英语语言学2 Morphology形态学word讲义

Chapter 3 Morphology形态学Nothing is more important to language than words.Words can carry meaning.Words are the fundamental building blocks of a language.So, is word the most basic or the minimal unit of meaning?If not, then what is?How words are formed?---morphology3.1 what is morphology?Morphology refers to the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.3.2 Open class and closed class (开放词类和封闭词类)Open class words----content words of a language to which we can regularly add new words, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.Closed class words----grammatical or functional words, such as conjunction, articles, preposition and pronouns.New words can be added to open class words regularly with the development of human civilization.However, the number of closed class words is small and stable since few new words are added.3.3Morphemes--the minimal units of meaning（词素，最小的意义单位）Word is the smallest free from found in language.Word can be further divided into smaller meaningful units---morphemes.So, morpheme is---the smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function.Words are composed of morphemes. Words may consist of one morpheme or more morphemes, e.g.1-morpheme boy, desire2-morpheme boyish, desirable3-morpheme boyishness, desirability4-morpheme gentlemanliness,undesir(e)abl(e)ity5-morpheme ungentlemanliness6-morpheme anti+dis+establish+ment+ari+an+ismFree morpheme & bound morphemeFree morpheme----is one that may constitute a word (free form) by itself, such as bed, tree, sing, dance, etc.Bound morpheme----is one that may appear with at least one other morpheme. They can not stand by themselves, such as ―-s‖ in ―dogs‖, ―al‖ in ―national‖, ―dis-‖ in ―disclose‖, ―ed‖ in ―recorded‖, AllomorphSome morphemes have a single form in all contexts, such as ―dog, bark, cat‖,etc.In other instances, there may be some variation, that is, a morpheme may have alternate shapes or phonetic forms. They are said to be the allomorphs of the morpheme.the plural morpheme may be represented by:map----maps [s]dog----dogs [z]watch----watches [iz]mouse----mice [ai]ox----oxen [n]tooth----teethsheep----sheepEach of the underlined part is called an allomorph of plural morpheme.3.4 Analyzing word structuresIdentify each of the major component morphemes.Classify these morphemes in terms of their contribution to the meaning and function of the larger word.Generally speaking, a complex word often consists of a root and one or more affixes.Root: constitutes the core of the word and carries the major component of its meaning.Roots typically belong to lexical categories such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and prepositions. Affix: is always a bound morpheme, and does not belong to a lexical category.Tree diagram (teach-er)NV Afteach er3.5 Derivational morpheme & inflectional morpheme 派生词素和屈折词素Derivational morphemes---- the morphemes which change the category, or grammatical class of words, e.g. modern---modernize, length---lengthen, fool---foolish, etc.when derivational morphemes are conjoined to other morphemes, a new word is derived or formed--- may change grammatical classeg. light –lighten; nasal –nasalize;eat—edible; grave--engrave--- may not change grammatical classeg. net---internet; happy—unhappy;national—multinational; terror-terroristMany prefixes and suffixes belong to derivational morphemeseg. tele-phone; music-ianConsider: is there any prefix or suffix which doesn’t fall into derivational morphemes? Inflectional morphemes---- the morphemes which are for the most part purely grammatical markers, signifying such concepts as tense, person, mood, voice, case, number, aspect and degree;e.g.:1) number: tables apples cars2) tense: talk/talks/talking/talked3) case: John/John’s4) degree: large/larger/largestInflectional morphemes never change lexical category, never add any lexical meaning,Morphemefree morpheme bound morphemefree root affix bound root (-ceive)derivational morpheme inflectional morphemeprefix suffixproductive morphological rulesSome of the rules can be used quite freely to form new wordseg. un + derived words (adj.) = not ---adj. [un-Rule]unimaginable unthinkable; unmentionedunbrave (×)(un-rule more productive for adj. derived from verbs than for adj. of just one morpheme like sad---unsad??)eg. sincere---sincerity; scarce—scarcity [ity –Rule]fierce---fiercity (×)(ity-Rule becomes less productive than before)Word-formationDerivation派生: the most common word-formation process, by affixationeg. Derivational + free morphemesgirlish; reliableCompounding复合(stringing words together; juxtaposition of two or more than two words to form a new, composite one with distinct properties of its own)Adj. N. V. Prep. Adj. Bittersweet clearway whitewash blackoutN. Headstrong rainbow spoon-feed head-onV. Carryall pickpocket sleepwalk cutupPrep. Inborn off-licence undertake withoutSome points about compounds1) two words in the same grammatical category, compound in this category;eg. landlord; bedroom; icy-cold;2) two words in different categories, compound in the class of second or final word;eg. pickpocket; headstrong; blackboard; swearwordcompound with preposition, nonpreposition part decideseg. undertake; uplift; overtake; oversee; overdoseexceptions: blackout ( n.) ; head-on (adv.);3) compounds have different stress patterns from non-compounded word sequence;e.g. 'blackbird & black 'bird;'washing machine'greenhouse & green 'house;red 'coat &'redcoat4) meaning of a compound not necessarily the sum of the meaning of its partsmeaning of each compound includes at least to some extent the meaning of individual partseg. reading room; a falling star; a looking glass (窥镜)meanings of compounds do not relate to the meanings of the individual parts at alleg. bigwig(要人,大亨); greenhorns (生手,不懂世故的人)highbrow(知识分子,自命不凡的人)/lowbrow(教养浅薄的人);turncoat变节者Conversion 转类构词(a change in the grammatical function of a word without adding or removing any part of it)Eg. a walk---to walk; a play---to playincrease (n.)--- increase (v.)conduct (n.) --- conduct (v.)I have no knowledge of the political dos and don’tsBackformation 反向构词(a reverse process of affixation. The word is not formed by adding a morpheme to a stem but by assuming a part of the stem as a suffix and removing it)Eg. editor --- edit; beggar --- begtelevision – televise; enthusiasm--- enthuseBorrowing外来语构词(adopting foreign words)--- loan-words借词(retaining their original phonetic or even written forms)eg. bungalow (Hindi); spaghetti (Italian);veranda (Portuguese 阳台)bok choy (Chinese baice); alcohol (Arabic)--- loan-translation or calques(直译,译借) 仿造词( a direct translation of the foreign word into English)eg. superman ---Ubermensch (German)Kongfu (Chinese)Clipping缩略构词( a reduction process in which a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form, often used in informal speech)Eg. ad--- advertisement; lab---laboratoryfan---fanatic; flu---influenza;math---mathematicsBlending混合构词(join the beginning of the first word to the end of the other words)Eg. smog (smoke + fog)brunch (breakfast + lunch)motel (motor + hotel)telecast (television + broadcast)Acronym首字构词(string together the initial letters of the words in a phrase, typically the names of technical apparatus and institutions, sometimes, the phrasal origin is lost )Eg. radar (radio detecting and ranging)AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)Coinage 创新构词(invention of totally new terms, least common, often brand names)eg. xerox; nylon; kleenex(面巾纸)ConclusionsMorphological rules provide means for forming new words, or coin new words (eg. hair spray, tea ceremony, space walk, etc.)Morphological rules may be productive or less productive (un-Rule) ;may become less productive with the passage of time (ity-Rule)。