Week 1 Morphology and Syntax [PDF]

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I INTRODUCTION: MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX Every speaker of a language knows thousands of words and also knows how to arrange words to become a sentence. Knowing a word means knowing both its sound and its meaning, and knowing the internal structure of a word. Knowing a sentence means knowing how to arrange words to become a meaningful sentence, and knowing the internal structure of a sentence. Those two knowledges are discussed under the study of Morphology and Syntax. So far we have studied speech sounds and the phoneme through phonetics and phonology, and now we will examine the morpheme and the word through morphology, and then we want to look at the largest unit, the sentence which is the object of study in syntax. Parts of the meaning of a sentence is found in the words of which it is composed, but sentence meaning is more than the sum of the meanings of words. Rules of grammar determine how morpheme and words can combine to express specific meaning of a sentence. 1. Defining Morphology The word morphology is derived from the Greek word morphe and logos. Morph means form, and logos means science. So, morphology may be considered to be the science or the study about the form of language. The smallest independent form of language is word which is composed from morphemes as the smallest meaningful unit of language. There are some definitions of morphology proposed by linguists. Morphology is the subfield of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words and the interrelationships among words (Akmajian, Demers, and Harnish, 1984). Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words and of the rules by which words are formed (Fromkin and Rodman, 1988). Morphology is the level of linguistic study concerned with the internal structure of words and rules of word formation (Katamba, 1993). Morphology is the system of categories and rules involved in the creation and interpretation of complex words (O’Grady and Dobrovolsky, 1993).



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Morphology serves as “a bridge between the syntax of a language and its phonology” (Brown and Miller 1980:161). Phonology is the subfield of linguistics that studies the systematic patterning of sounds in human language, while syntax studies the interrelationship among the internal parts of sentences such as words, phrases and clauses. So, morphology studies the rules governing the formation of words after someone knows the systematic patterns of sounds in language and has relationship to the internal parts of sentences. The topics to be discussed in morphology are between morphemes as the minimal units of meaning and words as independent unit of language composed from morphemes. Morpheme is the smallest meaningful grammatical unit. The morpheme is the basic unit that combines to form words. A word may be “defined as the minimum independent linguistic unit having an identifiable meaning and grammatical function with a fairly consistent phonological shape” (Aitchison, 1992). There are two basic types of morphemes, bound and free morphemes. Bound morphemes cannot stand on their own, and make meaning. They attach to free morphemes to add meaning. Bound morphemes are further subdivided into affixes that comprise prefixes, infixes and suffixes. In English, morphemes like -tion as in combination, and -ly as in kindly are bound morphemes. The word is the basis of the distinction that is always made between morphology (the study of the internal structure of words) and syntax (the study of sentence structure). 2. Defining Syntax The sentence is made up of words, phrases and clauses. Syntax, therefore, is the study of how words are arranged to form sentences. Here are some definitions of syntax: a. Syntax is the subfield of linguistics that studies the internal structure of sentences and the interrelationships among the internal parts (Akmajian, Demers, and Harnish, 1984). b. Syntax is the part of grammar that concerns the structure of phrases and sentences (Fromkin and Rodman, 1988). c. “Syntax is the branch of linguistics that is concerned with how words are arranged to build up longer expressions” (Ndimele 1999:77).



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d. “The term syntax as used in its broadest sense refers to both the arrangement and the forms of word. It is the part of language which links together the sound patterns and the meaning” (Aitchison 1992:8). e. “Syntax is the aspect of grammar of a language which deals with how words are put together to form sentences and how such sentences are interpreted in natural languages” (Yusuf 1997:1). Based on the definitions given above, it is obvious that syntax uses words as the building blocks to produce phrases, clauses and sentences. The words themselves, when used in isolation will not make much meaning. Also when the words are combined in a haphazard manner, they will not make any sense. These points to the fact that a native speaker of a language will recognize when not properly arranged words in a sentence in line with the rules of sentence formation. But where does syntax begin? For most scholars, doing the syntax of a language begins with the identification of the word classes, which are traditionally known as the ‘parts of speech’. Word classes are conventional labels such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. and are so classified on account of their syntactic behaviour/function (where they can occur in an expression), their form and meaning. However, of these three criteria (function, form and meaning) function is the most important since a particular word can be grouped into different word classes because of its function. In this unit, we shall begin the study of syntax by examining the different word classes since it is the words in these classes that are used to build phrases, clauses and sentences. 3. The Identification of Morphemes One of the first tasks that confront the linguist in examining a new language is the identification of minimal meaningful units of which the language is composed. These minimal units are called morphemes. For example, in the English words boyish, return, and maddening can be broken down into the minimal meaningful unit boy and –ish, reand turn, and mad, -en, ing. The process by which this is accomplished appears that we compared words. In order to identify the morphemes we must have certain partially similar forms in which we can recognize recurring partials. We compare and isolate, and it is only by such comparison with other forms that we can discover morphemes.



