LG472 Morphology

Basic Concepts

1 Lexemes and paradigms

1.1 Lexemes

Phonology /kat/
Syntax Noun
Semantics cat

Word forms of lexemes

• Tom climbed the mountain

• Tom has climbed the mountain
• The mountain has been climbed by Tom

• Tom swam the Channel

• Tom has swum the Channel
• The Channel has been swum by Tom

climbed:

• {past tense, [V climb]}

• {past (passive) participle, [V climb]}

We can say that climbed represents two distinct grammatical words

Systematic homophony of this kind is called syncretism.

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1.2 Paradigms

Russian noun lampa ‘lamp’

Case Singular Plural

Nominative lamp - a lamp - y

Accusative lamp - u lamp - y
Genitive lamp - y lamp
Dative lamp-e lamp-am
Instrumental lamp-oj lamp-ami
Prepositional lamp-e lamp-ax

• Paradigms for climb, swim

• base form climb swim
Present Participle climb-ing swimm-ing

• 3sg climb-s swim-s

Past climb-ed swam
Perfect/Passive Participle climb-ed swum

2 Representing the lexeme - lexical entries

Lexical entries
Lexical entry for swim

Phonology /swim/
Syntax intransitive verb
Semantics SWIM(x)
Morphology Past swam
Perfect/Passive Participle swum

Regular paradigm schema

base form X
present participle X-ing
3sg X-s
past X-ed
perfect/passive participle X-ed

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3 The derivation of lexemes
Compound lexemes
Many Noun Noun compounds are regular and are interpreted compositionally
Entry for morphology book, ‘book which has some relation to morphology’
N

N N
|morphology| |book|
Phon: /mO:f6l6ÃI/ /bUk/
Syn: N N
Sem: MORPHOLOGY BOOK

Compound lexemes
Many (most?) lexicalized NN compounds do not have compositional semantics
This means that their lexical entry will not necessarily contain complete lexemes
Entry for textbook
N

X N
|text| |book|
Phon: /tEkst/ /bUk/
Syn: N
Sem: TEXTBOOK
BOOK, used as principal source
for teaching in context of official instruction
Rejected lexical entry for textbook
N

X N
|text| |book|
Phon: /tEkst/ /bUk/
Syn: N N
Sem: TEXT BOOK
TEXTBOOK doesn’t contain the meaning of the lexeme TEXT

Another rejected lexical entry for textbook

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 |textbook|
Phon: /tekstbUk/
Syn: N
Sem: TEXTBOOK
TEXTBOOK does contain the meaning of the lexeme BOOK

in fact BOOK is the head of TEXTBOOK

Derivation of lexemes
Many derived words in English show the same semantic idiomaticity/non-compositionality
found in compounds such as textbook
a. cat catty cat + y
b. elephant elephantine elephant + ine
c. lion lionize lion + ize
d. ape to ape <conversion>
Some derivation looks more-or-less compositional

• cat-like
• elephant-like
• lion-like
• ape-like

In many cases we can identify a compositional and a non-compositional meaning

hope ∼ hopeless

• without hope: a hopeless situation [compositional]

• very bad, incompetent, etc.: a hopeless gardener [idiomatic]

In many cases the derivation looks compositional but there are subtle restrictions
on meaning
paint ∼ painter (a) ‘one who paints habitually, professionally’
(b) ‘the painter of this picture’

but bake ∼ baker (a) ‘one who bakes professionally’

(b) *the baker of this cake was Harriet

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Derivation of lexemes - transpositions
Some adjectives formed from nouns do not add any extra meaning to that of
the base noun
morphology morphological morphological theory
=theory of morphology
navy naval naval uniform
= Navy uniform
nerve nervous nervous system
= nerve system
music musical musical training
=training in music
Adjectives of this sort are called relational adjectives
They are often equivalent in meaning to NN compounds

prepositional phrase ≈ preposition phrase

. . . or to N Prep N expressions

theory of morphology; training in music

Relational adjectives are a special case of transpositions
These are discussed later
Other types of transposition derive a noun from a verb or adjective
A transposition doesn’t always apply to all meanings of a lexeme

a. Adjective Noun
strong strength the strength of the muscle
(strong muscle)
weak weakness the weakness of the muscle
(weak muscle)
banal banality the banality of his conversation
(banal conversation)

b.
strong strength
the essay has a number of strengths (??strong essay)
weak weakness
Tom has a weakness for chocolate (6= Tom is weak)
banal banality
he uttered nothing but banalities