REVISION OF MORPHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA

Transcription

1 REVISION OF MORPHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA Conversion: changing one word from one category to anotherwithout adding affixes (zero derivation): stop (N) to stop (V); Clipping: when a longer form is abbreviated to produce a new form: fan (fanatic); Blending: joining parts of different wordssmog (smoke + fog), brunch (breakfast + lunch); Backformation: the formation of a simple word from another understood as derived: burgle from burglar; edit from editor; Calque: a word which has been formed by ranslatinga corresponding word into another language: grattacielofrom skyscraper; Eponym: an individual name from which a common noun is derived: Lord Sandwich from Sandwich; Toponym: a word derived from a place; 1

2 REVISION OF MORPHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA Loanwords: words adopted by the speakers of one language from a different language. A loanword can also be called a borrowing. Acronyms: a word formed by joining the initial letters of other words: Ash from Action on Smoking and Health; Tesolfrom Teachersof English to Speakers of Other Languages ; Onomatopoeia: words formed when the meaning is perceived as imitating the sound: buzz, hiss, crack; Coinage: the creation of a new word: Teflon, spandex; Cognates: words that have developed from a common ancestor; beam (English) is cognate with baum(german); Clitics: a word in which a grammatical element is treated as an independent item in syntax but forms the same phonological unit with the word that precedes or follows it: they re; they ve; isn t. 2

3 NONCE FORMATION, INSTITUTIONALIZATION, LEXICALIZATION Nonce formation: a new complex word coined by a speaker/writer on the spur of the moment to cover immediate needs; A form ceases to be a nonce-formation as soon as it is used a second time. Nonce-formation may be ambiguous: World-sky: the word world may mean the earth, the universe, human affairs, persons or institutions and others, while the word sky may mean where the sun is or also climate. This means that a nonce-formation can draw on any of these meanings and mix them up in the complex word; 3

4 NONCE FORMATION, INSTITUTIONALIZATION, LEXICALIZATION When the nonce-formation starts to be accepted by other speakers as a lexical item, the potential ambiguity disappears and only a specific meaning is used; For example, the form telephone box may be used to mean only one of the following meanings: 1.a box shaped like a telephone; 2.a box located near a telephone; 3.a box which functions as a telephone, and so on; When this process is established the word is said to have become institutionalized. 4

5 NONCE FORMATION, INSTITUTIONALIZATION, LEXICALIZATION Finally, the word is lexicalized; This happens when, due to changes in the language system, the lexeme takes on a form which is not derived from the application of productive rules. Lexicalization can take place at any level of linguistic analysis: morphological, syntactic, phonetic; Some lexicalized form derived from changes in the morphological system may remain transparent: e.g.warmthis lexicalized because the addition of the suffix thto the adjective is not productive; that is to say, you can not form new nouns using it. Consider: *surrealth; *tallth, but width. Thus, in the example above, warmth and width are both analysable and lexicalized. 5

6 The theory which aims at explaining the way phonological rules are applied to the lexicon; The basic assumption of Lexical Phonology is that phonology and morphology operate in tandem. That is to say, some phonological rules are triggered when a certain morphological process, as for instance affixation, has taken place. Such phonological rules rule in a cyclic way; For instance, whenever we attach a prefix or a suffix which produces a change in the stress pattern of the base, we must apply the specific stress-rule: e.g. selective-selectivity; If more than an affix is attached, cyclic phonological rules apply again; 6

7 LexicalPhonology: Siegel(1974) and Allen (1978) positthe existence of two levels (or strata) in English derivational morphology: Level 1 suffixes: +al; +ate; + ic Level2 prefixes: be+; con+; de+ Level 3 suffixes: #able; #er; #hood Levl4 suffixes: anti#; de#; non# The symbol + stands for root boundary, while they symbol # stands for word boundary; 7

8 Level 1 affixes are mainly of Latinate origin. They can attach both to bound roots and words: e.g. electr+ic= electric. Also, level1affixes tend to be phonologically more integrated to the base they attach to, causing stress shift and other morphological changes: e.g. alternate alternation- alternative*; Level 2 affixes are mainly of Germanic origin and can attach only to words: e.g. earth+ly= earthly. Level 2 affixes basically do not change the phonological patterns of the base: e.g. hilosophyphilosopher*; *(bold type marks the stress); 8

9 Accordingtothe level-orderinghypothesis, affixes can easily combine with affixes on the same level. However, if they combine with an affix belonging to another level, the affix of level 1 is always closer to the base than the affix of level 2: e.g. creat+iv+ity; totalitar+ian+ism; 9

10 How does lexical phonology work? Let s consider the potential compound Plebeianism issues. The compound is derived by first submitting the base Plebe to suffixation of ian so as to produce the word Plebeian; The word Plebeian is then transferred to level 1 phonology box, where it receives the stress on the syllable preceding the suffix (e.g. Plebeian); Plebeian is then transferred to level 2 morphology to be attached the suffix ism, which, like all level 2 suffixes, is neutral; The word Plebeianismis sent back to level 2 morphology where it is inserted into a compound structure together with the right-hand element issues ; 10

11 The compound is transferred to level 2 phonology to receive compound stress. Here, it also receives plural marking; Back to level 2 phonology the morpheme s is interpreted phonologically. The word, at this point, can leave the lexicon and be inserted in the syntax; Points in favourof lexical phonology: it can explain the word order of many affix-affix combinations; It can shed light on the interaction between compounding and inflection and between conversion and inflection (i.e. a level 1 affix must attach before a level 2 affix because level 2 output cannot feed level 1); Or it can explain blocking of regular derived forms by existing synonymous forms; 11

12 Problems with lexical phonology: 1.the model does not say anything about possible and impossible combinations within a given level: 12.there are a number of attested suffix combinations that are unexpected under the assumptions of level ordering; It is not very clear what is behind the distinction between two strata and what properties allow an affix to be transferred to a given stratum: It is difficult to define the set of affixes a given stratum contains; 12