Lecture 12: Morphology II

[Note: these are lightly edited versions of overheads and notes used in class. They are provided in order to help you study, but they are not a substitute for coming to class and being prepared. The notes are incomplete, and will often be hard to make sense of if you were not in class.]

Outline

1. Productivity
2. Predictability
3. Allomorphy
4. Organization of mental dictionary

Brief synopsis: in word formation, as in phonology, we need to distinguish those things which we need to memorize about words on a word-by-word basis, and those things which we do not need to memorize on a word-by-word basis, because they follow from simple word formation rules.

If the word forms that a morpheme can create are quite regular and allows the creation of new word forms, then the morpheme is said to be productive.

If the word meanings that a morpheme can create are quite regular, and do not need to be memorized ona word-by-word basis, then the morpheme is said to be predictable.

1. Productivity

If mental dictionary contains just morphemes and rules for combining, then all rules should be entirely productive.

Entirely productive: English progressive

V + ing

 

running

walking

thinking

abrogating

mulching

dissing

being

having

going

etc.

Productive, but with some irregular forms: English past tense

V + ed, except for irregulars

wanted	kept
helped	went
damaged	sang
measured	rang
governed	hit
manufactured	sat

2. Predictability

Not productive, but predictable meaning, and widely available

A + ize 'make (something) A'

 

commercialize

modernize

standardize

relativize

prioritize

criminalize

But...

*pleasantize

*sickize

*worthyize

*terribilize

Partially productive, and only partially predictable

V + N "N that Vs"

 

tug-boat: boat that tugs

cry-baby: baby that cries

strong-box: box that is strong

watch-dog: dog that watches

light-house: house that lights

hit-man: man that hits

kill-joy: *joy that kills

break-water: *water that breaks

task-force: *force that tasks

spend-thrift: *thrift that spends

*teach-book:: book that teaches

*suck-course: course that sucks

Diseases, especially inflammatory ones

 

-itis

 

appendicitis

arthritis

sclerotitis

bronchitis

hepatitis

tonsillitis

bursitis

meningitis

dermatitis

 

Based on these forms and the novel forms below, we can conclude that the suffix '-itis' in English appears to be productive, although only in the narrow domain of disease-names.

 

Monday-morningitis

test-itis

olive-itis

Descriptions of People

-ist

 

anarchist

chartist

communist

leftist

Marxist

feminist

Calvinist

sado-masochist

 

pianist

violinist

saxophonist

guitarist

linguist

 

racist

sexist

 

age-ist

size-ist

separatist

unificationist

 

*drummist

*Lutherist

The suffix '-ist' seems to be productive in English, based on the fact that we can easily coin novel words using the '-ist' suffix. However, the suffix '-ist' has multiple meanings in English, corresponding to (i) "advocate of", (ii) "user of/expert in", and (iii) "detractor of". Although use (iii) is probably only a recently developed use of this morpheme, it appears to be the most productive.

Competition between different morphemes

Creating nouns from adjectives

	-ity	-th	-ness
sincere	sincerity	sincerth	?sincereness
chaste	chastity	*chasteth	?chasteness
scarce	scarcity	*scarceth	scarceness
curious	curiosity	*curiousth	curiousness
warm	*warmity	warmth	warmness
deep	*deepity	depth	deepness
wide	*widity	width	wideness
red	*reddity	*redth	redness
sick	*sickity	*sickth	sickness
pleasant	*pleasantity	*pleasanth	pleasantness
happy	*happity	happith	happiness

Generalization:

(1) -ity and -th are in competition with one another - complementary distribution

(2) -ness is generally available, and does not compete with -ity or -th

Systematic gaps

'-er': combines with adjectives to create comparative adjectives

sicker, faster, taller, happier, worthier, bigger, shorter, hotter, thinner,greener, redder, bluer

 

*thoughtfuler, *impracticaler, *reasonabler, *turquoiser, *emeralder

The difference between the possible and impossible forms above is phonological. All of the adjectives that allow the '-er' suffix are adjectives of one syllable, or adjectives of two syllables ending in the vowel [i]. All of the adjectives that disallow the '-er' suffix are longer.

Therefore, it seems that '-er' is productive in English, but that it is restricted to only apply to adjectives of a certain phonological size.

*funner

Why is "funner" bad (for most people)? It seems to be an adjective, and it has only one syllable. Possibility: "funner" is bad because "fun" is really a noun that is sometimes used as an adjective.

Test of this possibility: other short adjectives that are derived from nouns should also disallow the '-er' suffix. This seems to be accurate, based on the following forms:

*limer, *cherrier

Contents of Mental Lexicon

Fifth try...

• Morphemes
• Morphological rules
• Unpredictable and non-productive morpheme combinations

3. Allomorphy

English plural

N + s

 

cat+s

grip+s

block+s

surf+s

graph+s

month+s

 

dog+s

leg+s

card+s

car+s

grove+s

lathe+s

plaza+s

menu+s

 

maze+s

rose+s

marsh+es

rush+es

mass+es

page+s

basic/underlying morpheme

-s

allomorphs

/-s/ as in ships

/-z/ as in cribs

/-iz/ as in dishes

Environments

/-s/ after /p/, /t/, /k/, /th/, /f/

/-z/ after /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /a/, /u/, /r/, /l/ ...

/-iz/ after /s/, /z/, /sh/, /j/

 [next section to be discussed in class on Tuesday 10/19]

4. How is mental dictionary organized?

Comparison with printed dictionaries. Where would we expect to find a word like 'sign' in different kinds of dictionaries.

Standard dictionaries: alphabetical order, following spelling (not sounds)

sieve, sift, sigh, sign

 

"sign" wouldn't be anywhere near other words that have the same sounds at the beginning, e.g. "psychology", "cycle"

Rhyming dictionaries: organized according to sounds at end of words

sign, line, decline, resign, confine

Thesaurus: organized according to meaning

sign: symbol, emblem, badge, mark, flag

Tip-of-the-tongue states

"a navigational instrument used in measuring angular distances, especially the altitude of sun, moon and stars at sea" (Brown & McNeill 1966)

 

subjects were asked to ...

 

guess the initial letter?

what other words come to mind?

what words rhyme with it?

 

if they were unable to retrieve the word directly, some things they might nevertheless know are:

 

starts with /s/

sounds like "secant", "sextet"

meaning related to "compass"

doesn't sound like "sexy"

 

[By the way, the word they were looking for is sextant]

Anomia

"inability to retrieve words from mental dictionary"

Category-specific anomias

a. animate vs. inanimate

inanimate: ok (wheelbarrow, submarine, umbrella, briefcase, compass)

animate: impaired (wasp, duck, holly, ostrich, snail)

b. fruits and vegetables, or furniture terms selectively impaired!

Priming

Task: Is this a word in English? Press button for "yes" or "no" as quickly as possible.

NURSE

DRAGE

CAT

TEF

 

DOCTOR ... NURSE

DOG .... CAT

Looking up a word in the mental dictionary primes semantically related words. i.e. People are faster to judge that NURSE is a word of English if they have just read DOCTOR. This is understood to mean that looking up DOCTOR in the mental dictionary makes it easier to look up NURSE. Similar finding for DOG and CAT and thousands of other related words.

Conclusion from this: mental dictionary is semantically organized

Conclusion

Mental dictionary contains:

• morphemes
• rules for combining morphemes
• non-productive and non-predictable complex words

Organization:

• not organized in single list
• organized according to phonological and semantic properties