morphology

Question 1

define morpheme and give examples

Answer 1

the smallest meaningful unit in a language
firefighter = two ‘free’ morphemes that experience compounding
or lighter(s) = two morphemes (lighter and s) but s is a bound morpheme

Question 2

define allomorphs and give examples

Answer 2

Different realisations of the same morpheme such as the noun plural morpheme
fire(s), crutch(es), child(ren), = plural
thus s, es and ren are allomorphs of the plural morpheme

Question 3

describe the function of allomorphs where the distribution is not phonologically motivated e.g -ness and -ity

Answer 3

loudness, sadness, darkness
sensitivity, insanity, totality
this distribution is determined by the origin of the word
germanic words: -ness
romance origin: -ity

Question 4

Describe the difference between lexical versus functional morphemes

Answer 4

nouns, verbs or adjectives such as blanket, read, silent are content words and evoke ideas you can think about

‘whereas however, so, I’ and bound morphemes do not evoke an idea; they have a grammatical function

Question 5

identify the morphemes and their distribution:
likes, speaks, fetches, misses

Answer 5

3rd person singular present tense verbs
2 morphemes
distribution rule is -es after verb stem ending in /s/ or /ch/ but /s/ elsewhere

Question 6

identify the morphemes and their distribution:
unwell, unhappy, untrue, unlikely, insane, incredible

Answer 6

morpheme is negative. Allomorphs are un- and in-.
Rule is in- before adjectives of Latin origin and un- before adjectives of germanic origin

Question 7

define inflection

Answer 7

different grammatical forms of the same word
use
use-s
use-d
the word class (noun, verb) stays the same but the grammar changes

Question 8

why do some word forms e.g man/ men, goose/geese resist analogical change ? what about “in the olden days”?

Answer 8

They are highly frequent words. Frequency of individual words strengthens them against change

as for foot, feet, goose geese etc
Also to do with frequency, but specifically it’s the frequency of the plural forms (these words are used more often in the plural than the singular)

in the olden days (-en dative plural)
This is a set phrase. older forms are often preserved in set phrases because they are learnt and used as whole (unanalysed) chunks
(compared to if i were you, past subjunctive form)

Question 9

define analogical extension in analogical change

Answer 9

This extends the already existing alternation of some lexical patterns to new forms which didn’t formerly undergo the alternation.
E.g in Old English, there were many plural markers. after the weakening and dropping of vowels in unstressed syllables, the -s marker was analogically extended to most plural nouns, making the system much more uniform

Question 10

define analogical levelling

Answer 10

An analogical change that occurs within the inflectional paradigm of individual words, eliminating different markers to make the paradigm more uniform
e.g singe, singest
to i sing, he/she/it sings, we sing

Question 11

define reanalysis and analogical creation

Answer 11

When a word is reanalysed by moving the morphological boundary, or creating a new one, and then new words may be created by extending this new ‘morpheme’ to different bases

e.g hamburg+er > ham+burger
creation: beefburger