Chapter ThreeMorphology and Lexicon

A word is deadWhen it is said,Some say.I say it just Begins to liveThat day.Emily Dickinson, A Word

一句话的死亡艾米利 · 狄更生

有人说，一句话说完，它就死亡。

我说，就在那天，

它的生命刚刚开端。

What is LexiconWhat is Lexicon

• LEXICONLEXICON is a puzzling term and the beginner may find it hard to approach. What is lexicon? If we use the more familiar term “vocabularyvocabulary” to replace it, the puzzlement will disappear. In this sense, lexiconlexicon is the collectioncollection of all the wordswords of a language. Words are the focus of the study of lexicon, so the emphasis of this chapter naturally falls upon words ,i.e. ,the analysis and creation of words

What is Word?

• You may wonder whether this question is worth answering ,because everyone of us can identify word without much effort due to our everyday language experience and our language intuition.

• Words, like bricks used in building houses, are ready-made units for building sentences.

• Word is a basic and meaningful sentence component that speakers recognize as the smallest speech units admitting between them a momentary pause in normal speech and a space in written texts.

•词是句子中有意义的基本单位，说话者把词看成语句中的最小单位，在说话时，单位之间可以略有停顿，书写时，单位之间有间隔。

• A matter of sth

Single –word-sentence

• A:who came yesterday?• B:John

• What is the color of your bag?• B:Red.

• A:What are you going to do this afternoon?• B:Swim.

• Sentences are made up with different classes of words which are stored in a speaker’s mental dictionary or lexicon, they are the fundamental building blocks of language. These basic words can construct countless other words by the application of general rules of word constitution. Once formed, words receive their own entry in a speaker’s mental lexicon.

Sentences

words

Internal structure

Smaller units Derivation-affixation

compound……..

Morphological rules

morpheme

Organized in a particular way

The ways words are combined

Inflection+word formation

• Linguists define the word as the smallest free formfree form in language. The plural marking –s–s is not a free form (and therefore not a word) since it never occurs in isolation and cannot be separated from the noun to which it belongs to.

• The difference between free & bound morpheme.

• Free morpheme: a word itself is called a free morpheme.

• 1)does not have to occur in a fixed position

• 2) appear in isolation and can be used on its own;

• Bound morpheme:• 1)must be attached to another

morpheme.

Word is meaningfulWord is meaningful

• Word is made up of sounds and letters. But word is totally different from sounds or letters. Word is meaningful whereas sounds or letters are meaningless.

• aa is meaningful that it can be used to mean indefiniteness when modifying nouns. The letter “a” is, however, meaningless, which can be used as an element in building words.

Word is a Grammatical Unit

• This can be understood in two ways. First of all, word in itself possesses some grammatical features.

• taketake is transitive verb.• bookbook is a countable noun.

• Then word is the basic structural unit of language. It can enter a sentence and possess a structural position in the sentence;

• He is an engineer.• HeHe is not merely a pronoun, it is also

the subject of the sentence.

Word is relatively Stable Word is relatively Stable and Uninterruptibleand Uninterruptible

• Compared with other linguistic units such as phrase, clause ,and sentence, Word is the most stable linguistic unit, in respect of its internal structure ,that is ,the constituent parts of a complex word have little potentiallittle potential for rearrangementrearrangement.

• ChairmanChairman • if the two components chairchair and manman

are rearranged as manchair﹡manchair﹡ , it is an unacceptable word in English.

Counterexamples

• dorm=to sleep• 来源于拉丁文 dormire, “to sleep” 。如

dormitory 睡觉的地方→宿舍。• BrE: a large room for several people

to sleep in, for example in a boarding school or hostel

• AmE: a large building at a college or university where students live [= hall of residence BrE]

• Dormitory 一词常被简写为 dorm; if you rearrange the word dormitory, what will happen?

• You can spell the word !• This kind of word game is called

ANAGRAM.• a word or phrase that is made by

changing the order of the letters in another word or phrase.

dirty room

• Silent =

• Eleven plus two=

• Mother-in-law=• • God=

• Ate=

Listen

twelve plus one

woman Hilter

Dog

eat

• By UNINTERPRETIBLIITY, we mean new elements are not inserted into a word even when there several parts in a word.

• Dis-appoint-mentDis-appoint-ment• Nothing is to be inserted in between

the three parts.

