Isomorphisms and Allomorphisms in the Morphemic Structure of English and Ukrainian Words

Lesson 2. Typology of the Morphological Systems of the Contrasted Languages

Contents

1. Typology of the Morphological Systems of the Contrasted Languages. 1

2. Isomorphisms and Allomorphisms in the Morphemic Structure of English and Ukrainian Words 1

2.1. Root morphemes. 1

2.2. Affixal morphemes. 2

2.3 Inflexional morphemes. 3

2.4. Agglutination. 4

2.5. Suppletivity. 5

Typology of the Morphological Systems of the Contrasted Languages

The morphological systems of the English and Ukrainian languages are characterised by a considerable number of isomorphic as well as of several allomorphic features. The isomorphic features are due to the common Indo-European origin of the two languages, while allomorphisms have been acquired by English and Ukrainian in the course of their historical development and functioning as independent national languages.

The main typological constants that make the object of contrasting at the morphological level of English and Ukrainian, are three. These are 1) the morpheme; 2) the parts of speech; 3) their morphological categories.

The principal typological constant of the morphological level is the morpheme. As to its structure, the morpheme may be

a) simple (one-phoneme): a-, -s, -t (alike, says, burnt) in English and -a, -u, -у, з-, c-, etc. in Ukrainian (весна, хати, беру, з'їсти, сховати) or

b) compound (-ment, -hood, -ward, -ство, -ський, -цький) as in man agement, brotherhood, seaward, суспільство, сільський, ткацький. The complexity of its nature, structure and meaning makes the morpheme one of the main objects of contrastive study at the morphological level. Moreover, the morpheme in English and Ukrainian has some peculiar features, which are characteristic of each of these contrasted languages.

Isomorphisms and Allomorphisms in the Morphemic Structure of English and Ukrainian Words

2.1. Root morphemes

English has a much larger number of regular root morphemes, than Ukrainian. Consequently, the number of inflexions expressing the morphological categories is much smaller in English than in Ukrainian. Moreover, a lot of notionals in English lack even the affixes which can identify their lexico-morphological nature. Free root-morphemed words, though fewer in Ukrainian, are still rep-resented in all lexico-morphological classes as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. of both contrasted languages. Cf. arm, pen, boy, work, do, red, he, she, it, five, this, ten, here, far, etc. Similarly in Ukrainian: ніс, лоб, чуб, ти, варт, хто, три, тут, де, він, etc.

Free root morphemes in English and Ukrainian can also be functionals: but, till, on, not, through, just (a moment), мов, геть, так, певне, може, ох, дзень, гав, не, ні, від, на, під, etc.

Root morphemes in English can often form part of the stem, which is especially characteristic of present-day Ukrainian, for example: workers, friendliness, concerning, beautiful; робітництво, безмеж-ність, переодягнутися, переробивши, тепленько, теплесенько, etc.

2.2. Affixal morphemes

These are mainly suffixes and sometimes also prefixes. The number of suffixes in the contrasted languages considerably exceeds the number of prefixes. The number of suffixes in English does not exceed 100, there being 60 noun-forming, 26 adjective-forming, 5 verb-forming and 3 adverb-forming suffixes. Among the noun-indicating/forming suffixes in English are -асу, -ance, -ion, -dom, -er, -ess, -hood, -ics, -ism, -ity, -ment, -ness, -ship, -ty and others. Cf. democracy, alliance, delegation, freedom, writer, falsehood, politics, feudalism, government, management, fitness, likeness, penmanship, friendship, loyalty, etc. The adjective-indicating suffixes are: -able, -al, -ial, -fold, -ful, -ic, -ile, -ish, -less, -ous, -some, -ward, -y and some others. Cf. capable, formal, presidential, manifold, grateful, laconic, futile, self-ish, meaningless, dangerous, tiresome, eastward, happy, silly, etc. The verb-indicating suffixes are -ate, -en, -esce, -ify, -ise. Cf. negotiate-ate, facilitate, blacken, shorten, acquiesce, beautify, purify, demobilise, organise. The adverb-indicating suffixes are -ly, -wards, -ward, -ways: quickly, slowly, southward/southwards, sideways, etc.

Ukrainian word-forming suffixes are more numerous and also more diverse by their nature, there being special suffixes to identify different genders of nouns that are practically missing in English. Thus, masculine gender suffixes of nouns in Ukrainian are: -ник, -івник, -їльник, -ч, -ік/-їк, -ець/-єць, -ар/-яр, -ир, -ист, -іст, -тель, -аль and others. Eg.: медик, господарник, рахівник, керма-нич, кравець, хімік, прозаїк, боєць, шахтар, муляр, бригадир, зби-рач, діяч, окуліст, вихователь, скрипаль, etc.

