MORPHOLOGY - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

MORPHOLOGY The study of shapes

Morpheme

:

Abstraction

of

the

various

types

of

morphs

Smallest

unit

of a

language

that

convey

some

kind

of

informationSlide2

-s in cat/ cats-z in dog/ dogs-es in dish

/

dishes-en in ox/ oxenZero morph in sheep/ sheepVowel change in foot/ feetConvey the same information which also happens in allomorphs

The

concept

of

plural

in

EnglishSlide3

Free morpheme: stands alone as its own

word

Bound morpheme: needs some kind of host to attach toHe will go home tomorrow -> only free morphemesThe oxen

pulled the chart-> 2 bound morphemes in oxen /–en/ and pulled /-ed/

Bound

and

free

morphemesSlide4

Root: the smallest unit with any

semantic

content Unhappiness -> happy Perfectly -> perfectStem: - base for an inflected word form - can consist minimally of a root but may also a

modification

of the root in some waysRoot and stemSlide5

Example 1: the stem horsehair is a compound of

two

roots: horse + hair This stem can me modified for plural to form: horsehairsExample 2:if we add –er to the

root

teach we get the stem teacherSlide6

The root and stem carry

lexemic

informationwhich is the basic semantic information of theword.Example: -The lexeme of work, works, worked, working is WORK -The lexeme

of

hair, hairs is HAIR -The lexeme of horsehair and horsehairs is HORSEHAIR

LexemeSlide7

An obligatorily bound morpheme which does not carry

any lexemic informationAffixes can be derivational or inflectionalDerivational affixes create new words like un- and –ness in unhappinessİnflectional affixes carry

grammatical

information such as plural –s or the past tense –ed and do not change the

meaning

of

the

word

AffixSlide8

Prefix: attaches to the beginning of a host

wordDerivational prefix; un- in unhappyİnflectional prefix: the language Logbaokpe – inashinao-kpe – i-nashina 3sg-know CM-everybody‘He knows everybody

’

4 types of affixesSlide9

Suffix: attaches to the end of

the

host wordDerivational suffix: -ness in happinessİnflectional suffix: past tense –edİnfix: places itself inside a morpheme, usually a root or stemDerivational infix

are used in the language Leti where the nominalizations are

derived

from

the

verb

through

the

infix

–

ni

-

Kakri

‘

to

cry

’ ->

k

ni

akri

‘

act

of

crying

’

pali

‘

to

float

’ ->

p

ni

ali

‘

act

of

floating

’Slide10

İnflectional infix can be found in Maranao where –i- is

used

to mark the past tenseTabasan ‘slash’ -> Tiabasan ‘slashed’Circumfix: at least two types of affixation have to occur at the beginning

and at the end of the host at the same time.İnflectional circumfix

can be

found

in

German

:

past

participle

which

combines

of

the

prefix

ge

-

and

the

suffix

–t

Example

:

lieben

‘

to

love

’ ->

ge

lieb

t

‘had

loved

’Slide11

We can find derivational circumfix in Indonesian

ke

- … -an which derives abstract nounsExample: kebebasan ‘freedom’ from the adjective bebas ‘free’Parafix: has two affixes which do not

have

to occur at specific places like in circumfixFor example in the

language

Leti

:

the

nominalizations

are

derived

with

i- + -i-

natu

‘

to

send

’ ->

i

n

i

atu

‘

act

of

sending

’Slide12

Difference between clitics and affixes is that

while both are phonologically dependent on a host, a clitic is syntactically independent from its host while an affix is notThis means that affixes can only

attach

to the kind of hosts that match their category. For

example

the

verbal

affix

–ed can

only

attach

to verbs. And plural affixes can only attach to nouns and so on.Clitics not restricted to the kind of category they match to.

