Chapter 3 Morphology_语言学导论

Chapter 3 MorphologyObjectivesThe students will learn a brief knowledge about morphology and the basic word-formation methods.Students will be able to1)understand the definition of morphology and its branches;2)understand the definition of morpheme and its classification;3)understand morphological rules: how words are formed;4)identify and analyze the composition of words;5)master the meanings of frequently used prefixes and suffixes.Key Points●What is MorphologyDefinitio nWhy study morphology●TerminologyMorphemeFree vs. BoundRoot vs. StemDerivational vs. InflectionalMorphs & Allomorphs●Types of word-formationThe most important word-formation methods: compounding and derivationOther word-formation methodsProcedureKey terms in Morphology are analyzed in detail and 8 activities are designed to helpstudents to understand and master the key points of this chapter.I.Warm-up1.1 Ask the Ss to read the following passage and pick out the words which are composed of more than one part.Ticketless TravelMy friend’s brother, Cliff, is a very serious, dignified man, so his actions at an airport’s check-in counter were totally unexpected. It seems that he and his wife were placing their baggage on the conveyor when her purse accidentally fell onto the moving belt. She scrambled after it but it eluded her, so she climbed onto the belt to try to reach it. Just as she was about to disappear through the doorway with the baggage, Cliff began to wave frantically, ―No, no dear!‖ he shouted. ―It‘s okay! This time we bought tickets.‖1.2 Pick out of one the underlined words (“unexpected”) from ―Ticketless Travel‖ and encourage Ss to dissect word themselves, eliciting the first keyword ―Morphology‖.II. Classroom instruction and activities2.1 Keyword 1 Morphology1)Do Activity 1 and define the first keyword: MorphologyActivity 1 Read the words in Group A and Group B below. What are the features shared by those words? Write your assumptions in the following box.Group AGroup B2)Why study morphologyDictionaries do not list all possible words of a language☞new wordsGoogle, meth, bedhead☞new usages of wordsto google something, crystal☞words derived by productive rules:goes, goingunfold, foldable, refold, unfoldableMorphological competence includes information about how morphemes work, and how they can and can’t fit together.2.2 Keyword 2 Morpheme1) Use Activity 2 to help Ss to understand the 2nd keyword: MorphemeActivity 2 Please divide the underlined words in “Ticketless Travel” into their building parts as far as possible, make sure no part loses its identification of meaning.Ticketless TravelMy friend’s brother, Cliff, is a very serious, dignified man, so his actions at an airport’s check-in counter were totally unexpected. It seems that he and his wife were placing their baggage on the conveyor when her purse accidentally fell onto the moving belt. She scrambled after it but it eluded her, so she climbed onto the belt to try to reach it. Just as she was about to disappear through the doorway with the baggage, Cliff began to wave frantically, ―No, no dear!‖ he shouted. ―It‘s okay! This time we bought tickets.‖2) Distinguish morpheme and bound morpheme by doing Activity 3Activity 3 Divide the following morphemes into 2 groups according to whether they can be used as words independently.3) Help Ss to distinguish following pairs of terms by citing examples.root vs. stemlexical vs. functional morphemederivational vs. inflectional morpheme4)Construct a concept map of “Morpheme”2.3 Keyword 3 Morphs and AllomorphsDoing Activity 4 and distinguish the 3rd keyword: Morphs and Allomorphs Activity 4 Change the following nouns into plural forms.2.4 Keyword 4 Types of word-formation1) Ss‘ ora l presentation of different types of word-formation2)Classroom discussion on the most important morphological phenomena:compounding and derivation●CompoundingOrthographical features of compoundsActivity 5 Step 1 Divide the following compounds into three groups.Step 2 Summarize the orthographical features of compounds basedon the examples given.How to decide the part of speech of compoundsActivity 6 Step 1 Decide the parts of speech of the following words, consult your dictionary if necessary.Step 2 Summarize the rules used to determine the part of speech ofcompounds.How to decide the main stress of a compound?Activity 7 Step 1 Decide the main stress of the following compounds.Step 2 Summarize the rules of main stress of compounds.●DerivationFunctions derivational affixesMeanings of the frequently used prefixes and suffixesActivity 8 State the morphological rules that govern the use of the given derivational affixesExample: --er This suffix is added to a verb to form a noun indicating the agent that carries out the action, e. g. writer---writer2. 