English Morphology – Session 2 Handout / Task sheet

(1) In the following complex words, a) identify the root and the affix(es), b) state what kind of
affixes are attached to the root (i.e. inflectional/derivational, prefix/suffix) and c) identify
the free and bound morphemes. For the time being, leave the third column as is.
P Rb S S S S Si P P Rf S Si Rf
in|stitut|ion|al|iz|ation|s re|in|vigor|at|ing sang
P Rf S P Rf S Rf
im|possibil|ity un|lock|able sheepPL
P Rb Rf S Si Rf Si
in|flate thirst|i|er dog|s
P Rb Si P R Si Rf Si
over|whelm|ed proto|typ|ing talk|ed
P Rf S S P Rb S S Si Rf S
un|friend|li|ness morpho|phono|log|ist|s fact|ual
P = prefix, Rf = free root, Rb = bound root, S = derivational suffix, Si = inflectional suffix
Can you think of two possible interpretations of the word unlockable?
[[unlock]able] vs [un[lockable]] – can be unlocked vs cannot be locked
How many derivational affixes and how many inflectional affixes can a word take?
only one inflectional but multiple derivational
Can the order in which affixes occur be changed?
derivational affixes must be closest to the root, no further suffixes can be added after
inflectional ones
Is institute a complex or a simplex element? complex: [in[[stitute]] with a bound root

(2) How many a) orthographic words, b) grammatical words and c) lexemes can you identify
in the following sentences?

The cook was a good cook as cooks go, and, as cooks go, he went.
15 orthographic words, no separate grammatical words, 9 lexemes (THE, COOK, BE, A, GOOD,
AS, AND, GO, HE)

I received a hit on the shoulder when the ball hit it.

12 orthographic words, no separate grammatical words, 11 lexemes (I, RECEIVE, A, HITVERB,
HITNOUN, ON, THE, SHOULDER, WHEN, BALL, IT)

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(3) Morphemes and their realizations: exploration
3/a:
walk – walked kiss – kissed laugh – laughed /t/
hug – hugged die – died live – lived /d/
hunt – hunted craft – crafted load – loaded /ɪd/

What do the -ed endings represent? the past tense

On what levels can we observe formal differences? (e.g. pronunciation, spelling) different
pronunciation, same spelling
Do these variants have specific contexts in which they occur? yes, /t/ after voiceless sounds,
/d/ after voiced sounds, /ɪd/ after /t/ or /d/

Do the underlined elements represent the same morpheme in the following words?
Can you formulate a rule that governs the occurrence of the underlined elements?
3/b:
impossible incomplete irrelevant illegitimate intolerable
impatient ingratitude irrespective illegal indecent
immovable incoherent irrational illiberal inactive
they represent the same in- prefix, the spelling and pronunciation is determined by the first
sound of the root
/ɪm/ after bilabials, /ɪŋ/ before velars /k/ or /g/, /ɪr/ before /r/, /ɪl/ before /l/, /ɪn/ elsewhere
3/c:
permit permission permissive
submit submission submissive
commit commission commissive
/mɪʃ/ before -ion, /mɪs/ before -ive, /mɪt/ elsewhere
(4) Morphemes and their realizations: grammatical and lexical conditioning
4/a:
walk – walked weep – wept sing – sang
kiss – kissed feel – felt drive – drove
grasp – grasped bring – brought grind – ground
phonetical conditioning grammatical conditioning grammatical conditioning
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What differences can you observe between these columns?
How is the {past tense} morpheme represented and realized in the above words?
first column: different pronunciation of -ed, second column: addition of -t and vowel change,
third column: vowel change only
What determines the selection of allomorphs in each case?
first column: the phonetic environment
second and third column: the past tense is not expressed with a separate suffix but with the
change of the root vowel
In which words can we detect voice assimilation?
in the first column
4/b:
phonetic conditioning grammatical conditioning grammatical conditioning
arm – arms foot – feet man – men
dog – dogs goose – geese tooth – teeth
cat – cats louse – lice woman – women
How is the {plural} morpheme represented and realized in the above words?
4/c: lexical conditioning
calf – calves sheep – sheep matrix – matrices
wife – wives swine – swine thesis – theses
leaf – leaves deer – deer focus – foci
zero plural foreign plural

(5) Decide whether the words below have phonetically, grammatically or lexically
conditioned allomorphs

alumni lexical scrubbed phonetic

reverberated phonetic injections phonetic
smitten grammatical incomprehensible phonetic
hooves lexical admissions lexical (-mis-) + phonetic (-s)
cows phonetic data lexical

