Morphology part 2

Andrew HippisleyDepartment of Computing,

University of Surrey

Plan agreement, a case study in

morphology challenging morphology

suppletion syncretism deponency

Please refer to handout!

What is agreement? inherent inflection: not required by the syntactic context contextual inflection: dictated by syntax (Booij 1996)

Inflection

Contextual

Inherent

Nouns: case Verbs: number, person Adjectives: number, gender

Nouns: number Verbs: tense, aspect, polarity ? Adjectives: degree

What is agreement? (See Corbett forthcoming for figure)

controller target

the system works

feature: number value: singular

domain

What is agreement?

Discussion points elements involved nature of relationship: asymmetric features involved domain

NP clause

expression of agreement

What is agreement?

Is agreement a matter of… syntax? semantics? morphology?

What is agreement?

agreement versus government both characterised by an asymmetric

relationship only agreement is a relationship of

covariance features different

agreement: gender, number, person government: case

Possible agreement

Canonical versus non-canonical (Corbett forthcoming)

redundancy controller marks same number of

features as target (canonical) target marks more agreement

features than controller (non-canonical)

Possible agreement

Canonical versus non-canonical (Corbett)

feature matching controller and target features have

matching values; syntactic agreement (canonical)

controller’s features differ in value from target; semantic agreement (non-canonical)

Possible agreement

Canonical versus non-canonical (Corbett)

Consistency in agreement pattern controller is consistent (canonical) controller is a hybrid (non-canonical)

Possible agreement

Canonical versus non-canonical (Corbett)

how many controllers target agrees with single controller

(canonical) target agrees with multiple controllers

(non-canonical)imbwa na-v-ana v-a-dz-o

dogs(9/10) and-Pl-young(1/2) 2-ASSOCIATIVE-10-ASSOCIATIVE

Possible agreement

Canonical versus non-canonical (Corbett)

opacity of expressions controller and target agreements

expressions are alliterative (canonical) controller and target agreements

expressions are opaque (non-canonical)

Concluding agreement Agreement hard to generaliseBUT covariance of features between target

and controller asymmetry:

target agrees with noun for a feature set noun never accommodates target’s features

Suppletion

Suppletion: a definition“a relation between signs X and Y such that the

semantic difference...between X and Y is maximally regular...while the phonological difference is maximally irregular.” Mel’čuk (1994)

Russian ‘child’reb´onok (sg) / det´-i (pl) Russian ‘girl’devušk(a) (sg) / devušk-i (pl)

Suppletion: a definition

regular semantically

regular phonologically

X : Y

highest

highest

high medium

lowest

Property A: frequency

Suppleting items anomalously highly frequent absolute frequency relative frequency

PROPERY B: Inherent Inflection

inherent inflection: not required by the syntactic context contextual inflection: dictated by syntax (Booij 1996)

c.f. Bybee’s (1985) relevance of categories

Inflection

Contextual

Inherent

Nouns: case Verbs: number, person Adjectives: number, gender

Nouns: number Verbs: tense, aspect, polarity ? Adjectives: degree

PROPERTY C: Morphologically

Systematic

Latin stems

am(o) amav(i) amat(um) stem 1 stem 2 stem 3 Active: - present - future - imperfect Passive: - present - future - imperfect

Active: - perfect - future perfect - pluperfect

Active: - future participle Passive: - perfect - future perfect - pluperfect - perfect participle Supine

PROPERTY C: Morphologically Systematic

Suppletion in Latin

fer(o) tul(i) lat(um) stem 1 stem 2 stem 3 Active: - present - future - imperfect Passive: - present - future - imperfect

Active: - perfect - future perfect - pluperfect

Active: - future participle Passive: - perfect - future perfect - pluperfect - perfect participle Supine

PROPERTY C: Morphologically Systematic

Slovene as an exception grâd ‘castle’ Singular Dual Plural grâd grad-ôv(a) grad-ôv(i) člóvek ‘person’ Singular Dual Plural člóvek človék(a) ljudj(ê)

Syncretism

'A single inflected form may correspond to more than one morphosyntactic description' (Spencer 1991: 45)

Example: Syncretism in Russian

Class I Class II Class III Class IV

Sg Dat stol-u komnat-e kost’-i okn-u

Sg Loc stol-e komnat-e kost’-i okn-e Sg Gen stol-a komnat-i kost’-i okn-a

Russian has syncretism of dative singular and locative singular, because one form has more than one function

... and because for other items there is a formal distinction.

A Slovene Referral

SINGULAR DUAL PLURAL nom človek člové¢ka ljudê` acc člové¢ka člové¢ka ljudî gen člové¢ka dat člové¢ku člové¢koma ljudê`m inst člové¢kom člové¢koma ljudmí loc člové¢ku Paradigm of the Slovene noun človek 'person' (based on Priestly 1993: 401)

A Slovene Referral

SINGULAR DUAL PLURAL nom človek člové¢ka ljudê ̀acc člové¢ka člové¢ka ljudî gen člové¢ka ljudí ljudí dat člové¢ku člové¢koma ljudêm̀ inst člové¢kom člové¢koma ljudmí loc člové¢ku ljudéh ljudéh Paradigm of the Slovene noun človek 'person' (based on Priestly 1993: 401)

Deponency Greek verbs

Regular verbMeaning form

present future aorist

Active active active active

Passive passive passive passive

Middle middle middle middle

Deponency Type AMeaning form

present future aorist

Active passive passive passive

Passive

Middle

Deponency Type B Meaning form

present future aorist

Active middle middle middle

Passive passive passive passive

Middle

Deponency Type CMeaning form

present future aorist

Passive active active active

Active

Middle middle middle middle

Deponency Type DMeaning form

present future aorist

Passive middle middle middle

Active active active active

Middle

Deponency Type E1Meaning form

present future aorist

Passive passive middle active

Active (forms from another paradigm)

Middle