scholarly journals The Morphology of Yam Languages

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
New Guinea ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Morphological Pattern ◽  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
The Family ◽  
Grammatical Mood ◽  
Nominal Inflection ◽  
Large Case

The Yam languages are a primary language family spoken in southern New Guinea across an area spanning around 180km west to east across both the Indonesian province of Papua and Papua New Guinea. The Yam languages are morphologically remarkable for their complex verbal inflection characterized by a tendency to distribute inflectional exponence across multiple sites on the verb. Under this pattern of distributed exponence, segmental formatives, that is, affixes, are identifiable but assigning any coherent semantics to these elements is often difficult and instead the inflectional meanings can only be determined once multiple formatives have been combined. Despite their complex inflectional morphology, Yam languages display comparatively impoverished word formation or derivational morphology. Nominal inflection is characterized by moderately large case inventories, the largest displaying 16 cases. Nouns are occasionally marked for number although this is typically restricted to certain case values. Verbal paradigms are much larger than nominal paradigms. Verbs mark agreement with up to two arguments in person, number, and natural gender. Verbs also mark complex tense, aspect, and mood values; in all languages this involves at least two aspect values, multiple past tense values, and some level of grammatical mood marking. Verbs may also be marked for diathesis, direction, and/or pluractionality. The overall morphological pattern is that of fusional or inflectional languages. Nominal inflection is rather straightforward with nominals taking case suffixes or clitics with little to no inflectional classes. The true complexity lies in the organization of the verbal inflectional system, about which, despite individual variation across the family, a number of architectural generalizations can be made. The family displays a fairly uniform verbal inflectional template and all languages make a distinction between prefixing and ambifixing verbs. Prefixing verbs show agreement via a prefix only while ambifixing verbs via agreement with a suffix, for monovalent clauses, or with both a prefix and a suffix for bivalent verbs. These agreement affixes are also involved in the distributed exponence of tense, aspect, and mood.

scholarly journals Hindi noun inflection and distributed morphology

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smriti Singh ◽  
Vaijayanthi M. Sarma
Keyword(s):  
Word Formation ◽  
Distributed Morphology ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Morphological Operations ◽  
Indian Languages ◽  
Word Generation ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Nominal Inflection

This paper primarily presents an analysis of nominal inflection in Hindi within the framework of Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1993, 1994 and Harley and Noyer 1999). Müller (2002, 2003, 2004) for German, Icelandic and Russian nouns respectively and Weisser (2006) for Croatian nouns have also used Distributed Morphology (henceforth DM) to analyze nominal inflectional morphology. This paper will discuss in detail the inflectional categories and inflectional classes, the morphological processes operating at syntax, the distribution of vocabulary items and the readjustment rules required to describe Hindi nominal inflection. Earlier studies on Hindi inflectional morphology (Guru 1920, Vajpeyi 1958, Upreti 1964, etc.) were greatly influenced by the Paninian tradition (classical Sanskrit model) and work with Paninian constructs such as root and stem. They only provide descriptive studies of Hindi nouns and verbs and their inflections without discussing the role or status of affixes that take part in inflection. The discussion on the mechanisms (morphological operations and rules) used to analyze or generate word forms are missing in these studies. In addition, these studies do not account for syntax-morphology or morphology-phonology mismatches that show up in word formation. One aim of this paper is to present an economical way of forming noun classes in Hindi as compared to other traditional methods, especially gender and stem ending based or paradigm based methods that give rise to a large number of inflectional paradigms. Using inflectional class information to analyse the various forms of Hindi nouns, we can reduce the number of affixes and word-generation and readjustment rules that are required to describe nominal inflection. The analysis also helps us in developing a morphological analyzer for Hindi. The small set of rules and fewer inflectional classes are of great help to lexicographers and system developers. To the best of our knowledge, the analysis of Hindi inflectional morphology based on DM and its implementation in a Hindi morphological analyzer has not been done before. The methods discussed here can be applied to other Indian languages for analysis as well as word generation.