CliticsSlide13

Proclitic: attaches to the beginning of

the

hostFrench pronouns may attach protoclitically:J’attends -> 1sg=wait.PRES -> I’m waitingEnclitic (also called postclitic) attaches at the

end of the hostItalian pronouns may attach enclitically: E

venuto

per

parl

-ar=mi

3SG.is

come

.PFCT

to

talk-INF=1SG.O

‘He has

come

to talk to me’4 types of cliticsSlide14

Mesoclitic: attaches itself between the

host

and the inflectional affixes. Very rare seen but can be found in European Portuguese: Pedirlheia Pedir=lhe=ia Ask.INF=3SG.M=1SG.COND

Endoclitic

: extremely rare because it takes place inside the root or

stem

Udi

and

Pashto

are

the

only

two languages which have endocliticsSlide15

Morphological typology

Languages

have been classified along a linear scale with isolating languages on one end, fusional

languages on the other and agglutinating

languages

in

the

middle

;

adding

a

fourth

category

is

introflexive.Slide16

İsolating>agglutinative> fusional> introflexiveMandarin Turkish Latin

Arabic

Chinese is an isolating language.Turkish is an agglutinating language.Slide17

Linear scale merges three

di

fferent parameters, fusion, exponence and flexion. The

fourth parameter is synthesis

which

has to do with how much grammatical information a word may carry

.Slide18

Fusion

states the degree to which morphological markers attach to a host stem.There are three types of fusion

:

İsolating is an

independent

word

, a

marker stands alone as a free morpheme

.

Markers that are bound

are

concatenative

.

They

have to attach to a host.

Markers that involve modifying the host

in some way are

non-linear

.Slide19

Languages may employ any and all of the types of fusion.

English has isolating markers ( the modal

‘must’ in He must be home by now) concatenative markers ( plural -s in tree (SG

) versus

trees (PL))

non-linear markers

(

the

ablaut

in sing – sang –

sung

).Slide20

Isolating markers

Most languages have at least some markers that stand in phonological isolation and

thus function as individual words. An example in English would be the modal must, as in He must be in his office. There are languages where all or almost all

grammatical information is conveyed though isolating markers.Slide21

Koyra

Chiini

: ay woo kaa wor

o guna 1SG.S DEM. REL. 2PL.S IPF

see

‘I here whom you (

PL

) see.’

A

ll

grammatical information is expressed as individual words, even the tense

of the verb (the imperfect marker o).Slide22

Concatenative (linear) markers

C

oncatenative means ‘chaining together’. Apart from the fact that they are bound, they chain together in linear strings, which means that they are segmentable. A language with

concatenative

constructions is Chichewa, where the various markers attach linearly to the stems.Slide23

Chichewa

mlenje

mmôdzi anabwérá ndí míkôndom-lenje m-môdzi

a-

na-bwérá ndí

mí

-

kôndo

I-

hunter

ı.

sm

-one

ı.

sm

-

past

-come with

ıv

-spears

‘One hunter came with spears.’

T

he grammatical markers for noun class (

ı

m/a and

ıv

mi) and past tense (

na

)

are bound and are relatively straightforward to segment into morphemes.Slide24

Non-linear markers

Non-linear markers involve some kind of modification to the host stem and are not

straightforward to segment into chains of morphemes. L

anguages

modify their stems non

-

linearly.

A

root consists only of a set of consonants and grammatical information is conveyed through insertion of

a pattern of vowels, commonly termed the

“root-and-pattern”

but

it

is

also termed

ablau

t.

Neither the root nor the vowel

pattern can function on its own. Modern Hebrew is a language with such a pattern;

Slide25

Hebrew, Modern (Afro-Asiatic (Semitic): Israel)g-d-r ‘enclose’

past

: a-a (CaCaC): gadar ‘enclosed’present: o-e (CoCeC): goder ‘encloses’future: yi-Ø-o (yiCCoC): yigdor ‘will enclose’imperative: Ø-o (CCoC): gdor

‘enclose!’

infinitive: li-Ø-o (liCCoC): ligdor ‘to enclose’Slide26

Another example of ablaut (also called

gradation

or vowel gradation) is found in the strong verbs in Germanic languages, where inflection is marked through changes in the root vowel quality, as in English sing – sang – sung (present – past – past participle).

