MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES

All languages possess the same set of grammatical categories (about 25) such as number (singular, dual, or plural), gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter), tense (past, present, or future), aspect (perfect, or imperfect), etc.

When you begin learning a new language, you do not have to learn a new set of grammatical categories since all languages have the same categories; you only have to learn how these categories are expressed in the new language. It is probably the case that children learning their first language have a similar advantage--they are born with these categories built into their cognitive system.

MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES

Grammatical categories are composed of sets of morphological features.

Gender features:[Feminine][Animate]

Masculine Feminine NeuterFeminine - + -Animate + + -

The morphological features are also universal, providing a range of possible feature combinations that languages can make use of. Of course, all languages do not use the same features and combinations of features. For example, English and French do not distinguish the dual number, and so the feature [dual] is absent from the grammars of these languages.

THE NOTION OF PARADIGM

A paradigm is the set of the morphological realizations of the contrastive features of a given terminal node of the morpho-syntax.

Consider three features X, Z, Y, of a given terminal node of the morpho-syntax in a language L. We have the following combinations:

| | | | | | | |

+X +X -X -X +X +X -X -X+Z -Z +Z -Z +Z -Z +Z -Z

+Y +Y +Y +Y -Y -Y -Y-Y

Assume that each terminal node has a different exponent (where n≠n+1):

| | | | | | | |

+X +X -X -X +X +X -X -X+Z -Z +Z -Z +Z -Z +Z -Z

+Y +Y +Y +Y -Y -Y -Y-Y

Thus, ( is the paradigm formed by the features {X, Y, Z}

DIFFERENT MORPHOLOGICAL TYPES OF LANGUAGES (preliminaries)

Agglutinative languages vs. Fusional languages

AGGLUTINATIVE LANGUAGES In a agglutinative language, for each single morphological category, there is a vocabulary item.

(15) Turkish

ev-ler-den house-plural-ablativefrom the houses

(16) Finnishkirja + t + ssa + ni --> kirjo+i+ssa+ni

‘in my books’N +PL+Locative+Possessive 1sg.

FUSIONAL LANGUAGES

Strings of several morphological categories are commonly represented by single vocabulary item.

(17) Latin:dom-is house-[plural+ablative]

(18) Latin I-II declensions: Singular Plural

N. port-a ami@c-us port-ae amic-i@

A. port-am amic-um port-a@s amic-o@s

G. port-ae amic-i@ port-a@rum amic-o@rum

D. port-a@ amic-o@ port-i@s amic-is

Ab. port-a@ amic-o@ port-i@s amic-I@s

‘door’ ‘friend’

• See Appendix III on Portmanteaux morphology and feature cumulation.

NOMINAL GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES

NUMBER: Singular, Dual, Plural

Nouns in some languages reflect the number of objects to which they refer. English distinguishes only two numbers, singular and plural. The former is used to indicate singular objects or referents that can be neither singular nor plural (mass nouns like contemplation). Plural sometimes refers to singular objects, too, e.g. glasses, so the category is clearly grammatical and not semantic.

Some languages, Arabic or Old Church Slavonic, for example, also distinguish objects occurring in pairs by assigning dual number to the noun and a few languages distinguish a paucal, used for referring to a few objects without specifying number. (1) Yupik Nouns

Singular Dual Pluraltafsi 'belt' tafsi-k 'belts' tafsi-t

'belts’tuma 'trail' tum´-k 'trails’ tum´-t

'trails’yuk 'person' yug-´k ‘people' yug-´t 'people’

Singular Dual Plural(2) [Plural] - + +

[Dual] - + -

GENDERSome languages discriminate two types of gender. There is natural gender, which relates to the gender of the referent and distinguishes nouns referring to males from those referring to females. There is also grammatical gender, which has nothing to do with natural gender, but is only a system of noun classes . The Indo-European languages generally combine the two, i.e. do not distinguish one from the other so that in French, for example, la table 'the table' reflects feminine gender (purely grammatical) as does la femme 'the woman' (combined natural and grammatical).

The most common genders are Masculine and Feminine but some languages have Neuter as well.

