Author: Bolanle Arokoyo

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo

Morphology Lecture Series XIV

Acronyms are words formed from the initials of several words.

Word acronyms and spelling acronyms are the two types of acronyms attested in some languages.

The words are pronounced as a single word and pronounced as the spelling indicates in the case of word acronyms.

For example:

NEPA: National Electric Power Authority

WAEC: West African Examination Council

WASC: West African School Certificate

ECOWAS: Economic Community of West African States

JAMB: Joint Admission Matriculation Board

NECO: National Examination Council

LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

LISA: Linguistics Students Association

LAN: Linguistics Association of Nigeria

YSAN: Yoruba Studies Association of Nigeria

Spelling acronyms are pronounced as a sequence of the initial alphabets of the words.

They are not pronounced as words but as sequence of alphabets. For example:

 

IQ: Intelligence Quotient

FYI: For Your Information

MC: Master of Ceremonies

UFO: Unidentified Flying Object

NUC: National University Commission

NYSC: National Youth Service Corps

CD: Compact Disc

VCR: Video Cassette Recorder

PC: Personal Computer

AU: African Union

EU: European Union

OAU: Organization of African Unity

ATM: Automated Teller Machine

 

With the presence of the internet making the social media a part of our lives, the importance of the language of the internet cannot be overemphasized as it has drastically increased our words through different word formation processes.

Most of the users of the social media platforms like E-mails, Whatsapp, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, Imo, Snapchat, 2go, etc. use acronyms and abreviations to pass their messages via chatting and short messages.

Text messages and Twitter have limited number of characters that can be used. Some of these are exemplified below.

 

BAE: Before Anyone Else

LOL: Laughing out Loud

YAM: Yet another Meeting

2moro: Tomorrow

ASAP: As Soon as Possible

B3: Blah Blah Blah

CTN: Cannot Talk Now

CYT: See You Tomorrow

BRB: Be Right Back

TTC: Trying to Conceive

GTC: Going to Conceive

POV: Point of View

YMMD: You Made My Day

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

OOMF: One Of My Friends

BFF: Best Friend Forever

DYE: Down To Earth

 

Some of them are pronounced as spelt or as a single word. There are some that could have more than one meaning, so there is the need for an understanding of the acronyms in order for communication to take place.

Add your own to the list.

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

Do not allow some of these acronyms and abbreviations get into your formal writing.

a. Except from Arokoyo (2017).

b. Our next lecture is on Borrowing. See Compounding also.

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking Morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Books.

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo

Morphology Lecture Series XII

1. Inflectional Morphemes

We are gradually coming to the end of our discussion on the The Morpheme and it’s functions. The previous lecture was on Derivation  of Adjectives and Adverbs. Get yourself acquainted with the lectures, please.

Our lecture today is on inflectional morphology. We will examine inflectional morphemes and morphosyntax.

Inflectional morphemes are purely grammatical markers; they give additional information about tense, number, gender, case, tense, aspect andmood.

They express grammatical relationsbetween the word forms of a lexeme.

Inflectional affixes show if a verb is present or past, perfective or progressive, if the noun or pronoun is singular or plural, nominative, accusative or oblique, masculine, feminine or neuter, if an adjective is comparative or superlative.

Since they are not derivational, they do not change the class of the word they are attached to nor the meaning.

They are usually attached to complete words and they close grammatical forms.

Both lexical and functional morphemes are open to inflections.

Different languages code inflection differently.

The languages that are classified as inflectional/ fusional exhibit a very rich inflectional base compared to languages that are classified as agglutinating and isolating at the end of the spectrum.

Due to the nature of inflectional languages, some of the affixes cannot be segmented to actually see how the different case features are bundled.

Despite the fact that not all languages code all inflections but the inflectional types cut across languages.

We can see from Table 1 the classes of inflections and the recipients.

Table 1: Classes of Inflections and the Recipients

From the table above, we can deduce that inflections are grouped together into values.

The grammatical information in the table above when affixed to the recipients do change their forms.

As indicated in the table above, each word class has inflectional affixes that are unique to it.

For example the feature person is distinguished into 1st, 2nd or 3rd person and it is a feature of the noun and the pronoun, the verbalso has to agree with the feature.

Another inherent inflection for nouns and verbs are number, gender, noun class, definiteness and case.

Inflection features for verbs include tense, aspect, mood and voice.

The verb in most cases has to agree with the features of its arguments especially the external argument.

Adjectives are inflected for degrees of comparison which is either comparative or superlative while there are also agreement features for the adjectives too.

In Hausa, for example, the adjective is inflected for plural if the head of the Noun Phrase (NP) that it is modifying is plural.

Determiners, demonstratives, pronouns, and adjectives are also marked for gender and any of them modifying a noun must also agree with the gender feature of the noun being modified. Consider the following French data.

1.

a. la fille la fille blanche

fem. fem. fem. fem. fem.

‘the girl‘ ‘the white girl’

b. le livre. le livre blanc

masc. masc. masc. masc. masc.

‘the book’ ‘the white book’

2.

a. une fille une fille blanche

fem. fem. fem. fem. fem.

‘a girl’ ‘a white girl’

b. un livre un livre blanc

masc. masc. masc. masc. masc.

‘a book’ ‘a white book’

When a noun begins with a vowel, the article used is l’ followed by the word.

In cases like that, the gender status of the word might have to be learnt.

However, for nouns that have either masculine or feminine status, the ending will show whether the word is masculine or feminine, the feminine always end with –e.

3. Feminine Masculine

a. l’étudiante l’étudiant ‘student’

b. la voleuse le voleur ‘thief‘

c. la chercheuse le chercheur ‘scientist’

The basic fact of agreement which inflectional morphemes embody is that the inflectional value of the head of a phrase or sentence must agree with the inflectional values of the constituents.

This is saying that the head and its constituents must agree in inflectional features.

Consider the following examples from Gunnin, an Australian language taken from Tallerman (2009, p. 59).

4.

a. benyjin      bi-yangga

man     GENDER goes

‘The man is walking.’

b. leewa gadi a-yangga

dog    run  GENDER-goes

‘The dog is running.’

The verbs in the examples agree with the gender feature on the subjects.

The gender for human noun and animate noun in the language is different.

Inflection is relevant to syntax. It shows the grammatical function or meaning expressed by a morphological pattern in syntactic agreement or government (Haspelmath and Sims, 2010, p. 91).

Agreement refers to the marking of morphosyntactic properties of the head on the dependents.

Whatever heads a phrase determines the agreement. The noun determines the agreement properties of its dependent like the determiners, demonstratives and attributive Adjectives.

The verb may also have to agree in number, person and gender with the noun in either subject position or object position.

The preposition may also agree with the object noun phrase in person number and gender.

This shows that there is an intrinsic relationship among the members of a clause.

There is an interface between the grammatical information provided by the inflectional morphemes and the syntax.

Inflectional morphology provides the need for the morphological and syntactic interface hence, morphosyntax.

2. Morphosyntax 

Morphosyntax studies grammatical units that have both morphological and syntactic properties.

It is the set of rules that govern grammatical units whose features are definable by both morphological and syntactic criteria.

These grammatical units are definable using both morphology and syntax as they apply to words.

Grammatical categories like NUMBER, CASE, GENDER, PERSON, TENSE, ASPECT, etc. are morphosyntactic.

Number contrast for example is morphosyntactic in most languages.

Number contrasts require a morphological marking with an affix, for example the suffix –s in English and it also affects syntax because of the agreement between the subject and the verb.

There are languages, for example Hausa, where the adjective must also agree with the noun it is modifying.  

Exercises

1. Examine how gender is marked in at leastthree languages. Provide examples in each language.

2. Describe how case is marked in at least three languages. Show the case declension in the language. Provide examples in each language.

3. Conduct some research in five languages of your choice where tense is morphologically marked. How is tense marked in those languages? Provide sufficient examples. Contrast tense marking the languages.

4. Some languages distinguish number as singular and plural, others distinguish as singular and non-singular. Discuss how number is indicated in the two broad categories.

5. Describe inflectional affixes.

NB

a. In the next lecture, we will examine Noun Class System.

b Excerpts are taken from Arokoyo (2017).

References

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

Haspelmath, Martins and Andrew Sims (2010). Understanding morphology. London: Hodder Education.

