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Unit 22: Morphological Analysis (Identification of Morphemes and Allomorph)

Notes
(18) Pattern Root g-d-1 Root k-t-b
CaCaC gadal “grow, get bigger” katav “write”
hiCCiC higdil “enlarge” hixtiv “dictate”
CCiCa gdila “growth” ktiva “writing”
miCCaC migdal “tower” mixtav “letter, missive”
haCCaCa hagdala “enlargement” haxtava “dictation”
The morphological structure of the words in (18) can be represented as the linking between three
different morphemes. Each of these morphemes forms a phonological tier of its own: (i) the skeletal
tier that consists of a pattern of consonantal and vocalic slots that is characteristic of a particular
morphological category, (ii) the sequence of consonants that represents the lexeme, and (iii) the vowels
that fill the vocalic slots of the skeletal tier. The words gadal and gdila in (18) can be represented as in
Figure 22.1. The consonants of the lexical root, and the vowel pattern (a-a for the base verb and i-a for
the nominalization) are both linked to the central skeletal CV tier. These three tiers are then conflated
into one sequence of sounds at the phonetic level of the grammar, where the phonetic forms of words
are specified.

a a i a

C V C V C C C V C V

g d l g d l

Figure 22.1: Three-tiered Representations of Words
The morphological operations discussed so far all have the effect that the phonological form of the
input word is changed somehow. Conversion, on the other hand, consists of a change in syntactic
(sub)category only. The conversion of nouns to verbs is quite common in European languages; see
(19). The verbs are given here in their citation form, the infinitive. The conversion from noun to verb
is not indicated directly by means of an affix, and is therefore also called implicit transposition, as
opposed to explicit transposition, which denotes cases of category-changing word-formation in which
the change is marked through the addition of an affix. Note that conversion does have indirect
morphological effects: the verbs in (19) are recognized as such by their verbal inflectional endings,
the infinitival suffixes (except the English verb since there is no overt infinitival ending in English).
The category change may also have an effect on the stress pattern, as in the English pair convért
(V)— cnvertó (N), where the noun is derived from the verb, with concomitant stress shift from the
last to the first syllable.

(19) Noun Verb

Dutch fiets “cycle” fiets-en “cycle”
English chain (to) chain
French guide “guide” guid-er “guide”
Latin corona “crown” coron-a-re “crown”
If one wants to treat conversion as a kind of affixation, one is forced to assume a zero-morpheme that
is added to the input word. However, there is no independent evidence for such a zero-affix, and we
do not even know if the zero-morpheme should be taken to be a prefix or a suffix. Therefore, conversion
as exemplified in (19) is better analysed in terms of the following morphological rule:

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