WELCOME TO CHINECHENDO'S BLOG : MORPHEN

Introduction

Our attempt to know the meaning of language vis-à-vis morphology and syntax will be hinged on two definitions from two scholars. The first definition is from Chomsky who defines language as “a set of finite and non-finite sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a non-finite set of elements” (33).

The other definition is from Sapir who sees it as “ a purely human instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols” (3). The implication of these definitions are manifold as we shall analyse.

Going by Chomsky’s definition, the finite and non finite nature of language lies in the fact that while the use of language might be considered finite (limited), the innate availability or capacity of human to produce language is non finite (limitless). This goes to imply that individuals, depending on their exposure to the language they speak will defer in great deal in the way they use the language.

Against the backdrop of the second definition, Edward Sapir is of the view that only human have the capacity for language- a rather questionable assertion- even though one may claim that it is only human that have what is truly describable as language, in the sense that it is only human language that is comprehensible, it also describes the fact that language is innate (non-instinctive) and that its production or usage is voluntarily as a speaker will naturally decide the choice of words and sentences he uses to make an utterance

Above all, the two definitions have shown to us a few characteristics of language which are:

1. That language is innate

2. The language is human

3. That language is voluntary

Morpheme

A morpheme is the smallest unit that forms a word. There are two types of morpheme, the free morpheme and the bound morpheme. Free morphemes are morphemes that can stand on their own while bound morphemes are morphemes that cannot stand on their own except they are attached to free morphemes. In this case, when they stand on their own, they are said to be meaningless. For bound morphemes, the classification is either as derivational morphemes or inflectional morphemes. Bound morphemes are used to indicate possessions, the process used to add these morphemes to structures is known as inflection (Adding a morpheme to another morpheme). It can be done through the process of affixation, this process can occur in two ways:

Prefixation- when a morpheme is used at the beginning of a word i.e the addition of morpheme at the beginning of a word e.g pro-life, in-justice.

Suffixation - The addition of morpheme at the end of a word. E.g. meaningless, friendly, happiness. The process of changing a word from one class to another is known as derivation. e.g. In the word friendly, the attachment of the morpheme 'ly' to friend has changed the noun 'friend' to the adjective 'friendly'.

Morphology

Morphology is a field of Linguistics that deals with how words are formed or created in language. Thus and since we are studying English language, we shall be concerned with morphology by trying to know about the word formation process in it (English). Another definition of morphology simply sees it as a field that deals with the word formation process of the language

Syntax

One of the ways by which language is studied is through the field called syntax. This is so because language has many facets and the field of syntax helps to provide insight on the syntactic ( having to do with sentences) structure of sentences. Thus, syntax provides understanding on how sentences work. The study of language through syntax is necessitated by the fact that language is complex and its effective use transcends the application of one approach. It is common knowledge that all areas of linguistics deal with language through words. The words of a language are actually studied in two areas i.e. morphology and syntax. While morphology deals with the words of a language, syntax is concerned with the ways the words of a language are strewn to make sentences.

However, bearing in mind that words alone cannot convey or contain complexities and nuances associated with language meaning, the need arises for learning how the sentences of a language work in order to see how complex messages can be encoded and transmitted. Also, bearing in mind that complex meanings require sentences to convey them, it therefore follows that sentences of a language may come in varied forms leading to variations in their internal structures. Thus, the study of syntax is geared towards understanding the various units that combine to make up the structure of sentence.

Grammar, Morphology and Syntax at a Glance

Morphology and syntax are the two subfields of grammar. Grammar is traditionally subdivided into two different but inter-related areas of study- morphology and syntax. Morphology states how words are formed of singular units, it therefore addresses questions like, "what are the various component parts of a word and what kind of principles determine the ways in which the parts are combined together to form a whole?" syntax is concerned with the ways which words can be combined together to form phrases and sentences and asks questions like why is it okay in English to say "who did you see John with? but not okay to say "who did you see John and?" The field of syntax therefore is concerned with what kinds of principles determine the ways in which we can and cannot combine words together to form phrases and sentences?". Morphology interpretes words whereas syntax forms and interpretes sentences.

However, grammar does not concern itself only with the principles which determine the formation of words, phrases and sentences but also with the principles which govern their interpretation.

Morphosyntax

The relationship between morphology and syntax is termed morphosyntax. It is derived from Morphology which is the study of word formation and syntax which is how words are combined into larger units such as phrases and sentences. Morphosyntax is the combination of morphology and syntax. They are combined because they have very close relationship. Inflection plays a vital role in morphosyntax. According to Crystal, morphosyntax is a term in linguistics that is used to refer to ''grammatical categories or properties for whose definition criteria of morphology and syntax both apply, as in describing the characteristics of words'' (234). Inflection is an aspect of morphology as well as an aspect of syntax. it does not change the part of speech of a word, instead it is often seen as grammatical or morphological item that when used in a language, lead to a change from one form of a word to another form of that same word. example is the -s form that is used to indicate a change in the form of a verb which shows the meaning of a present tense form. similarly, the -s inflectional morpheme is used as a grammatical item that changes the form of a noun from singular to plural. Another example is the 's' inflectional morpheme which indicates possessiveness, other examples include 'ies' which also indicate singular of a noun to plural.