Tallerman, Maggie. (2009). Understanding syntax. London: Hodder Arnold.

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo

Morphology Lecture Series X

We examined noun derivations (Noun Derivation) in our previous class. We are moving into another important area of derivations: verb derivations. We will look at Deadjectival Verbs, Denominal Verbs and Deverbal Verbs.

The verb is a lexical category that can function as the head of the verb phrase.

Verbs belong to the open class category that can be derived through affixes.

Verbs can be derived from nouns and adjectives and other verbs, giving us deadjectival verbs, denominal verbs and deverbal verbs.

1. Deadjectival Verbs

Deadjectival verbs are derived from adjectives with the use of various affixes.

Factitive (verbs that presuppose the complement to be true and derived from adjectives) and inchoative (verb meaning ‘to become’ or ‘to begin to be’ also derived from adjectives) verbs are types of verbs derived from adjectives.

English has many suffixes that perform the function of changing nouns or adjectives to verbs.

The prefix en- is a class changing prefix that changes adjectives to factitive verbs as seen in the following English and Russian illustrations:

1. Adjective Verb

a. rich en-rich

b. large en-large

c. able en-able

d. courage en-courage

Russian

2. Adjective Verb

a. čern-yj ‘black’ čern-it’ ‘make black’

b. высокий ‘high’ высокий-it ‘make high’

c. после́дней ‘new’ после́дней-it ‘make new’

d. белый ‘white’ белый-it ‘make white’

The suffixes –ize, ify, and –en, etc. are attached to adjectives to derive inchoative verbs in English. For example:

3. Adjective Verb

a. general general-ize

b. familiar familiar-ize

c. pure pur-ify

d. just just-ify

e. deep deep-en

f. dark dark-en

Bontoc uses the infix –um- to derive inchoative verbs from adjectives as illustrated in the following examples:

4. Adjective Verb

a. fikas ‘strong’ f-um-ikas ‘to be strong’

b. kilad ‘red’ k-um-ilad ‘to be red’

c. pusi ‘poor’ p-um-usi ‘to be red’

Spanish forms inchoative verbs with colour adjectives:

5. Adjective Verb

a. verde ‘green’ verd-ear         ‘become green’

b. negro ‘black’ negr-ear         ‘become black’

The suffix –ear is attached to the colour adjectives in the derivation of the inchoative verbs.

2. Denominal Verbs

Another function of derivational morphemes is the derivation of verbs from nouns.

The suffixal morpheme –an with its allomorph -in derives verbs from nouns in Tzeltal as illustrated in (6). The data is taken from Nida (1949, p. 116).

6. Noun Verb

a. bet ‘loan’ -betan  ‘to loan’

b. ˀip ‘strength’ -ˀipan ‘to nourish’

c. k’op ‘speech’ -k’opan  ‘to speak with’

d. ˀabat ‘servant’ -ˀabatin  ‘to serve’

e. mul ‘sin’ -mulin ‘to commit sin’

Let us also consider the data in (7) for verb derivation in English.

7. Noun Verb

a. beauty beaut-ify

b. class class-ify

c. national national-ize

d. moral moral-ize

e. haste hast-en

f. light light-en

g. vaccine vacin-ate

h. pollen pollin-ate

3. Deverbal Verbs

Deverbal verbs are verbs derived from other verbs.

Repetitive verb (a verb with the meaning of ‘again’), reversive verb (a verb meaning reverse or undo the result of the base verb), applicative verb (a verb that creates a new object argument), causative verb (a verb that caused the action of the base to occur), anticausative verb (a verb indicating no agent role in an event), etc. are some type of verbs derived from verbs.

The prefixes re-, in English derives repetitive verbs when attached to some verbs.

8. Verb Verb

a. cover re-cover

b. write re-write

c. run re-run

d. turn re-turn

e. appear re-appear

Japanese and Kujamaat Jóola derive causative verbs from simple verbs.

Consider the following examples in (9).

Japanese

9. Verb Verb

a. ik ‘go’ ik-ase ‘made to go’

b. yom ‘read’ yom-ase ‘made to read’

c. tabe ‘eat’ tabe-sase ‘made to eat’

Japanese makes use of the suffix –ase ~-sase to form causative verbs.

In Chichewa, the causative is

formed with the causative affix –ets while it is formed with the suffix –ndi

in Songhai and attached to the verb as indicated in the following

sentences taken from Tallerman (2009, p.208-209).

Chichewa

10.

a. mtsuko    u-na-gw-a.

waterpot  SU-PAST-fall ASPECT

‘The waterpot fell.’

b. mtsikana   a-na-u-gw-ets-a     mtsuko

girl          SU-PAST-OBJ-fall-CAUS-ASPECT  waterpot

‘The girl made the waterpot fall.’

11.

a. Garba nga tasu di

Garba eat rice   the

‘Garba ate the rice.’

b. Ali nga-ndi     tasu di

Ali eat-CAUS rice the

‘Ali caused the rice to be eaten.’

In these examples, we can see changes in the structure of the sentences along with the causative suffixes.

The languages mentioned here are some of the languages that mark causatives morphologically.

Most other languages do not, it is only the structure of the sentence that will change.

Exercises

1. Discuss the derivational functions of affixes.

2. Consider the following data from Kannada. Determine the meaning of the suffixes.

khacita ‘certain’ khacitate ‘certainty’

bhadra ‘safe’ bhadrate ‘safety’

ghana ‘weighty’ ghanate ‘dignity’

(Sridhar 1990, p270, 278)

3. Consider the following data from Vietnamese and answer the questions that follow.

nhe ‘soft’ nhe nhe ‘less soft’

xinh ‘pretty’ xinh xinh ‘less pretty’

do ‘red’ do do ‘somewhat red’

xanh ‘blue/green’ xahn xahn ‘somewhat blue/green’

a. Isolate the morphemes.

b. Determine the process involved.

c. Determine the meaning of the affixes.

NB

a. In the next lecture, we will examine Derivation  of Adjectives and Adverbs.

b Excerpts are taken from Arokoyo (2017).

References

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

Nida, A. Eugene. (1949). Morphology: the descriptive analysis of words. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Sridhar, S. N.  (1990). Kannada. (Descriptive grammars series). London: Routledge.

Tallerman, Maggie. (2009). Understanding syntax. London: Hodder Arnold.

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo

Morphology Lecture Series IX

We continue our discussion on Derivational Morphemes by looking at the derivation of nouns in this lecture.

Noun derivation is a process whereby nouns are derived from nouns or from another part of speech.

This process is also known as nominalization.

A noun is a lexical category that can serve as the head of the noun phrase; it is one of the categories that can be created using derivational affixes.

Nouns could be created from verbs, adjectives, and from other nouns.

This means that nouns that are created fall into the group of deverbal nouns, deadjectival nouns or denominal nouns. These will be examined now.

1. Deverbal Nouns

Deverbal nouns are nouns derived from verbs.

These derived nouns have different meaning components which include agent noun (a noun that refers to the instigator of the action), patient noun (a noun derived from a verb that refers to the recipient of the action), action noun (a noun that refers to the action itself), instrumental noun (a noun that refers to the instrument by which an action is carried out), etc.

In Yoruba for example, nouns are derived from verbs as illustrated in the patient noun derived from verbs in (1):

1. Verb Noun

a.   fẹ́ ‘to love’ i-fẹ̀ ‘love’

b. gọ̀ ‘foolish’ a-gọ̀ ‘fool’

c. kú ‘to die’ i-kú ‘death’

d. sẹ ‘to sin’ ẹ-sẹ ‘sin’

In Yoruba language, all oral vowels except /u/ can combine with appropriate verbs to form nouns.

In Hausa, nouns can also be derived from verbs, adjectives and also from other nouns. For example the prefix má- is affixed to verbs as illustrated in (2) to derive agent nouns:

2. Verb Noun

a. dùbí ‘look’ má-dùbí ‘mirror’

b. kàràntá ‘read’ má-kàràntá ‘school’

c. hàrbé ‘shoot’ má-hàrbé ‘hunter’

d. káryá ‘lie’ má-káryá ‘liar’

 The suffix –er in English derives agent nouns from verbs. Consider the following examples.

