Morphosyntax: What Studies, Morphosyntactic Relations and Examples

The morphosyntax is the study of grammatical categories whose properties are definable by morphological and syntactic criteria. Some authors point out that the term replaces what was traditionally called grammar. In this sense, morphosyntax is intimately linked with morphology and syntax.

In turn, both disciplines are related to the rules of formation of linguistic structures, but at different levels. In first instance, the morphology is the mental system related to the formation of words, and also the branch of the linguistic discipline that studies the components of the words: internal structure and formation.

On the other hand, syntax studies the ways in which words can be combined to form phrases and sentences. It also refers to knowledge about the formation of grammatically correct sentences.

The relationship between these two disciplines is evident in polysynthetic languages ​​in which a single word can contain many morphemes (minimum unit of meaning) with grammatical and lexical information.

What is morphosyntaxis studying?

Many authors equate morphosyntax with grammar. Baho this approach, both disciplines have the same scope of study. In fact, a simple definition of this term seems to corroborate it: morphosyntax is the study of words and how they work together.

For example, mention is made of the fact that the parts of speech (nouns, verbs) are distinguished by their distribution in the sentence (syntax) as well as by the shape of the words (morphology); hence the interrelation.

However, not everyone agrees in this position. Some point out that morphosyntax encompasses aspects that can hardly be solved through morphology or syntax exclusively.

In this way, it is not the sum of purely morphological analysis (form of words) or purely syntactic analysis (rules to combine these words), but it is a relation of complementarity.

Some of the aspects studied by morphosyntax include ellipsis (omission of structures), redundancy (repetition of elements) and concordance (normative coincidence of certain grammatical accidents).

Likewise, from the morphosyntax, comparisons can be made about the different grammatical processes through the different existing languages, and with that, discover the underlying mechanisms in the language.

Morphosyntactic relationships

Morphosyntactic relationships are expressed through grammatical forms (grammatical accidents, mode and verbal aspect). These forms vary depending on the characteristics of each language.

Thus, different languages ​​can be classified according to morphosyntactic procedures to relate the words within sentences or sentences: insulators, binders, inflectional and polysynthetic.

In insulating languages ​​words are not transformed by bending (adoption of different forms for the expression of grammatical accidents) or by derivation (formation of new words from a root). Therefore, the grammatical relations of this type of language are expressed by the order of the words or with the addition of an autonomous word.

Secondly, in the agglutinating languages ​​morphosyntactic relationships are expressed through the use of affixes, which are particles added to the root of a word to form a new one or change its grammatical form.

On the other hand, in the inflectional languages ​​the same affix can express several grammatical relations. Such is the case of the inflectional forms of the verb in Spanish that indicate number, time, manner and aspect.

Finally, the relations in the synthetic languages ​​can be expressed by means of attachments or transformations to the root, maintaining a strict syntactic order.

Concordance and cases

Morphosyntactic marks are not universal. Many languages ​​mark only the agreement (Mohawk, Bantu), only the cases (Japanese, Korean), some mixture of the two (English, Russian) or do not have marks (Haitian Creole, Chinese).

In Spanish there is a nominal agreement (the noun coincides in gender and number with the determinants and adjectives) and verbal agreement (coincidence of gender and person between the subject and the verb).

For example, in the clause"shirts are white", the nominal concordance exceeds the sentence and manifests itself both in the subject and in the predicate. The interrelation between morphology and syntax is then observed.

With respect to the cases, in Spanish this phenomenon is manifested in the personal pronouns with the nominative, accusative, dative and prepositional, but it consists of a free morpheme (not an affix).

Examples

- I (nominative / subject) I think that a my (prepositional) no me (accusative / direct object) will choose for the position that me (dative / indirect attachment) had promised.

- He (nominative / subject) believes that a he (prepositional) no the (accusative / direct object) will choose for the position that you (dative / indirect attachment) had promised.

Parataxis and hypotaxis

Another subject in the field of morphosyntax is parataxis (coordination) and hypotaxis (subordination). In the first there is no hierarchy between two or more clauses, which occurs in the hypotaxis.

Relationships of coordination and subordination are key in the type of morphosyntactic marks that are used in each case. This can be seen in the following sentences:

-"After you eat, wash the dishes."

-"Eat, and then wash the dishes."

As you can see, the meaning of both sentences is similar. However, in the first, subordination is used and in the second, coordination. Among other things, this implies that the verb takes the subjunctive mode in the first aoration and the indicative in the second.

Examples

On the morpho-phonology and morphosyntax of ho (Pucilowski, 2013)

Ho is a language of India known for its complex verb forms. Pucilowski's work analyzed several characteristics of these verbs.

One of the most important morphosyntactic characteristics of this language is that it traditionally marks the aspect in the verb more than in time, especially for constructions of transitive verbs.

In addition, in analysis he concluded that several serial verbs (sequences of verbs without coordination or subordination marks) in ho are grammaticalized, becoming constructions of auxiliary verbs.

Morphosyntaxis in children of two and three years (Rissman, Legendre and Landau, 2013).

Often, young English-speaking children omit auxiliary verbs of their speech, producing expressions such as baby crying (the baby crying), along with the proper form baby is crying (the baby this crying).

Some researchers have argued that knowledge of the auxiliary verb be (being) of children is specific to that element, and it develops slowly.

In an awareness-raising experiment, the researchers showed that children aged 2 and 3 represent the forms are and is (verbal forms of being as auxiliary) as part of an abstract syntactic framework.

Acquisition of morphosyntax in a second language in the adult stage: the phonological factor (Campos Dintrans, 2011)

The study of Campos Dintrans examined the challenge that it represents for adult speakers of a second language to produce functional morphology, even in advanced stages of second language acquisition.

Specifically, it is analyzed how the native speakers of Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese use the morphology of the past and the grammatical number in English.

The results of the experiments in this study strongly suggest that phonological factors may explain part of the inadequate use of functional morphology.

References

1. Harsa, L. N. (s / f). Introduction to Words and Morphemes. Taken from repository.ut.ac.id.
2. Aronoff, M. and Fudeman, K. (2011). What is Morphology? Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
3. Radford, A. (1997). Syntax: A Minimalist Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. Rodríguez Guzmán, J. P. (2005). Graphic grammar to the juampedrino mode.
   Barcelona: Carena Editions.
5. Strumpf, M. and Douglas, A. (2004). The Grammar Bible: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Grammar but Did not Know Whom to Ask. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
6. Sabin, A.; Diez, M. and Morales, F. (1977). The languages ​​of Spain. Madrid: Ministry of Education.
7. Markman, V. G. (2005). The Syntax of Case and Agreement: its Relationship to Morphology and Argument Structure. Taken from ling.rutgers.edu.
8. Royal Spanish Academy. (2005). Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts. Taken from lema.rae.es.
9. Pucilowski, A. (2013). On the morpho-phonology and morphosyntax of ho. Taken from scholarsbank.uoregon.edu.
10. Rissman, L.; Legendre G. and Landau, B. (2013). Morphosyntax in Two- and Three-Year-Old Children: Evidence from Priming. Language Learning and Development , Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 278-292.
11. Campos Dintrans, G. S. (2011). Acquisition of morphosyntax in the adult second language: the phonology factor. Taken from ir.uiowa.edu.