English 413: Morphology

 

General Course Information

 

Instructor: Dr. Robert S. Carlisle
Section: 40
Email Address: rcarlisle@csub.edu

Required Texts

Aronoff, M., & Fudeman, K. (2005). What is Morphology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

 

Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew.  (2002). An Introduction to English Morphology.  Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

 

Articles available electronically through the Walter Steirn Library.

 

Purchasing Textbooks

Students will need to purchase their textbooks online.  Copies are available at amazon.com.

Course Description, Goals, and Objectives

In linguistics, morphology is the study of the internal structure of words and their grammatical categories. Morphologists analyze the word-forming processes in languages and attempt to account for cross-linguistic generalizations through the development of testable theoretical approaches. This class introduces students to the word-forming processes found in the world's languages though special emphasis will be placed upon English.

Because most students in this class have had a previous class in linguistics, they know about some of the processes of word formation, especially in English, such as inflection, derivation, and compounding. However, other processes such as infixing, conversion, and reduplication are also evident in many of the world's languages. One goal of this class is to enable students to recognize the different types of word-forming processes and to analyze them using appropriate linguistic techniques. Students will also learn that complex words are hierarchically structured, and they will learn how to construct morphological tress using an online tree builder

Through this class, students will also learn that morphology is not an autonomous subsystem of language. Rather it interrelated with the lexicon, phonology and syntax. For example, idioms follow the rules of syntactic phrase structure, but their meanings are not compositional and must be entered individually in the lexicon just as morphemes are. Another goal of the class is to explore these interrelationships and place morphology in a coherent model of grammar.

By the end of the class the students will have fulfilled the following objectives:

• Students will be able to identify and explain the different word-forming processes found in the world's languages.
• Students will be able to conduct independent morphological analyses.
• Students will be able to explain the difference between inflection and derivation.
• Students will be able to describe one theoretical approach and explain its strength and weaknesses.
• Students will be able to classify languages according to their morphological characteristics.
• Students will be able to construct morphological trees.
• Students will be able to explain the interrelationship among the structural components of language.

The Structure of the Course

 

Pretest

All students in English 413 must complete a pretest. The pretest does not count as part of the students' grades. Instead, I use the scores as a diagnostic to determine how much students know about the course material before beginning the class. I then compare the scores on the pretest with those on the final examination to measure student achievement over the quarter. This procedure provides information about the effectiveness of the class.

Evaluation

Students must complete a number of exercises, four quizzes, a midterm examination, and a final examination. The exercises consist of morphological analyses of problem sets from a number of different languages. Students are not graded on these exercises because they are learning experiences for doing independent analysis later in the class. I encourage students to work together on the exercises. The four quizzes also consist of morphological analyses of exercise sets from languages similar to those used in the exercises. Students must work independently on the quizzes, which are graded. Both the midterm and final examination will consist of problem sets for data analysis and essay questions on theoretical approaches to analysis.  Given the length of the examinations, students may take them home, but they must work on them independently and turn them in on the given date.

Grading Policy

I will assign final grades according to the following schema:

The final average will be calculated by averaging the grades of the four quizzes and the two examinations at noted below.

 

 

Getting to the Exercises and Quizzes

The instructor will provide copies of the exercises and quizzes to the students. However, duplicate materials are also on Blackboard along with hints for doing morphological analysis. During the first day of class the instructor will explain to students how to enter Blackboard and find all of the class material.

Important University Dates

April 21, 2014: Last date to withdraw without a "W" being recorded.
May 19, 2014: Last date to withdraw for a serious and compelling reason.

Welcome to the class, and I hope that you enjoy morphological analysis.

Syllabus for English 413