5 Branches of morphology1)Inflectional Morphology （曲折形态学）2) Lexical Morphology （词汇形态学）.III.AssignmentsIV.HandoutActivity 1 Read the words in Group A and Group B below. What are the features shared by those words? Write your assumptions in the following box.Group AGroup BActivity 2 Please divide the underlined words in “Ticketless Travel” into their building parts as far as possible, make sure no part loses its identification of meaning.Ticketless TravelMy friend’s brother, Cliff, is a very serious, dignified man, so his actions at an airport’s check-in counter were totally unexpected. It seems that he and his wife were placing their baggage on the conveyor when her purse accidentally fell onto the moving belt. She scrambled after it but it eluded her, so she climbed onto the belt to try to reach it. Just as she was about to disappear through the doorway with the baggage, Cliff began to wave frantically, ―No, no dear!‖ he shouted. ―It‘s okay! This time we bought tickets.‖Activity 3 Divide the following morphemes into 2 groups according to whether they can be used as words independently.Activity 4 Change the following nouns into plural forms.Activity 5 Step 1 Divide the following compounds into three groups.Step2 Summarize the orthographical features of compounds based onthe examples given.Activity 6 Step 1 Decide the parts of speech of the following words, consult yourdictionary if necessary.Step 2 Summarize the rules used to determine the part of speech ofcompounds.Activity 7 Step 1 Decide the main stress of the following compounds.Step 2 Summarize the rules of main stress of compounds.Activity 8 State the morphological rules that govern the use of the given derivational affixesExample: --er This suffix is added to a verb to form a noun indicating the agent that carries out the action, e. g. writer---writerLecture Note1.1.What is Morphology?Morphology, as a branch of linguistics, is the study of the internal structure, forms and classes of words.The features summarized in the above box are some of the morphological rules, and they can account for the existence of most nouns with ―-er‖ ending. When we were doing Activity 1, actually we were doing some research in morphology. Thus, morphology （形态学）can be defined as a branch of linguistics which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. Words are not just random strings of letters, but built on the basis of some basic building units, and the construction of words is governed by rules. Morphology studies those building units and governing rules.1.2.Why study Morphology?Dictionaries do not list all possible words of a language.Morphological competence includes information about how morphemes work, and how they can and can‘t fit together.1.3.Branches of MorphologyMorphology is generally divided into two sub-branches: Inflectional Morphology （曲折形态学）and Lexical Morphology（词汇形态学）.Inflectional morphology studies the expressions of grammatical inflections and grammatical meanings. Inflection（曲折）is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes（曲折词缀）. This kind of addition does not change the grammatical class of the stem. The grammatical relationships, comprise number, case, person, finiteness, time, aspect and etc..Lexical morphology is also referred to as Derivational Morphology or Word –Formation. It studies the process of word formation and the signaling of lexical relationships. Word formation can be further subclassified into compositional type (compounding（合成）) and the derivational type (derivation（派生）).II.Morphemes2.1What is a Morpheme?A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.1)friend‘s: friend + ‗s2)actions: action + s3)check-in: check + in4)unexpected: un + expect + ed5)placing: plac + ing6)conveyor: convey + or7)accidentally: accidental + ly8)onto: on + to……In communication, people often use words as exemplified in Activity 2. It seems that people always base their utterances on words, and words are the basic building blocks by which people organize their ideas and express the meanings. Are words the smallest meaningful units? Can they still be further analyzed to an even lower level without destroying or drastically altering the meaning? Activity 2 that you have accomplished has already given an affirmative answer, i.e., many words can still be analyzed into smaller units. The words in Activity 2 have been analyzed into the smallest building blocks of them, and those building blocks are at the lowest level. They cannot be further divided because they will lose their identities in meaning in so doing. They are called Morphemes (词素). So morpheme is the minimal unit of meaning, the smallest meaningful units of language.2.2Free morphemes vs. Bound morphemes2.2.1Free morphemesA free morpheme is the one that can stand by itself as a single word.2.2.2Bound morphemesA bound morpheme cannot normally stand alone, but are typically attached toanother form.Explanation of Activity 3:Group A: morphemes which can be used independentlyGroup B: morphemes which cannot