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Chapter 3 Lexicon
3.1 What is word?
1. What is a lexeme?
A lexeme is the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be distinguished from other similar units. It is an abstract unit. It can occur in many different forms in actual spoken or written sentences, and is regarded as the same lexeme even when inflected. E.g. the word “write” is the lexeme of “write, writes, wrote, writing and written.” 2. What is a morpheme?
A morpheme is the smallest unit of language in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit that cannot be divided into further smaller units without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. E.g. the word “boxes” has two morphemes: “box” and “es,” neither of which permits further division or analysis shapes if we don’t want to sacrifice its meaning. 3. What is an allomorph?
An allomorph is the alternate shapes of the same morpheme. E.g. the variants of the plurality “-s” makes the allomorphs thereof in the following examples: map – maps, mouse – mice, ox – oxen, tooth – teeth, etc. 4. What is a word?
A word is the smallest of the linguistic units that can constitute, by itself, a complete utterance in speech or writing. 3.1.1 Three senses of “word”
1. A physically definable unit
2. The common factor underlying a set of forms 3. A grammatical unit 3.1.2 Identification of words 1. Stability
Words are the most stable of all linguistic units, in respect of their internal structure, i.e. the constituent parts of a complex word have little potential for rearrangement, compared with the relative positional mobility of the constituents of sentences in the hierarchy. Take the word chairman for example. If the morphemes are rearranged as * manchair, it is an unacceptable word in English.
2. Relative uninterruptibility
By uninterruptibility, we men new elements are not to be inserted into a word even when there are several parts in a word. Nothing is to be inserted in between the three parts of the word disappointment: dis + appoint + ment. Nor is one allowed to use pauses between the parts
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of a word: * dis appoint ment.
3. A minimum free form
This was first suggested by Leonard Bloomfield. He advocated treating sentence as “the maximum free form” and word “the minimum free form,” the latter being the smallest unit that can constitute, by itself, a complete utterance.
3.1.3 Classification of words
1. Variable and invariable words
In variable words, one can find ordered and regular series of grammatically different word form; on the other hand, part of the word remains relatively constant. E.g. follow – follows – following – followed. Invariable words refer to those words such as since, when, seldom, through, hello, etc. They have no inflective endings.
2. Grammatical words and lexical words
Grammatical words, a.k.a. function words, express grammatical meanings, such as, conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and pronouns, are grammatical words.
Lexical words, a.k.a. content words, have lexical meanings, i.e. those which refer to substance, action and quality, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, are lexical words.
3. Closed-class words and open-class words
Closed-class word: A word that belongs to the closed-class is one whose membership is fixed or limited. New members are not regularly added. Therefore, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc. are all closed items.
Open-class word: A word that belongs to the open-class is one whose membership is in principle infinite or unlimited. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and many adverbs are all open-class items.
4. Word class
This is close to the notion of parts of speech in traditional grammar. Today, word class displays a wider range of more precisely defined categories. Here are some of the categories newly introduced into linguistic analysis.
(1) Particles: Particles include at least the infinitive marker
“to,” the negative marker “not,” and the subordinate units in phrasal verbs, such as “get by,” “do up,” “look back,” etc. (2) Auxiliaries: Auxiliaries used to be regarded as verbs. Because
of their unique properties, which one could hardly expect of a verb, linguists today tend to define them as a separate word class.
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(3) Pro-forms: Pro-forms are the forms which can serve as
replacements for different elements in a sentence. For example, in the following conversation, so replaces that I can come.
A: I hope you can come. B: I hope so. (4) Determiners: Determiners refer to words which are used before
the noun acting as head of a noun phrase, and determine the kind of reference the noun phrase has. Determiners can be divided into three subclasses: predeterminers, central determiners and postdeterminers.
3.2 The formation of word
3.2.1 Morpheme and morphology
Morphology studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed.
3.2.2 Types of morphemes
1. Free morpheme and bound morpheme
Free morphemes: Those which may occur alone, that is, those which may constitute words by themselves, are free morphemes.
Bound morphemes: Those which must appear with at least another morpheme are called bound morphemes.
2. Root, affix and stem
A root is the base form of a word that cannot further be analyzed. An affix is the collective term for the type of formative that can be used only when added to another morpheme. A stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional affix can be added.
