Word Structure

Word structure

Lieber, Rochelle. Introducing Morphology (Cambridge Introductions to Language and Linguistics) (English Edition) Cambridge University Press.

2024

When you divide up a complex word into its morphemes, as in:unhappiness = un + happy + nessIt's easy to get the impression that words are put together like the beads that make up a necklace – one after the other in a line.

+ info

Words are like onions

word Tree

word Tree

Challenge

What is the most complex word you can create from a single base that still makes sense to you? Are there any limits to the complexity of words derived in this way?

In English, the suffix -ize attaches to nouns or adjectives to form verbs. The suffix ‑ation attaches to verbs to form nouns. And the suffix -al attaches to nouns to form adjectives. Interestingly, these suffixes can be attached in a recursive fashion: convene → convention → conventional → conventionalize → conventionalization.

First draw a word tree for conventionalization.

Then see if you can find other bases on which you can attach these suffixes recursively.

What do affixes mean?

In some cases, affixes seem to have not much meaning at all. Examples:-(a)tion: examination, taxation, realization, construction-ment: agreement, placement, advancement, postponement -al: refusal, arousal, disposal -ity: purity, density, diversity, complexity -ness: happiness, thickness, rudeness, sadness

These are affixes that create ‘people nouns’ either from verbs or from nouns. Among the personal affixes in English are the suffix -er which forms agent nouns (the ‘doer’ of the action) like writer or runner and the suffix ‑ee which forms patient nouns (the person the action is done to). Also among this class of affixes are ones that create other ‘people nouns’ other than the agent or the patient in an event, for example, inhabitants of a place (like Manhattanite or Bostonian).

personal or participant affixes:

a. -ee: employee, recruitee, deportee, inductee b. -less : shoeless, treeless, rainless, supperlessc. -re: reheat, reread, rewash-ee on a verb indicates a person who undergoes an action; -less means something like ‘without’; and re- means something like ‘again’.

locative affixes:

These are affixes that designate a place. For example, in English we can use the suffix ‑ery or ‑age to denote a place where something is done or gathered (like eatery or orphanage).

Abstract affixes:

These are affixes that create abstract nouns that denote qualities (like happiness or purity) or statuses (puppydom, advisorship, daddyhood) or even aspects of behavior (buffoonery).

negative and privative affixes:

Negative affixes add the meaning ‘not’ to their base; examples in English are the prefixes un-, in-, and non- (unhappy, inattentive, non-functional).Privative affixes mean something like ‘without X’; in English, the suffix ‑less (shoeless, hopeless) is a privative suffix, and the prefix de- has a privative flavor as well (e.g., words like debug or debone mean something like ‘cause to be without bugs/bones’).

prepositional and relational affixes:

Prepositional and relational affixes often convey notions of space and/or time. Examples in English might be prefixes like over- and out- or pre‑ and post‑ (overfill, overcoat, outrun, outhouse, preschool, preheat, postwar, postdate).

quantitative affixes:

These are affixes that have something to do with amount. In English we have affixes like -ful (handful, helpful) and multi- (multifaceted).Another example might be the prefix re- that means ‘repeated’ action (reread), which we can consider quantitative if we conceive of a repeated action as being done more than once. Other quantitative affixes that we have in English denote collectives or aggregates of individuals (e.g., acreage or knickknackery).

evaluative affixes:

Evaluative affixes consist of diminutives, affixes that signal a smaller version of the base (e.g., in English -let as in booklet or droplet) and augmentatives, affixes that signal a bigger version of the base. The closest we come to augmentative affixes in English are prefixes like mega- (megastore, megabite).

affixal polysemy

So far we have been looking at suffixes and prefixes whose meanings seem to be relatively clear. Things are not always so simple, though. Let's look more closely at the suffix -er in English, which we said above formed agent nouns. Consider the following words:

affixal polysemy:

All of the forms derived with -er denote concrete nouns, either persons or things, related to their base verbs by participating in the action denoted by the verb, although sometimes in different ways. This cluster of related meanings is called affixal polysemy.

To divide or not to divide? A foray into extenders, formatives, crans, and other messy bits

report, import, transport, deport, comport, export

cranberry, huckleberry, raspberry

Platonic, tobacconist, spasmodic, egotist

To divide or not to divide? A foray into extenders, formatives, crans, and other messy bits

sniffle, snort, snot, snout

eggitarian, pizzatarian, pastatarian, fruitarian, flexitarian

Table 3.1

See how many cells of Table 3.1 you can fill in.

Table 3.1

See how many cells of Table 3.1 you can fill in.

Table 3.1

See how many cells of Table 3.1 you can fill in.

Thank you all for being here today!

Your presence and engagement have made this experience truly special. Keep striving, stay curious, and let's meet again soon. Until next time, take care and keep shining!

The question is what the extra bit is. Is it part of the base of the word or part of the affix or part of neither?

The examples in (C) also display a puzzling characteristic. If we try to break these words down into their component morphemes, what we find is that each one consists of two obvious morphemes plus an extra sound or two:

Our final group of odd bits is illustrated in (E). In these examples, the first part of each word is clearly a free morpheme, but the second part is not. Rather, it is what Bauer, Lieber, and Plag (2013) call a splinter, something which is split off from an original word, but which is not really (yet!) a true suffix.

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

It's rather hard to see what all of these have in common. The words in (a) are indeed all agent nouns, but the (b) words are instruments; in other words, things that do an action. In American English the (c) words are things as well, but things that undergo the action rather than doing the action (like the patient -ee words discussed above): a loaner is something which is loaned (often a car, in the US), and a fryer is something (a chicken) which is fried. And the word diner in (d) denotes a location (a diner in the US is a specific sort of restaurant).

the prefix re-attaches to verbs (e.g., reheat, rewash, or redo) but not to adjectives (*repure, *rehappy) or to nouns (*rechair, *retruth). Once we know this, we can say that the adjective pure must first be made into a verb by suffixing -ify, and only then can re- attach to it. Lieber, Rochelle. Introducing Morphology (Cambridge Introductions to Language and Linguistics) (English Edition) (p. 42). Cambridge University Press.

Repurify

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

We know that un- must first go on the base happy. Happy is an adjective, and un- attaches to adjectives but does not change their category.

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

Next, let's look at the examples in (D). These exhibit what is called sound symbolism. All of the words begin with the consonant cluster /sn/ and seem to have something to do with the nose, but the sequence of sounds /sn/ doesn't mean anything by itself. Here morphologists are relatively agreed that sound symbolic words cannot be broken into parts. For one thing, the sequence /sn/ doesn't refer to ‘nose’ everywhere it occurs (consider words like snail, snap, or snit), and for another, if we were to segment /sn/ in the words in (18), what would be left over would neither have meaning by itself nor recur elsewhere in English.

Bauer, Lieber, and Plag (2013: 16) call elements like these formatives, which they define as “elements contributing to the construction of words whose semantic unity or function is obscure or dubious.”

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes

Affixes like these are sometimes called transpositional affixes, meaning that their primary function is to change the category of their base without adding any extra meaning.

Transpositional affixes