An introduction to English morphology : words and their structure / Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew, 1945- author.

Series:

Edinburgh textbooks on the English language

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Morphology.

English language.

Physical Description:

viii, 154 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press Ltd, [2018]

Summary:

What exactly are words? Are they the things that get listed in dictionaries, or are they the basic units of sentence structure? Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy explores the implications of these different approaches to words in English. He explains the various ways in which words are related to one another, and shows how the history of the English language has affected word structure, Topics include: words, sentences and dictionaries; a word and its parts (roots and affixes); a word and its forms (inflection); a word and its relatives (derivation); compound words; word structure; productivity; and the historical sources of English word formation. Key Features, Presupposes no linguistic training, Aimed at students of English (literature or language) and also provides a sound basis for further linguistic study, Contains ample exercise material, with answers and discussion, which can serve as models for further exercises Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

Recommendations for reading 2

2 Words, sentences and dictionaries 4

2.1 Words as meaningful building-blocks of language 4

2.2 Words as types and words as tokens 5

2.3 Words with predictable meanings 6

2.4 Non-words with unpredictable meanings 9

2.5 Conclusion: words versus lexical items 12

Technical terms 13

Exercises 14

Recommendations for reading 15

3 A word and its parts: roots, affixes and their shapes 16

3.1 Taking words apart 16

3.2 Kinds of morpheme: bound versus free 18

3.3 Kinds of morpheme: root, affix, combining form 20

3.4 Morphemes and their allomorphs 22

3.5 Identifying morphemes independently of meaning 24

3.6 Conclusion: ways of classifying word-parts 26

Technical terms 27

Exercises 28

Recommendations for reading 29

4 A word and its forms: inflection 30

4.1 Words and grammar: lexemes, word forms and grammatical words 30

4.2 Regular and irregular inflection 32

4.3 Forms of nouns 36

4.4 Forms of pronouns and determiners 40

4.5 Forms of verbs 41

4.6 Forms of adjectives 43

4.7 Conclusion and summary 44

Technical terms 45

Exercises 47

Recommendations for reading 48

5 A word and its relatives: derivation 49

5.1 Relationships between lexemes 49

5.2 Word classes and conversion 50

5.3 Adverbs derived from adjectives 53

5.4 Nouns derived from nouns 54

5.5 Nouns derived from members of other word classes 55

5.6 Adjectives derived from adjectives 57

5.7 Adjectives derived from members of other word classes 58

5.8 Verbs derived from verbs 59

5.9 Verbs derived from members of other word classes 60

5.10 Conclusion: generality and idiosyncrasy 61

Technical terms 62

Exercises 63

Recommendations for reading 64

6 Compound words, blends and phrasal words 65

6.1 Compounds versus phrases 65

6.2 Compound verbs 66

6.3 Compound adjectives 67

6.4 Compound nouns 67

6.5 Headed and headless compounds 70

6.6 Blends and acronyms 71

6.7 Compounds containing bound combining forms 72

6.8 Phrasal words 73

6.9 Conclusion 74

Technical terms 74

Exercises 75

Recommendations for reading 76

7 A word and its structure 78

7.1 Meaning and structure 78

7.2 Affixes as heads 78

7.3 More elaborate word forms: multiple affixation 79

7.4 More elaborate word forms: compounds within compounds 83

7.5 Apparent mismatches between meaning and structure 86

7.6 Conclusion: structure as guide but not straitjacket 89

Technical terms 90

Exercises 90

Recommendations for reading 9]

8 Productivity 92

8.1 Introduction: kinds of productivity 92

8.2 Productivity in shape: formal generality and regularity 92

8.3 Productivity in meaning: semantic regularity 95

8.4 Semantic blocking 98

8.5 Productivity in compounding 100

8.6 Measuring productivity: the significance of neologisms 102

8.7 Conclusion: 'productivity' in syntax 104

Technical terms 105

Exercises 106

Recommendations for reading 107

9 The historical sources of English word formation 108

9.1 Introduction 108

9.2 Germanic, Romance and Greek vocabulary 108

9.3 The rarity of borrowed inflectional morphology 110

9.4 The reduction in inflectional morphology 112

9.5 Characteristics of Germanic and non-Germanic derivation 114

9.6 Fashions in morphology 116

9.7 Conclusion: history and structure 118

Technical terms 119

Exercises 119

Recommendations for reading 121

10 Conclusion: words in English and in languages generally 122

10.1 A puzzle: disentangling lexemes, word forms and lexical items 122

10.2 Lexemes and lexical items: possible reasons for their overlap in English 123

10.3 Lexemes and lexical items: the situation outside English 124

10.4 Lexemes and word forms: the situation outside English 126

Recommendations for reading 127.

Notes:

Previous edition: 2002.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781474428972

1474428975

9781474428965

1474428967

OCLC:

1022199491

Publisher Number:

99977295819