class 5 morphemes and their properties iii: semantic density · 2015-07-09 · morphemes iii:...

Morphology

Class 5

Morphemes and their

properties III: semantic

density

FS 2014

Rik van Gijn

Morphemes III: semantic density

This class is about the semantics of morphemes, more particular about

how much semantic information can be packed into morphemes, and

how you should analyse this. We also look at the level of the word and

how much semantics can fit in there

√ Exponence

√ Synthesis

√ Polysemy

√ Lexicalization

Goal of this class


Morpheme

Today we move to the meaning part of morphemes, and challende the

ideal picture presented below

Form

Meaning

concrete abstract

concrete abstract

consistent variable

consistent variable

Morpheme


Exceptions to the 1-form-1-meaning «ideal» are in fact abundant. They

are of several types

Exceptions to the pattern one form one meaning

Form

Form

Meaning

Morpheme

-ed -t

ablaut

-d Shortening

suppletion

past

Form Meaning

>1 1





Form

Form

Meaning

Morph

Tagalog (Austronesian)

Intsik ka-intsik-an

‘Chinese person’ ‘the Chinese’

pulo ka-pulu-an’

‘island’ ‘archipelago’

German (Germanic, IE)

der Stab / die Stäbe der Turm / die Türme die Not / die Nöte der Wald / die Wälder das Haus / die Häuser

Form Meaning

>1 1





Morpheme

Form Meaning

1 >1

Form

Meaning

Meaning

Morpheme

English (Germanic, IE)

in-put in-equality

apple-s see-s

gold-en dark-en





Form

Meaning

Meaning

Morph

Spanish (Romance, IE)

habl-ó

speak-3SG.PAST.PERF.IND

‘He spoke.’

Form Meaning

1 >1





Meaning Morph

English (Germanic, IE)

noun verb

hammer hammer

plant plant

ship ship

walk walk

drink drink

Form Meaning

0 1

Conversion





Meaning Morph

Yurakaré (Isolate)

bata-y ‘I go’

bata-m ‘You go’

bata ‘S/he goes’

bata-tu ‘We go’

bata-p ‘You (pl) go’

bata-w ‘They go’

Form Meaning

0 1





Meaning Morph

Maori (Austronesian)

active passive gloss

huri huri-h-ia ‘turn’

inu inu-m-ia ‘drink’

karanga karanga-t-ia ‘call’

mau mau-r-ia ‘seize’

paa paa-ng-ia ‘touch’

tomo tomo-k-ia ‘enter’

Form Meaning

-1 1





Form Morph

Spanish (Romance, IE)

habl-o corr-o

habl-a-s corr-e-s

habl-a corr-e

habl-a-mos corr-e-mos

habl-a-is corr-e-is

habl-a-n corr-e-n

Form Meaning

1 0



This raises two related problems (which have not been solved in

morphology):

1. What is a morpheme?

2. How do we decide whether we are talking about one and the same

morpheme?


What is a morpheme?

Concrete - - - - - - Abstract

invariant concatenative concatenative ablaut zero

concatenative w. predictable w. unpredictable etc.

allomophy allomorphy

Some morphological operations on a scale of formal concreteness

forms processes


What is a morpheme?

Two broad theoretical extremes:

Morphemes are formal units stored in the

lexicon

There are word forms, features and association

rules


What is a morpheme?

morphome

morpheme morpheme

morph morph morph morph

unpredictable variants

predictable variants


What is a morpheme?

PLURAL

-z -en (oxen)

-ez -s morph morph

unpredictable variants

predictable variants


What is a morpheme?

Formative (Bickel & Nichols 2007)

Marker of inflectional information

Can be linear or nonlinear

Can be free or bound

Can have different lexically determined allomorphs

Can have one meaning or several meanings at the same time


How do we decide between single and different morpheme?

Regularity is an important criterion for recognizing a morpheme

MEANING

ACROSS CONTEXTS

FORM

ACROSS CONTEXTS

Regular Irregular

Regular Single morpheme

Irregular Different morphemes




MEANING

ACROSS CONTEXTS

FORM

ACROSS CONTEXTS

Regular Irregular

Regular Single morpheme

Irregular Unpredictable

allomorphy Different morphemes

Complementary distribution, see next week




MEANING

ACROSS CONTEXTS

FORM

ACROSS CONTEXTS

Regular Irregular

Regular Single morpheme Vague or unclear semantics

Irregular Unpredictable

allomorphy Different morphemes



Some ingredients of regularity of morphemes

(apart from phonetic form)

