Internal syntagmatic classification of nouns

So far in the course we have dealt with simplex words, i.e. words whose structure can be defined by the following rules (for English - this does not apply to morphosyntactically more complex languages):

1. A simplex word is a root.
2. A simplex word is a simplex word with an inflectional affix.

The distinction ``simplex'' vs. `complex', the latter meaning ``derived'' or ``compound'', is a syntagmatic criterion for classifying nouns according to their internal morphological structure.

However, syntagmatic criteria lead to a better understanding of the structure and above all the meaning of complex nouns. Let us refer back to the definitions given previously 2.3 on defining a word (in English):

1. Base: A word is a stem. (This defines an uninflected word.)
2. Recursion: A word is a word with an inflection.
3. Exclusion: Nothing else is a word.

and

1. Base: A stem is a root.
2. Recursion: A stem is a stem with a derivational affix.
3. Nothing else is a stem.

and finally, to ensure a complete chain of definitions:

1. A root is the smallest semantically interpretable constituent of a lexical item (i.e. a lexical morpheme).
   Note: roots and lexical items are ostensively defined by listing them in dictionaries!

These definitions suggest new questions about how meanings of complex words are constituted:

1. How is the meaning of a root defined?
2. What kinds of meaning do the different kinds of derivational affix have?
3. What kind of meaning does an inflectional affix have?
4. If a stem consists of a root and one or more affixes, how is the meaning of the whole unit defined?

The question which is easiest (but not easy!) to answer is the first, perhaps the second, and maybe even the third.

Task:

Pick a text from the web (or elsewhere) and answer the first three questions, giving examples from the text corpus to illustrate your answers.

In the case of words, is simplest case is a word with a stem which is a root, i.e. a lexical morpheme, and maybe an inflection.

The question arises, if an inflection is added to a noun, what is the meaning of the inflection, e.g. for [NUMBER=plural] in English?

German affixes are slightly more agglutinative than English affixes. Note the two endings which may occur in the plural, for example: `to/for dogs' Hund+e+n, where in this context "e" means [NUMBER=plural] and "n" means [CASE=dative].

Task:

Find a German text on the web and discuss the kinds and meaning of the inflections of German nouns, giving examples from the text corpus to illustrate your answers.

The most interesting question is, however, the fourth. Recursive definitions often sound circular until you get used to them and realise that they are not circular because a simplest case where the recursion stops is always defined.

Task:

1. Make a collection of derived words, and illustrate how they are built by grouping their parts in a tree structure.
2. Find an English text on the web and discuss the kinds and meaning of the derivational affixes of English nouns, giving examples from the text corpus to illustrate your answers.
3. Select 5 derived words, including both prefixes and suffixes. Make a table with semantic profiles of the roots and affixes of these words. Add German translations. Which problems do you find in adding translations?
4. Pick half a dozen compound words (i.e. words containing at least two roots), and show how they are built by grouping their parts in a tree structure.
5. How are the meanings of derived words related to the meanings of their parts? Give examples.
6. How are the meanings of compound words related to the meanings of their parts? Give examples.

A transparent compound is a compound whose meaning is a function of its parts.

A nontransparent compound is a compound whose meaning is a not a function of its parts, but idiosyncratic (though part of the meaning might be determined by the meaning of a part).

There are three main kinds of transparent compound:

1. endocentric (or "tatpurusa", Sanskrit: "his man") compound.
2. double-headed (or "dvandva", Sanskrit: "double", "two and two") compound.
3. exocentric (or "bahuvrihi", Sanskrit: "much rice") compound.

Task:

1. Find exact definitions and examples of these three types.
2. In addition, find the meaning and examples of the type "synthetic compound".