Morphology

Review: going from small to big

Phonetics (phones)
Classifying sounds [p] = voiceless bilabial oral stop

Phonology (phonemes, allophones)

Morphology (morphemes, allomorphs)

Level of the word

Phones at the mental level /p/ has two realizations [p] and [p] FOR AN ENGLISH SPEAKER

Morphology
When deciding if something is a morpheme, your answers need to be DATA-based Morpheme:

Has a systematic sound-meaning correspondence Cannot be further divided without losing soundmeaning correspondence

Why would we not want to say a is a morpheme meaning something like animal?

cat, snake

Why would we not want to say a is a morpheme meaning something like animal?

cat, snake [kt], [snejk]

Remember were looking at phonetics not spelling! If we give you a data set for a non-English language though, you can assume, even if its not IPA, that there is a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and symbols.

Why would we not want to say [t] is a morpheme meaning something like animal?

cat, bat [kt], [bt]

Reason 1: that would mean [k] and [b] are morphemes and have some meaning Reason 2: if this were the case, we would expect to see all other animal words with the same morpheme (doesnt have systematic sound-meaning correspondence)

Is [t] a morpheme?

cat, at [kt], [t]

It depends on which [t] were talking about.

 We can have two different morphemes with the same form (the noun fly vs. the verb fly)
Since theyre different morphemes, they have different meanings, even if they happen to have the same sound

We can also have a word containing the same sequence of sounds as a morpheme, without containing that morpheme (cat vs. at)

Zapotec morphology
racaeea racaeelo racaeeni cocaeea cocaeelo cocaeeni cacaeea cacaeelo cacaeeni I help you (sg) help s/he helps I helped you (sg) helped s/he helped I will help you (sg) will help s/he will help racaeetonoo racaeetoo racaeeni cocaeetonoo cocaeetoo cocaeeni cacaeetonoo cacaeetoo cacaeeni we help you (pl) help they help we helped you (pl) helped they helped we will help
you (pl) will help

they will help

Zapotec morphology
racaeea racaeelo racaeeni cocaeea cocaeelo cocaeeni cacaeea cacaeelo cacaeeni I help you (sg) help s/he helps I helped you (sg) helped s/he helped I will help you (sg) will help s/he will help racaeetonoo racaeetoo racaeeni cocaeetonoo cocaeetoo cocaeeni cacaeetonoo cacaeetoo cacaeeni we help you (pl) help they help we helped you (pl) helped they helped we will help
you (pl) will help

they will help

Zapotec morphology
racaeea racaeelo racaeeni cocaeea cocaeelo cocaeeni cacaeea cacaeelo cacaeeni I help you (sg) help s/he helps I helped you (sg) helped s/he helped I will help you (sg) will help s/he will help racaeetonoo racaeetoo racaeeni cocaeetonoo cocaeetoo cocaeeni cacaeetonoo cacaeetoo cacaeeni we help you (pl) help they help we helped you (pl) helped they helped we will help
you (pl) will help

they will help

Zapotec morphology
racaeea racaeelo racaeeni cocaeea cocaeelo cocaeeni cacaeea cacaeelo cacaeeni I help you (sg) help s/he helps I helped you (sg) helped s/he helped I will help you (sg) will help s/he will help racaeetonoo racaeetoo racaeeni cocaeetonoo cocaeetoo cocaeeni cacaeetonoo cacaeetoo cacaeeni we help you (pl) help they help we helped you (pl) helped they helped we will help
you (pl) will help

they will help

Zapotec morphology
Is there one morpheme ni that means 3rd person, or two morphemes, one for 3rd person singular and one for 3rd person plural, that happen to have the same form?
Use the same method you used to solve Zapotec morphology problem when analyzing English
Can argue either way

fly desks untie tree dislike reuse triumphed delight justify payment

spiteful suite fastest deform disobey preplan optionality prettier mistreat premature

Example: tree
Morpheme:
Has a systematic sound-meaning correspondence Cannot be further divided without losing sound-meaning correspondence

Is tree made up of one morpheme?

Sound=[i] Meaning=tree Trees uses same sound-meaning correspondence [], [], [i] all lose meaning of tree

Example: fly
Morpheme:
Has a systematic sound-meaning correspondence Cannot be further divided without losing sound-meaning correspondence

Is fly made up of one morpheme?

Yes, but note we have two separate morphemes Sound=[flaj] Meaning=bug OR being airborne

Lets look at the morpheme meaning being airborne Flying uses same sound-meaning correspondence [f], [laj] all lose meaning of being airborne

Since speaker cant tell which it is out of context, we have two separate words, each composed of a single, separate morpheme that just happens to sound the same

Example: desks
Morpheme:
Has a systematic sound-meaning correspondence Cannot be further divided without losing sound-meaning correspondence

Is desks made up of one morpheme?

Hypothesis: desks is made up of desk + -s If we think its made up of two morphemes, need to do same method twice Sound=[desk], meaning=desk Sound=[-s], meaning = plural Desk-chair? Tigers [d], [sk], etc. all lose meaning of desk [s] cant be further broken down

Example: optionality
Morpheme:
Has a systematic sound-meaning correspondence Cannot be further divided without losing sound-meaning correspondence

Is optionality made up of one morpheme?

options seasonal acidity