trans-
• Affixes: bound morphemes attach at the
beginning, the end, in the middle, or both
beginning & end

10. Prefixes & Suffixes
• Prefix: affixes precede other morphemes, un-,
pre-, bi-
• Suffix: affixes follow other morphemes, -er, -ist,
-ing, -ly
• Languages differ in how they deploy affixation,
e.g., English plural form: -s, -es (suffix); Isthmus
Zapotec in Maxico: ka- (prefix) (p. 40)
• Languages differ in what meanings they
express through affixation, e.g., verb-to-noun in
English (dance); suffix –ak in Turkish (p. 40);
each other in English, -sh in Turkish (p. 40)p.41

11. Infixes & Circumfixes
• Infixes: morphemes insert into other
morphemes, e.g., Bontoc in Philippines, -um
inserted after 1st consonant (p. 41)
• Circumfixes (discontinuous morphemes):
morphemes are attached to a base morpheme
initially & finally, e.g., Chickasaw in Oklahoma,
ik- + -o to indicate a negative morpheme (p. 42);
German, ge- + -t to mean past participle of
verbs, lieb ‘love’ => geliebt ‘loved’ or ‘beloved’

12. Roots & Stems
• Morphological complex words = root + affix(es)
• Root: may or may not stand alone as a word,
(1) painter, reread, conceive, linguist
(2) the form around which circumfix attaches,
ikchokmo
(3) the form into which infix is inserted, fumikas ‘to
be strong’
• Hebrew & Arabic vary patterns of vowels &
syllables on nouns & verbs, e.g., infixing vowels in
ktb ‘write’ (p. 42)
• Stem = root + affix (p. 42)
• Base = any root or stem to which an affix is
attached, system, systematic, unsystematic,
unsystematical vs. unsystematically

13. Bound Roots
• Do not occur in isolation
• Acquire meaning only in combination with other
morphemes, receive, perceive, deceive, conceive;
permit, submit, admit, transmit
• For English speakers, Latinate morphemes have
no independent meaning
• Their meaning depends on entire words in which
they occur
• Prefix + bound root morpheme: nonplussed,
discern
• Bound morphemes convey meaning only in
combination, huckleberry (small, round, purplish
blue), lukewarm (somewhat)

14. Rules of Word Formation
• Pure + ify = purify
• Simple + ify = simplify
• False + ify = falsify
• Adjective + ify = Verb
‘to make adjective”
• Purify + cation = purification
• Simplify + cation = simplification
• Falsify + cation = falsification
• Verb +cation = Noun
‘the process of making adjective”
• How about ugly?
• Ugly + ify = uglify?
• Uglify + cation =
uglification?
• Morphological rules
of English in
combining words

15. Exercise 4: P. 67
Write the one proper description
from the list under B for the
italicized part of each world in A

16. Derivational Morphology
• When bound morphemes are attached to a base, a
new word with a new meaning is derived
e.g., pure + ify = purify ‘to make pure’
purify + cation = purification ‘the process of making
pure’
• In mental lexicon, derivational morphemes & rules
determine how we add to roots or stems
• Derived words: forms resulted from addition of
derivational morphemes, pouzy + ify = pouzify +
cation = pouzification (static electricity on hair)
• Derivational morphemes have clear semantic
contents & may result in different grammatical
classes

17. Derivational Affixes
• Desire + able = desirable (V to A)
• Dark + en = darken (A to V)
• Sweet + ie = sweetie (A to N) (p. 45)
• Application of morphological rules may be blocked
when a new word enters lexicon, e.g., communist
ㄨcommuian (grammarian) or communite
(Trotskyite); Chomskyan, Chomskyist, Chomskyite
(followers of Chomsky’s views of linguistics);
semanticist, semanticianㄨsemantite
• Two classes of derivational affixes: (1) trigger
sound change in pronunciation (-ity, -ive, -ize), (2)
without affecting pronunciation (-ness, -er) p. 46

18. Inflectional Morphology
• Bound morphemes for grammatical function,
e.g., tense, person, number
• Never change grammatical category of stems to
which they are attached, e.g., sail, sails, sailed,
has sailed (require syntactic rules), is sailing
• Inflectional morphemes does not add lexical
meaning; closely connected to syntax &
semantics of S
• Eight bound inflectional affixes in Modern
English (p. 47)
• Derivational morpheme + inflectional
morpheme, commit + ment + s

19. Inflectional Morphemes
• Apply freely to every appropriate base, very
productive, plural –s (unlike derivational
morphemes, idolize *picturize
• English has relatively little inflectional
morphology vs. Swahili in eastern Africa,
European lgs, Romans lgs from Latin (p. 47)
• Case morphology: grammatical relation of
nouns (case of nouns), Russian has rich
system of inflectional suffixes for grammatical
relations of nouns (p. 48)

20. Rich Inflectional
Processes
• German circumfixes: geliebt, ‘loved’ ‘beloved’
• Arabic infixes: kitáab ‘book’, kútub ‘books’
• Samoan reduplication: savali ‘he travels’,
savavali, ‘they travel’
• Malay reduplication: orang, ‘person’,
orangorang ‘people’
• Finnish have extraordinarily complex case
morphology; Chinese lack it entirely
• Distinctions bet inflectional vs. derivational(p.48)

21. Exercise 2: P. 66
Divide the following words by
placing a + between their
morphemes

22. Hierarchical Structure
of Words• Morphemes added in fixed orders reflect
hierarchical organization of words
• Hierarchical structure is essential property of
human lg
• Words & Ss relate to each other in specific & rule-
governed ways
• Words have internal structures but not simple
sequences
• Representations in tree diagrams, e.g.,
unsystematic (p. 49) + morphological rules
• -atic is closer than un- to system,ㄨunsystem

