Chapter three lexicon

Chapter three lexiconChapter three lexicon

• 3.1 What is Word?

• 3.1.1 three senses of “ WORD”

• 3.1.2 identification of words (3 factors)

• 3.1.3 classification of words (4 ways)

3.1 What is Word?3.1 What is Word?

• It is a bit unclear to define a word as a unit of expression, because different criteria may identify and define different phenomena.

• It is hard to define “word” scientifically.

• There are three ways to define “word”, though each of them can not cover everthing.

3.1.1 three senses of “ WORD”3.1.1 three senses of “ WORD”

• 1) a physically definable unit• word is seen as a set of sound segments or writing

letters between two pauses or breaks.• However, when liaison and contracted form occur, a

problem appears.• 2) word both as a general and as a specific term• “Boys” and “boy” are one word in the general sense; • “Boys” and “boy” are two words in the specific sense.• 3) a grammatical unit• The grammar of language contains a set of layers, and

word is one of them, as displayed in the following figure.

The layers of the grammarThe layers of the grammar

• clause complex• clause • phrase/ word group • word • morpheme• Each of these is called a RANK; and all the

ranks constituents a hierarchical scale. Word is between morpheme and word-group. A word, in this sense, is then a grammatical unit, just like morpheme or clause complex.

3.1.2 identification of words3.1.2 identification of words

• How to identify a word?• The above three factors together with the following three factors should be f

ollowed.• 1) stability• It is okay to change the parts or constituents in a sentence to a certain degr

ee, but this is not allowed in a word, e.g. , “liking” can not be rearranged as “inglike”.

• 2) relative uninterruptibility• No new elements should be inserted into a word, even though this can be d

one sometimes in a sentence.• * Liking----lik-er-ing• 3) a minimum free form• This feature was suggested by the founder of American Structuralism, Leon

ard Bloomfield.• Object from others about this criterion.

3.1.3 classification of words3.1.3 classification of words

Words can be classified in four ways.

• 1) variable words and invariable words

• 2) grammatical words and lexical words

• 3) closed-class words and open-class words

• 4) word class

1) variable words and invariable 1) variable words and invariable wordswords

• variable words: they may have inflective changes. That is, the same word may have different grammatical forms but part of the word remains relatively constant.

• invariable words: words which do not have inflective endings.

2) grammatical words and lexical 2) grammatical words and lexical wordswords

• grammatical words : words mainly working for constructing group, phrase, clause, clause complex, or even text are grammatical words, such as, conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and pronouns.

• lexical words: words mainly working for referring to substance, action and quality, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

• Lexical words carry the main content of a language while grammatical ones serve to link together different content parts.

• Lexical words are also known as content words and grammatical ones as function words.

3) closed-class words and open-3) closed-class words and open-class wordsclass words

• closed-class words : pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, and others. The number of it is fixed, limited. One can not easily add or deduce a new member.

• open-class words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and many adverbs are open-class items. The membership is in principle infinite or unlimited. New members are continually and constantly being added to the class.

4) word class4) word class

• Words can also be classified by analyzing their various grammatical, semantic, and phonological properties, or by grouping them by their formal similarities, such as inflection and distribution. This is close to the notion of parts of speech.

• The classification was first based on classical Latin and Greek analyses, but only two classes, something like today’s subject and predicate.

• Later nine classes were established: they were noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection, and article.

• Today, a few more word classes have been introduced into grammar.

All the word class todayAll the word class today

• 1) Noun• 2) Pronoun • 3) Adjective• 4) Verb• 5) Adverb• 6) Preposition• 7) Conjunction• 8) Interjection• 9) Article• 10) Particles• 11) Auxiliaries newly introduced ones • 12) Pro-form• 13) Determiners

3.2 the formation of word3.2 the formation of word

• 3.2.1 morpheme and morphology

• 3.2.1 types of morphemes

• 3.2.3 inflection and word formation

• 3.2.4 sememe vs. morpheme, and phoneme vs. morpheme

3.2.1 morpheme and 3.2.1 morpheme and morphologymorphology

• Definition of morpheme

• Definition or morphology

3.2.2 types of morphemes3.2.2 types of morphemes

• (1) free morpheme and bound morpheme• Free morphemes: they can make up words by

themselves. All mono-morphemic words ( words consisting of only one morpheme) are free morphemes.

• Some poly-morphemic words are made up of two free morphemes, so they are free morphemes, too. Such poly-morphemic words are called compounds.

• Morphemes which must appear with at least another morpheme are named as bound morphemes.

