Morphological Change Flashcards Preview

LING3003 > Morphological Change > Flashcards

Flashcards in Morphological Change Deck (19)
Loading flashcards...
1
Q

What is morphology & morphological categories?

A

The study of the grammatical structure of words and the categories realised by them.

  • part of grammar along with syntax

A CATEGORY is ‘morphological’ if it is realised withIN words rather than through word ORDER(syntax).

2
Q

Sound change vs other change?

A

easier to study sound change - it is regular but other change is not regular. it is easier to find evidence of sound change, structural change is harder to detect

3
Q

Morpheme types

A
  1. Lexical [Free]
    e. g. girl
  2. Grammatical [Bound]
    - Inflectional (employ + -s)
    - Derivational (un- + employ + -ment)
4
Q

Morphological change as a result of regular sound change

A

When a sound change produces new allomorphs
The regular sound change
s > r/ V_V
in Latin also gave rise to morphological change because many lexemes gained a new allomorph following that sound change
e.g. the FLOWER lexeme developed a second allomorph so that there was an alternation between two forms depending on context
flōs ~ flōr-

5
Q

What is ANALOGY?

A

a process whereby ONE FORM in a lang BECOMES more like ANOTHER FORM with which it is somehow ASSOCIATED

“internal borrowing” - a lang may “borrow” some of its own patterns to change other patterns

phonological change = (often) unconcious, ANALOGY depends on speaker’s (semi-)CONSCIOUS recognition of similarity

  1. SOUND CHANGE GIVES RISE TO ALLOMORPHY IN THE STEM OF CERTAIN NOUNS
  2. SPEAKERS REGULARISE PARADIGM VIA ANALOGY
    Latin: s > r/ V_V
    arbos > arbor
    honos > honor
6
Q

Analogical change and paradigms

A

Analogical change often takes place within morphological paradigms and affects the forms in these paradigms.

7
Q

What is a paradigm?

A

Paradigmatic relations are essentially SUBSTITUTION relations — they hold between ITEMS of the SAME CLASS/CATEGORY

A MORPHOLOGICAL PARADIGM = SET of diff grammatical FORMS of a particular LEXEME
Be = is, was, are, am were, etc

Paradigm codes differences in MORPHOLOGICAL CATEGORIES - PARAMETERS ALONG WHICH FORMS VARY
–> diff P.O.S. have diff paradigms, depending on the Morph categories they inflect for.
(nouns inflect for number, adjectives inflect for comparison)

8
Q

Why is analogy so important in explaining morphological change?

A

Forms in morph paradigms = often similar.
Similarity in FORM of diff members of a morph paradigm is a DIAGRAM of the similarity in FUNCTION
> forms in a morph paradigm - Not (usually) arbitrary. They bear FORMAL RELATIONSHIP to one another
> Speakers = AWARE of these relos and seek to MAXIMISE them
»»> regularise via analogy

9
Q

2 types of analogy

A

ANALOGICAL EXTENSION is the extension or generalisation of the morphological pattern of one lexeme to another.

ANALOGICAL LEVELLING is the extension, or generalisation, of one allomorph of a lexeme within a paradigm.

10
Q

Analogical extension EXAMPLE

A

English plurals:
Old eng
hand handa
stān stānas

Modern English
hand hands
stone stones

often called :four part analogy: A = B : C = D

11
Q

ANALOGICAL EXTENSION

A

extension or generalisation of the morphological pattern of one lexeme to another.

NOT A REGULAR PROCESS
- same analogical process not necessarily affect all lexemes that could potentially be subject to the change
eg - irregular plurals “men” not “mans”

12
Q

ANALOGICAL LEVELLING

A

Analogical levelling reduces the number of distinct allomorphs a form has, it serves to make paradigms more regular. Paradigms tend towards the ideal:

one meaning: one form
(humboldts universal)

sturtevants paradox - analogical levelling used to “undo” irregularity created by sound change

13
Q

Sturtevant’s paradox

A

Sound change is regular but creates irregularity, analogy is irregular but creates regularity.

14
Q

Markedness

A

There are UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES as to which exponents of a Morpho-syntactic category are FORMALLY MARKED and FORMALLY UNMARKED

seems to be a correlation between absence of formal marking and semantic unmarkedness

15
Q

What are the universal tendencies for which categories are unmarked?

A
synchronic tendency:
SEMANTICALLY UNMARKED exponents of categories
eg
1. SINGULAR Number
2. NOMINATIVE case
3. THIRD Person
4. PRESENT tense

seem to be FORMALLY UNMARKED

ALSO DIACHRONIC TENDENCY for langs to change TOWARD such patterns

16
Q

Markedness and Levelling

A

That is, when choosing a base for analogical levelling, it is very often the unmarked exponent in a paradigm that is chosen.

17
Q

Reanalysis causes 3 types of changes in the placement of morpheme boundaries

A
  1. loss of an original morpheme boundary
  2. creation of a new morpheme boundary
  3. shift of a morpheme boundary
18
Q

Loss of a morpheme boundary

A

This is when an originally bi-morphemic lexeme comes to be analysed as mono-morphemic:
often happens when PARADIGMATIC relo between 2 word forms has been obscured by sound/and/or meaning change

EG. English -th (used to derive nouns from adjectives - now unproductive)

long ~ length, wide ~ width

foul ~ filth ??
(latter form now generally not analysed as bi-morphemic)

19
Q

Creation of a morpheme boundary

A

Similar type of change has occurred in the history of a couple of French words borrowed into English:
pease ‘pea’, cerise ‘cherry’

Creation of a morpheme boundary gives us:
‘pea ~ peas’ and ‘cherry ~ cherries’
(by a process of BACKFORMATION)