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English Morphology – Session 3: Inflectional morphology, Handout / Worksheet

(1) Based on the following examples, work out the common features of inflectional morphology
(IM) and derivational morphology (DM)
IM: DM:
a) This book is on the table. b) friendN → friendlyAdj → unfriendlyAdj
These books are on the table. modernity, activity, normality, clarity
*Two book are on the table. *greenity, *tallity, *stellarity, *shortity
*Yesterday I walk to work. She was friendly. / Her behavior was
yeet → yeeted, rizz → rizzed like that of a friend.
yote, yought The farmer is in the barn. / The cow is in
the barn.

must be applied can be class-changing or maintaining

otherwise ungrammatical sentence not regular, not general, sporadic
plural, past tense, progressive, comparative lexicon-driven WF
superlative, conjugation: -s 3rd person sg
regularizable, productive
syntax-driven WF
always class-maintaining

(2) Inflectional categories of verbs

TENSE: INDICATING THE __TIME________ OF THE ACTION

I walk to school every day.

Yesterday I walked to school.
ASPECT: WHETHER THE EVENT IS SEEN AS __INCOMPLETE______ OR ______COMPLETE_______

I am walking to school right now. progressive aspect: incomplete, completable, ongoing

I have walked to school ever since I was a kid.: perfect(ive) aspect: complete, beforeness
I have been walking for hours but no school in sight.
VOICE: IS THE SUBJECT _DOING__ THE ACTION OR IS THE SUBJECT _UNDERGOING_ THE ACTION

The police is/are investigating the theft.

The theft was investigated by the police.
MOOD: THE SPEAKER’S ___ATTITUDE________ TOWARDS WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT

I must walk to school because the bus is not coming.

I may walk to school because the bus is not coming.

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(3) Lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs: Find the auxiliaries and the lexical verbs in these sentences
Peter has been here. primary or aspectual: have: PRF lexical: be
Sarah is singing. primary or aspectual: be: PROG lexical: sing
Mary sang a song. lexical: sing
Several workers were fired. passive: be lexical: fire
Do you like football? dummy: do yes/no lexical: like
He will come back soon. modal: will lexical: come
We have to leave. semi: have to lexical: leave
Identify the types of auxiliaries in the following sentences and state which ones are
ungrammatical
*I may can come. modal, modal - cannot stack modals
Do you have to leave? dummy, semi – can occur together
*Peter can swims. modal – only with bare infinitive
They may have returned by now. modal, primary – can occur together
*Sarah doesn’t is reading. dummy, primary – cannot occur together
We will have to repeat this. modal, semi – occur together
*We don’t will have to repeat this. dummy, modal, semi – cannot occur together

(4) Inflectional forms of verbs: Which inflectional forms of verbs are exemplified below?
He wants to sit. I want to break free. I came to say hello.
to-infinitive
You may sit here. We should go now. They made him wait.
bare infinitive
She sings. He reads. It sucks.
-s form, 3rd person singular
She is singing. We are leaving. He is waiting.
-ing form, progressive
She sang. We counted on you. They hit the ground.
-ed form, V2, past tense
They have been here before. We were given flowers. She has bumped her head.
-en form, V3, past participle

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Which of these forms can mark tense in themselves? They will be known as finite forms:
-s form and the -ed form
Which forms cannot mark tense in themselves? They will be known as non-finite forms:
all the others
(5) Realizing the inflectional categories of verbs
She is working. She has worked. We have been singing.
be + -ing form have + -ed form have + -en form
be + -ing form
What are the configurations for expressing the progressive and the perfective aspects?
This book has been translated.
have + en form, be + -ed form
What is the configuration for expressing the passive voice?

Peter could have been sitting here.

He might have been being seen committing the crime.
(6) Which of the following pronouns express gender and/or number and how?
personal pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they, her, him, us, them, they
possessive pronouns: my, your, his, her, its, our, their, hers, his, ours, theirs
demonstrative pronouns: this, these, that, those

(7) Identify the following invariable pronouns, which only have one form
interrogative pronouns: how, what, when, why, which, where
relative pronouns: that, which
indefinite pronouns: all, each, every, some, any, many, much, somebody
reflexive pronouns: each other, one another

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English Morphology – Session 4: Derivational morphology, Handout / Worksheet

(1) What happens to the word class in the following words?

kind → unkind green → greenish lone → lonely
class maintaining
friend → friendship sister → sisterhood journal → journalism
class maintaining but subcategory changing (concrete → abstract)
sing → singer free → freedom simple → simplify
class changing