• In contrast, one could add JaneJane in the coordinating subject of the following sentence.

• Paul, (JaneJane) and Rebecca are my classmates.

• ((EvenEven)) Paul (eveneven) didn’t (eveneven) love (eveneven ) Jane.

Classification of words

• Variable and invariable words ( 可变词和不变词 )• Grammatical and lexical words ( 语法词和词汇词 )• Closed-class words and open class

words ( 封闭类词和开放类词 )• Word class ( 词类 )

Variable and invariable words

• VariableVariable words have inflective inflective endingsendings ,i.e. part of the word remains remains constantconstant while the other part changeschanges regularly to fulfill different grammatical grammatical functionsfunctions.

• 可变词有形态变化，即词的一部分保持不变，另一部分有规则地变化以实现不同的语法功能

• Invariable words don’t have inflectional endings such as since since ,, when when and hello hello .

• lexeme=base(root) +inflectional endingsswims swimming swam

• Follow matFollow mat• FollowFollowss mat matss• FollowFollowinging• FollowFolloweded• The samesame word may have different different

grammaticalgrammatical forms but partpart of the word remains relatively constantrelatively constant.

English inflectional English inflectional affiixesaffiixes

AffixesAffixes Grammatical functionsGrammatical functions ExamplesExamples

-s-s Third person singular present Third person singular present tense markertense marker

Tom talksTom talks

-s-s Plural number markerPlural number marker The chairs are hisThe chairs are his

-’s-’s Possessive case markerPossessive case marker John’s friend came John’s friend came herehere

-ed-ed Past tense markerPast tense marker Tom talkedTom talked

-ed/--ed/-enen

Past participle marker/perfect Past participle marker/perfect aspectaspect

Tom has talked/It Tom has talked/It was stolenwas stolen

-ing-ing Present participle Present participle marker/progressive aspectmarker/progressive aspect

Tom is talking.Tom is talking.

-er-er Comparative degree markerComparative degree marker He is thinner than He is thinner than Tom.Tom.

-est-est Superlative degree markerSuperlative degree marker Tom is the tallest in Tom is the tallest in his classhis class

Grammatical word and lexical words

• Those expressing grammatical grammatical meaningsmeanings ,like conjunctionsconjunctions, propositionspropositions and pronounspronouns are grammatical words-function words ( 功能词 ).

• Those having lexical meaninglexical meaning is referring to the substancesubstance, actionaction and qualityquality, like nounsnouns, verbsverbs and adverbsadverbs are lexical words-content words （实义词） .

Closed-class words and open class words

• The closed-class is one whose membership is fixedfixed or limitedlimited such as pronounspronouns, propositionspropositions and conjunctionsconjunctions, articlesarticles, etc.(few new words are added)

• The open-class is one whose memberships is in principle infiniteinfinite or unlimitedunlimited, such as nounsnouns, verbsverbs ,adjectivesadjectives and many verbs verbs which make up the largest part of the vocabulary.(new words can be added)

• He-masculine• She-feminine• Feminist movement • Neither masculine or feminine-----

neutral E• They/their better candidate

• Apple fan Apple fan 苹果派苹果派• Empty nesterEmpty nester• Flash marriageFlash marriage• Interview expert Interview expert 面霸面霸• Kuso Kuso 恶搞恶搞• IndoorsyIndoorsy• Surprisepackage Surprisepackage 闷骚闷骚• Schoolbeau Schoolbeau 校草校草• Textspeak Textspeak 火星文火星文

• Yummy mummyYummy mummy 辣妈辣妈• 3S girl 3S girl 大龄未婚女青年 大龄未婚女青年 single single

seventies stuckseventies stuck• To air kissTo air kiss• B2T (business to team)B2T (business to team)• Blind date Blind date • Bubble tea pearl teaBubble tea pearl tea• Rush for sofaRush for sofa

Word class

• Word-class: Besides the traditional noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, proposition, conjunction, interjection （语气词） and article (parts of speechparts of speech) 词类 , particles （小品词） , auxiliaries, proform （代词形式） and determiners （限定词） can be added.

• Particles includes at least the infinitive infinitive markermarker “toto”(even though it has the same spelling form as the preposition “to”, it really has nothing in common with to or any other word class); the negative negative marker marker “notnot” and the subordinatesubordinate unitsunits in phrasal verbsphrasal verbs.

