LNGN 310: Morphology
Semester: Fall 2000
Class hours: Tuesday & Friday 11:00am-12:15am
Classroom: DI 155
Instructor: Dr. Longxing Wei
Office: DI 118
Phone: (973) 655-7501
E-mail: WeiL@Mail.Montclair.edu
Webpage: http://chss.montclair.edu/linguistics/lingpage/faculty/wei/wei.htm
Office hours: T 9:30am-10:30am, W 2:00pm-3:00pm, F1:00pm-2:00pm Or by appointment
Required textbooks:
Morphology: Word Formation in Generative Grammar. John T. Jensen. John Benjamins.
Word Formation in Generative Grammar. Mark Aronoff. MIT Press. (Chapter 2 only, provided by the instructor)
Course description:
This course is the study of the internal organization of words, including types of morphemes, morphological features, morphological processes, and derivational and inflectional paradigms. Students will learn to analyze words by working with data from many languages, and they will study the kinds of morphological system that exist in the languages of the world.
Course objectives:
Upon completing the course, students should be able to:
1. analyze the hierarchical structure of words;
2. explain morphological processes;
3. be familiar with the most common kinds of morphological system in human languages.
Course requirements and policies:
1. Assignment: abstract on Aronoff.
1. Quizzes: 8 quizzes. Students must be responsible for each quiz to be given on the announced date. There is no make-up for the missing or deficient quiz. The missing quiz is assigned a grade of F and counts toward the quiz average.
2. Final exam: a morphology project. There is no make-up for the morphology project. The missing project is assigned a grade of F.
3. Students must be responsible for their absences and the sequential course work.
Evaluation and grading:
The assignment, the quiz average, and the morphology project count toward the final course grade. Failure to fulfill any of the course requirements will result in a final grade of “F”. Class participation (in-class discussion, performance and activities) is included in the evaluation of the student’s course work.
Assignment 10%
Quizzes 60%
Morphology project 20%
Class participation 10%
Exercises, tests, and exams are graded based on the following letter scale:
A 100-93, A- 92-90, B+ 89-86, B 85-83, B- 82-80, C+ 79-76, C 75-73, C- 72-70,
D+ 69-66, D 65-60, F 59-
Tentative Weekly Syllabus
Note: 1. Each exercise assignment is due on the class day of the following week.
2. If necessary, the instructor will select only certain sections or parts of a listed chapter and announce them in advance.
3. The following schedule is subject to change with prior notice as class needs dictate.
Week 1
(Sept. 5) Introduction to the course
Preliminaries
(Sept. 8) Chapter 1: Introduction (pp. 1-7)
Week 2
(Sept. 12) Chapter 1 (continued, pp. 8-17)
(Sept. 15) Aronoff, Chapter 2: How Is the Morpheme Defined?
Week 3
(Sept. 19) Aronoff, Chapter 2 (continued)
Quiz on Chapter 1
(Sept. 22) Chapter 2: Morphemes (pp. 19-27)
Week 4
(Sept. 26) Chapter 2 (continued, pp. 28-38)
(Sept. 29) Chapter 2 (continued, pp. 39-42)
Abstract on Aronoff due
Week 5
(Oct. 3) Chapter 3: Morphological Features (pp. 43-53)
Quiz on Chapter 2
(Oct. 6) Chapter 3 (continued, pp. 53-60)
Week 6
(Oct. 10) Chapter 3 (continued, pp. 60-62)
(Oct. 13) Chapter 4: Morphological Processes (pp. 63- 75)
Quiz on Chapter 3
Week 7
(Oct. 17) Chapter 4 (continued, pp. 76-80)
(Oct. 20) Chapter 5: Lexical Morphology and Phonology (pp. 81-88)
Week 8
(Oct. 24) Chapter 5:(continued pp. 89-97)
Quiz on Chapter 4
(Oct. 27) Morphology Project: Online Morphology Resources*
Problem 5-1
Week 9
(Oct. 31) Chapter 6: Compounds (pp. 99-107)
Quiz on Chapter 5
(Nov. 3) Chapter 6: Compounds (pp. 108-114)
Week 10
(Nov. 7) Chapter 6 (continued, pp. 108-114)
Quiz on Chapter 6
(Nov. 10) Chapter 7: Inflections and Paradigms (pp. 115-131)
Week 11
(Nov. 14) Chapter 8: An Inflectional System in Detail (pp. 133-146)
(Nov. 17) Morphology Project: Working with a Morpheme Analyzer*
Week 12
(Nov. 21) Chapter 8 (continued, pp. 146-155)
Nov. 23-26 Thanksgiving Holiday (no class)
Week 13
(Nov. 28) Morpheme Project: Working with a Morpheme Generator*
(Dec. 1) Chapter 9: Morphophonemics (pp. 157-162)
Quiz on Chapters 7 & 8
Week 14
(Dec. 5) Chapter 9 (continued, pp. 163-190)
(Dec. 8) Morphology Project: presenting your data*
Week 15
Dec. 12 Designated as a Friday (no class)
Dec. 15 Reading day (no class)
Week 16
(Dec. 19) Quiz on Chapter 9
Morphology Project due