MORPHOLOGYThe wordland

What is morphology?• the study of the structure and content of word forms• the part of linguistic that deals with the study of words,

their internal structure.• It is also interested in how the users of a given language

understand complex words and invent new lexical items.• It is the subdiscipline of grammar.

What is lexicon?• A collection of linguistic knowledge that cannot be

captured by rules• The collection of words--the internalized dictionary--that

every speaker of the language has.• An understanding of the rules that govern the formation of

words• Similarities and differences in the behavior of words• The function of words

By the end of the class, you will have the linguistic background to answer the following questions:

• What is morphology?• What is a morpheme?• How are morphemes classified?• How are words structured in Turkish?• What is an allomorph?

• Why is karşılıksız acceptable, but sevgiliksiz outrageous?

• What makes evdeler different from evlerde?

• Why is evdemler terrible, but dedemler perfectly fine?

• Key words:• Morphology• Morpheme• Free morpheme • Bound morpheme• Derivational morpheme• Inflectional morpheme• Morpheme ordering• Allomorphy

THE STRUCTURE OF WORDSSyllable structure vs Morpheme structure

Free morphemes vs Bound morphemes

Derivational morphemes vs Inflectional morphemes

Two ways of analysing word structure• Through syllable structure• Through morpheme structure

Syllable structure

• Table 1:

Morpheme structure• Table 2:

• Table 3: morpheme and syllable boundaries

• Table 4: compatibility between morphemes and syllables: hastalandım

• Table 5: compatibility between morphemes and syllables: yaşlandım

The gist here:

• Simply coding the syllables of a word is not reliable way to code the morphemes of that word.

So,• What is a morpheme?• What is the criterion to identify a morpheme?

• Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units that construct words in a language.

Our examples are constructed in the following way:

(1)

Yaş

Yaş-lan

Yaş-lan-dı

Yaş-lan-dı-m

(2)

Hasta

Hasta-lan

Hasta-lan-dı

Hasta-lan-dı-m

Eg. babama

(3)

Eg. gözcüler

(4)

Göz+ cü+ lerStem 1st morph. 2nd morph.

unit of grammatical function

Organ of form Ns from Ns not mean göz anymore

seeing

Remark• Morphemes might have different meanings, functions and

morphological standing.• Although morpheme and syllable boundaries of a word

may sometimes overlap, lack of correspondence between these boundaries is common.

• A single morpheme may be composed of more than one syllable.

• A single syllable may include more than one morpheme.

IT İS YOUR TURN 1

In terms of their morphological stand,ng, morphemes in gözcü can be classified into two groups

• Free morphemes• Bound morphemes

Why is c grammatical while a and b are not?

(5)

Morphemes

Free morphemes Bound morphemes

Content morp. Functional morp.

Ns postpositions

ADJs conjunctions

ADVs determiners

Vs pronouns, etc.

IT İS YOUR TURN 2

• Affixation: the attachment process of a bound morpheme to another morpheme.

• Affixes: the attached bound morphemes.

• Roots: words that are not affixed.

• An overwhelming number of roots in Turkish are monosyllabic:

• More than one syllable in a root is also permissible:

Stem: the root or roots of a word, together with any derivational affixes, to which inflectional affixes are added. They are morphologically complex.

Eg. Yaş-lı stem

yaş-lı-lar stem

Çağ root

çağ-daş stem,

çağ-daş-lık stem

Complex words are formed through 3 types of affixation in a language:

• Suffixes: placed after stem• Prefixes: before stem• Infixes: within stem

What about affixation in Turkish?• Sev-gi• Sev-gi-li• Sev-gi-li-ler

Loan words:• Anti-propaganda > propaganda• Gayri resmi > resmi• Bihaber > haber• Postmodern > modern

Back to the case of gözcülerGöz- cü- ler

Free morphemes bound morphemes

content morpheme : derived N from a N having a meaning different from that of the stem

That is, some suffixes can change both the meaning and the syntactic class of the stem

Derivation: a process of forming new words by using bound morphemes

Derivational morphemes: the morphemes which add to or change the meaning of a stem word or the syntactic class of it.

Eg. Sat-ıcı

-ICI: a derivational morpheme forming Ns from Ns

What other derivations are possible in Turkish?