Morphology in Indo-European Languages

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Milizia
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Type ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Formal Organization ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Verbal Inflection ◽  
Numeral Classifiers ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Inflectional Paradigms ◽  
Morphological System

Indo-European languages of the most archaic type, such as Old Indic and Ancient Greek, have rich fusional morphologies with predominant use of suffixation and ablaut as formal devices. The presence of cumulative inflectional morphs in final position is also a general IE feature. A noteworthy property of the archaic IE morphological system is its root-based organization. This is well observable in Old Indo-Aryan, where the mental lexicon is largely made up of roots unspecified for word-class membership. In the historical development of the different IE branches, recurrent phenomena are observed that lead to an increase in configurationality and a decrease in the degree of synthesis (use of adpositions at the expense of case forms, rise of auxiliaries and increasing employment of periphrastic morphology, creation of determiners). However, not all the documented developments can be subsumed under the rubric ‘morphological decay’: new synthetic verbal forms, which often coexist with the inherited ones, are often created via resynthesization of periphrases; new nominal case forms are sometimes created through univerbation of adpositional phrases; instances of prefixation recurrently arise from former compound structures consisting of adverb (‘preverb’) + verb. The formation of inflectional paradigms with several mutually unpredictable subsections and of relatively complex systems of inflectional classes is also observed in various IE languages. The same holds for the rising of new patterns of morphophonological alternations, which often allow the preservation of several morphological oppositions even after the loss of inflectional endings. As a consequence, modern IE languages may exhibit higher degrees of fusionality, at least in specific morphological subsystems, than their diachronic foregoers. In the various branches, the system of inflectional morphology could undergo several reshapings at the level of both the structure of grammatical categories and the formal organization of paradigms, sometimes with noteworthy typological changes. English poor morphology, Ossetic and New Armenian agglutinative nominal inflections, lack of verbal inflection of number, and presence of numeral classifiers in Eastern New Indo-Aryan varieties are among the examples of extreme departure from the ancient IE morphological type. A common development concerning word formation is the decline of the root-based organization of morphology.

Morphology of Trans New Guinea Languages

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Fedden
Keyword(s):  
Tracking System ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Expressive Power ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb

The aim of this article is to present the morphology and morphosyntax of Trans New Guinea (TNG) languages to a wide audience of linguists. The TNG languages are a family of several hundred languages spoken across much of the New Guinea mainland. The morphology of TNG languages shows a high degree of diversity, from mildly polysynthetic to almost isolating. Language data from virtually all subgroups of TNG can be found here, giving preference to recent descriptions and new data. TNG languages display a clear categorial divide between nouns and verbs. In terms of word formation, they typically allow N-N and V-V compounding. Category-changing derivational processes usually involve overt morphological means. TNG languages are rich in nominalization processes; verbalization processes are less common. Valency-changing derivational processes (causatives, applicatives) are widespread and involve affixation or verb serialization. Many TNG languages have a reduced inventory of verb roots, in extreme cases comprising only as few as 60 recorded roots. Serial verb constructions and light-verb constructions are used to increase the expressive power of the verb lexicon. Besides nouns and verbs, TNG languages have sizable classes of adjectives, small classes of adverbs, and pronouns, directionals, numerals, postpositions, and conjunctions. Nouns have restricted inflectional morphology, with inflection for the possessor being the most widespread. Nominal number is expressed less often and gender is very rare. Peripheral case roles are signaled by postpositions. Many TNG languages show optional ergativity where transitive subjects can be marked by a special case depending on certain semantic or pragmatic factors, such as animacy, agentivity, or focus. Verb morphology is extensive, yielding large paradigms. TNG languages use verbal affixes to express core arguments. Subjects are almost universally indexed with a suffix on the verb. The majority of TNG languages also index the object on the verb, either with a prefix or a suffix. The majority alignment pattern in the clause is accusative. Most TNG languages employ distinct constructions for bodily and mental processes, depending on whether they are controlled by an animate agent (e.g., think) or whether they are manifestations of a stimulus beyond the control of the experiencer (e.g., be angry). Tense, aspect, and mood categories can all be found in TNG languages with one of them usually being dominant. For the expression of aspect, serial verb constructions are common in which the last verb in the serialization has undergone grammaticalization into an aspect marker—for example, a progressive marker which has developed from the verb ‘stay’. In clause chains, almost all TNG languages distinguish between medial and final verbs. Medial verbs morphologically indicate co-reference or disjoint reference of key participants in the discourse, and final verbs provide morphosemantic information like tense, mood, or illocutionary force, which typically applies to the whole clause chain. Since this type of tracking system of continuity in discourse is highly characteristic of TNG in general and less common worldwide, it is treated in more detail here.