NOUN CLASS

Noun class is often closely linked to grammatical gender; in Indo-European languages, the two generally overlap. Noun class is an arbitrary set of categories and all nouns must belong to one of them. There is no semantic meaning attached to them, although there is a tendency for nouns with similar meanings or of the same gender to belong to the same class, e.g. all feminine nouns tend to belong to the same class, often the names of trees or cities will mostly belong to the same class. In Chinese and some African languages, noun class can be based on the physical shape of the referent. While there are always exceptions to these tendencies, there is no exception to the rule that all nouns must belong to some noun class.

( 3) Swahili noun classes and prefixes  

 Singular noun class example Corresponding plural classexample

1.  m-  ‘person’ m-toto “child” 2. wa- ‘people’ wa-toto “children”

 3. m-  ‘tree’ m-ti “tree” 4. mi- ‘trees’  mi-ti “trees”

 5.  ji- ‘big/round’ j-oka “giant snake” 6. ma-  ‘big/round things, liquids’

 7. ki- ‘(small) thing’ ki-kapu “basket” 8. vi- ‘(small) things’vi-ti “stools”

 9.  N- ‘name’  10. N-  ‘names’ (of people, insects)

11.  u- ‘abstract/mass nouns’ u-pepo “wind”

12.  ku-  ‘activity’  ku-soma “reading”

13.  pa- ‘place’ mahali po-moja “one place”

14.  ku- ‘location’ (towards)

15. mu- ‘location’ (inside)

AGREEMENT

Languages often have an agreement system whereby adjectives modifying gendered nouns must have an ending which reflects the gender and number of the noun they modify. Verbs also often reflect the gender of their subject nouns and, sometimes, their object nouns as well.

Italian

( 4) molt-e ragazz-e bell-e sono venut-e ierimany girls beautiful have come yesterday

molt-i ragazz-i bell-i sono venut-i ierimany boys beautiful have come yesterday

Noun classes and Agreement in Swahili

(5) a. Agreement with modifiers: wa-toto  w-a-ngu

2-child  2-POSS-1sg 'my children'

ki-kapu  ki-kubwa  ki-moja  ki-lianguka 7-basket   7-large    7-one    7-fell “One large basket fell down.”

b. Agreement with subject:   m-tu     a-li-kuja        m-shale u-li-anguka

1-person 1-past-come        3-nail   3-past-fall ‘A person came.’               ‘A nail fell.’

c. Agreement with object:   ni-li-m-tafuta   I-past-1-seek

‘I looked for him/her.’

d. Agreement with subject and object: Yu-le  m-tu  m-moja  m-refu a-li-ye-ki-soma   b-le  ki-tabu ki-refu

1-that 1-person 1-one 1-tall 1-past-who-7-read 7-that 7-book 7-long

“That tall person who read that long book.”

   Wa-toto wa-na-ki-soma ki-tabu   (SVO)   2-child  2-Pres-7-read   7-book                        or    Ki-tabu wa-na-ki-soma wa-toto (OVS) 7-book 2-Pres-7-read   2-child

   “The children are reading the book.”

DEFINITENESS: Definite, Indefinite

Most languages also have a way of distinguishing definite and indefinite objects. A definite object is one that the speaker expects the listener to already know about either from previous discussion or from experience. If you don't expect the listener to know what you are talking about, you would say, for example, I bought an armadillo today. If the listener can see the armadillo or if you have already mentioned it to the listener, you would normally say I bought the armadillo today.

(6) Two Ways of Indicating DefinitenessFrenchune femme 'a woman' la femme 'the woman'un cachet 'a seal, stamp' le cachet 'the seal,

stamp'

BulgarianJena 'a woman' Jena-ta 'the woman'tSovek 'a man' tSovek-´t 'the man'selo 'a village' selo-to 'the village'

Features of Person

(7) First person Second Person Third PersonI You he/she

[Speaker] + - -[Participant tospeech act] + + -

(8) Palaung (Burma).

