Morphological Typology

an easy to understand guide to morphological typology, explaining the different types of languages with simple definitions and examples.

Transcript

1. MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY BY LAVIN S. AZIZ
2. Morphology: is the study of word formation and structure. Morpheme: is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. Morphological typology: is the way of classifying world languages according to their common morphological structure.
3. • Isolating languages or (Analytic) • Synthetic languages can be Types of languages divided into three subcategories: • Agglutinating languages • Fusional languages • Polysynthetic languages
4. Isolating languages (Analytic) Is o l a tin g l a ng uag es a r e ca l l ed i sol ating b e ca use e ve r y w o r d te n d to s ta n d f o r i ts o w n , m e a n in g th a t w o r d s co n s i s t o f f r e e m o r p h e me. Fo r i n s ta n ce, ca t o r h a p p y a r e f r e e m o r p h e me s i n E n g l is h. Fr e e m o r p h e me s d o n o t r e q u ir e a f f ixes to e xp r e s s th e i r m ea nin g. An e x a mp l e o f a n Is o l a ti n g l a n gu a ge i s Ma n da r i n ( C h i n e se). N o t e : E n g l is h is s o m e time s co n s i d e red a s Is o l a tin g l a n g u ag e b e ca u s e m a ny w o r d s s ta n d s a l o n e a s f r e e m o r p h e mes . H o w e ver, s o m e E n g l is h w o r d s u s e a f f ixes to ch a n g e th e p a r t o f s p e e ch o r to a d d g ra m m a tical f e a tu re s . E n g l is h i s d e s cr i b ed a s a n a n a l ytic l a n g u age w i th s o m e s y n th e tic f e a tu re s , ra th e r th a n a p u r e l y is ola tin g l a n g u ag e.
5. Synthetic Languages Synthetic languages refer to those languages that use affixes. It can be divided into 3 main types: Agglutinative, fusional, and polysynthetic languages.
6. Agglutinative languages Agglutinative languages are languages that add aff ixes (morphemes) to a root or stem to form more complex words. Typically, each af f ix has its own grammatical meaning or function. An example of an agglutinative languages is Turkish. E.g. ‘Evlerimizden’ (from our houses). The word consist of four morphemes, but it is still considered as one word. ev (house) ler (plural) imiz (our) den (from)
7. Fusional languages are languages in which an affix attached to the root or stem simultaneously expresses several grammatical Fusional meanings. languages An example of a fusional languages is Spanish E.g. habló The suffix -ó can express these grammatical features: mood, aspect, number, tense, and person.
8. Polysynthetic languages Polysynthetic languages are languages in which a single word containing several bound morphemes can express the meaning of an entire sentence. An example of a polysynthetic languages is Inuktitut. E.g. ‘qangatasuukkuvimmuuriaqalaaqtunga’ (ᖃᖓᑕᓲᒃᑯᕕᒻᒨᕆᐊᖃᓛᖅᑐᖓ) This word means ‘’I have to the airport’’.
9. THANK YOU PowerPoint prepared by: Lavin S. Aziz