THE LEXICON AND ITS CLASSES Hlya YILDIZ Zehra ERFOLUCeylanAYANEsen AHNIn all known languages, both spoken and signed, thevocabulary of an individual language can be grouped into open andclosed word classes.
Open word classes are typically lexical classes and are thosewhere words can easily be added, for instance through derivation orother ways of forming new words, or through borrowing.
Closed word classes are typically functional classes and arethose where words are not readily added; while there is change inthese classes too, the change is much slower than with openclasses.
1. WORD FORMATION There are two main ways for languages to formnew lexemes: derivation and compounding. Compounding basicallyinvolves amalgamations of lexemes to form a new lexeme. Forexample, windmill wind + mill
Derivation relies on modifying a lexeme through variousmorphological processes to form a new lexeme. For example, healthyhealth and the suffix y
Compounding and derivation are not mutually exclusive. Forinstance,
Football is a compound foot + ballFootballer is a derivationfootball + er
a. DerivationDerivational morphology is different frominflectional morphology in that, very generally speaking,inflection carries grammatical information such as number, case andgender, while derivation does not. Derivation only serves to createnew words; these new words may then take necessary inflectionalmorphology
For example, from trap , deriving the word entrapment ,using theprefix -en and the suffix -ment
There are many different ways in which languages can form newwords through derivation, and any one language may employ severalstrategies. A common derivational device is affixing. Another verycommon derivational device is reduplication.
Apophony involves internal modification of the stem. Forexample, Derivation involving both a vowel and a consonant changeis breach /bi:t/ from break /beik/ (Aikhenvald 2007:45)
Prosodic modification through stress or tone is anotherderivational device. For instance,permit (noun) and permit (verb)The difference between this noun and verb is only one ofstress.
Less common are devices which involve removing something. Withsubstraction a predictable part of the word is removed. An examplecan be found in French, where the masculine counterpart of thefeminine adjective form is predictably shorter, namely lacking thefinal consonant: compare petite /ptit/ little.F versus petit /pti/little.M and verte /vt/ green.F versus vert /v/ green.M (Bauer2003: 39)
Other kinds of shortenings are truncation clipping andbackformation. An example of clipping is pram from prembulator orphone from telephone. One way of thinking of truncations is thatthe suffix ate is cut off (tuncated) before the suffix ee is addedto evacu-
A back-formation is when a part of a word which seems to be anaffix (but might not be) is deleted an example is baby- sit frombaby-sitter where er is conceived of as a suffix parallel to thesuffix in singer and runner.
A blend involves merging to words that get partly truncated, asin smog which consist of the begining of the smoke and the end offog ,or motel which consists of the begining of motor and the endof hotel
Conversion is when a word changes word class without anymodification to the word itself. An example would be bottle, whichin isolation is intuitively classed as a noun, but which byconversion can be used as a word,for instance in To bottlewine.
b. CompoundingA compound is not just two separate words, butthat it actually constitutes its own phonological unit. This holdtrue irrespective of how the compound is spelled, as it is thepronunciation that is relevant. For example; In English, compoundwords are written as one one word, with a hyphen or two separatewords such as, football, pie-eyed, and fire door. The essentialthing about all these words is that they are pronounced as onephonological units, they all have only one primary stress :football /ftb:l/ , pie-eyed /paad/ , fire door /fad()/
There are exceptions to this general rule. Pacoh (Austro-Asiatic(Katuic): Vietnam) compounds may consist of phonologically freewords but still function as one single lexeme, as in aat achqwilderness ( Anial+ Bird)(Watson 1976: 226).
Compounds are also generally inflected only once, as one word,as its head (main) lexeme. We would inflect for plural only oncefor the entire compound: fooballs (not *feetballs), fire doors (not*fires doors)
There are also exceptions to this rule, even in English. Bothparts of the compound are inflected. tooth mark = teeth marks
Compound generally do not get broken up by, for example,modifiers.
a new football *a footnewball a metal fire door *a fire metaldoor
It should be kept in mind that none of these criteria areabsolute universals.
Types of compoundsEndocentric compounds ( tatpurua compounds)refer to sub- class of the items denoted by one of ( the) elements.AB is an instance of B Like these compounds give extra informationabout head. The word class of these compounds are determined bytheir head. In English: school boytea potblack birdsea sickbedroomdiesel motor
In Maori : wharenui (whare house + nui big is a type of house(Harlow 2007: 130).