1. ar 'you and I2. E 'we (three or more, including addressee)’3. O 'I’4. yar 'we two (not including addressee)5. yE 'we (three or more, not including addressee)’6. mi 'you (singular)’7. par 'you two’8. pE 'you(three or more)’9. Un 'he or she’10. gar 'they two’11. gE 'they (three o rmore)'

(9) Segmentation:O mi UnI you he/she

Ø-ar y-ar p-ar g-ar DualØ-e y-E p-E g-E Plural

(10) Featural analysis:Ø- y- p- g-

[Speaker] + + - -[Addressee] + - + -[Participant tospeech act] + + + -

POSSESSION: 1st, 2nd, 3rd; Singular & Plural

The category of possession indicates that the referent possesses the noun marked with this category. The functions of this category are the same as those of verbal person, i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd person singular and plural. English marks possession with possessive pronouns: my/mine, your/yours, his, her/hers, its, etc. Other languages, such as Turkish, use inflectional affixes and 'conjugate' their nouns.

(11) Turkish Possessive ParadigmSingular Pluralbaba-m 'my father' baba-m-Iz 'our father'baba-n 'your father' baba-n-Iz 'your(pl) father'baba-sI 'his/her father' baba-lar-I 'their father'

CASE PARADIGM (DECLENSION)

Languages require a means of marking certain grammatical relations in sentences: that of the Subject to the verb, the Direct Object to the verb, the Indirect Object to the verb, the Means to the verb. Languages possess a limited number of adverbal relations which could be indicated by but are in fact always represented by grammatical means: cases, adpositions, or both. These adverbal relations include Locative, Origin, Goal (all of which may be spatial) and several others. Turkish uses a set of basic Cases.  (12) The Turkish Nominal Declension

Case 'horse' 'my horse''horses' 'my horses'

Nominative (Subject)at-e at-Im at-lar at-lar-Im

Genitive ('of') at-In at-Im-In at-lar-In at-lar-Im-In

Accusative (D. O.) at-I at-Im-I at-lar-I at-lar-Im-I

Dative ('to /for') at-a at-Im-a at-lar-a at-lar-Im-a

Locative ('in/at') at-da at-Im-da at-lar-da at-lar-Im-da

Ablative ('from') at-dan at-Im-dan at-lar-dan at-lar-Im-dan

(13) Russian Nominal DeclensionCase 'book' 'books' 'table'

'tables'Nominative (Subject) knig-a knig-y stol-e* stol-yGenitive ('of') knig-y knig-e* stol-astol-ovAccusative (D. 0.) knig-u knig-y stol-

e* stol-yDative ('to /for') knig-e knig-am stol-ustol-amLocative ('in/at') knig-e knig-ax stol-estol-axInstrumental (by/with) knig-oj knig-amistol-om stol-ami

TURKISH CASE FUNCTIONS

(14) a. Nominative Case Subject/Accusative Case Object

Halil-e kitab-i oku-duHalil-Nom book-Obj read-Past'Halil read the book’

b. Genitive Case PossessionHalil-in evi simdi Mehmed-in Halil-Gen house now Mehmed-Gen’Halil's house is now Mehmed's’

c. Dative Case Indirect Object

Adam-a yemek verd-im

man-to meat gave-I

‘I gave meat to the man’

d. Dative Case Goal

Halil ev-e gel-di

Halil house-to come-Past

'Halil came home'

e. Ablative Case Source (The from-Case)

kitab-I Halil-den ald-Im

Book-Obj Halil-from got-I

'I got the book from Halil’

f. Ablative Case Origin (The from-Case)

Mehmet Istanbul-dan gel-di

Mehmet Istanbul-from come-Past

'Mehmet came from Istanbul’

g. Locative Case Location (The at-Case)

Halil ev-de kal-dI

Halil home-Loc remain-Past

'Halil stayed at home’

h. Instrumental Case (Russian) (The by/with Case)

MaSa napisala pis'mo karandaS-om

Masha wrote letter pencil-Inst

’ Masha wrote the letter with a pencil'

VERBS

TRANSITIVITY: Transitive, Intransitive

Verbs may either accept a direct object or not. Those that do are transitive; those that do not are intransitive. Some verbs can belong to either category depending on the context, as with the English verb "to eat."

(19) ENGLISH John ate the fish John ate

TENSE:

Distant Past, Past, Present, Future, Distant Future Tense indicates the time relative to the speech act when an action or state took place. Languages are limited to five tenses: distant past (past pluperfect), past, future, distant past, and distant future (future perfect). English has all five.