(2) What meanings do the following derivational prefixes express?

time: place: size:
after-dinner, after-school inborn, inside megabyte, megastore
antenatal, antedate international, interconnect microfilm, microbiology
pre-human, pre-election intranational, intravenous minibus, miniskirt

number: negation: privation:

bigamy, bisexual anticolonial, antinuclear asymmetrical, atypical
multicultural, multinational incorrect, indecent defrost, debug
triangle, tricolor unhappy, unwise unleash, uncork

direction:
downgrade, downplay What happens to the word class in these examples?
overestimate, overstimulate it remains unchanged (class maintaining)
superintelligent, superhuman Can we find any inflectional prefixes in English? no

(3) Determine the input and output word-class of the following derivatives
noun → noun verb → noun adjective → noun
sisterhood singer freedom
friendship government activity
journalism fusion greatness
type of suffix: nominalizer

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noun → verb adjective → verb
exemplify simplify
mercurate regulate
systematize centralize
type of suffix: verbalizer

noun → adjective verb → adjective adjective → adjective

sinful agreeable blueish
interesting thankful lonely
famous suggestive
friendly
type of suffix: adjectivalizer

noun → adverb adjective → adverb

homeward westward
sideways someway
timewise easily
type of suffix: adverbalizer

(4) What kind of affixation could the underlined elements represent?

absolutely → abso-fucking-lutely fantastic → fan-friggin-tastic
kangaroo → kanga-bloody-roo propaganda → propa-blooming-ganda
expletive infixation
Can this process really be considered affixation? Why / why not?
not real affixes because they can occur in isolation and have meaning on their own
Can we insert the underlined elements anywhere else in these words?
they can only be inserted before the main stressed syllable
(5) Can the underlined elements below be considered affixes?
alcoholic → chocoholic, workaholic Watergate → dieselgate, deflategate
hamburger → fishburger, cheeseburger marathon → workathon, swimathon

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splinters, not affixes, formatives resulting from reanalysis of words
(6) How are the following words pronounced and what is the difference between their
pronunciation?

nominal compounds noun phrases

a bláckbird a black bírd

a gréenhouse a green hóuse
an Énglish teacher an English téacher
a híghchair a high cháir
Compound Stress Rule Nuclear Stress Rule
falls on the first element falls on the second element
(7) Identify the word class of the compounds and its constituents below
N/A+V → V N/A+A → A A/N/V+N → N
deep-fry knee-deep blackbird
double park mud-caked fast-food
chain-smoke overworked crybaby
head: carries the core meaning of the compound, usually the rightmost element (right hand
headedness rule)
feature percolation: the whole compound will inherit the head’s word class
(8) SEMANTIC TYPES: Where does the meaning come from in the following compounds?
endocentric exocentric appositional
airplane playboy learner-driver
landowner crybaby maidservant
doorknob pickpocket girlfriend
fishing rod skinhead singer-songwriter
one head no head two heads
combined meaning of parts external meaning
(9) FORMAL TYPES: What kinds of elements make up the following compounds?
root compounds (underived) synthetic compounds (derived) neoclassical (Greek, Latin)
drawbridge goalkeeper astronaut
madman firefighter television
busybody chain-smoker geology
spoilsport easygoing theocracy

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(10) Word-formation without affixation aka non-concatenative word formation.
Identify the word-formation methods in the examples below

conversion backformation clipping

use → to use beggar → to beg influenza → flu
record → to record laser → to lase microphone → mic
appropriate → to appropriate sculptor → to sculpt omnibus → bus
to kick → a kick television → to televise gymnasium → gym
unknown → the unknown sedative → to sedate Patricia → Pat, Trish

acronym initialism
North Atlantic Treaty Organization → NATO also known as → aka
T. E. Stockwell and Cohen → TESCO ante meridiem → am
radio detecting and ranging → radar post meridiem → pm
self-contained underwater breathing apparatus → scuba chief executive officer → CEO

blending
binary + digit → bit
channel + tunnel → chunnel
smoke + fog → smog
escalate + elevator → escalator
modulator + demodulator → modem

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English Morphology – Session 5: Productivity & Lexicalization, Handout / Worksheet

(1) Collect words suffixed with:

-ness (e.g. broadness) -ity (e.g. captivity) -th (e.g. width)
Can we rank the suffixes according to how productive they are? yes, some are more
productive than others
How transparent are the resulting words? -ness and -ity are transparent, -th not so much
How can we define productivity? a WF rule is productive if it creates formally and
semantically transparent (= predictable, analyzable) words
(2) Constraints on productivity: blocking
Why are the asterisked words not possible in English?
phonetic blocking semantic blocking lexical blocking
black → blacken happy → unhappy bicycle → to cycle
damp → dampen well → unwell pig → piglet
deaf → deafen easy → uneasy taxi → to taxi
blue → *bluen sad → *unsad car → *to car
dim → *dimmen hard → *unhard cow → *cowlet
only after stops and fricatives meaning of root is not | word with the same
compatible w/ meaning of affix | meaning already exists

morphological blocking (pay attention to the pronunciation of the highlighted letters!)

electric → electricity, electrician pink → pinkish
analogue → analogy slug → sluggish
cynic → cynicism
final /k/ becomes /s/ or /ʃ/, /g/ becomes /ʤ/ if the suffix has an <i> in it, but only with non-
native roots
(3) Lexicalization: Can we analyze the following words both formally and semantically?
warmth: formally transparent pickpocket formally flatfoot formally
nest: neither formal nor semantical dwindle: neither lord: neither

(4) In what ways are the following words lexicalized?

phonetic lexicalization morphological lexicalization semantic lexicalization
Árabic, chívalric vs symbólic husband, tuppence pickpocket, spoilsport
Loughborough, Leicester warmth, government understand, tallboy
says, infamous, coup lord, lady (darkened compounds)
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English Morphology – Session 6: Morphophonology, Handout / Worksheet

(1) Compare the stress assignment in the following base words and their derivatives:

a) addréss addressée -ee, -ier, -aire, -ade, -ese

cásh cashíer -esque, -ette, -itis
míllion millionáire
lémon lemonáde
Japán Japanése
pícture picturésque
cigár cigarétte suffix type: self-stressing
tónsil tonsilítis stress shift: yes

b) pérfect perféction -(t)ion, -(t)ial, -ic, -ous

círcumstance circumstántial -(i)al, -logy, -ity
sýmbol symbólic
cóurage courágeous
óffice offícial
ánalogue análogy suffix type: pre-accenting
eléctric electrícity stress shift: yes

c) detách detáchable -able, -hood, -ful, -ish, -y

párent párenthood -less, -like, -ment, -ness
béauty béautiful
gréen gréenish
trénd tréndy
wórth wórthless
bírd bírdlike
góvern góvernment suffix type: neutral
qúick qúickness stress shift: no

(2) Compare the pronunciation and the types of roots (free or bound) in the words below

a) un#kind unnatural uneventful

kind#ness lazi#ness dangerousness

root type: free root type: free root type: free

boundary type: strong (#) boundary type: strong boundary type: strong
integration: no integration: no integration: no

b) sur+pass sur+plus sur+vey

scen+ic dramat+ic hect+ic

root type: free root type: bound alternant root type: bound
boundary type: weak (+) boundary type: weak boundary type: weak
integration: yes integration: yes integration: yes

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(3) Identify whether the roots and affixes in the following words have weak (+) or strong (#)
boundaries

crime#fighter crime#less#ness crimin+al

satisfy#ing satisfact+ion satisfact+ory
ad+vent+ure dent+ure deni#al

sup+pose in+vent+ion be+gin

re#write in#correct over#shadow

(4) HOMOGRAPHIC PREFIXES: which version of the prefixes have a weak boundary and which
a strong one? Which version has constant meaning and pronunciation, and which have
vague meanings and variable pronunciation?

strong-boundary prefixes weak-boundary prefixes

independent integrated
fixed pronunciation variable pronunciation
clear meaning unclear meaning

amoral, asymmetrical away, aspiration, arise

demagnetize, debug defend, devastate
disagree, dislike disturb, disaster, dissident
ex-wife, ex-president explain, execute, example
inside, indoors investigate, impose, illusion
prewar, prepay prevent, president, preside
pro-British, pro-taxation provide, propagate, propaganda
rewrite, reappear, recreation remind, recognize, recreation (!)
substandard, subnormal submit, substitute

(5) INTEGRATION OF SUFFIXES: Which of the suffixes in exercise (1) above are weak-
boundary (+) suffixes and which are strong-boundary (#) suffixes?

weak-boundary (+): strong-boundary (#):

self-stressing neutral

pre-accenting

Which category do regular inflectional suffixes belong to? Why?

strong-boundary because they never cause stress shifts and never turn free roots into
bound roots