scholarly journals ARIES: A lexical platform for engineering Spanish processing tools

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSÉ M. GOÑI ◽  
JOSÉ C. GONZÁLEZ ◽  
ANTONIO MORENO
Keyword(s):  
Word Formation ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Type Checking ◽  
Efficient Retrieval ◽  
Software Interfaces ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Run Time ◽  
E Mail ◽  
Unification Grammar

We present a lexical platform that has been developed for the Spanish language. It achieves portability between different computer systems and efficiency, in terms of speed and lexical coverage. A model for the full treatment of Spanish inflectional morphology for verbs, nouns and adjectives is presented. This model permits word formation based solely on morpheme concatenation, driven by a feature-based unification grammar. The run-time lexicon is a collection of allomorphs for both stems and endings. Although not tested, it should be suitable also for other Romance and highly inflected languages. A formalism is also described for encoding a lemma-based lexical source, well suited for expressing linguistic generalizations: inheritance classes, lemma encoding, morpho-graphemic allomorphy rules and limited type-checking. From this source base, we can automatically generate an allomorph indexed dictionary adequate for efficient retrieval and processing. A set of software tools has been implemented around this formalism: lexical base augmenting aids, lexical compilers to build run-time dictionaries and access libraries for them, feature manipulation libraries, unification and pseudo-unification modules, morphological processors, a parsing system, etc. Software interfaces among the different modules and tools are cleanly defined to ease software integration and tool combination in a flexible way. Directions for accessing our e-mail and web demonstration prototypes are also provided. Some figures are given, showing the lexical coverage of our platform compared to some popular spelling checkers.

Morehead & Ingram (1973) Revisited

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 559-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ingram ◽  
Donald Morehead
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Selection Of

The finding in Morehead and Ingram (1973) that children with a language impairment do better in the use of inflectional morphology than MLU-matched typically developing children has been in marked contrast to several subsequent studies that have found the opposite relationship (cf. review in Leonard, 1998). This research note presents a reanalysis of a subset of the original Morehead and Ingram data in an attempt to reconcile these contradictory findings. The reanalysis revealed that the advantage on inflectional morphology for children with language impairment was only on the progressive suffix, not on plural and possessive or on the verbal morphemes third-person present tense and past tense. The results of the reanalysis are in line with more recent research (e.g., Rice, Wexler, & Cleave, 1995). The resolution of these discrepant results highlights the critical roles that methodological issues play—specifically, how subjects are matched on MLU, how inflectional morphology is measured, and the selection of subjects with regard to age.

Root lexical features and inflectional marking of tense in Proto-Indo-European

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNAMARIA BARTOLOTTA
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
Lexical Feature ◽  
General Linguistic ◽  
Linguistic Approaches ◽  
Shed Light

This paper examines early inflectional morphology related to the tense-aspect system of Proto-Indo-European. It will be argued that historical linguistics can shed light on the long-standing debate over the emergence of tense-aspect morphology in language acquisition. The dispute over this issue is well-known; it has been pursued mostly by scholars following various general linguistic approaches, from typology to acquisition, but also by historical linguists and Indo-Europeanists, who have long debated about the precedence of aspect or tense from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. However, so far Indo-Europeanists have rarely confronted their results in a successful way with recent research in other fields such as acquisition or neurolinguistics. The aim of this paper is to put forward evidence from the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European verbal system concerning the prominent role of root lexical aspect features in the emergence of grammatical marking of tense in the proto-language. More precisely, by means of a comparison between the residual archaic verbal forms of theinjunctivein Vedic Sanskrit and the corresponding augmentless preterites in Homeric Greek, it will be argued that the [±telic] lexical feature of the inherited verbal root is responsible for a non-random distribution of past tense inflected forms in an earlier verbal paradigm.

