Morphology and Syntax in Grammar Studies

Grammar Grammar is traditionally subdivided into two inter-related studies: Morphology and Syntax

Morphology Morphology is the study of how words are formed out of smaller units called morphemes. For example, Derivational Morphology is a word- building process by which we generate (or derive) the Noun teacher from out of two smaller morphological segments: the verb stem {teach} + suffix {er}.

Syntax Syntax, on the other hand, is concerned with how Words are strung together to form larger units of expressions such as Phrases, Clauses, and (full) Simple Sentences.

it is owing to an infringement on syntax (and not morphology) which prevents us from speaking the ill- formed sentence *John likes to teacher (=John likes to teach).

The derivational process sketched out above has taken the main Verb stem {teach} and changed it into a Noun {teacher}. Surely, this change from Verb to Noun has an immediate effect on how we are able to construe the word in a given sentence.

The rules of syntax thus generate the full range of possible sentences: i. John likes to teach. ii. John likes teaching. iii. John can teach. *John likes to teacher.

words Although all languages have words, and the word is typically regarded as the sacred unit of meaning that drives all of language, there is a considerable amount of linguistic material that cannot be neatly packaged into a layman s notion of word. For instance, it is argued that one doesn t learn words as isolated word islands. Rather, it seems that one learns words in the following two-prong manner:

(i) as words relate to meaning (lexico- semantics)--based on a one-to-one relationship of sound-to-meaning, and (ii) as words relate to word classes (lexico- syntactic)--based upon where the word sits within a sentence.

So overall, all three linguistic branches of study are ultimately involved with the learning of the basic word: Phonology (sound), Morphology and Syntax (class)

Feature Theory Much of Feature Theory is concerned with the morphology aspect of grammar; however, Features may spill-over or percolate from one word to another thus affecting the overall syntax of a sentence. So, it is appropriate not only to think about the specific features of a word (per se), but also how such features contribute to the overall make-up of the sentence.

In this sense, we shall talk about specific Lexical Features (at the word level itself), as well as how such features take on morphological properties which may affect other neighbouring words in ways that bring about a constructing of syntax (putting words together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences).

In one sense, the most basic level of morphology is in fact the word--in the sense that morphology is defined as the smallest unit of (free) meaning. Clearly, the word constituents the smallest unit of meaning-- as opposed to the morphological (bound) affixes -ing (progressive), -ed (past tense), etc. which (i) can t stand alone, (ii) have no real bearing on meaning and (iii) only serve in some capacity as a function of grammar.

What makes the word so recognizable is the substantive nature to which the word relates. This relationship is typically referred to as a one-to-one relation between sound and meaning (or concept). For instance, the sound /tri/ equates to the concept of tree as it would be conceptualized in the speaker/listener s mind.

Then, word can be defined as a morphological unit that contains some amount of meaning that can be conceptualized: tree/bush, car/bike, book/paper, walk/run, sleep/wake, fast/slow , etc.). Such word meanings are referred to as being Lexical ( word-based ) insofar that they express substantive concepts.

A second aspect of morphology contains parts of words which carry no meaning. This latter aspect of morphology functions in such a way as to transmit grammatical information only--information not relevant to the stem-word. This second type of morphology is termed as Functional ( non- word based ) and is represented in words usually as Inflections.

Structure vs. Form Class: One way of observing this lexical vs. functional distinction at the word-level is by considering the token interrogative sentence How do you do? , where the obvious double usage of the word do should stand out.

the two dos are indeed not one in the same (notwithstanding the perceived identical pronunciations). Herein lies the confusion: The first do is actually functional, containing no meaning whatsoever and only serves some abstract functional purpose--here, it specifically serves to form the grammar of a question (interrogative) sentence and following regarding the Auxiliary Verb and its functional role in grammar). It is only the second do which is lexical and thus contains very general generic verb meaning

Categories and Features The natural first steps in attempting to systematically categorize language (in general) would be to (i) establish a natural class of word types (e.g., Nouns and Verbs) and (ii) define such word types as containing common word-level and distributional features. Much of this information regarding word types is already in the minds of speakers--it s part of our endowed linguistic knowledge given to us (free) at birth.

Let us then take as a basic starting point the following criteria for determining a Noun from a verb: the one essential defining and distinguishing factor between, say noun vs. verb is that nouns can take-on plural {-s} (and not verbs), while verbs can take-on past tense {-ed} (and not nouns)

In addition to the full range of forms Nouns and Verbs receive, at the isolated word level, there are other differences which appear at higher syntactic levels: e.g., (i) Determiners introduce Nouns, and (ii) Auxiliary/Modals introduce main Verbs.

The aspects of functional categories--in this case Determiners and Auxiliary/Modals--specifically addresses this notion of a Lexical vs. Functional relationship. It s the Functional Determiner The that renders the Noun book specific--as opposed to the generic A book. This distinction being played out here relates to a specific functional feature that has to do with Definiteness): namely, a [+Def] Feature carried by the Determiner and thus affecting the counterpart Noun: e.g., The book vs. A book.

A category based model of language classifies words according to parts-of-speech. For example, note that a word such as joke would take a plural {s} (forming the conjunct joke-s) word category [+Noun/-Verb] (because only nouns can incorporate the plural {s} inflection), but not the word e.g., jokingly (*jokingly-s) Whereas the former word joke is categorized as [+Noun], the latter word jokingly is categorized as [-Noun, +Adverb].

Lexical Categories Lexical Words have specific and idiosyncratic meaning. These words are content-based and can either be readily conceptualized in the mind of the speaker (i.e., semantically-based as with Nouns & Verbs) or can come to be manipulate upon in logical terms (i.e., logical no, and , and if/or) and/or potentially take-on opposite meanings (e.g. Adjective cold>hot, Adverb slow>fast, Verbs sleep>wake, etc.)

Lexical Categories: Nouns Adjective Verbs Adverbs Preposition

These categories are expressions of lexical items-- Lexical here simply means Word (as would be found in a dictionary with an assigned substantive-meaning definition). All lexical words share a common property of being content driven--that is, the word is anchored by some substantive meaning.

Lexical words are often defined as Form Class Words. Lexical Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs are labeled as Form Class words because members of each class (parts-of-speech) share the ability to change their forms--either by (i) Derivational Morphology, or by (ii) Inflectional Morphology. (The term Form simply refers to the shape of the word. For example, if we start with a verb, say go , we would say that the form of the verb changes once we add the inflection [3person/present/singular +{s}] to the verb stem yielding go- es ).

Functional Categories In contrast to lexical categories, which contain meaning, Functional Categories (or features) are a class of Words (or inflections) which have no substantive meaning, and are thus inserted into a sentence not to transmit tangible information, but rather to serve some abstract grammatical purpose- -functional words or items (inflection) are usually utilized in some capacity to form a grammatical relationship with a counterpart lexical item.

Finally Showing the contrast between the two categories, we could say that lexical categories have descriptive content, whereas functional categories have no descriptive content. For instance, whereas the noun dog (in the phrase The dog) can be easily conceptualized in the mind of a speaker, the determiner The cannot be so readily conceptualized.