What are the basic elements of languages
sounds, known as phonemes = they don’t have meaning
Morpheme
the smallest linguistic unit that has a meaning, units of first articulation = they carry meaning
why isn’t a morpheme a word?
A word can contain one or several morphemes
e.g. pets = pet + plural
a single morpheme can also be a word, e.g. pet
two types of morphemes
- lexical morphemes (lexemes) = a lexical item
- grammatical morphemes = affixes
What are the two types of affixes?
- (in)flectional affixes
- lexical/derivational affixes
Inflectional affixes
signal grammatical relationships, such as plural, past tense and possession. They do not change the grammatical class or the stems to which they are attached
e.g. teach -> teaches (-s 3rd person), taught (-en)
Derivational affixes
allsows one to create a new word
e.g. teacher = creates a different lexical item, which is derived from teach. (two separate entries in the dictionnary)
Analyse decentralised
de-centr-al-ise-ed : 5 morphemes
-centr- is called the root
de-, -al, -ise are called affixes
prefix
comes before the root
suffix
comes after the root
infix
comes in the middle of the root
e.g. Absofrickinlutely
How many types of inflections?
two : internal or external
External inflections
relugar, there aren’t many of them
- nominal inflection -s
- adjectival inflection -er, -est
- verbal inflection -s, -ed, -ing
Internal inflections
they are irregular, there are many of them
mouse = mice ; teach = taught
allomorphs
What a morpheme becomes in a specific environment
the equivalent of allophones but for morphemes
Give three exemples of allomorphs
- a & an are allomorphs of the indefinite article
- The with /ə/ and the with /i:/ are allomorphs of the definite article
- The morpheme that expresses plurality has several allomorphs : Cats /s/ ; dogs /z/ ; houses /ɪz/ ; feet ; mice
Free morpheme
a morpheme that can occur by itself
e.g. hunt, dog, green, run…
bound morpheme
A morpheme that occurs only attached to another morpheme, affixes are bound morphemes.
What are the ways to make a new word from a root?
- affixation
- compounding
- stress shift
- vowel change
Compounding
two free morphemes come together to create a new word, called a compound.
e.g. blackbird (different from a black bird, creates a new word)
Compounds stress
almost always on the first element
e.g. BLACKbird = that particular species
black BIRD = any bird that happens to be black
Quels sont les noms composés (compounds) où l’accent se situe sur le deuxième élément?
- localisation dans l’espace, le temps
e.g. a London ‘pub, Buckingham ‘palace, the back ‘door, the middle ‘finger…
exceptions : Street e.g. ‘Oxford Street - un des termes = matière utilisé à la fabrication
e.g. a brick ‘wall, a leather ‘jacket, an apple ‘pie
exceptions : cake, juice, water, milk e.g. ‘coconut milk - adjectifs composés
e.g. blue-‘eyed, pitch-‘black, right-‘handed
Stress shift
a way to make a verb into a noun by shifting the accent from the second to the first syllable.
e.g. the person who reBELS is a REbel
vowel change
A morpheme can consist of a changed vowel, many English verbs form their past tense with a vowel change. e.g. come, came
This has the same function with these verbes as the suffix -ed.