Suffixes of feminine gender in Ukrainian usually follow the masculine gender suffix in the noun stem, the most frequent of the former being -к/а/, -иц/я/, -ес/а/, -ух/а/, -ш/а/, -івн/а/, etc. Cf. виховат-ель-к-а, рад-ист-к-а, спів-ан-к-а, уч-ен-иц-я, ткач-их-а, поет-ес-а, коваль-івн-а, морг-ух-а, директ-ор-ш-а, Семенів-на. The corresponding English suffixes (-or, -ess, -me, -rix, -ine, and -ette) identify the masculine and feminine sex and not the grammatical gender. Cf. actor, emperor, actress, poetess, directrix, emperatrix, heroine, suf-fragette. English nouns with the so-called gender suffixes do not differ functionally from other nouns which have no such suffixes. Eg: The actor/actress sang and The bird sang. Ukrainian gender nouns, how-ever, always require corresponding gender forms in attributes and predicates. Eg.: молодий артист співав. Гарна артистка співала. Ранкове небо сіріло. Малі пташки співали, чорний ворон сидів, сива ворона сиділа, сіре котеня нявкало.

Suffixes of the neuter gender are mostly used in Ukrainian to identify abstract and collective nouns and names of materials, babies, cubs, nurslings, as in the following nouns: жіно-цтв-о, учитель-ств-о, нероб-ств-о, бади-лл-я, заси-лл-я, збі-жж-я, кло-чч-я, смі-тт-я, горі-нн-я, велі-нн-я, терп-інн-я.

The number of suffixes forming only diminutive nouns in Ukrainian is as many as 53, compared with 16 suffixes in English, only 4 of which are practically productive (cf. gooseling, girlie, booklet, daddy, granny).

Prefixes in the contrasted languages modify the lexical meaning of the word. They may sometimes change even the lexico-grammatical nature of the derivative word.

Word-forming prefixes pertain mostly to the English language where they can form different parts of speech. For example, verbs: bedew, bemadam, embed, encamp, enable, denude, disable, endear. Adjectives: anti-war, non-party, pre-war, post-war. Statives: aboard, alike, asleep. Adverbs: today, tomorrow, together. Prepositions: be-low, behind. Conjunctions: because, unless, until. In Ukrainian only some conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs can be formed by means of prefixes, for example: вдень, вночі, по-нашому, no-новому, набік, вдруге, втретє, оскільки, внаслідок, вгору, знизу, щонайменше.

Isomorphic is also the use of two (in English) and more (in Ukrainian) prefixes before the root/stem: misrepresentation, re-embankment. In Ukrainian three prefixes may be used to modify the lexical meaning of nouns, adjectives, past participles, and verbs, for example: недовимолот, недовиторг, перерозподіляти, недовимолочений, не/перерозподілений, недовиторгувати, перерозподілити, etc.

2.3 Inflexional morphemes

These express different morphological categories. The number of genuine English inflexions today is only 14 to 16. They are noun inflexions, for example: -s (-es), -en, -ren (boys, watches, oxen, children); inflexions of the comparative and the superlative degrees of qualitative adjectives: -er, -est (bigger, biggest); inflexions of degrees of qualitative adverbs: -er/-ier, -est/ -iest (oftener, oftenest; slowlier; slowliest); the verbal inflexions: -s/-es, -d/-ed, -t, -n/-en; he puts/he watches; she learned the rule (burnt the candle); a broken pencil. The inflexions of absolute possessive pronouns: -s, -e: (hers, ours, yours, mine, thine). There are also some genuinely English plural form inflexions of nouns with re-stricted use. These are the plural form inflexions of kine (poetic for cows), fane (archaic of foes), and shoen (archaic of shoes).

Apart from the genuine English inflexional morphemes there exist some foreign inflexions borrowed and used with nouns of Latin, Greek and French origin only. Among them are some Latin inflexions like -um - -a (datum — data, erratum — errata, etc.); -on — a (phenomenon — phenomena); -ion — ia (criterion — criteria).

The number of inflexions in Ukrainian by far exceeds their number in English since every notional part of speech has a variety of endings. The latter express number, case and gender of nominal parts of speech and tense, aspect, person, number, voice and mood forms of verbs. For example: даю — даєш — дає — даємо — даєте — дають — даватимемо; читав - читала - читали, читатиму - читати меш - читатимете, etc.

The variety of case inflexions of Ukrainian nouns is also predetermined by the existence of four declensions, the first and the second of which have different case and number inflexions. This depends on the nouns belonging to the hard, palatalised or to the mixed stem consonant type (cf. вода — води, учень — учні, поле — поля, лоша — лошата, миша — мишею, доня — донею, etc.).