Involving Families in Programs for Pregnant Adolescents: Practices and Obstacles

1992 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 274-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra L. Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Administrative Support ◽  
Dysfunctional Families ◽  
Staff Attitudes ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Pregnant Adolescents ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Family ◽  
Large Case

This study investigates the family-involvement strategies employed in Adolescent Family Life (AFL)-funded care programs for pregnant and parenting teenagers. Results from a survey of directors, supervisors, and line workers in more than 50 AFL programs show that only a minority of programs involve families in their intake, program, and discharge practices. Some of the barriers to involving families include large case loads; lack of training, funding, and administrative support; and negative staff attitudes about working with dysfunctional families. Although family-involvement practices are minimal, a majority of program workers have positive attitudes about the importance and effectiveness of family involvement. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Arabic Learners’ Production of Regular English Past Tense Verbs

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Baraa A. Rajab
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Obligatory Contour Principle ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Abstract Feature

Previous studies show that second language (L2) learners of English sometimes produce the verb with proper past tense inflectional morphology as in help[t] and sometimes repair the cluster, as in helpø or hel[pəd]. Complicating matters, these studies focused on L2 learners whose native languages disallowed codas or had very restricted codas. Thus, it is difficult to tell whether any problems in producing past tense morphology are due to first language L1-transferred coda restrictions, or an inability to acquire the abstract feature of past tense. To rule out native language syllable structure interference, this paper aims to examine the production of the English regular past tense verb by Arabic L1 ESL learners, a language that allows complex codas. The paper also examines the role of a phonological universal, the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) that disallows two adjacent similar sounds, and its effect on learners’ production. The data come from twenty-two English as a Second Language (ESL) students at three levels of proficiency. The task was a sentence list eliciting target clusters in past tense contexts that violate manner in OCP: fricative + stop ([st], [ft]) vs. stop + stop ([pt], [kt]). Results show that L1 Arabic speakers have difficulty in producing past tense morphology, even though their L1 allows complex codas. Fricative + stop clusters are repaired (epenthesis/deletion) at a lower rate (low =25.71%, intermediate = 6.6%, high=11.11%) than stop + stop clusters (low=57.14%, intermediate = 40.27%, high=22.91%). The higher rate of repair is clear in stops + stop clusters suggesting that learners abide by phonological universals and prefer not to violate OCP. Finally, proficiency level has an effect on target-like production, as higher-proficiency learners produce past-tense morphology at a higher rate than lower-proficiency learners. Together, these results indicate that L1 transfer is not the only source of difficulty in the production of past tense morphology, and that the abstract feature of tense is problematic, particularly at the early stages of ESL development.

Signal and Noise

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Yang
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Language Data

A very detailed study of the acquisition of English inflectional morphology and derivational morphology (nominalization). How, and when, children learn the regular and irregular past tense rules of English. How children learn to stress English words correctly, from an initial state of mislearning. The fine-grained analysis of German noun plurals where a very small rule (‘add -s’) can be productive. The entire discussion is driven by the equation, using child-directed language data.

Grammar and Lexis

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-226
Author(s):  
Howard Jones ◽  
Martin H. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Word Formation ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Cd Rom

This chapter has four sections, ‘Sounds and spelling’ (i.e. phonology and orthography), ‘Inflectional morphology’, ‘Syntax’, and ‘Lexis’ (the last of these covers word formation, borrowing, and vocabulary with meanings peculiar to the period such as dienest, êre, minne, ritter, vrouwe). In each section there is a summary of the main points, followed by detailed advanced paragraphs. The summaries serve as a stand-alone introductory grammar designed to help readers gain a reading knowledge of MHG as quickly as possible, which they can try out on the two introductory texts in Chapter 5. The detailed paragraphs can be used for reference or to gain an overview of particular areas of the language, and include extensive cross references to and from the texts in Chapter 5. The chapter concludes with an overview of the MHG dictionaries that are available on the Internet, in print, and on CD-ROM.

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