• Table 6: examples of derivational suffixes

4 types of stems formed through derivation

Suffixes that attach to verbs

Deverbal nominal stems: V > N

Deverbal verbal stems: V > V

Suffixes that attach to nominals

Denominal nominal stems: N > N

Denominal verbal stems: N > V

Other derivational suffixes in Turkishnote that some suffixes are more productive than the others

• V>N: Kaz-I, güldür-Ü, kay-AK, sev-ECEN, san-AL, diz-GE

• V>V: dürt-ÜKLE, şaş-ALA, kaç-IN, ara-ŞTIR,

Consider the semantic differences –(I)ş provides• Koşuş-: denotes an unorganised manner• Bölüş-, kırış-: denotes a shared act• Kokuş-: denotes the intensity of a property of the root verb

Other derivational suffixes in Turkishnote that some suffixes are more productive than the others

• N>V: tür-E-, kara-R-, şakır-DA, göz-ÜK-, güneş-LEN-, haber-LEŞ-, kir-LET-, su-SA-

• N>N: ana-Ç, sol-AK, yer-El, kök-En, dört-GEN,

Consider semantic differences –lI provides:• Atlı, sevgili, hızlı, akıllı : denotes the attribute of something• Üniversiteli, köylü: indicates a person belonging to or

coming from• Üçlü, altılı: indicates groups made of items containing that

number of objects

Another productive suffix -lIk(1) Ns from Ns, adjectives or adverbs to indicate:• İyilik, çabukluk : the state relating to a particular concept• Askerlik, krallık: institutionalisation of the concept• Gözlük, başlık: an object associated with the body• Kitaplık, odunluk: a storage place• Zeytinlik, mezarlık: a place where the entity denoted by the N is found

collectively• Analık, evlatlık: a person whose relationship is analogous to the blood relation

(2) Adjectives which indicate:• Dolmalık, elbiselik: suitability for the type of entity• Günlük, aylık: periods of time• Ellilik: approximate age of a person

(3) Bir kiloluk, üç saatlik: express weight, length, capacity, value, price.

Is the lexicon composed of only free lexical morphemes and derivational bound morphemes?

Consider this:

* Bu sınıf öğrenci hep öğretmen kız.

• Which noun is the subject above?• How are the other nouns and the verb related to it?

Modified sentence with grammatical inflection:

• Bu sınıfta öğrenciler hep öğretmeni kızdırırlar.

Spatial relation plural direct obj.

temporal structure of event

person agreement with subj

These morphemes did not create new words but mark grammatical relations: inflectional morphemes.

Number, case, tense and agreement markers in Turkish are inflectional morphemes.

How different characteristics can combine in a single morpheme?• Let’s test «insan-lık» following the chart to discover type of the morpheme

Another test to discover the type of the morpheme

• Consider the use of the infinitive marker –mAk

• Claim: whatever precedes the infinitive marker –mAk should be considered as the stem; therefore anything in it as derivational

Eg. Koşuş-tur-du

The infinitive form: koş-uş-tur-mak

What precedes –mAk: koş-uş-tur

Derivational morphemes

IT İS YOUR TURN 3

ORGANİSİNG PRİNCİPLES OF TURKİSH MORPHOLOGYMorpheme ordering

Allomorphy

Morpheme ordering Why are a and c are possible but not b?

a) Kalınlaştırılmamışlardanmışmş

b) *Kalıntırlaş

c) kalınlaştırılmamıştanmışmışlar

! Considering that Turkish is an agglunative language, the

order of morphemes in a sentence is fixed and each morpheme is used in the position specified for it.

b)Ungrammatical: causative-DIr is used after -lAş

If the morphemes are in right order, you can produce the followings grammatically

• öl-üm-süz-leş-tir-t-tir-il-e-me-yebil-in-en-ler-de-ki-ler-den-mi-ymis-ler-ce-sin-e

• Gör-üş-tür-ül-e-me-ye de bil-iyor-mu-ydu-nuz?