Suprasegmentals (or prosodic formatives), involving

tone, stress and length, are another type of non-linear morphological processes. Tone

is a well-known morphological strategy, An example of a language with grammatical tone is

Lango

.Slide27

Lango (Nilo-Saharan (Nilotic): Uganda)

a-

àpônnê b- ápònnê 1SG.hide.PFV.MID 1SG.hide.PROG.MID ‘I hide myself.’ ‘I am hiding myself.’ Slide28

Replacement

or substitution is a regular marker and replaces a part of the stem. Another type of replacement is suppletion,

where a root or stem is replaced by a root or stem of a

different etymological origin. Slide29

A rare type of non-linear process is

subtraction, where the grammatical information lies in taking out an element of the stem. Slide30

Reduplication falls consomewhere

in

between concatenation and non – linear process.It involves copying a set amount of

phonological

material from a base form (root

or

stem

)

and

fusing

it

with

that

base

to form a stem onto which other morphemes may

then

be

added

.

It’s

less

linear

than

concatenative

morphemes

in

that

the

form of

the

reduplicant

(

the

repeated element) is dependent on the form of the base, since it is a part of the base that is being repeated.

ReduplicationSlide31

Reduplication can be either full

or partial, and while the reduplicant usually attaches immediately to

the

root it has its shape from,

there

are

also

languages

with

socalled

discontinuous

reduplication, where other morphological material may appear

between

the

reduplicant

and

the

base

.

Also

,

reduplication

can be

simple

or

complex

.

In

simple

reduplication merely repeats a given amount of material from the base. Complex reduplication involves

taking material from the base and partly altering it. Slide32

Full reduplication

involves

copying the whole base. Most languages allow both full and

partial reduplication. In Rubino’s

database

shows

only

35

languages

which

are

allow full reduplication. Here is an example of a language with full

simple

reduplication

is

Erromangan

,

where

reduplication

indicates

intensification

.

iSlide33

Erromangan (Austronesian (

Oceanic

): Vanuatu/unmeh/ “early” >> /unmehunmeh/ “very early”/ilar/

“

shine” >> /ilarilar/ “shine brightly

”

(

Crowley

1998:34)

An

example

of a

full

complex

reduplication

can be

found in Persian, where the reduplicated form changes the

initial

consonant

to

either

/m/

or

/p/ of

copied

element.

The

reduplicated

form

takes

a

meaning

of

what

we

might call “scattered generality”, most closely equivalent to English ‘and so forth’. Slide34

Persian ( Indo –

European

(Iranian): Iran) bâlâ “ above” >> bâlâmala “somewhere above” mive “fruit

” >>

mivepive “fruit and so on” (

Ghaniabadi

et al. 2006:3)

Partial

reduplication

involves

copying

only

a set

part

of the base and may involve a number of different

forms

.

It

can be a set of

phonemes

(C,CV,CVCV,

and

so

on) , a set of

syllabes

or

a set of

morae

(

the

minimal

unit

of

metrical

weight

)

that is copied. (Rubino, 2011) Slide35

In Thao the

instrumental is expressed by Ca- reduplication, which means that the first

consonant

of the base is copied and -a- is

added

(

also

called

duplifix

,

Haspelmath

2002:24):

Thao

(

Austronesian (Paiwanic): Taiwan) cput “to filter” >>

cacput

“

sieve

”

>>

c - a -

cput

An

example

of a

partial

complex

reduplication

can be

found

in

Nakanai

;

velo

“

bubbling” >> velelo “bubbling forth” ve - le - loSlide36

Automatic reduplication is

when

an affix obligatorily triggers reduplication but the reduplication itself does not add any

meaning to the construction. An example

of an

automatic

reduplication

can be

foun

also

in

Tagalog

;

Tagalog

(Austronesian (Meso – Philippine): Philippines: wilih “

interested

” >>

kawilih

wilih

“

interested

”

ka

–

wilih

–

wilih

(

French

1998:50)Slide37

As it is mentioned above

,

the reduplicant might be seperated from the base by some particle. An

example

of such a discontinuous reduplication can be found in

the

Manila Bay

Creoles

,

which

is a

cover

term

for

Ternateno

, Caviteno, and Ermiteno, where the linker - ng -

sits

between

the

reduplicant

and

the

base

.

