LINA01 EXAM

Word Formation Processes

Reduplication

  • saying the word twice = plural
    • full reduplication (saying whole word twice)
    • partial reduplication (saying part of the word & whole word]

Suppletion

  • go vs went
  • be vs was
  • bring vs brought
  • ox vs oxen

*entirely different morpheme to give a different meaning

Conversion

  • Run (v) Run (n)
  • total (v) total (n)
  • stress changes
  • pronounced the same

Clipping

  • shortens a longer word
    • refridgerator (fridge)

Blending

  • breakfast + lunch = brunch

Backformation

  • removing an affix
  • donation vs donate
  • editor vs edit
  • beggar vs beg

Acronyms

  • pronounced as a word
    • UNICEF
    • UTSC
    • AWOL

Initialism

  • read each letter (not as a word)
    • P.E.I
    • UTSC
    • CBC

Coinage

  • invents a new word
    • accidental gaps used
    • brand names
    • Bic - Kleenex

Eponyms

  • new word from people's names
    • Hertz
    • Watt
    • Sandwich

Derivation

  • adds an affix
    • write --> writer
    • read --> reader
    • act --> actor

Compounds

  • stress on the first element
    • [lighthouse keeper vs *light housekeeper]
    • black board (green)

1. Endocentric

  • black board (type of board) 

  • green house (type of house) 

  • keeps irregular plural verbs [i.e. tooth, teeth; man , men]

2. Exocentric 

  • turncoat (not a type of coat)

  • big foot (not a type of foot) 

  • egg head (not a type of head) 

  • follows regular plurals [i.e. tooth, tooths; foot, foots]

Morpheme - minimal pairing of meaning/function with a fixed form - sometimes a process

Inflectional Affixes

  • produces a different form of the same word
    • walk(ed)
    • cat(s)
  1. -s (third person sing.)
  2. -ed (past tense)
  3. -ing (progressive)
  4. -en (past participle)
  5. -s (plural)
    6.'s (possessive)
  6. -er (comparative)
  7. -est (superlative)

Derivation

  • creates a new word
  • changes the meaning
    • contain-able
    • transform-ation

Differences between Inflectional & Derivational

  1. Change in meaning (derivational)
  2. Change in lexical category (derivational)
  3. Productivity (inflectional)
  4. Order of attachment (derivation affixes are closer to the root, inflection affixes occur after)

Syntax - study of structure of phrases and sentences

  • the systematic ways words combine to form phrases
  • the systematic way phrases combine to form sentences

Hierarchically Structured

  • Sentence - phrases - words - morphemes - phonemes - features

Content Words - nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs Function Words prepositions, determiners, auxiliary verbs

Frames

  • Identifying Nouns

  • Can it follow a determiner?


  • Identifying verbs

  • Can it follow an aux. verb?


  • Identifying Adjectives

  • The ___ noun


  • Identifying adverbs

  • She smiled __.

Basics

Goals of a Linguist Noam Chomsky

  1. What constitutes knowledge of language
  2. How is knowledge acquired
  3. How is knowledge put to use

Principle of Compositionality
meaning of whole sentence is determined by meaning of each word and how they’re combined.)

Ambiguity same words in the same order = 2 different meanings

Syntax operates independently of meaning
"colorless green ideas sleep furiously"

Constituent (syntactic unit in a PS tree-- group of words) {each node represents a constituent} {individual words are the smallest constituent} {the whole sentence is the largest constituent}

PS Trees Represent

  • Linear order of words
    • Groupings of words into syntactic categories
  • hierarchical structure of syntactic categories

Types of Rules

  • Phrase Structure Rules (rules that build structure)
    • Transformations (rules that change structure)

Constituency Tests - tests to determine if a group of words are constituents or not

Movement/Clefting {it was _ that...}

Substitution use pro-form

Stand Alone (if a group of words can stand alone in an answer to a question, then it’s a constituent)

Process for determining phrase structure rules

  1. use constituency tests
  2. draw trees
  3. formulate rules based on trees
    rules are generalizations across trees

Properties of Language we want to explain

  • Basic word order
  • Productivity
  • Structural ambiguity
  • Unboundedly long sentences

Lexical Ambiguity (single word with 2 meanings i.e. bank and bank, pair & pear)
Structural Ambiguity (different meanings due to different structures) [desk with thick legs]

Head central word of a phrase


Complement other constituents in a phrase that complete the meaning and are essential to its interpretation.