简明语言学教程b.docx

简明语言学教程b.docx

《简明语言学教程b.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《简明语言学教程b.docx（31页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

简明语言学教程b

Unit2Morphology（twolectures）

Teachingobjectivity:

MakethestudentsgetsomeideasoftheconstructionandtheinterpretationofwordsinEnglish.

EncouragethestudentstocomparethewordformationandinterpretationofEnglishwordswiththatofChinesewords.

Partoflinguisticcompetenceinvolvestheabilitytoconstructandinterpretwordsinone'snativelanguage.Theaveragehighschoolstudentknowsabout60,000wordswhoseformandmeaningarenotderivedfromthoseofotherwords.Suchwords—includingread,language,on,cold,andif,tonamebutafew—mustbelearnedandstoredasseparateitemsinthelexicon（ormentaldictionary）.However,countlessotherwordscanbeconstructedandcomprehendedbytheapplicationofquitegeneralrulestomorebasicwords.Forexample,anyspeakerofEnglishwhoknowstheverbfaxrecognizesfaxedasitspasttenseform,andcanconstructandinterpretwordssuchasfaxable（forthingsthatcanbefaxed）andfaxmachine（forthedevicethatsendsandreceivesfaxes）.

Thesystemofcategoriesandrulesinvolvedinwordformationandinterpretationmakesupalanguage'smorphology.Thischapterpresentsanintroductiontothestudyofmorphology,beginningwiththeinventoryofnotionsrelevanttotheanalysisofwordstructure.

WORDSANDWORDSTRUCTURE

Ofalltheunitsoflinguisticanalysis,thewordisthemostfamiliar.Itisnoteasy,however,todefinepreciselywhatawordis.

Themostreliabledefiningpropertyofwordsisthattheyarethesmallestfreeformsfoundinlanguage.Afreeformisanelementthatcanoccurinisolationorwhosepositionwithrespecttoneighboringcategoriesisnotcompletelyfixed.Considerinthisregardtheelementsmakingupthefollowingsentence.

1）Thebirdsleft.

Thepluralmarker-sisnotafreeform（andthereforenotaword）sinceitneveroccursinisolationandcannotbeseparatedfromthenountowhichitbelongs.（Elementsthatmustbeattachedtoanothercategoryarewrittenherewithahyphen.）

2）Thebirdleft-s.

Incontrast,birdsisawordsinceitcanoccurinisolation,asinthefollowingexchange.

3）SpeakerA:

Whatarethosethingsinthetree?

SpeakerB:

Birds.

Moreover,evenwhenbirdsoccursaspartofalargersentence,itisnotattachedtoanythingelse.Thisiswhyitcanappearindifferentpositionswithinasentence,asillustratedin4）.

4）a.birdsoccurringinfrontofaverb:

Birdsavoidcats.

b.birdsoccurringafteraverb:

Catschasebirds.

Somewords,suchastheinsentence1）,donotnormallyoccurinisolation.However,theyarestillfreeformssincetheirpositioningwithrespecttoneighboringcategoriesisnotentirelyfixed.Thus,asshownbythefollowingsentence,thedoesnotalwayshavetooccurimmediatelyinfrontofanoun;thetwocaneasilybeseparatedbyaninterveningword.

Theyoungbirdsremainedinthenest.

Morphemes

Likesyllablesandsentences,wordshaveaninternalstructureconsistingofsmallerunitsorganizedwithrespecttoeachotherinaparticularway.Themostimportantcomponentofwordstructureisthemorpheme,thesmallestunitoflanguagethatcarriesinformationaboutmeaningorfunction.Thewordbuilder,forexample,consistsoftwomorphemes:

build（withthemeaningof'construct'）and-er（whichindicatesthattheentirewordfunctionsasanounwiththemeaning'onewhobuilds'）.Similarly,thewordhousesismadeupofthemorphemeshouse（withthemeaning'dwelling'）and-s（withthemeaning'morethanone'）.

Somewordsconsistofasinglemorpheme.Forexample,thewordtraincannotbedividedintosmallerparts（say,trandainorfandrain）thatcarryinformationaboutitsmeaningorfunction.Suchwordsaresaidtobesimplewordsandaredistinguishedfromcomplexwords,whichcontaintwoormoremorphemes.Itisimportanttokeepinmindthatamorphemeisneitherameaningnorastretchofsound,butameaningandastretchofsoundjoinedtogether.Forexample,thereareatleasttwomorphemesspelledtopandpronounced/tap/inEnglish,onewiththeapproximatemeaning'upperpartorsurface'andtheothermeaning'atoydesignedtobespun.'Ineachcase,themorphemeisnotthemeaningorthesound,butthetwotogether.Morphemesareusuallyarbitrary:

thereisnonaturalconnectionbetweentheirsoundandtheirmeaning.So,thereisnothingaboutthesound/kaet/andthemeaning'domesticatedfeline'thatmakesthetwogotogethernaturally.Wecouldjustaseasilycallacat/billi/asinHindi,or/neko/asinJapanese.

Table4.1Wordsconsistingofoneormoremorphemes

?

?

?

?

and

boy

boys

hunt

hunter

hunters

magnet

magnetize

demagnetize

demagnetization

caliber

calibrate

recalibrate

recalibration（调整）

Freeandboundmorphemes

Amorphemewhoseformcanbeawordbyitselfiscalledafreemorphemewhereasamorphemethatmustbeattachedtoanotherelementissaidtobeaboundmorpheme.Themorphemeboy,forexample,isfreesinceitcanbeusedasawordonitsown;plural-s,ontheotherhand,isbound.