 3. Verb Noun

a.   sing sing-er

b.   paint paint-er

c.   drive driv-er

d.  smoke smok-er

The suffix –er, also derives instrumental nouns from verbs as indicated in (4).

 4. Verb Noun

a. cook cook-er

b. page pag-er

c. draw draw-er

d. grate grat-er

e. dig digg-er

 In Igbo, instrumental nouns are also derived from verbs, the prefix m- along with its allomorphs is attached to verbs.

The same process applies to Katu (Vietnam) where the infix -an- derives nouns from verbs. These are exemplified in (5 & 6).

 Igbo

5. Verb Noun

a. kpà ‘press’ m̀-kpa ‘scissors’

b. vọ́ ‘scratch’ m̀-vọ́ ‘comb’

c. kwò ‘grate’ m̀-kpa ‘grater’

d. ché ‘preserve’ ǹ-che ‘preservative’

e. gwú ‘dig’ ǹ-gwú ‘digger’

Iloene (2010 p190, 193)

Katu (Vietnam)

6.Verb Noun

a. gap ‘to cut’ ganap ‘scissors

b. juut ‘to rub’ januut ‘cloth’

c. piih ‘to sweep’ paniih ‘broom’

Merrifield et. al. (2003)

The suffix –wa is affixed to verbs to derive action nouns in Hausa. For example:

7.Verb Noun

a. zó ‘come’ zúwà ‘coming’

b. zúbár ‘throw’ zúbár-wá ‘throwing’

c. búdè ‘open’ búdè-wá ‘opening’

d. míikè ‘stretch’ míike-wá ‘stretching’

In Modern Hebrew, action nouns are also formed from verbs with a modification of the vowel in the second syllable of the base.

8. Verb Noun

a. diber ‘speak’ dibur ‘talk’

b. kibec ‘gather’ kibuc ‘gathering’

c. liked ‘unite’ likud    ‘union’

d. tixnet ‘program’ tixnut         ‘programming’

Haspelmath & Sims (2010, p. 120)

The modification at the base shows the internal change of the front vowel [e] to the back vowel [u]. It is a case of ablaut.

The suffixes –simo and –ma in Modern Greek derives action nouns from verbs.

9. Verb Noun

a. đjavázo ‘I read’ đjávasma ‘reading’

b. kóvo ‘I cut’ kópsimo ‘cutting’

c. lúzo ‘I bathe’ lúsimo ‘bathing’

d. mangóno ‘I squeeze’ mángoma ‘squeezing’

e. pjáno ‘I seize’ pjásimo ‘seizing’

f. skodáfto ‘I stumble’ skóndama ‘stumbling’

g. tinázo ‘I shake’ tínaɣma ‘shaking’

h. tréxo ‘I run’ tréksimo ‘running’

Haspelmath & Sims (2010, p. 133)

 

In the derivation of nouns from verbs in the data above, some morphophonological rules have applied, hence the alternations in the stem.

The suffixes-age, ion, -ance, -ure, etc. when affixed to verbs will derive different types of nouns in English.

10.Verb Noun

a. marry marri-age

b. carry carri-age

c. connect connect-ion

d. collect collect-ion

e. accept accept-ance

f. assist assist-ance

i. fail fail-ure

j. please pleas-ure

 

2. Deadjectival Nouns

Deadjectival nouns are derived from adjectives with the use of derivational affixes.

Quality nouns and person nouns are some types of deadjectival nouns attested in languages.

A quality noun refers to an abstract noun for a value while a person noun refers to a noun that refers to persons only.

Quality nouns are illustrated in English and Russian in (11) and (12). The addition of the suffixes –ness, -cy, -ty, -dom, -ity, etc. derives quality nouns. For example:

11. Adjective Noun

a.   kind kind-ness

b. good good-ness

c. accurate accura-cy

d. private priva-cy

e. safe safe-ty

f. royal royal-ty

g. wise wis-dom

h. free free-dom

i.   able abil-ity

j.   active activ-ity

In Russian the suffix –stvo combines with adjectives to form nouns as indicated in the examples in (12) taken from Švedova (1980, p. 179):

12. Adjective Noun

a.   bogatyj ‘rich’ bogat-stvo ‘richness’

b. znakomyj ‘acquainted’ znakom-stvo ‘acquaintance’

c. udaloj ‘bold’ udal’-stvo ‘boldness’

d. lukavyj ‘wily’ lukav-stvo ‘cunning’

The data in (13) taken from Sridhar (1990, p. 270, 276) also indicate the derivation of quality nouns in Kannada.

13. Adjective Noun

a. khacita ‘certain’ khacitate ‘certainty’

b. bhadra ‘safe’ bhadrate ‘safety’

c. ghana ‘weighty’ ghanate ‘dignity’

The suffix –te is the quality noun suffix that is attached to the adjectives to derive nouns. Russian derives person nouns from adjectives.

For example umn-ik ‘clever guy’ is derived from umn-yj ‘smart, clever’. In most languages, the noun is highly opened to being derived from adjectives.

3. Denominal Nouns

Denominal nouns are nouns that are derived from other nouns through the use of denominal affixes.

The different types of nouns include diminutive noun (a noun indicating decrease in relation to the base noun), augmentative noun (a noun that indicates increase in relation to the base noun), status noun (a noun that indicates the status or state of being), inhabitant noun (a noun indicating places of habitation), female noun (feminine nouns derived from other nouns), etc.

In forming diminutive nouns in Spanish, diminutive suffixes like –illo or –illa or –ita are added to the noun.

14. Noun Noun

a. mesa ‘table’ mesilla ‘little table’

b. grupo ‘group’ grupillo ‘little group’

English forms dimunitive nouns with the addition of suffixes –let and –lock, -ing, -ette, etc. to some nouns.

15. Noun Noun

a. pig pig-let

b. play play-let

c. leaf leaf-let

d. hill hill-ock

e. goose gosling

f. duck duckling

g. sac sachet

h. cigar cigarette

i. lock locket

The prefixes micro- and mini- also form dimunitive nouns providing words like micro-biology, micro-economics, mini-campus, mini-cab, etc. Kujamaat Jóola, an Atlantic language, forms dimunitive nouns with the prefix class marker ji- (class 10) for singular nouns and mu- (class 11) for plural nouns. The mu- class marker is also used to mark mass nouns with ji- as the dimunitive marker.

16. Noun Noun

a. -sɛk ‘woman’ ji–sɛk ‘small woman’

b. -bə:r ‘wood’ ji- bə:r ‘small tree’

c. -ko ‘head’ ji-ko ‘small head’

d. -ɲil ‘child’ ji-ɲil ‘small child’

17. Noun Noun

a. mu-mɛl ‘water’ ji-mɛl ‘a little bit of water’

b. mi:l ‘milk’ ji-mi:l ‘a little bit of milk’

c. mu-sis ‘salt’ ji-sis ‘a little bit of salt’

d. mu-sana(y) ‘news’ ji-sanay ‘a little bit of news’

Kujamaat Jóola also has diminutive collective which refers to ‘a little collection of’ or ‘a little bunch of’.

The dimunitive collective prefix ba- (class 13) in the language can attach to virtually all nouns in the language.

18. Noun Noun

a. ɛkikit ‘seed’ ba-kikit       ‘small bunch of seeds’

b. fujaŋata ‘peanut’ ba- jaŋata    ‘small bunch of peanuts’

Augmentative nouns are formed in Kujamaat Jóola with the affixation of either fu- (class 5) that forms the singular augmentative or ku- (class 6) forming argmentative plurals.

The addition of these prefixes to other nouns will derive augmentative nouns.

19. Noun Noun

a. -ɲil ‘child’ fu-ɲil ‘large child’

b. -ko ‘head’ fu-ko ‘large head’

c. -mang ‘mango’ fu-mang ‘large mango’

d. -burə ‘duck’ fu-burə ‘large duck’

20. Noun Noun

a. -ɲil ‘child’ ku-ɲil ‘large children’

b. -ko ‘head’ ku-ko ‘large heads’

c. -mang ‘mango’ ku-mang ‘large mangoes’

d. -burə ‘duck’ ku-burə ‘large ducks’

The Kujamaat Jóola examples are taken from Aronoff and Fudeman (2011, p. 61-65). English also makes very good use of prefixes in the derivation of nouns too.