Exocentric compounds (bahuvrihi compounds ) not refer to a sub-category of any of the compounded elements. A+B denotes a specialkind of an unexpressed semantic head. A+ B is not an instance A orB In English: pie-eyed drunk ( neither a type of pie nor a type ofeye) redneck illiterate ( neither a type of red nor a type of neck)In Lango: wan t window ( neither a type of wan eye nor a type of thouse) In Maori : ihipuku sea elephant ( neither a type of ihi nosenor a type of puku swollen)
Copulative or coordinatve compounds ( dvandva compouns) refer toan entity made up of the two elements mentioned in the compoundtogether (Bauer 2003: 43). A+ B denote the sum of what A and Bdenote
In English : bitter-sweet (both bitter and sweet) actor-director( both actor and director) blue- green ( both blue and green) InMalto: pesa- taka ( both pesa coin and taka bank- note, rupee)(Steever 1998: 384).Syntactic compounds ( verbal compound ) thehead element is a verb and modifying element is something whichcould have functioned as the verbs argument in a phrase.
In English: hair-dryer ( the head is the verb DRY and HAIR is anargument of the verb DRY) earmark, head hunt In Russian: sneg-o-padsnowfall(sneg snow+ o linker+ pad falling; Aikhenvald 2007:32).
- Incorporation is a special type of syntactic compound becauseit involves not only the word-formation process of combining twolexemes, but also involves a host of other proceses, bothmorphological and syntactic.
- Noun incorporation is, the most common type of incorporation,a noun incorporated into a verb. Yucatec (Mayan (Mayan):Mexico)(52) a. t-in-po?--ahnook Comp-1sg-wash-it-perf cloths Iwashed (the) clothes. b. po?-nook-n-ah-enwash-clothes-antipass-prf-1sg.abs I clothes-washed. (= I washedclothes) (Bricker 1978: 15) In (52a) nook clothes ia an object ofthe verb po?. It refers to specific clothes. In (52b) theincorporation refers to a unitary activity, general action, but itdoesnt refers to specific entity.
Incorporation consists of not only the full form of the noun butalso the stem form of the full, free noun.Huasteca Nahualt(Uto-Aztecan (Aztecan). Mexico)(53) a. askman ti-?-kwa nakalt never2sg-it-eat meat You never eat meat b. na? ipanima ni-naka-kwa 1sgalways 1sg-meat eat I eat meat all the time. ( lit. I alwaysmeat-eat) (Merlan 1976: 185)Turksh balk tutmakkitap okumakseyahatetmek (fish- catch) ( book-read) (trip-take)
2. PART OF SPEECH Parts-of-speech (or word classes), which inessence are major categories of words that group togethergrammatically.
Languages differ radically in how many classes they have and inthe proportions of these classes. Some languages have an extremelylimited set of closed class words (or functional categories), whileothers have a high number of such words.
Some languages have only two open word classes (or lexicalcategories), others, like English, have as many as four separatesuch classes. Furthermore, a word class found in one language willnot necessarily be found in another language. In other words, whileit seems to be universal that languages actually do group theirwords into categories of some kind, the categories themselves arelanguages dependent.A. Lexical classesThe open classesConsist ofcontent words, i.e. words with more or less concrete, specificmeanings.
- Languages may have up to four major open classparts-of-speech, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Thedefinitions of these categories rely on a cluster of features, bothsemantic (denoting meaning), grammatical and syntactic (how itemsare combined).
In English, nouns can be subcategorized into mass and countnouns, depending on whether they can take the plural (e.g.sand/*sands versus chair /chairs); or proper and common nouns,depending on whether they can take the article (e.g. Peter/*thePeter versus chair/ the chair), or abstract versus concrete (e.g.emotion versus chair),
Other languages subcategorize depending on whether or not theitem is possessable.
In Maasai, for example, nouns are either possessable ornon-possessable. Such things as tools, money, houses, kin, and soon can be marked for possession grammatically, but such things asmeat, water, land and stars cannot. In Mamaind, Subcategorize theirnouns depending on, among other things, physical properties such asconsistency (whether the item in question is solid or liquid) andshape (Eberhard 2009). In other words, the potential subcategorizations of each major part-of-speech category are languagedependent. NounsRefers to things, persons and places, but alsoincludes abstract notions such as feelings, ideas.Grammatically,nouns may typically be marked for number (how many of the item (s)are being referred to), case (what role the item has in thesentence), gender (what sub-category the item belongsto)definiteness (whether it is a specific entity referred to ornot), for instance through morphological processes, but also,especially in the case of languages with predominantly analyticstrategies, through syntactic processes.
Combine with demonstrative pronouns (e.g. this/that as inthis/that house) and many function as arguments (that is,participants, e.g. Subject and object) in a clause.
English has two numbers; singular (one entity) plural (more thanone of the same entity); as in chair versus chairs.
Lavukale, specify for dual (two of the same entity), as infunfun firefly (singular)-funfunil (two) fireflies (dual) funfunaulfireflies (plural).
- While English hardly has any case marking at all, theexception being the genitive s as in chairs, many languages do markfor case.
