Other Morphological Processes

The study of word structure is morphology. The ways to form words (either new or different forms of the same word) are called morphological processes. Compounding is one kind of morphological process. There are other morphological processes in Chinese than compounding. Some of the processes familiar to us from English can also be found in Chinese.

1. Affixation. This is building up words by adding affixes to the main component of the word. Depending on whether the affix is attached to the beginning of the word or the end of the word, we will have either prefixes or suffixes.

1a. prefixes:

Mandarin:

di--: di yi, di er, di san 'first, second, third’

lao-: laohu ‘tiger’, laoying ‘eagle’, laopo ‘wife’, laogong ‘husband’,

1b. suffixes:

Mandarin:

Noun endings:

-zi: erzi, ‘son’, zhuozi ‘table’, fangzi ‘house’, shanzi ‘fan’

-tou: litou/waitou/qiantou/houtou ‘inside/outside/front/back’, laotou ‘old man’

-r: huar1 ‘flower’, huar4 ‘painting’,

-men: women/nimen/tamen ‘wo/you(pl.)/they’

-xue: wulixue ‘physics’, huaxue ‘chemistry’, wenxue ‘literature’

-xing: wendingxing ‘stability’, kekaoxing ‘reliability’,

Verb endings: tense/aspect particles:

-le (zo in Cantonese): wo chi le yi wan fan ‘I ate a bowl of food’.

-zhe (gen in Cantonese): wo chi zhe fan ne ‘I am eating’.

-guo: wo chi guo Zhongguo fan ‘I have eaten Chinese food’.

What distinguish Chinese from English are the following two kinds of morphological processes:reduplication and tone change. These two ways to change the meaning of words is different from affixation, where an affix with a definite meaning is attached to the main morpheme. You can point to some concrete sound that means something definite. In reduplication and tone change, however, the meaning is not found in some sound(s). In reduplication, the meaning is found in how syllables are copied, i.e., where by AABB or ABAB. In tone change, the meaning is found in the change of tone. Needless to say, both of these processes are not found in English.

2. Reduplication:.

2a. double reduplication: one or two syllables are copied once. In the case of two syllables such as AB, there are two patterns, AABB or ABAB, depending on the kind of word being reduplicated.

Mandarin:

verbal:

kanàkankan ‘lookàtake a look’,

shangliangàshangliang shangliang ‘discussàhave a discussion’ (ABAB)

gaoxingàgaoxinggaoxing‘to be happyàhave some fun’ (ABAB)

adjectival:

hongàhonghong ‘redàreddish’

piaoliangàpiaopiaoliangliang ‘prettyàvery pretty’ (AABB)

gaoxingàgaogaoxingxing ‘happyàvery happy’ (AABB)

nominal:

renàrenren ‘personàevery person’

2b. triple reduplication: one syllable is copied twice:

              Southern Min:

ang 'red'àangangangàvery red’

3. Tone changes: Being a tonal language, Chinese uses tones not only to distinguish different morphemes, it also uses them for the purpose of indicating slight changes in the function and meanings of morphemes:

Cantonese:

gum dai (low pitch) 'this big'

gum dai (high pitch) 'this small'

gum dai (rising pitch) 'only this big'

tong (low)à tong (rising), 'sugaràcandy'

wong(low)àwong (rising), ‘yellowàegg yolk’

hong (low pitch) 'red'

hong (rising pitch)hong (low pitch) ' very red'

hong (low pitch)hong (rising pitch) dei 'reddish/kind of red'

baak (low pitch) 'white'

baak (rising pitch)baak (low pitch) ' very white'

baak (low pitch)baak (rising pitch) dei 'whitish/kind of white'