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Summary Introducing Morphology
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Summary of the book Introducing Morphology, which is part of the course Morphology of the bachelor Linguistics. The summary is in English.
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H1Morphology = study of word formation
Intuitive knowledge of the principles of word formation
Morpheme = smallest unit of language that has its own meaning
Simplex words = consist of 1 morpheme
Complex words =consist of more than 1 morpheme
Word tokens = how much words
Word types = how much different words
Lexeme = family of words that differ only in their grammatical forms (each lexeme can have a
number of word forms)
Mental lexicon = sort of internalized dictionary, contains the words that we can
produce/understand, everything a speaker knows about the words of their language
Word formation rules = how to create/understand new words
Lexeme formation = forming new lexemes from old ones
-category-changing
-meaning-changing
-both
Inflection = change of word form due to grammatical context (for example number, tense, person,
case)
H2
Lexicographer = maker of dictionary
-influenced by individual and societal foibles
Not all words are in the dictionary, and there are words in the dictionary that are hardly ever used.
Nonce = word that has only been used once (like the writing of someone important), but doesn’t
occur anywhere else
Mountweazel = a phony word that is inserted so that its makers can identify lexicographic piracy
Conclusion: you cannot rely on a dictionary to answer the question whether a specific word exists or
not
The mental lexicon contains knowledge of pronunciation, category, meaning, syntactic properties,
level of formality and range of application (under which condition to use the word).
Some entries are partial, for example knowing pronunciation but not the exact meaning (or
otherwise).
Each person’s mental lexicon is different, but everyone’s overlap enough to speak the same
language.
Average vocabulary: 60.000 words -> words in our lexicon, not the ones we can create by using rules
of word formation
The Gavagai problem: if someone points and says an unknown word, it is often not clear from the
context what exactly is being pointed out
Besides we are rarely in a situation in which someone actively instructs us about word meanings.
1
, Fast mapping = the ability to pick up new words on the basis of a few random exposures to them
Other strategies:
-Lexical Contrast Principle: the learner will assume that a new word refers to something that
does not already have a name
-Whole Object Principle: the learner will assume that the new word refers to the whole
object and not a part of it, its color, its shape or its category
-Mutual Exclusivity Principle: the learner will assume that the new word refers to a part of
the familiar object, if there’s nothing else that doesn’t already have a name, so there can’t be
a synonym
Children not only learn new words, but also the rules to create and understand new words.
The mental lexicon is not organized, but composed of a web of items related to each other by
meaning.
Agrammatism = aphasics who have difficulty in producing/processing function words in sentences,
but can still produce/understand content words. They also have difficulty producing inflected forms
and derived words, but not irregular forms.
Jargon aphasia = aphasics who produce fluent sentences using function words, but have trouble
producing/understanding content words. They often produce nonsense words (with correct
inflections). They have difficulty with irregular forms.
Conclusion: we have rules for producing regularly inflected/derived forms, but we store irregular
forms (in a different part of the brain).
PET scans = measure the level of blood flow to different parts of the brain, to show activation.
Specific Language Impairment = normal intelligence and no hearing impairment, but trouble with
producing/understanding language. Difficulty with inflection, not irregular forms.
Williams Syndrome = genetic disorder, normal language and social skills. Speak fluently, correct
inflection, but trouble with irregular forms.
Etymology = the study where words come from
Murray (OED): there are 3 types of words, common, literary and colloquial
Decision whether a word is concluded in a dictionary:
-size of dictionary: how many words can it hold
-intended audience
-broad base of usage of the word
-is it likely to last
-it’s not too specialized/technical
-foreign: is it assimilated enough to be considered part of the language
If a word derived with a prefix/suffix takes on an idiosyncratic or lexicalized meaning, the dictionary
needs to include it.
Corpora (corpus) = large computerized databases that can be searched for words in the context of
their use
Orthography = the writing system
Logographic = a writing system that is word based (each word is represented by a character)
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