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Natural Morphology

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Sylvia Julia Vojar
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12 views2 pages

Natural Morphology

Uploaded by

Sylvia Julia Vojar
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Natural Morphology (NM)

 cognitively simple
 easily accessible to children as they lean language
 universally preferred
 aims to identify most natural processes of acquiring lang.
 not related to a single language = universal
 typologically oriented (what is preferred by individual language types)
 sources for this morphology are broad:
 Morphology of a specific language
 Morphology from the point of view of typology /universal features
 Language as a whole
 Universal features of languages
 Extra-linguistic reality
 theoretical sources:
 Markedness Theory
 R. Jakobson
 aimed to identify standard features as opposed to deviations from standard features to
different levels (marked features)
 boy = unmarked = natural, boys = marked (-s plural ) = unnatural
 Typology as a science
 what is natural in gender may be viewed, from the view of a particular language in respect to
particular morph. feature
 Semiotics
 Peirce’s theory of signs
 Icon (has a physical resemblance to the thing being represented – photograph)
 index (shows evidence of what’s being represented. A good example is using an
image of smoke to indicate fire)
 symbol (has no resemblance between the signifier and the signified. The connection
between them must be culturally learned. Numbers and alphabets are good examples.
There’s nothing inherent in the number 9 to indicate what it represents. It must be
culturally learned.)
 sub-theories involved in discussion on NM:
 theory of preferences
 what is preferred
 grammatical morphology
 ultra-grammatical morphology
 represents derivation (word plays – do not correspond with general trends in forming new
words)

 THEORY OF PREFERENCES
 preference for unmarked categories
 easily acquired
 children regularize irregularities
 boy – unmarked, boys – marked

 preference for iconicity


 there are three HYPO-ICONS  images, diagrams, metaphor
 images = most iconic hypo-icons, have a high level of iconicity, represent direct connection
between signans (form) and signatum (meaning), direct representation of meaning by form
 preference for constructional iconicity
 teach  teach-er = new form by suffix represents new meaning (Natural)
 to cut  a cut = new meaning but no new form (unnatural)
 most natural processes
 new meaning represented by adding a new form, images, diagrams, metaphors

 preference for indexicality


 fixed order of morphemes
 cannot add affixes arbitrarily
 present in every new English word
 highly regural and natural
 based on the inherent relation between the sign and the object it stands for

 preference for morphosemantic transparency


 word is semantically transparent  ideal situation because it is hardly ever met with complex
words with WF
 we can identify the semantics from constituent morphemes
 boy + s = boys  we can identify the meaning of its components together 
principle of compositionality
 meaning of the whole is the meaning of the components together

 preference for morphotactic transparency


 it is natural to have complex word in which the form of the motivating constituent is not
changed
 example: teach – teacher – no change in teach or -er

 preference for morphosyntactic transparency and opacity


 both modifier and head are morphosyn. transparent (doorbell – both preserve original
meaning = natural)
 none of them is MST (ladybird = kind of insect  unnatural)

 preference for bi-uniqueness


 one form should represent one meaning
 when meaning is expressed by several forms it causes ambiguity
 -able = only quality (talkable – able to talk)
 -er = Agent/Instrument/Location  1 form, more meanings unnatural

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