(20) English Tenses

  Future  I will eat, I'm gonna eat, I eat

  Future Perfective  I will have eaten

  Present  I eat, am eating

  Past   I ate, have eaten

  Past Perfective   I had eaten

(21) Sanskrit. (The forms illustrated here are all third person singular indicative active)

present imperfect future conditional'cross' tarati atarat tarisyati atarisyat'move' carati acarat carisyati acarisyat'forsake' tyajati atyajat tyajisyatia tyajisyat'hold’ dharati adharat dharisyatia dharisyat

(22) Verb stems: tar- ‘cross,' car- 'move,'tyaj- 'forsake,' dhar- 'hold.'

Third person singular present suffix -atiThe imperfect is characterized by a prefix, a-, and a distinct third person singular suffix, -at. The future is characterized by the suffix -isy- and the personal suffix that is the same as in the present tense.The conditional combines aspects of both the imperfect and the future: it has the prefix a-, which is found with past tenses, along with the personal suffix -at, also found with past tenses, and, between the stem and the personal suffix, the conditional has the future morpheme -isy.

(23) past present future conditional [past] + - - + [future] - - + +

ASPECT: Perfective, ImperfectiveSome languages distinguish between whether an action or state is completed or not rather than between whether it occurred in the past. (Most languages distinguish both tense and aspect to varying degrees.)

The Russian Aspect System

(24) Imperfective Perfective

MaSa pisala pis'ma MaSa na-pisala pis'ma

i. 'Masha was writing letters ''Masha wrote the letters'

ii. 'Masha wrote letters several times'

MaSa piSet pis'ma MaSa na-piSet pis'ma

i. 'Masha is writing letters' 'Masha will write the letters'

ii. 'Mash writes letters'

Latin has six combinations of tense and aspect, of which representative forms are given in (51).

(25) am-o am-av-i'I love' 'I have loved'(present) Perfect)``

am-a-ba-m am-av-era-m'I loved' 'I had loved'(imperfect) (pluperfect)

am-a-b-o am-av-er-o'I will love' 'I will have loved'(future) (future perfect)

In feature terms:(26) [-perfect] [+perfect]

-past-future present perfect

+past-future imperfect pluperfect

-past+future future future perfect

VOICE:

Active, Passive Most languages have a means of shifting the semantic emphasis from the subject to the object. If the subject is focussed, the verb is placed in the active voice; if the object is focussed, the verb is placed in the passive voice.

(27) Voice in Western IE Languages

  LANGUAGE: Active Voice  Passive Voice

 ENGLISH   John eats the fish   The fish is eaten by John

  FRENCH   Jean mange le poisson Le poisson est mange’ de Jean

 GERMAN   Hans isst den Fisch   Der Fisch ist von Hans gegessen

MOOD: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive

Verbs may also vary as to mood or modality. The three major modalities are indicative, which mere indicates that something occurs, imperative, which demands that something occurs, and subjunctive, which suggests that something might occur, usually also implying that it doesn't occur.

(28) The Moods of English

Indicative John eats

Imperative Eat!

Subjunctive I would eat, Were I to eat

FEATURES OF MOOD

Classical Greek mood system (Jensen (1990):

(29) indicative subjunctive optative imperative[potential] - + + -[wish] - - + +

CONJUGATION CLASS

Verbs often belong to arbitrary lexical classes like the nouns; the verbal version is called conjugation class. There is no semanic reason why a verb belongs to one class or another; they just do. Latin (French, Italian, Spanish) verbs all must bear a conjugation class marker.

(30) The Latin Conjugations

I. Conjugation

amo 'I love' amamus 'we love'

amas 'you love' amatis 'yuse love'

amat 's/he loves' amant 'they love'

II. Conjugation

moneo 'I advise' monemus 'we advise'

mones 'you advise' monetis 'yuns advise'

monet 's/he advises' monent 'they advise

III. Conjugation

tego 'I cover' tegimus 'we cover'

tegis 'you cover' tegitis 'yall cover'

tegit 's/he covers' tegunt 'they cover

• See Appendix IV on morphological markedness