Inflectional changes of forms of words obey syntactic rules. these rules determine the matching of the conjugated verbs with the declensions of nouns in number and person. the paradigms of nouns known as declensions and verbs known as conjugation are characterized by inflectional affixes. inflection has a way of relating bound morphemes to syntactic functions. this is what makes it inevitable in syntax. inflection and paradigms make up what is called morphosyntax. Inflectional affixes give different forms of the word to which they are attached, forms that are appropriate to the grammatical context of the sentence. They are bound morphems that give grammatical information relevant to the interpretation of a sentence. They do not give rise to new lexical words but to different forms of single lexical word, different forms that are appropriate for the use of lexical word in the sentence.

Inflection gives different forms of a single item, example; different forms of a letter box can be found in different shapes a hand can take. etc.

Taken together, syntax and inflection are complementary and constitute the principal part, if not the whole of what we are calling grammar. Jointly, they determine the grammaticality (that is the grammatical well-formedness) of sentences; the syntax by specifying how lexemes combine with one another in particular constructions, the inflectional rules (in so far as traditional grammar had rules, rather than paradigms), by specifying which forms of lexeme should occur in one construction rather than another. Intermediate between syntax inflection, there is a level, or sub level of description at which one makes use of such phrases as the third person singular, present tense(form) of (the lexeme) 'sing', the possessive singular (form) of (the lexeme)'boy'. we shall explain inflection as it relates to the different major parts of speech in English.

Noun Category

For the paradigms of nouns known as declension, it can be explained that when the 's' inflection is added to the stems of words, it does not change their forms, instead, it indicates that such words are plurals. inflection therefore creates such syntactic categories as plurality, singularity and possession. these syntactic paradigms attract equal verbs in subject-verb agreement. e.g.

1. Girls are beautiful

2. Her husband's hands are bad

Hence inflection in nouns can be demonstrated thus:

Inflection (Declension) - Paradigms of Nouns

Singular Plural 1st possessive 2nd possessive Phonetic representation

Dog Dogs Dog's Dogs' [z]

Boy Boys Boy's Boys' [s]

Baby Babies Baby's Babies' [iz]

As mentioned above, the plural morpheme or the morpheme -s is not always realized by the suffix -s, this can be seen in the cases of irregular nouns, here, declension has to do with changes of internal vowels. the fact that these changes occur does not mean that the words do not perform their syntactic roles. they undergo dual inflections of changing their internal vowels and receiving the -s suffix. This enables them to perform functions of singularity and plurality in the subject-verb arrangement. the following are examples:

Declension- Mutation of Irregular Nouns

Singular [s] Plural

Man -s Men

Tooth -s Teeth

Foot -s Feet

Mouse -s Mice

Child -s Children

These morphological forms will determine the arrangement of syntactic structure. The subject must agree with the verb at the sentence level e.g.

1. the child is crying

2. the children are crying

For gender declension, there is a complete change of forms created by inflection to determine gender. this is done in order to avoid creating expressions that are odd. sentences here can be syntactically correct but semantically odd. If for instance we say John is a spinster, we have a sentence that is grammatically correct but semantically odd because John can not assume the future of a female to be a spinster, hence gender declension is necessary. This is represented thus:

Declension- Gender

Sister- brother; sisters- brothers; sister's- brother's; sisters'- brothers'

Girl- boy; girls- boys; girl's- boy's; girls'- boys'

in the case of pronouns, the subjective cases are different from the objective and possesive cases. the inflectional changes create forms operating in other syntactic slot as objects, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns. it can be represented thus:

Pronoun Category

Inflection of Pronouns (case)

Subjective case 1st 2nd	Objective case 1st 2nd	Possessive case 1st 2nd	Possessive case 1st 2nd
I We	Me Us	My Our	Mine Ours
You You	You You	Your Your	Yours Yours
He/She/It	Him/Her/It	His/Her/Its	His/Hers/Its
They	Them	Their	Theirs

Adjective Category

Adjectives serves as subject or object. in this case, the morphosyntactic properties of regular adjectives are the inflectional morphemes -er and -est which end the adjectives that they are affixed to and the adjectives to which these endings are added are called the ''standard form'' which represent the positive degree of comparison. 'er' is the comparative which is used to compare two objects for the same property. the 'est' ending is called superlative and is used when comparing three or more objects for the same property. in this category, two persons must be present to make the context grammatically correct. this is made possible by the inflected forms added to the positive adjectives. the inflected endings are typically called bound morphemes.