Most English prefixes derive new words but do not change the class of the word to which they are attached.

They are attached to either verbs or verb phrases to derive nouns. anti-, ex, ante-, inter-, pre-, tri, semi-, bi-, di-, poly-, a-, non-, re-, con-, etc. are some prefixes attested in English used in the derivation of nouns.

Each of these prefixes has particular type of bases to which they can be attached. The prefix anti- is attached to nouns to derive nouns. For example:

21. Noun Noun

a. establishment anti-establishment

b. depressant anti-depressant

c. social anti-social

d. body anti-body

The prefix ex- – is another prefix in English that is attached to nouns to also derive status nouns. For example:

22. Noun Noun

a. president ex-president

b. wife ex-wife

c. governor ex-governor

d. lecturer ex-lecturer

The prefixes ba- and mai- in Hausa are attached to nouns to further derive status nouns as illustrated in (23).

23. Noun Noun

a. túrè ‘foreign land’ bà-túrè ‘foreigner’

b. fádà ‘court’ bà-fádà ‘courtier’

c. dòyá ‘yam’ mai-dòyá ‘yam seller’

d. rúwà ‘water’ mai-rúwà ‘water seller’

Suprafixes also help in noun derivation in many languages. Depending on the type that is attested in the language, when used they can derive nouns.

Female nouns are derived from deverbal agentive nouns in Russian with the addition of the suffix –ja. The data in (24) is taken from Svedova (1980, p. 203).

24. Noun Noun

a. govorun govorun-ja ‘talker’

b. begun begun-ja ‘runner’

c. pljasun pljasun-ja ‘dancer’

d. igun igun-ja ‘liars’

 German also has a female noun suffix –in that combines with nouns to derive female nouns as exemplified in (25).

 25. Noun Noun

a. könig ‘king’ könig-in ‘queen’

b. löw ‘lion’ löw-in ‘lioness’

c. käfer ‘beetle’ käfer-in ‘female beetle’

d. würm ‘worm’ würm-in ‘female worm’

 In Yoruba, the following segment igba could be realized as about five different nouns depending on the tone on each segment.

 26.

a. igbá ‘calabash’

b. igba ‘two hundred’

c. ìgbá ‘garden egg’

d. ìgbà ‘time’

e. igbà ‘season’

 The different nouns are derived as a result of the different tonal realizations. Consider this data from Ebira, a Kwa language spoken in Nigeria.

27.

a. òhì ‘answer’

b. òhí ‘leader’

c. ohí ‘whistle’

d. ohi ‘broom’

The distinctions in the tonal realizations of the words also led to the derivation of different words in Ebira.

There are very many other derivational meanings of nouns in different languages that are not explained here.

There are languages that have affixes for deriving cognate nouns, vendor nouns, kinds of meat, kinds of chemicals, kinds of diseases, etc.

Exercises

1. Describe how nouns are derived.

2. Discuss the derivational functions of affixes.

3. Consider the following data from Kannada. Determine the meaning of the suffixes.

khacita ‘certain’ khacitate ‘certainty’

bhadra ‘safe’ bhadrate ‘safety’

ghana ‘weighty’ ghanate ‘dignity’

(Sridhar 1990, p270, 278)

NB

a. Most of the examples which are supposed to be on the same line have broken due to the margin configuration of the website. I hope to be able to find a way around this problem sooner than later.

b. In the next lecture, we will examine Verb Derivation.

c. Excerpts are taken from Arokoyo (2013 2017 & 2018).

References

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2013). Owé Linguistics: an Introduction. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House. https://bit.ly/36uYAFw

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2018). Owé Linguistics: an Introduction (2nd Ed.) Aba: NINLAN.

Aronoff, Mark and Kirsten Fudeman. (2011). What is morphology? Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

Haspelmath, Martins and Andrew Sims (2010). Understanding morphology. London: Hodder Education.

Iloene, Modesta. (2010). Igbo Morphology. In Yusuf, Ore (ed.). Basic linguistics for Nigerian languages. Ijebu-Ode: Shebiotimo Publications. 188-201.

Merrield, R. William, Naish, Constance M., Rensch Calvin R. & Gillian Story. (2003) (7th Edition).  Laboratory manual for morphology and syntax. SIL International: Dallas, Texas.

Sridhar, S. N.  (1990). Kannada. (Descriptive grammars series). London: Routledge.

Švedova, N. Ju. (ed.) (1980). Russkaja grammatika. Tom 1. Moscow: Nauka.

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo

Morphology Lecture Series VIII

This topic will be divided into a series of subtopics which will be treated in about four lectures. For a better understanding, kindly go through the previous lectures especially The Morpheme and Types of Morpheme.

1.Introduction

 

Morphemes combine to form words.

Derivational morphemes are affixes used in the creation of words.

They are bound morphemes attached to roots to derive new words.

When attached to roots, they may change the syntactic class of the lexical items.

This means that bound morphemes could either be class maintaining or class changing affixes.

The most productive means of creating new words in human languages is through the use of derivational morphemes.

The addition of the derivational morpheme -er to the following verbs will change them to agentive nouns, i.e. class changing.

 

1. Verb Noun

a. sing singer

b. play player

c. mow mower

d. check checker

 

The affix –able in English when attached to verbs derive deverbal adjectives. For example:

 

2. Verb Adjective

a. think thinkable

b. live livable

c. read readable

d. deport deportable

 

The two affixes above changed the grammatical class of the root from verb to noun and from verb to adjective respectively.

There are, however, affixes that will not change the class of the word. In English, for example, nouns are derived from nouns with the addition of the suffix -dom, -let, -ess, -ship, -hood, -ist, etc. as exemplified in data (3) below.

 

3a. Noun Noun

a. king kingdom

b. chief chiefdom

c. fief fiefdom

 

3b. Noun Noun

a. book booklet

b. drop droplet

c. pig piglet

 

3c. Noun Noun

a. prince princess

b. waiter waitress

c. actor actress

 

3d. Noun Noun

a. king kingship

b. lord lordship

c. lady ladyship

 

3e. Noun Noun

a. mother motherhood

b. father fatherhood

c. priest priesthood

 

3f. Noun Noun

a. cartoon cartoonist

b. Marx Marxist

c. Bhuda Bhudist

 

The addition of the suffixes did not change the class of the words.

Derivational morphemes create new words that enrich the lexicon of the language.

They are very productive in the creation of lexical morphemes; nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Bound morphemes are not just attached to any base, but select the particular type of base to be attached to for a particular meaning to be derived.

The bound morpheme attached to a base determines the meaning of the derived word.

The bound morphemes, dis- and -ment in the following examples determine the meaning of the derived words.

 

4.

a. content dis-content

b. own dis-own

c. punish punishment

d. judge judgment

 

There are different types of derivational morphemes attested and they are attached to roots through the process of affixation.  

This lecture seeks to examine how derivational affixes are used to derive words in languages.

Affixation is one major means of deriving words; there are however other word formation rules which will be discussed in later under morphological processes.

 

 

2.Derivational Affixation

 

Affixation is a process whereby affixes are attached to morphemes for the purpose of deriving new words or providing additional grammatical information.

Affixation could either be derivational or inflectional. Inflectional affixation will be examined later.

According to Crystal (2008 p16), affixation is the morphological process whereby a grammatical or lexical information is added to a stem.

Derivational affixation is strictly used for the creation of new words.

It is a common and productive word formation process in languages.

Affixation can be divided into prefixation, suffixation, infixation, interfixation, circumfixation and suprafixation. These have all been examined under Affixes.

It should be noted that not all these processes are present in all languages.

English for example attests prefixation, suffixation, interfixation and suprafixation but not infixation and circumfixation.

Yoruba on the other hand attests prefixation, interfixation and suprafixation.

Unlike most languages, Yoruba does not attest suffixation.

Derivational affixation is a highly productive process and content words are created via this process.

Content words are words with lexical meaning that belong to the open class.

This is the class that is open to accepting new members; noun, verb, adjective and adverbs.