ConceptsthatareexpressedasfreemorphemesinEnglishdonotnecessarilyhavethesamestatusinotherlanguages.Forexample,inHare（anAthapaskanlanguagespokeninCanada'sNorthwestTerritories）,morphemesthatindicatebodypartsmustalwaysbeattachedtoamorphemedesignatingapossessor.（Thediacritic'marksahightone.）

Table4.2SomebodypartnamesinHare

Without

apossessor

With

apossessor

*fi

*be*dze

'head''belly''heart'

sefinebe?

edze

'myhead'

'yourbelly'

'someone'sheartheart'

InEnglish,ofcourse,thesebodypartnamesarefreemorphemesanddonothavetobeattachedtoanotherelement.

Conversely,therearealsosomeboundformsinEnglishwhosecounterpartsinotherlanguagesarefree.Forexample,thenotion'past'or'completed'isexpressedbytheboundform-edinEnglish,butbythefreeformlεεwinThai.Asthefollowingsentenceshows,thismorphemecanevenbeseparatedfromtheverbbyaninterveningword.（Toneisnotmarkedhere.）

6）Boonthaankhaawlεεw.

Booneatricepast

'Boonaterice.'

Allomorphs

Morphemesdonotalwayshaveaninvariantform.ThemorphemeusedtoexpressindefinitenessinEnglish,forinstance,hastwoforms—aandan.

7）

anorangeabuilding

anaccentacar

aneelagirl

Theformaisusedbeforewordsbeginningwithaconsonantandtheformanbeforewordsbeginningwithavowel.Thevariantformsofamorphemearecalleditsallomorphs.

Anotherexampleofallomorphicvariationisfoundinthepronunciationofthepluralmorpheme-sinthefollowingwords.

8）

cats

dogs

judges

Whereasthepluralis/s/inthefirstcase,itis/z/inthesecond,and/az/inthethird.Hereagain,selectionoftheproperallomorphisdependentonphonologicalfacts.WewillexaminethisphenomenoninmoredetailinChapter6.

Beginningstudentscanbeconfusedbythechangesinspellingthatoccurinsomemorphologicalpatternsevenwhenthereisnocorrespondingchangeinpronunciation.Thus,thefinaleinthewordscreateandrideislostwhentheycombinewithamorphemebeginningwithavowel（creat-ive,rid-ing）.Thesespellingmodificationsdonotchangeamorpheme'sidentity,ofcourse,andshouldsimplybeignoredwhendoingmorphologicalanalysis.

Representingwordstructure

Inordertorepresenttheinternalstructureofwords,itisnecessarynotonlytoidentifyeachofthecomponentmorphemesbutalsotoclassifytheseelementsintermsoftheircontributiontothemeaningandfunctionofthelargerword.

Rootsandaffixes

Complexwordsoftenconsistofarootandoneormoreaffixes.Therootmorphemeconstitutesthecoreofthewordandcarriesthemajorcomponentofitsmeaning.Rootstypicallybelongtoalexicalcategory—usuallynoun（N）,verb（V）,andadjective（A）.ThesecategorieswillbediscussedinmoredetailinChapter5,Section1.1.Fornowitsufficestonotethatnounstypicallyrefertoconcreteandabstract'things'whileverbs（treat,teach）tendtodenoteactions,andadjectivesusuallynameproperties（kind,red）.Ingeneral,nounscanoccurwiththe（thecar）,verbswithwill（willgo）,andadjectiveswithvery（verykind）.

Unlikeroots,affixesdonotbelongtoalexicalcategoryandarealwaysboundmorphemes.Astraightforwardillustrationofthiscontrastisfoundinthewordteacher,whichconsistsoftheverbrootteachandtheaffix-er,aboundmorphemethatcombineswiththerootandgivesanounwiththemeaning'onewhoteaches'.Theinternalstructureofthiswordcanberepresentedindiagramformasfollows.（Thesymbol'Afstandsforaffix.）

Figure4.2Someotherwordswithaninternalstructureconsistingofarootandanaffix

Thesediagrams,whichareoftencalledtreestructures,representthedetailsofaword'sinternalorganization.Wherethesedetailsareirrelevanttothepointbeingconsidered,itistraditionaltouseamuchsimplersystemofrepresentationthatindicatesonlythelocationofthemorphemeboundaries:

un-kind,modem-ize,andsoon.

Bases

Abaseistheelementtowhichanaffixisadded.Inmanycases,thebaseisalsotheroot.Inbooks,forexample,theelementtowhichtheaffix–sisaddedcorrespondstotheword’sroot.Inothercases,however,anaffixcanbeaddedtoaunitlargerthanaroot.Thishappensinwordssuchasblackened,inwhichthepasttenseaffix–edisaddedtotheverbalbaseblacken-aunitconsistingoftherootadjectiveblackandthesuffix-en.

Somecommonmorphologicalphenomena

Humanlanguagemakesuseofavarietyofoperationsthatcanmodifyaword'sstructure,eitherbyaddingsomeelementtoitorbymakinganinternalchange.Thissectionintroducesandillustratesthemostcommonoftheseproc