A root is the base form of a word that cannot further be analyzed without total loss of identity. That is to say, it is that part of the word left when all the affixes are removed. In the word internationalism, after the removal of inter-, -al and -ism, what is left is the root nation. All words contain a root morpheme. A root may be free or bound. E.g. black in blackbird, blackboard and blacksmith; -ceive in receive, conceive and perceive. A few English roots may have both free and bound variants. E.g. the word sleep is a free root morpheme, whereas slep- in the past tence form slept cannot exist by itself, and therefore bound. A stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional affix can be added. E.g. friend- in friends and friendship- in friendships are both stems. The former shows that a stem can be equivalent to a root, whereas the latter shows that a stem may contain a root and a derivational affix.
3. Inflectional affix and derivational affix
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Inflection is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and case, which do not change the grammatical class of the stems to which they are attached.
The distinction between inflectional affixes and derivational affixes is sometimes known as a distinction between inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes. We can tell the difference between them with the following ways:
(1) Inflectional affixes very often add a minute or delicate
grammatical meaning to the stem. E.g. toys, walks, John’s, etc. Therefore, they serve to produce different forms of a single word. In contrast, derivational affixes often change the lexical meaning. E.g. cite, citation, etc.
(2) Inflectional affixes don’t change the word class of the word
they attach to, such as flower, flowers, whereas derivational affixes might or might not, such as the relation between small and smallness for the former, and that between brother and brotherhood for the latter.
(3) Inflectional affixes are often conditioned by nonsemantic
linguistic factors outside the word they attach to but within the phrase or sentence. E.g. the choice of likes in “The boy likes to navigate on the internet.” is determined by the subject the boy in the sentence, whereas derivational affixes are more often based on simple meaning distinctions. E.g. The choice of clever and cleverness depends on whether we want to talk about the property “clever” or we want to talk about “the state of being clever.”
(4) In English, inflectional affixes are mostly suffixes, which
are always word final. E.g. drums, walks, etc. But derivational affixes can be prefixes or suffixes. E.g. depart, teacher, etc.
3.2.3 Inflection and word formation 1. Inflection
Inflection is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and case, which do not change the grammatical class of the stems to which they are attached.
2. Word formation
Word formation refers to the process of word variations signaling lexical relationships. It can be further subclassified into the compositional type (compound) and derivational type (derivation).
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(1) Compound
Compounds refer to those words that consist of more than one lexical morpheme, or the way to join two separate words to produce a single form, such as ice-cream, sunrise, paper bag, railway, rest-room, simple-minded, wedding-ring, etc.
The head of a nominal or an adjectival endocentric compound is deverbal, that is, it is derived from a verb. Consequently, it is also called a verbal compound or a synthetic compound. Usually, the first member is a participant of the process verb. E.g. Nouns: self-control, pain-killer, etc. Adjectives: virus-sensitive, machine washable, etc. The exocentric compounds are formed by V + N, V + A, and V + P, whereas the exocentric come from V + N and V + A. E.g. Nouns: playboy, cutthroat, etc. Adjectives: breakneck, walk-in, etc.
(2) Derivation
Derivation shows the relation between roots and suffixes. In contrast with inflections, derivations can make the word class of the original word either changed or unchanged.
3.2.4 The counterpoint of phonology and morphology
1. Allomorph: Any of the different forms of a morpheme.
2. Morphophonology / morphophonemics: Morphophonology is a branch of
linguistics referring to the analysis and classification of the phonological factors that affect the appearance of morphemes, and correspondingly, the grammatical factors that affect the appearance of phonemes. It is also called morphonology or morphonemics.
3. Assimilation: Assimilation refers to the change of a sound as a
result of the influence of an adjacent sound, which is more specifically called “contact” or “contiguous” assimilation.
4. Dissimilation: Dissimilation refers to the influence exercised by
one sound segment upon the articulation of another, so that the sounds become less alike, or different.
3.3 Lexical change
3.3.1 Lexical change proper 1. Invention
Since economic activities are the most important and dynamic in human life, many new lexical items come directly from the consumer items, their producers or their brand names.
2. Blending
Blending is a relatively complex form of compounding, in which two
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胡壮麟-语言学教程修订版-课堂笔记和讲义精选Chapter--(3)