Exercises

1. Formulate the morphological rule for the derivation of the following Chalcatongo Mixtec adjectives.

NounAdjective

káɁba káɁbá. ‘dirty’

žuù žúú. ‘solid, hard’

xaɁà xáɁá. ‘standing’

(Macaulay, 1996, p64)

2. Consider the following data from Tzeltal. Determine the meaning of the suffixes.

 

a. bet ‘loan’

betan ‘to loan’

b. ˀip ‘strength’

ˀipan ‘to nourish’

c. k’op ‘speech’

k’opan ‘to speak with’

d. ˀabat ‘servant’

ˀabatin ‘to serve’

e. mul ‘sin’

mulin ‘to commit sin’

 

3. What are derivational affixes?

 

4. Examine class maintaining and class changing affixes.

5. Be creative! What are the possible forms you can come up with using these negative suffixes like un-, in-, dis-, il-, on these words?

Can you explain why the derived forms sound the way they do? What are their possible meanings?

 

possible peddle obvious

regular number derive

classify legal descript

 

NB

a. In the next lecture, we will examine Noun Derivation.

 

b Excerpts are taken from Arokoyo (2017).

References

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

Crystal, David. (2008). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Macaulay, Monica. (1996). A grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec. Berkeley: University of California Press.

 

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo 

Morphology Lecture Series #VII

We will briefly look at complex derivations and zero morpheme now. The last lecture was Affixes. Take your time to go through it.

1. Complex Derivations

There could be more than one affix attached to a morpheme; this is because derivations can apply more than once thereby resulting in words with multi-layered internal structure.

The internal structure of a word could have multiple levels. When complex derivations like this occur, derivational affixes must combine with appropriate type of base to form a word.

The following words uncomfortable, unpredictable, and unforgivable for example have passed through three levels of derivations respectively. The bases of the words are verbs to which the suffix –able is attached to derive adjectives, comfortable, predictable and forgivable.

The prefix un- a negative prefix, is then attached to the adjectives to still derive adjectives. The derivation of unforgivable is shown in the following tree diagram:

 

The derivation can only go the way it has gone and not attaching the prefix un– before the suffix   –able to arrive at the words.

Studying the internal structure of words means that the affixes are not just attached anyhow, but follow particular system.

 

2. Zero Morphemes

Zero morphemes, also referred to as null morphemes, are morphemes that have no phonological manifestation.

The morpheme is present but it has no physical manifestation therefore the two forms are homophonous.

The zero morpheme is involved in the formation of some English plural nouns, for example fish, deer, salmon, sheep, tuna, etc. do not change in shape to mark either singular or plural.

Other instances are some irregular verbs in English whose forms do not change, for example, put, let, shut, spread, cut, cast, etc.

The forms for the past and past participle do not change. The morphemes are present but have zero phonological representations.

Exercises

1. Divide the following words into the constituent morphemes. State the kind of morphemes each is made of.

advancement truck drivers

caught. stopped running

abreast along sleeps darken

worst grateful pegs

 

2. Divide the following words into morphemes. List the free and bound morphemes separately. Describe any problematic morpheme.

 

exemplify unkempt wieldy

recognition omission selfish

unimportant computerize

3. Draw trees for the following words.

selfish      beautiful    impossible

understandably

4. Provide at least twenty examples of words with zero morpheme.

5. Describe zero morpheme with ample illustrations.

NB

a. Excepts are taken from Arokoyo (2017).

b. A good knowledge of principles of morpheme identification is required for you to understand the concepts discussed.

c. We will start our discussion on Derivational Morphemes in the next class.

References

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

 

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo 

Morphology Lecture Series #VI

Our topic of discussion in today’s lecture is affixes. If you are just joining, endeavour to go through the previous lectures (Roots, Stems and Bases).

What are affixes?

Affixes are bound morphemes that attach to other morphemes to form words.

They only occur as part of another morpheme, attached to the root or stem. They do not occur in isolation.

Affixes are only meaningful when they are attached to free morphemes.

Affixes are either derivational or inflectional; they perform both lexical and grammatical functions.

They are used to derive new words or to inflect existing words for grammatical functions.  

Affixes perform lexical functions when they derive new words and grammatical functions when they inflect existing words.

Lexical functions refer to when an affix is attached to a root or stem in the morphological process thereby resulting in the creation of a new word. This new word might still retain its word class.

Grammatical functions of affixes refer to an affix attached to a root or stem to provide additional information about tense, case, gender, number, etc.  

Affixes are attached to other morphemes through a process of affixation.

Affixes are classified according to their position relative to the roots and stems.

An affix may occupy the structural position of a prefix when it occurs before the root, a suffix when it occurs after the root, an infix when it occurs within the root, a circumfix when it occurs at both sides of the root, an interfix when it connects two roots and a suprafix when it occurs as a supra-segmental feature.

 

1. Prefixes

A prefix is an affix that occurs before the root. It is an affix which appears before the root, stem or base to which it is attached.

A prefix precedes the root or stem to which it is most closely associated.

Most human languages attest prefixes. For example in Yorùbá all oral vowels a-, e-, ẹ-, i-, o-, ọ- except [u] function as nominalizing prefixes in Yoruba.

According to Tinuoye (2000 p24) ‘they are used primarily to form concrete nouns denoting the actor or agent’.

These prefixes are attached to either verbs or verb phrases to derive nouns. For example:

1.

a. kú ‘to die’ i-kú ‘death’

b. ṣẹ̀ ‘to sin’ ẹ̀-ṣẹ̀ ‘sin’

c. fẹ́ ‘to love’ ì-fẹ́ ‘love’

d. jà ‘to fight’ ì-jà ‘fight’

e. kọ ‘to teach’ ẹ-kọ́ ‘education’

f. pẹja ‘kill-fish’

a-pẹja ‘fisherman’

 

The olú- prefix also in Yoruba is attached to nouns. The derived words are also nouns indicating possession, doer or agent or lord. For example:

2.

a. olú + awo olúwo

lord   cult. ‘head of a cult’

b. olú + ìfẹ́ olùfẹ́

lord   love ‘lover’

c. olú + ìdánwò olùdánwò

lord  examination ‘examiner’

d. olù + ìgbàlà olùgbàlà

lord   salvation savior

 

The oní- morpheme with its variants oní ~ alá ~ oló ~ ọlọ́ ~ elé ~ ẹlẹ́ are also prefixes in Yorùbá which could mean ‘lord, owner, seller, possessor’ etc. They are also agentive prefixes, attached to nominals. Oni- could be attached to both root and derived nominals. This is exemplified in (3):

3.

a. oní + ilé onílé

owner house ‘landlord’

b. oní + ìlù onílù

owner drum ‘drummer’

c. oní + garawa onígarawa

owner tin ‘tin seller’

d. oní + kpákó oníkpákó

owner wood ‘wood seller’

e. oní + epo elepo

owner oil ‘oil seller’

f. oní + awo aláwo

owner cult ‘witch doctor’

g. oní + omi olómi

owner water ‘seller of water’

h. oní + ọmọ ọlọ́mọ

owner child ‘owner of child’

i. oní + ẹ̀sẹ̀ ẹlẹ́sẹ̀

owner sin ‘sinner’

The processes involved in the derivation of the variants have been discussed under Morphs and Allomorphs.

Another prefix in Yorùbá is àì-. It is a prefix attached to verbs, verb phrases and adjectives to derive nouns and adjectives.

The aim is to negativise. Bamgbose (1990, p. 106) describes it as negation of abstract nominals. The derived word is either a noun or an adjective.

4.

a. àì + mọ àìmọ

NEG know ignorance

b. àì + ní àìní

NEG have ‘lack’

c. àì + lọ ailọ

NEG go ‘not going’

d. àì + da. àìda

NEG be good ‘evil’

e. àì + sùn. àìsùn

NEG to sleep ‘vigil’

f. àì + lópin àìlópin

NEG have end ‘eternal’

g. àì + díbàjẹ́ àìdíbàjẹ́

NEG corrupted ‘incorruptible’

h. ài + lówó àìlówó

NEG be wealthy ‘poverty’

The prefix ai- is attached to verbs and adjectives in examples (4a-e) and attached to verb phrases in examples (4f-h) respectively.

Another prefix in Yorùbá is àti- which is also attached to verbs and verb phrases to derive gerundive nouns.

 

5.

