How to make a dictionary: WS 2008-9

Derivational morphology

Overview

Additional tutorial sessions

Saussure's sign model

Saussures Sign Model

About concepts

Concepts are an abstract construct. They are intended for referring to the mental image of something rather then the concrete object "in the world". As the mental image may not be constant for every person (see for example the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis), concepts are only used in discussions and the concrete reference to the real world may be argued about.

A triadic model: the semiotic triangle

There is another dimension, illustrated by the semiotic triangle, it is the dimension of perception.

Semiotic triangle

The semiotic triangle expresses the difference in the perception of the concept and the concept itself.

Types of Definitions

All: a term (definiendum) is defined.

Rules for definitions

Problems with the rules of definition

Nominal definition

Deictic definition

Recursive definition

Example for a recursive definition

Relation between words and their meaning

Semantic Relations

Synonymy:
Two words that have (more or less) the same meaning.
Example: Grandmother|Granny; pass away|die;
Polysemy:
One word that have two (or more) (closely) related meanings.
Example: unit: family unit| entity
Homonymy:
Two words that have the same form, that is: they look the same, are pronounced the same, belong to the same grammatical class but their meaning is not at all related.
Example: bank (finances)| bank (river)
Antonymy:
Two words that are closely related (share the same word class, distribution, have the same hypernym) but their meaning is "opposite" to the other are called an antonym. In terms of logic a word A is an antonym of word B iff when A is true, B is not true.

Distinguishing polysemy and homonymy

The distinction between polysems and homonyms is not easy in some cases. When in doubt they are distinguished by their etymology (if they are derived from the same word they are polysems, if they are derived from two different words they are homonyms).

Semantic relations: words + sentences

Word level Sentence level
Synonymy Paraphrase
Antonymy Contradiction
Polysemy  
Homonymy  
  entailment

Morphology

Exercise: Give the internal word structure of the following words

Morphology

Basic concepts of morphology

Simple word:
  • Consists of only one morpheme
  • Example: boy, man, radio, book, paper, magnet, house, compute
Complex word:
  • contains more than one morpheme (i.e. ≥2 morphemes).
  • Example: computer, boys, radio-recorder, bookshelf, magnetize, acidfree

Basic concepts of morphology

Free morpheme:
  • can occur as a simple word.
  • Example: boy, man, radio,...
Bound morpheme:
  • can only occur in connection with other morphemes
  • Example: -s, -ion, un-, -ize, ...
Allomorph
  • Variant forms of a morpheme
  • Example: a -- an, plural -s /s/ -- /Iz/ -- /z

What about words?

Root:
  • Carries the meaning
  • Example: unbelievable “believe”
Affixes:
  • Other parts [bound morphemes]
  • Examples: prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes
Prefix:
  • Affixes that attach before the root
  • Examples: anti-, -de-, un-, (see below)
Suffix:
  • Affixes that attach after the root
  • Example: -ed, -s, -ment, (see below)
Base
  • Form to which an affix is attached
  • Example: In unbelievable “un” is a prefix and “able” a suffix. When attached one after the other unbelieve is the base to which "-able" is added.

Exercise: Give the internal word structure of the following words

Branches of morphology

Derivation

Derivation is the process of adding a morpheme to a base by which the meaning and/or wordclass of the base changes

Example derivations

BASE Affix Result
write (verb) -er writer (noun)
write (verb) -ing writing (noun)
write (verb) re- rewrite (verb)
treat (verb) -ment treatment (noun)
treat (verb) mis- mistreat (verb)
treatment (noun) mis- mistreatment (noun)

Consequences of derivation in English

Some derivational suffixes

Suffix Wordclass (base) -- wordclass (derived)   Suffix Wordclass (base) -- wordclass (derived)
-able Verb -- Adjective -(i)an Noun -- Adjective
-ant Verb -- Noun -ic Noun -- Adjective
-(at)ion Verb -- Noun -ize Noun -- Verb
-er Verb -- Noun -less Noun -- Adjective
-ing Verb -- Noun -ous Noun -- Adjective
-ing Verb -- Adjective -ate Adjective -- Verb
-ive Verb -- Adjective -en Adjective -- Verb
-ment Verb -- Noun -ity Adjective -- Noun
-ful Noun -- Adjective -ize Adjective -- Verb
-(i)al Noun -- Adjective -ly Adjective -- Adv
-ness Adjective -- Noun

Task

With your neighbours do the following:

Some English prefixes

Task

With your neighbours do the following:

Zero derivation

BASE Derived Meaning
Xerox (the company) to xerox make a photocopy
thread to thread to put a thread through the eye of needle; can also be used metaphorically
house to house to shelter someone or something
bottle to bottle to fill something into a bottle

Other types of bound morphemes

The following do not exist in English and arguably in German only, but in other languages

Infixes
a morpheme is inserted into another morpheme (in many semitic languages)
Circumfix
at the same time of adding something in the front, something in the back is added; some regard this as prefix + suffix. German example: ge- [root]-t as in ge-heiz-t

Homework for next week

  1. Which prefixes can you find in your words with more than 12 letters?
  2. Which suffixes can you find in your words with more than 12 letters?
  3. Which bases can you find in your words with more than 12 letters?
  4. Which roots can you find in your words with more than 12 letters?
  5. What is the part of speech for each of your words?
  6. Can you use your word in every sentence that contains this part of speech? Why not?

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