1. Consistency of meaning across contexts

2. Consistency of resulting category

3. Consistency of base category

4. Consistency of the range of allomorphs

5. Consistency of effects on the base



See data sheet

1. Consistency of meaning across contexts

(a) earth-en (b) broad-en

flax-en damp-en

gold-en dark-en

lead-en deaf-en

silk-en hard-en

wheat-en light-en

wood-en sick-en

wool(l)-en soft-en

≈ made of X ≈ cause to be

(more) X

Data from Bauer (2003) Introducing linguistic

morphology. Edinburgh UP



2. Consistency of resulting category

3. Consistency of base category

(a) earth-en (b) broad-en

flax-en damp-en

gold-en dark-en

lead-en deaf-en

silk-en hard-en

wheat-en light-en

wood-en sick-en

wool(l)-en soft-en

N A A V



4. Consistency of the range of allomorphs

(a) in-come (b) in-dependent

in-door in-direct

in-house in-edible

in-land in-eligible

in-lay in-eloquent

in-put in-equality

in-set in-sociable

in-shore in-solvent

in-tangible

in-transitive

illigitimate irregular

inland inroad




(a) ín-come (b) in-dependent

ín-door in-direct

ín-hóuse in-edible

ín-land in-eligible

ín-lay in-eloquent

ín-put in-equality

ín-set in-sociable

ín-shóre in-solvent

in-tangible

in-transitive




(a) summer-y (b) democrac-y

jitter-y diplomac-y

salt-y spectroscop-y

Change of final /t/ Stress shift

No change of final /t/ No stress change




(a) summer-y (b) democrac-y

jitter-y diplomac-y

salt-y spectroscop-y


Unclear semantics


in- ex- con- re- trans- de-

-port

-mit

-ceive

-duce

-cede

-fer

-scribe

-gress

-sist


Vague semantics

Dutch conversion

Noun Verb

bier ‘‘beer’’ bier ‘‘drink beer’’

kaas ‘‘cheese’’ kaas ‘‘produce cheese’’

melk ‘‘milk’’ melk ‘‘take milk from an animal’’

tafel ‘‘table’’ tafel ‘‘dine’’

water ‘‘water’’ water ‘‘urinate’’

Some activity involving X

From Booij (2007) The grammar of words.

Oxford UP UP


Extended semantics

Dutch diminutives

kind ‘‘child’’ kind-je ‘‘small child, darling’’

broek ‘‘trousers’’ broek-je ‘‘panties’’

Geert ‘‘boy’s name’’ Geert-je ‘‘girl’s name’’

bier ‘‘beer’’ bier-tje ‘‘glass of beer’’

man ‘‘man’’ mann-e-tje ‘‘small man, little boy, unofficial worker’’

auto ‘‘car’’ autoo-tje ‘‘small, inexpensive car, toy car’’

From Booij (2007) The grammar of words.

Oxford UP UP


Multiple semantics

habl -ó 3SG.PAST.PERF.IND


Multiple semantics

habl -ó 3SG.PAST.PERF.IND

habl -é 1SG.PAST.PERF.IND

habl -a 3SG-PRES.IND

habl -aba 3SG.PAST.IMPF.IND

habl -ara/ase 3SG.PAST.SUBJ


Typological parameter: Exponence

The degree to which different categories are grouped together in

single, indivisable morphemes

Values: cumulative, separative


Multiple semantics

sg. pl.

nom. kitap kitap-lar

acc. kitab-ı kitap-lar-ı

gen. kitab-ın kitap-lar-ın

dat. kitab-a kitap-lar-a

abl. kitap-tan kitap-lar-dan

sg. pl.

nom. liber libr-i

acc. libru-m libro-s

gen. libr-i libro-rum

dat. libr-o libr-is

abl. libr-o libr-is

Turkish case, plural: separative Latin case, plural: cumulative


Synthesis

The degree to which different categories are grouped together in words

Spanish

habl-ó

speak-3SG.PAST.PERF.IND

‘He spoke.’

Yurakaré (Van Gijn 2006) ti-ma-y-mala-ma 1SG-3PL-GO-go.SG-IMP.SG ‘Go and get them for me!’

Lai Chin (Bickel & Nichols 2007)

Tsew Máŋ niʔ ʔa-ka-t̪hoʔŋ

Tsew Máŋ ERG 3SG.A-1SG.P-hit

‘Tsew Mang hit me.’


Synthesis

Analytic word

Few categories, if any apart from the root.

Synthetic word

Elaborate number of categories

Polysynthetic word

Elaborate number of categories and lexical roots


Synthesis

Turkish

tan-ıs-tır-ıl-a-ma-dık-lar-ın-dan-dır.

know-RECIP-CAUS-PASS-POT-NEG-NZR-PL-3POSS-ABL-3COP

‘It is because they cannot be introduced to each other.’

(lit., ‘[it] is from their not being able to be made known to each other.’)


Polysynthesis

Yup’ik Eskimo (Eskimo-Aleut; Alaska; Mithun 1999)

kai-pia-llru-llini-u-k

be.hungry-really-PT-apparently-IND-3DU

‘The two of them were apparently really hungry.’

Yimas (Lower Sepik-Ramu; Papua New Guinea; Foley 1991)

paŋkra-kaykaykay-kwalca-mpi-kulanaŋ-tal-kia-ntu-ŋkt.

1PAUC.S-quickly-rise-SEQ-walk-start-at.night-REM.PT-PAUC

‘We few got up at night and quickly started to walk.’

>> see “compounding”


Synthesis

Balthasar Bickel, Johanna Nichols. 2013. Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb. In: Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at http://wals.info/chapter/22, Accessed on 2014-03-12.)

class 5 morphemes and their properties iii: semantic density · 2015-07-09 · morphemes iii:...

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