JPN494: Japanese Language and LinguisticsJPN543: Advanced Japanese Language and Linguistics

Morphology (1)

Morphology

Morphology is the subfield of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words and the relationships among words. – trees → tree+s– rider → ride+er– 食べさせられた → tabe+sase+rare+ta– 生米箱 ( なまごめばこ ) → [nama+[kome+hako]]

What is a word?

He is nice. He’s nice. He isn’t nice. John met Bill’s mother.

John met Bill Gates. John went to Chase Field Ballpark.

waterbed, cash register, salad dressing, school trip, …

Phonological information is useful for determining the word-hood of an expression.

Between two words, there tends to be a phonological disjuncture.

– captain– Cantaloupe tends to mature early and uniformly.

In English, each (content) word has a stressed syllable. – black board vs. blackboard– white house vs. Whitehouse

Certain phonological rules (e.g. the SV rule) apply only within a word:

– 本の箱 ( ほんのはこ ) vs. 本箱 ( ほんばこ )

鈴木さんが来た– [sɯzɯkjisaŋŋa …] (or [sɯzɯkjisaŋga …])

鈴木さんが来なかった 鈴木さんが来たらしい 鈴木さんが来たのかもしれない 鈴木さんがお菓子を食べさせられたようだ

Simple vs. complex words

A word can be simple or complex. Simple words like tree and 木 ( き ) cannot b

e broken down into smaller parts. Complex words trees and 庭木 ( にわき ) ar

e made up of more than one meaningful part. Morpheme: the smallest meaningful part o

f a linguistic expression that can be identified by segmentation.

phone : phoneme – morph : morpheme E.g., the morph -ru ([ɾɯ]) and the morph -u

([ɯ]) are allomorphs of the present tense morpheme.

In practice, the term “morpheme” is used to refer to a specific form (i.e. morph) too.

Additional examples of allomorphy:– [ame] ~ [ama] ~ [same]

雨 ( あめ ), にわか雨 ( にわかあめ ), 雨風 ( あめかぜ ) 雨傘 ( あまがさ ), 雨蛙 ( あまがえる ), 雨宿り ( あまやど

り ) 小雨 ( こさめ ), 春雨 ( はるさめ ), 霧雨 ( きりさめ )

– [ki] ~ [gi] ~ [ko] 木 ( き ), 庭木 ( にわき ) 木々 ( きぎ ), 寄木 ( よせぎ ) 木立 ( こだち ), 木枯らし ( こがらし )

Internal structure of a word

base + suffix:– tree + s = trees– ride + er = rider– tall + est = tallest– 現実 + 的 = 現実的 ( げんじつてき )– 食べ + させ + た = 食べさせた– 子供 + 　っぽい = 子供っぽい ( こどもっぽい )

Internal structure of a word

prefix + base– re + arrange = rearrange– un + known = unknown– out + number = outnumber– 亜 + 熱帯 = 亜熱帯 ( あねったい ; sub-tropic)– お + 友達 = お友達 ( おともだち )– まっ + 白 = まっ白 ( まっしろ ) 　

subtypes of affixes:– prefixes: pre-mature, re-confirm, …– suffixes: eat-ing, writ-er,…– infixes: kayu ‘wood’ → k-in-ayu ‘gathered wood’

(Bonto Igorot; The infix -in- indicates the product of a completed action)

– circumfixes: ge-geb-en ‘given’ (German)

“The part of the word that an affix is attached to is called the base” (Haspelmath 2002)

A base tends to be used as a stand-alone word. The base has a concrete meaning, while affixes’ me

anings are more abstract (to varying degrees). The base tends to be longer than affixes. An affixed base may serve as a base for another affi

x ([re+[[simple+ify]+cation]] → resimplification)

Internal structure of a word

base + base (compounding)– N+N = N: landlord, snail mail, …– A+N = N: blackboard, wildfire, …– V+N = N: scarecrow, pickpocket, …– P+N = V: overdose, underdog, …– A+A = A: bittersweet, red-hot, …– N+A = A: skin-deep, sky-blue, …– P+V = V: undercook, oversee, …

Internal structure of a word

base + base (compounding) (cont.)– N+N = N: 山道 ( やまみち ), 鳥もち ( とりもち ), …– A+N = N: 黒あめ ( くろあめ ), 白蟻 ( しろあり ), …– V+N = N: 買い物 ( かいもの ), 売り場 ( うりば ), …– V+V = V: 叩き壊す ( たたきこわす ), 泣きわめく ( なきわ

めく ), … – A+A = A: 甘辛い ( あまからい ), 赤黒い ( あかぐろい ) …– N+A = A: 肌寒い ( はだざむい ), 心温まる ( こころあたた

まる ), …

Reduplication

Reduplication is a special kind of compounding:– 山々 ( やまやま ), 人々 ( ひとびと ), …– いろいろ , ときどき , …– 蝶々 ( ちょうちょう ), …

Clipping

A process whereby a shortened word is formed which does not differ semantically from the longer version: – ビルディング → ビル– 友達 → ダチ

Acronym (e.g. NATO) and alphabetism (e.g. CD) may be considered sub-types of clipping.

Compound words often undergo clipping:– The “ 携帯” type

携帯電話 ( けいたいでんわ ) → 携帯 スーパーマーケット → スーパー かけそば → かけ

– The “ パソコン” type 学生割引 ( がくせいわりびき ) → 学割 電気卓上機 ( でんきたくじょうき ) → 電卓 パーソナルコンピューター → パソコン プロフェッショナルレスリング → プロレス

– The “ ガム” type チューインガム → ガム プラットホーム → ホーム

Generally, the meaning of a compound word is less predictable than that of an affixed word.