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3.1. Principles Employed in the Identification of Morphemes Nida (1963) mentioned that there are six principles that we may apply in isolating and identifying morphemes. None of the principles is complete in itself; each is supplementary to the basic definition and must be considered so. If each were interpreted as being exclusive of all situations not specifically noted in the principle, the statements would be contradictory.



Principle 1 Forms which have a common semantic distinctiveness and an identical phonemic form in all their occurrences constitute a single morpheme. Exercise 1 Examine the following set of forms in an Aztec dialect of Veracruz. 1. [nicoka]



‘I cry’



2. [nicoka?]



‘I cried’



3. [nimayana]



‘I am hungry’



4. [nimayana?]



‘I was hungry’



5. [nimayanaya]



‘I was hungry (and may still be)’



6. [timayana]



‘You (sg.) are hungry’



7. [nimayanas]



‘I will be hungry’



8. [ticoka]



‘you (sg.) cry’



9. [nicokaya]



‘I was crying (and may still be)’



10. [nicokas]



‘I will cry’



Steps in Procedure: 1. Compare forms and meanings, beginning with the first of the series. 2. Having isolated a possible form-meaning distinction, check it throughout the series. 3. Isolate and check all possible form-meaning distinctions. 4. Look for residues, and assign these to morphemes or reserve them for further check.



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Principle 2 Forms which have a common semantic distinctiveness but which differ in phonemic form (i.e. the phoneme or order of the phonemes) may constitute a morpheme provided the distribution of formal differences is phonologically definable. Exercise 2 Identify the morphemes based on the following data. 1. hman



‘I buy’



2. ak’an



‘you (sg.) want’



3. man



‘to buy’



4. slap



‘he dresses’



5. k’an



‘to want’



6. kil



‘I see’



7. awal



‘you (sg.) say’



8. il



‘to see’



9. lap



‘to dress’



10. yu?



‘he drinks’



11. al



‘to say’



12. u?



‘to drink’



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Principle 3 Form which have a common semantic distinctiveness but which differ in phonemic form in such away that their distribution cannot be phonologically defined constitute a single morpheme if the forms are in complementary distribution in accordance with the following restrictions: 1. Occurrence in the same structural series has precedence over occurrence in different structural series in the determination of morphemic status. 2. Complementary distribution in different structural series constitutes a basis for combining possible allomorphs into one morpheme only if there also occurs in these different structural series a morpheme which belongs to the same distribution class as the allomorphic series in question and which itself has only one allomorph or phonologically defined allomorphs. 3. Immediate tactical environments have precedence over non-immediate tactical environments in determining morphemic status. 4. Contrast in identical distributional environments may be treated as submorphemic if the difference in meaning of the allomorphs reflects the distribution of these forms. Exercise 3 Identify the morphemes based on the following data. 1. betan



‘to loan’



1a. bet



‘debt’



2. ?ipan



‘to nourish’



2a. ?ip



‘strength’



3. ?elk’an



‘to steal’



3a. ?elek



‘stealing’



4. k’opan



‘to speak with’



4a. k’op



‘speech’



5. ?abatin



‘to serve’



5a. ?abat



‘servant’



6. ?inamin



‘to take a wife’



6a. ?inam



‘wife’



7. helolin



‘to be one’s namesake’



7a. helol



‘namesake’



8. mulin



‘to commit sin’



8a. mul



‘sin’



9. waycin



‘to dream of’



9a. wayic



‘dream’



10. wayibin



‘to use for bed’



10a. wayib



‘bed’



11. mak’lin



‘to provide food for’