be used independentlyGroup A in Activity 3 are free morphemes, Group B are bound morphemes. Group B in Activity 3 are bound morphemes. A bound morpheme appears with at least one other morpheme, and they are combined together to form a word, and thus can be used independently.2.3Root vs. Stem2.3.1RootSome morphemes like car, talk, friend and tour can stand alone as words. Such morphemes are called free morphemes. A word must contain an element that can standby itself, that is, a free morpheme, such as talk. Such an element is called a root. A word may contain more than one root, in which case it is a compound word, e.g. bookshop and blackbird.2.3.2StemThe free morphemes can be generally considered as the set of separate English word-forms. When they are used with bound morphemes, the basic word-form involved is technically known as the stem. A stem of a word may be(i) a simple stem consisting of only one morpheme, in this case the root andthe stem are the same, e.g. in works, work is both the stem and the root;(ii) a root plus a derivational affix, e.g. in workers, work is the root, worker is the stem;(iii)two or more roots, e.g. in workshops, both work and shop are roots, workshop is the stem.2.4 Lexical morphemes vs. Functional morphemes2.4.1 Lexical morphemesFree morphemes can be divided into two categories. The first one is the set of ordinary nouns, verbs, and adjectives which carry the content of messages we convey, are called lexical morphemes and, since we can create new lexical morphemes for the language rather easily, they are called an open class of words.2.4.2 Functional morphemesThe second category of free morphemes is called functional morphemes. This category consists of the functional words in the language such as conjunction, article, prepositions and pronouns. As we almost never add new functional morphemes to the language, they are called a closed class of words.2.5Derivational morphemes vs. inflectional morphemes2.5.2 Derivational morphemesBound morphemes can be classified into two categories.D erivational morphemes, which are used to make new words in the language, are often used to make words of a different grammatical category from the stem.2.5.2 Inflectional morphemesInflectional morphemes, which are not used to produce new words, are used to show aspects of the grammatical function of a word. Inflectional morphemes are used to indicate whether a word is singular or plural, whether it is in the past tense orpresent tense, and whether it is a possessive or comparative form. English has only eight inflectional morphemes, illustrated as follows:(1)If a man’s wife is beautiful, two eye s are not enough for him.(2)Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrive s, stop think ingand go in.(3)The writer lik ed joking and has tak en things seriously.(4)One is the loud est person in the house and the other is quiet er than a mouse. English inflectional morphemes:2.6Morphs and Allomorphs2.6.1MorphsMorphs are the smallest meaningful phonetic segments of an utterance on the level of parole. That is to say, morphs are the phonological (spoken) or orthographic (written) forms which realize morphemes, and they are minimal carriers of meaning.2.6.2 AllomorphsAn allomorph is a member of a set of morphs which represent the same morpheme. Allomorphs are phonological or orthographic variants of the same morpheme. Take the morpheme of plurality {-s} for example (morphemes in theabstract notion are symbolized by brace brackets { }):The alternates /-z/, /-s/, /-iz/, /-a i-/, /-i/, and /Ø/ are all morphs of the same morpheme{-s}. Each can be said to be an allomorph of the plural morpheme. Therefore, an allomorph is a member of a set of morphs which represent the same morpheme. Allomorphs are phonological or orthographic variants of the same morpheme. Other examples are the allomorphs of the morpheme of past tense {-ed}, which is realized orthographically by-d, -ed, and other forms correspondent to irregular verbs, phonologically by /-t/, /-d/, /-id/ and other forms. Just as the allophones which are in complementary distribution, allomorphs are also in complementary distribution, that is to say, they cannot occur in the same environment.III. Keyword 4 Types of word-formation3.1Compounding3.1.1Orthographical features of compoundsGroup A: bedtime, armchair, playboy;Group B: you-know-who, touch-me-not, kick-off, tax-free;Group C: sleeping car, reading comprehension.Orthographically, compounds are written in three ways: solid, hyphenated or open. A solid compound is written as one word, that is, there is no hyphen or space between its components. A hyphenated compound is written with a hyphen between them. An open compound is written as separate words.In English, which form should a compound take is not fixed sometimes, for example, ―flowerpot‖, ―flower-pot‖ and ―flower pot‖. But it is generally accepted that according to