All these prefixes in Yorùbá perform lexical functions as they derive new words. In Igala, the prefix am- performs the function of plural marking. For example:

 

6.

a. ónú ‘king’ àm-ónú ‘kings’

b. íye ‘mother’ àm-íye ‘mothers’

c. àtá ‘father’ àm-àtá ‘fathers’

d. ọ́nẹ̀ ‘person’ àm- ọ́nẹ̀ ‘persons’

 

The plural morpheme in Isthmus Zapotec, spoken in Mexico is the prefix ka-. The following data is taken from Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (2011, p.44).

7.

a. zigi. ‘chin’

kazigi ‘chins’

b. zike ‘shoulder’

kazike ‘shoulders’

c. diaga. ‘ear’

kadiaga ‘ears’

From the discussion above, we see that prefixes perform both lexical and grammatical functions depending on the morphology of the language.

Prefixation is the process by which bound morphemes are attached before the root or stem to form new words or provide grammatical information.

 

2.Suffixes

Suffixes are bound morphemes that occur after the root. When a suffix attaches to the root the result could be the derivation of a new word which could lead to a change in the grammatical class of the root or just to provide additional information.

New words may be formed or additional grammatical information may be provided. In Hausa, for example, the suffix -n and -r are agreement markers functioning as gender marker, definiteness marker and also possessive marker.  For example:

 

8.

a. úwá + -r úwár

mother the mother

b. kásá + -r kásár

city the city

c. úbá + n úbán

father the father

d. gídá + n gídán

house the house

 

In English, the suffix –ed when attached to verbs marks the past tense. The following data illustrate this:

 

9.

a. kill + ed killed

b. like + -ed liked

c. walk + -ed walked

d. cook + -ed cooked

e. sleep + -ed slept

f. catch + -ed caught

g. buy + -ed bought

h. hit + -ed hit

 

Examples (9a-e) indicate the regular form of the verb while examples (9e-h) indicate irregular verb forms.

Suffixes also perform lexical functions in English. For example the suffix –er is attached to verbs to derive nouns.

 

10.

a. sing +er singer

b. kill +er killer

c. do +er doer

d. play +er player

 

There are two –er suffixes in English. The second suffix is attached to adjectives to derive the comparative form, in which case, it is performing a grammatical function. For example:

 

11.

a. big +-er bigger

b. small +-er smaller

c. large +-er larger

d. long +-er longer

Suffixation is the process by which bound morphemes are attached after or at the end of the root or stem to form new words or provide grammatical information.

 

3.Infixes

An infix occurs within a morpheme. An infix would break a morpheme in two and be attached between the broken morpheme; it is incorporated into the root.

For a bound morpheme to qualify as an infix, it must have form and must be incorporated in the root. Infixes are not as common as the prefix or suffix.

Examples of infixes from Tagalog (an Austronesian language), Oaxaca Chontal (spoken in Mexico), Katu (spoken in Vietnam and Bontoc (spoken in the Philippines) show the infixes –in-, -ɬ-, -an- and –um- inserted within roots in the four languages.

 

Tagalog

12.

a. ibigay ‘give’

ib-in-igay ‘gave’

b. ipaglaba ‘wash(for)’

ip-in-aglaba ‘washed for’

c. ipambili ‘buy(with)’

ip-in-ambili ‘bought(with)’

 

Oaxaca

13.

a. tsetse ‘squirrel’

tse-ɫ-tse ‘squirrels’

b. tuwa ‘foreigner’

tu-ϯ-wa ‘foreigners’

c. łipo ‘possum’

łi-ł-po ‘possums’

Merrifield et. al. (2003)

Katu

14.

a. gap ‘to cut’ g-an-ap ‘scissors

b. juut ‘to rub’ j-an-uut ‘cloth’

c. piih ‘to sweep’

p-an-iih ‘broom’

Merrifield et. al. (2003)

 

Bontoc

15.

Nouns/Adjectives Verbs

a. fikas ‘strong’

f-um-ikas ‘to be strong’

b. kilad ‘red’

k-um-ilad ‘to be red’

c. fusul ‘enemy’

f-um-usul ‘to be enemy’

 

In three of these languages, the infixes are inserted after the initial consonants of the roots (12, 14, & 15) while in Oaxaca (13), it is inserted after the first syllable.

In Tagalog, the infix is a past tense marker, it is a plural marker in Oaxaca, in Katu it nominalizes while in Bontoc, it derives verbs from nouns and adjectives.

Tagalog sometimes forms the basic voice with the infix –um- as shown in (16).

 

Tagalog

16. Root Basic form with voice

a. langoy l-um-angoy ‘swim’

b. wagayway w-um-agayway ‘wave’

 

Infixation is the process by which an affix is incorporated into roots or stems to derive new words or provide grammatical information.

 

4.Interfix

Interfixes are affixes that occur between two root morphemes.

The root morphemes may be identical or non-identical. The interfix acts more like a linking affix joining two roots together. English does not have interfixes but it is attested in Yorùbá. For example:

 

17.

 

The morphemes –kí-, -bí- and mọ̀ are the interfixes bringing the two identical roots together. Let us also consider these examples from Igbo.

 18.

a. ógó-l-ógó ‘length’

b. áká-m-ányá ‘bravado’

c. érí-m-érí ‘meal’

d. ékwù-r-ékwù ‘talkativeness’

e. ụ̀wà-t- ụ̀wà ‘eternity’

 

These examples illustrate interfixation in Igbo language leading to the derivation of nouns.

 

5. Circumfix

A circumfix is an affix that surrounds the root. The circumfix has two parts, the first part occurs before the root while the second part occurs after the root.

It looks like both a prefix and a suffix expressing the same meaning.  

It is seen as a discontinuous morpheme. German and Chicksaw are circumfixing languages.

The German circumfix ge-…-en and ge-….-t are good examples. This is illustrated in (19).

 

19.

a. fahr ‘drive’

ge-fahr-en ‘driven’

b. finden ‘find’

ge-fund-en ‘found’

c. singen ‘sing’

ge-sung-en ‘sung’

d. lieb ‘love’

ge-lieb-t ‘loved’

 

Chichsaw, a Muskogean language spoken in Oklahoma also attests circumfix.

The circumfix, ik-…-o is a negative marker in the language. The example in (20) is taken from Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (2011, p. 45).

 

20.

a. chokma   ‘he is good’  

ik+chokm+o ‘he isn’t good’

b. lakna   ‘it is yellow’  

ik+lakn+o ‘it isn’t yellow’

c. palli    ‘it is hot’  

ik-pall+o ‘it isn’t hot’

d. tiwwi    ‘he opens (it)’

ik+tiww+o ‘he doesn’t open (it)’

 

In the Chichsaw examples, before the second part of the circumfix is added, the final vowel is deleted.

In Urhobo, the gerundive and infinitive verb is derived through the use of a circumfix as exemplified in (21).

 

21. Verb Gerund

a. mi ‘wring’

èmió ‘to wring/ wringing’

b. bi ‘be black’

èbió ‘to be black/ blackening’

c. ku ‘pour’

èkuó ‘to pour/ pouring’

d. mu ‘carry’

èmuó ‘to carry/ carrying’

e. re ‘eat’

ẹ̀riọ́ ‘to eat/ eating’

        (Aziza 2010, p. 300-1)

 

The circumfix, which is allomorphic, conditioned by ATR features, is è—ó and ẹ̀—ọ́.  The allomorphic variant è—ó is for +ATR stem while ẹ̀—ọ́ is for –ATR stems.

Circumfixation is, in essence, a situation where both the prefix and suffix are simultaneously employed to express one meaning.

 

6.Suprafix

A Suprafix is an affix which is marked over the segments that form the root.

They are suprasegmental features like tones, stress, and pitch. They are morphemes because they are meaningful.

For example, tone in tone languages and stress in languages that mark stress bring about differences in meaning between morphemes that have the same segments.

Words can form minimal pairs as a result of suprafixes.  Stress performs lexical function in English.

The difference between the following sets of words is stress placement:

 

22. Nouns Verbs

‘present pre‘sent

‘export ex‘port

‘insult in‘sult

‘convert con‘vert

‘permit per‘mit

 

Stress on the initial syllable indicates nouns while stress placed on the second syllable derives verbs.

Tones can perform both lexical and grammatical functions. Most African languages are tone languages.