(2) Root, affix and stem(2) Root, affix and stem

• Root • Root is the remaining part of a word after all affixes are taken away.• So that means all words contain a root morpheme.• A root may be free, may be bound.• Three points about roots.• 1) free root morphemes are those that can stand by themselves and

are the base forms of words.• 2) there are relatively a few bound root morphemes in English.• 3) a few English roots may have both free and bound variants.

Affix Affix

• Affix is a type of morpheme which can be used only with another morpheme ( the root or stem).

• Prefix

• Affix Infix

• Suffix

Stem Stem

• Stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional affix can be added.

• Stem is the existing form to which a derivational affix can be added. ( 自考）

• A stem may be the same as a root. • A stem may also contain a root and one, o

r more than one, derivational affix.

(3) Inflectional affix and derivational (3) Inflectional affix and derivational affixaffix

• morphemes can not be classified into inflectional ones and derivational ones.

• Inflection and derivation are born only for affixes.

Inflectional affixesInflectional affixes

• 1) they are generally less productive than derivational affixes;

• 2) they very often only add a minute or delicate grammatical function to the stem;

• 3) they serve to produce different forms of a single lexeme;

• 4) they do not change the word class of the word they attach to;

• 5) they do not change the lexical meaning;• 6) Whether one should add inflectional affixes or not

depends very often on the other factors within the phrase or sentence;

• 7) they are mostly suffixes.

Inflectional affixesInflectional affixes

• -(e) s, indicating the plurality of countable nouns• -(e) s), indicating third person singular, present tense• -(e) d, indicating past tense for all three persons• -ing, indicating progressive aspect• -(e)r, indicating the comparative degree of adjectives and

adverbs• -(e)st, indicating superlative degree of adjectives and ad

verbs• -’s, ( apostraphe s ) indicating the possessive case of no

uns.

Derivational affixesDerivational affixes

• 1) derivational affixes are very productive in making new words;

• 2) they might or might not change the word class (or the part of speech )of a word;

• 3) they often change the lexical meaning;• 4) Whether one should add derivational affixes

are more often based on simple meaning distinctions;

• 5) they can both be prefixes or suffixes.

The order of inflectional affix and The order of inflectional affix and derivational affixderivational affix

• When we need to add both inflectional affix and derivational affix to a word, we first attach the derivational affix to the word, then the inflectional one. That is to say, the inflectional affix is in the outer range of a word.

3.2.3 inflection and word formation3.2.3 inflection and word formation

• Inflections

• (inflectional morphology )

• morphology word formation

• (lexical morphology)

• (Derivational morphology)

(1) Inflection (1) Inflection

• Inflection indicates grammatical relations by adding inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect, and case; inflectional affixes do not change the grammatical class of the stem (the part to which they are attached to).

(2)Word formation(2)Word formation

• Word formation, in its restricted sense, refers to the process of how words are formed ( or how new words are built).

• Compound

• Word formation

• Derivation

Compound Compound

• It refers to those words that consist of more than one lexical morpheme, or the way to join two separate words to produce a single form.

• In compounds, the lexical morphemes can be of different word classes.

Compound Compound

• Endocentric one

• ( 向心结构 )

• Compound

• Exocentric one

• （离心结构）

Endocentric compoundsEndocentric compounds

• Nominal ones• Endocentric compounds• Adjectival ones• The head of an endocentric compound is de-verbal, that

is, it is derived from a verb. So it is also called a verbal compound or synthetic compound.

• The first member is a participant of the process verb. • Examples :• Self-control ( a nominal endocentric compound)• Sun-tanned (an adjectival endocentric compound)

Exocentric compoundsExocentric compounds

• Nominal ones • V+N • V+A• V+P• Exocentric compounds• • Adjectival ones• V+P• V+A

compoundscompounds

• 1) compounds can be written in three ways;• A: as one word;• B: joined by a hyphen;• C: separated by a space.• 2) usually the right member not only determines

the category ( word class) of the whole compound;

• 3) but also determines the major part of the sense of the compound;

• 4) the right member serves as the head.

Derivation Derivation

• Derivation shows a relationship between roots and affixes.

• Derivations can make the word class of the original word either changed or unchanged.

• Word forms that come from derivation are relatively large and potentially open.

• There is usually one productive inflectional affix per word, but there may also arise multiple derivational affixes.

3.2.4 sememe vs. morpheme, and 3.2.4 sememe vs. morpheme, and phoneme vs. morphemephoneme vs. morpheme

• Sememe ( 义素 ) ： it is the smallest component of meaning.

• The relationship between sememe and morpheme: 5 mapping and non-mapping occasions.

（（ 11 ）） sememe vs.morphemesememe vs.morpheme

• i. one morpheme vs. one sememe• ii. One morpheme vs. more than one sememe• iii. One sememe vs. more than one morpheme• iv. Morphemes that have no specific sememe• v. function changes in both sememe and morphe

me without morpheme change

i. one morpheme vs. one semei. one morpheme vs. one semememe

• There are cases in which one morpheme has only one sememe.