• Get byby, do upup and look backback: 过活，包好，追忆

Particles

Auxiliaries

• AUXILIARIES used to be regarded as verbs. Linguists today tend to define them as a separate word class rather than verbs, owing to their unique properties.

• Comparing the behavior of auxiliaries with that of ordinary verbs in the following examples:

• NEGATION I can’tcan’t come ﹡ I wantn’twantn’t come• INVERSION Is heIs he coming? ﹡Keeps heKeeps he coming? • CODE I’ll come and so willwill he. ﹡I intend to come and so I intend to come and so

intends Billintends Bill.• EMPHASIS He hashas come ﹡He seemsseems to come.

Proforms

• In traditional grammar, pronoun is the only word class which can function as a substitute for another item. To be more exact, it refers to the closed sets of items which can be used to substitute for a nominal group or a single noun. In fact, the following items are either labeled as pronoun or totally neglected.

• Pro-adjectivePro-adjective Your pen is red. SoSo is mine.• Pro-verb Pro-verb He knows English better then he diddid.• Pro-adverb Pro-adverb He hopes he’ll win and I hope soso too.• Pro-locative Pro-locative Jame’s hiding therethere, behind the door.

• In order to refer collectively to the items in a sentence which substitute for other items or constructions, some linguistics have advised to regard POR-FORMPOR-FORM as a separate word class.

Determiners

• This is a new word class popularly recognized both in British English and American English. It refers to those words which are used before before the nounthe noun (including its pre-modifiers like adjectives) acting as head of a nominal group, and which determine the kinddetermine the kind of referencereference the nominal groupnominal group has:

• For example ,whether it is definitedefinite (like thethe) or indefinite indefinite (like a a (n) (n) ),partitivepartitive (like somesome) or universaluniversal (like allall)

• According to Quirk, et al(1985:253) ,there are three sub-classes of DETERMINERS:

• pre-determinerspre-determiners• central determinescentral determines• and post-determinersand post-determiners

• Pre-determiners include all all ,both both ,half half double double ,twice twice ,three timesthree times, one-thirdone-third, one-fifth one-fifth and the like.

• The most common and typical central determiners are the definitedefinite and indefinite articles indefinite articles .Others are thisthis, that that ,thesethese, those those ,every every ,each each ,some some ,any any ,nono, otherother, neither neither ,my my ,our our ,hishis, her her ,its its and their their etc..

• Post-determiners include cardinal cardinal numeralsnumerals, ordinal numeralsordinal numerals, general general ordinalsordinals like nextnext, lastlast ,pastpast, (an) (an) otherother , additionaladditional ;

• Other quantifiers like manymany, (a) few(a) few, severalseveral, muchmuch, littlelittle, aa lot of lot of ,plenty plenty ofof, aa great deal ofgreat deal of ,etc.

• 1)When different determiners occur together, they follow the order of

pre- + central + post-pre- + central + post-• 2)Within each sub-class, the members are usually

exclusiveexclusive of each other.• 3)Both ordinalordinal numeralsnumerals and general ordinalgeneral ordinal may

occur before cardinal numerals before cardinal numerals.

• Thus we do not find the following expressions:

• ﹡ their all their all trouble trouble √ allall their trouble their trouble 1) 1)

• ﹡ five the all five the all boys boys √ all the five boys all the five boys 1)1)• ﹡ the this the this boy boy 2)2)• ﹡ all both all both girls girls 2)2)• √ in the first two daysin the first two days• √ another two daysanother two days

Morpheme and morphology

• As we have mentioned above, word is meaningful. However, word is by no means the smallest meaningful unit.

• In words like unjust and books ,both un- and -s are meaningful .But they are not free, that is ,they cannot be used independently.

• In linguistics, the minimal unit of meaning is called MORPHEMEMORPHEME. It is the smallest smallest unitunit in terms of the relationship between expressionexpression and contentcontent, a unit which can not be dividednot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the meaning ,whether it is lexical or grammatical.

• 语素是最小的语言单位，不能进一步分成更小的单位而不破坏或彻底改变词汇意义或语法意义。

• So un- and -s are both morphemes ,because both of them are meaningful and not further dividable without destroying their meanings .The same is true with words just and book .

