morphology_词态学精篇课件.pptVIP

How Do Sounds and Syllables Make up Words? Morphology 5.1 The definition of the term “word” Word is “the smallest of the linguistic units which can occur on its own in speech or writing” How about the function words like the and of? Is “aren’t” one word or two? In writing, word boundaries are usually recognized by spaces between words What about in speeches? The lack of pauses between words in the spoken language has provided humourists with much material. The comical hosts of the show CarTalk by Victoria Frankin in her An Introduction to Language, close the show by reading a list of credits that includes the following cast of characters: 5.2 The features of words Knowing a word means knowing both its sound and its meaning, while being able to use a word requires four kinds of information: 1) its sounds 2) its meanings 3) how related words such as the plural (for nouns) and past tense (for verbs) are formed 4) its category and how to use it in a sentence A desk dictionary usually gives more than the above mentioned information. It also contains information such as a word’s spelling, and historical development, and sometimes even provides illustration of how a word has been used by writers or speakers. 5.3 The definition of morphology Read the dialogue and guess the meaning of the word in red “They gave it to me,” Humpty Dumpty continued thoughtfully, “ for an unbirthday present. ” “I beg your pardon?” Alice said with a puzzled air. “I’m not offended,” said Humpty Dumpty. “I mean what is an unbirthday present?” “A present that is given when it is not your birthday, of course.” Lewis Carroll Through the looking-Glass To convey meaning, sounds are combined into words. However, words are not the smallest unit of meaning The smallest meaning-bearing unit of language is called morpheme（词素）. A morpheme cannot be divided without drastically altering or destroying its meaning. Morphology is the study of the meaning-bearing unit of wor