1. MORPHOLOGY: DEFINITIONS AND BASIC CONCEPTS

Antonio Fábregas; Sergio Scalise

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1. MORPHOLOGY: DEFINITIONS AND BASIC CONCEPTS

Antonio Fábregas
Antonio Fábregas

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and Sergio Scalise
Sergio Scalise

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11MORPHOLOGY: DEFINITIONS AND BASIC CONCEPTS1.1 WHAT IS MORPHOLOGY?In this fi rst section of the book we will illustrate some basic notions in morphology. What does morphology study? What are the goals of morphological analysis? What is its place within the general theory of grammar?1.1.1 ITS OBJECT OF STUDYMorphology is the part of linguistics that studies the grammatical properties of words and how words are related to each other in a language. Indeed, the central task of morphology is to study how words such as the pair in (1) are related to each other. (1) a. deep b. deepen(1b) is intuitively more complex than (1a). On the formal side, it contains an addi-tional segment (- en), and on the semantic side, it has a more complex meaning that presupposes the meaning of (1a): ‘become deep’ or ‘cause something to become deep’. In this case a morphological analysis would tell us that the word in (1b) is the result of applying some operation to the word in (1a). Th us, (1a) is the base from which the word in (1b) has been built. Th e word in (1a) is simple; the word in (1b) is complex. In general, part of the phonology and meaning and some of the grammatical proper-ties of a complex word are expected to be explained by the characteristics of its base.A complex word like the one in (1b) can be decomposed into two diff erent units: deep and - en. Th ese units are morphemes, which are traditionally defi ned as the smallest meaningful elements that are combined in order to build words. In clear cases, like the example in (1b), morphemes are pairs of form and meaning. Deep is a morpheme that denotes a property having to do with a physical dimension; - en is a morpheme that forms verbs and is associated with the meaning ‘(cause to) become X’, where X is the property expressed by the other morpheme. Th e units that have been identifi ed in morphological analysis, and that have been claimed to be useful to relate words to each other, are analyzed in Chapter 2 of this book.When deep and - en are put together in the word (1b), we obtain the meaning ‘to (cause to) become deep’. In traditional terms, morphology analyzes the way in which M2862-FABREGASPRINT.indd1M2862 - FABREGAS PRINT.indd 122/03/201214:0522/03/2012 14:05

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11MORPHOLOGY: DEFINITIONS AND BASIC CONCEPTS1.1 WHAT IS MORPHOLOGY?In this fi rst section of the book we will illustrate some basic notions in morphology. What does morphology study? What are the goals of morphological analysis? What is its place within the general theory of grammar?1.1.1 ITS OBJECT OF STUDYMorphology is the part of linguistics that studies the grammatical properties of words and how words are related to each other in a language. Indeed, the central task of morphology is to study how words such as the pair in (1) are related to each other. (1) a. deep b. deepen(1b) is intuitively more complex than (1a). On the formal side, it contains an addi-tional segment (- en), and on the semantic side, it has a more complex meaning that presupposes the meaning of (1a): ‘become deep’ or ‘cause something to become deep’. In this case a morphological analysis would tell us that the word in (1b) is the result of applying some operation to the word in (1a). Th us, (1a) is the base from which the word in (1b) has been built. Th e word in (1a) is simple; the word in (1b) is complex. In general, part of the phonology and meaning and some of the grammatical proper-ties of a complex word are expected to be explained by the characteristics of its base.A complex word like the one in (1b) can be decomposed into two diff erent units: deep and - en. Th ese units are morphemes, which are traditionally defi ned as the smallest meaningful elements that are combined in order to build words. In clear cases, like the example in (1b), morphemes are pairs of form and meaning. Deep is a morpheme that denotes a property having to do with a physical dimension; - en is a morpheme that forms verbs and is associated with the meaning ‘(cause to) become X’, where X is the property expressed by the other morpheme. Th e units that have been identifi ed in morphological analysis, and that have been claimed to be useful to relate words to each other, are analyzed in Chapter 2 of this book.When deep and - en are put together in the word (1b), we obtain the meaning ‘to (cause to) become deep’. In traditional terms, morphology analyzes the way in which M2862-FABREGASPRINT.indd1M2862 - FABREGAS PRINT.indd 122/03/201214:0522/03/2012 14:05

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