In Dime; (Afro-Asiatic (South Omotic): Ethiopia): compare zitiox (nominative case) with zitim ox (accusative case) (Seyoum2008).
- Gender refers to which subclass the noun belong to.
In French; nouns are either masculine (le cadeau the gift)orfeminine (la table the table),
In German; nouns are either masculine (der Stuhl the chair),feminine (die Mtze the hat, cap) or neuter (das Buch the book).Definiteness indicates whether we are referring to a generalexample of an entity or a specific entity, as in the differencebetween a man, the man. Verbs Verb refers to actions and processes(e.g. Dance, grow, etc.), but also states (e.g. Know, exist,etc.).
Verbs may typically be marked for tense (placing the event intime),
Aspect (specifying the perspective taken on the event),
Mood (indicating the speakers attitude toward a situation or astatement),
Voice (e.g. Whether an event is active or passive)
Polarity (whether the statement is in the affirmative or thenegative)
Verbs may also be marked for person agreement, where agrammatical marker indicates the number and person of an argument,most commonly the subject.
Verbs typically function as predicates, typically form the coreof the sentence or clause and typically have a relational meaning,relating one or more participants to an event (Anward2006:408).
Types of Verbs in TurkishVERBTYPEEXPLANATIONEXAMPLESIntransitive verbs
Require no object (complement)
Require direct object
Require both direct and indirect objects
Dayamak,sormak,gndermek, yollamak, vermek
Verbs that require oblique objects
Require one indirect object or another complement
Bakmak, holanmak, nefret etmek
Copular verbs (Linking verbs)
Link the subject and the predicate of a sentence
-mek, olmak,zero copula,etc.e.g. Ali geen yl renci idi.
Tense, Aspect, and Mood in TurkishTense;
Okul-lar pazartesi al-d. school-PL Monday open-PF The schoolsstarted on Monday.
Okul-lar Pazartesi al-acak -FUT The schools will start onMonday.
Aspect;Ahmet bir elma ye-di. an apple eat-PF Ahmet ate anapple.
Ahmet bir elma yi-yor-du. -IMPF-P.COP Ahmet was eating anapple.
Ahmet sabahlar bir elma ye-r-di. -AOR-P.COP In the morningsAhmet used to eat an apple.
Mood Markers in Turkish-sADenotes conditional meanings; bilsen,bilseydin, bilseymi, okusaydn-(y)AOptative mood marker. Which isthe expression of speakers wish; yapaym, yapalm-mAIIModal functionsof obligation/necessity, and assumption; Aliye olmal-(y)Abilmodalcategory that marks ability and possibility.; okuyabilirim
English has three tenses, two of which are markedmorphologically and one that is marked syntactically.
The present tense (placing the event in the present, the now) ismarked with a suffix s for third person singular, as in Hewalks.
The past tense (placing the event in the past) is also markedmorphologically, with a suffixed -ed, as in He walked
The future tense (placing the event in the future) is markedanalytically with the use of an auxiliary verb, as in He willwalk.
It is common for languages to have some kind of aspect marking.In English, marks for progressive (denoting that the event ison-going) with the suffix ing, as in He is walking.
Languages may also make a grammatical difference betweenperfective and imperfective (again extremely simplified, if anevent is seen as an ongoing process).
In French, where the difference between ll a pay he paid(perfective) and ll payait he paid (imperfective) is one ofaspect.
English has two voices, active and passive.Active; He opened thedoor,Passive; The door was opened by him.
Languages also mark for polarity one way or another, and oftenthat is done in connection with the verb. English contrastsaffirmative and negative sentences with not,as in He walked versusHe did not walk.
The only form of person agreement that English has is thepresent tense third person singular suffix s, as in He walks versusI walk.
Other languages, however, grammatically indicate agreement forall three persons, and all the numbers that the language has.
In Italian, the verb is inflected for three persons and twonumbers:
Italian (Indo-European: (Romance):Italy) 1SG mangio I eat 2SGmangi you eat 3SG mangia he/she/it eats 1PL mangiamo we eat 2PLmangiate you eat 3PL mangiano they eat
Other languages may inflect for dual, and even trial and paucal,depending on their systems. A cluster of characteristics that mayserve to identify whether a given word is a noun or a verb. Forexample; In Mwotlap (Austronesian (Oceanic): Vanuatu) koyo ma-tayakke, to ke ni-ente-yo togolgol 3du pfct-adopt 3sgthen 3sgaor-child-3du straight They have adopted him, so that he (became)their legitimate son.
In example; ente chid is marked both for tense/aspect with theaorist prefix ni- and for agreement with the 3rd person dualsubject with the suffix yo, just as if it had been a verb.
AdjectivesAdjectives typically modify nouns, and denotequalities and attributes.
