Morphology

WELCOME TO
Nguyễn Bùi Mỹ Quỳnh
Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang
Lê Thị Kim Thu
Lê Thị Kim Trước
Hoàng Thị Nhàn
NORTHSTAR GROUP
Inflection
I-Definition
II-Inflection versus Derivation
III-Nominal Inflection ( Advanced)
IV-Verbal inflection ( Advanced)
CONTENTS:
I-Definition
Inflection = word formation process that changes the morphological form of a word to fit a syntactic context
= the process of adding an affix to a word or changing it in some other way according to the rules of the grammar of a language. ( Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987:77)
Example:
In English
Verbs are inflected
+ for 3rd – person singular : I work , he works
+ and for past tense: I worked
Most nouns may be inflected for plural:
Horse- horses
Flower – flowers
English inflectional affixes are all suffixes:
- plural -s: cat - cats
- possessive/genitive ’s: John’s
- 3rd person singular. non-past -s: sing-sings
- progressive -ing: sing-singing
- past tense -ed: talk-talked
- past participle -ed: study-studied
- comparative -er: happy-happier
- superlative -est: happy-happiest
II-Inflection vs derivation
III-Nominal inflection
In English inflectional system:
Singular (one) & Plural (more than one)

Noun + suffix-s → Plural Noun
Ex:
Student → Students
Teacher → Teachers
In other languages:
The number is not marked only on noun at all.
1- Number: the morphological category that expresses contrasts involving countable quantities
Gender classification:
In French, Italian, Spanish : masculine or feminine
In German : masculine, feminnine and neuter
→ Generally, there is the correlation between the inherent sex of living things and the gramatical gender of noun designating them.
Ex: In Italian
Fratello- brother _ masculine
Sorella- sister _ feminine
However, most inanimate nouns are classified more or less arbitrarily.
2-Noun class:
Ways of marking the noun class:

1- On the noun itself: prefix and suffix
Ex:
Russian uses a sets of affixes:
Swatti uses prefixes:
2-The form of the determiner:
In Spanish, el for masculine, la for feminine
In French, le for masculine, la for femine

3-The other words that agree with the noun: adjectives, verbs and pronouns
3-Case:
Another type of inflectional contrast associated with nouns in many languages involves case.
+Nominative (Nom): subject
+Accusative (Ac): direct object
+Dative (Dat): indirect object
+Genitive (Gen): possessor
+Locative (Loc): location
+Ablative (Abl): direction away from

Example:
Adam ev-den t∫ikti. =>The man went from the house.
In many languages, number, gender, and case contrasts are combined into one ending.
A morpheme encoding more than one grammatical contrast is called a portmanteau morpheme.
Ex: In Russian
Dom (house): dom-ov => masculine, plural, genitive
Ulica (street): ulic-u => femenine, singular, accusative
The case associated with the subject of the transitive verb is called the ergative.
The case associated with the subject of an intransitive verb is called the absolutive.

Ex: in Yidin
Wagudja-ngu (man) djugi (tree) gundal.
=>The man is cutting the tree.
Wagudja (man) gundal.
=>The man is cutting.

The same form of the pronoun is used for the subject of a transitive verb as for the subject of an intransitive verb =>these contrasts follow the nominative-accusative pattern.
Ex: + in English
They laughed.
They read the billboard.
+ in Tamil
Anta manitan mavatt-ai settinan.
(That man cut the tree)
Anta manitan alutan.
(That man wept)
IV-Verbal inflection:
3 main kinds:
1-Person and number agreement:
Singular subject (one) + singular verb:
Ex: Paul works.
A repairman works.
The bird sings.
The boy plays.
Plural subject ( more than one) + plural verb:
EX: Tom and Marry work.
The birds sing.
The boys play.
2-Tense


Past (-ed) now future

Past (-ed) non-past(unmarked)
Ex:
I worked.
He left.
I speak.
We leave tomorrow.
3- Voice:
The change in the form of a verb to show whether its subject is the doer or the receiver of the action, in other words, whether the verb is in the active voice or the passive voice.
Ex:
Active voice: He writes the book.
Passive voice: The book is written by him.
Thanks for your attention!