• What then is the relationship between word and morpheme?

• Well a worda word maymay consist of one one morphememorpheme or more thanmore than one morpheme, while a morphemea morpheme may may not necessarilynot necessarily represent a worda word.

Ex.4-4

• 1-Morpheme un-,-ish,-s,-ed • 1-Morpheme word boy, desire, get, boy• 2-Morpheme word boy+ish, desir(e) +able• 3-Morpheme word boy+ish+ness, desir(e)

+abl(e)+ity• 4-Morpheme

gentle+man+li+ness,un+desir(e) +abl(e)+ity• 5-Morpheme un+gentle+man+li+ness• Over-5-morpheme word(7)

anti+dis+establish+ment+ari+an+ism• 反对教会与国家分开学说

• Morphology studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed including inflection and word formation.

• The systematic studysystematic study of a morphememorpheme is a branch of linguistics called MOROHOLOGYMOROHOLOGY.

Dorm=to sleep

• dormancy ：睡眠冬眠• dormant ：潜伏的冬眠的• dormient ：睡眠的• dormition ：濒死睡眠• dormitive: 安眠药• Dormouse: 冬眠鼠，睡鼠

Cent=hundred(centum)

• Century :a period of 100 years• Centenary （ BrE ） :the day or year exactly

100 years after a particular event( 百年纪念的 )=centenial （ AmE ）

• cente’narian:someone who is 100 years old or older.

• centigrade: 分为百度的• centimeter ：厘米（一米的百分之一） a unit

for measuring length. There are 100 centimetres in one metre

• centipede ： a small creature like a worm with a lot of very small legs

• centi+ pede (ped=foot; 百足虫 )• percent (per= 每一百 )• percentage

Nov=newvalve/volut=to roll 滚卷

son=sound

legend→lenovo Le-novo

legend+new:创新的联想 Volvo:我在旋转

Sony sonus+sonny小家伙小宝贝

Panasonicpana-全，整个+sonic：所有的

声音

• 来源于希腊文“ morphe” , “shape”• Morphing ： a computer method

that is used to make one image gradually change into a different one. （变形术）

• 好莱坞流行的电影数字特效手法。可以使一种物体连续变化成另一种物体形状 , 是一张脸渐渐变成另外一张脸。

Morph=form形状形态

• morphology: 形态学• geomorphic: 似地球的（ geo= 地）• amorphous ：无定形无组织的。（ a- 无 +morph+ous→ 无形状的→不定型的）• morph: （动植物的）变种变体• heteromorphic: 异形的变形的（ hetero=different

）• isomorphic: 同型的（ iso-=equal ）• metamorphosis : 蜕变形态改变meta-(change)+morpho (form)+-sis(condition)• Polymorphic: 多态的（ poly-=many ）

Types of morphemes

• Morphemes can be subclassified into different types, depending on what criteria we attempt to follow.

Free& Bound Morphemes

• A morpheme which can be a wordword by itself is called a free morphemefree morpheme, whereas a morpheme that must be attachedattached to another one is a bound bound morphememorpheme.

• Dog, nation close -freeDog, nation close -free• Paymaster ,moonwalk, babysit, Paymaster ,moonwalk, babysit,

godfather and sunflower -compound godfather and sunflower -compound

• All monomonomorphemic words are free free morphemes. And polypolymorphemic words ,which consist wholly of free morphemes, are COMPOUNDCOMPOUNDs.

• Bound morphemes cannot occur alone. They must appear with at least another morpheme.

• The word distempered distempered has three morphemes,namely,dis-dis-,tempertemper,and –ed–ed,of which tempertemper is a free morpheme,dis-dis- and –ed–ed are two bound morphemes.

• In Chinese , 老老 in 老板，老虎，老师，老婆，老百姓， and 子子 in 包子 , 杯子 ,面子 are both bound morphemes.

• In English, most morphemes have only one realizing form-morph( 语素形式 ).

• For example ， the form [dog] is the only morph of the morpheme{dog}.

• But there are cases in which a morpheme has a number of variants known as allomorphs.

• In order to make this clearer, we may draw an analogy with the phonemic analysis in phonology. Parallel to “phonemes” in phonology, we have “morphemes in morphology.”

• While allophones are the actual realization of the abstract phonemes, allomorphs are the actual realization of the abstract morphemes.