Tones perform lexical function in Nupe, spoken in Nigeria. Consider the following examples in (23):

 

Nupe

23.

a. bà ‘to count’

bá ‘to be sour’

ba ‘to cut’

 

b. ebá ‘husband’

ebà ‘place’

eba ‘penis’

 

c. edú ‘kind of fish’

èdu ‘kind of yam’

èdù ‘Niger river’

edù ‘deer’

edu ‘thigh’

 

Tones also perform lexical functions in Yoruba as exemplified in (24 & 25) below.

24.

a. igbá ‘calabash’

b. igba ‘two hundred’

c. ìgbà ‘time’

d. ìgbá ‘garden egg’

e. igbà ‘season’

 

25.

a. ọkọ ‘husband

b. ọkọ̀ ‘car’

c. ọkọ́ ‘hoe’

 

The morphemes in (24) and (25) above have the same segments; the only difference is the tonal distribution that has brought about differences in meaning.

Looking at the segments and meaning of the words, we can see that the basic difference is in tone variation.

Note that vowels without diacritics in tone languages are marked as mid tones. In Eggon, plurality is marked by changes in the tones of the root word as shown in the examples in (26) below:

 

26.

Singular Plural Gloss

àklá aklá ‘monkey(s)’

ènú enú      ‘fowl(s)’

ìbĩ ibĩ ‘goat(s)’

 

In the examples, the vowels at word initial positions of the singular nouns carry the low tone while to mark plurality, the low tone changes to mid tone.

Tones also serve grammatical function in Tiv. The imperative is formed with a high tone on the final syllable.

Consider the following examples taken from Haspelmath and Sims (2010, p. 65).

 

27. Root Imperative Gloss

kimbi kìmbí pay

de dé leave

gba gbá fall

vá vá come

 

In the formation of imperatives in the language, the high tone is placed on the final syllable.

In Ukaan, spoken in Nigeria, tone makes a distinction between present continuous and the past tense. Consider the examples from Abiodun (2010, p. 55).

 

28.

a. dzẹ́ wag ‘I am coming.’

b. dzẹ́ wàg ‘I came.’

c. dzẹ́ fẹgẹ èkèrè

‘I am breaking a pot.’

d. dzẹ́ fẹ́gẹ̀ èkèrè ‘I broke a pot.’

Exercises

1. With suitable examples, describe affixes.

2. Be creative! What are the possible forms you can come up with using affixes like un-, in-, dis-, il-, -s, -ren, -ed, on these words. Can you explain why the derived or inflected forms sound the way they do?

possible ox catch hit obvious

regular wife chief go show

legal descript

3. Examine the morphological functions of tones in human language.

4. Identify the morphological constituents and describe their meanings in the following Hyderabadi Telugu (India) data.

pilla ‘child’

pillalu ‘children’

puwu ‘flower’

puwulu ‘flowers’

ʧiima ‘ant’

ʧiimalu ‘ants’

doma ‘mosquito’

domalu ‘mosquitoes’

godugu ‘elephant’

godugulu ‘elephants’

ʧiire ‘sari’

ʧiirelu ‘saris’

annagaaru ‘elder brother’ annagaarulu ‘elder brothers’

Merrifield et al. 2003

NB

a. We will briefly examine Complex Derivations and Zero Morpheme in the next class.

b. Leave your comments and questions on the site.

b Excerpts are taken from Arokoyo (2017).

References

Abiodun, Mike. (2010). Phonology. In Yusuf, Ore (ed.). Basic linguistics for Nigerian languages. Ijebu-Ode: Shebiotimo Publications. 38-65.

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

Aziza, Rose O. (2010). Urhobo phonology. In Yusuf, Ore (ed.). Basic Linguistics for Nigerian Languages. Ijebu-Ode: Shebiotimo Publications. 278-294.

Bamgbose, Ayo. (1990). Fonọlọji ati girama Yoruba. Ibadan: University Press Plc.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman and Nina Hyams. (2011). An introduction to Language. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Haspelmath, Martins and Andrew Sims (2010). Understanding morphology. London: Hodder Education.

Merrield, R. William, Naish, Constance M., Rensch Calvin R. & Gillian Story. (2003) (7th Edition).  Laboratory manual for morphology and syntax. SIL International: Dallas, Texas.

Tinuoye O. Mary. (2001). A contrastive analysis of English and Yoruba morphology. Ijebu-Ode: Shebiotimo Publications.

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo

Morphology Lecture Series #V

A free morpheme (see Types of Morpheme) can function as a root or stem for the addition of other morphemes usually affixes to produce new words.

Roots constitute the nuclei of words; they serve as the basic core of any word.

Roots, like the free morphemes, have independent forms and meaning.

They can stand in isolation.

They carry the major component of the meaning of words.

Roots, being morphemes, cannot be reduced into smaller elements.

Haspelmath and Sims (2010, p. 21) describes a root as ‘a base that cannot be analyzed any further into constituent morphemes’.

Without the root, there cannot be a word; there could also be more than one root in a word (compound).  

Roots belong to lexical classes of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Roots are free morphemes that are ready to take affixes. In available, avail is the root and also the base for available likewise in selfish, self is the root and also the base for selfish.

The stem, also referred to as base, is a form to which an affix is added. It is the part of a word to which the last morpheme in a word is structurally added.

While taking into consideration the fact that there are different types of base modifications involving concatenative and non-concatenative patterns, Haspelmath and Sims (2010, p. 36) say that ‘the base of a morphologically complex word is the element to which a morphological operation applies’.

The stem could be composed of one or more roots (compounds). In many instances, the stem is also the root. This is because all roots can be stems but not all stems are roots.

For example, avail serves as both root and stem for the the addition of –able to derive available while self also serve as root and base for the addition of –ish to derive selfish. Available and selfish further serve as the bases, but not the roots, for availability and selfishness. A further illustration is provided in the following tree diagram.

There are instances where the base are words like the given examples, but there are also times when they are not word forms.

Stems like that are referred to as bound stems because they cannot stand alone as words. ceive and mit in English are good examples.

The affixes re-, per-, con– and de– combine with ceive to derive receive, perceive, conceive and deceive respectively.

The affixes re– and per– also combine with mit to derive remit and permit. These affixes are also part of the morphemes in words like decode, return, convince pertain and perjure respectively.

For these forms (bound stems) to occur and be meaningful, therefore, they must occur with bound morphemes in order to be a word.

 Exercises

1. Identify the morphological constituents and describe their meanings in the following Yimas data.

manpa ‘crocodile’

manpawi      ‘crocodiles’

kika ‘rat’

kikawi         ‘rats’

yaka ‘black possum’

yakawi         ‘black possums’

      (Foley 1991 p129)

2. Describe the English past tense morpheme.

3. What do you understand by roots, stems and bases? Discuss with ample illustrations.

4. Divide the following words into the constituent morphemes. State the kind of morphemes each is made of.

advancement truck drivers caught. stopped running abreast. along sleeps darken

worst grateful pegs

NB

a. We will start our discussion on Affixes in the next class.

b Excerpts are taken from Arokoyo (2017).

References

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

Foley, William A. (1991). The Yimas language of New Guinea. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Haspelmath, Martins and Andrew Sims (2010). Understanding morphology. London: Hodder Education.

Bolanle Elizabeth Arokoyo 

Morphology Lecture Series #IV

I hope you understand what we have been doing especially our last lecture on Types of Morpheme. We will continue our lecture by looking at some concepts in morphology. We will be looking at morphs and allomorphs now. We will conclude with roots, stems and bases in the next class.

1. Morphs

A Morph is the phonological or orthographical shape of a morpheme.

A morph is a discrete unit of a morpheme, the actual form in morpheme realization.

Some morphemes could be realized as single morphs for instance free morphemes or simple words like beg, walk, study, etc., while others could be realized as more than one morph depending on their relative position in a construction.

The English past tense morpheme -d  in the following words begged, walked and studied is pronounced in three different ways, [-d], [-t] and [-id] as a result of their environments of occurrence.

They are realized as three different morphs. The different realization of morphs is referred to as allomorphs.

2. Allomorphs

Allomorphs are phonologically determined alternant of a morpheme.

They are variants of the same morpheme; an alternate phonetic form of a morpheme.

You have allomorphy when the same bound morpheme, with same meaning, expressing the same idea has different realizations as a result of the conditioning of the environment of occurrence.

