Morphological processes Inflection

Morphological processes are classified Bending a lexeme to fit in a sentence.

into two main types depending on their Inflectional morphology is syntactically
functions. determined.
Derivation
Inflection

Inflectional morphology Inflectional morphology

Inflectional categories/ inflectional dimensions Morphosyntactic features/ inflectional features/
morphosyntactic properties
French
manger to eat
Features belong to the same dimension if they
Present Future share a semantic or functional property and are
singular plural singular plural mutually exclusive.
1st mange mangeons mangerai mangerons

2nd manges mangez mangeras mangerez

What are the features of the following categories
3rd mange mangent mangera mangeront
in the paradigm of manger?
How many inflectional dimensions? Tense, Number, Person
 A feature value notation Exponence
French The realization of morphosyntactic
mangerons TENSE: FUTURE
features via inflection
The morpheme [s] is the exponent of the
we will eat PERSON: 1ST
morphosyntactic feature plural.
NUMBER: PLURAL Simple exponence: one morpheme for one
morphosyntactic feature
Cumulative exponence: more than one
mangent? morphological feature maps onto a single
morpheme

Context-free and context-sensitive

Exponence
Extended exponence: a single
morphosyntactic feature is realized
simultaneously on more than one form
Ancient Greek
elelyk
ete you had unfastened
Perfective is marked by reduplication (le-),
infixation (k) and the form of stem (ly)
.
inflection
Context-free inflection: a simple mapping
between a morphosyntactic feature and a
particular phonological string
[PROGRESSIVE] and i
Context-sensitive inflection: realization of a
morphosyntactic feature varies
[PAST]
Inherent vs. contextual inflection Contextual inflection
Inherent inflection reflects properties of inflected How is inflection assigned?
elements regardless of contexts. Government
Gender of nouns The form of an element is dictated by other
Tense of verbs elements.
Case marking on nouns and pronouns
Contextual inflection is determined by syntactic
contexts. It marks the relationship between two Agreement (or concord)
elements in a syntactic construction. Morphosyntactic features of elements in a
Case marking on nouns and pronouns phrase or sentence are not in conflict.
Gender marking on adjectives Subject-verb agreement

Inherent and contextual

Inflection and Derivation
inflection
Contextual inflection may convey Inflection Derivation
Produces a new word- Produces a new lexeme
redundant information. Thus, it is more form
likely to disappear in the course of time Does not change lexical May or may not change
than inherent inflection. category lexical category
Does not change the core Often change the
meaning meaning
une grande maison Have a regular meaning May or may not have a
regular meaning
INDEF.FEM large.FEM house.FEM Can be added to all Cannot be added to all
members of the class members of the class
a large house
 Order of morphemes
Derivational morphemes are closer to the
stem than inflectional morphemes.
form-al-itie-s
glob-al-ize-d
If both the derivation and inflection follow
the root, or they both precede the root, the
derivation is always between the root and
the inflection. (Greenberg 1963)

Other implicational universals

Order of morphemes
(Greenberg 1963)
The presence of inflectional morphology implies However, there exist cases in which
the presence of derivational morphology. inflection appears closer to the base than
The presence of morphological gender marking derivation.
implies the presence of number marking.
connect-ed-ness
If a verb agrees with either its subject or its
object in gender, it also agrees with it in number. inherent inflection
If the pronoun is marked for gender in the plural,
it is also marked for gender in the singular.
Order of inflectional morphemes Models of inflectional processes
Inflection morphology is represented by Item-and-Arrangement Morphology
templates. Morphology is the concatenation of morphemes.

Stem-Number-Case inflectional morpheme stem

one-to-one inflectional
properties  !
Inherent inflection is closer to the stem
affix 

than contextual inflection.
Item-and-Process Morphology
Inflection are process-based operations.
[X]N -> [X-ami]N[+pl.,instr]
ami feature +pl., instr N

Models of inflectional processes Models of inflectional processes

Word-and-Paradigm Distributed Morphology
A lexeme and its feature values in a paradigm goes A morpheme is inserted in a slot with certain features.
through realization rules. syntactic tree abstract morphemes
[X]N[+pl,instr] -> [X-ami]N
features [+plural] [+past] 
 [X]N -> [X-ami]N[+pl.,instr]
phonological content spelt out insert
process feature feature !
vocabulary items  feature
realization ami
/z/
[_, +plural]
! realizational morphology The task of providing fully inflected word is distributed
over other components of grammar
 Morphological theories
Dichotomy approach (split morphology)
Rules of derivation operate on a lexicon that
feeds into the syntax.
Syntactic rules apply.
Inflectional rules apply.
Explains why derivation is closer to the
root
But, this approach doesnt explain
exceptional cases of root-inflection-
derivation.
Morphological theories
Continuum approach
Differences between inflection and
derivation are not clear-cut.
Prototype: the most typical member of a
class
Prototypical inflection: agreement s
Prototypical derivation: noun suffix ment
Explains the ordering of affixes
More prototypically derivational affixes appear
closer to the base

Morphological theories
Tripartition approach
Contextual inflection
Inherent inflection
Derivation
Inherent case is similar to derivation in that
an inflected form has an unpredictable,
idiosyncratic meaning.
 Syncretism Inflectional processes
A single inflected form corresponds to Affixation
more than one set of morphosyntactic Stem alternation
features. Apophony (or ablaut concerns vowel changes within
Romanian a root, for example, sing-sang-sung, drive-drove-driven)
to fill to do to know
Reduplication
1sg mpl-u fc st-u
2sg mpl-i fc-i st-i And other processes
3sg mpl-e fc-e st-e
1pl mpl-m fc-m st-m
2pl mpl-ti fc-ti st-ti
3pl mpl-u fc st-u