• *kes-ler-im vs kesimler

! Inflection follows derivation as derivational morphemes are more firmly attached than inflectional ones:

• Root+Derivation+Inflection

Turkish inflectional suffixes

1. nominal inflectional suffixes

Those marking number, possession, case

Eg: çocuk-lar- ın-a

2. Verbal inflectional suffixes

Those marking verb forms

root-voice-negation-tense/aspect/modality-copular marker-person marker-DIr

Eg. Otur-acağ-ım

Nominal inflectional suffixes in Turkish

• plural suffix: -lAr• Possessive suffixes: evim, evin, evi, evimiz, eviniz, evleri• Case suffixes:

• Accusative: saray-ı• Dative: masa-(y)a• Locative: ev-de• Ablative: okul-dan• Genetive: çocuğ-un

• Other nominal inflectional markers: • ile (kedimle)• -ki (dünkü, odanınki)

Eg. arabanınkiyle

Verbal inflectional suffixes in Turkish• Voice suffixes

• Causative: yap-TIR, piş-İR, çık-AR, çök-ERT• Passive: yıka-N, del-İN, yap-IL• Reflexive: giy-İN, sar-IN, ört-ÜN• Reciprocal: öp-ÜŞ, gör-ÜŞ

• Negative marker: -ma, git-ME• Tense aspect modality markers:• Copular markers: (y)DI, -(y)mIş and –(y)sA (bırakmışTI,

hastaYDI, yürümekteYMİŞler, evdeYMİŞler, koşuyorSAk, hevesliYSEk)

• Person markers: (odamdayIM, kaçsaN, çalışıyorUZ)

What if more than one inflectional morpheme are used in a word?(6)

a. Kitap

b. Kitap-lık

c. Kitap-lık-lar

d. Kitap-lık-lar-ım

e. Kitap-lık-lar-ım-da

! They also combine in a predictable order.

Stem+plural+person+place marker

In the case of verbal inflections:

(7)

a. Boya-dı-m

b. Boya-ma-dı-m

c. Boya-t-tı-m

d. Boya-t-ma-dı-m

The permissible order:

(causative) + (negation) + tense + person

IT İS YOUR TURN 4

! Each suffix takes the preceding stem as the scope of its semantic and syntactic material• Table 7: outer layers of words are formed by inflectional;

inner layers by derivational morphemes

Allomorphy• Allomorphs: the variations of the same morpheme. • Every morpheme has predictable allomorphs in

complementary distribuiton, in that thay cannot appear in the same phonological environment (*evlar, *işlar,*okuller, *otoler).

(8)

a. [ler] ev-ler, iş-ler, kütük-ler, söz-ler

b. [lar] okul-lar, sınıf-lar, kutu-lar, toz-lar

Let’s remember

Vowel chart Turkish vowels

Turkish vowels

Front Back

Unrounded

Rounded

Unrounded

Rounded

High i ü ı u

Low e ö a o

How is the choice between /e/ and /a/ determined?

By the preceding stem vowel.

In (8a), all the preceding stem vowels are front

In (8b), all the preceding stem vowels are non front

! Front vowels + [-ler]

Back vowels + [-lar]

• Table 8: distribution of plural morpheme

Other patterns of distribution for some productive allomorphs in Turkish:

• The morpheme marking reported past /-mIş/• The morpheme marking definite past /-DI/• The agentive morpheme /-CI/• First person agreement marker /-(y)Im/

The morpheme marking reported past /-mIş/

• 4 allomorphs – applies to Vs

Conditioned by the rounding harmony, the high suffix /i/• Back unrounded vowels + [-mış]• Front unrounded vowels + [-miş]• Back rounded vowels + [-muş]• Front rounded vowels + [-müş]

The morpheme marking definite past /-DI/

• 8 allomorphs – applies to Vs

Conditioned by preceding stem vowel and consonant

Consonants share voicing feature: voiced con.+/d/ vs voiceless con. + /t/

Vowels share backness and rounding features

The agentive morpheme /-CI/• 8 allomorphs – applied to Ns –means one making or

selling N

• Conditioned by consonant harmony in voicing and rounding harmony in both backness and rounding

First person agreement marker /-(y)Im/

• 4 allomorphs – marks the subject of the sentence on predicative nouns and adjectives

• Conditioned by rounded harmony.• The buffer –y is inserted when the stem ends in a vowel

IT İS YOUR TURN 5

summary• What is morphology?• What is a morpheme?• How are words structured in Turkish?• What is an allomorph?

Summaryhow are morphemes classified?

DERIVATIONALBound(prefix –infix-suffix)

INFLECTIONALBound(suffix)

FREE

CONTENT MORPHEME

Class and/or meaning changing affixesEg. –Lık, -sAl, -CI

x Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

FUNCTIONAL MORPHEME

X Suffixes marking grammatical relationshipsEg. –lAr, -DI, -mIş

Postpositions, pronouns, determiners, conjuctions,etc.

SELF-TEST