• An allomorph is said to be phonologically conditioned when its form is dependent on the neighboring phonemes .

• An allomorph is said to be lexically conditioned when its form is arbitrary part of another vocabulary item.

• Many linguists used the curly brackets “ { } ” to represents morphemes, ‘=’ to signify the realization and “~” to symbolized the alternation of the allomorphs.

• in-justice• im-perfect• in-efficient• im-penetrable• in-firm• im-possible

• As a result of assimilation, the negative morpheme in imperfect and impossible is “im-” rather than “in- ”.

• The negative morpheme is realized as in- or im- in the two sets respectively. The reason is very simple, because the change of /n/(an alveolar nasal ) to /m/ (a bilabial nasal) due to /p/ after it.

• hope look• wash dance• love tease• peel fear• visit load• board want

Phonetically conditioned

• The regular allomorphs of past tense in English:-d;-t;-id

• Obviously, the three forms appear in different environments:

• 1)/t/ always appears after voiceless consonants except /t/;

• 2)/d/ appears after vowels and voiced consonants except /d/

• 3)and /id/ only appears after two consonants:/t/ and/d/;

Allomorphs(shapes/phonetic form)

• Morphemes may have different forms. The morpheme used to express indefiniteness in English has two forms:

• aa before a word that begins with consonantconsonant and anan before a word that begins with a vowelvowel..

• An orange /hour/ interesting book• A building/ European/ university

• Some morphemes have a single form in all contexts. But in other cases, morphemes may have alternate shapes or phonetic forms. Those morphsmorphs ( 语素形式 ) that that represent represent thethe same morpheme same morpheme are are called called thethe allomorphs allomorphs of theof the same same morphememorpheme.

allomorphs

• An ALLOMORPHALLOMORPH is a morphologicalmorphological variantvariant of morphememorpheme and the relation between allomorphallomorph and morphememorpheme is a matter of realizationrealization.

•语素包括若干语素形式（ morph ）。语素形式是语言中语素的具体实现形式。换言之，语素在使用的过程中可以转化成音素实体（ phonetic substance ）和文字实体(orthographical substance) 形成可感知的语素形式。

• As is shown in the plural forms chips, beds , chips, beds , buses, mice, oxen, teeth, sheepbuses, mice, oxen, teeth, sheep, the plural morpheme can be expressed in the form of –s/ -es/ -i/ -en /-ee/ zero as well as by //,//, //, // ,// ,// and/Ø/ .

• Thus the morpheme{plural} in English can be realized by different allomorphs:

• {plural}= [-s]~[-z]~[-iz]~[-ai]~[-en] ~ [i:] ~ [u:] ~ [Ø]~…….

• As for the relationship among morpheme, morph and allomorph, see the following diagram:

•如果语素 {X}{X} 可以转换成一个以上的音素实体 [X1][X1] 、 [X2][X2] … 或一个以上的文字实体 X1 、 X2 … ，则 [X1][X1] 、 [X2][X2] … 或X1 、 X2 … 就分别是语素 {X}{X} 的语素变体（ allomorph).

• 语素变体指的是同一语素在不同的语音环境或不同的语言单位组合中所得到的不同的语音状态或书写形式。

-s -es -i -en -ee zero

// // / /e/ // /Ø/

{plural}

morpheme

-orthographic morphs

-phonologic morphs

allomorphs

• Chips/beds/buses: The allomorphs [-s],[-z],and [-iz] are phonologically conditioned.

• They are in complementary distribution because/-z/ only occurs after voiced phonemes as in dogs, lambs, bees;/-s/ only occurs after voiceless phonemes as in cats, caps, laughs; /-iz/ only occurs after sibilants as in buses, dishes, churches, buzzes, mirages and judges.

• Sibilants are English hissing and hushing sounds like the English consonants [ ][ ][ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ].

• The other plurals such as oxen, sheep and geese are lexically conditioned. they do not follow any specific rule and has to be learnt separately.

• Still they can be viewed as two morphemes, a root and an allomorph of {a plural}.

• Oxen is formed by ox plus /-n/;sheep is formed by sheep plus a zero/Ø/;geese is formed not by adding but by adding and removing something simultaneously in a replacement. The /u:/ in the stem goose /gu:s/ is removed and /i:/ is added as a replacive.

