Morphological Change Flashcards
What is morphology & morphological categories?
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).
Sound change vs other change?
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
Morpheme types
- Lexical [Free]
e. g. girl - Grammatical [Bound]
- Inflectional (employ + -s)
- Derivational (un- + employ + -ment)
Morphological change as a result of regular sound change
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-
What is ANALOGY?
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
- SOUND CHANGE GIVES RISE TO ALLOMORPHY IN THE STEM OF CERTAIN NOUNS
- SPEAKERS REGULARISE PARADIGM VIA ANALOGY
Latin: s > r/ V_V
arbos > arbor
honos > honor
Analogical change and paradigms
Analogical change often takes place within morphological paradigms and affects the forms in these paradigms.
What is a paradigm?
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)
Why is analogy so important in explaining morphological change?
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
2 types of analogy
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.
Analogical extension EXAMPLE
English plurals:
Old eng
hand handa
stān stānas
Modern English
hand hands
stone stones
often called :four part analogy: A = B : C = D
ANALOGICAL EXTENSION
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”
ANALOGICAL LEVELLING
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
Sturtevant’s paradox
Sound change is regular but creates irregularity, analogy is irregular but creates regularity.
Markedness
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
What are the universal tendencies for which categories are unmarked?
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