the sequence ―solid > hyphenated > open, the degree of people‘s acceptance of compound as standard English word decreases. Regardless of its orthographical form, a compound word is treated as one word in grammatical features and meaning. As the cited example compound ―flowerpot‖, no matter it appears in solid form, hyphenated form or open form, it‘s taken as one word by its users. In grammar it takes all features of a countable noun, in meaning it refers to ―one kind of pot used for planting flowers‖.3.1.2 How to decide the part of speech of compoundsNouns: playboy, birth-control, haircut, dress-design, self-control, crackdown, telephone call;Verbs: house keep, warm-up, fall-down, kick-off, crackdown, telephone call;Adjectives: duty-freeGenerally, the part of speech of a compound falls into the last element. However, this rule is not recapitulative enough because there are many exceptions to it. For example, the compounds ending with a verb, an adverb or preposition often violate the rule. Some compounds have more than one part of speech.Syntactically, compounds are mainly fallen into three groups: nouns, verbs and adjectives. Besides those, there are also compound prepositions, compound pronouns, compound adverbs and so on, but their numbers are relatively few.3.1.2How to decide the main stress of a compound?The phonological rule can help to identify whether a combination formed by free morphemes is a compound or a free phrase. For example, when the word ―blackbird‖ has its stress on its first element, that is, ―black‖, it is a compound, which refers to a special kind of bird; when its stress is on the second element, it refers to the birds whose colour is black. The rule can also help us to distinguish whether a ―-ing + noun‖ structure is a compound or the former part is just used to modify the latter noun. For example, when the main stress is on the first element of ―dancing-girl‖, that is, on ―dancing‖, it is a compound, which means a girl whose job is to dance; when the main stress is on the second element, it is a subordinate phrase, ―dancing‖ is used to mod ify ―girl‖, and it refers to the girl who is dancing. So though this structure can be pronounced in two ways, but their meanings are different. ―R unning dog‖ may be counted as another example, when primarily stressed on ―running‖, it is a compound, which metaphorically means a person who follows another person obediently in his wrong doings; when stressed primarily on ―dog‖, it is a phrase, which means a dog that is running. Many similar example can be cited, for example, ―diving board‖, ―swimming suit”, ―living room‖, ―sewing machine‖, ―walking stick‖, ―sleeping car‖, etc, it is unnecessary to elaborate them here.The above features are approximately the general features shared by most of the compounds, but they are not absolute and cannot be used as strict defining criteria of English compounds because there are exceptions as well. All of them have drawbacks. The orthographic feature manifests that different orthographic forms can indicate their degree of standardization as English word, but one compound may appear in different forms in different places or even in different dictionaries. It is in lack of uniformity. The syntactical feature generalizes the way by which the part of speech of the compound is determined, but there are many exceptions as discussed in the above paragraph. The semantic feature claims that meanings of compounds are idiomatic, and cannot be guessed from their components, but it is not always so. For example, the words like ―sunrise‖, ―headache‖, ―snow-white‖ are compounds, but their meanings can be inferred from the meanings of their component elements. The phonological rule claims that the main stress of a compound should be put on the firstelement; otherwise, it is not a compound, but free phrase. In fact, such words as the followi ng have been accepted as compounds: ―cold-war‖, ―inverted commas‖, ―split infinitive‖.3.2Derivation3.2.1 What is Derivation?Derivation is done by adding affixes to other words or morphemes. A derivational word consists of at least a free morpheme and a bound morpheme (a derivational morpheme or affix).3.2.2 Functions of derivational affixesDerivational affixes may change the grammatical potential of a word and involves a change of form. For example, both dis- and un- have a negative meaning, and -hood has the feature of making a word more abstract; take child for example, it is a common concrete noun, but childhood has the abstract meaning of ―condition or period of being a child‖. If we examine some more forms of this word we can clearly see what elements of meaning are added by various affixes:childless—without childrenchildlike—like a childchildish—like a child, but can have negative connotationsThese derivational processes may change the grammatical potential of a word and involves a change of form. A few