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Morphsyntax
Unit 1. The Science of Language. Introduction and Terminology
Stem, Base and Root
All of this terms are used in literature to designate the part of a word that remains when all the affixes have been removed.
- The root is a form which can’t be analyse furthermore just in terms of derivational or inflectional morphology. It is the part that remains when all the inflections and affixes have been removed. It is the basic form that is always present in the lexeme. - un-touch-ables → ‘touch’ is the root, ‘able’ is the first suffix, ‘un’ the prefix and ‘-s’ the final suffix. - wheel-chair → it is a two root word-form. First we have ‘wheel’ and then ‘chair’.
- The stem is the one that deals with the inflectional morphology.
- untouchable is the stem of untouchables although in the form touched, the stem is touch.
- Wheelchair is the stem of wheelchairs even though it contains two roots.
- The base is any form to which affixes can be added which makes any base or root to be called a base.
What is morphsyntax?
It is the study of the morphological and syntactic properties of the linguistic and grammatical units. It contains the rules that determine the relation between one linguistic form and another, defines by morphological and syntactic criteria.
Morphsyntax focuses on units such as phonemes, affixes, morphemes, lexemes and phrasal constituents. It also follows several criteria: sequential dependency (x’ bar) and pre and post modification (complementation).
What is morphology?
Morphology is a very functional part of language usage that need to be inserted into the other major linguistic levels.
- Ambiguity in morphology
- un-lockable = [un-[lock-able]] – it can’t be locked
- unlock-able = [[un-lock]-able] – can be unlocked
Interfaces
Interfaces are theoretical developments that have taken place in generative linguistics in the last decades and have crucially altered many of the assumptions of early work. Interface refers to a connection.
- Semantic interfaces → ever since Chomsky’s “colorless green trees slept furiously” which is grammatically correct but at the same time the utterances are unacceptable but they have co existed since then.
Semantics plays two very important roles:
- Theta theory, welcome inclusion.
- Mental lexicon, it helps us understand how language is acquired and also retrieved.
Connect to semantic meanings:
un + v = undo, reversative frame un + V + able = undoable, negative frame
DO
- Syntax interfaces → one of the basic questions concerning the relation between syntax and morphology is how to provide a structural representation for morphologically complex words, we do so by generating the morphological structure of complex words by means of X-bar principles. - Universal: EPP, every sentence has a subject. - Unique: PRO drop parameter vs overt subject.
The Genitive in X’ bar
- Phonology Interfaces → we have the minimal pairs, those words who are written differently but their sound when we pronounce them is the exact same. We can also do some contrast with Spanish and what is voiced and unvoiced.
Phonemes vs Morphemes
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound and together with it, we have the allophones which are two or more variants of the same phoneme. For example, when we have the aspirated \p\ of pin; the unaspirated \p\ of spin. Both of them are allophones of the phoneme \p.
A morpheme is the smalles unit of language that has its own meaning, it can be a word or be part of another word. A phoneme is not a morpheme. Inside morphemes, we have allomorphs which are variants forms of morphemes, that is, when a unit of meaning varies in sound without changing meaning. For example the past tenses or plural morphemes. Morphemes are also NOT syllables.
- Base (semantic and lexical element)
- Affix (prefix, suffix, infix)
- Inflected, tense (-s, -ing, -ed, -en), possesion ‘s, plurals, agreement…
- Derives, -tion, -ness, -un, -non, -il, -able, -ity…
- Lexeme (word) dog, under, underdog, bed, room, bedroom.
DOABleUnprefprefV’V’prefVUnPrefVV’ The studentS’D’NPprogramDPDP
Derived
- morphemes (base, root) can or might not stand alone. - morphemes (affix) can be prefix or suffix and are considere bound.
________ ________ ________ ________ _______ ________ ________ ________
♦ Find three derivatives : excep-tion-ally, re-view, teach-er-‘s ♦ Explain phonemics interfaces:
- Teachers vs Boxes different pronounciation but both of them are plural /iz/ vs /z/
- Kissed vs Belonged different sound but same function, /st/ vs /d/ ♦ Find all references to tense: amazed, will, belonged, kissed, turned, didn’t. ♦ Find three verbs with zero inflection: remembering (non-finite), begin (bare infinitive) ♦ Find an inflectional morpheme that is not tense boxes, teacher’s.
Interfaces
What happens to the interface now? It will dependo n the type of analysis.
- Lexical parts – base, root (D), stem (i)
- Unlockable, wheelchair, man/men.
- Morpho/Grammatical parts (Bound) -- affixes [possesion, tense, agreement (number, person), gender and wordformation]
Transition from interfaces to ítem and arrangment vs item and process
- IA word, category. - IP phrasal constituent units.
Item and arragment is more linear while item and process is more sequential Both models involve morphemes. The past participle of English ‘come’ does not fit weel in the item and arragment model because it seems strange to mar kan inflection with nothing, but it does fir in the item and process model, where it is in a category of words for which the process of forming the past participle adds nothing to the original.
Item and Arragment linear (x+plural)(x+ed) Dog >> dogs prices increase prices increased prices come down prices came down Words are seen as linear sequences of morphs and they are analyzed as involving no process at all but only a permissive sequence of morphemes. The item and arragment model is ths essentially morphemic, but non-processual.
Item and Process sequential. The process model is more explicative for English. There has been an increase in prices Prices have come down Come here! The item and process model work on the conception that wordforms constitute paired features of structure and function. Morphology is regarded as a set of derivational processes.
How do we choose?
- Word level IA for derivative processes (word/category)(no elements inserted).
- Dog > dogs act > activity > action
- Happy > Happiness Satisfy > Satisfaction
- Believe > Belief < Unbelievable
- Phrase level IP for inflectional processes that allows for layered approach.
- He walked down He did not walk down
- Down he carefully walked
- John’s
- Believe > Believed
- – empty IP provides a better interface between morphology and syntax. Morphology is regarded as a set of derivational processes, acting on morphemes or words, producing new word- forms. In turn there words have categories and these categories of words form phrasal units.
Hence in IP, there is recursión. This is indeed out model using constituents and phrasal analysis.
NP are projections of the functional DP which can create empty categories.
- He is on the table empty D
- The book is on the table ---
- Their sister’s book is on the table recursive DP
DP Recursion and Genitive
Their daughter’s constant failing of her classes
CP
C’ IP
C IP` VP
Ø IP
DP
DP D`
D’ NP D NP
D N’ ‘s N’
Their N N’ daughter PP N’ of her classes
N
AdjP failing