• Morphemes are said in complementary distribution if one occurs in a certain set of contexts, say, suffixed to the end of certain set of words, while the other occurs in a set contexts not overlapping with these

• 如果一个语素出现在某种环境下，例如做后缀放在某些词末尾，而另一个语素出现在另一个语境下，两种环境互不重叠，那么就可以说这两个语素呈互补分布。

• There are threethree features of the allomorphs of one morpheme

• 1) All the allomorphs should have the common meaningcommon meaning; (the plural morpheme)

• 2) All the allomorphs should be in complementary distributioncomplementary distribution; (the plural form{-n} only occurs within the limited number of words: ox)

• 3)Allomorphs which share the share the common meaning common meaning should occur in in parallel formationparallel formation.

• Ox/oks/ oxen/’oksn/• Cow/kau/ cows/kauz/• This suggests that /n/ and /z/ have

the same functional place in the grammatical structure of the language.

语素变体主要有三个特征：1.所有的语素变体都应该有共同的意义共同的意义；2.所有的语素变体的分布应该是互补互补的；3.具有共同意义的语素变体应该出现在平在平

行的队伍中行的队伍中。

Root （词根） ,Affixes （词缀） , Stem（词干） -analyzing word structures

• Poly-morphemic words other than compounds may be divided into roots and affixes.

• A ROOT is the base formbase form of a word that cannot be further analyzednot be further analyzed without total loss of identity. All words contain a root morpheme ,which may be a free morpheme or a bound morpheme.

• 词根是单词的基础无法再分成更小的单位

A ROOT

AN AFFIX

• An AFFIXAFFIX is an collective termcollective term for the type of formative that can be used only when addedadded to another morpheme (the root or the stem). Affixes can be generally divided into three subtypes, namely, prefixprefix, suffixsuffix and infix.infix.

• 词缀是附着于词根和词干的成分，包括前缀、后缀、和中缀。

• All the affixes are bound morphemes.

A STEM

• A STEM is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional inflectional affix can be added. It can be equivalent to a root ,or a root and derivational affix.

• 词干是能加屈折词缀的语素（组合），它相当于词根或词根派生词缀。

• StemStem=(rootroot) / (root root + derivational affixderivational affix)

• (friendfriend) ← s s

• (StemStem)= = (root root ) ← IAIA

• (friend friend + shipship) ← s s

• (StemStem) = = (root root + DA DA ) ← IAIA

• boyboy+ishish

• Stem is the partpart of a worda word to which an inflectional affixinflectional affix is or can be addedadded.

• For example, in English the inflectional affix –ss can be added to the stem workwork to form the plural workworkss in the works of Shakespeare.

• The stem of a word may be :• 1). a simple stem consisting of only

one morphemeone morpheme or rootroot e.g. work• 2). a rootroot plusplus a derivational affixderivational affix e.g. work+erer=worker• 3). twotwo or more roots more roots

e.ge.g. workwork + shopshop =workshopworkshop

Root,stem,base

• A rootroot is the basic part of a word that cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity. In other words, a “root” is that part of the word left when all the affixes are all the affixes are removedremoved.

• Inter-nation-al-ism

• Different from the term “rootroot”, both the terms “basebase” and “stemstem” are used to talk about such a form to which an affix can be attached. If we are going to attach a derivationalderivational affixaffix, we will call the form a basebase. But if we are going to attach an inflectional inflectional affixaffix, we call the form a stemstem.

• agragree ee + ment

• DisDisagree agree +ment

• OpOpen en + ed

• ReReopen open + ed

• FriFriend end + s

• FriFriendendship ship + s

• EaEat t + ing

• EaEat t + able

• agreement agreement

• disagreementdisagreement• openedopened• reopenedreopened• friendsfriends• friendshipsfriendships• eatingeating• eatableeatable

Lexeme sememe

• Different forms of the same words, for example, work, works, working,workedwork, works, working,worked, will count as distinct words.

• To solve this problem, the term “lexeme” is used to indicate the dictionary entry or “vocabulary word” “work”, which is viewed as realised by its base form workwork and its inflectional forms work, works, working, work, works, working, workedworked.

• In English a lexeme may only have one form but may have up to five forms.