– horse shoe vs. alligator shoe – 薬棚 ( くすりだな ) vs. 漆棚 ( うるしだな )– たい焼き vs. たこ焼き vs. 鉄板 ( てっぱん ) 焼き

– breakable, drinkable, movable, wearable, transformable …; cf. readable, payable

– 甘さ ( あまさ ), 難しさ ( むずかしさ ), 厳しさ ( きびしさ ), …

A classification of morphemes

Morphemes can be classified into free morphemes and bound morphemes.

Free morphemes are those morphemes that can be used as “stand-alone” words:

– e.g. tree, red, this; 本 , あなた , これ Free morphemes ≠ words; a free morpheme may ser

ve as a base to which an affix is attached. – redness, 本好き ( ほんずき ) 　　

A classification of morphemes

Bound morphemes can be divided into:– affixes (suffixes, prefixes, …)– bound bases

kak(-u, -eba, ...) ( 書く ) – contracted forms

I’m, he’ll, haven’t cf. tabe-nak-eɾeba → tabe-nak-eɾja

A classification of morphemes

“Cranberry morphemes” are a special type of bound morphemes that cannot be assigned a particular meaning:

cran-(berry) (re-, per-, con-)ceive twi-light spick and span

えもんかけ ( 衣紋掛け ; a （ coat ） hanger) むりやり にべもない (curt)

A classification of morphemes

free morphemes (independent bases) clitics

– contracted forms in English– particles in Japanese (?)…

bound morphemes (affixes & bound bases)

Clitics: (i) phonologically dependent on its host, but (ii) syntactically independent

He’s sick.– phonologically: {he’s} {sick}– syntactically: [he][’s sick]

背が高い男が立っている– phonologically: {…} { 男が } { 立っている }– syntactically: [[[ 背が高い ] 男 ] が ][ 立っている ]– OR syntactically: [[ 背が高い ][ 男が ]][ 立ってい

る ]

- [of [the tall man]]- [the tall [man’s]] or [[the tall man]’s]

Inflection vs. derivation

In the tradition of linguistic studies of Indo-European languages, it is widely accepted that there are two types of affixes: inflectional affixes and derivational affixes.

Inflectional affixes in English:– nominal:

plural: girls posessive: Mary’s

– verbal: 3rd person singular present: bakes past: waited progressive: singing perfect: baked, eaten

– adjectival: comparative: faster superlative: fastest

English has a relatively few number of inflectional affixes (among Indo-European languages). – gender (masculine, feminine, neutral …), case (no

minative, accusative, dative, …), …– future, imperfective past, subjunctive, imperative,

conditional, …

paradigm: a set of words that consist of [base] + [inflectional affixes]

– {car, cars, car’s, cars’}– {bake, baking, bakes, baked, baked}

Sometimes, certain “slots” of a paradigm are filled by irregular forms (irregular forms that have a different base are called suppletive forms)

– {go, going, goes, went, gone} “Words” in a paradigm are said to be realizations of the same

“word”. – “Word” in the first sense: word form – “Word” in the second sense: lexeme

What’s the difference between derivational vs. inflectional affixes?

Inflectional affixes indicate certain grammatical functions of words:

– number, gender, case; person, voice, mood, polarity, tense; degree

Derivational affixes may change the category of the base, while inflectional affixes do not.

– ride: rider, wit: outwit; cf. charge: recharge Inflectional affixes are attached “after” derivational affixes.

– [[modern + ize] + ed]– [[[modern + ize] + er] + s]

Inflection changes the meanings in a more systematic/predictable way than derivation

– read-able, question-able; point-er, broil-er

Particles may be considered inflectional affixes (if they are analyzed as affixes rather than clitics):– そばやが , そばやを , そばやに , そばやの

Inflectional affixes in Japanese?

The so-called auxiliary verbs ( 助動詞 ); there are opposing views.

Affixes: tense: tabe-ru, tabe-ta; hanas-u, hanas-ita causative: tabe-sase-ru; hanas-ase-ru passive: tabe-rare-ru; hanas-are-ru potential: tabe-(ra)re-ru; hanas-e-ru volitional: tabe-yoo; hanas-oo imperative: tabe-ro, tabe-runa; hanas-e, hana-suna negative: tabe-na-i, tabe-nakat-ta; hanas-ana-i, hanas-anakat-ta desiderative: tabe-ta-i, hanas-ita-i gerund: tabe-φ(-te), hanas-i(-te) conditional: tabe-reba, tabe-tara; hanas-eba, hanas-ba

Orders of affixes

root (base) - {φ, causative} - {φ, passive} - {φ, potential, desiderative} - {φ, polite} - {φ, negative} - {tense, imperative, volitional, gerund, conditional}

食べろ : tabe-ro食べられました : tabe-rare-mas-ita食べさせられなかった : tabe-sase-rare-nakat-ta

Auxiliary verbs (type 1): aspect: tabe-te-i-ru benefactive: tabe-te-yar-u, tabe-te-kure-u …

食べさせていられなかった(he couldn’t be letting him eat)

Auxiliary verbs (type 2): のだ : tabe-ta-noda ようだ : tabe-ta-yooda わけだ : tabe-ta-wakeda そうだ : tabe-ta-sooda らしい : tabe-ta-rasi-i だろう : tabe-ta-daroo

– Type 2 auxiliary verbs (except for だろう ) have their own past tense forms ( のだった , ようだった , わけだった , そうだった , らしかった ), and polite forms ( のです , ようです , わけです , そうです , らしいです , でしょう ), etc.

– そうらしい , そうだろう

食べさせていられなかったらしいです(It seems that he couldn’t be letting him eat)