• the example

ii. One morpheme vs. more than oii. One morpheme vs. more than one sememene sememe

• One morpheme may have two or more than two sememes.

• The example

iii. One sememe vs. more than one iii. One sememe vs. more than one morphememorpheme

• Different morphemes convey the same sense.

• The example

• The negative affix

• a-

• de-

• in- ….

iv. Morphemes that have no specifiiv. Morphemes that have no specific sememec sememe

• There are also some morphemes that have no specific sememe, but may help change grammatical and semantic categories.

• The example

v. function changes in both sememe and mov. function changes in both sememe and morpheme without morpheme changerpheme without morpheme change

• There may also be no morpheme change in a word, but both the grammatical and the semantic categories would change according to the context it occurs.

• In the process, no morpheme addition or variation is done, but the sememe of the morpheme is changed.

• There are many such phenomena in English.

Morpheme vs. phonemeMorpheme vs. phoneme

Phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound.Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in grammar.There is any correspondence between the two levels of lan

guage.A joint venture of the two: Morphophonology (morphonology) morphophonemics (morphonemics)

Morpheme vs. phonemeMorpheme vs. phoneme

i) a single phoneme vs. a single morpheme

• ii) a single morpheme vs. multiple phoneme

• iii) allophone

• iv) morphemic conditions

i) a single phoneme vs. a single i) a single phoneme vs. a single morphememorpheme

• A single phoneme may represent a single morpheme, but they are not identical.

• Boys /z/

• boy’s /z/

• Raise /z/

ii) a single morpheme vs. multiple ii) a single morpheme vs. multiple phonemephoneme

• Morphemes may also be represented by phonological structures other than a single phoneme.

• Morphemes can be • monophonemic, • monosyllabic • polysyllabic• The syllabic ( phonological ) structure of a word and its

morphemic ( morphological ) structure do not necessarily correspond.

• Sample words in the course book.

iii) allophone iii) allophone

• A phoneme can have some variants, called allophones. Similarly, a morpheme can also have some variants. Just like a phoneme, it is also an abstract unit. For example, the plural morpheme can be represented as ….(book).

• Some morphemic forms represent different morphemes and thus have different sememes.

• The plural –s• The person / finiteness -s• The possessive case -s

iv) morphemic conditionsiv) morphemic conditions

• Morpheme shapes vary according to both phonological conditions and to the conditions of their own.

• 1) phonological conditioned

• 2) morphologically conditioned

1) phonological conditioned1) phonological conditioned

• The form or shape of morphemes may be conditioned by phonological factors.

• Assimilation

• dissimilation

2) morphologically conditioned2) morphologically conditioned

• Morphemes can also be influenced by morphological factors.

• Three requirements should be met.

• 1)

• 2 ）• 3 ）

3.1 lexical change3.1 lexical change

• 3.3.1 lexical change proper

• 3.3.2 morpho—syntactic change

• 3.3.3 semantic change

• 3.3.4 phonological change

• 3.3.5 orthographic change

3.3 lexical change3.3 lexical change

• lexical change

• morpho-syntactical change

• language change semantic change

• phonological change

• orthographic change

3.3.1 lexical change proper3.3.1 lexical change proper

• New words are built through word– formation and borrowing.

• Word formation has the major ways and the minor ways.

Lexical changeLexical change

• word-formation

• Lexical change

• borrowing

Word formationWord formation

• 1) derivation• Major ways 2) compounding• 3) conversation ( class shift )

• 1) acronym formation • 2) blending • 3) abbreviation• Minor ways 4) analogical creation• 5) clipping • 6) backformation • 7) coinage ( invention)

Minor ways for word—building Minor ways for word—building

• 1) • 2)• 3)• 4)• 5)• 6)• 7)

7) borrowing7) borrowing

• Direct borrowing• Indirect borrowing• The types of borrowing• i.• ii.• I• iii.• iv.

3.3.2 morpho-syntactic change3.3.2 morpho-syntactic change

• (1) morphological change

• Word-formation ( word-building ) changes

• Inflection changes ( examples in the book)

• (2) syntactic change

• Examples

3.3.3 semantic change3.3.3 semantic change

• Ways leading to semantic change

• 1) broadening

• 2) narrowing

• 3) meaning shift

• 4) class shift

• 5) folk etymology

3.3.4 phonological change3.3.4 phonological change

• 1) loss

• 2) addition

• 3) metathesis

• 4) assimilation

3.3.5 orthographic change3.3.5 orthographic change

• Phonological changes usually go hand with hand orthographical changes