23. Morphological Rules
• Adjective + al = adjective (p. 50)
egotistical + al = egotistical
fantastical + al = fantastical
astronomic + astronomical
• Adjective + ly = adverb
happy + ly = happily
lazy + ly = lazily
hopeful + ly = hopefully
unsystematically (p. 50)
• Un- + noun = adjective (p . 51)
unemployment, unacceptance, *uncola!
• Part of linguistic
competence
includes ability to
recognize possible
vs. impossible words

24. Tree Diagrams
• Make explicit way that speakers represent
internal structure of morphologically complex
words in lgs
• Tree diagrams show that mental representation
of words is hierarchical & linear
• Inflectional morphemes are equally well
represented, refinalizes (p. 51)
• Ambiguous words show two clear hierarchical
structures based on meanings, unlockable (p.
51, 52), i.e., structure is important to
determining meaning

25. Rule Productivity I
• Some morphological rules are productive, e.g.,
verb + able = ‘able to be’, acceptable, laughable,
passable, changeable, breathable, adaptable,
downloadable, faxable
• Un- derives opposite meaning, unafraid, unfit, un-
American
• un-Rule is productive for adjectives derived from
verbs, unbelievable, unpickupable, unsimplified,
unauthorized, undistinguished
• Most un- words have polysyllabic bases, unfit,
uncool, unread, unclean, unhappy, uncrowdly;
most unacceptable un-forms are monosyllabic
stems, *unsad, *ungreat, *unred

26. Rule Productivity II
• Verb + -er = ‘one who does’, examiner, analyzer,
hunter; comparative –er ‘more’, greedier, nicer,
prettier, more beautiful
• Other productivity rules: sincere + ity = sincerity,
curious + ity = curiosity; warm + th = warmth,
wide + th = width; moist + en = moisten, ripe +
en = ripen
• Meanings can be predicted by attached prefixes,
unhappy ‘not happy’, acceptable ‘fit to be
accepted’; some are unpredictable (p. 53)
• Unpredictable words are listed individually in
the mental lexicon

27. Exceptions & Suppletions
• Children learn regular rules first, plural rule, past
tense rule
• Irregular rules (suppletions) are learned later, child
(children), man (men), foot (feet), mouse (mice),
go (went), sing (sang), bring (brought), run (run),
know (knew)
• Children’s speech errors in acquisition evidenced
existence of regular rules, goed, mans
• Suppletive forms are treated separately in
grammar, went, worse
• Regular forms + rules are listed in mental lexicon,
walked, taller

28. Zero Phonological Shape
• Hit + past tense = hit, Yesterday you hit the ball
• Sheep + plural form = sheep, The sheep are in the
meadow
• Derived verbs from nouns apply regular rules, ring
(encircle), The police ringed the bank with armed
menㄨrang; flied out (from fly ball),ㄨflew out
• Nouns lose meanings in compounds, flatfoot ‘cop’,
flatfoots,ㄨflatfeet
• Mothers-in-law, mother-in-law’s; courts-martial,
attorneys-general (legal setting)/ attorney-generals
(popular call); rightmost acts, footman, footmen,
ㄨfeetman, feetmen, footmans

29. Lexical Gaps
• Accidental caps = well-formed non-existing
words
• Words are not presented but could be added in
lexicon with permissible sound sequence, *blick,
*slarm, *krobe
• Phonotactic constraints should be considered,
*bnick for impossible English initials
• Mental grammar with morphological
components make us create & understand new
words & recognize possible & impossible words,
*magnificenter, more magnificent; *disobvious,
nonobvious

30. Back-Formations
• New words enter lg because of incorrect
morphological analyses, peddler => peddle
(p.56)
• Delibrately miscast back-formations, bikini (two)
from Marshall islands => monokini (one,
topless), tankini (tank top); martini (wine) =>
appletini, chocotini, mintini; action => act,
revision = > revise, television => televise,
resurrection => resurrect
• Lgs can be adaptable & changeable but not
corrupted

31. Compounds
• Flexible combinations in English (p. 57)
• When two words in same grammatical category,
compound will be in this category
noun + noun = noun, boyfriend, mailman
adj. + adj. = adj., icy-cold, red-hot, wordly-wise
• Compound head: the part of a word or phrase that
determines grammatical category of compounds
noun + adj. = adj., headstrong
verb + noun = noun, pickpocket
• Prepositions can be in compounds, overtake, sundown
• No compounding limit, four-dimensional space-time
(p.58)
• Compounds have internal structures, tophatrack (p. 58)

32. Meaning of Compounds
• Is not always sum of its parts, blackboard (green?
white?), Redcoat (English soldiers? red coat)
• Jumping beans, falling star, magnifying glass, but
how about looking glass? eating apple?
• Peanut oil, olive oil, how about baby oil?
• Horse meat (meat from horses), dog meat (meat
for dogs)
• Opaque compounds are unrelated to meanings of
parts, jack-in-a-box, turncoat, highbrow, bigwig,
egghead, flatfoot
• Stressed the first syllables of compounds

33. Universality of
Compounding
• Common & frequent process enlarging
vocabulary of all lgs, French, German, Russian,
Spanish, Native American lg Tohono, Twi (p.
59), Thai (p. 60)
• Pullet Surprises? Pulitzer Prizes?
• Errors reveal knowledge of morphology
longevity, ‘being very tall’
homogeneous, ‘devoted to home life’

34. Exercise 3: P. 67
Match each expression under
A with the one statement
under B that characterizes it

35. Morphological Analysis
• Case study 1: English (p. 61)
• Case study 2: Paku (p. 62)
• Case study 3: Michoacan Aztec (p. 63)
• Case study 4: Slavic examples (p. 63)

36. Exercise 5: P. 67
Part One + Part Two

37. Question?

38. Homework
Hand-in next week