What is Morphology

Question 1

Define lexeme v. wordform/wordtype v. token

Answer 1

Token is the most general; any single use of wordform
Wordform/Wordtype is a lexeme + grammatical meaning
Lexeme is a dictionary word

Question 2

How many lexemes, wordforms, and tokens are in this sentence?
“If he throws three balls and three strikes, the last strike will be the last pitch”

Answer 2

Tokens: 16
Wordforms: 13
Lexemes: 12

Question 3

Why do languages have morphology?

Answer 3

Lexeme formation (category/meaning change) and Inflection (add grammatical context/info)

Question 4

What is the goal of morphology?

Answer 4

Describe and explain the morphological patterns of human languages

Question 5

What makes a good morphological analysis?

Answer 5

Elegance: Descriptions should be intuitively satisfactory; economic and capture generalizations

Cognitive realism: Descriptions should match speakers’ knowledge/cognitive representations

System-external explanation: Explains why morphological patterns are the way they are; historical accidents or universal patterns

Restrictive architecture for description: Identifying general design principles that apply to all languages (ex. grammatical theory)

Question 6

What are empirical tests for wordhood?

Answer 6

Fixed order of elements

Non-separability and integrity

Domain of phonological processes

Question 7

Explain these empirical tests for wordhood:

1.Fixed order of elements

2.Non-separability and integrity

3.Domain of phonological processes

Answer 7

Fixed order of elements: Words are not subject to reordering of their component morphemes

Non-separability and integrity: a sequence of morphemes cannot be broken up by insertion of material; integrity: syntactic processes apply to words as integral units, but not internal elements of words

Domain of phonological processes: Phonological processes can be applied that respect (ex. only one primary stress syllable in English)