Some morphological relations and categories in English and Ukrainian (though much rarer) are expressed with the help of analytical means — prepositions, analytical word forms, and particles; for example: to give smth. to Peter, not far from the river, written (painted) with (in)pencil. Analytically expressed are also the degrees of comparison of some adjectives and adverbs (cf. more calm, most calm; more (most) interesting/important; more (most) quickly (slowly), etc. In Ukrainian the construction is less frequently used (cf. більш/менш важливий, найбільш/найменш важливий; більш/менш важливо, найбільш/ найменш важливо, більш/найбільш економна, etc.)

The future tense in Ukrainian can also be expressed analytically though it is closely connected with the modal meaning of certainty (cf. я буду на зборах, ми будемо боротися).

Only analytical in form is the expression of the passive voice in English, whereas in Ukrainian the present passive has generally a synthetic form, like the past and future passive which can also have a synthetic form of expression; cf. the plant is being built, the plant was being built, the plant will have been built. And in Ukrainian: завод будується (будувався), завод будуватиметься, завод буде будуватися, завод був/буде збудований, though the future form may also be збудується (коли цей завод збудується).

2.4. Agglutination

This is a mechanical adding of one or more affixal morphemes in pre-position, post-position or in interposition to the root morpheme. Somewhat different, however, is the quantitative representation of the parts of speech that are formed in the contrasted languages by means of preposed agglutinating morphemes.

Prepositive agglutinators apart from forming new parts of speech or creating some shades in the lexical meaning of many such words (cf. do — undo — overdo, lead — mislead; Ukr.: схід — захід — вихід — дохід — прихід, etc.) can also perform some purely grammatical functions. Thus, they can sometimes turn the intransitive verbs into transitive, for example: live — outlive, vote — outvote; Ukrainian: жити — дожити — прожити — пережити, спати — проспати (переспати), плакати — опла-кати. In Ukrainian pre-posed affixes can change imperfective verbs into perfective (cf. бити - збити - забити - добити - розбити; вчити - вивчити -довчити - завчити - перевчити).

Post-positive agglutination is observed in both contrasted languages, being in Ukrainian even more frequent than in English. All Ukrainian infinitives without exception are formed by mechanical adding to the root the post-positive morphemes -ти/-ть, -ся, -ки, -оньки, -тусі/-туні (diminutive forms), eg: набити, пролити, зми-ти, опрацювать, злитися, спатки, їстки, питоньки, купці, спа-тусі/спатуні, etc. In English most of the indefinite form infinitives are pure root-morphemed words (cf. come, live, love, fly, sit, read, swim, warm).

Post-positive agglutination is often used to form nouns in both contrasted languages as well. For example, in English: attendance, diary, freedom, employee, hostess, boyhood, pumpkin, highness, friendship, attitude, politics, mighty, etc. Similarly in Ukrainian: чужак, бідняк, дудaр, гуляр, багач, борець, сонливість, холодок, ясність, etc.

Among other parts of speech formed by means of postpositive agglutinators are English relative adjectives (economic, Polish, political. etc.), adverbs of both languages (nicely, sideways, westwards: гарно, швидко, вище)', Ukrainian statives (треба, можна, жалко, прикро, краще); numerals (fifty, sixty, fifteen, eighteen), in Ukrainian: одинадцять, дванадцять, двадцять, сімдесят, etc. Single post-positive affixal morphemes are also agglutinated in the contrasted languages with compound stems of verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, as in the following words: backbiting, cockfighting, trustworthy, grasshopper, skyscraper, etc. Similarly in Ukrainian: односелець, косоокість, однобічність, мимохідь, etc.

Isomorphic is also the post-posed agglutination of two affixal morphemes to a stem. The stems thus formed can be of different lexico-grammatical nature: nouns (capableness, equalizer, responsibil-ity: adjectives (communicable, meaningful, motionless): numerals (thirteenth, twentieth); adverbs (foolishly, nationally, needlessly, powerfully, down-wards, Southwards.

Root morphemes in the contrasted languages can be agglutinated pre-posed and post-posed simultaneously as in the English words disagreeableness, incorruptibility, indisputableness, irresponsibility. in-communicableness. unrealistically. Or in Ukrainian: безвідповідальність, заробітчанин, нереалістично, некомунікабельність, пере-шіптуватися, запобігливість, etc.