Lexeme Word FormBase form

Inflectional forms

swim swim swims swimming swam swum

tree tree treesbig big bigger biggest

early early Earlier earliestyes yes yes

Sememe• SEMEME is the smallest component of

meaning.• i: One morpheme vs.one sememe• ii: One morpheme vs.more than one sememe• iii: One sememe vs. more than one morpheme• iiii: morphemes that have no specific sememe• V: function changes in both sememe and

morpheme and morpheme without change

Inflectional & derivational morphemes (affix)

• InflectionalInflectional affixes do not changenot change the word class of the word but but only addadd a minute or delicate grammatical meaning to the stem. In other words, such morphemes are for the most part purely grammatical markersgrammatical markers and signify such concepts as tense tense, numbernumber, casecase and so on.

• DeviationalDeviational morphemes often changechange the lexical meaninglexical meaning and the word classword class. They are conjoined to other morphemes (or words), new words are derived, or formed

• The distinction between INFLECTIONAL INFLECTIONAL morphemes and DERIVATIONALDERIVATIONAL morphemes applies to affixesaffixes only.

• In English inflectionalinflectional affixes are mostly suffixessuffixes (e.g. drumss, walkss, Mary’s’s), but derivationalderivational affixes can be prefixesprefixes (e.g. ononline, dedepart) or suffixessuffixes (e.g. teacherer, workableable)

Derivationalsleepyylovelylynotionalalamazementmentdisdisunity

• Inflectional

• Walkss• Wakeded• Walkinging• Starss• watcheses

Word-formation

• Inflection• Derivation• Conversion• Compounding• Other means of Creating new words

• Invention• Blending• Abbreviation• Acronym• back-formation• Onomatopoeia• borrowing

Inflection

• INFLECTIONINFLECTION is manifestation of grammatical relationships through additionaddition of inflectional affixesinflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and case, which do not change the grammatical class of the stems to which they are attached.

(a) number table/tabless apple/appless(b)person, finiteness and aspect Talk/talks/talking/talked(c) case: boy/boy’s’s John/John’s’s

Derivation

• DERIVATIONDERIVATION is the process in which new words are created from already existing words through affixationaffixation.

• In contrast with inflections, derivationsderivations can the word class of the original word either changedchanged or unchangedunchanged.

• (a) word class changed

Un Un + N V un+horse unhorseunhorse -ish-ish Adj fool+lish foolishfoolish -wise -wise Adv clock+wise clockwiseclockwise• (b) word class unchanged N N nonnon+smoker nonsmokernonsmoker V V disdis+obey disobeydisobey Adj Adj ilil+logical illogicalillogical

• -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

•刘易斯 · 卡罗尔的爱丽丝镜中奇遇记

• (When the Mock Turtle listed the different branches of Arithmetic for Alice as “Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision”)

• “I never heard of ‘Uglification’Uglification’ ,” Alice ventured to say.

• “What is it?”• The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in

surprise.• “Never heard of uglifyinguglifying!” it exclaimed.• “You know what to beautifybeautify is, I

suppose?”• “Yes,” said Alice doubtfully : “it means —

to make —anything —prettier. ”• “Well, then,” the Gryphon went on , “If

you don’t know what to uglifyuglify is, you are simpleton.”

• Alice wasn’t really such a simpleton, since uglificationuglification was not a common word in English until Lewis Carroll used it. The Mock Turtle added –ify–ify to the adjective ugly and formed a verb.

• Many verbs in English have been formed in this way: purifyify, amplifyify ,simplifyify ,falsifyify.

• Notice that the Mock Turtle went even further ;he added the suffix –cationcation to uglifyuglify and formed a noun, uglificationcation, as in purificationcation, simplificationcation, falsificationcation.

• The formation itself was not problematic, but the word is not in common use. That is why Alice was reluctant to recognize it

• There are no inflectionalno inflectional morphemes or deviationaldeviational morphemes in ChineseChinese. So the study of inflection and deviation finds no place in Chinese. The ultimate reason is that Chinese Chinese and EnglishEnglish are different languages in nature, one being ANALYTICANALYTIC, the other SYNTHETIC SYNTHETIC (( 合成的合成的 )).

Conversion (zero deviation)

• CONVERSIONCONVERSION is actually the deviational process whereby a word is adopted or convertedconverted to a newnew word-class withoutwithout the additionaddition of an affix.affix.

