Ling 201 Section C Instructor A.

Farudi 31 March 2008 Inectional vs derivational morphology; morphological ambiguity and lexical categories

Inectional versus derivational morphology

Three criteria that can be used to distinguish derivational from inectional morphemes (at least in English) are productivity, order, and ability to change the category of the base to which they attach.

1.1

Productivity

Inectional afxes attach to roots/stems in a predictable way. Inectional afxes can attach to almost all words in a particular grammatical category (nouns, verbs, etc.) NB: There are exceptions to the plural form in English, but they are relatively few (e.g. oxen, feet), and are exceptional in a way that missing derived forms are not. Afx -s -ed -ing -en, -ed -s -er -est Function 3rd person singular present past tense progressive aspect past participle plural comparative superlative Attaches to Example verbs She waits there at noon. verbs She waited there yesterday. verbs She is waiting there now. verbs Jack has eaten the cookies. nouns The chairs are in the room. adjectives, adverbs Jill is taller than Joe. adjectives, adverbs Ted is the tallest in his class.

(1)

Derivational afxes (at least in English) are less predictable in what they attach to. They characteristically apply only to a restricted class of bases. Eg, re- and -ize can attach to verbs, but not all verbs: (2) (3) I restudied for the exam. *I rehoped I would get an A.

modernize *newize legalize *lawfulize nalize *permanentize

1.2

Category change

Inectional afxes never change the category of the base to which they attach Derivational afxes can change the category; e.g. -able attaches to verbs to form adjectives: (4) V play do Adj playable (as in a playable tune) doable (a doable assignment)

But they do not necessarily change the category of the base; e.g.un- attaches to an adjective to form an adjective or to a verb to form a verb. Adj happy V tie Adj unhappy V untie 1

(5)

Note that the inectional -ing is different from the derivational -ing. The derivational -ing attaches to verbs to form adjectives. Derivational -ing: loving, amazing, revealing, tempting e.g. Jim thinks his younger sister is annoying. Inectional -ing: playing, washing, attempting, revising; e.g. Barbara is constantly annoying her older sister.

1.3

Order

Inectional afxes must attach to the base after any derivational afx(es). Derivational afxes must attach to the base before any inectional afx(es). (6) a. N N

N
r r r

Suff s

 

Suff age N

block b. *

N N

r r r

Af

 

Suff s

age

block

1.4

Relation to grammatical categories and syntax

The class of inectional afxes in a particular language are categories that are relevant to stating the syntactic rules of that language. For this reason, inectional afxes are obligatory w.r.t to the rest of the sentence in which they occur in a way that derivational afxes are not. (7) a. b. c. d. I go to the store. *I goes to the store. *She go to the store. She goes to the store.

(8)

a. She is happy. b. She is unhappy.

Morphological ambiguity

Recall that in the case of redoable, two out of three of the possible corresponding structures were ruled out by our rules of afxation. Remind ourselves of the three structures, and how two possibilities are eliminated.

In other cases, however, more than one possible order of afxation will be possible. An example is untieable. Untieable is ambiguous; it can have two different meanings. What are they? 1. 2. These two different meanings can be represented by using tree diagrams to represent the internal structure of each word. Draw the two trees: