Essentials of Linguistics 5.3 Morphology Beyond Affixes

Summary

This video explores different morphological patterns in languages, focusing on internal change, suppletion, and reduplication. Internal change is illustrated through irregular English plurals and past tenses, such as 'mouse' to 'mice' and 'sit' to 'sat'. Suppletion is shown in forms like 'go' to 'went' and 'good' to 'better', where entire words replace each other. Reduplication, seen in languages like Halum, involves repeating parts of words for specific meanings. The video also discusses the typological division of languages into isolating, synthetic, agglutinative, and fusional categories, exemplified through Mandarin, Japanese, and Spanish.

Takeaways

• 😀 Internal change refers to irregular patterns in English noun plurals and verb past tenses, such as 'mouse' to 'mice' and 'go' to 'went'.
• 😀 Suppletion is a highly irregular morphological pattern where entire forms are replaced, as seen in 'go' (past tense: 'went') and 'good' (comparative: 'better').
• 😀 Suppletion cannot be predicted through affixation or internal change and must be memorized.
• 😀 Some of the most frequent words in a language are often subject to suppletion, like the verb 'to be' in English and common pronouns.
• 😀 Reduplication involves repeating part or all of a word to create a morphological pattern, as seen in the Salish language Halum.
• 😀 In Halum, reduplication on verbs can create adjectives expressing likelihood or disposition towards the action.
• 😀 Reduplication in English can apply to phrases, such as 'tuna salad' being an example of 'salid salid reduplication'.
• 😀 Languages can be classified into different morphological types, with isolating or analytic languages like Mandarin having minimal word complexity.
• 😀 Isolating languages use function words like particles to convey inflectional information, as opposed to using affixes.
• 😀 Synthetic languages, such as the Romance languages, feature a lot of morphological complexity and combine inflectional meanings into single affixes.

Q & A

What is internal change in language morphology?

Internal change refers to alterations in the form of a word without the addition of affixes. This type of change is often found in irregular noun plurals and verb past tenses, such as 'mouse' to 'mice' or 'sit' to 'sat'. These changes are remnants of a regular pattern that was once phonologically predictable in English.

What is suppletion in language morphology?

Suppletion is a more irregular morphological pattern where a form of a word is entirely replaced by another form, without any phonological relation between them. Examples in English include the past tense of 'go' (went), or the comparative and superlative forms of 'good' (better, best). Suppletion is not predictable and must be memorized.

Why is suppletion common in frequent words of a language?

Suppletion is often found in high-frequency words because language learners (children, for example) tend to assume language patterns are regular. They will reach the conclusion that a word is suppletive only if they encounter enough irregular forms, which is more likely for common words.

What role does frequency play in language patterns and acquisition?

Frequency plays a significant role in language acquisition, as more frequent words are more likely to exhibit irregular morphological patterns. Frequent exposure to a word leads children to recognize irregular forms, such as suppletion, more readily.

What is reduplication in linguistics?

Reduplication is a morphological process where part or all of a word is repeated. In some languages, like Halum (a Salish language), reduplication can alter the meaning of a verb, such as indicating likelihood or disposition to perform an action.

How does reduplication function in English?

In English, reduplication can apply to phrases, as in the example of 'tuna salad' becoming 'salid salad', where the repeated form emphasizes the prototypical nature of the original item. This is called 'salid reduplication' in English.

What are isolating or analytic languages?

Isolating or analytic languages are those in which words are typically not inflected, and grammatical meaning is often conveyed through function words or particles. Mandarin and Cantonese are examples of high-isolating languages, where inflectional information is expressed through small function words rather than affixes.

How does English compare to languages like Mandarin or Cantonese in terms of morphological type?

English is less isolating than Mandarin or Cantonese, but still relatively analytic. English relies more on word order and auxiliary words rather than affixes to convey grammatical meaning, making it less isolating but more analytic than languages like Mandarin.

What are synthetic languages, and how are they classified?

Synthetic languages are those with more morphological complexity, where words are often built from multiple affixes. They are typically characterized by few or no free roots. Synthetic languages can be further divided into agglutinative and fusional types, based on how affixes are used.

What is the difference between agglutinative and fusional languages?

In agglutinative languages, each affix has a clear and consistent meaning and can be easily separated, such as in Japanese. In fusional languages, such as the Romance languages, affixes combine multiple grammatical meanings (e.g., tense, aspect, and subject agreement) into a single unit, making them harder to break down.