• (a) verb→noun conversion• (b) noun→verb conversion• (c) adjective→noun conversion• (d) adjective→verb conversion• (e) noun→adjective conversion• (f) Conversion from closed-class

words to nouns

• (a) verb attempt →noun attemptattempt• (b) noun cake →verb cakecake• (c) adjective final →noun finalfinal• (d) adjective dry →verb drydry• (e) noun brick →adjective brickbrick• (f) His arguments contains too many ifsifs and and

butsbuts This book is a mustmust for the student of

linguistics.

Compounding

• COMPOUNDINGCOMPOUNDING is a word-formation process through which newnew words are created by combiningcombining at least two free two free morphemesmorphemes.

• Noun compounds play+boy→playboyplayboy(V+N)

• Verb compounds lip+read→lipreadlipread(N+V)• Adjective compounds heart+felt→heartfeltheartfelt(N+Ved)• Preposition compounds through+out→throughoutthroughout (V+N)

Invention

• Since economic activity is the most important and dynamic in human life, many new lexical items come directly from the consumerconsumer items, their producersproducers or their brandbrand names.

Blending

• BLENDINGBLENDING is a relatively complex form of compounding, in which two two wordswords are blendedblended by joining the initialinitial part of the firstfirst word and the finalfinal part of the secondsecond word, or by joining the initial partsinitial parts of the twotwo words.

• Words created in this way are called BLENDBLEND, “telescopictelescopic word”, or “portmanteauportmanteau word”.

Abbreviation

• It is also called CLIPPINGCLIPPING, that is , a new new wordword is created by front clippingfront clipping, back back clippingclipping ,front and back clippingfront and back clipping.

• AdAdvertisement adad• DormDormitory dormdorm• ExpoExposition expoexpo• Aeroplaneplane planeplane• Caravanvan vanvan• Periwigwig wigwig• Influfluenza fluflu• Refrigefrigerator fridgefridge• Detectective tectec

Acronym

• ACRONYMACRONYM is made up of the first first lettersletters of the name of an organization, in science, technology .

• BBCBBC BBritish BBroadcasting CCorporation• EUEU EEuropean UUnion• AIDS AIDS aacquired iimmune ddeficiency

ssyndrome

Back-formation

• BACK-FORMATIONBACK-FORMATION refers to an abnormal type of word-formation where a shortershorter word is derived by deletingdeleting an imagined affixaffix from a longerlonger form already in the language.

• Donationion donatee• Difficultyty difficultt• Greedydy greedd

Onomatopoeia

• ONOMATOPOEIAONOMATOPOEIA is a way of creating words by imitating the imitating the soundssounds of the outside world.

• The following example comes from the poem “How Does the Water Come Down at Lodore” written by the English poet Robert Southey 罗伯特 · 骚塞 (1774-1843),in which more than twentytwenty onomatopoeticonomatopoetic words are used in succession:

Here it comes Here it comes sparklingsparkling,,

And there it lies And there it lies darklingdarkling … …

EddyingEddying and and whinkingwhinking,,

SpoutingSpouting and and frisking,frisking, . . . . . .

And And rattling rattling and and battlingbattling, . . ., . . .

And And gugglingguggling and and strugglingstruggling, . . . . . .

And And bubblingbubbling and and troublingtroubling and and doublingdoubling, ,

And And rushingrushing and and flushingflushing and and brushingbrushing and and gushinggushing, ,

And And flappingflapping and and rappingrapping and and clapping clapping and and slappingslapping..

And And thumping thumping and and pumpingpumping and and bumpingbumping and and jumpingjumping,,

And at once and all o'er with mighty uproar,And at once and all o'er with mighty uproar,

And this way the water comes down at Lodore. And this way the water comes down at Lodore.

Borrowing

• English in its development has managed to widen its vocabulary by BORROWING BORROWING words from other languages. GreekGreek, LatinLatin, FrenchFrench, ArabicArabic, and other languages played an active role in the process.

• Greek obstetrics, epilepsy, atom, electricity• Latin cancer, tumor, alias, injunction, alibi,

pp. (pages), etc (et cetera)• French mortgage, debut, concierge• Spanish macho, flotilla, junta, grandee• Indian balcony, algebra, stanza, pizza• German blitzkrieg, Fahrenheit, hamburger,

waltz• Japanese: Judo• Korean: tae kwon do