The forms that a morpheme is realized are phonologically determined by the environment.

The forms of allomorphs may not be phonemically similar and they always occur in complementary distribution; in mutually exclusive environments. Where a particular variant is found the other cannot be found.

A good example of allomorphy in Yorùbá is the agentive prefix ‘oní’ that takes different forms resulting in [oní ~ alá ~ oló ~ ọlọ́ ~ elé ~ ẹlẹ́] depending on the environment of occurrence. For example:

1.

a. onílé ‘landlord’

b. oníbàtà ‘seller of shoe’

c. aláta ‘pepper seller’

d. elépo ‘oil seller’

e. olómi ‘owner of water’

f. ẹlẹ́ran ‘meat seller’

g. ọlọ́mọ ‘owner of child’

[oní ~ alá ~ oló ~ ọlọ́ ~ elé ~ ẹlẹ́] are allomorphs of the morpheme oní ‘owner of’ or ‘seller of’.

A very important factor in deriving allomorphs is the environment that is phonologically conditioned.

In the examples above, the initial sound of the root morpheme that the bound morpheme is attached to determines the form of the allomorph.

The derivation goes through the process outlined in (2).

2.

a. oní + ilé onílé

owner house ‘landlord’

b. oní + bàtà oníbàtà

owner shoe ‘shoe seller’

c. oní + ata—onáta—oláta—aláta

owner pepper. ‘pepper seller’

d. oní + epo–onépo—olépo–elepo

owner oil ‘oil seller’

e. oní + omi—olómi

owner water. ‘seller of water’

f. oní + ẹja–onẹja—olẹ́ja—ẹlẹ́ja

owner fish ‘fish seller’

g.oní+ọmọ-onọ́mọ—ọlọ́mọ

owner child ‘owner of child’

The morpheme retains its form when it occurs before a root beginning with vowel /i/ and consonants as shown in examples (2a and b) while the form changes and assimilates the initial vowel of the roots in (2c-g).

Before arriving at the final form, a lot of phonological changes have taken place.

There is a single underlying representation oní that is manipulated by phonological rules to arrive at the pronunciation (the various allomorphs) at the surface representation.  

The English plural allomorphs make another good example. The form of the plural marker changes depending on the preceding sound. [-s] appears after voiceless non-sibilant sounds (book-s, pot-s, lap-s, cliff-s), [-z] appears after voiced non-sibilant sounds (keg-s, shoe-s, girl-s, bib-s) while [-iz] appears after sibilants (church-es, judg-es, carriage-es).

The different realizations are allomorphic, conditioned by the environment of occurrence.

3. Conditioning of Allomorphy

Conditioning of allomorphy refers to the condition of selecting different allomorphs. It is the environments in which different allomorphs of the same morpheme occurs (Haspelmath and Sims 2010 p323).

There are three kinds of conditioning: phonological conditioning, morphological conditioning and lexical conditioning.

Phonological conditioning affects phonological allomorphs. It is purely phonological environment that determines the choice of variants.

The explanation for the change is strictly phonological and it is predictable from the phonological environment.

For instance, the Yoruba agentive marker data given in (2) is strictly phonologically conditioned.

The English regular past tense allomorphs [-d], [-t] and [-id] are phonologically conditioned. [-d] appears after voiced sounds, begged, showed, bribed, placed, etc. [-t] after voiceless consonants, stopped, packed, hissed, etc. [-id] after alveolar stops- studied, hunted, defeated, etc.

The choice of the English indefinite article is also phonologically conditioned;

an occurs before nouns beginning with vowels – an egg, an apple, an ear, etc

a occurs before nouns with consonant initials like a book, a dog, a table, a bag, etc.

Morphological conditioning means that morphological context determines the choice of allomorph.

It is the particular morpheme and not the pronunciation that determines the choice of allomorph.

This means that unlike phonological conditioning, the choice of allomorph is not predictable.

In some English plurals, knife- knive-z, house-houz-iz, the voiceless fricatives become voiced and therefore receives the allomorph –z.

The forms of these stems are not changed to voiced in other instances for example when they receive the genitive morpheme –‘s; hous’is, knife’s. Let us consider the following data from Futa-Fula, spoken in French Guinea.

3.

a. puttyu             ‘horse’      

ŋguˀu puttyu ‘this horse’

b. ŋgurndaŋ         ‘life’      

daˀaŋ ŋgurndaŋ ‘this life’

c. fena.ndɛˀ         ‘lie’      

dɛˀɛ fena.ndɛ‘ ‘this lie’

d. d’yi.d’yaŋ       ‘food’      

daˀaŋ d’yi.d’yaŋ ‘this food’

e. gomd’iŋd’oˀ     ‘believing’

o. gomd’iŋd’oˀ   ‘this believing’

We can see that the choice of the allomorphs for the demonstrative pronoun ŋguˀu~ daˀaŋ~ dɛˀɛ ~ daˀaŋ ~ o ‘this’ is determined by the stem, it is not predictable.

Lexical conditioning occurs where the choice of allomorph is determined by other properties of the base like semantic properties.

The choice of allomorph is unpredictable and is determined by the particular lexeme it attaches to.

Lexical conditioning also accounts for cases where the choice of allomorph cannot be derived from any general rule and has to be learned individually for each word.

An example is the English plural forms. Apart from the regular ones that are marked with the suffix –s, there are some whose plural forms must be learnt on a word-by-word basis.

For example ox-oxen, child-children, sheep-sheep, deer-deer, etc.

The choice of the allomorph is determined by the word and not by any particular rule. Consider the following Hausa phrases.

4.

a. hárcè n‘the tongue’ (masc.)

b. zárè n‘the thread’ (masc.)

c. ídò n‘the eye’ (masc.)

d. kwàndó n‘the basket’ (macs.)

e. úwá r‘the mother’ (fem.)

f. màtá r‘the wife’ (fem.)

g. ùbá n‘the father’ (fem.)

h. rúwá n‘the water’ (fem.)

The particle marking determiner has a gender distinction, r~n. The form is lexically conditioned as it does not have anything to do with the pronunciation or any phonological or morphological rules but rather with the semantic property of the base; the fact that the lexeme it attaches to is either masculine of feminine.

4. Types of Allomorphs

There are basically two types of allomorphs; phonological allomorphs and suppletive allomorphs.

Phonological allomorphs are allomorphs that are similar phonologically. The Yoruba agentive prefix discussed above is an example of phonological allomorph. The allomorphs are derived from each other.

Suppletive allomorphs are different phonologically. The forms are not derived from each other.

A good example of suppletion in English is in the marking of tense on irregular verbs; the forms of the present verb and the past are different. For example buy-bought, go-went, run-ran.

5. Basic Morpheme

The basic morpheme is the abstract unit from where the other variants are derived.

It is the morpheme that occurs at the underlying level; it is also identified as one of the alternants.

The basic morpheme is the morpheme that has the widest environment of occurrence. It has the widest distribution compared to other forms. It is the morpheme that occurs in other environments while the variants occur in predictable environments.

The basic morpheme does not change. The morpheme oní- in the examples discussed above is the basic morpheme as it occurs in other environments while the variants occur in predictable environments. This is shown in (5).

5.

[alá] before vowel [a]

[ẹlẹ́] before vowel [ẹ]

[oló] before vowel [ọ]

/oní/[elé] before vowel [e]

[olọ́] before vowel [o]

[oní] before vowel [i] and other consonants

We can see the morpheme taking different forms depending on the initial vowel of the stem. It however remains the same when it occurs before vowel [i] and consonants.

This means that it is the morph with the highest position of occurrence; therefore, it is the basic morpheme.

Exercises

1.  With ample illustrations, classify the morpheme.

2. What is a morph? Describe the difference between the morph and morpheme.

3. Distinguish between a morpheme and an allomorph.

4. Distinguish between a morph and an allomorph.

5. Describe free and bound morphemes.

6. What do you understand by basic morpheme?

 NB

a. We will examine roots, stems and bases in the next class.

b Excerpts are taken from Arokoyo (2017).

References

Arokoyo, Bolanle Elizabeth. (2017). Unlocking morphology. Ilorin: Chridamel Publishing House.

Haspelmath, Martins and Andrew Sims (2010). Understanding morphology. London: Hodder Education.