A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

REMEMBER
Some complex words have meanings that are so predictable that they do not have to be listed in a dictionary.

Some words do not have to be because they are merely grammatically condtioned variants of a word that is more basic, in some sense.

Take a look at these words! performs performed perform

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A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

Read the sentences below: 1. The pianist performs in the local hall every week. 2. Mary told us that this pianist performed in the local hall every week. 3. The performance last week was particularly impressive.

All the words in bold have a suffix: -s / -ed/ -ance. The suffixes s and ed are dependent on the grammatical context, in a way that the suffix ance is not.

A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

A. The magician creates dfferent ticks every month. The s is acceptable in order not to violate a grammatical rule of English concerning agreement between a verb and its subject:

The s suffix on the verb is obligatory when the subject is a singular noun phrase, and forbidden when the subject is a plural noun phrase.

The s suffix on the verb does not make any independent contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

B. Tom told me that the magician created different tricks every month.
English grammar incorporates a rule about what is called sequence of tenses; If a verb of saying or thinking is in the past tense, then a verb in any sentence reported as having been said or thought is likely to be shifted backwards in time, so to speak:

perform

performed had performed

performed
Will perform

would performed The ed suffix on the verb does not make any independent contribution to the meaning of the sentence.
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A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

C. The artist presented his new creation to the audience.
There is no grammatical factor that requires the presence of tion;

NOTE:
creates and created are grammatically conditioned variants forms of the verb create (that is inflectional morphology);

creation is not a variant form of the verb, but rather a noun derived from it (that is derivational morphology).

A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

NEW CONCEPTIONS Inflectional morphology It is the area of morphology concerned with changes in word shape (through affixation) that are determined, or potencially affect the grammatical context in with a word appears. Lexeme It is a word seen as an abstract grammatical entity, represented concrectely by one or more different inflected word forms according to the grammatical context. Lexemes are conventioally represented in small capitals while word forms are in italics. Ex.: The verb lexeme PERFORM has 4 inflected word forms:
Perform, performs, performing and performed.
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A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION Regular and Irregular inflection

Is the word pianist listed in your dictionary? Is the word pianists listed in your dictionary? Why a word form such as pianists does not have to be listed in dictionaries? 1st. Once we know an English word is a noun denoting a kind of thing that can be counted, then we can be confident that it will have a plural form.

2nd. We can be confident that the plural form of any countable noun will be formed by adding to the singular form the suffix s (or the appropriate allomorph of the suffix).
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A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION Regular and Irregular inflection

How about the word form mice , criteria, or phenomena? Are they listed in your dictionary?

Does it follow that all word forms of a lexeme must always share the same root morpheme?

NOT always.
Does it ever happen that two word forms that behave grammatically like forms of one look so dissimilar that they seem to have no root morpheme in common?

YES, but seldom.

Lexeme GO Word forms go, goes, went, going, gone

Suppletion phenomenon whereby one lexeme is represented by two or more different roots, depending on the context.
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A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

Forms of nouns
Singular form Plural form

NOTE:
For any noun lexeme X, there are just TWO grammatical words: singular of X and plural of X, contrasting in number.

EXAMPLE: Lexeme CAT Word forms cat cats # of morphemes one root morpheme two morphemes (a root and the suffix -s

Note that s is the regular suffix for forming plurals. -i (cacti), -ae (formulae), -a (phenomena), -(r)en (children) are irregular suffixes expressing plurality. There are also some countable nouns that express their plural with no suffix at all (teeth, men). And the ones whose plurals display not even a vowel change (sheep)*/ zero plural or zero suffix.

A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

Forms of nouns NOTE: only SOME nouns have plural forms, namely nouns that refer to entities that are countable. Do all nouns referring to countable entities have both singular and plural forms? NOT QUITE

EXAMPLES:
Those scissors belong in the top drawer. Your pants have a hole in the seat.

Watch out! We can say neither *a scissor nor * a scissors, and likewise neither *a pant nor * a pants;
For these lexemes there is a conventional circumlocution (PERIPHRASIC FORM): - That pair of scissors belongs in the top drawer. - Your pair of pants has a hole in the seat.
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A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

Forms of pronouns and determiners
In morphology we are concerned with the bahavior of words which belong to OPEN CLASS (NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, VERBS AND ADVERBS).

By contrast morphology does not make any register of a new pronoun or a new preposition - CLOSED CLASS .

Look at this:
Lexeme Determiner lexeme: THIS Determiner lexeme: THAT Determiner lexeme: THE Lexeme Pronoun lexeme: HE Pronoun lexeme: WE Singular form this that the Plural form These those Zero plural Word forms Him us
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A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

Forms of verbs
REMEMBER: Some verb lexemes have at most FIVE forms; Most verbs have only FOUR forms (regular verbs).

Syncretised verbs (SYNCRETISM)

Verb Lexeme
DIG

Word forms
dig, digs, dug, digging, dug*

STING
BEND FEEL

Sting, stings, stung, stinging, stung*

Bend, bends, bent, bending, bent* Feel, feels, felt, feeling, felt*

Some verbs have only one or two forms; others, eight.

Verb Lexeme
CAN MUST MAY BE

Word forms
can, could must may, might am, is, are, was, were, being, been, be
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A WORD AND ITS FORMS: INFLECTION

Forms of Adjectives
Many English adjectives exhibit THREE forms (they receive the suffixes er and est when their basic form has one syllable, or two provided that the second syllable ends in a vowel).

Mary is tall. (the positive of tall) Mary is taller than Carol. (the comparative of tall) Mary is the tallest girl in class. (the superlative of tall)

Some adjective lexemes lack these forms. For these lexemes there is a
conventional circumlocution (PERIPHRASIC FORM):

He is more and more curious (the comparative of curious) This field is more fertile than that one. (the comparative of fertile) The most fertile fields of all are here. (the superlative of fertile)

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