Morphology

• Word formation and structure

• Morpheme: free, bound

• Affix: prefix, suffix, etc.

• Inflection

• Derivation

• Mental Lexicon

How do A and B differ?

• A B• table deactivation• purple cats• run loudly• bright blackbird• many careful• of talking• => B words are morphologically complex.

Free Morphemes

• Can stand alone as words• table act• purple cat• run loud• bright black• many bird• of care• talk

Bound Morphemes (Cannot stand alone as words)

• Prefix

• de-activate, de-contaminate

• un-happy, un-lucky

• re-establish, re-assure

• dis-own, dis-member

• Suffix• cat-s, universitie-s• excite-ment, amaze-ment• burglar-ize, steril-ize• care-ful, will-ful• loud-ly, nice-ly, angri-ly• round-er, tall-er• talk-ing, sleep-ing

Derivation vs. Inflection

• Derivation creates new words.

• => Can change category and/or meaning

• Inflection produces grammatical variants of the same word.

• => Never changes category or meaning

Inflection

• cat (N) cats (N)

• talk (V) talked (V)

• big (Adj) bigger (Adj)

Inflection only changes grammatical form.

• Number (N): cat/catsdecision/decisions

• Case (N): Jane/Jane’s Mark/Mark’s

• Tense (V): shout/shouted/shouting

• Agreement (V): They run./(S)he runs.

Derivation

• Category Change

• act (V) => active (Adj)

• amaze (V) => amazement (N)

• sterile (Adj) => sterilize (V

• care (N) => careful (Adj)

• loud (Adj) => loudly (Adv)

• Derivation can also change meaning.

• accept + able

• read + er

• instrument + al

Derivation takes place before inflection.

• act+iv+ate+d

• *act+ed+iv+ate

• compart+ment+al+ize+d

• compart+ment+al+iz+ation

• *compart+ment+al+ize+d+ation

Mental Lexicon

• Morphemes and word formation processes are part of the mental lexicon.

• Derived words are stored in the mental lexicon.

Creative Word Formation

• Possible because we have a mental lexicon.

• shush

• shush-er

• shush-ee

• un-shush-able

• -er: V=>N– (N refers to the agent of V)

• -ee: V=>N – (N refers to the patient of V)

• -able: V=>Adj – (Adj expresses the possibility of V)

• un-: Adj1=>Adj2 – (Adj2 expresses the opposite of Adj1)

More New Words

• bogosity:

• => degree to which something is bogus

• bogos + -ity

• -ity: Adj=>N– (N expresses state or degree of Adj)– clarity, agility, ability

Even More Creative

• ambimoustrous:

• => capable of operating a mouse with either hand

• ambi- + mouse(tr) + -ous

• On analogy with ambidextrous

• ambi + dexter + ous