LANE 333- WORDS

Words

A. Definition of “word”:

• Words are genuine linguistics units.

•In written texts, words are recognized by the white spaces between them.

•In linguistic analysis, we are interested in spoken words.

•“A word’ is a free morpheme or a combination of morphemes that together form a basic segment of speech” . Norman C. Stageberg

“A word is…any segment of a sentence bounded by successive point at which pausing is possible”   Charles F. Hockett.

Words can be identified by the pauses between them:

B. Simple and Complex Words:

•English words may be classified on the basis of the kinds and combinations of morphemes of which they are composed.

1. Simple words consist of a single free morpheme.

EXAMPLES: flea, long, spirit

2. Complex words contain, as their immediate constituents (ICs), either two bound forms or a bound and a free form.

EXAMPLES: televise , telephone.

• Complex Words contain two Bound Forms:

        tele | vise

• Complex Words contain Bound and free Forms:

       tele | phone

 eras | er

C. Compound Words:

• Compound words have free forms, usually two as their ICs:

_     green | house

_    out | side

• A small number of compound words have three or four free forms as coordinate ICs.

Examples:
      happy|-go|-lucky

spic| and| span

Compounds words resemble grammatical structures in that they imply, though they do not state, a grammatical relationship.

Compound words can be distinguished from grammatical structures in three ways:

1. Compound words cannot be divided by the insertion of intervening materials between the two parts, but grammatical structures can be so divided.

COMPARE:

     _She is a sweetheart.

_She has a sweet heart.

2. A member of a compound word cannot participate in a grammatical structure. COMPARE:

hard ball to baseball.

·         hard ball =  modifier + noun

·         baseball =   compound word base | ball.

‘very’ can be added:

_ It was a very hard ball.

BUT  NOT

_ * It was a very baseball.

3. Some compound nouns have different stress patterns than grammatical structures.

Examples:

Blúebìrd       &      blûe bírd

Blúebìrd =  Compound Word

blûe bird =  Grammatical Structure

Compound words may take three forms:

a.      an open compound: such as sweet potato.

b.      a hyphenated compound: such as mother- in-law.

c.       a closed compound: such as airtight.

Source:

Stageberg, Norman C. and Dallin D. Oaks (2000). An Introductory English Grammar , Heinle, Boston:USA.

LANE 333 - Phonesthemes

P.     Phonesthemes

“The word phonestheme is, a blending of phoneme and esthetic, indicating quite elegantly the tendency of certain sounds to acquire esthetic or emotional connotations.”

(Verbatim: VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIII No 3)

Phonestheme : a sound that, because it appears in a number of words of similar meaning, has a recognizable semantic association.

Nordberg (1986) wrote ‘‘Sound symbol or phonestheme ... is the synesthetic combination of a certain sound or sound sequence with a particular notion or a particular connotative content.’’

Jakobson and Waugh (1979) defined sound symbolism as ‘‘an inmost, natural association between sound and meaning’’.

Malkiel (1994) used the term phonosymbolism to mean the same as sound symbolism.

What exactly is the relation between phonesthemes and morphemes?

Are phonesthemes really morphemes or are they something different?

The most common definition of a morpheme is ‘‘a minimal meaning carrying unit’’

Bolinger, 1965 defined the term phonestheme as ‘‘the grouping of similar meanings about similar sound’’.

Åsa Abelin, 1999, used the term phonestheme to mean bound submorphemic.

•Phonesthemes are sounds that in themselves express, elicit, or suggest meaning.

_ Example: the meaning of two Chinese words

     ching = heavy

    chung = light

•The vowels in these words elicit the meaning.

• These vowels are called phonesthemes.

In English, the most common phonesthemes are the pair of high front vowels /i/ and /Ι/, suggesting smallness : peep, squeak, ping, bit.

It is important to note that phonesthemes do not meet all the conditions that qualify a morpheme. Thus, they are considered a different linguistic feature or as Åsa Abelin, 1999, considered “bound submorphemic” .

Source:

Stageberg, Norman C. and Dallin D. Oaks (2000). An Introductory English Grammar , Heinle, Boston:USA.



LANE 333 - HOMOPHONES

O.    HOMOPHONES

A homophone is a word that sounds like another word but has a different meaning and a different spelling. In morphology, it must be remembered that homophones are different morphemes.

NOTE: In morphology, it must be remembered that homophones are different morphemes.

Examples:

1. Did you like the meet? /mit/ ( track meet)

2. Did you like the meat ? /mit/ ( roast beef)

Those two homophonous words are two different morphemes.

The same is true for bound forms:

1. Verbal inflectional suffix: It feels /-z/ good

2. Noun plural inflectional suffix: Those frogs /-z/

3. Noun possessive inflectional suffix: John’s /-z/ book

Those three homophonous /-z/ -s are three different morphemes.

• Homophones are words that sound alike but differ in meaning:

Examples:

          _ heir, air

          _ pare, pair, pear

• It is important to remember that words like these are different morphemes.

• The same applies to bound morphemes:

Examples:

      _ It feels /-z/ good.

_ Those frogs /-z/

_ John’s /-z/ book

Source:

Stageberg, Norman C. and Dallin D. Oaks (2000). An Introductory English Grammar , Heinle, Boston:USA.

LANE 333 - ALLOMORPHS

L.      ALLOMORPHS

ALLOMORPHS: VARIATIONS OF MORPHEMES

DEFINITION:

An allomorph is ‘any of the different forms of a morpheme’. (Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 9)

EXAMPLE: long, length

MORPHEME           FREE ALLOMORPH          BOUND ALLOMORP      {long}                   /lɔŋ/                                      /lεŋ-/

NOTE: a morpheme may have more than one phonemic form.

pt}

SELECTION OF ALLOMORPHS:

•The past-tense ending, the morpheme {-D pt}, has three phonemic forms.

•The choice depends on the preceding sound:

1.      After an alveolar stop /t/ or /d/, the allomorph /-ǝd/ takes place as in parted /partǝd/.

2.      After a voiceless consonant other than /t/, the allomorph /-t/takes place as in laughed /lӕft/.

3.      After a voiced consonant other than /d/, the allomorph /-d/ takes place as in begged /bεgd/.

•The occurrence of one or another of them depends on its phonological environment.

•This pattern of occurrence is called complementary distribution.

NOTE: These three phonemic forms of {-Dpt} are not interchangeable. They are positional variants. They are allomorphs belong to the same morpheme.

•It must be emphasized that many morphemes in English have only one phonemic form, that is, one allomorph – for example, the morpheme {boy} and {-hood} each has one allomorph - /bɔy/ and /-hUd/ - as in boyhood.

•It is really not the morpheme but the allomorph that is free or bound.

•For example the morpheme {louse} has two allomorphs: the free allomorph /laws/ as in the singular noun louse , and the bound allomorph /lawz-/ as in the adjective lousy.

1. ADDITIVE ALLOMORPHS:

To signify some difference in meaning, something is added to a word. For example, the past tense form of most English verbs is formed by adding the suffix –ed which can be pronounced as either /–t/, /–d/ or /–ǝd/:

ask + –ed = /ӕsk/ + /–t/, liv(e) + –ed =/lIv/ + /–d/, need + –ed =/nid/ + /–ǝd/.

2. REPLACIVE ALLOMORPHS:

To signify some difference in meaning, a sound is used to replace another sound in a word. For example, the /Ι/ in drink is replaced by the /æ/ in drank to signal the simple past. This is symbolized as follows:

/drænk/ = /drΙnk/ + / Ι > æ /.

3. SUPPLETIVE ALLOMORPHS:

To signify some difference in meaning, there is a complete change in the shape of a word.

For example:

_ go + the suppletive allomorph of {–D pt} = went;

_ be + the suppletive allomorph of {–S 3d} = is;

_ bad + the suppletive allomorph of {–ER cp} = worse;

_ good + the suppletive allomorph of {–EST sp} = best.
4. THE ZERO ALLOMORPH:

There is no change in the shape of a word though some difference in meaning is identified. For example, the past tense form of hurt is formed by adding the zero allomorph of {–D pt} to this word.

Source:

Stageberg, Norman C. and Dallin D. Oaks (2000). An Introductory English Grammar , Heinle, Boston:USA.