Manila Bay

Creoles

(

Creole

(

Spanish

–

lexified

):

Philippines

)

Bunita “beautiful” >> bunitangbunita “very beautiful” bunita – ng – bunita

(Grant 2003:205)Slide38

All these

examples implies that pidgings and creoles do not seem to behave differently

from

non – creole languages in terms of

employing

the

morphological

process

of

reduplication

.Slide39

In Turkish, the process of emphatic reduplication, the purpose of which is to accentuate the quality of an adjective, involves the copying of the initial (C)V of the base and then prefixing it, along with an

additional

affixal consonant from the set /p, s, m, r/, to the base, as seen in (1). In some cases, the emphatic (C)VC prefix is also followed by –A, –Il, or –Am, as seen in (2). Cases such as those in (2) are considered idiosyncratic and are not the result of a productive phonological process (Göksel and Kerslake 2005). Slide40

(1) güzel ‘

pretty

’ güpgüzel ‘very pretty’ uzun ‘long’ upuzun ‘very long’ katı ‘hard’ kaskatı ‘hard as a rock’ siyah ‘black’ simsiyah ‘pitch black’ temiz ‘clean’ tertemiz ‘clean as a pin’

(2) gündüz ‘

daytime/by day’ güpegündüz ‘in broad daylight’ yalnız ‘alone’ yapayalnız ‘all

alone

’

çıplak ‘

naked

’ çırılçıplak ‘

stark

naked

’

parka ‘

piece

’ paramparça ‘

torn to shreds/smashed to pieces’Slide41

Doubling occurs in

two

ways: simple doubling and doubling in lexical formations. In simple doubling, the word is repeated. Depending on the syntactic category of the

targeted lexeme, it can produces adverbials, adjectivals and measue terms (Göksel &

Kerslake

2005).

tek tek zaman zaman

one

DUP time DUP

“

one

by

one

” “time

to time”Slide42

Some additional

morphemes

, such as plural suffix and the question particle, are attached to the sister conctituents or one of the

constituents

undergoes phonetic changes for doubling in lexical formations

g

ü

zel-ler

g

ü

zel-i

bir

kız

beautiful-PLU beautiful-POSS a girl ‘a very beautiful girlgüzel mi güzel bir kız beautiful QP beautiful a girl ‘a very beautiful girl’ufak tefek bir kutu

little

fi(

little

) a

box

‘a

tiny

box

’Slide43

Examples:With

Synoynms; güçlü kuvvetli, ses seda, sağlık sıhhat, evirmek çevirmek etc.With nearly the same meanings; eş dost, doğru dürüst, ağrı sızı, sağ salim etc.With antonyms; iyi kötü, aşağı, yukarı, irili ufaklı, acı tatlı etc.With meaningless words;

abuk

subuk, abur cubur, eciş bücüş, apar topar etc.With Onomatopoeia words; tıkır tıkır, şırıl şırıl, horul horul, vızır vızır etc.Slide44

EXPONENCE

Languages

also differ as to how many grammatical categories may be expressed by

one

and the same morpheme.

Seperative

morphemes

(

or

monoexponential

)

morphemes

encode

only

one single category, cumulative (polyexponential, also called

portmanteau

)

morphemes

encode

several

things

at

the

same

time.

This

parameter

may

interact

with

fusion

, so that we get six logical logical combinations: isolating, concatenative, and non-

linear

seperative markers plus isolating, concatenative, and non-linear

cumultative

markers

.

Here

is a

list

for

languages

with

examples

of

each

of

the

six

logical

types

of

processes

.

Kasong

:

isolating

seperative

Meithei

:

concatenative

seperative

Dinka

:

non

-

linear

seperative

Slide45

Wari: isolating cumulativeSpanish:

concatenative

cumulativeHebrew: non-linear cumulativeFor Kasong language, each of the markers is a free morpheme. They are isolating ,

and

each of them conveys only one piece of information, the

markers

are

seperative

:

Kasong

nak

kamlaŋ

loŋ

ce:w prǐ3.SG PROG. FUT. go forest‘s/he will be going to the forest.’ Meithei(Sino-Tibean (Kuki-Chin

):

India

)

offers

an

example

of

concatenative

seperative

markers

.

The

markers

fuse

concatenatively

with

a

host

stem; they are linearly segmentable and each of the segments in that each conveys only one piece of information.Slide46

Meithei ǝynǝ thǝŋ ǝmǝnǝ

hǝydu

kháyǝy-nǝ thǝn ǝ-mǝ-nǝ hǝy-tu kháy-i1.SG-CNTR knife ATT-one-INST fruit-DDET cut-NHYP‘ I cut the

fruit with a knife.’ (C

helliah

1997:128)

Dinka

language

has

non

-

linear

seperative

process, where the absolute and locative

cases

are

distinguished

only

through

phonological

length

.