11a. mak’



‘to divide in pieces’



12. c’aklin



‘to accompany’



12a. c’ak



‘to join’



13. hawc’un



‘to fall backwards’



13a. hawc’



‘fall backwards’



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Principle 4 An overt formal difference in a structural series constitutes a morpheme if in any member of such a series, the overt formal difference and a zero structural difference are the only significant features for distinguishing a minimal unit of phonetic-semantic distinctiveness. Exercise 4 Identify the morphemes by comparing the stems as found in the corresponding infinitives. 1. walked



8. jumped



15. kept



2. played



9. pounded



16. meant



3. ran



10. cut



17. rang



4. hit



11. split



18. swam



5. met



12. spit



19. rode



6. worked



13. sang



20. slept



7. fought



14. bled



21. bought



Principle 5 Homophonous forms are identifiable as the same or different morphemes on the basis of the following conditions: 1. Homophonous forms with distinctly different meanings constitute different morphemes. 2. Homophonous forms with related meanings constitute a single morpheme if the meaning classes are paralelled by distributional differences, but they constitute multiple morphemes if the meaning classes are not paralleled by distributional differences.



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Exercise 5 Identify the morphemes. 1. nikwa



‘I eat’



8. nikwah



‘I ate’



2. tikwa



‘you (sg.) eat’



9. tikwah



‘ you (sg.) ate’



3. kwa



‘he eats’



10. kwah



‘he ate’



4. nikwah



‘we (excl.) eat’



11. nikwake ‘ we (excl.) ate’



5. tikwah



‘we (incl.) eat’



12. tikwake ‘we (incl.) ate’



6. ankwah



‘you (pl.) eat’



13. ankwake ‘you (pl.) ate’



7. kwah



‘they eat’



14. kwake



‘they ate’



Principle 6 A morpheme is isolatable if it occurs under the following conditions: 1. In isolation. 2. In multiple combinations in at least one of which the unit with which it is combined occurs in isolation or in other combinations. 3. In a single combination provided the element with which it is combined occurs in isolation or in other combinations with nonunique constituents. Exercise 6 Determine the condition of isolatability of the prefixal and suffixal morphemes. 1. inky



1a. milky



1b. cheeky



1c. sticky



2. friendly



2a. manly



2b. cowardly



2c. womanly



3. president



3a. correspondent 3b. student



3c. regent



4. adulterous



4a. vociferous



4b. venous



4c. anonymous



5. directness



5a. rightness



5b. stillness



5c. illness



6. detachment



6a. merriment



6b. torment



6c. shipment



7. archaism



7a. methodism



7b. theism



7c. fetishism



8. regal



8a. legal



8b. frugal



8c. cojugal



9. realize



9a. moralize



9b. actualize



9c. atomize



10. denude



10a. deodorize



10b. delouse



10c. debunk



11. beguile



11a. behold



11b. belabor



11c. belittle



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12. impart



12a. intend



12b. import



12c. infect



13. intolerable



13a. impossible



13b. improbable



13c. intangible



14. evolve



14a. evoke



14b. evade



14c. erode



15. retain



15a. revolve



15b. resist



15c. retail



3.2. The Analysis of Words In the previous part it has been introduced the segmentation of words into the smallest abstract units of meaning or grammatical function. These units are called morphemes. We saw that the analysis of words into morphemes begins with the contrasting of pairs of utterances which are partially different in sound and meaning. Word forms are segmented into morphemes. Any morphemes that represent the same meaning are grouped together as allomorphs of that morpheme. Meaning plays a role in this, but the main principle used is that of distribution. Morphemes are listed as allomorphs of the same morpheme if they are in complementary distribution, i.e. if they are realization of the same morpheme in different context. Sometimes a morpheme has a single allomorph. Normally, the distribution of allomorphs is phonologically conditioned. The relationship between allomorphs has a phonetic motivation. A single underlying (base) form is postulated and the phonetic representation of the various allomorphs is derived from it using phonological rules. But sometimes allomorphs may be grammatically conditioned or even lexically conditioned, i.e. particular allomorph is selected if either a particular grammatical element or a particular word is present. Occasionally there is a suppletion, which means that an allomorph bears no phonetic similarity to other allomorphs of the same morpheme.



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