Quantitive or limitating adjectives (like many, a little) neverform an open class
Descriptive adjectives may form open class in many languages,but it does not universal Grammatically adjectives may be specifiedfor degree, either morphologically or syntactically. Alsogrammatically adjectives cannot combine with nouns or verbs
In English: too cold is acceptable *too book or *too follow isunacceptable
In some languages adjectives show agreement in form with thenoun they modify.
In German: ein roter Stuhl (masculine) a red chair eine roteBlume (feminine) a red flower ein rotes Haus (neuter) a red houseThe adjective (rot) is marked morphologically to agree with thegender of the noun its modifies. There are three degreemodifications; positive, comparative, superlative
Degree or comparison may be expressed either morphologically orsyntactically.
English has both options tall (positive), taller (comparative) ,tallest (superlative) : the adjective (tall) is markedmorphologically
beautiful (positive) , more beautiful (comparative), mostbeautiful (superlative) : the adjective (beautiful) is markedanalytically. The use of adjective separate into two groups; 1)modification of a noun > a big apple
2) predication (denoting a property of the subject of a clause)> the apple is big While nouns and verbs form near-universalopen class categories, this is not the case with adjectives.
153 languages for adjectives are mapped. 66 (43.1 %) have anopen class30 (19.6%) have a closed class 57 (37.3%) do not have anyseparate class for adjectives
Igbo has a very small closed class of adjectives which countingonly 8.
Four properties value, dimension, age, colour are found in aclosed class adjectivesOther properties like position (high), speed(fast), physical characteristics (hard) are expressed with nouns orverbs in languages with a closed class of adjectives
VALUECOLOURDIMENSIONAGEOma goodOj? black,darkUkwu largeOhu?runewOjo?o badOca white,lightNta smallOcye oldIn Hause, properties(value, dimension, age, colour) are expressed by nouns. Hausa (AfroAsiatic (West Chanadic): Nigeria)Mutum mai alheri b. Mutum mai dokiperson having kindness person having horse a kind person a personhaving a horse c. Yana da alheri d. Yana da doki he.is withkindness he.is with horse he is kind he has a horse (describeproperties are expressed by possession of nouns)
In Bemba language, adjectival notions are expressed withverbs.
Adjectival notions are expressed with verbs whether relativizedor not
Bemba (Niger- Congo (Bantoid) : DR Congo)Umuuntu uashipa c.Umuuntu aashipa person who.is.brave person is.brave a brave personthe person is brave
Umuuntu ualemba d. Umuuntu aalemba person who.is.writing personis.writing a person who is writing the person is writing
Adverbs Adverbs may constitute an open class, also it is themost heterogeneous of all word classes.
Adverbs typically modify categories other than nouns. runquickly (modify verbs) quite happy (modify adjectives) very quickly(modify other adverbs) well with (modify prepositions) *Dog quickly(NOT modify nouns) That was quite [a party] (modify nounphrases)
Five main subclasses of adverbs - setting adverbs of space andtime (here, below, never) - manner adverbs/predicate adverbs (well,badly) - degree adverbs (very, extremely) - linking adverbs / textadverbs (however, thus) - sentence adverbs (probably, frankly)
Setting, degree and linking adverbs form closed subclasses ofadverbs.Only manner adverbs constitute open subclasses ofadverbs.
It is quite common for languages to form manner adverbs fromadjectives. In English: slow (adjective), slowly (adverb)
As with adjectives, languages differ in whether adverbs form anopen, closed, or no class at all.
Adverbs form a closed class and most adverbial meanings areconveyed by adjectives or nouns in the accusative case.
In Modern Standard Arabic, sarisan swiftly is the accusativeform of the adjective saris swift
There are also languages without any seperate class for manneradverbs
Swedish (Indo- European (Germanic): SwedenTaget ar langsamttrain.DEF.NEUT. is slow.NEUT. the train is slow
Han laser langsamt Manner adverb expressions are he readsslow.NEUT. expressed with the adjective in neuter form he readsslowly Ainu (Isolate: Japan)- The stative verb pirka be good Pirkamenoko a stative verb may be modify another stative verb good womanis used as an adj. pretty women c. Tunasno pirka quick good b.Pirka inu Get well quickly good listen is used as an adv. listenwell
Ainu has neither a special class for adjectives nor a specialclass for adverbs; the stative verb is used in both cases.There arevarious lexical classes, and they can overlap each other. SoHengeveld et al.(2004) propose implicational hierarchy.
Verbs Nouns Adjectives (Manner) Adverbs
This hierarchy implies that- verbs exist its own lexical classesin a languageif a language has a separate open class for nouns, italso has a separate category for verbsa language with a separateopen class for adjectives necessarily has a separate open class fornouns and verbs.if a language has a separate open class foradverbs, then it also has a separate open class for adjectives
This hierarchy is not universal, it only illustratestendencies