The

marker

conveys

only

the

information

of

case

, and is as such seperative, but it is not possible to segment from the host word, and

is

therefore non-linear.Dinkatôoc tôooc‘swampy

.

area

.

ABSOLUTIVE ----

‘

swampy

.

area

.

LOCATIVE

’ (ANDERSEN 2002: 13)

Wari

is an

example

a

language

with

isolating

markers

,

that

is

the

morpheme

form

seperate

words

.

However

,

they

are

cumulative

in

that

they

contain

more

than

one

piece

of

grammatical

information

,

and

this

information

is not

possible

to

segment

into

smaller

units

. Slide47

Wari ma’ co tomi

na

that.PROX.HEARER INFL.M/FRP/P speak 3SG.RP/P.VIC‘ Who is speaking? ’ (Everett 1998: 692) Spanish also makes use of cumulative markers that fuse concatenatively onto the stem, which

gives

us a concatenative cumulative morphological process. Spanishhabl-ó speak-3sg.past.ind.pfv

‘He spoke.’

(source: personal knowledge

)

In Hebrew

has

a non-linear cumulative process

.

It

means

a similar amount of information is expressed through only one single process, but the process involves modifying the root itself and is thus non-linear. Slide48

Modern Hebrew g-d-r ‘enclose’ future

active indicative: yigdor ‘will enclose’ future passive indicative: yigader ‘will be enclosed’ (Glinert 1989: 471)the way the stem is modified conveys more than one piece of

information: the tense, the voice, and the mood.However, this grammatical information is not segmentable: if you want to change any of the grammatical information, for instance from active voice to passiv

e

you

have to modify the root to an entirely

di

ff

erent

stem.Slide49

FLEXIVITYLanguages also differ in how much

allomorphy

they have, termed flexitivity in Bickel & Nichols (2007). The Indo-European declension and conjugation classes are examples of flexitivity. That is where a set of infectional affixes are chosen depending on which class the noun or verb belongs to.

On the other hand, a given grammatical marker is always the same. It does not

vary according to classes of verbs or nouns, it is non

fl

exive

. I

f a language has

fi

ve

di

ff

erent

ways of marking the (nominative) plural, with -e, -

er

, (e)n -s, or –Ø, depending on which class the noun belongs to, we have an instance of flexitivity. It exhibited in German. If the plural is always marked the same way, as is the case with Pichi dέn (Yakpo 2009), we have an instance of nonflexitivity.

This

is a

third

and

seperate

parameter

from

fusion

and

exponence

and

may

interact

with them in various ways. We have four logical combinations with the languages exemplifying types included. Slide50

Flexive Nonflexive

Cumulative

German Hawai‘i Creole EnglishSeparative Warlpiri Pichi German is an example of flexive cumulative morphemes. Because , the choice of which allomorph to take depends

on which declension class the noun belongs

to flexitivity and the markers express both number and case cumulative.An example of a nonflexive cumulative marker is

the

Hawai’i

Creole

English

.

For

example

; w

ε

n which expresses both tense (past) and aspect (perfective) at the same time. It is cumulative. The plural marker in Pichi is an example of an nonflexive seperative marker

because

it is

invariant

as

the

plural

marker

nonflexive

and

it

means

only

plural

and

nothing

else (

seperative

).

An example of a flexive separative marker can be found in Warlpiri where the ergative case is marked either with -ngku or with –rlu. It is flexive in that there are two alternative ways of marking ergative case, and it is separative in that it means only one thing (ergative). Slide51

Likewise, flexitivity interacts with fusion. %e German plural marking mentioned above is both flexive and

concatenative

; this is, in fact, the most common combination. Flexive nonlinear strategies are common in Semitic languages; we have seen that Hebrew expresses tense, mood and voice through a set of vocalisms. Flexive isolating markers are very rare but can be found in Sierra Otomí, where person and tense is marked by a free morpheme which looks different depending on what conjugation class the verb belongs to:Sierra Otomí1sg.pres

verb conjugationclass dí petsi ‘I keep (it)’ I

dín

tófo

‘I say (it)’

II

dídí

hóqui

‘I -x (it)’ III dídím pepfi ‘I work’ IV The Pichi plural marking mentioned above is an example of a nonflexive isolating marker. This is is pretty typical: “[n]onflexive formatives are often isolating; and

the most common type of isolating formative is non

fl

exive

.

