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Internal Change-Mutation

This document discusses different types of internal change and mutation that can occur in language, including ablaut, umlaut, suppletion, superfixation, cliticization, and reduplication. It provides examples for each type from English and other languages. Ablaut involves a change in vowel quality to mark grammar, like "sing" to "sang". Umlaut changes vowel quality in one syllable to affect another, as seen historically in English plurals. Suppletion uses a wholly different morpheme to show contrasts, like "be/is/are". Superfixation uses changes in stress or tone. Cliticization involves half-words that behave like affixes. Reduplication repeats part of

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45 views

Internal Change-Mutation

This document discusses different types of internal change and mutation that can occur in language, including ablaut, umlaut, suppletion, superfixation, cliticization, and reduplication. It provides examples for each type from English and other languages. Ablaut involves a change in vowel quality to mark grammar, like "sing" to "sang". Umlaut changes vowel quality in one syllable to affect another, as seen historically in English plurals. Suppletion uses a wholly different morpheme to show contrasts, like "be/is/are". Superfixation uses changes in stress or tone. Cliticization involves half-words that behave like affixes. Reduplication repeats part of

Uploaded by

Anum Mubashar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Internal Change/Mutation

A change is made in material already present in the stem instead of adding something to the
stem
kinds of mutation.

a) Ablaut is a change in vowel quality to mark grammatical contrasts.

e.g irregular pasts in English


sing becomes sang, not singed
b) Umlaut is when vowel quality in one syllable affects the vowel quality of another syllable
(usually preceding)

e.g. this is how irregular plurals in English originally formed, but the evidence has been lost for
individual words.

Suppletion
A wholly different morpheme is used to replace and show grammatical contrast with another
morpheme.

be becomes is and are to show contrasts of subject good becomes well to contrast the adverb
with adjective.

Superfixation
Contrasts are marked by changes to the suprasegmental (pitch, tone, stress) aspects of a
morpheme.
Shift of stress:

English verb-noun contrasts


Permit me to help
I have a permit.
Subject this word to analysis
He was the subject of a book.
Shift of tone (in tonal languages)

Cliticization
A clitic is half-word, half-affix.

Aspects that make them like words

behave like words in meaning


behave like words in function

From grade school English, it's a contraction.


Examples of Clitics in English
He’s my husband. =’s
The cat’s in here. =’s
What’s that noise? =’s
The cat’s pajamas are in here. =’s
The head of department’s position is vacant. =’s
The policeman on the left’s badge =’s
Look at the lady in red’s shoes. =’s
A clitic behaves like a word because:

It functions as verb of sentence in the first examples.


It is completely regular, there are no other changes to the form
It can attach to a variety of words (promiscuous attachment)
It carries the meaning of the copula (be verb) in 1
It carries the meaning of possessive in 2.
A clitic behaves like an affix because:

It is never pronounced in isolation.


It is never preceded by a pause.
It does not contain a vowel.
It undergoes devoicing after a voiceless segment.
Kinds of Clitics

Proclitics are clitics that attach to the front of a stem (e.g. l’= in French l’enfant)
Enclitics are clitics that attach at the end of a stem (e.g. =’s in English)
Bound Words are words that are phonologically bound and are thus clitics because they can’t
be pronounced in isolation
Phrasal Affixes are clitics that attach to whole phrases and are more like affixes than words

Reduplication
A contrast is marked by partial or whole repetition of the stem

itsy-bitsy (partial repetition)


[bəħɛl] means “like,” [bəħɛl bəħɛl] means “exactly like” in Moroccan Arabic

Causes of internal change


● Word formation
● Stress

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