A Word and Its Forms - Inflections - Slides

A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

REMEMBER

Some complex words have meanings that are so predictable that they do not have to be listed in a dictionary.

Some words do not have to be because they are merely grammatically condtioned variants of a word that is more basic, in some sense.

Take a look at these words!

performsperformedperform

1


Read the sentences below:

1. The pianist performs in the local hall every week.

2. Mary told us that this pianist performed in the local hall every week.

3. The performance last week was particularly impressive.

All the words in bold have a suffix: -s / -ed/ -ance.The suffixes –s and –ed are dependent on the grammatical context, in a way that the suffix –ance is not.

2


A. The magician creates dfferent ticks every month.

The –s is acceptable in order not to violate a grammatical rule of English concerning ‘agreement’ between a verb and its subject:

The –s suffix on the verb is obligatory when the subject is a singular noun phrase, and forbidden when the subject is a plural noun phrase.

The –s suffix on the verb does not make any independent contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

3


B. Tom told me that the magician created different tricks every month.

English grammar incorporates a rule about what is called “sequence of tenses”;

perform

If a verb of saying or thinking is in the past tense, then a verb in any sentence reported as having been said or thought is likely to be shifted backwards in time, so to speak:

performedperformed had performedWill perform would performed The –ed suffix on the verb does not make any independent contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

4


C. The artist presented his new creation to the audience.

There is no grammatical factor that requires the presence of –tion;

creates and created are grammatically conditioned variants forms of the verb create (that is inflectional morphology);

NOTE:

creation is not a variant form of the verb, but rather a noun derived from it (that is derivational morphology).

5


NEW CONCEPTIONS

Inflectional morphology

It is a word seen as an abstract grammatical entity, represented concrectely by one or more different inflected word forms according to the grammatical context. Lexemes are conventioally represented in small capitals while word forms are in italics.

It is the area of morphology concerned with changes in word shape (through affixation) that are determined, or potencially affect the grammatical context in with a word appears.

6

Lexeme

Ex.: The verb lexeme PERFORM has 4 inflected word forms:

Perform, performs, performing and performed.

7


Is the word “pianist” listed in your dictionary?

1st. Once we know an English word is a noun denoting a kind of thing that can be counted, then we can be confident that it will have a plural form.

7

2nd. We can be confident that the plural form of any countable noun will be formed by adding to the singular form the suffix –s (or the appropriate allomorph of the suffix).

Is the word “pianists” listed in your dictionary?

Why a word form such as pianists does not have to be listed in dictionaries?

Regular and Irregular inflection

8


How about the word form “mice” , criteria, or “phenomena”? Are they listed in your dictionary?

YES, but seldom.

8

Does it follow that all word forms of a lexeme must always share the same root morpheme?

Regular and Irregular inflection

Lexeme Word forms

GO go, goes, went, going, gone

NOT always.

Does it ever happen that two word forms that behave grammatically like forms of one look so dissimilar that they seem to have no root morpheme in common?

Suppletion – phenomenon whereby one lexeme is represented by two or more different roots, depending on the context.

99


Singular form

EXAMPLE:

9

Plural form

Forms of nouns

Lexeme Word forms # of morphemes

CATcat one root morpheme

cats two morphemes (a root and the suffix -s

NOTE:For any noun lexeme X, there are just TWO grammatical words: singular of X and plural of X, contrasting in number.

Note that –s is the regular suffix for forming plurals. -i (cacti), -ae (formulae), -a (phenomena), -(r)en (children) are irregular suffixes expressing plurality. There are also some countable nouns that express their plural with no suffix at all (teeth, men). And the ones whose plurals display not even a vowel change (sheep)*/ zero plural or zero suffix.

101010


EXAMPLES:

10

Do all nouns referring to countable entities have both singular and plural forms?

Those scissors belong in the top drawer.

Watch out!

Forms of nouns

NOT QUITE

NOTE: only SOME nouns have plural forms, namely nouns that refer to entities that are countable.

Your pants have a hole in the seat.

We can say neither *a scissor nor * a scissors, and likewise neither *a pant nor * a pants;

For these lexemes there is a conventional circumlocution (PERIPHRASIC FORM):

- That pair of scissors belongs in the top drawer.

- Your pair of pants has a hole in the seat.

? ? ?

11111111


In morphology we are concerned with the bahavior of words which belong to OPEN CLASS (NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, VERBS AND ADVERBS).

Look at this:

11

Forms of pronouns and determiners

By contrast morphology does not make any register of a “new pronoun” or a “new preposition - CLOSED CLASS .

Lexeme Singular form Plural form

Determiner lexeme: THIS this These

Determiner lexeme: THAT that those

Determiner lexeme: THE the Zero plural

Lexeme Word forms

Pronoun lexeme: HE Him

Pronoun lexeme: WE us

1212121212


REMEMBER:

Syncretised verbs (SYNCRETISM)

12

Forms of verbs

Some verb lexemes have at most FIVE forms;

Verb Lexeme Word formsDIG dig, digs, dug, digging, dug*

STING Sting, stings, stung, stinging, stung*

BEND Bend, bends, bent, bending, bent*

FEEL Feel, feels, felt, feeling, felt*

Most verbs have only FOUR forms (regular verbs).

Verb Lexeme Word formsCAN can, couldMUST mustMAY may, mightBE am, is, are, was, were, being, been, be

Some verbs have only one or two forms; others, eight.

131313131313


13

Forms of Adjectives

Many English adjectives exhibit THREE forms (they receive the suffixes –er and –est when their basic form has one syllable, or two provided that the second syllable ends in a vowel).

Mary is tall. (the positive of tall) Mary is taller than Carol. (the comparative of tall)

Mary is the tallest girl in class. (the superlative of tall)

Some adjective lexemes lack these forms. For these lexemes there is a conventional circumlocution (PERIPHRASIC FORM):

He is more and more curious (the comparative of curious)

This field is more fertile than that one. (the comparative of fertile) The most fertile fields of all are here. (the superlative of fertile)

Documents

A Word and Its Forms - Inflections - Slides