Agglutination is also a productive means of compounding (especially in English) where different parts of speech may be formed in this way — nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, eg: present-day, short-sighted, broad-minded, long-range, hi-jack, to April-fool, goose-step, cross-examine, plate-rack, sideways, etc. Or in Ukrainian: бурят-монгол, дизель-генератор, двійка-байдарка, шафа-холодильник, кахи-кахи, тиць-миць, човг-човг, сяк-так, хоч-не-хоч, etc. Highly productive in English is also the agglutination with the help of prepositions, eg: commander-in-chief, matter-of-fact, up-to-date, etc.

Agglutination of predicative units is observed in both languages though more common it is still in the English language, eg: pick-me-up, forget-me-not, merry-go-round, push-me-pull-me, Gradgrind, Mr. Know-All, etc. (cf. Ukrainian family names as Куйбіда, Неїжмак, Незовибатько, Непийвода, Підкуймуха, Убийвовк, etc.). Only in English, however, there is observed agglutination of abbreviated parts with root nouns like A-bomb, Xmas, X-ray, etc.

2.5. Suppletivity

As a means of grammatical expression suppletivity is observed in words, word-forms and morphemes of all Indo-European languages. At the lexical level it helps express, both in English and Ukrainian, sex distinctions, eg: boy -- girl, bull - cow, man - woman, cock — hen, хлопець — дівчина, чоловік — жі-нка, півень — курка, etc. Of suppletive nature are most of nouns denoting kinship. Cf. father - mother, brother - sis-ter, son - daughter, aunt -uncle; батько - мати, брат - сестра, син - дочка, дядько -тітка, зять - невістка, дід - баба, etc.

In the system of lexico-grammatical classes of words suppletivity can express in English and Ukrainian different categorial meanings of notionals at the lexical level as in the pairs of verbs cany — bring, say — tell, take - give; брати - взяти, ловити ~ піймати. Suppletive forms of a verb paradigm can be used in English and Ukrainian to ex-press some morphological categories. The most striking in this respect is the verb "to be" which has more forms to express different categorial meanings in English than in Ukrainian. Thus, in English "am, is, are — was, were" which are respectively the corresponding forms for tense (the Present and Past Indefinite), for number (singular or plural) and for person am/ was for the first person singular, is/was for the third person singular and are/were for plural forms respectively.

The Ukrainian verb "бути" possesses only one suppletive form in present tense — "є", which is used for all persons in singular and plural (cf. я є, ти є, ми є, всі є, кожен є). But: Я був, ти була, ви були, etc.

As to the suppletive forms of other notionals, they are of form-building, i. e. of categorial nature expressing in the contrasted languages degrees of comparison in some qualitative adjectives and adverbs. Cf. good — better — best, bad — worse — worst and little — less — least. In Ukrainian: добрий — кращий — найкращий, добрий - ліпший - найліпший, поганий — гірший — найгірший. In Ukrainian two more adjectives have suppletive forms in the comparative and suppletive degrees: гарний — кращий — найкращий; великий — більший — найбільший.

Common in English and Ukrainian are also almost all qualitative adverbs with the suppletive forms in the comparative and superlative degrees: well — better — best; badly — worse — worst; little — less — least; добре — краще — найкраще; погано — гірше — найгір-ше; зле — гірше — найгірше; гарно — краще — найкраще.

Suppletivity of pronouns finds its expression and realisation in English and Ukrainian at different levels: a) at the level of the lexico-grammatical class of words as a whole (pronouns are regular signs of signs, i. e. representation nouns): Pete, lion, tiger-he, fox, ship-she; дім, лис, хліб-він; життя, поле-воно; люди-вони; b) at the level of paradigmatic word forms: I — me, he — him, she — her, we — us; я — мене, воно — його, він — його, ми — нас, вони — їх, etc. c) at the level of different case forms of pronouns (cf. the objective and possessive case forms: me, him, her, us, them; his, hers, ours, yours). These forms are more numerous in Ukrainian where all pronouns are declinable: я — мене, мені, мною; він — його, йому, ним, на ньому, вона — її -нею; ми — нам — нами; що — чого — чому — чим, etc.

Some common systemic relations can be observed in the suppletive forms of the possessive pronouns in the contrasted languages as well. In Ukrainian the pronouns' paradigm is much richer, since there exist separate forms to express different numbers and genders. Cf. я, мене, мій, моя, моє, мої; вона, нею, її, воно, його, ним; ми, наш, наша, нашої, нашій; вони, їхній, їхня, їхнє, їхнього, etc. In English, however, there exist possessive absolute suppletive forms of pronouns, which are absolutely unknown in Ukrainian (mine, hers, yours, ours, theirs). Ukrainian, on the other hand, has fully and partly and suppletive forms of some interrogative and indefinite pronouns, which are not available in English хто — кого, кому, килі; що — чого, чо-му, чим; хтось — когось, комусь, кимсь.