(Bickel &Nichols 2007:

187)Slide52

Turkish is an example of a language where the plural marker -lar is nonflexive concatenative

 – also a very common strategy – as it attaches to a host but is

segmentable, and is invariable, i.e. is used for all nouns (Kornfilt 2003: 265) An example of a nonflexive non-linear marker is the perfective marker in Kisi. It invariably expressed through a LH tone (Childs 1995: 173). Here is a table summarizing

for the six logical combinations with the languages

exemplifying

each

type

included

.

Isolating

Concatenative

Non-linearFlexive Sierra Otomí German HebrewNonflexive Pichi Turkish Kisi What we have

seen

is

that

languages

employ

different

strategies

.

And

that

these

strategies

themselves

fall

along three separate parameters that all interact with each other. Slide53

5.2.4 SynthesisSlide54

Another

parameter

is that of Synthesis, which can thought of as a scale indicating how

much accumulated information

a

word

can

hold

, as

opposed

to

the

parameters

given above, which, again

very

simplified

,

basically

denote

what

kinds

of

morphemes

languages

tend

to

have

and

how they combine. But bear in mind

that I am simplifying matters considerably by

merging

the

concepts

of

phonological

word

and

grammatical

word

.Slide55

There

are three basic types of synthesis, which can be pictured as

standing

in a linear arrangement to

each

other

.

ANALYTIC > SYNTHETIC > POLYSYNTHETICSlide56

ANALYTIC

words

do not take any affixation to their lexical

roots

or stems. An analytic

way

of

marking

tense,

for

example

, is

found

in

the

English future, as in He will

walk

home

.

SYNTHETIC

words

allow

affixation

. An

example

of

synthetic

tense in

English

is

the

past

,

expressed

through the –ed affixation

, as in

He walked home.Slide57

English typically does not take a

high

amount of affixation. For instance, while the grammatical coding of comparative for adjectives tends to be done synthetically if the stem is rather short, an

analytic

construction is favourred if the stem is rather long. The

Chichewa

Example

also

shows

instances

of

synthetic

words, where several pieces of grammatical information are attached to the lexical root or stem. But a synthetic word can also end up being

very

long

. A

spectacular

case

of

synthesis

can be

found

in

Turkish

.Slide58

TURKISH ( Altaic (

Turkic

): Turkey )tanıştırılamadıklarındandır tan-ış-tır-ıl-a-ma-

dık

-lar-ın-dan-dır

“it is

because

they

cannot

be

introduced

to

each

other.” Slide59

The crucial difference between synthetic

and polysynthetic words is that the latter involve more than ne lexeme. While the Turkish example is very long and involves a great deal

of

segments, there is only one lexeme, tan ‘know’. Polysynthetic words,

however

,

may

contain

more

than

one

lexeme

. Alutor is an example of a language with polysythetic words. Slide60

ALUTOR (Chulotko- Kamchatkan (

Northern

Chukotko- Kamchatkan): Russia) gəmmə takkannalgənkuwwatavətkən gəmmə t-akka-n-nalgə-n-kuww-at-avə-tk-ən‘I am

making

a son dry a skin/skins.’Slide61

The Turkish word tanıştırılamadıklarındandır in as long as the

Alutor word takkannalgənkuwwatavətkən but the Turkish word is synthetic while the Alutor word is polysynthetic. This is because the Alutor word contains three different

lexemes, akka ‘son’, nalgə ‘skin’ and kuww ‘dry’. Although polysynthetic words

tend

to

be

long

,

they

do not

necessarily

have

to be as following.Slide62

Mamaindê ( Nambikuaran (Nambikuaran

):

Brazil)Jukhoʔth ɪ̈ntuJu-khoʔ-th ɪ̈n-tu‘village hanging on the edge’

The

mamainde word is shorter than the Turkish word but is still a

case

of

polysynthesis

, since it

contains

two

lexemes

ju

‘

edge

and khoʔ ‘hang’.Slide63

5.3 Sign language morphologySlide64

Sign languages, just like spoken

languages, have minimal meaningful units, i.e. morphemes, and instances where units may alternate, i.e. allomorphy. Morphemes may either free or bound. In

other

words signed languages are as linguistically complex as spoken languages. However