more examples are given below:anti-: usually adds the meaning ―against‖, e.g. anti-terrorist-ation: this derives a noun from a verb, e.g. to compute→computation-ful: adds the meaning ―full of‖ and usually derives an adjective from a noun, e.g.color→colorful3.2.3 Meanings of the frequently used prefixes and suffixes3.3Other ways of word-formation3.3.1ConversionMany words have more than one part of speech. A noun can become a verb easily and a verb can be used as a noun. Such instances are called conversion. Conversion is a special case of derivation: instead of adding an affix to a stem, the stem takes a zero form, i.e. one that is present, but invisible. For example, the word bank(noun) becomes to bank (verb) by adding the verb class status to it. That is why conversion is also called zero-derivation.Conversion is particularly productive in modern English. It can involve the following major types:noun→ verb: He‘s papering the bedroom walls. They‘re vacationing in France.verb→ noun: a guess, a must, a spy.v erb→ adjective: see-through material, a stand-up comedian.a djective→ verb: to dirty, to empty, to total.a djective→ noun:a crazy, a nasty.3.3.2BackformationSuffixes like -er or -or are used to make nouns from verbs. So we have work→worker, educate→educator. But there are times when we remove a suffix to get a new word. For example, as we have editor, we get edit by dropping its -or. This process is called backformation. Usually, we derive a new word from a complex form.A good example of backformation is the process whereby the noun television firstcame into use and then the verb televise was made from it. Some other examples are:d onation→donate, option→opt, emotion→emote, enthusiasm→enthuse, liaison→liaise, babysitter→babysit, sculptor→sculpt, burglar→burgle, peddler →peddle, swindler→swindle, opinion→opine, stage-manager→stage-manage, intermission →intermit, typewriter→ typewrite.3.3.3ClippingAbbreviations of longer words may become words; prof for professor, gym for gymnasium, and phone for telephone are only a few examples of such ―short forms‖that are now used as whole words. This process by which parts of a word have been cut off is called clipping. Clipping occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shouter form, often in casual speech. For example, the word gas is clipped from gasoline, although the latter is still in use, but it occurs much less frequently than the former. Some other examples are:airplane→planerefrigerator→ fridgesituation comedy→sitcomtelevision→ tellyomnibus→ busadvertisement→ adbicycle→ bike3.3.4BlendingA single new word can also be formed by combining two separate forms. This process is usually called blending. Typically, blending is finished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of another word. For example, the English word brunch is made from breakfast and lunch. Other examples are:gasohol = gasoline + alcoholmodem = modulator + demodulatormotel = motor + hotelsmaze = smoke + hazesmog = smoke + fogsmurk = smoke + murktelecast = television + broadcasttelex = teleprinter + exchange3.3.5AcronymSome new words are formed from the first letter of a series of words. They are pronounced as single words, as in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Words of this kind are called acronyms. Some other examples are:AIDS: acquired immune deficiency syndromeAPEC: Asia Pacific Economic CooperationCALL: computer assisted language learningCALT: computer assisted language teachinglaser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiationOPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting CountriesPIN: personal identification numberradar: radio detecting and rangingSARS: Severe Acute Respiratory SyndromeTEFL: teaching English as a foreign languageTESL: teaching English as a second languageTOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign LanguageWAR: women against rapeWYSIWYG: what-you-see-is-what-you-get (a computer word which is pronounced /‵w iz‵wig/)3.3.6InitialismSome new words are composed of the first letters of a series of words. They arepronounced as by saying each letter in them, as in CD (compact disk), VIP (very important person), and WTO (World Trade Organization). This kind of words is called initialisms or alphabetisms. Other examples are:ATM: automatic teller machineCPU: central processing unitCIA: the Central Intelligence AgencyDVD: digital video discEEC: European Economic CommunityGDP: gross domestic productGNP: gross national productGPS: Global Positioning SystemGRE: Graduate Record ExaminationICU: intensive case unit (in a hospital)ID: identification cardIELTS: International English Language Testing SystemIOC: International Olympic CommitteeIQ: intelligent quotientMBA: Master of Business AdministrationMPA: Master of Public AdministrationSOS: Save Our SoulsSSCI: social science citation indexVCD: video compact discWWW: World Wide Web。