Systemic Linguistics: Core Linguistics

• words are signs • signifier = form =

morphology

(phonology) • signified = meaning =

semantics

(pragmatics) • combination of words = sentence structure =

syntax

Morphology: language types

•

analytic

languages signal grammatical relationships by word position in the sentence (= word order) •

synthetic

languages signal grammatical relationships by the shape of the words (=inflectional endings) • 1500 years ago,

English

was much more synthetic than it is today. It has changed into a more

analytic

language

Morphology

• definition : morphology studies the smallest meaningful units, called 'morphemes' • morpheme ≠ phoneme (pit vs. bit) • morpheme ≠ word (blueberry, autobus) • morpheme ≠ syllable (mo-ther)

•

types of morphemes:

• •

a) free morphemes

: may occur on their own and are used freely according to the rules of sentence structure, for example 'boy', 'tree', 'church', 'go', 'leave', 'love'

.

b) bound morphemes (affixes)

: cannot usually stand alone but are attached to a free morpheme (= 'base'), e.g 're-', '-ed', ' s'.

•

types of bound morphemes:

• - prefixes (in-, re-) • - suffixes (-dom, -ship) • - infixes (heim-ge-kommen) • - circumfixes (heim-ge-kehr-t)

•

morpheme, morph and allomorph

• morphemes are ideal abstract units, whereas the corresponding morphs can show some variation • morphs are concrete manifestations of a morphome • allomorphs are variations of morphemes • /z/ in "dogs, beds" • /s/ in "cats" • /iz/ in "garages"

overview of the discipline

Inflection

Morphology

Derivation Word-Formation Compounding

•

types of inflection

• a)

declension

pronouns of nouns, adjectives, and • b)

conjugation

of verbs.

•

derivational morphemes (affixes)

used for

word formation

are

Word formation

• • •

word formation processes a) derivation definition: a combination of a free and bound morpheme(s)

- by far the most common word formation process in the production of new words

• examples of derivation:

derivation: exceptions •

Cranberry morph(eme)s

are bound morphemes which occur in only one derivation (or compound) but nowhere else: e.g.

cranberry, inane, umpteen

• similar words (

strawberry, inactive, thirteen

) suggest that they are indeed morphemes • cranberry morphs are relics of words which have died out in other uses

• •

b) compounding definition: a combination two or more free morphemes

• German is notorious for long words (e.g. Weihnachtsbaumschmuckvertriebsorganis ationshandbuchverkäufer), compounds in English do not usually exceed two units

• examples of compounding:

• •

Endocentric compounds

: the compound is an instance of the thing denoted by the last constituent (e.g.

houseboat

is a type of

boat

,

boathouse

is a type of

house

; a person who is

seasick

is

sick

)

Exocentric compounds

: the compound does not refer to an entity denoted by either constituent (a

paleface

is not a type of face, but a person who has a pale face)

• • examples of exocentric compounds:

paleface, redskin, redneck, skinhead, bigfoot, pickpocket

Copulative compounds

: both constituents refer to the entity denoted by the whole compound. An

owner-builder

is both an owner of a house and its builder.

• e.g.

singer-songwriter, bittersweet, deaf mute

• compounds need to be defined on several linguistic levels • morphology (free morphemes) • phonology (stress on the first element) • semantics (unity)

minor word formation processes

• c)

coinage

: means the invention of totally new terms • the most typical cases are invented trade names for a company’s product which become general terms for any version of that product (without initial capital letters) e.g. 'xerox', 'kleenex' or 'aspirin'

•

d) conversion

: involves a change in the function of a word, e.g. when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction or change) • E.g. ‘to paper a wall’ (paper) or ‘a must’ (from the verb ‘must')

• •

e) acronymy

: acronyms are formed from the initial letters of a set of other words acronyms are pronounced as single words, e.g. 'NATO', 'RADAR', 'LASER' (unlike in the case of 'CD', which is an initialism)

•

f) backformation

: means a special type of reduction process: a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form another word of a different type (usually a verb) • E.g. ‘donate’ (from donation), ‘babysit’ (from babysitter) and ‘televise’ (from television)

•

g) blending

: means a combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term. Blending usually involves taking the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word • E.g. ‘smog’, ‘brunch’ and ‘modem’

•

h) clipping

: means that a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a shorter form • E.g. ‘bus’, ‘ad’ and ‘bra’

•

i) borrowing

: refers to the taking over of words from other languages • English has adopted a great number of loan-words throughout its history • E.g. ‘yogurt’ (Turkish) and ‘alcohol’ (Arabic)