,

due

to

the

fact

that

sign

languages make use of an entirely different mode of communication, visual instead of audio, morphology in sign language tends to be less concatenative than in spoken languages.Slide65

Compounding, which is also sequential in nature

, is

very common in sign languages. An example of a compound is the ASL sign for faint which consists of the signs MIND+DROP. An example of a derivation is the ISL negative suffix,

which

,similar to the English –less, derives adjectives, for instance

shameless

in

the

construction

SHAME +

neg

.

This

negative

suffix has two allomorphs, signed either with one hand or two, depending on the host it attaches to.Slide66

Examples of prefixes are the ISL.’sense’ prefixes

:

to denote that something has to do with perception ( seeing/hearing/smelling) a reduced and bound EYE-SHARP ‘to discern by seeing’. Examples of cliticized forms

occur in Turkish Sign Language ‘TİD’ and DGS. In TİD the negator NOT may

attach

itself

to

the

preceding

sign

and form part of a phonological unit with that host: it (en)cliticizes.Slide67

Non-linear morphological processes are

very common in sign languages. For example, verbs are very often modified non-linearly for agreement with the subject and object

or for aspect. What is non-linear about much of sign

language

and

morphology

is

that

the

base

of

the

sign, the stem, is modified as to its rhythm, path or direction to indicate the relevant grammatical information.Slide68

It seems as if sign languages

universally make use of what has been termed classifiers. They modify verbs and typically decode the shape of objects, the handling of an object and

the movement and location of referents. With classifiers, “ the handshape of

one

or

both

hands

represents

a

particular

type

of referent, while the location, arrangement and movement of the hand expresses something about referrent”.Slide69

These classifiers are organized

paradigmatically

. An example of a complex sign using clasifiers would be expressing the sentence The car hits a tree ( and gets wrekced) in ASL. Here non-dominant hand is

configured

for the clasifier “tree” while the dominant hand is configured

for

“

vehicle

”,

signs

“

move

”

and

adds

the

configurations for “wrecked” at the end of the motion.Slide70

There are two major types of

classifiers

, entity classifiers and handling classifiers. Sign languages vary in the amount of classifiers they have. For example, NGT has 17 classifier hand-shapes while

Indo

-Pakistani Sign Language only has two, “legs” and “person”.

Many

sign

languages

make

use

of

reduplication

to

express the general concept of “more of the sasme”, similarly as in spoken languages.Slide71

Sign reduplication is done by having the

sign make an arch and thereby repeating the location-movement-location pattern in one fluid motion. A reduplicated verb will typically indicate a longer

duration of the event (durative), or that is occurs

habitually

(

habitual

)

,

or

that

it

occurs

repeatedly

(iterative). A reduplicated noun typically indicated plurality.Slide72

5.4 SummarySlide73

Both spoken and signed languages

make use of morphemes. These can be either bound or free. The core of a lexeme is a root or a stem, the difference between the two being

that the root is not further analysable into any smaller parts,

while

a

stem

may

consist

of a

root

plus

something

else. Affixes are bound morphemes that do not carry any lexemic information and that are syntactically dependent on what kind of host they may attach

to

. Slide74

Clitics are also bound morphemes

, but

while they are phonologically dependent on a host, they are not syntactically dependent on what they may attach to. Both affixes and clitics can attach

at

different places on their hosts. Fusion indicates how tightly morphemes

attach

to

each

other

.

Reduplication

is a

kind

of

fusion. Exponence indicates how much information each morpheme conveys.Slide75

Flexion

denotes

how much allomorphy a language has. A seperate, fourth,

parameter

is that of synthesis,

which

denotes

how

much

information

,

both

grammatical

and lexemic, a word

may

carry

.

Sign

languages

are

as

morphologically

complex

as

spoken

languages

, but

due

to

their

difference

in modality- spoken languages being

dependent

on the sequential nature of sound while signed

languages

have

at

their

disposal

the

simultaneity

of

the

visual

medium

-

spoken

languages

are

predominantly

linear

in

their

morphological

processes

while

signed

languages

are

predominantly

non

-

linear

.